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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of Religious Liberty in
+Connecticut, by M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.
+
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+Title: The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut
+
+Author: M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.
+
+Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7436]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on April 30, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dave Maddock, Charles Franks
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT
+
+BY
+
+M. LOUISE GREENE, PhD.
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The following monograph is the outgrowth of three earlier and shorter
+essays. The first, "Church and State in Connecticut to 1818," was
+presented to Yale University as a doctor's thesis. The second, a
+briefer and more popularly written article, won the Straus prize
+offered in 1896 through Brown University by the Hon. Oscar S. Straus.
+The third, a paper containing additional matter, was so far approved
+by the American Historical Association as to receive honorable mention
+in the Justin Winsor prize competition of 1901.
+
+With such encouragement, it seemed as if the history of the
+development of religious liberty in Connecticut might serve a larger
+purpose than that of satisfying personal interest alone. In
+Connecticut such development was not marked, as so often elsewhere, by
+wild disorder, outrageous oppression, tyranny of classes, civil war,
+or by any great retrograde movement. Connecticut was more modern in
+her progress towards such liberty, and her contribution to advancing
+civilization was a pattern of stability, of reasonableness in
+government, and of a slow broadening out of the conception of liberty,
+as she gradually softened down her restrictions upon religious and
+personal freedom.
+
+And yet, Connecticut is recalled as a part of that New England where
+those not Congregationalists, the unorthodox or radical thinkers,
+found early and late an uncomfortable atmosphere and restricted
+liberties. By a study of her past, I have hoped to contribute to a
+fairer judgment of the men and measures of colonial times, and to a
+correct estimate of those essentials in religion and morals which
+endure from age to age, and which alone, it would seem, must
+constitute the basis of that "ultimate union of Christendom" toward
+which so many confidently look.  The past should teach the present,
+and one generation, from dwelling upon the transient beliefs and
+opinions of a preceding, may better judge what are the non-essentials
+of its own.
+
+Connecticut's individual experiment in the union of Church and State
+is separable neither from the New England setting of her earliest days
+nor from the early years of that Congregationalism which the colony
+approved and established.  Hence, the opening chapters of her story
+must treat of events both in old England and in New. And because
+religious liberty was finally won by a coalition of men like-minded in
+their attitude towards rights of conscience and in their desire for
+certain necessary changes and reforms in government, the final
+chapters must deal with social and political conditions more than with
+those purely religious. It may be pertinent to remark that the passing
+of a hundred years since the divorce of Church and State and the
+reforms of a century ago have brought to the commonwealth some of the
+same deplorable political conditions that the men of the past, the
+first Constitutional Reform Party, swept away by the peaceful
+revolution of 1818.
+
+For encouragement, assistance, and suggestions, I am especially
+indebted to Professor George B. Adams and Professor Williston Walker
+of Yale University, to Professor Charles M. Andrews of Bryn Mawr, to
+Dr. William G.  Andrews, rector of Christ Church, Guilford, Conn., and
+to Professor Lucy M. Salmon of Vassar College. Of numerous libraries,
+my largest debt is to that of Yale University.
+
+M. LOUISE GREENE.
+
+NEW HAVEN, October 20, 1905.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+I. THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM
+
+Preparation of the English nation for the two earliest forms of
+Congregationalism, Brownism and Barrowism.--Rise of Separatism and
+Puritanism.--Non-conformists during Queen Mary's reign.--Revival of
+the Reformation movement under Queen Elizabeth.--Development of
+Presbyterianism.--Three Cambridge men, Robert Browne, Henry Greenwood,
+and Henry Barrowe.--Brownism and Barrowism.--The Puritans under
+Elizabeth, her early tolerance and later change of policy.--Arrest of
+the Puritan movement by the clash between Episcopal and Presbyterian
+forms of polity and the pretensions of the latter.--James the First
+and his policy of conformity.--Exile of the Gainsborough and Scrooby
+Separatists.--Separatist writings.--General approachment of Puritans
+and Separatists in their ideas of church polity.--The Scrooby exiles
+in America.--Sympathy of the Separatists of Plymouth Colony with both
+the English Established Church and with English Puritans.
+
+II. THE TRANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM
+
+English Puritans decide to colonize in America.--Friendly relations
+between the settlements of Salem and Plymouth.--Salem decides upon the
+character of her church organization.--Arrival of Higginson and
+Skelton with recruits.--Formation of the Salem church and election of
+officers.--Governor Bradford and delegates from Plymouth present.--The
+beginning of Congregational polity among the Puritans and the break
+with English Episcopacy.--Formation and organization of the New
+England churches.
+
+III. CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND
+
+Church and State in the four New England colonies.--Early theological
+dissensions and disturbances.--Colonial legislation in behalf of
+religion.--Development of state authority at the cost of the
+independence of the church.--Desire of Massachusetts for a platform of
+church discipline.--Practical working of the theory of Church and
+State in Connecticut.
+
+IV. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF-WAY COVENANT
+
+Necessity of a church platform to resist innovations, to answer
+English criticism, and to meet changing conditions of colonial
+life.--Summary of the Cambridge Platform.--Of the history of
+Congregationalism to the year 1648.--Attempt to discipline the
+Hartford, Conn., church according to the Platform.--Spread of its
+schism.--Petition to the Connecticut General Court for some method of
+relief.--The Ministerial Convention or "Synod" of 1657.--Its Half-Way
+Covenant.--Attitude of the Connecticut churches towards the
+measure.--Pitkin's petition to the General Court of Connecticut for
+broader church privileges.--The Court's favorable reply.--Renewed
+outbreak of schism in the Hartford and other churches.--Failure in the
+calling of a synod of New England churches.--The Connecticut Court
+establishes the Congregational Church.--Connecticut's first toleration
+act.--Settlement of the Hartford dispute.--The new order and its
+important modifications of ecclesiastical polity.
+
+V. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION
+
+Drift from religious to secular, and from intercolonial to individual
+interests.--Reforming Synod of 1680.--Religious life in the last
+quarter of the seventeenth century.--The "Proposals of 1705" in
+Massachusetts.--Introduction in Connecticut of the Saybrook System of
+Consociated Church government.
+
+VI. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
+
+The Confession of Faith.--Heads of Agreement.--Fifteen
+Articles.--Attitude of the churches towards the Platform.--Formation
+of Consociations.--The "Proviso" in the act of establishment.--Neglect
+to read the proviso to the Norwich church.--Contention arising.--The
+Norwich church as an example of the difficulty of collecting church
+rates.
+
+VII. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERATION ACT
+
+Toleration in the "Proviso" of the act establishing the Saybrook
+Platform.--Reasons for passing the Toleration Act of 1708.--Baptist
+dissenters.--Rogerine-Baptists, Rogerine-Quakers or Rogerines, and
+their persecution.--Attitude toward the Society of Friends or
+Quakers.--Toward the Church of England men or
+Episcopalians.--Political events parallel in time with the dissenters'
+attempts to secure exemption from the support of the Connecticut
+Establishment.--General Ineffectiveness of the Toleration Act.
+
+VIII. THE FIRST VICTORY FOR DISSENT
+
+General dissatisfaction with the Toleration Act.--Episcopalians resent
+petty persecution.--Their desire for an American
+episcopate.--Conversion of Cutler, Rector of Yale College, and
+others.--Bishop Gibson's correspondence with Governor Talcott.
+--Petition of the Fairfield churchmen.--Law of 1727 exempting
+Churchmen.--Persecution growing out of neglect to enforce the
+law.--Futile efforts of the Rogerines to obtain exemption.--Charges
+against the Colony of Connecticut.--The Winthrop case.--Quakers
+attempt to secure exemption from ecclesiastical rates.--Exemption
+granted to Quakers and Baptists.--Relative position of the dissenting
+and established churches in Connecticut.
+
+IX. "THE GREAT AWAKENING"
+
+Minor revivals in Connecticut before 1740.--Low tone of moral and
+religious life.--Jonathan Edwards's sermons at Northampton.--Revival
+of religious interest and its spread among the people.--The
+Rev. George Whitefield.--The Great Awakening.--Its immediate results.
+
+X. THE GREAT SCHISM
+
+The Separatist churches.--Old Lights and New.--Opposition to the
+revival movement.--Severe colony laws of 1742-43--Illustrations of
+oppression of reformed churches, as the North Church of New Haven, the
+Separatist Church of Canterbury, and that of Enfield.--Persecution of
+individuals, as of Rev.  Samuel Finlay, James Davenport, John Owen,
+and Benjamin Pomeroy.--Persecution of Moravian missionaries,--The
+colony law of 1746, "Concerning who shall vote in Society
+meeting."--Change in public opinion.--Summary of the influence of the
+Great Awakening and of the great schism.
+
+XI. THE ABROGATION OF THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
+
+Revision of the laws of 1750.--Attitude of the colonial authorities
+toward Baptists and Separatists.--Influence on colonial legislation of
+the English Committee of Dissenters.--Formation of the Church of Yale
+College.--Separatist and Baptist writers in favor of
+toleration.--Frothingham's "Articles of Faith and Practice."--Solomon
+Paine's "Letter."--John Bolles's "To Worship God in Spirit and in
+Truth."--Israel Holly's "A Word in Zion's Behalf."--Frothingham's "Key
+to Unlock the Door."--Joseph Brown's "Letter to Infant
+Baptizers."--The importance of the colonial newspaper.--Influence of
+English non-conformity upon the religious thought of New England.--The
+Edwardean School.--Hopkinsinianism and the New Divinity.--The clergy
+and the people.--Controversy over the renewed proposal for an American
+episcopate.--Movement for consolidation among all religious
+bodies.--Influences promoting nationalism and, indirectly, religious
+toleration.--Connecticut at the threshold of the
+Revolution.--Connecticut clergymen as advocates of civil
+liberty.--Greater toleration in religion granted by the laws of
+1770.--Development of the idea of democracy in Church and
+State.--Exemption of Separatists by the revision of the laws in
+1784.--Virtual abrogation of the Saybrook Platform.--Status of
+Dissenters.
+
+XII. CONNECTICUT AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+Expansion of towns.--Revival of commerce and industries.--Schools and
+literature.--Newspapers.--Rise of the Anti-Federal party.--Baptist,
+Methodist, and Separatist dissatisfaction.--Growth of a broader
+conception of toleration within the Consociated churches.
+
+XIII. CERTIFICATE LAWS AND WESTEKN LAND BILLS
+
+Opposition to the Establishment from dissenters, Anti-Federalists, and
+the dissatisfied within the Federal ranks.--Certificate law of 1791 to
+allay dissatisfaction.--Its opposite effect.--A second Certificate law
+to replace the former.--Antagonism created by legislation in favor of
+Yale College.--Storm of protest against the Western Land bills of
+1792-93.--Congregational missions in Western territory.--Baptist
+opposition to legislative measures.--The revised Western Land bill as
+a basis for Connecticut's public school fund.--Result of the
+opposition roused by the Certificate laws and Western Land bills.
+
+XIV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONNECTICUT
+
+Government according to the charter of 1662.--Party tilt over town
+representation.--Anti-Federal grievances against the Council or
+Senate, the Judiciary, and other defective parts of the machinery of
+government.--Constitutional questions.--Rise of the
+Democratic-Republican party.--Influence of the French Revolution.--The
+Federal members of the Establishment or "Standing Order," the
+champions of religious and political stability.--President Dwight, the
+leader of the Standing Order.--Leaders of the
+Democratic-Republicans.--Political campaigns of 1804-1806.--Sympathy
+for the defeated Republicans.--Politics at the close of the War of
+1812.
+
+XV. DISESTABLISHMENT
+
+Waning of the power of the Federal party in Connecticut.--Opposition
+to the Republican administration during the War of
+1812.--Participation in the Hartford Convention.--Economic benefits of
+the war.--Attitude of the New England clergy toward the war.--The
+Toleration party of 1816.--Act for the Support of Literature and
+Religion.--Opposition.--Toleration and Reform Ticket of 1817.--New
+Certificate Law.--Constitution and Reform Ticket of 1818.--Its
+victory.--The Constitutional Convention.--New Constitution of
+1818.--Separation of Church and State.
+
+APPENDIX
+
+  NOTES
+  BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+
+
+THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM
+
+
+    The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the
+    corner.--Psalm cxviii, 22.
+
+The colonists of Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven
+were grounded in the system which became known as Congregational, and
+later as Congregationalism. At the outset they differed not at all in
+creed, and only in some respects in polity, from the great Puritan
+body in England, out of which they largely came.[a]
+
+For more than forty years before their migration to New England there
+had been in old England two clearly developed forms of
+Congregationalism, Brownism and Barrowism. The term Congregationalism,
+with its allied forms Congregational and Congregationalist, would not
+then have been employed. They did not come into general use until the
+latter half of the seventeenth century, and were at first limited in
+usage to defining or referring to the modified church system of New
+England. The term "Independent" was preferred to designate the
+somewhat similar polity among the nonconformist churches in old
+England.[b] Brownism and Barrowism are both included in Dr. Dexter's
+comprehensive definition of Congregationalism, using the term "to
+designate that system of thought, faith, and practice, which starting
+with the dictum that the conditions of church life are revealed in the
+Bible, and are thence to be evolved by reverent common-sense, assisted
+but never controlled by all other sources of knowledge; interprets
+that book as teaching the reality and independent competency of the
+local church, and the duty of fraternity and co-working between such
+churches; from these two truths symmetrically developing its entire
+system of principles, privileges, and obligations." [1] The
+"independent competency of the local church" is directly opposed to
+any system of episcopal government within the church, and is
+diametrically opposed to any control by king, prince, or civil
+government. Yet this was one of the pivotal dogmas of Browne and of
+the later Separatists; this, a fundamental doctrine which Barrowe
+strove to incorporate into a new church system, but into one having
+sufficient control over its local units to make it acceptable to a
+people who were accustomed to the autonomy and stability of a church
+both episcopal and national in character.
+
+In order to appreciate the changes in church polity and in the
+religious temper of the people for which Browne and Barrowe labored,
+one must survey the field in which they worked and note such
+preparation as it had received before their advent. It is to be
+recalled that Henry VIII substituted for submission to the Pope
+submission to himself as head of a church essentially Romish in
+ritual, teaching, and authority over his subjects. The religious
+reformation, as such, came later and by slow evolution through the
+gradual awakening of the moral and spiritual perceptions of the
+masses. It came very slowly notwithstanding the fact that the first
+definite and systematic opposition to the abuses and assumptions of
+the clergy had arisen long before Henry's reign. As early as 1382, the
+itinerant preachers, sent out by Wyckliff, were complained of by the
+clergy and magistrates as teachers of insubordinate and dangerous
+doctrines. Thenceforward, outcroppings of dissatisfaction with the
+clergy appear from time to time both in English life and
+literature. This dissatisfaction was silenced by various acts of
+Parliament which were passed to enforce conformity and to punish
+heresy. Their character and intent were the same whether the head of
+the church wore the papal tiara or the English crown. Two hundred
+years after Wyckliff, in 1582, laws were still fulminated against
+"divers false and perverse people of certain new sects," for
+Protestant England would support but one form of religion as the moral
+prop of the state. She regarded all innovations as questionable, or
+wholly evil, and their authors as dangerous men. Chief among the
+latter was Robert Browne. But before Browne's advent and in the days
+of Henry the Eighth, there had been a large, respectable, and steadily
+increasing party whose desire was to remain within the English church,
+but to purify it from superstitious rites and practices, such as
+penances, pilgrimages, forced oblations, and votive offerings.  They
+wished also to free the ritual from many customs inherited from the
+days of Rome's supremacy. It was in this party that the leaven of
+Protestantism had been working. Luther and Henry, be it remembered,
+had died within a year of each other. Under the feeble rule of Edward
+the Sixth, the English reform movement gained rapidly, and, in 1550,
+upon the refusal of Bishop Hooper to be consecrated in the usual
+Romish vestments, it began to crystallize in two forms, Separatism and
+Puritanism.[c] In spite of much opposition, the teachings of Luther,
+Calvin, and other Continental reformers took root in England, and
+interested men of widely different classes. They stirred to new
+activity the scattered and persecuted groups, that, from time to time,
+had met in secret in London and elsewhere to read the Scriptures and
+to worship with their elected leaders in some simpler form of service
+than that prescribed by law. Under Mary's persecution, these
+Separatists increased, and with other Protestants swelled the roll of
+martyrs. In her severity, the Queen also drove into exile many able
+and learned men, who sought shelter in Geneva, Zurich, Basle, and
+Frankfort, where they were hospitably entertained. Upon their return,
+there was a marked increase in the Calvinistic tone both of preaching
+and teaching in the English church and in the university lecture
+rooms, especially those of Cambridge. Among the most influential
+teachers was Thomas Cartwright,[d] in 1560-1562, Lady Margaret
+Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. While having no sympathy with the
+nonconformist or Separatist of his day, Cartwright accepted the polity
+and creed of Calvin in its severer form. He became junior-dean of
+St. John's, major-fellow of Trinity, and a member of the
+governing-board. In 1565 he went to Ireland to escape the heated
+controversy of the period which centred in the "Vestiarian"
+movement. He was recalled in 1569 to his former professorship, and in
+September, 1571, was forced out of it because, when controversy
+changed from vestments to polity, he took extreme views of church
+discipline and repudiated episcopal government.[e] While Cartwright
+was very pronounced in his views, his desire at first was that the
+changes in church polity should be brought about by the united action
+of the Crown and Parliament. Such had been the method of introducing
+changes under the three sovereigns, Henry, Mary, and Elizabeth. With
+this brief summary of the reform movements among the masses and in the
+universities covering the years until Cartwright, through the
+influence of the ritualistic church party, was expelled from
+Cambridge, and Robert Browne, as a student there, came under the
+strong Puritan influence of the university, we pass to a consideration
+of Brownism.
+
+Robert Browne was graduated from Cambridge in 1572, the year after
+Cartwright's expulsion. The next three years he taught in London and
+"wholly bent himself to search and find out the matters of the church:
+as to how it was guided and ordered, and what abuses there were in the
+ecclesiastical government then used." [2] When the plague broke out in
+London, Browne went to Cambridge. There, he refused to accept the
+bishop's license to preach, though urged to do so, because he had come
+to consider it as contrary to the authority of the
+Scriptures. Nevertheless, he continued preaching until he was silenced
+by the prelate. Browne then went to Norwich, preaching there and at
+Bury St. Edmunds, both of which had been gathering-places for the
+Separatists. At Norwich, he organized a church. Writing of Browne's
+labors there in 1580 and 1581, Dr. Dexter says: "Here, following the
+track which he had been long elaborating, he thoroughly discovered and
+restated the original Congregational way in all its simplicity and
+symmetry. And here, by his prompting and under his guidance, was
+formed the first church in modern days of which I have any knowledge,
+which was intelligently and one might say philosophically
+Congregational in its platform and processes; he becoming its pastor."
+[3] Persecution followed Browne to Norwich, and in order to escape it
+he, in 1581, migrated with his church to Middelburg, in
+Zealand. There, for two years, he devoted himself to authorship,
+wherein he set forth his teachings. His books and pamphlets, which had
+been proscribed in England, were printed in Middelburg and secretly
+distributed by his friends and followers at home. But Browne's
+temperament was not of the kind to hold and mould men together, while
+his doctrine of equality in church government was too strong food for
+people who, for generations, had been subservient to a system that
+demanded only their obedience. His church soon disintegrated. With but
+a remnant of his following, he returned in 1583 by way of Scotland
+into England, finding everywhere the strong hand of the government
+stretched out in persecution. Three years later, after having been
+imprisoned in noisome cells some thirty times within six years,
+utterly broken in health, if not weakened also in mind, and never
+feeling safe from arrest while in his own land, Browne finally sought
+pardon for his offensive teachings and, obtaining it, reentered the
+English communion. Though he was given a small parish, he was looked
+upon as a renegade, and died in poverty about 1631, at an extreme old
+age. He died while the Pilgrim Separatists were still a struggling
+colony at Plymouth, repudiating the name of Brownists; before the
+colonial churches had embodied in their system most of the
+fundamentals of his; and long before the value of his teachings as to
+democracy, whether in the church or by extension in the state, had
+dawned upon mankind.
+
+The connecting link between Brownism and Barrowism, whose similarities
+and dissimilarities we shall consider together, or rather the
+connecting link between Robert Browne and Henry Barrowe, was another
+Cambridge student, John Greenwood. He was graduated in 1581, the year
+that Browne removed to Middelburg. Greenwood had become so enamored
+with Separatist doctrines, that within five years of his graduation he
+was deprived of his benefice, in 1586, and sent to prison. While
+there, he was visited by his friend, Henry Barrowe, a young London
+lawyer, who, through the chance words of a London preacher, had been
+converted from a wild, gay life to one devout and godly. During a
+visit to Greenwood, Barrowe was arrested and sent to Lambeth Palace
+for examination. Upon refusing to take the oath required by the
+bishop, Barrowe was remanded to prison to await further
+examination. Later, he damaged himself and his cause by an
+unnecessarily bitter denunciation of his enemies and by a too dogmatic
+assertion of his own principles. Accordingly, he was sent back to
+prison, where, together with Greenwood, he awaited trial until March,
+1593. Then, upon the distorted testimony of their writings, both men
+were sentenced as seditious fellows, worthy of death. Though twice
+reprieved at the seemingly last hour, they were hanged together on
+April 6, 1593.
+
+Both Greenwood and Barrowe frequently asserted that they never had
+anything to do with Browne. [4] Yet it is probable that it was
+Browne's influence which turned Greenwood's puritanical convictions to
+Separatist principles. Barrowe had been graduated from Clare Hall,
+Cambridge, in 1569-70; Browne, from Corpus Christi in 1572.  The two
+men, so different in character, probably did not meet in university
+days, and certainly not later in London, where one went to a life of
+pleasure and the other to teaching and to the study of the
+Scriptures. Greenwood, however, had entered Cambridge in 1577-78, and
+left it in 1581. Thus he was in college during the two years that
+Browne was preaching in and near Cambridge. It is safe to assume that
+the young scholar, soon to become a licensed preacher, and overflowing
+with the Puritan zeal of his college, might be drawn either through
+curiosity or admiration to hear the erratic and almost fanatic
+preacher. Later, when Browne's writings were being secretly
+distributed in England, both Barrowe and Greenwood had come in contact
+with the London congregations to whom Browne had preached. The fact
+that many men in England were thinking along the same lines as the
+Separatists; that Browne had recanted just as Barrowe and Greenwood
+were thrust into prison; and that they both disapproved in some
+measure of Browne's teachings, might account for a denial of
+discipleship. Browne's influence might even have been unrecognized by
+the men themselves.  Be that as it may, during their long
+imprisonment, both Barrowe and Greenwood, in their teachings, in their
+public conferences, and in their writings strove to outline a system
+of church government and discipline, which was very similar to and yet
+essentially different from Browne's.
+
+Thus it happened that in the last decade of the sixteenth century two
+forms of Congregationalism had developed, Brownism and Barrowism.
+Neither Browne nor Barrowe felt any need, as did their later
+followers, to demonstrate their doctrinal soundness, because in all
+matters of creed they "were in full doctrinal sympathy with the
+predominantly Calvinistic views of the English Established Church from
+which they had come out."
+
+"Browne, first of all English writers, set forth the Anabaptist
+doctrine that the civil ruler had no control over the spiritual
+affairs of the church and that State and Church were separate realms."
+[5] In the beginning, Browne's foremost wish was not to establish a
+new church system or polity, but to encourage the spiritual life of
+the believer. To this end he desired separation from the English
+church, which, like all other state churches, included all baptized
+persons, not excommunicate, whether faithful or not to their baptismal
+or confirmation vows to lead godly lives. [6] Moreover, as Browne did
+not believe that the magistrates should have power to coerce men's
+consciences, teaching, as he did, that the mingling of church offices
+and civil offices was anti-Christian,[7] he was unwilling to wait for
+a reformation to be brought about by the changing laws of the
+state.[8] He further advocated such equality of power [9] among the
+members of the church that in its government a democracy resulted, and
+this theory, pushed to a logical conclusion, implied that a democratic
+form of civil government was also the best.[f] Browne roughly
+draughted a government for the church with pastors, teachers, elders,
+deacons, and widows. He insisted, however, that these officers did not
+stand between Christ and the ordinary believer, "though they haue the
+grace and office of teaching and guiding.... Because eurie one of the
+church is made Kinge, and Priest and a Prophet, under Christ, to
+vpholde and further the kingdom of God."
+
+Browne and Barrowe both made the Bible their guide in all matters of
+church life. From its text they deduced the definition of a true
+church as, "A company of faithful people gathered by the Word unto
+Christ and submitting themselves in all things;" of a Christian, as
+one who had made a "willing covenant with God, and thereby did live a
+godly and Christian life."[10] This covenanting together of Christians
+constituted a church. From their interpretation of the New Testament,
+Browne and Barrowe held that this covenanting included repentance for
+sin, a profession of faith, and a promise of obedience. Moreover, to
+their minds, primitive Christianity had insisted upon a public,
+personal narration of each covenanter's regenerative experience. From
+sacred writ they derived their church organization also.[ll] Their
+pastors were for exhorting or "edifying by all comfortable words and
+promises in the Scriptures, to work in our hearts the estimate of our
+duties with love and zeal thereunto." Their teachers were for teaching
+or "delivering the grounds of Religion and meaning of the Scriptures
+and confirming the same." Both officers were to administer baptism and
+the Lord's supper, or "the Seals of the Covenant." The elders included
+both pastors and teachers and also "Ruling Elders," all of whom were
+for "oversight, counsel, and redressing things amiss," but the ruling
+elders were to give special attention to the public order and
+government of the church. According to both Browne and Barrowe, these
+officers were to be the mouthpiece of the church in the admission,
+censure, dismissal, or readmission of members.  They were to prepare
+matters to be brought before the church for action. They were also to
+adjust matters, when possible, so as to avoid overburdening the church
+or its pastor and teacher with trivial business. In matters spiritual,
+they were to unite with the pastor and teacher in keeping watch over
+the lives of the people, that they be of good character and godly
+reputation.
+
+Browne taught that the church had power which it shared with its
+officers as fellow-Christians, but which lifted it above them and
+their office. It lay with the church to elect them. It lay with the
+church to censure them. Barrowe also maintained that the church was
+"above its institutions, above its officers," [12] and that every
+officer was responsible to the church and liable to its censure as
+well as indebted to it for his election and office. But he further
+maintained that the members of the church should render meek and
+submissive, faithful and loving obedience to their chosen
+elders. Barrowe thus taught that guidance in religious matters should
+be left in the hands of those to whom by election it had been
+delegated. The elders were to be men of discernment, able to judge
+"between cause and cause, plea and plea," to redress evil, and to see
+that both the people and their officers[g] did their full duty in
+accordance with the laws of God and the ordinances of the
+church. Barrowe had seen the confusion and disintegration of Browne's
+church, and he planned by thus introducing the Calvinistic theory of
+eldership to avoid the pitfalls into which the Brownists had plunged
+while practicing their new-found principle of religious
+equality. Barrowe hoped by his system to secure the independence of
+the local churches and also to avoid the repellent attitude of a
+nation that was as yet unprepared to welcome any trend towards
+democracy.[h] Having devised this system of compromise, Barrowe made a
+futile attempt to interest Cartwright, but the latter regarded the
+reformer as too heretical. Yet Cartwright himself, tired of waiting
+for the better day when his desired reforms should be brought about
+through the operation of Parliamentary laws, was attempting in
+Warwickshire and Northamptonshire to test his system of
+Presbyterianism.
+
+To the list of church officers already enumerated, both reformers
+added deacons and widows.  The deacons were to attend to the church
+finances and all temporal cares, and, in their visiting of the sick
+and afflicted, they were to be aided by the widows. The latter office,
+however, soon fell into disuse, for it was difficult to find women of
+satisfactory character, attainments, and physical ability, since, in
+order to avoid scandal or censoriousness, those filling the office had
+to be of advanced years.[i]
+
+With respect to the relation of the churches among themselves, Browne
+and Barrowe each insisted upon the integral independence and
+self-governing powers of the local units. Both approved of the
+"sisterly advice" of neighboring churches in matters of mutual
+interest. Both held that in matters of great weight, synods, or
+councils of all the churches should be summoned; that the delegates to
+such bodies should advise and bring the wisdom of their united
+experience to questions affecting the welfare of all the churches, and
+also, when in consultation upon serious cases, that any one church
+should lay before them. Browne insisted that delegates to synods
+should be both ministerial and lay, while Barrowe leaned to the
+conviction that they should be chosen only from among the church
+officers. Both reformers limited the power of synods, maintaining that
+they should be consultative and advisory only. [13] Their decisions
+were not to be binding upon the churches as were those of the
+Presbyterian synods,[j] whose authority both reformers regarded as a
+violation of Gospel rule. The church system, outlined by these two
+men, became, in time, the organization of the churches of Plymouth,
+Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven. The character of their
+polity fluctuated, as we shall see, leaning sometimes more to
+Barrowism and sometimes, or in some respects, emphasizing the greater
+democracy which Browne taught. In England, and because of the pressure
+of circumstances among English exiles and colonists, Barrowe's
+teachings at first gained the stronger hold and kept it for many
+years. Moreover, as Barrowe's almost immediate followers embraced
+them, there was no objection to the customary union of church and
+state. And furthermore, if only the state would uphold this peculiar
+polity, it might even insist upon the payment of contributions, which
+both Browne and Barrowe had distinctly stated were to be voluntary and
+were to be the only support of their churches.  Though Barrowism was
+more welcomed, eventually--yet not until long after the colonial
+period--Brownism triumphed, and it predominates in the
+Congregationalism of to-day.
+
+The immediate spread of Barrowism was due to the poor Separatists of
+London. Doubtless among them were many who in the preceding years had
+listened to Browne and had begun to look up to him as their
+Luther. While Barrowe and Greenwood were in prison, many of these
+Separatists had gone to hear them preach and had studied their
+writings. During the autumn of 1592, there had been some relaxation in
+the severity exercised toward the prisoners, and Greenwood was allowed
+occasionally to be out of jail under bail. He associated himself with
+these Separatists, who, according to Dr. Dexter, had organized a
+church about five years before, and who at once elected Greenwood to
+the office of teacher. Dr. John Brown, writing later than Dr. Dexter,
+claims this London church as the parent of English Congregationalism.
+To make good the claim, he traces the history of the church by means
+of references in Bradford's History, Fox's "Book of Martyrs," and in
+recently discovered state papers to its existence as a Separate church
+under Elizabeth, when, as early as 1571, its pastor, Richard Fitz, had
+died in prison. Dr. Brown believes he can still farther trace its
+origin to Queen Mary's reign, when a Mr. Rough, its pastor, suffered
+martyrdom, and one Cuthbert Sympson was deacon. [l4] After the death
+of Greenwood and Barrowe, this London congregation was sore pressed.
+Their pastor, Francis Johnson, having been thrown into prison, they
+began to make their way secretly to Amsterdam. There Johnson joined
+them in 1597, soon after his release.  To this London-Amsterdam church
+were gathered Separatist exiles from all parts of England, for
+converts were increasing,[k] especially in the rural districts of the
+north, notwithstanding the fact that persecution followed hard upon
+conversion.
+
+The policy of Elizabeth during the earlier years of her reign was one
+of forbearance towards inoffensive Catholics and of toleration towards
+all Protestants. Caring nothing for religion as such, her aim was to
+secure peace and to increase the stability of her realm. This she did
+by crushing malcontent Catholics, by balancing the factions of
+Protestantism, and by holding in check the extremists, whether
+High-Churchmen or the ultra-Puritan followers of Cartwright. She had
+forced on the contending factions a sort of armed truce and silenced
+the violent antagonism of pulpit against pulpit by licensing
+preachers. The Acts of Supremacy and of Uniformity placed all
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction, as well as all legislative power, in the
+hands of the state. They outlined a system of church doctrine and
+discipline from which no variation was legally
+permitted. Notwithstanding the enforced outward conformity, the Bible
+was left open to the masses to study, and private discussion and
+polemic writing were unrestrained. The main principles of the
+Reformation were accepted, even while Elizabeth resisted the sweeping
+reforms which the strong Calvinistic faction of the Puritan party
+would have made in the ceremonial of the English church. This she did
+notwithstanding the fact that about the time Thomas Cartwright,
+through the influence of the ritualists under Whitgift, had been
+driven from Cambridge, Parliament had refused to bind the clergy to
+the Three Articles on Supremacy, on the form of Church government, and
+on the power of the Church to ordain rites and ceremonies. Parliament
+had even suggested a reform of the liturgy by omitting from it those
+ceremonies most obnoxious to the Puritan party.[l] That representative
+assembly had but reflected the desire of all moderate statesmen, as
+well as of the Puritans. But, in the twelve years between Cartwright's
+dismissal from Cambridge and Browne's preaching there without a
+license, a great change took place, altering the sentiment of the
+nation. All but extremists drew back when Cartwright pushed his
+Presbyterian notions to the point of asserting that the only power
+which the state rightfully held over religion was to see that the
+decrees of the churches were executed and their contemners punished,
+or when this reformer still further asserted that the power and
+authority of the church was derived from the Gospel and consequently
+was above Queen or Parliament. Cartwright claimed for his church an
+infallibility and control of its members far above the claims of Rome,
+and, tired of waiting for a purification of existing conditions by
+legislative acts, he had, as has been said, boldly organized, in
+accordance with his system, the clergy of Warwickshire and
+Northamptonshire. The local churches were treated as self-governing
+units, but were controlled by a series of authoritative Classes and
+Synods. Having done this, Cartwright called for the establishment of
+Presbyterianism as the national church and for the vigorous
+suppression of Episcopacy, Separatism, and all variations from his
+standard. As he thus struck at the national church, at the Queen's
+supremacy, and, seemingly to many Englishmen, at the very roots of
+civil government and security, there was a sudden halt in the reform
+movement. The impetus which would have probably brought about all the
+changes that the great body of Puritans desired was arrested. Richard
+Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity" swept the ground from under Thomas
+Cartwright's "Admonition to Parliament." Hooker's broad and
+philosophic reasoning showed that no one system of church-government
+was immutable; that all were temporary; and that not upon any man's
+interpretation of Scripture, or upon that of any group of men alone,
+could the divine ordering of the world, of the church or of the state,
+be based. Such order depended upon moral relations, upon social and
+political institutions, and changed with times and nations.
+
+The death of Mary Queen of Scots crushed the Catholic party, and the
+defeat of the Armada left Elizabeth free to turn her attention to the
+phases of the Protestant movement in her own realm. While Browne was
+preaching in Norwich, the Queen raised Whitgift to the See of
+Canterbury. He was the bitter opponent of all nonconformity, and
+immediately the persecution both of Separatists and of Puritans became
+severe. Elizabeth, sure at last of her throne and of her position as
+head of the Protestant cause in Europe, gave her minister a free
+hand. She demanded rigid conformity, but wisely forbore to revive many
+of the customs which the Puritans had succeeded in rendering
+obsolete. Notwithstanding such modifications, the English liturgy had
+been so slightly altered that, "Pius the Fifth did see so little
+variation in it from the Latin service that had been formerly used in
+that Kingdom that he would have ratified it by his authority, if the
+Queen would have so received it."[m] Elizabeth now forbade all
+preaching, teaching, and catechising in private houses, and refused to
+recognize lay or Presbyterian ordination. Ministers who could no
+longer accept episcopal ordination, or subscribe to the Thirty-nine
+Articles, or approve the Book of Common Prayer and conform to its
+liturgy were silenced and deprived of their salaries. In default of
+witnesses, charges against them were proved by their own testimony
+under oath, whereby they were made to incriminate themselves. The
+censorship of the press was made stringent, printing was restricted to
+London and to the two universities, and all printers had to be
+licensed. Furthermore, all publications, even pamphlets, had to
+receive the approval of the Primate or of the Bishop of London. In
+addition, the Queen established the Ecclesiastical Commission of
+forty-four members, which became a permanent court where all authority
+virtually centred in the hands of the archbishops. English law had not
+as yet defined the powers and limitations of the Protestant
+clergy. Consequently, this Commission assumed almost unlimited powers
+and cared little for its own precedents. Its very existence undid a
+large part of the work of the Reformation, and the successive
+Archbishops of Canterbury, Parker, Whitgift, Bancroft, Abbott, and
+Laud, claimed greater and more despotic authority than any papal
+primate since the days of Augustine. The Commission passed upon all
+opinions or acts which it held to be contrary to the Acts of Supremacy
+and Uniformity. It altered or amended the Statutes of Schools and
+Colleges; it claimed the right of deprivation of clergy and held them
+at its mercy; it passed from decisions upon heresy, schism, or
+nonconformity to judgment and sentence upon incest and similar
+crimes. It could fine and imprison at will, and employ any measures
+for securing information or calling witnesses. The result was that all
+nonconformists and all Puritans drew closer together under
+trial. Another result was that the Bible was studied more earnestly in
+private, and that there was a public eager to read the religious books
+and pamphlets published abroad and cautiously circulated in
+England. Though the Presbyterians were confined to the nonconformist
+clergy and to a comparatively small number among them, they were
+rising in importance, and were accorded sympathetic recognition as a
+section of the Puritan party. This party, as a whole, continued to
+increase its membership. The Separatists also increased, for, as of
+old, the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church.
+
+The hope that times would mend when James ascended the throne was soon
+abandoned. As he had been trained in Scotch Presbyterianism, the
+Presbyterians believed that he would grant them some favor, while the
+Puritans looked for some conciliatory measures. Eight hundred Puritan
+ministers, a tenth of all the clergy, signed the "Millenary Petition,"
+asking that the practices which they most abhorred, such as the sign
+of the cross in baptism, the use of the surplice, the giving of the
+ring at marriage, and the kneeling during the communion service,
+should be done away with. The petition was not Presbyterian, but was
+strictly Puritan in tone. It asked for no change in the government or
+organization of the church. It did ask for a reform in the
+ecclesiastical courts, and it demanded provision for the training of
+godly ministers. James replied to the petition by promising a
+conference of prelates and of Puritan ministers to consider their
+demands; but at the conference it was found that he had summpned it
+only to air the theological knowledge upon which he so greatly prided
+himself. His answer to the petition was that he would have "one
+doctrine, one religion, in substance and in ceremony," and of the
+remonstrants he added, "I will make them conform or I will harry them
+out of the land." The harrying began. The recently organized
+Separatist church at Gainsborough-on-Trent endured persecution for
+four years, and then emigrated with its pastor, John Smyth, M.A., of
+Christ's College, Cambridge. It found refuge in Amsterdam by the side
+of the London-Amsterdam church and its pastor, Francis Johnson, who
+had been Smyth's tutor in college days. The next year, after more of
+the King's harrying, the future colonists of Plymouth, the Separatist
+Church of Scrooby, an offshoot of the Gainsborough church, attempted
+to flee over seas to Holland. The magistrates would not give them
+leave to go, and to emigrate without permission had been counted a
+crime since the reign of Richard II. Their first attempt to leave the
+country was defeated and their leaders imprisoned. During their second
+attempt, after a large number of their men had reached the ship with
+many of their household goods, and while their wives and children were
+waiting to embark, those on the beach were surprised and arrested, and
+their goods confiscated. Public opinion forbade sending helpless women
+and children to prison for no other offense than agreeing with and
+wishing to join their husbands and fathers.  Consequently the
+magistrates let their prisoners go, but made no provision for
+them. Helpless and destitute, they were taken in and cared for by the
+people of the countryside, and sheltered until their men returned. The
+latter had suffered shipwreck, because the Dutch captain had attempted
+to sail away when he saw the approach of the English officers. When
+the church had once more raised sufficient funds for the emigration,
+the magistrates gave them a contemptuous permission to depart, "glad
+to be rid of them at any price."  So, in 1608, they also joined the
+English exiles in Amsterdam. The rank injustice and cruelty of their
+treatment, together with their patience and forbearance under their
+sufferings, drew people's attention to the character and worth of the
+pious "pilgrims" and Separatists whom James was constantly driving
+forth from England.
+
+Meanwhile, both in England and on the continent, the Separatists held
+fast to the principles of their leaders, of which the cardinal ones
+were a church wherein membership was not by birthright, but by
+"conversion;" over which magistrates or government should have no
+control; in which each congregation constituted an independent unit,
+coequal with all others; and with which the state should have nothing
+more to do than to see that members respected the decrees of the
+church and were obedient to its discipline.
+
+On the continent, the Separatists elaborated these fundamentals and
+developed detailed and systematic expression of them. Such were the
+"True Description out of the Word of God of the Visible Church" of the
+London-Amsterdam church, put forth in 1589, and in which Barrowe
+himself outlined his system; the "True Confession," issued by the same
+church about ten years later; "The Points of Difference," some
+fourteen in number, in which the London-Amsterdam church set forth
+wherein it differed from the English church; and the "Seven Articles,"
+signed by John Robinson and William Brewster.  This last document the
+exiled Scrooby church sent from Leyden to the English Council of State
+in 1617, with the hope of convincing King James that if allowed to go
+to America under the Virginia patent, and to worship there in their
+own fashion, they would be desirable colonists and law-abiding
+subjects. The "True Confession"[n] sets forth the nature, powers,
+order, and officers of the church. It limits the sacraments to the
+members, and baptism to their children.  It insists upon the wisdom of
+churches seeking advice from one another, and of their use of
+certificates of membership so as to guard against the admission of
+strangers coming from other churches, and possibly of unworthy
+character. In the definition of eldership, the "True Confession"
+passes out of the haze in which Barrowe's "True Description" left the
+conflicting powers of the eldership, and of the church. It plainly
+asserts that the elders have the power of guidance and also of
+control, should members attempt to censure them or to interfere in
+matters beyond their knowledge. This platform also insists that
+magistrates should uphold the church which it defines, because it is
+the one true church, and that they should oppose all others as
+anti-Christian. [15] In the "Points of Difference," stress is again
+laid upon the covenant-nature of the church, upon its voluntary
+support, upon the right of election of officers, and upon the
+abolishment of "Popish Canons, Courts, Classes, Customs or any human
+inventions," including the Popish liturgy, the Book of Common Prayer,
+and "all Monuments of Idolatry in garments or in other things, and all
+Temples, Chapels, etc." Many of the Puritans desired these same
+changes. Many favored a polity giving the local churches some degree
+of choice in the election of their officers.  If the "Points of
+Difference" aimed to lay bare the errors of Episcopacy and of
+Presbyterianism as well as to demonstrate the superior merits of the
+new aspirant for the status of a national church, the "Seven Articles"
+[16] aimed to minimize differences in church usage by omitting mention
+of them when possible and by emphasizing agreement. The evident
+advance along the line of a more authoritative eldership had developed
+out of the experience of the first two English churches in
+Amsterdam. John Robinson and his followers had held more closely to
+Robert Browne's standard of Congregationalism, for Robinson maintained
+that the government of the church should be vested in its membership
+rather than in its eldership alone. In order to maintain this
+principle in greater purity, Robinson withdrew his fold from their
+first resting-place in Amsterdam to Leyden. Richard Clyfton, who had
+been pastor of the church in Scrooby, remained in Amsterdam, partly
+because he felt too old to migrate again, and partly because he leaned
+to Francis Johnson's more aristocratic theories of church
+government. These divergent views caused trouble in the Amsterdam
+churches, and Robinson wished to be far enough away to be out of the
+vortex of doctrinal eddies. For eleven years his people lived a
+peaceful and exemplary church life in Leyden, and it was chiefly their
+longing to rear their children in an English home and under English
+influences that made them anxious to emigrate to America. As the years
+passed, Robinson sympathized more with the Barrowistic standards of
+other churches and came also to regard more leniently the English
+Established Church as one having true religion under corrupt forms and
+ceremonies, and accordingly one with which he could hold a limited
+fellowship. This was a step in the approachment of Separatist and
+Puritan, and Robinson was a most influential writer. Of necessity, his
+work was largely controversial, but he wrote from the standpoint of
+defense, and rarely departed from a broad and kindly spirit. In the
+"Seven Articles" Robinson admits the royal supremacy in so far as to
+countenance a passive obedience.  His teaching had the greatest
+influence in shaping the religious life of the first and second
+generation of New Englanders.
+
+The Separatists who remained in England devoted themselves to the
+discussion of particular topics rather than to platforms of faith and
+discipline. Many of the writers were men who, like the pastors of two
+of the exiled churches, were at first ministers in good standing in
+the English church; but, later, had allowed their Puritan tendencies
+to outrun the bounds of that party and to become convictions that the
+Bible commanded their separation from the Establishment as witnesses
+to the corruptions it countenanced. Poring over the Bible story, they
+had become enamored with the simplicity of the Gospel age.
+
+From the days of Elizabeth, the English nation became more and more a
+people of one book, and that book the Bible. As, deeply dyed with
+Calvinism, they read over and over its sacred pages, they became a
+serious, sombre, purposeful--and almost fanatic people. The faults and
+extravagances of the Puritan party and of the later Commonwealth do
+not at this time concern us. It is with their purposefulness, their
+determination to make the church a home of vigorous and visible
+righteousness, and to preserve their ecclesiastical and civil
+liberties from the encroachment of Stuart pretensions, that we have to
+do. More and more, as has been said, the Puritan was coming to the
+conviction that the best way to reform the church would be to
+substitute some restrictive policy for her all-embracing membership,
+or, at least, to supplement it by such measures of local church
+discipline as should practically exclude the unregenerate and the
+immoral. Again, the Church of England could be arraigned as a
+politico-ecclesiastical institution, and in the pages of the Bible,
+King James's theory of the divine right of kings and bishops found no
+support. It was obnoxious alike to Separatist and Puritan, and James's
+Puritan subjects had the sympathy of more than three fourths of the
+squires and burgesses in the king's first Parliament of 1604, while
+the Separatists counted some twenty thousand converts in his
+realm. The Puritan opposition was a formidable one to provoke. Yet
+"the wisest fool in Christendom" jeered at its clergy and scolded its
+representatives in Parliament for daring to warn him, in their reply
+to his boasted divine right of kings, that
+
+    Your majesty would be misinformed if any man should deliver that
+    the Kings of England have any absolute power in themselves either
+    to alter religion, or to make any laws concerning the same,
+    otherwise than as in temporal causes, by consent of Parliament.
+
+It was the extravagant claims for himself and his bishops, coupled
+with his lawless overriding of justice and his profligate use of the
+national wealth, that undermined the king's throne and prepared the
+downfall of the House of Stuart.  Notwithstanding the remonstrance of
+Parliament, James's insistence upon his divine right, by very force of
+reiteration, whether his own or that of the clergy who favored
+royalty, won a growing recognition from a conservative people.  For
+his king as the political head of the nation, the Puritan had all the
+Englishman's half-idolatrous reverence, until James's own acts
+outraged justice and substituted contempt.
+
+The self-restraint for which every Separatist, every Puritan, strove,
+was characteristic of the great reform party. They asked only for
+ecclesiastical betterment, for the reform of the ecclesiastical
+courts, for provision for a godly ministry, and for the suppression of
+"Popish usages."  These requests of the "Millenary Petition" were,
+after the Guy Fawkes plot, urged with all the intensity of a people
+who, as they looked abroad upon the feeble and warring Protestantism
+of Europe, and at home upon the attempt to revive Romanism, believed
+themselves the sole hope and savior of the Protestant
+cause. Persecution had created a small measure of tolerance throughout
+all nonconformist bodies. Fear of the revival of Catholicism, the
+renewed attempt to enforce the Three Articles, the dismissal from
+their parishes of three hundred Puritan ministers, and the hand and
+glove policy of the king and his bishops, welded together the variants
+in the Puritan party. The desire for personal righteousness, for
+morality in church and state, which had seized upon the masses in the
+nation, stood aghast at the profligacy of the king and his courtiers.
+Reason seemed to cry aloud for reform, preferably for a reform that
+should be free from every trace of the old hypocrisies, but which
+should be strong within the old episcopal system which had endured for
+centuries and which still kept its hold upon the vast majority of the
+people.  And to this idea of reform the great Puritan party clung,
+until the exactions of the Stuarts, their suppression of both
+religious and civil rights, forced upon it a civil war and the
+formation of the Commonwealth. As a preliminary training of the men of
+the Puritan armies and of the Commonwealth, and for their great
+contest, all the years of Bible study, of controversial writing, of
+individual suffering, were needed.  These brought forth the necessary
+moral earnestness, the mental acumen, the enduring strength.  These
+qualities, though most noticeable in the leaders, were well-nigh
+universal traits. Every common soldier felt himself the equal of his
+officer as a soldier of God, a defender of the faith, and a necessary
+builder of Christ's new kingdom upon earth. To this growing sense of
+democracy, to this sense of personal responsibility and
+self-sacrifice, the teaching, the writings, and the sufferings of the
+oppressed Separatists, as well as those of the persecuted Puritans,
+had contributed.
+
+When, in 1620, James I permitted the Pilgrims of Leyden to emigrate,
+they planted in Plymouth of New England the first American
+Congregational church and erected there the first American
+commonwealth. The influence of this Separatist church upon New England
+religious life belongs to another chapter. Here it is only necessary
+to repeat that its members differed not at all in creed, only in
+polity, from the English established church out of which they had
+originally come. With the English Puritan they were one in faith,
+while they differed little from him in theories of church government,
+though much in practice. In America, the Plymouth colonists at once
+set up the same church polity as in Leyden, one from which, as has
+been shown, many of the English Puritans would have borrowed the
+features of a converted or covenant membership and of local
+self-government, or at least some measure of it. Eight years were to
+elapse before the great Puritan exodus began.  In those eight years
+both parties, through the discipline of time, were to be brought still
+nearer to a common standard of church life. When the vanguard of the
+Puritans reached the Massachusetts shore, the Plymouth church stood
+ready to extend the right hand of fellowship. How it did so, and how
+it impressed itself upon the church life in the three colonies of
+Massachusetts, New Haven, and Connecticut, is a part of the story of
+the earliest period of colonial Congregationalism.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] "Our pious Ancestors transported themselves with regard unto
+Church Order and Discipline, not with respect to the Fundamentals in
+Doctrine."--Richard Mather, _Attestation to the Ratio
+Disciplina_, p. 10.
+
+"The issue on which the Pilgrims and Puritans alike left sweet fields
+and comfortable homes and settled ways of the land of their birth for
+this raw wilderness, was primarily an issue of politics rather than of
+the substance of religious life."--G. L. Walker, _Some Aspects of
+Religious Life in New England_, p. 19.
+
+[b] "After the 17th century 'Independent' was chiefly used in England,
+while 'Congregational' was decidedly preferred in New England, where
+the 'consociation' of the churches formed a more important feature of
+the system." "Congregational" first appeared in manuscript in 1639, in
+print in 1642. "Congregationalist" appeared in 1692, and
+"Congregationalism," not until 1716.--J. Murray, _A New English
+Dict.  on Hist. Principles._
+
+[c] Separatism is commonly said to date from the year 1554.  About
+1564, the other branch of the reform party was nicknamed
+"Puritan."--G. L. Walker, _History of the First Church in
+Hartford_, p. 6.
+
+[d] Another noted preacher who left an indelible impression upon
+several early New England ministers was William Perkins, who was in
+discourse "strenuous, searching, and ultra-Calvinistic." He was a
+Cambridge man, filling the positions of Professor of Divinity, Master
+of Trinity, and Chancellor of the University.--G. L. Walker, _Some
+Aspects of the Religious Life in New England_, p. 14.
+
+[e] Cartwright in 1574, the year of its publication, translated
+Travers's _Ecclesiasticae Disciplinae et Anglicanae Ecclesiae ab
+illa Aberrationis, plena e verbo Dei & dilucida Explicatio_, and
+made it the basis of a practical attempt to introduce the Presbyterian
+system into England. More than five hundred of the clergy seconded his
+attempt, subscribing to the principles that (1) there can be only one
+right form of church government, but one church order and one form of
+church, namely, that described in the Scriptures; (2) that every local
+church should have a presbytery of elders to direct its affairs; and
+(3) that every church should obey the combined opinion of all the
+churches in fellowship with it. In this declaration lay a blow at the
+Queen's supremacy.--H. M. Dexter, _Congregationalism as seen in
+Lit_. p. 55.
+
+[f] "Browne's polity was essentially, though unintentionally,
+democratic, and that gives it a closer resemblance in some features to
+the purely democratic Congregationalism of the present century, than
+to the more aristocratic, one might almost say semi-Presbyterianized,
+Congregationalism of Barrowe and the founders of New England. His
+picture of the covenant relation of men in the church, under the
+immediate sovereignty of God, he extended to the state; and it led him
+as directly, and probably as unintentionally, to democracy in the one
+field as in the other. His theory implied that all governors should
+rule by the will of the governed, and made the basis of the state on
+its human side essentially a compact."--W. Walker, _Creeds and
+Platforms_, pp. 15, 16. See also H. M. Dexter, _Congregationalism
+as seen in Lit_., pp. 96-107; 235-39; 351; R. Browne, _Book which
+Sheweth, Def_., 51.
+
+[g] Barrowe wrote, "Though there be communion in the Church, yet is
+there no equality." This is in strong contrast to Browne's, "Every one
+of the church is made King and Priest and Prophet under Christ to
+uphold and further the kingdom of God." Barrowe continues, "The Church
+of Christ is to obey and submit unto her leaders.... The Church
+knoweth how to give reverence unto her leaders." In his _True
+Description_ there is a hazy attempt to define how far the
+membership of the church may judge its elders. This authority of the
+elders was defined more clearly and elaborated by Barrowe's followers
+in their _True Confession_, published in Amsterdam in
+1596-98.--H. Barrowe, _A True Description; Discovery of False
+Churches_, p. 188; _A Plain Refutation of Mr. Gifford_, p. 129
+(ed. of 1605).
+
+[h] "Traces of this (Barrowe's) innovation on apostolic
+Congregationalism have been aptly characterized as a Presbyterian
+heart within a Congregational body, and are seen long after the
+denomination grew to be a power in New England."--A. E.  Dunning,
+_Congregationalists in America_, p. 61.
+
+[i] Barrowe says, "over sixty."
+
+[j] The first English Presbytery was organized in 1572. Among its
+organizers, there was the seeming determination to treat the Episcopal
+system as a mere legal appendage.--F. J. Powicke, _Henry
+Barrowe_, p. 139.
+
+[k] At the height of its prosperity this church contained about three
+hundred communicants, with representatives from twenty-nine English
+counties. Among them was one John Bolton, who had been a member of
+Mr. Fitz's church in 1571. At the beginning of James the First's
+reign, 1603, Separatist converts numbered 20,000 souls in England.
+
+[l] "The wish for a reform in the Liturgy, the dislike of
+superstitious usages, of the use of the surplice, the sign of the
+cross in baptism, the gift of the ring in marriage, the posture of
+kneeling at the Lord's Supper, was shared by a large number of the
+clergy and laity alike. At the opening of Elizabeth's reign almost all
+the higher churchmen but Parker were opposed to them, and a motion for
+their abolition in Convocation was lost but by a single
+vote."--J. R. Green, _Short History of the English People_,
+p. 459.
+
+[m] John Davenport, in his _Answer to the Letter of Many Ministers
+in Old England_, p. 3.
+
+[n] Its full title is "A True Confession of the Faith and Humble
+Acknowledgement of the Allegeance which wee his Majestes Subjects
+falsely called Brownists, doo hould towards God and yeild his Majestie
+and all others that are over us in the Lord."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE TRANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM
+
+
+    Those who cross the sea change not their affection but their
+    skies.--Horace.
+
+The rule of absolutism forced the transplanting of a democratic
+church. The arrogance of the House of Stuart compelled English
+Puritans to seek refuge in America. The exercise of the divine right
+of kings and of the divine power of bishops provoked the commonwealths
+of New England and the development there of the Congregational church,
+as later it brought the Commonwealth of Cromwell, with its tolerance
+of Independent and Presbyterian.
+
+When the Pilgrims left England, the Puritans had entered upon their
+long contest with James over their ecclesiastical and also their
+constitutional rights. At his accession, the king had seemed inclined
+to tolerate the Catholics. Yet only a short time elapsed before many
+Romanists were found upon the proscribed lists. The Guy Fawkes plot
+followed. Its scope, its narrow margin of failure, coupled with the
+king's previous leniency towards Catholics and his bitter persecution
+of nonconformists, created a frenzy of fear among
+Protestants. Immediately the Puritans saw in every objectionable
+ceremonial of the English church some hidden purpose, some Jesuitical
+contrivance for overthrowing Protestantism.  And as the ritualistic
+clergy made their pulpits resound with the doctrines of the divine
+right of kings, the divine right of bishops, and of passive obedience,
+and as they thundered at the preachers who opposed or denied these
+principles, the high-church party came to be associated more and more
+with the unconstitutional policy of the king.  And this was so,
+notwithstanding the praiseworthy efforts of Archbishop Abbott to
+modify the practical working of these royal notions. This archbishop
+of Canterbury was a man of great learning and of gentle spirit. His
+name stands second among the translators of King James's version,
+while as head of the Ecclesiastical Commission his power was great,
+his influence far reaching. So earnestly did he strive to moderate the
+king's severity toward nonconformists, to bring about a compromise
+between the two great church parties, and so simple was the ritual in
+his palace at Lambeth, that many people believed the kindly prelate
+was more than half a Puritan at heart. He even refused to license the
+publication of a sermon that most unduly exalted the king's
+prerogative, and he forbade the reading of James's proclamation
+permitting games and sports on Sunday. This proclamation was the
+famous "Book of Sports," and many Puritan clergymen paid dearly for
+refusing to read it to their congregations. Its issue exasperated and
+discouraged the reform party, and, from this time, the Puritans began
+to lose hope that any moral or religious betterment would be permitted
+among the people.
+
+In the constitutional imbroglio, James resented the attempt of
+Parliament to curb his extravagance by its method of granting him
+money on condition that he would make ecclesiastical reforms and grant
+the redress of other grievances.  When the king grew angry and
+attempted to rule without a Parliament, the Puritan party broadened
+its purpose and became the champion also of civil liberty. Among his
+offenses, James refused to restore to their pulpits three hundred
+Puritan ministers whom, in 1605, he silenced for not accepting the
+Three Articles, notwithstanding the fact that Parliament itself had
+refused to make them binding upon the clergy. The king also refused to
+define the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts, and to respect
+the limitation of the powers of the High Court of Commission when they
+were determined by the judges. And further, James positively refused
+to admit that with Parliament alone rested the power to levy imposts
+and duties. After wrangling with his first Parliament for seven years
+over these and similar questions, the king ruled for the next three
+without that representative body. Finding it necessary, in 1614, to
+convene his lords, squires, and burgesses, the king was disappointed
+to find that the new Parliament was no more pliable to his will than
+its predecessor had been, and he shortly dissolved it. The great
+leaders of the opposition, such as Coke, Eliot, Pym, Selden and
+Hampden, were not all Puritans, but these men, and others of their
+kind, joined with the reform party in demanding that the rights of the
+people should be respected and the evils of government
+redressed. James's whole reign was marked by quarrels with a stubborn
+Parliament and by periods of absolute rule that were characterized by
+forced loans and other unlawful extortions.
+
+Upon the death of James, in 1625, the nation turned hopefully to the
+young prince, who thus far had pleased them in many ways. In contrast
+to the ungainly, rickety, garrulous James, Charles was kingly in
+appearance, bearing, and demeanor.  He was reserved in speech and
+manner. So far, the stubbornness which he had inherited from his
+father was mistaken for a strong will, and his attitude towards Spain,
+after the failure of the Catholic marriage which had been arranged for
+him, was regarded as indicating his strong Protestantism. It took but
+a short time, however, to reveal his stubbornness, his vanity, pique,
+extravagance, and insincerity. Within four years, he had dissolved
+Parliament three times, had sent Sir John Eliot to the Tower for
+boldly defending the rights of the people, had dismissed the Chief
+Justice from office for refusing to recognize as legal taxes laid
+without consent of Parliament, had thrown John Hampden into prison for
+refusing to pay a forced loan, and, finally, had signed the "Petition
+of Rights" [17] in 1628, only to violate it almost as soon as the
+contemporary bill for subsidies had been passed.  Charles, finding he
+could not coerce Parliament, dissolved it, and entered upon his twelve
+years of absolute rule, marked by imprisonments, by arbitrary fines,
+forced loans, sales of monopolies, and illegal taxes, which raised the
+annual revenue from £500,000 to £800,000. [18]
+
+It was during the first years of Charles's misrule--to be specific,
+in 1627--that "some friends being together in Lincolnshire fell into
+discourse about New England and the planting of the Gospel there."
+Among them were, probably, Thomas Dudley (who mentions the discussion
+in a letter to the Countess of Lincoln), Atherton Hough, Thomas
+Leverett, and possibly also John Cotton and Roger Williams, for all
+these men were wont to assemble at Tattersall Castle, the family seat
+of Lord Lincoln. The latter was, in religious matters, a staunch
+Puritan, and in political, a fearless opponent of forced loans and
+illegal measures. Thomas Dudley was his steward and confidential
+adviser, and the others were his personal friends and, in politics,
+his loyal followers.  These men, afterwards prominent in New England,
+had watched with interest the fortunes of the Plymouth Colony, and now
+concluded that since England lay helpless in the grasp of Charles the
+time had come to prepare somewhere in the American wilderness a refuge
+and home for oppressed Englishmen and persecuted Puritans.  This
+little group of men began at once to correspond with others in London
+and also in the west of England who were like-minded with
+themselves. Men of the west, in and about Dorchester, had for some
+four years or more been interested in the New England fisheries
+between the Kennebec and Cape Ann. On that promontory they had landed
+some fourteen men, hoping to start a permanent settlement. The plan
+had failed, the partnership had been dissolved, and a few of the
+settlers had removed to Salem, Massachusetts.  The Rev. John White,
+the Puritan rector of Salem, England, saw a great opportunity. He at
+once interested some wealthy merchants to make Salem, in
+Massachusetts, the first post in a colonization scheme of great
+magnitude, and as leader of an advance party they secured John
+Endicott.  From the council for New England the company secured a
+patent on March 19, 1628, for the lands between the Merrimac and the
+Charles rivers.  On June 20, 1628, thirteen days after Charles had
+signed the "Petition of Rights" that he was so soon to violate, the
+advance guard of the colonists set sail for Salem, in the New World,
+arriving there early in the following September.
+
+In America, friendly relations were soon established between the
+settlers of Salem and Plymouth. On the voyage over, sickness, due to
+the unwholesome salt in which some of their provisions had been
+packed, broke out among the Salem colonists, and continuing in the
+settlement, forced Endicott to send to Plymouth for Dr.  Samuel
+Fuller, deacon in the church there. He was skilled both in medicine
+and in church-lore, for he had also been one of the two deacons in the
+church during its Leyden days. He worked among the disabled at Salem,
+and, later, among the sick colonists at Boston, paving the way for a
+better understanding and closer friendship with the Plymouth
+settlers. There had been a tendency to look upon these earlier
+colonists as extremists. Their enemies in derision called them
+"Brownists." They did in truth cling most firmly to Browne's doctrine
+that the civil magistrate had no control over the church of Christ. In
+their opinion, the function of the civil power in any union of church
+and state was limited to upholding the spiritual power by approving
+the church's discipline, since that had for its object the moral
+welfare of the people. As Endicott and Fuller talked together of all
+that in their hearts they both desired for the church of the future,
+they realized that they agreed on many points.  The Plymouth church
+had been virtually under the sole rule of its elder, William Brewster,
+during the greater part of its life in America, for its aged pastor
+had died before he could rejoin his flock. Such government had tended
+to modify the early insistence upon the principle that the power of
+the church was "above that of its officers." This doctrine was
+associated in men's minds more with Robert Browne, who had originated
+it, than with Henry Barrowe, who had modified it, and it was towards
+Barrowism that the larger body of Puritans were drawn.
+
+The Salem people, in their isolation three thousand miles from the
+home-land, felt the necessity of some form of church organization. As
+they had fled from the offensive ceremonial of the English Church,
+they determined to be free from cross and prayer-book, and from
+anything suggestive of offense. In the great matter of membership and
+constitution, their new church was to be brought still nearer to the
+requirements and simplicity of Gospel standards. More and more
+Puritans were coming to prefer the church of "covenant membership" to
+the birthright membership of the English Establishment. Many were
+urging a limited independence in the organization, management, and
+discipline of members of local churches. Some among the Puritans had
+adopted the Presbyterian polity, while many preferred that form of
+ordination. Such ordination had been accepted as valid for English
+clergymen during the earlier part of Elizabeth's reign.  It was still
+so recognized by all the English clergy for the ministers of the
+Reformed churches on the Continent, and with such, English clergymen
+of all opinions still continued to hold very friendly intercourse. It
+was not until Laud's ascendency that claims for the divine right of
+Episcopacy, to the exclusion of other branches of the Christian faith,
+were strenuously urged.  Thus it happened that after many conferences,
+Endicott could write to Governor Bradford in May of 1629, that:--
+
+    I acknowledge myself much bound to you for your kind love and care
+    in sending Mr. Samuel Fuller among us, and rejoice much that I am
+    by him satisfied touching your judgment of the outward form of
+    God's worship. It is, as far as I can gather, no other than is
+    warranted by the evidence of truth, and the same which I have ever
+    professed and maintained ever since the Lord in mercy revealed
+    Himself unto me: being far from the common report that hath been
+    spread of you touching that particular.
+
+Endicott further expresses the wish that they may all "as Christian
+brethren be united by a heavenly and unfeigned love;" that as servants
+of one Master and of one household they should not be strangers, but
+be "marked with one and the same mark, and sealed with one and the
+same seal, and have, for the main, one and the same heart guided by
+one and the same Spirit of truth," and that they should bend their
+hearts and forces to the furthering of the work for which they had
+come into the wilderness. Thus, Salem had decided upon the type of
+church her people wanted, while she still waited for the ministers who
+were coming with the larger number of her colonists, and whom she
+believed competent to guide her religious life.
+
+Only a few weeks after the sending of Endicott's letter to Governor
+Bradford, five vessels arrived, bringing several hundred well-equipped
+colonists. They had been sent out by the Governor and Company of
+Massachusetts Bay. This corporation had bought out the Salem Company,
+and was backed by the most influential Puritans of wealth and social
+prominence, by men who had lost all hope of either religious or civil
+freedom when Laud had been raised to the bishopric of London and when
+Charles persisted in his despotic government. By the elevation of Laud
+to the bishopric of London, Charles offended the most puritanically
+inclined diocese in England, and the whole Puritan party. In his new
+office, Laud quickly succeeded in severing communication between the
+Reformed churches on the Continent and those in England. He strictly
+prohibited the common people from using the annotated pocket-Bibles
+sent out by the Genevan press. He forbade the entrance into office of
+nonconformists as lecturers or chaplains. He put an end to feofments,
+so that puritanically inclined men of wealth could no longer control
+the livings. He excluded suspended ministers from teaching, and also
+from the practice of medicine, and even forbade their entering
+business life. He required absolute conformity to his own high-church
+standards. He insisted upon doing away with all Calvinistic
+innovations tending to simplicity of ritual, and upon reviving many
+ecclesiastical ceremonies which had fallen into disuse. Hence, English
+Puritans saw in America the only hope of the future, and began that
+exodus which, during the next ten years, or more, annually sent two
+thousand emigrants to the Massachusetts shore to find homes throughout
+New England. Of these, the Salem colonists were the first large body
+of Puritans to emigrate. Among them were three ministers, Endicott's
+former pastor Samuel Skelton, Francis Higginson, and Francis Bright.
+
+When Higginson and Skelton learned of the friendship with Plymouth,
+and that Endicott had adopted the system of church organization
+established in the older settlement, they accepted it as being in
+accord with the principles of the Reformed churches on the Continent,
+whose pattern they had themselves resolved to follow in organizing the
+church at Salem. Not so Francis Bright. He could not agree with the
+others, and so withdrew to Charlestown in order not to embarrass the
+young church. Higginson and Skelton were each, in turn questioned as
+to their conception of a minister's calling. Replying that it was
+twofold: a call from within to a conviction that a man was chosen of
+God to be His minister, and thereby endowed with proper gifts, and a
+call from without by the free choice of a "covenanted church" to be
+its pastor, they were accepted as satisfactory candidates for the two
+highest offices in the Salem church. Later, upon an appointed day of
+prayer and fasting, July 20, 1629, the people by written ballot chose
+Francis Skelton to be their pastor and Thomas Higginson their
+teacher. When they had accepted their election, "first Mr. Higginson,
+with three or four of the gravest members of the church, laid their
+hands upon Mr. Skelton, using prayer therewith. This being done, there
+was imposition of hands upon Mr. Higginson also."  Upon a still later
+day of prayer and humiliation, August 6, elders and deacons were
+chosen and ordained. Upon this day, the two ministers and many among
+the people gave their assent to the Confession and Covenant which the
+pastor and teacher had revised. At the second of these two important
+meetings, Governor Bradford and delegates from the Plymouth church
+were present. "Coming by sea they were hindered by cross-winds that
+they could not be there at the beginning of the day; but they came
+into the assembly afterward, and gave them the right hand of
+fellowship, wishing all prosperity and all blessedness to such good
+beginnings." [19] The Salem covenant in its original form was a single
+sentence: "We covenant with the Lord and with one another; and doe
+bynd ourselves in the presence of God to walk together in all his
+wayes, according as he is pleased to reveale him' self unto us in his
+Blessed word of truth." [20]
+
+The formation of the church of Salem by covenant practice[a] marked
+the beginning of the Congregational polity among the Puritan body;
+their local ordination of their minister, the break with English
+Episcopacy, though, for a considerable while longer, the colonists
+still spoke of themselves as members of the Church of England, for
+both the colonial and the home authorities were equally anxious to
+avoid the stigma of Separatism.
+
+The next large body of colonists to leave England was Governor
+Winthrop's company, and, upon their arrival, the Boston church quickly
+followed the example of Salem. Next, the Dorchester church, afterwards
+the church of Windsor, Connecticut, emigrated as a body from Plymouth,
+England, where, before embarking, its members seem to have taken some
+form of membership pledge,--an unusual proceeding, but operating to
+put this church in line with those already organized in Plymouth and
+Massachusetts. The Watertown church, whence emigrants were to settle
+Wethersfield, Connecticut, also organized with a covenant similar to
+that of Salem and Boston. These four oldest congregations set the type
+for the thirty-five New England churches that were founded previous to
+1640, as well as for the later ones that followed the standard thus
+early set up by Plymouth, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. There was
+some variation in the form of covenant,[b] and to it a brief
+confession of faith, or creed, was early added. There was some
+variation also in the interpretation of the laying on of hands in
+ordination as to whether it was to be considered, in cases where the
+candidate had previously been ordained in England, as ordination or as
+confirmation of that previously received.[c] In regard to officers,
+the churches at first provided themselves with pastor, ruling elders
+(one or two, but generally only one), and deacons.  There were
+exceptions among them, as at Plymouth, where there was no pastor for
+ten years, and in which there had never been a teacher, for John
+Robinson had filled both offices. As the first generation of colonists
+passed away, partly because of lack of fit candidates, partly because
+of the kinship of the two offices of pastor and teacher, and partly
+because of the heavy expense in supporting both, the office of teacher
+was dropped. The ruling eldership also was gradually discontinued; but
+at first the churches generally had, with the exception of widows, the
+full complement of officers as appointed by Browne and Barrowe. The
+usual order of worship was (1) Prayer. (2) Psalm. (3) Scripture
+reading, followed by the pastor's preaching to explain and apply
+it. (4) Prophesying or exhortation, the elders calling for speakers,
+whether members or guests from other churches. (5) Questions from old
+or young, women excepted.  (6) Occasional administration of the Lord's
+Supper or of Baptism, rites known as the administration of "the Seals
+of the Covenant."  (7) Psalm. (8) Collection. (9) Dismissal with
+blessing. Such were the New England churches, the churches of a
+transplanted creed and race.  They were Calvinistic in dogma,
+democratic in organization, and of extreme simplicity in their order
+of worship.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] This fundamental principle of Congregationalism belonged to the
+Separatists and was one of their distinctive tenets. It was never
+adopted by the English Puritans as a body, nor was ordination by a
+local church. The Dorchester church had some form of pledge at the
+time of its organization. So also, possibly, because influenced by
+Dutch example, did Rev. Hugh Peter's church in Rotterdam. But these
+were exceptions.--W. Walker, _Hist, of Cong._, p. 192.
+
+[b] The evolution of the Salem covenant and creed is given in detail
+in W. Walker's _Creeds and Platforms_, pp. 99-122.
+
+The Windsor Creed of 1647, though not covering the range of Christian
+doctrine, contained in simple phrase the essentials of Gospel
+redemption from sin through repentance and faith in the atoning work
+of Christ and a life of love toward God and our neighbor, through the
+strength which comes from him.--W. Walker, _Creeds and
+Platforms_, p. 154.
+
+[c] The evolution of the Salem covenant and creed is given in detail
+in W. Walker's _Creeds and Platforms_, pp. 99-122.
+
+The Windsor Creed of 1647, though not covering the range of Christian
+doctrine, contained in simple phrase the essentials of Gospel
+redemption from sin through repentance and faith in the atoning work
+of Christ and a life of love toward God and our neighbor, through the
+strength which comes from him.--W. Walker, _Creeds and
+Platforms_, p. 154.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND
+
+
+    For God and the Church!
+
+With the great Puritan body in England, and with the great mass of the
+English nation, whatever their religious opinions, the colonists of
+Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Haven held in common one
+foremost theory of civil government. Pausing for a brief consideration
+of this fundamental and far-reaching theory, which created so many
+difficulties in the infant commonwealths, and which confronts us again
+and again as we follow their later history, we find that the Pilgrim
+Separatist of Plymouth, the strict Puritan of Massachusetts, the voter
+in the theocratic commonwealth of New Haven, and the holder of the
+liberal franchise in Connecticut, all clung to the proposition that
+the State's first duty was the maintenance and support of religion.
+Thereby they meant enforced taxation for the support of its
+predominant type, conformity to its mode of worship, and in the last
+analysis supervision or control of the Church by the State or by the
+General Court of each colony. As a corollary to this proposition, the
+duty of the churches was to define the creed, to set forth the church
+polity, and to determine the bounds of morality within the state. Two
+of the colonies held the corollary to be so important that it almost
+changed places with the proposition when Massachusetts and New Haven
+became rigid theocracies.[a]
+
+With respect to taxation in the four colonies the statement should be
+modified, inasmuch as the support of religion was at first voluntary
+in all four: in Plymouth until 1657, in Massachusetts from 1630 to
+1638, in Connecticut before 1640; yet both New Haven and Connecticut
+accepted the suggestion made by the Commissioners of the United
+Colonies on September 5, 1644, "that each man should be required to
+set down what he would voluntarily give for the support of the gospel,
+and that any man who refused should be rated according to his
+possessions and compelled to pay" the sum so levied. Since in
+religious affairs strict conformity was required by the three Puritan
+colonies, and since the liberty accorded to the few early dissenters
+in Plymouth was not such as to modify her prevailing polity or
+worship, these first few years of voluntary assessment do not nullify
+the dominant truth of the preceding statement.
+
+In the intimate relation of Church and State, the people of these four
+New England colonies regarded the magistrates as "Nursing Fathers" of
+the Church, [2l] who were to take "special note and care of every
+Church and provide and assign allotments of land for the maintenance
+of each of them." [22] The State, accepting the same view of
+caretaker, carried its supervision still farther and devised a system
+for the maintenance of the ministry in accordance with sundry laws
+made to insure the people's support, respect, and obedience.  The
+churches reciprocated. First of all, they provided their members with
+the approved and accepted essentials of religious life, and they
+further exercised a rigorous supervision over the moral welfare of the
+whole community. Secondly, they aided the State through the influence
+of their ministers, who, on all important occasions, were expected to
+meet with the magistrates to consult and advise upon affairs whether
+spiritual or temporal. But the framers of governments were not
+satisfied with these measures that aimed to present a strongly
+established church, capable of extending a fine moral, ethical, and
+religious influence over the colonists, and also to enforce upon the
+wayward, the careless, or the indifferent among them its support and
+their obedience. If these measures provided for the ordinary welfare
+of the community and for the usual relations b between the ministers
+and their people, there were still possibilities of factional strife
+to guard against, and such warfare in that age might or might not
+confine itself within the limits of theological controversy or within
+the lines of church organization. Consequently, the better to preserve
+the churches from schism or corrupting innovations and the
+commonwealth from discord, the supreme control of the churches was
+lodged in the General Court of each colony. It could, whenever
+necessary to secure harmony, whether ecclesiastical or civil,
+legislate with reference to all or any of the churches within its
+jurisdiction.  Examples of such legislation occur frequently in the
+religious history of the colonies, especially of Massachusetts and
+Connecticut. Such interdependence of the spiritual and temporal power
+practically amounted to a union of Church and State. Indeed, in
+Massachusetts and New Haven, to be a voter, a man must first be a
+member of a church of approved standing.[b] In more liberal Plymouth
+and Connecticut, the franchise, at first, was made to depend only upon
+conduct, though it was early found necessary to add a property
+qualification in order to cut off undesirable voters.[23] In the
+Connecticut colony, it was expressly enacted that church censure
+should not debar from civil privilege. When advocating this amount of
+separation between church and civil power, Thomas Hooker was not moved
+by any such religious principle as influenced the Separatists of
+Plymouth. On the contrary, it was his political foresight which made
+him urge upon the colonists a more representative government[c] than
+would be obtainable from a franchise based upon church-membership
+where, as in the colonial churches, admission to such membership was
+conditioned upon exacting tests. The great Connecticut leader was far
+in advance of the statesmen of his time, for they held that the
+religion of a prince or government must be the religion of the people;
+that every subject must be by birthright a member of the national
+church, to leave which was both heretical and disloyal and should be
+punished by political and civil disabilities. This union of Church and
+State was the theory of the age,--a principle of statecraft throughout
+all of Europe as well as in England. Naturally it emigrated to New
+England to be a foundation of civil government and a fortress for that
+type of nonconformity which the colonists chose to transplant and make
+predominant. The type, as we have seen, was Congregationalism, and the
+Congregational church became the established church in each of the
+four colonies.
+
+This theory of Church and State was the cause at bottom of all the
+early theological dissensions which disturbed the peace and threatened
+the colony of Massachusetts. Moreover, their settlement offers the
+most striking contrast between the fundamental theory of
+Congregationalism and the theory of a union between Church and
+State. With the power of supervision over the Church lodged in the
+General Court, whatever the theory of Congregationalism as to the
+independence of the individual churches, in practice the civil
+authority disciplined them and their members, and early invaded
+ecclesiastical territory. In Salem, Endicott took it upon himself to
+expel Ralph Smith for holding extreme Separatist principles, and
+shipped the Browns back to England for persisting in the use of the
+Book of Common Prayer. He considered both parties equally dangerous to
+the welfare of the community, because, according to the new standard
+of church-life, both were censurable. Endicott held that to tolerate
+any measure of diversity in religious practices was to cultivate the
+ferment of civil disorder. Considering the bitterness, narrowness,
+intensity, and also the irritating conviction that every one else was
+heretical and anti-Christian, with which men of that age clung to
+their religious differences, Endicott had some reason for holding this
+opinion. The Boston authorities believed in no less drastic measures
+to maintain the civil peace and consequent good name of the
+colony. John Davenport of New Haven voiced the Massachusetts sentiment
+as well as his own in: "Civil government is for the common welfare of
+all, as well in the Church as without; which will then be most
+certainly effected, when Public Trust and Power of these matters is
+committed to such men as are most approved according to God; and these
+are Church-members."[24] Consequently, the Massachusetts law of 1631
+[25] forbade any but church members to become freemen of the colony,
+and to these only was intrusted any share in its government. A similar
+law was later formulated for the New Haven colony. John Cotton echoed
+the further sentiment of a New England community when, writing of the
+relations between the churches and the magistrates, he defined the
+church as "subject to the Magistrate in the matters concerning the
+civil peace, of which there are four sorts:" (1) with reference to
+men's goods, lives, liberty, and lands; (2) with establishment of
+religion in doctrine, worship, and government according to the Word of
+God, as also the reformation of corruption in any of these; (3) with
+certain public spiritual administrations which may help forward the
+public good, as fasts and synods; (4) and finally the church must be
+subject to the magistrates in patient suffering of unjust persecution,
+since for her to take up the sword in her own defense would only
+increase the disturbance of the public peace. [26] As a result of such
+public sentiment, churches were not to be organized without the
+approval of the magistrates, nor were any "persons being members of
+any church ... gathered without the approbation of the magistrates and
+the greater part of said churches" (churches of the colony) to be
+admitted to the freedom of the commonwealth. [27] This law, or its
+equivalent, with reference to church organization was found upon the
+statute books of all four colonies.
+
+In a pioneer community and a primitive commonwealth, developing slowly
+in accord with the new democratic principles underlying both its
+church and secular life, the "maintenance of the peace and welfare of
+the churches,"[28] which was intrusted to the care of the General
+Court, was frequently equivalent to maintaining the civil peace and
+prosperity of the colony. Endicott's deportation of the Browns and the
+report of the exclusiveness and exacting tests of membership in the
+colonial churches had early led the members of the Massachusetts Bay
+Company, resident in England, to fear that the emigrants had departed
+from their original intent and purpose.  And the colonists began to
+feel that they were in danger of falling under the displeasure of
+their king and of their Puritan friends at home. Consequently, there
+entered into the settling of all later religious differences in the
+colony the determination to avoid appeals to the home country, and
+also to avoid any report of disturbance or dissatisfaction that might
+be prejudicial to her independence, general policy, or commercial
+prosperity.  The recognition of such danger made many persons
+satisfied to submit to government by an exclusive class, comprising in
+Massachusetts one tenth of the people and in the New Haven colony one
+ninth. These alone had any voice in making the laws. In submitting to
+their dictation, the large majority of the people had to submit to a
+"government that left no incident, circumstance, or experience of the
+life of an individual, personal, domestic, social, or civil, still
+less anything that concerned religion, free from the direct or
+indirect interposition of public authority." [29] Such inquisitorial
+supervision was due to the close alliance of Church and State within
+the narrow limits of a theocracy. In more liberal Plymouth and
+Connecticut, the "watch and ward" over one's fellows, which the early
+colonial church insisted upon, was extended only over church members,
+and even over them was less rigorous, less intrusive.  Something of
+the development of the great authority of the State over the churches
+and of its attitude and theirs towards synods may be gleaned from the
+earliest pages of Massachusetts ecclesiastical history. The
+starting-point of precedent for the elders of the church to be
+regarded as advisors only and the General Court as authoritative seems
+to have been in a matter of taxation, when, in February, 1632, the
+General Court assessed the church in Watertown. The elders advised
+resistance; the Court compelled payment.  In the following July, the
+Boston church inquired of the churches of Plymouth, Salem, Dorchester,
+and Watertown, whether a ruling elder could at the same time hold
+office as a civil magistrate.  A correspondence ensued and the answer
+returned was that he could not. Thereupon, Mr. Nowell resigned his
+eldership in the Boston church. [30] Winthrop mentions eight[d]
+important occasions between 1632 and 1635 when the elders, which term
+included pastors, teachers, and ruling elders, were summoned by the
+General Court of Massachusetts to give advice upon temporal
+affairs. In March of 1635-36 the Court "entreated them (the elders)
+together with the brethren of every church within the jurisdiction, to
+consult and advise of one uniforme order of discipline in the churches
+agreable to Scriptures, and then to consider how far the magistrates
+are bound to interpose for the preservation of that uniformity and
+peace of the churches." [31] The desire of the Court grew in part out
+of the influx of new colonists, who did not like the strict church
+discipline, and in part out of the tangle of Church and State during
+the Roger Williams controversy.  The Court had disciplined Williams as
+one, who, having no rights in the corporation, had no ground for
+complaint at the hostile reception of his teachings. These the
+authorities regarded as harmful to their government and dangerous to
+religion.  His too warm adherents in the Salem church were, however,
+rightful members of the community, and they had been punished for
+upholding one whom the General Court, advised by the elders of the
+churches, had seen fit to censure.  Punished thus, ostensibly, for
+contempt of the magistrates by the refusal to them of the land they
+claimed as theirs on Marblehead Neck, and feeling that the
+independence of their church life and their rightful choice in the
+selection of their pastor had really been infringed, the Salem church
+sent letters to the elders of all the other churches of the Bay,
+asking that the magistrates and deputies be admonished for their
+decision as a "heinous sin." The Court came out victorious, by
+refusing at its next general session to seat the Salem deputies "until
+they should give satisfaction by letter" for holding dangerous
+opinions and for writing "letters of defamation," and by proceeding to
+banish Roger Williams. Before the session of the Court, the elders of
+the Massachusetts churches, jointly and individually, labored with the
+Salem people and brought the majority to a conviction of their error
+in supporting Roger Williams. [e]
+
+The platform of church discipline which the Court advised in 1635-36
+was not forthcoming, and the matter was allowed to rest.[f] In 1637,
+with the consent of the General Court, a synod of elders and lay
+delegates from all the New England churches was called to harmonize
+the discordant factions created by the heated Antinomian
+controversy. During the synod, the magistrates were present all the
+time as hearers, and even as speakers, but not as members. The
+dangerous schism was ended more by the Court's banishment of
+Wheelwright and Mrs. Hutchinson, together with their more prominent
+followers, than by the work of the synod. However, Governor Winthrop
+was so delighted with the conferences of the synod that, in his
+enthusiasm, he suggested that it would be fit "to have the like
+meeting once a year, or at least the next year, to settle what yet
+remained to be agreed, or if but to nourish love."[32] But his
+suggestion was voted down, for the Synod of 1637 was considered by
+some to be "a perilous deflection from the theory of
+Congregationalism."[33] Even the fortnightly meeting of ministers who
+resided near each other, and which it had become a custom to call for
+friendly conference, was looked at askance by those[g] who feared in
+it the germ of some authoritative body that should come to exercise
+control over the individual churches. When this custom was endorsed
+and permitted in the "Body of Liberties," in 1641, the assurance that
+these meetings "were only by way of Brotherly conference and
+consultation" was felt to be necessary to appease the
+opposition. When, two and four years later, Anabaptist converts and a
+flood of Presbyterian literature called for measures of repression,
+and the Court summoned councils to consult upon a course of action, it
+was most careful in each case to reassert the doctrine of the complete
+independence of the individual church.  Synods, from the purely
+Congregational standpoint, were to be called only upon the initiative
+of the churches, and were authoritative bodies, composed of both
+ministerial and lay delegates from such churches, and their duty was
+to confer and advise upon matters of general interest or upon special
+problems. In cases where their decisions were unheeded, they could
+enforce their displeasure at the contumacious church only by cutting
+it off from fellowship. Consequently, though there was some opposition
+to the Court's calling of synods and a resultant general restlessness,
+there was none when the Court confined its supervision and commands to
+individually schismatic churches or to unruly members. The time had
+not yet come for the recognition of what this double system of church
+government--government by its members, supervision by the Court
+--foreboded. The colonists did not see that within it was the embryo
+of an authoritative body exercising some of the powers of the
+Presbyterian General Assembly. The supervising body might be composed
+of laymen acting in their capacity as members of the General Court,
+but the powers they exercised were none the less akin to the very ones
+that Congregationalism had declared to be heretical and
+anti-Christian. Moreover, the tendency was toward an increase of this
+authoritative power every time it was exercised and each time that the
+colonists submitted to its dictation.
+
+Of the two colonies founded after Massachusetts, Connecticut and New
+Haven, the latter preserved the complete independence of her original
+church until the admission of the shore towns[h] to her jurisdiction,
+when she instituted that friendly oversight of the churches which had
+begun to prevail elsewhere. Thereafter her General Court kept a
+rigorous oversight over the purity of her churches and the conduct of
+their members. The General Court of Connecticut early compelled a
+recognition of its authority[i] over the religious life of the people
+and its right of special legislation.[j] For example, in 1643, the
+Court demanded of the Wethersfield church a list of the grievances
+which disturbed it. In the next year, when Matthew Allyn petitioned
+for an order to the Hartford church, commanding the reconsideration of
+its sentence of excommunication against him, the Court "adjudged his
+plea an accusation upon the church" which he was bound to prove.
+These incidents from early colonial history in some measure illustrate
+the practical working of the theory of Church and State. The
+conviction that the State should support one form of religion, and
+only one, was ever present to the colonial mind. If confirmation of
+its worth were needed, one had only to glance at the turmoil of the
+Rhode Island colony experimenting with religious liberty and a
+complete separation of Church and State. Like all pioneers and
+reformers, she had gathered elements hard to control, and would-be
+citizens neither peaceable nor reasonable in their interpretation of
+the new range of freedom.  Watching Rhode Island, the Congregational
+men of New England hugged more tightly the conviction that their
+method was best, and that any variation from it would work havoc. It
+was this theory and this conviction, ever present in their minds, that
+underlay all ecclesiastical laws, all special legislation with
+reference to churches, to their members, or to public fasts and
+thanksgivings. This deep-rooted conviction created hatred toward and
+fear of all schismatical doctrines, enmity toward all dissenting
+sects, and opposition to any tolerance of them.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] "The one prime, all essential, and sufficient qualiiy of a
+theocracy ... adopted as the form of an earthly government, was that
+the civil power should be guided in its exercise by religion and
+religious ordinances."--G. E. Ellis, _Puritan Age in Massachusetts,_
+p. 188.
+
+[b] "Noe man shal be admitted to the freedome of this body politicke,
+but such as are members of some of the churches within the lymitts of
+the same."--Mass. Col. Rec. i, 87, under date of May 28, 1631.
+
+"Church members onely shall be free burgesses and they onely shall
+chuse magistrates and officers among themselves to haue the power of
+transacting in all publique and ciuill affayres of this
+plantatio."--New Haven Col. Rec. i, 15; also ii, 115, 116.
+
+The governments of Massachusetts and New Haven "never absolutely
+merged church and state." The franchise depended on church-membership,
+but the voter, exercising his right in directing the affairs of the
+colony, was speaking, "not as the church but as the civil Court of
+Legislation and adjudication."--W. Walker, _History of the
+Congregational Churches_, p. 123.
+
+Yet it was due to this merging and this dependence that on October 25,
+1639, there were only sixteen free burgesses or voters out of one
+hundred and forty-four planters in the New Haven Colony.--See
+N. H. Col. Rec. i, 20.
+
+"Theoretically Church and State (in Connecticut) were separated:
+practically they were so interwoven that separation would have meant
+the severance of soul and body."--C. M.  Andrews, _Three River Towns
+of Conn_. p. 22.
+
+[c] To John Cotton's "democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did
+ordain, as a fit government for church or commonwealth," and to
+Gov. Winthrop's objections to committing matters to the judgment of
+the body of the people because "safety lies in the councils of the
+best part which is always the least, and of the best part, the wiser
+is always the lesser," Hooker replied that "in all matters which
+concern the common good, a general council, chosen by all, to transact
+the business which concerns all, I conceive under favor, most suitable
+to rule and most safe for the relief of the whole."--Hutchinson,
+_Hist. of Mass._ i, App. iii.
+
+[d] (1) To adjust a difference between Governor Winthrop and Deputy
+Dudley in 1632; (2) about building a fort at Nantasket, February,
+1632; (3) in regard to the settlement of the Rev. John Cotton,
+September, 1633; (4) in consultation concerning Roger Williams's
+denial of the patent, January, 1634; (5) concerning rights of trade at
+Kennebec, July, 1634; (6) in regard to the fort on Castle Island,
+August, 1634; (7) concerning the rumor in 1635 of the coming of a
+Governor-General; and (8) in the case of Mr. Nowell.--_Winthrop_,
+i, pp. 89, 99, 112, 122, 136-137, 159-181.
+
+[e] Roger Williams was the real author of the letters which the Salem
+church was required to disclaim.
+
+[f] Upon a further suggestion from the General Court, John Cotton
+prepared a catechism entitled, _Milk for Babes_.
+
+[g] Governor Winthrop replied to Dr. Skelton's objections that "no
+church or person could have authority over another church."--See
+H. M. Dexter, _Ecclesiastical Councils of New England_, p. 31;
+_Winthrop_, i. p. 139.
+
+[h] Guilford, Branford, Milford, Stamford, on the mainland, and
+Southold, on Long Island.
+
+[i] The General Court was head of the churches. "It was more than
+Pope, or Pope and College of Cardinals, for it exercised all
+authority, civil and ecclesiastical. In matters of discipline, faith,
+and practice there was no appeal from its decisions. Except the right
+to be protected in their orthodoxy the churches had no privileges
+which the Court did not confer, or could not take away."--Bronson's
+_Early Gov't. in Conn._ p.  347, in
+_N. H. Hist. Soc. Papers_, vol. iii.
+
+[j] On August 18, 1658, the court refused, upon complaint of the
+Wethersfield church, to remove Mr. Russell. In March, 1661, after duly
+considering the matter, the court allowed Mr. Stow to sever his
+connection with the church of Middletown.  It concerned itself with
+the strife in the Windsor church over an assistant pastor from 1667 to
+1680. It allowed the settlement of Woodbury in 1672 because of
+dissatisfaction with the Stratford church. It permitted Stratford to
+divide in 1669.  These are but a few instances both of the authority
+of the General Court over individual churches and of that discord
+which, finding its strongest expression in the troubles of the
+Hartford church, not only rent the churches of Connecticut from 1650
+to 1670, but "insinuated itself into all the affairs of the society,
+towns, and the whole community." Another illustration of the court's
+oversight of the purity of religion was its investigation in 1670 into
+the "soundness of the minister at Rye." For these and hosts of similar
+examples see index _Conn. Col. Rec._ vols. i, ii, iii, and iv.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF-WAY COVENANT
+
+
+    It is always right that a man should be able to render a reason
+    for the faith that is within him.--Sydney Smith.
+
+In each of the New England colonies under consideration, the settlers
+organized their church system and established its relation to the
+State, expecting that the strong arm of the temporal power would
+insure stability and harmony in both religious and civil life. As we
+know, they were speedily doomed to disappointment. As we have seen,
+they failed to estimate the influences of the new land, where freedom
+from the restraint of an older civilization bred new ideas and
+estimates of the liberty that should be accorded men. Within the first
+decade Massachusetts had great difficulty in impressing religious
+uniformity upon her rapidly increasing and heterogeneous
+population. She found coercion difficult, costly, dangerous to her
+peace, and to her reputation when the oppressed found favorable ears
+in England to listen to their woes. Ecclesiastical differences of less
+magnitude, contemporary in time and foreshadowing discontent and
+opposition to the established order of Church and State, were settled
+in more quiet ways.  John Davenport, after witnessing the Antinomian
+controversy, declined the pressing hospitality of Massachusetts, and
+led his New Haven company far enough afield to avoid theological
+entanglements or disputed points of church polity. Unimpeded, they
+would make their intended experiment in statecraft and build their
+strictly scriptural republic. Still earlier Thomas Hooker, Samuel
+Stone, and John Warham led the Connecticut colonists into the
+wilderness because they foresaw contention, strife, and evil days
+before them if they were to be forced to conform to the strict policy
+of Massachusetts.[a] They preferred, unhindered, to plant and water
+the young vine of a more democratic commonwealth. And even as
+Massachusetts met with large troubles of her own, so smaller ones
+beset these other colonies in their endeavor to preserve uniformity of
+religious faith and practice. Until 1656, outside of Massachusetts,
+sectarianism barely lifted its head. Religious contumacy was due to
+varying opinions as to what should be the rule of the churches and the
+privileges of their members.  As the churches held theoretically that
+each was a complete, independent, and self-governing unit, their
+practice and teaching concerning their powers and duties began to show
+considerable variation. Such variation was unsatisfactory, and so
+decidedly so that the leaders of opinion in the four colonies early
+began to feel the need of some common platform, some authoritative
+standard of church government, such as was agreed upon later in the
+Cambridge Platform of 1648 and in the Half-Way Covenant, a still later
+exposition or modification of certain points in the Platform.
+
+The need for the Platform arose, also, from two other causes: one
+purely colonial, and the other Anglo-colonial. The first was, since
+everybody had to attend public worship, the presence in the
+congregations of outsiders as distinct from church members. These
+outsiders demanded broader terms of admission to holy privileges and
+comforts. The second cause, Anglo-colonial in nature, arose from the
+inter-communion of colonial and English Puritan churches and from the
+strength of the politico-ecclesiastical parties in England. Whatever
+the outcome there, the consequences to colonial life of the rapidly
+approaching climax in England, when, as we now know, King was to give
+way to Commonwealth and Presbyterianism find itself subordinate to
+Independency, would be tremendous.
+
+In the first twenty years of colonial life, great changes had come
+over New England. Many men of honest and Christian character--"sober
+persons who professed themselves desirous of renewing their baptismal
+covenant, and submit unto church discipline, but who were unable to
+come up to that experimental account of their own regeneration which
+would sufficiently embolden their access to the other sacrament"
+(communion) [34]--felt that the early church regulations, possible
+only in small communities where each man knew his fellow, had been
+outgrown, and that their retention favored the growth of
+hypocrisy. The exacting oversight of the churches in their "watch and
+ward" over their members was unwelcome, and would not be submitted to
+by many strangers who were flocking into the colonies. The
+"experimental account" of religion demanded, as of old, a public
+declaration or confession of the manner in which conviction of
+sinfulness had come to each one; of the desire to put evil aside and
+to live in accordance with God's commands as expressed in Scripture
+and through the church to which the repentant one promised
+obedience. This public confession was a fundamental of
+Congregationalism. Other religious bodies have copied it; but at the
+birth of Congregationalism, and for centuries afterwards, the bulk of
+European churches, like the Protestant Episcopal Church to-day,
+regarded "Christian piety more as a habit of life, formed under the
+training of childhood, and less as a marked spiritual change in
+experience." [35]
+
+It followed that while many of the newcomers in the colonies were
+indifferent to religion, by far the larger number were not, and
+thought that, as they had been members of the English Established
+Church, they ought to be admitted into full membership in the churches
+of England's colonies. They felt, moreover, that the religious
+training of their children was being neglected because the New England
+churches ignored the child whose parents would not, or could not,
+submit to their terms of membership.  Still more strongly did these
+people feel neglected and dissatisfied when, as the years went by,
+more and more of them were emigrants who had been acceptable members
+of the Puritan churches in England. They continued to be refused
+religious privileges because New England Congregationalism doubted the
+scriptural validity of letters of dismissal from churches where the
+discipline and church order varied from its own. Within the membership
+of the New England churches themselves, there was great uncertainty
+concerning several church privileges, as, for instance, how far infant
+baptism carried with it participation in church sacraments, and
+whether adults, baptized in infancy, who had failed to unite with the
+church by signing the Covenant, could have their children baptized
+into the church. Considerations of church-membership and baptism, for
+which the Cambridge Synod of 1648 was summoned, were destined, because
+of political events in England, to be thrust aside and to wait another
+eight years for their solution in that conference which framed the
+Half-Way Covenant as supplementary to the Cambridge Platform of faith
+and discipline.
+
+What has been termed the Anglo-colonial cause for summoning the
+Cambridge Synod finds explanation in the frequent questions and
+demands which English Independency put to the New England churches
+concerning church usage and discipline, and in the intense interest
+with which New England waited the outcome of the constitutional
+struggle in England between King and Parliament.
+
+When the great controversy broke out in England between Presbyterians
+and Independents, the fortunes of Massachusetts (who felt every wave
+of the struggle) and of New England were in the balance. Presbyterians
+in England proclaimed the doctrine of church unity, and of coercion if
+necessary, to procure it; the Independents, the doctrine of
+toleration. Puritans, inclining to Presbyterianism, were disturbed
+over reports from the colonies, and letters of inquiry were sent and
+answers returned explaining that, while the internal polity of the New
+England churches was not far removed from Presbyterianism, they
+differed widely from the Presbyterian standard as to a national church
+and as to the power of synods over churches, and that they also held
+to a much larger liberty in the right of each church to appoint its
+officers and control its own internal affairs. At the opening of the
+Long Parliament (1640-1644), many emigrants had returned to England
+from the colonies, and, under the leadership of the influential Hugh
+Peters, had given such an impetus to English thought that the
+Independent party rose to political importance and made popular the
+"New England Way."[b] The success of the Independents brought relief
+to Massachusetts, yet it was tinctured with apprehension lest
+"toleration" should be imposed upon her. The signing of the "League
+and Covenant" with England in 1643 by Scotland, the oath of the
+Commons to support it, and the pledge "to bring the churches of God in
+the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in
+religion, confession of faith, form of church government and
+catechizing" (including punishment of malignants and opponents of
+reformation in Church and State), carried menace to the colonies and
+to Massachusetts in particular.  The supremacy of Scotch or English
+Nonconformity meant a severity toward any variation from its
+Presbyterianism as great as Laud had exercised.[c]
+
+In 1643 Parliament convened one hundred and fifty members[d] in the
+Westminster Assembly to plan the reform of the Church of
+England. Their business was to formulate a Confession which should
+dictate to all Englishmen what they should believe and how express it,
+and should also define a Church, which, preserving the inherent
+English idea of its relation to the State, should bear a close
+likeness to the Reformed churches of the Continent and yet approach as
+nearly as possible both to the then Church of Scotland and to the
+English Church of the time of Elizabeth. The work of this assembly,
+known as the Westminster Confession, demonstrated to the New England
+colonists the weakness of their church system and the need among them
+of religious unity.[e]
+
+Many among the colonists doubted the advisability of a church
+platform, considering it permissible as a declaration of faith, but of
+doubtful value if its articles were to be authoritative as a binding
+rule of faith and practice without "adding, altering, or omitting."
+Men of this mind waited for controversial writings,[f] to clear up
+misconception and misrepresentation in England, but they waited in
+vain. Moreover, the Puritan Board of Commissioners for Plantations of
+1643 threatened as close an oversight and as rigid control of colonial
+affairs from a Presbyterian Parliament as had been feared from the
+King. Furthermore, a Presbyterian cabal in Plymouth and Massachusetts,
+1644-1646, gathered to it the discontent of large numbers of
+unfranchised residents within the latter colony, and under threat of
+an appeal to Parliament boldly asked for the ballot and for church
+privileges. In view of these developments, nearly all the colonial
+churches, though with some hesitation, united in the Synod of
+Cambridge, which was originally called for the year 1646.
+
+In the calling of the synod Massachusetts took the lead. Several years
+before, in 1643, the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts,
+Connecticut, and New Haven had united in the New England Confederacy,
+or "Confederacy of the United Colonies," for mutual advantage in
+resisting the encroachments of the Dutch, French, and Indians, and for
+"preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the gospel." In
+the confederacy, Massachusetts and Connecticut soon became the
+leaders. Considering how much more strongly the former felt the
+pulsations of English political life, and how active were the
+Massachusetts divines as expositors of the "New England way of the
+churches," the Bay Colony naturally took the initiative in calling the
+Cambridge Synod. But mindful of the opposition to her previous
+autocratic summons, her General Court framed its call as a "desire"
+that ministerial, together with lay delegates, from all the churches
+of New England should meet at Cambridge. There, representing the
+churches, and in accordance with the earliest teachings of
+Congregationalism, they were to meet in synod "for sisterly advice and
+counsel." They were to formulate the practice of the churches in
+regard to baptism and adult privileges, and to do so "for the
+confirming of the weak among ourselves and the stopping of the mouths
+of our adversaries abroad." During the two years of unavoidable delay
+before the synod met in final session, these topics, which were
+expected to be foremost in the conference, were constantly in the
+public mind. Through this wide discussion, the long delay brought much
+good. It brought also misfortune in the death of Thomas Hooker in
+1647, and by it loss of one of the great lights and most liberal minds
+in the proposed conference.  Nearly all the colonial churches[g] were
+represented in the synod. When, during its session, news was received
+that Cromwell was supreme in England, its members turned from the
+discussion of baptism and church-membership to a consideration of what
+should be the constitution of the churches. The supremacy of Cromwell
+and of the Independents who filled his armies cleared the political
+background. All danger of enforced Presbyterianism was over. The
+strength of the Presbyterian malcontents, who had sought to bring
+Massachusetts and New England into disrepute in England, was
+broken. Since the colonists were free to order their religious life as
+they pleased, the Cambridge Synod turned aside from its purposed task
+to formulate a larger platform of faith and polity.
+
+When the Cambridge Synod adjourned, the orthodoxy of the New England
+churches could not be impugned. In all matters of faith "for the
+substance thereof" they accepted the Westminster Confession of Faith,
+but from its measures of government and discipline they differed.[h]
+This Cambridge Platform was more important as recognizing the
+independence of the churches and the authority of custom among them
+than as formulating a creed. It governed the New England churches for
+sixty years, or until Massachusetts and Connecticut Congregationalism
+came to the parting of the way, whence one was to develop its
+associated system of church government, and the other its consociated
+system as set forth in the Saybrook Platform, formulated at Saybrook,
+Connecticut, in 1708. Meanwhile, the Cambridge Platform[i] gave all
+the New England churches a standard by which to regulate their
+practice and to resist change.[j]
+
+A study of the Platform yields the following brief summary of its
+cardinal points:--
+
+(a) The Congregational church is not "National, Provincial or
+Classical,"[k] but is a church of a covenanted brotherhood, wherein
+each member makes public acknowledgment of spiritual regeneration and
+declares his purpose to submit himself to the ordinances of God and of
+his church.[l] A slight concession was made to the liberal church
+party and to the popular demand for broader terms of membership in the
+provision for those of "the weakest measure of faith," and in the
+substitution of a written account of their Christian experience by
+those who were ill or timid. This written "experimental account" was
+to be read to the church by one of the elders. In the words of the
+Platform, "Such charity and tenderness is to be used, as the weakest
+Christian if sincere, may not be excluded or discouraged. Severity of
+examination is to be avoided."[m]
+
+(b) The officers of the church are elders and deacons, the former
+including, as of old, pastors, teachers, and ruling elders. That the
+authority within the church had passed from the unrestrained democracy
+of the early Plymouth Separatists to a silent democracy before the
+command of a speaking aristocracy[n] is witnessed to by the Platform's
+declaration that "power of office" is proper to the elders, while
+"power of privilege"[o] belongs to the brethren. In other words, the
+brethren or membership have a "second" and "indirect power," according
+to which they are privileged to elect their elders. Thereafter those
+officers possess the "direct power," or authority, to govern the
+church as they see fit.[p] In the matter of admission, dismission,
+censure, excommunication, or re-admission of members, the brotherhood
+of the church may express their opinion by vote.[q] In cases of
+censure and excommunication, the Platform specifies that the offender
+could be made to suffer only through deprivation of his church rights
+and not through any loss of his civil ones.[r] In the discussion of
+this point, the more liberal policy of Connecticut and Plymouth
+prevailed.
+
+(c) In regard to pastors and teachers, the Platform affirms that they
+are such only by the right of election and remain such only so long as
+they preside over the church by which they were elected.[s]
+
+Their ordination after election, as well as that of the ruling elders
+and deacons, is to be by the laying on of hands of the elders of the
+church electing them. In default of elders, this ordination is to be
+by the hands of brethren whom because of their exemplary lives the
+church shall choose to perform the rite.[t]
+
+A new provision was also made, one leaning toward Presbyterianism,
+whereby elders of other churches could perform this ceremony, "when
+there were no elders and the church so desired."
+
+(d) Church maintenance, amounting to a church tax, was insisted upon
+not only from church-members but from all, since "all that are taught
+in the word, are to contribute unto him that teacheth." If necessary,
+because corrupt men creep into the congregations and church
+contributions cannot be collected, the magistrate is to see to it that
+the church does not suffer.[u]
+
+(e) The Platform defined the intercommunion of the churches[v] upon
+such broad lines as to admit of sympathetic fellowship even when
+slight differences existed in local customs. In so important a matter
+as when an offending elder was to be removed, consultation with other
+churches was commanded before action should be taken against him. The
+intercommunion of churches was defined as of various kinds: as for
+mutual welfare; for sisterly advice and consultation, in cases of
+public offense, where the offending church was unconscious of fault;
+for recommendation of members going from one church to another; for
+need, relief, or succor of unfortunate churches; and "by way of
+propagation," when over-populous churches were to be divided.
+
+(f) Concerning synods,[w] the Platform asserts that they are
+"necessary to the well-being of churches for the establishment of
+truth and peace therein;" that they are to consist of elders, or
+ministerial delegates, and also of lay delegates, or "messengers;"
+that their function is to determine controversies over questions of
+faith, to debate matters of general interest, to guide and to express
+judgment upon churches, "rent by discord or lying under open scandal."
+Synods could be called by the churches, and also by the magistrates
+through an order to the churches to send their elders and messengers,
+but they were not to be permanent bodies. On the contrary, unlike the
+synods of the Presbyterian system, they were to be disbanded when the
+work of the special session for which they were summoned was
+finished. Moreover, they were not "to exercise church censure in the
+way of discipline nor any other act of authority or jurisdiction;" yet
+their judgments were to be received, "so far as consonant to the word
+of God," since they were judged to be an ordinance of God appointed in
+his Word.
+
+(g) The Platform's section "Of the Civil Magistrate in matters
+Ecclesiastical"[x] maintains that magistrates cannot compel subjects
+to become church-members; that they ought not to meddle with the
+proper work of officers of the churches, but that they ought to see to
+it that godliness is upheld, and the decrees of the church obeyed. To
+accomplish these ends, they should exert all the civil authority
+intrusted to them, and their foremost duty was to put down blasphemy,
+idolatry, and heresy. In any question as to what constituted the last,
+the magistrates assisted by the elders were to decide and to determine
+the measure of the crime. They were to punish the heretic, not as one
+who errs in an intellectual judgment, but as a moral leper and for
+whose evil influence the community was responsible to God. The civil
+magistrates were also to punish all profaners of the Sabbath, all
+contemners of the ministry, all disturbers of public worship, and to
+proceed "against schismatic or obstinately corrupt churches."
+
+These seven points summarize the important work of the Cambridge Synod
+and the Platform wherein it embodied the church usage and fixed the
+ecclesiastical customs of New England.  Concerning its own work, the
+Synod remarked in conclusion that it "hopes that this will be a proof
+to the churches beyond the seas that the New England churches are free
+from heresies and from the character of schism," and that "in the
+doctrinal part of religion they have agreed entirely with the Reformed
+churches of England." [36]
+
+Let us in a few sentences review the whole story thus far of colonial
+Congregationalism.  With the exception of the churches of Plymouth and
+Watertown, the colonists had come to America without any definite
+religious organization.  True, they had in their minds the example of
+the Reformed churches on the Continent, and much of theory, and many
+convictions as to what ought to be the rule of churches. These
+theories and these convictions soon crystallized out. And the
+transatlantic crystallization was found to yield results, some of
+which were very similar to the modifications which time had wrought in
+England upon the rough and embryonic forms of Congregationalism as set
+forth by Robert Browne and Henry Barrowe. The characteristics of
+Congregationalism during its first quarter of a century upon New
+England soil were: the clearly defined independence or self-government
+of the local churches; the fellowship of the churches; the development
+of large and authoritative powers in the eldership; a more exact
+definition of the functions of synods, a definite limitation of their
+authority; and, finally, a recognition of the authority of the civil
+magistrates in religious affairs generally, and of their control in
+special cases arising within individual churches. In the growing power
+of the eldership, and in the provision of the Platform which permits
+ordination by the hands of elders of other churches, when a church had
+no elders and its members so desired, there is a trend toward the
+polity of the Presbyterian system. In the Platform's definition of the
+power of the magistrates over the religious life of the community,
+there is evident the colonists' conviction that, notwithstanding the
+vaunted independence of the churches, there ought to be some strong
+external authority to uphold them and their discipline; some power to
+fall back upon, greater than the censure of a single church or the
+combined strength and influence derived from advisory councils and
+unauthoritative synods. In Connecticut, this control by the civil
+power was to increase side by side with the tendency to rely upon
+advisory councils. From this twofold development during a period of
+sixty years, there arose the rigid autonomy of the later Saybrook
+system of church-government, wherein the civil authority surrendered
+to ecclesiastical courts its supreme control of the churches.
+
+Turning from the text of the Cambridge Platform to its application, we
+find among the earliest churches "rent by discord," schismatically
+corrupt, and to be disciplined according to its provisions, that of
+Hartford, Connecticut. From the earliest years of the Connecticut
+colony there had been within it a large party, constantly increasing,
+who, because they were unhappy and aggrieved at having themselves and
+their children shut out of the churches, had advocated admitting all
+of moral life to the communion table. The influence of Thomas Hooker
+kept the discontent within bounds until his death in 1647, the year
+before the Cambridge Synod met.  Thereafter, the conservative and
+liberal factions in many of the churches came quickly into open
+conflict. The Hartford church in particular became rent by dissension
+so great that neither the counsel of neighboring churches nor the
+commands of the General Court, legislating in the manner prescribed by
+the Cambridge instrument, could heal the schism. The trouble in the
+Hartford church arose because of a difference between Mr. Stone, the
+minister, and Elder Goodwin, who led the minority in their preference
+for a candidate to assist their pastor. Before the discovery of
+documents relating to the controversy, it was the custom of earlier
+historians to refer the dispute to political motives. But this church
+feud, and the discussion which it created throughout Connecticut, was
+purely religious, and had to do with matters of church privileges and
+eventually with rights of baptism.[y] The conflict originated through
+Mr. Stone's conception of his ministerial authority, which belonged
+rather to the period of his English training and which was concisely
+set forth by his oft-quoted definition of the rule of the elders as "a
+speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent democracy."[z] Mr. Stone
+and Elder Goodwin, the two chief officers in the Hartford church, each
+commanded an influential following. Personal and political
+affiliations added to the bitterness of party bias in the dispute
+which raged over the following three questions: (a) What were the
+rights of the minority in the election of a minister whom they were
+obliged to support? (b) What was the proper mode of ecclesiastical
+redress if these rights were ignored? (c) What were those baptismal
+rights and privileges which the Cambridge Platform had not definitely
+settled? The discussion of the first two questions precipitated into
+the foreground the still unanswered third. The turmoil in the Hartford
+church continued for years and was provocative of disturbances
+throughout the colony. Accordingly, in May, 1656, a petition was
+presented to the General Court by persons unknown, asking for broader
+baptismal privileges. Moved by the appeal, the Court appointed a
+committee, consisting of the governor, lieutenant-governor and two
+deputies, to consult with the elders of the churches and to draw up a
+series of questions embodying the grievances which were complained of
+throughout the colony as well as in the Hartford church. The Court
+further commanded that a copy of these questions be sent to the
+General Courts of the other three colonies, that they might consider
+them and advise Connecticut as to some method of putting an end to
+ecclesiastical disputes. As Connecticut was not the only colony having
+trouble of this sort, Massachusetts promptly ordered thirteen of her
+elders to meet at Boston during the following summer, and expressed a
+desire for the cooperation of the churches of the confederated
+colonies. Plymouth did not respond. New Haven rejected the proposed
+conference. She feared that it would result in too great changes in
+church discipline and, consequently, in her civil order,--changes
+which she believed would endanger the peace and purity of her
+churches;[aa] yet she sent an exposition, written by John Davenport,
+of the questions to be discussed. The Connecticut General Court, glad
+of Massachusetts' appreciative sympathy, appointed delegates, advising
+them to first take counsel together concerning the questions to be
+considered at Boston, and ordered them upon their return to report to
+the Court.
+
+The two questions which since the summoning of the Cambridge Synod had
+been under discussion throughout all New England were the right of
+non-covenanting parishioners in the choice of a minister, and the
+rights of children of baptized parents, that had not been admitted to
+full membership. These were the main topics of discussion in the
+Synod, or, more properly, Ministerial Convention, of 1657, which
+assembled in Boston, and which decreed the Half-Way Covenant. The
+Assembly decided in regard to baptism that persons, who had been
+baptized in their infancy, but who, upon arriving at maturity, had not
+publicly professed their conversion and united in full membership with
+the church, were not fit to receive the Lord's Supper:--
+
+    Yet in case they understood the Grounds of Religion and are not
+    scandalous, and solemnly own the Covenant in their own
+    persons,[ab] wherein they give themselves and their own children
+    unto the Lord, and desire baptism for them, we (with due reverence
+    to any Godly Learned that may dissent) see not sufficient cause to
+    deny Baptism unto their children. [37]
+
+Church care and oversight were to be extended to such children. But in
+order to go to communion, or to vote in church affairs, the old
+personal, public profession that for so many years had been
+indispensable to "signing the covenant" was retained [38] and must
+still be given.
+
+This Half-Way Covenant, as it came to be called, enlarged the terms of
+baptism and of admission to church privileges as they had been set
+forth in the Cambridge Platform. The new measure held within itself a
+contradiction to the foundation principle of Congregationalism. A dual
+membership was introduced by this attempt to harmonize the Old
+Testament promise, that God's covenant was with Abraham and his seed
+forever, with the Congregational type of church which the New
+Testament was believed to set forth. The former theory must imply some
+measure of true faith in the children of baptized parents, whether or
+no they had fulfilled their duty by making public profession and by
+uniting with the church. This duty was so much a matter of course with
+the first colonists, and so deeply ingrained was their loyalty to the
+faith and practice which one generation inherited from another, that
+it never occurred to them that future descendants of theirs might view
+differently these obligations of church membership.  But a difficulty
+arose later when the adult obligation implied by baptism in infancy
+ceased to be met, and when the question had to be settled of how far
+the parents' measure of faith carried grace with it. Did the
+inheritance of faith, of which baptism was the sign and seal, stop
+with the children, or with the grandchildren, or where?  To push the
+theory of inherited rights would result eventually in destroying the
+covenant church, bringing in its stead a national church of mixed
+membership; to press the original requirements of the covenant upon an
+unwilling people would lessen the membership of the churches, expose
+them to hostile attack, and to possible overthrow.  The colonists
+compromised upon this dual membership of the Half-Way Covenant. As its
+full significance did not become apparent for years, the work of the
+Synod of 1657 was generally acceptable to the ministry, but it met
+with opposition among the older laity. It was welcomed in Connecticut,
+where Henry Smith of Wethersfield as early as 1647, Samuel Stone of
+Hartford, after 1650, and John Warham of Windsor, had been earnest
+advocates of its enlarged terms.  As early as in his draft of the
+Cambridge Platform, Ralph Partridge of Duxbury in Plymouth colony had
+incorporated similar changes, and even then they had been seconded by
+Richard Mather.[ac] They had been omitted from the final draft of that
+Platform because of the opposition of a small but influential group
+led by the Rev.  Charles Chauncey. As early as 1650, it had become
+evident that public opinion was favorable to such a change, and that
+some church would soon begin to put in practice a theory which was
+held by so many leading divines. Though the Half-Way Covenant was
+strenuously opposed by the New Haven colony as a whole, Peter Prudden,
+its second ablest minister, had, as early as 1651, avowed his earnest
+support of such a measure.
+
+The Half-Way Covenant was presented to the Connecticut General Court,
+August, 1657.  Orders were at once given that copies of it should be
+distributed to all the churches with a request for a statement of any
+exceptions that any of them might have to it. None are known to have
+been returned. This was not due to any great unanimity of sentiment
+among the churches, for in Connecticut, as elsewhere, many of the
+older church-members were not so liberally inclined as their
+ministers, and were loth to follow their lead in this new
+departure. But when controversy broke out again in the Hartford
+church, in 1666, because of the baptism of some children, it was found
+that in the interval of eleven years those who favored the Half-Way
+covenant had increased in numbers in the church,[ad] and were rapidly
+gaining throughout the colony, especially in its northern half. By the
+absorption of the New Haven Colony, its southern boundary in 1664 had
+become the shore of Long Island Sound.
+
+Though public opinion favored the Half-Way Covenant, the practice of
+the churches was controlled by their exclusive membership, and, unless
+a majority thereof approved the new way, there was nothing to compel
+the church to broaden its baptismal privileges.[ae] This difference
+between public opinion and church practice, between the congregations
+and the coterie of church members, was provocative of clashing
+interests and of factional strife. For several years these factional
+differences were held in check and made subordinate to the urgent
+political situation which the restoration of the Stuarts had
+precipitated, and which demanded harmonious action among the
+colonists. A royal charter had to be obtained, and when obtained, it
+gave Connecticut dominion over the New Haven colony.  The lower colony
+had to be reconciled to its loss of independence, in so much as the
+governing party, with its influential following of conservatives,
+objected to the consolidation. The liberals, a much larger party
+numerically, preferred to come under the authority of Connecticut and
+to enjoy her less restrictive church policy and her broader political
+life. Matters were finally adjusted, and delegates from the old New
+Haven colony first took their seats as members of the General Court of
+Connecticut at the spring session of 1665. Thereafter, in Connecticut
+history, especially its religious history, the strain of liberalism
+most often follows the old lines of the Connecticut colony, while that
+of conservatism is more often met with as reflecting the opinions of
+those within the former boundaries of that of New Haven.
+
+It was in the year following the union of the two colonies that the
+quarrel in the Hartford church broke out afresh. The fall preceding
+the consolidation of the colonies, an appeal was made to the
+Connecticut General Court which helped to swell the dissatisfaction in
+the Hartford church and to bring it to the bursting point.  In
+October, 1664, William Pitkin, by birth a member of the English
+Established Church[af] and a man much esteemed in the colony, as
+shown, politically, by his office of attorney,[39] and socially by his
+marriage with Elder Goodwin's daughter, petitioned the General Court
+in behalf of himself and six associates that it--
+
+    would take into serious consideration our present state in this
+    respect that wee are thus as sheep scattered haveing no shepheard,
+    and compare it with what wee conceive you can not but know both
+    God and our King would have it different from what it now is.  And
+    take some speedy and effectual course of redress herein, And put
+    us in full and free capacity of injoying those forementioned
+    Advantages which to us as members of Christ's visible Church doe
+    of right belong.  By establishing some wholesome Law in this
+    Corporation by vertue whereof wee may both clame and receive of
+    such officers as are, or shall be by Law set over us in the Church
+    or churches where wee have our abode or residence those
+    forementioned privileges and advantages.
+
+    Further wee humbly request that for the future no Law in this
+    corporation may be of any force to make us pay or contribute to
+    the maintenance of any Minister or officer in the Church that will
+    neglect or refuse to baptize our Children, and to take charge of
+    us as of such members of the Church as are under his or their
+    charge and care--
+
+    _Signed_--
+    Admitted freeman
+      Oct. 9th, 1662,  Hartford,  Wm. Pitkin.
+
+    Admitted freeman
+      May 21, 1657,    Windsor,   Michael Humphrey.
+
+    Admitted freeman
+      May 18, 1654,    Hartford,  John Stedman.
+                       Windsor,   James Eno.
+
+    Admitted freeman
+      May 20, 1658,       --      Robart Reeve.
+                       Windsor,   John Morse.
+
+    Admitted freeman
+      May 20, 1658,    Windsor,   Jonas Westover. [40]
+
+Eno and Humphrey had been complained of because their insistence upon
+what they considered their rights had caused disturbance in the
+Windsor church. Now, with the other petitioners, they based their
+appeal in part upon the King's Letter to the Bay Colony of June 26th,
+1662, wherein Charles commanded that "all persons of good and honest
+lives and conversation be admitted to the sacrament of the Lord's
+supper, according to the said book of common prayer, and their
+children to baptism."
+
+This petition of Pitkin and his associates was the first notable
+expression of dissatisfaction with the Congregationalism of
+Connecticut.  Several Episcopal writers have quoted it as the first
+appeal of Churchmen in Connecticut. In itself, it forbids such
+construction. The petitioners had come from England and from the
+church of the Commonwealth. They were asking either for toleration in
+the spirit of the Half-Way Covenant or for some special legislation in
+their behalf. Further, they were demanding religious care and baptism
+for their children from a clergy who, from the point of view of any
+strict Episcopalian, had no right to officiate; and, again, it was
+nearly ten years before the first Church-of-England men found their
+way to Stratford.[41]
+
+The Court made reply to Pitkin's petition by sending to all the
+churches a request that they consider--
+
+    whither it be not their duty to entertaine all such persons, who
+    are of honest and godly conuersation, hauing a competency of
+    knowledge in the principles of religion, and shall desire to joyne
+    with them in church fellowship, by an explicitt couenant, and that
+    they haue their children baptized, and that all the children of
+    the church be accepted and acco'td reall members of the church and
+    that the church exercise a due Christian care and watch ouer them;
+    and that when they are grown up, being examined by the officer in
+    the presence of the church, it appeares in the judgment of
+    charity, they are duly qualified to participate in the great
+    ordinance of the Lord's Supper, by their being able to examine and
+    discerne the Lord's body, such persons be admitted to full
+    comunion.
+
+    The Court desires y't the seuerall officers of y'e respectiue
+    churches, would be pleased to consider whither it be the duty of
+    the Court to order churches to practice according to the premises,
+    if they doe not practice without such an order.[42]
+
+The issue was now fairly before the churches of the colony. The
+delegates of the people had expressed the opinion of the majority. The
+Court had invited the expression of any dissent that might exist, yet,
+despite the invitation, it had issued almost an order to the churches
+to practice the Half-Way Covenant, and with large interpretation,
+applying it, not only to the baptism of children who had been born of
+parents baptized in the colonial church, but also to those whose
+parents had been baptized in the English communion, at least during
+the Commonwealth.[ag] Pitkin at once proceeded in behalf of himself
+and several of his companions to apply for "communion with the church
+of Hartford in all the ordinances of Christ." [43] This the church
+refused, and wrought its factions up to white heat over the baptism of
+some child or children of non-communicants.  The storm broke. Other
+churches felt its effects. Windsor church was rent by faction,
+Stratford was in turmoil over the Half-Way Covenant, and other
+churches were divided.
+
+Some means had to be found to put an end to the increasing
+disorder. Accordingly the Court in October, 1666, commanded the
+presence of all the preaching elders and ministers within the colony
+at a synod to find "some way or means to bring those ecclesiastical
+matters that are in difference in the severall Plantations to an
+issue." The Court felt obliged to change the name of the appointed
+meeting from "synod" to "assembly" to avoid the jealousy of the
+churches.  They were afraid that the civil power would overstep its
+authority, and by calling a synod, composed of elders only, establish
+a precedent for the exclusion of lay delegates from such bodies.
+Before this "assembly" could meet, it was shorn of influence through
+the politics of the conservative Hartford faction, who succeeded in
+passing a bill at the session of the Commissioners of the United
+Colonies, which read:--
+
+    That in matters of common concern of faith or order necessitating
+    a Synod, it should be a Synod composed of messengers from all the
+    colonies. [44]
+
+Accordingly, Connecticut's next step was to invite Massachusetts to
+join in a synod to debate seventeen questions of which several had
+been submitted to the Synod of 1657, and had remained
+unanswered. Among them were the questions of the right to vote in the
+choice of minister; of minority rights; and where to appeal in cases
+of censure believed to be unmerited.[ah]
+
+Massachusetts courteously replied that the questions would be
+considered if submitted in writing; but she was at heart so
+indifferent that negotiations for a colonial synod lapsed, and
+Connecticut was left to adjust the differences in her
+churches. Consequently, in May, 1668, the Court,--
+
+    for promoting and establishing peace in the churches and
+    plantations because of various apprehensions in matters of
+    discipline respecting membership and baptism,--
+
+appointed a committee of influential men in the colony to search out
+the rules for discipline and see how far persons of "various
+apprehensions" could walk together in church fellowship. This
+committee reported at the October session, and the Court, after
+accepting their decision, formally declared the Congregational church
+established and its older customs approved, asserting that--
+
+    Whereas the Congregationall churches in these partes for the
+    generall of their profession and practice have hitherto been
+    approued, we can doe no less than still approue and countenance
+    the same to be without disturbance until a better light in an
+    orderly way doth appeare; but yet foreasmuch as sundry persons of
+    worth for prudence and piety amongst us are otherwise perswaded
+    (whose welfare and peaceable satisfaction we desire to
+    accommodate) This Court doth declare that all such persons being
+    also approued to lawe as orthodox and sound in the fundamentals of
+    Christian religion may haue allowance of their perswasion and
+    profession in church wayes or assemblies without disturbance.
+
+The liberal church party had won the privileges for which they had
+contended, but the conservatives were not beaten, for it was upon
+their conception of church government that the Court set its seal of
+approval. The Court had been tolerant, and the churches must be also.
+Upon such terms, the old order was to continue "until a better light
+should appear." The tolerance toward changing conditions, thus
+expressed, was further emphasized by the Court's command to the
+churches to accept into full membership certain worthy people who
+could not bring themselves to agree fully with all the old order had
+demanded. The second part of the enactment just quoted was, strictly
+speaking, Connecticut's first toleration act; yet it must be realized
+that now, as later, the degree of toleration admitted no release from
+the support of an unacceptable ministry or from fines for neglect of
+its ministrations. Tolerance was here extended not to dissenters, but
+only to varying shades of opinions within a common faith and fold.
+
+In the spirit of such legislation, the Court advised the Hartford
+church to "walk apart." The advice was accepted, the church divided,
+and the members who went out reorganized as the Second Church of
+Hartford. Other discordant churches quickly followed this example. The
+Second Church of Hartford immediately put forth a declaration,
+asserting that its Congregationalism was that of the old original New
+England type.  The force of public opinion was so great, however, that
+despite its declaration, the Second Church began at once to accept the
+Half-Way Covenant. "The only result of their profession was to give a
+momentary name to the struggle as between Congregationalist and
+Presbyterian." [45] It was no effective opposition to the onward
+development in Connecticut of the new order. When the churches found
+that neither the old nor the new way was to be insisted upon, the
+violence of faction ceased. The dual membership was accepted. For a
+while, its line of cleavage away from the old system, with its local
+church "as a covenanted brotherhood of souls renewed by the experience
+of God's grace," was not realized, any more than that the new system
+was merging the older type of church "into the parish where all
+persons of good moral character, living within the parochial bounds,
+were to have, as in England and Scotland, the privilege of baptism for
+their households and of access to the Lord's table."[46] Another move
+in this direction was taken when the splitting off of churches, and
+the forming of more than one within the original parish bounds,
+necessitated a further departure from the principles of
+Congregationalism, and when the sequestration of lands for the benefit
+of clergy became a feature of the new order.[47] In this formation of
+new churches, the oldest parish was always the First Society.[ai]
+Those formed later did not destroy it or affect its antecedent
+agreements.[48] Only sixty-six years had passed (1603-1669) since the
+publication of the "Points of Difference" between the Separatists, the
+London-Amsterdam exiles, and the Church of England, wherein insistence
+had been laid upon the principles of a covenanted church, of its
+voluntary support, and of the unrighteousness of churches possessing
+either lands or revenue.  The pendulum had swung from the broad
+democracy and large liberty of Brownism through Barrowism, past the
+Cambridge Platform (almost the centre of its arc), and on through the
+Half-Way Covenant to the beginning of a parish system. It had still
+farther to swing before it reached the end of the arc, marked by the
+Saybrook Platform, and before it began its slower return movement, to
+rest at last in the Congregationalism of the past seventy years.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] Among the causes assigned for the removal of the Connecticut
+colonists were the discontent at Watertown over the high-handed
+silencing by the Boston authorities of Pastor Phillips and Teacher
+Brown for daring to assert that the "churches of Rome were true
+churches;" the early attempt of the authorities to impose a general
+tax; the continued opposition to Ludlow; their desire to oppose the
+Dutch seizure of the fertile valley of the Connecticut; their want of
+space in the Bay Colony; and the "strong bent of their spirits to
+remove thither," i.e. to Connecticut.
+
+[b] The _New England Way_ discarded the liturgy; refused to
+accept the sacrament or join in prayer after such an "anti-Christian
+form;" limited communion to church members approved by New England
+standards, or coming with credentials from churches similarly
+approved; limited the ministerial office, outside the pastor's own
+church, to prayer and conference, denying all authority; and assumed
+as the right of each church the power of elections, admissions,
+dismissals, censures, and excommunications. The result, in that day of
+intense championship of religious polity and custom, was to create
+disturbance and discord among the English Independent churches. The
+correspondence between the divines of New England and old England was
+in part to avoid the "breaking up of churches."
+
+[c] J. R. Green, _Short Hist. of the English People_,
+534-538. The great popular signing of the Covenant in Scotland was in
+1638.
+
+[d] The original intention, in 1642, in regard to the composition of
+the Westminster Assembly was to have noted divines from abroad. It was
+proposed to invite Rev. John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, and John Davenport
+from New England.  Rev. Thomas Hooker thought the subject was not one
+of sufficient ecclesiastical importance for so long and difficult a
+journey, while the Rev. John Davenport could not be spared because of
+the absence of other church officers from New Haven.--H. M. Dexter,
+_Congr. as seen_, etc., p. 653.
+
+Congregationalists or Independents in the sittings of the Assembly
+pleaded for liberty of conscience to all sects, "provided that they
+did not trouble the public peace." (Later, Congregationalists
+differentiated themselves from the Independents by adding to the
+principle of the independence of the local church the principle of the
+local sisterhood of the churches.) In the Assembly, averaging sixty or
+eighty members, Congregationalism was represented by but five
+influential divines and a few of lesser importance. There were also
+among the members some thirty laymen. The Assembly held eleven hundred
+and sixty-three sittings, continuing for a period of five years and
+six months. During these years the Civil War was fought; the King
+executed; the Commonwealth established with its modified state-church,
+Presbyterian in character. Intolerance was held in check by the power
+of Cromwell and of the army, for the Independents had made early and
+successful efforts to win the soldiery to their standard.--Philip
+Schaff, _Creeds of Christendom_, 727-820.
+
+[e] W. Walker, _Creeds and Platforms_, p. 136, note 2.
+
+
+[f] The _New England Way_ defended its changes from English
+custom under three heads: (1) That things, inexpedient but not utterly
+unlawful in England, became under changed conditions sinful in New
+England. (2) Things tolerated in England, because unremovable, were
+shameful in the new land where they were removable. (3) Many things,
+upon mature deliberation and tried by Scripture, were found to be
+sinful.  But: "We profess unfeignedly we separate from the
+corruptions, which we conceive to be left in your Churches, and from
+such Ordinances administered therein as we feare are not of God but of
+men; and for yourselves, we are so farre from separating as visible
+Christians as that you are under God in our hearts (if the Lord would
+suffer it) to live and die together; and we look at sundrie of you as
+men of that eminent growth in Christianitie, that if there be any
+visible Christians under heaven, amongst you are the men, which for
+these many years have been written in your forehead ('Holiness to the
+Lord'): and this is not to the disparagement of ourselves or our
+practice, for we believe that the Church moves on from age to age, its
+defects giving way to increasing purity from reformation to
+reformation."--J. Davenport, _The Epistle Returned, or the Answer to
+the Letter of Many Ministers_.
+
+A number of treatises upon church government and usage were printed in
+the memorable year 1643, several of which had previously circulated in
+manuscript. In 1637 was received the _Letter of Many Ministers in
+Old England, requesting the Judgment of their Reverend Brethren in New
+England and concerning Nine Positions_. It was answered by John
+Davenport in 1639. _A Reply and Answer_ was also a part of this
+correspondence, which was first published in 1643, as was also Richard
+Mather's _Church Government and Church Covenant Discussed_, the
+latter being a reply to _Two and Thirty Questions_ sent from
+England. By these, together with J.  Cotton's _Keyes_ and other
+writings, and by Thomas Hooker's great work _Survey of the Summe of
+Church Discipline_ (approved by the Synod of 1643), every aspect of
+church polity and usage was covered.
+
+[g] Hingham church preferred the Presbyterian way. Concord was absent,
+lacking a fit representative. Boston and Salem at first refused to
+attend, questioning the General Court's right to summon a synod and
+fearing lest such a summons should involve the obedience of all the
+represented churches to the decisions of the conference. The
+modification of the summons to the "desire" of the court, and the
+entreaty of their leaders, finally overcame the opposition in these
+churches. In fact, delegates to the Court, representing at least
+thirty or forty churches, had hesitated to accept the original summons
+of the Court when reported as a bill for calling the synod.  Although
+the Court "made no question of their lawful power by the word of God
+to assemble the churches, or their messengers upon occasion of
+counsell, or anything which may concern the practice of the churches,"
+it decided to modify the phrasing of the order.--H. M. Dexter,
+_Congr. as seen_, p. 436. _Magnalia_, ii,
+209. _Mass. Col. Rec._ ii, 154-156, also iii, 70-73.
+
+[h] "This Synod having perused with much gladness of heart the
+confession of faith published by the late reverend assembly in
+England, do judge it to be very holy, orthodox and judicious, in all
+matters of faith, and do hereby freely and fully consent thereto for
+the substance thereof. Only in those things which have respect to
+church-government and discipline, we refer ourselves to the Platform
+of Church-discipline, agreed upon by this present assembly."--Preface
+to the Cambridge Platform, quoted in W. Walker, _Creeds and
+Platforms_, p. 195.
+
+[i] In many parts the wording of the Platform is almost identical with
+passages from the foremost ecclesiastical treatises of the period,
+and, naturally, since John Cotton, Richard Mather, and Ralph Partridge
+were each requested to draft a "Scriptural Model of Church
+Government." The Platform conformed most closely to that of Richard
+Mather. The draft by Ralph Partridge of Plymouth still
+exists. Obviously, the Separatist clergyman did not emphasize so
+strongly the rule of the eldership which New England church life in
+general had developed. Otherwise his plan did not differ essentially
+from that of Mather.
+
+[j] "Even now, after a lapse of more than two hundred years the
+Platform (notwithstanding its errors here and there in the application
+of proof texts, and its one great error in regard to the power of the
+civil magistrate in matters of religion) is the most authentic
+exposition of the Congregational church as given in the
+scriptures."--Leonard Bacon, in _Contributions to the Ecclesiastical
+History of Connecticut_, ed. of 1865, p. 15.
+
+[k] Cambridge Platform, chap. ii.
+
+[l] _Ibid._ chap. ii.
+
+[m] Cambridge Platform, chap. iii.
+
+[n] The definition of the rule of the elders, given by the Rev. Samuel
+Stone of Hartford, was "A speaking aristocracy in the face of a silent
+democracy."
+
+[o] Cambridge Platform, chaps, iv-x.
+
+[p] "We do believe that Christ hath ordained that there should be a
+Presbytery or Eldership and that in every Church, whose work is to
+teach and rule the Church by the Word and laws of Christ and unto whom
+so teaching and ruling, all the people ought to be obedient and submit
+themselves. And therefore a Government merely Popular or
+Democratieal...  is far from the practice of these Churches and we
+believe far from the mind of Christ." However, the brethren should not
+be wholly excluded from its government or its liberty to choose its
+officers, admit members and censure offenders.--R. Mather, _Church
+Government and Church Covenant Discussed,_ pp. 47-50.
+
+"The Gospel alloweth no Church authority or rule (properly so called)
+to the Brethren but reserveth that wholly to the Elders; and yet
+preventeth tyrannee, and oligarchy, and exorbitancy of the Elders by
+the large and firm establishment of the liberties of the
+Brethren."--J. Cotton, _The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,_
+p. 12.
+
+"In regard to Christ, the head, the government of the Church, is
+sovereign and Monarchicall: In regard to the rule of the Presbytery,
+it is stewardly and Aristocraticall: In regard to the people's power
+in elections and censures, it is Democraticall."--_The Keys,_
+p. 36; see also _Church-Government and Church Covenant,_
+pp. 51-58.
+
+[q] Cambridge Platform, chap, x.
+
+[r] _Ibid._ chap. xiv.
+
+[s] Cambridge Platform, chap. ix.
+
+[t] _Ibid_. chap. ix.
+
+[u] _Ibid_. chap. xi.
+
+[v] _Ibid_. chap. xv.
+
+[w] Cambridge Platform, chap. xvi.
+
+[x] Cambridge Platform, chap. xvii.
+
+According to Hooker's _Survey_ the magistrates had the right to
+summon synods because they have the right to command the faculties of
+their subjects to deliberate concerning the good of the
+State.--_Survey_, pt. iv, p. 54 _et seq_.
+
+[y] "However the controversy of the Connecticut River churches was
+embittered by political interests, it was essentially nothing else
+than the fermentation of that leaven of Presbyterianism which came
+over with the later Puritan emigration, and which the Cambridge
+Platform, with all its explicitness in asserting the rules given by
+the Scriptures, had not effectually purged."--L. Bacon, in
+_Contrib. to Eccl. Hist. of Conn_., p. 17.
+
+See also H. M. Dexter, _Congr. as seen in Lit_., pp. 468-69.
+
+Of the twenty-one contemporaneous documents, by various authors, none
+mention baptism as in any way an issue in debate. "Dr. Trumbull
+probably touches the real root of the affair when he speaks of the
+controversy as one concerning the 'rights of the brotherhood,' and the
+conviction, entertained by Mr. Goodwin, that these rights had been
+disregarded." The question of baptism ran parallel with the question
+under debate, incidentally mixed itself with and outlived it to be the
+cause of a later quarrel that should split the church.--G. L. Walker,
+_First Church in Hartford_, p. 154.
+
+[z] Mr. Stone admitted: "(1) I acknowledge yt it is a liberty of ye
+church to declare their apprehensions by vote about ye fitness of a
+p'son for office upon his tryall.
+
+(2) "I look at it as a received truth yt an officer may in some cases
+lawfully hinder ye church from putting forth at this or yt time an act
+of her liberty.
+
+(3) "I acknowledge ye I hindered ye church fro declaring their
+apprehensions by vote (upon ye day in question) concerning
+Mr. Wigglesworth's fitness for office in ye church of
+Hartford."--_Conn. Historical Society Papers_, ii. 51-125.
+
+[aa] In the New Haven letter, she wrote, "We hear the petitioners, or
+others closing with them, are very confident they shall obtain great
+alterations both in civil government and church discipline, and that
+some of them have procured and hired one as their agent, to maintain
+in writing (as it is conceived) that parishes in England, consenting
+to and continuing their meetings to worship God, are true churches,
+and such persons coming over thither, (without holding forth any work
+of faith) have all right to church privileges."--_New Haven
+Col. Records_, iii, 186.
+
+[ab] That is, they assent to the main truths of the Gospel and promise
+obedience to the church they desire to join.
+
+[ac] Among Massachusetts clergymen, Thomas Allen of Charlestown, 1642,
+Thomas Shepherd, Cambridge, 1649, John Norton, Ipswich, 1653, held
+that the baptismal privileges should be widened, and John Cotton
+himself was slowly drifting toward this opinion.
+
+The Windsor church was the first in Connecticut to practice the
+Half-Way Covenant, January 31, 1657-58, to March 19, 1664-65, when the
+pastor, having doubts as to its validity, discontinued the practice
+until 1668, when it was again resumed.--Stiles, _Ancient
+Windsor_, p. 172.
+
+[ad] Stone held his party on the ground that over a matter of internal
+discipline a synod had no control, and that he could exercise
+Congregational discipline upon any seceders. The immediate result was
+the removal of the discontented to Boston or to Hadley; where,
+however, they could not be admitted to another church until Stone had
+released them from his. This he refused to do. Thus, he showed the
+power of a minister, when backed by a majority, to inflict virtual
+excommunication. This could be done even though his authority was open
+to question.--J. A. Doyle, _Puritan Colonies_, ii, p. 77.
+
+[ae] Meanwhile the Massachusetts Synod (purely local) of 1662 stood
+seven to one in favor of the Half-Way Covenant practice, and had
+reaffirmed the fellowship of the churches according to the synodical
+terms of the Cambridge Platform, as against a more authoritative
+system of consociation, proposed by Thomas Shepherd of Cambridge.
+
+[af] It must be remembered that the "Church of England meant the
+aggregate of English Christians, whether in the upshot of the
+movements which were going on (1630-1660), their polity should turn
+out to be Episcopal or Presbyterian, or something different from
+either."--Palfrey, _Comprehensive Hist.  of New England_, i,
+p. 111. J. R. Green, _Short Hist. of the Eng. People_, p. 544.
+
+In England, Pitkin had been a member of the church of the
+Commonwealth, and in all probability was not an Episcopalian or
+Church-of-England man in the usual sense.
+
+[ag] Such an order could only produce further disturbance. Stratford
+and Norwalk protested. As a rule the order was most unwelcome in the
+recently acquired New Haven colony. Mr.  Pierson of Branford, with
+some of the conservative church people of Guilford and New Haven, went
+to New Jersey to escape its consequences.
+
+[ah] Among the questions, still unanswered, which had been submitted
+in 1657 were: (9) "Whether it doth belong to the body of a town,
+collectively taken, jointly, to call him to be their minister whom the
+church shall choose to be their officer."  (13) "Whether the church,
+her invitation and election of an officer, or preaching elder,
+necessitates the whole congregation to sit down satisfied, as bound to
+accept him as their minister though invited and settled without the
+town's consent." (ll) "Unto whom shall such persons repair who are
+grieved by any church process or censure, or whether they must
+acquiesce in the churches under which they belong."--Trumbull,
+_Hist. of Conn. i_, 302-3.
+
+[ai] In New England Congregationalism, the church and the
+ecclesiastical society were separate and distinct bodies. The church
+kept the records of births, deaths, marriage, baptism, and membership,
+and, outside these, confined itself to spiritual matters; the society
+dealt with all temporal affairs such as the care and control of all
+church property, the payment of ministers' salaries, and also their
+calling, settlement, and dismissal.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PERIOD OF TRANSITION
+
+
+    Alas for piety, alas for the ancient faith!
+
+Though Massachusetts had been indifferent and had left Connecticut to
+work out, unaided, her religious problem, the two colonies were by no
+means unfriendly, and in each there was a large conservative party
+mutually sympathetic in their church interests. The drift of the
+liberal party in each colony was apart. The homogeneity of the
+Connecticut people put off for a long while the embroilments, civil
+and religious, to which Massachusetts was frequently exposed through
+her attempts to restrain, restrict, and force into an inflexible mould
+her population, which was steadily becoming more numerous and
+cosmopolite. The English government received frequent complaints about
+the Bay Colony, and, as a result, Connecticut, by contrast of her
+"dutiful conduct" with that of "unruly Massachusetts," gained greater
+freedom to pursue her own domestic policy with its affairs of Church
+and State. Many of its details were unknown, or ignored, by the
+English government. The period when the four colonies had been united
+upon all measures of common welfare, whether temporal or spiritual,
+had passed. There were now three colonies. One of these, much weaker
+than the others, was destined within comparatively few years to be
+absorbed by Massachusetts as New Haven had been by
+Connecticut. Meanwhile, Massachusetts and Connecticut were developing
+along characteristic lines and had each its individual problems to
+pursue. While in ecclesiastical affairs the conservative factions in
+the two colonies had much in common and continued to have for a long
+time, the Reforming Synod of 1679-80, held in Boston, was the last in
+which all the New England churches had any vital interest, because a
+period of transition was setting in. This period of transition was
+marked by an expansion of settlements with its accompanying spirit of
+land-grabbing, and by a lowering of tone in the community, as material
+interests superseded the spiritual ones of the earlier generations,
+and as the Indian and colonial wars spread abroad a spirit of
+license. In the religious life of the colonists, this transition made
+itself felt not alone in the character of its devotees, but in the
+ecclesiastical system itself, as it changed from the polity and
+practice embodied in the Cambridge Platform to that of a later day,
+and to the almost Presbyterian government expressed in the Saybrook
+Platform of 1708.  The transition in Massachusetts, in both secular
+and religious development, varied greatly from that in
+Connecticut. Hence, from the time of the Keforming Synod, the history
+of Connecticut is almost entirely the story of its own career,
+touching only at points the historical development of the other New
+England colonies. On the religious side, it is the story of the
+evolution of Connecticut's peculiar Congregationalism.  The Reforming
+Synod of 1679-80 had been called by the Massachusetts General Court
+because, in the words of that old historian, Thomas Prince:--
+
+    A little after 1660, there began to appear Decay, And this
+    increased to 1670, when it grew very visible and threatening, and
+    was generally complained of and bewailed bitterly by the pious
+    among them (the colonists): and yet more to 1680, when but few of
+    the first Generation remained. [49]
+
+The reasons of this falling away from the standards of the first
+generation were many. In the first place, the colonists had become
+mere colonials. Upon the Stuart restoration, the strongest ties which
+bound them to the pulsing life of the mother country, the religious
+ones, were severed. The colonists ceased to be the vanguard of a great
+religious movement, the possible haven of a new political
+state. Though they received many refugees from Stuart conformity, the
+religious ties which bound them to the English nonconformists were
+weakened, and still more so when both the once powerful wings of the
+Puritan party, Presbyterian and Independent, were alike in danger of
+extinction. Shortly after the Revolution of 1688, when, under the
+larger tolerance of William and Mary, the Presbyterians and
+Independents strove to increase their strength by a union based upon
+the "Heads of Agreement," English and colonial nonconformity moved for
+a brief time nearer, and then still farther apart. The "Heads of
+Agreement"[a] was a compromise so framed as to admit of acceptance by
+the Presbyterian who recognized that he must, once for all, give up
+his hope of a national church, and by the Independent anxiously
+seeking some bond of authority to hold together his weak and scattered
+churches. After this compromise, the religious life of the colonies
+ceased to be of vital importance to any large section of the English
+people. After the Restoration the colonial agents became preeminently
+interested in secular affairs, in political privileges, and commercial
+advantages. The reaction was felt in the colonies by generations who
+lacked the heroic impulses of their fathers, their constant incentive,
+and their high standards.  Moreover, the education of the second and
+third generation could not be like that of the first.  The percentage
+of university men was less.  New Harvard could not supply the place of
+old Cambridge. If life was easier, it was more material.
+
+Against such conditions as these, the Reforming Synod made little
+headway.[b] It set forth in thirteen questions the offenses of the day
+and in the answer to each suggested remedies.  To these questions and
+answers the synod added a confession of faith. This last was a
+reaffirmation of the Westminster Confession of Faith as amended and
+approved by Parliament, or that found in the Savoy Declaration.[c] In
+respect to church government, the Reforming Synod confirmed the
+"substance of the Platform of Discipline agreed upon by the messengers
+of these Churches at Cambridge, Anno Domini, 1648," [50] desiring the
+churches to "continue steadfast in the _Order of the Gospel_
+according to what is therein declared from the Word of God." Cotton
+Mather in the "Magnalia," [5l] writing twenty years later, gives four
+points of departure from the Cambridge polity by the Reforming
+Synod. First, occasional officiations of ministers outside their own
+churches were authorized; secondly, there was a movement to revive the
+authority and office of ruling elder and other officers; thirdly,
+"plebeian ordination," or lay ordination, ordination by the hands of
+the brethren of the church in the absence of superior officers, was no
+longer allowed;[d] and fourthly, there was a variation from the
+"personal and public confession" in favor of a private examination by
+the pastor of candidates for church-membership, though the earlier
+custom was still regarded as "lawful, expedient and useful."  With
+reference to the office of ruling elder, it had been done away with in
+many churches, partly because of lack of suitable men to fill the
+office, partly because of the mistakes of incompetents, and partly
+because of a growing doubt as to the Scriptural sanction for such an
+office.  In many churches the office of teacher had also been
+abolished, the pastor inheriting all the authority formerly lodged in
+the eldership, and as he retained his power of veto, it came about
+that the churches were largely in the power of one man.
+
+Plymouth and Connecticut colonies strongly approved the work of this
+local Massachusetts synod. As a result of the interest excited by its
+suggestions to increase church discipline, for laws to encourage
+morality and Christian instruction, and for renewed zeal on the part
+of individuals in godly living, a goodly number of converts were
+immediately added to the churches throughout all the colonies. Of
+these, the larger number were admitted on the Half-Way Covenant. But
+times had changed, and the churches could not keep pace. The attempts
+to enforce religion were fruitless,[e] and only go to show that
+political interests, that wars,[f] with their accompanying excitement
+and license, and that engrossing civil affairs had torn men's minds
+from the old interests in religious controversies and in religious
+customs.
+
+The Church itself had deteriorated as the towns in their civil
+capacity had undertaken the support of the minister and to collect his
+rates.  Even earlier began, also, the gradual change by which the
+election of the minister passed from the small group of church
+communicants, or full membership, to the larger body of the Society,
+and finally to the town. This change was partly brought about through
+the increasing acceptance of the Half-Way Covenant with its attendant
+results. In some localities, "owning the Covenant" and presenting
+one's children for baptism came to be considered not as a necessary
+fulfilling of inherited duties (because of inherited baptismal
+privileges) and the consequent recognition of moral obligations, but
+as meritorious acts, having of themselves power to benefit the
+participants. Further, the rite of baptism, confined at first to
+children one at least of whose parents had been baptized, was later
+permitted to any for whom a satisfactory person--any one not
+flagrantly immoral--could be found to promise that the child should
+have religious training. Still another factor in the lowering of
+religious life was Stoddardeanism, or the teaching of the Rev. Solomon
+Stoddard of Northampton, Massachusetts, a most powerful preacher and
+for many years the most influential minister throughout the
+Connecticut valley. As early as 1679, he began to teach that baptized
+persons, who had owned the covenant, should be admitted to the Lord's
+Supper, so that the rite itself might exercise in them a regenerating
+grace. In its origin, this teaching was probably intended as a protest
+against a morbid, introspective, and weakening self-examination on the
+part of many who doubted their fitness to go to communion. But as a
+result of the interworking of this teaching and of the practice of the
+Half-Way Covenant, church membership came in time to include almost
+any one not openly vicious, and willing to give intellectual, or
+nominal, assent to church doctrines and also to a few church
+regulations.  With the change, the large body of townsmen became the
+electors of the minister. Cotton Mather in the "Ratio Disciplinæ" [52]
+illustrates these changing conditions when he tells us that the
+communicants felt that the right to elect the minister was invested in
+them as the real church of Christ, and that, in order to avoid strife
+or the defeat of their candidate by the majority of the town, they
+would customarily propose a choice between two nominees.
+
+Carelessness of the churches in admitting members had had its
+counterpart in the carelessness of the towns in admitting
+inhabitants. Very early, as early as 1658, the Connecticut General
+Court had been obliged to call them to order.  The March session of
+1658-59 had limited the franchise to all inhabitants of twenty-one
+years of age or over who were householders (that is, married men), and
+who had thirty pounds estate, or who had borne office. This was
+shortly changed to "thirty pounds of proper _personal_ estate,"
+or who had borne office. The ratable estate in the colony averaged
+sixty pounds per inhabitant at this time. Up to March, 1658-59, the
+towns had admitted inhabitants by a majority vote. These admitted
+inhabitants, armed with a certificate of good character from their
+town, presented themselves before the General Court as candidates for
+the freeman's franchise, and were admitted or not as the Court saw
+fit. Disfranchisement was the penalty for any scandalous behavior on
+the part of the successful candidate. One reason for the new and
+restrictive legislation was that from 1657 to 1660, from some cause
+unknown, large numbers of undesirable colonists flocked into the
+Connecticut towns, and thus it happened that, as the Church broadened
+her idea of membership, the State had need to limit its conception of
+democracy. Consequently, it narrowed the franchise by adding to the
+original requirements a large property qualification, and continued to
+demand the certificates of good character. Moreover, the candidates
+were further required to present their credentials in October, and
+they were not to be passed upon until the next session of the Court in
+the following April. This two-fold change in the religious and
+political life of the colony gave greater flexibility and greater
+security, for "with church and state practically intertwined, the
+theory of the one had been too narrow and of the other too broad."
+[53] After the change in the franchise, records of the towns show that
+there was less disorder in admitting inhabitants and more care taken
+as to their personal character.
+
+As the townsmen became the electors of the minister, and when the new
+latitude in membership had been accepted by the churches, there soon
+appeared a growing slackness of discipline and also an increase of
+authority in the hands of the ministers and their subordinate
+deaconry.  This excess of authority in the hands of one man tended to
+one-man rule and to frequent friction between the minister and his
+people. As a result councils might be called against councils in the
+attempt to settle questions or disputes between pastors and
+people. Consequently, among conservatives, there came to be the
+feeling that there ought to be some authoritative body to supervise
+the churches,--one to which both pastor and people could appeal
+disputed points.
+
+In Massachusetts, the Connecticut colonists saw a strenuous attempt to
+establish such an authority. Between 1690 and 1705, the Massachusetts
+clergy had revived the early custom of fortnightly meetings of
+neighboring ministers.  The new associations were purely voluntary
+ones for mutual assistance, for debate upon matters of common
+interest, or for consultation over special difficulties, whether
+pertaining to churches or to their individual members, which might be
+brought before them. These associations grew in favor, and later
+became a permanent feature of New England Congregationalism. Because
+they were received with so much, favor at the time of their revival,
+the conservative Massachusetts clergy attempted in the "Proposals of
+1705" to increase the ministerial and synodical power within the
+churches, and to bring about a reformation in manners and morals by
+giving to these associations very large and authoritative powers. The
+Proposals provided that all ministers should be joined in Associations
+for mutual help and advice; for licensing candidates for the ministry;
+for providing for pastorless churches; for a general oversight of
+religion, and for the examination of charges brought against their own
+members. Standing Councils, composed of delegates from the
+Associations and also of a proper number of delegates (apparently
+laymen) to represent the membership of the churches, were to be
+established. These were to control all church matters throughout the
+colony that were "proper for the consideration of an ecclesiastical
+council," and obedience to their judgments was to be enforced under
+penalty of forfeiture of church-fellowship. The Proposals were
+approved by the majority of the Massachusetts clergy; but the liberal
+party within the churches would not accede to their demands, and the
+General Court would not sanction the Proposals in the face of such
+opposition. Consequently, the essential feature of the Proposals, the
+Standing Councils, was never adopted. But the attempt to establish
+them invigorated the Associations, and the licensing of candidates was
+arranged for.
+
+Many people in Connecticut approved the tenor of the Proposals and
+desired a similar system. Moreover, there never was a time when the
+General Court was so ready to delegate to an ecclesiastical body the
+control of the churches.  The trustees of the young college, Yale, the
+most representative gathering of clergymen in the colony, were anxious
+to have the Court establish some system of ecclesiastical government
+stronger than that existing among the churches, and to have it send
+out some approved confession of faith and discipline. Consequently,
+when, in 1708, Guerdon Saltonstall,[g] the popular ex-minister of New
+London, was raised to the governor's chair, the time seemed ripe for a
+move to satisfy the widespread demand. In response to it, the May
+session of the General Court--
+
+    from their own observation and the complaints of many others,
+    being made sensible of the defects of the discipline of the
+    churches of this government, arising from want of a more explicit
+    asserting of the rules given for that in the holy scriptures [saw
+    fit] to order and require the ministers of the several churches in
+    the several counties of this government to meet together at their
+    respective countie towns, _with such messengers as the churches
+    to which they belong_ shall see cause to send with them on the
+    last day of June next, there to consider and agree upon those
+    methods and rules for the management of ecclesiastical discipline
+    which shall be judged agreable and conformable to the word of God,
+    and shall at the same meeting appoint two or more of their number
+    to meet together at Saybrook... where they shall compare the
+    results of the ministers of the several counties, and out of which
+    and from them to draw a form of ecclesiastical discipline, which
+    by two or more persons delegated by them shall be offered this
+    Court ... and be confirmed by them. [54]
+
+The bill was passed by the Upper House of the legislature and sent to
+a conference from the Lower, May 22, 1708. It became a law May 22.  In
+the interim the words in italics were inserted in order to eliminate
+any possible loss of liberty to the churches and to protect them from
+a system of government, planned by ministers only, and enforced by the
+General Court. [55]
+
+No records of the preliminary meeting have come down to us, but the
+Preface of the Saybrook Platform reports such a meeting and that their
+delegates met at Saybrook, September 9, 1708.  At this second
+convention, twelve ministers, of whom eight were trustees of Yale, and
+four messengers were present. Their work, known as the Saybrook
+Platform, declares in its Preface that--
+
+    we agree that the confession of faith owned & consented unto by
+    the Elders and messengers of the Chhs assembled at Boston in New
+    England, May 12, 1680 being the Second Session of that Synod be
+    Recommended to the Honbl. the Gen. Assembly of this Colony at the
+    next Session for their Publick testimony thereto as the faith of
+    the Chhs of this Colony.
+
+    We agree also that the Heads of Agreement assented to by the
+    vnited Ministers formerly Called Presbyterian & Congregationall be
+    observed by the Chhs throout this Colony.
+
+The work of the synod, including also a series of authoritative
+"Articles," was laid before the October session of the Court and
+received its approval, the Court declaring its "great approbation of
+such a happy agreement" and ordaining "that all churches within this
+government that are or shall be thus united in doctrine, worship and
+discipline, be and for the future shall be owned and acknowledged
+established by law." [58]
+
+The period of transition was over. Connecticut had passed from the
+individual consecration and democratic organization of the Cambridge
+Platform to the comprehensive membership of a parish system and to the
+authoritative councils, or ecclesiastical courts, provided for by the
+Saybrook Articles. A consideration of them as the main points of the
+Platform is next in order.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] The "Heads of Agreement" was destined to have more influence in
+America than in England.
+
+[b] The order of the Massachusetts Court was "for the revisall of the
+discipline agreed upon by the churches, 1647, and what else may
+appeare necessary for the preventing schism, haeresies, prophaneness,
+and the establishment of the churches in one faith and order of the
+gospell." There was no questioning of the Court's right to
+_summon_ this synod, as there had been in 1646-48.
+
+[c] The Savoy Declaration of October, 1658, was put forth by the
+English leaders of the Independent, or Congregational, churches as a
+confession of faith, and in its thirty articles contained a
+declaration of church order. The formulated principles of church order
+were suggested by the Cambridge Platform but were neither so clear nor
+so fully stated as in the New England document. The Westminster
+Confession, the Savoy Declaration, and the later Heads of Agreement,
+were destined to have more influence in New England than in England,
+where the effect was transient. The Reforming Synod preferred the
+Savoy Declaration to the Westminster Confession because the terms of
+the former were more strictly Congregational, and also because they
+wished to hold a confession in common with their trans-Atlantic
+brethren. The Massachusetts synod changed here and there a word in
+order to emphasize the church-membership of children as a right
+derived through the Half-Way Covenant, and also to state explicitly
+the right of the civil authority to interfere in questions of
+doctrine.
+
+[d] In 1660 the lay ordination of the Rev. Thomas Buckingham of
+Saybrook, Conn., was strongly opposed by a council of churches, but it
+was reluctantly yielded to the insistent church.--J. B. Felt,
+_Eccl. History_, ii, 207.
+
+[e] "Whereas this Court [the General Court of Connecticut] in the
+calamitous times of '75 and '76 were moved to make some laws for the
+suppression of some provoaking evils which were feared to be growing
+up amongst us: viz.--prophanation of the Sabbath; neglect of
+catechizing children and servants and famaly prayer; young persons
+shaking off the government of parents or masters; boarders and inmates
+neglecting the worship of God in famalyes where they reside; tipling &
+drinkeing; uncleanness; oppression in workmen and traders; which laws
+have little prevailed. It is therefore ordered by this Court that the
+selectmen constables and grand-jury men in their several plantations
+shall have a special care in their respective places to promote the
+due and full attendance of these aforementioned orders of this Court."
+
+[f] King Philip's War, 1675-76; the usurpation of Andros; King
+William's War, 1689-97, with its expedition against Quebec; Queen
+Anne's War, 1702-13.
+
+[g] Governor Saltonstall "was more inclined to synods and formularies
+than any other minister of that day in the New England colonies." His
+influence over the clergy was almost absolute. "The Saybrook Platform
+was stamped with his seal and was for the most part an embodiment of
+his views."--Hollister, _Hist. of Conn._ vol. ii, p. 585.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
+
+
+    A Government within a Government.
+
+The Saybrook Platform subdivides into a Confession of Faith, the Heads
+of Agreement, and the Fifteen Articles.
+
+The Confession of Faith is merely a recommendation of the Savoy
+Confession as reaffirmed by the Synod of Boston or the Reforming Synod
+of 1680.
+
+The Heads of Agreement are but a repetition of the articles that,
+under the same title, were passed in London, in 1691, by fourteen
+delegates from the Presbyterian and English Congregational
+churches. Both parties to the Agreement had hoped thereby to establish
+more firmly their churches and to give them the strength and dignity
+of a strongly united body. The Heads of Agreement were drafted by
+three men, Increase Mather, the Massachusetts colonial agent to
+England, Matthew Mead, a Congregationalist, and John Hone, a
+Presbyterian, who in his earlier years and by training was a
+Congregationalist.  Naturally, between the influence of the framers
+and the necessity for including the two religious bodies, this
+platform inclined towards Congregationalism, but equal necessity led
+it away from the freedom of the Cambridge Platform, after which it was
+patterned.
+
+In the Heads of Agreement, the composition of the church is defined
+according to Congregational standards, as is also the election of its
+officers. The definition of the powers of the church is not strictly
+Congregational, because initiative action and governing powers are
+intrusted to the eldership, while, to the brethren, there is given
+only the privilege of assenting to such measures as the elders may
+place before them. The membership in the church, as defined, is
+semi-Congregational; i. e., in order to become members, persons must
+be "grounded in the Fundamental Doctrines of religion" and lead moral
+lives, but they are eligible to communion only after the declaration
+of their desire "to walk together according to Gospel Rule."
+Concerning this declaration the statement is made that "different
+degrees of _Expliciteness_ shall in no way hinder such Churches
+from owning each other as _Instituted Churches_."  Furthermore,
+no one should be pressed to declare the time and manner of his
+conversion as proof of his fitness to be received as a communicant.
+Such an account would, however, be welcome.  With reference to
+parochial bounds, introduced into the primitive Congregationalism of
+New England, but always existing in the English Presbyterian system,
+the Heads of Agreement declare them to be "not of Divine Right" but--
+
+    for common Edification that church members should live near one
+    another, nor ought they to forsake their church for another
+    without its consent and recommendation.
+
+In respect to the ministry, the Heads of Agreement affirm that it
+should be learned and competent and approved; that ordinarily, pastors
+should be considered as ministers only while they continue in office
+over the church that elected them to its ministry; that ordinarily, in
+their choosing and calling, advice should be sought from neighboring
+churches, and that they should be ordained with the aid of neighboring
+pastors.  In the matter of installation into a new office of an elder,
+previously ordained, churches are to exercise the right of individual
+judgment and of preference as to reordination. This same right of
+preference is to be exercised in deciding whether or not a church
+should support a ruling elder. The Heads of Agreement assert that in
+the intercommunion of churches there is to be no subordination among
+them, and that there ought to be frequent friendly consultations
+between their "_Officers_." There are to be "Occasional Meetings
+of Ministers" of several churches to consult and advise upon "weighty
+and difficult cases," and to whose judgments, "particular Churches,
+their respective _Elders_ and _Members_, ought to have a
+reverential regard, and not dissent therefrom, without _apparent_
+grounds from the word of God." The Heads of Agreement command churches
+to yield obedience and support to the civil authority and to be ready
+at all times to give the magistrates an account of their affairs.
+
+The Heads of Agreement were the most liberal part of the Saybrook
+Platform, and were not considered sufficiently
+authoritative. Accordingly,--
+
+    for the Better Regulation of the Administration of Chh Discipline
+    in Relation to all Cases Ecclesiastical both in Particular Chhs
+    and In Councils to the full Determining and Executing of the Rules
+    in all such cases,[57]--
+
+were added certain resolutions, known as the "Fifteen Articles." They
+are in reality the Platform, for all that goes before them is but a
+reaffirmation of principles already accepted, and the new thing in the
+document, the advance in ecclesiasticism, is the increased authority
+permitted and, later, enforced by these Fifteen Articles.
+
+The Articles affirm that power and discipline in connection with all
+cases of scandal that may arise within a church, ought, the brethren
+consenting, to be lodged with the elder or elders; and that in all
+difficult cases, the pastor should take advice of the elders of the
+neighboring churches before proceeding to censure or pass judgment. In
+order to facilitate both discipline and mutual oversight, the Articles
+provide that elders and pastors are to be joined in Associations,
+meeting at least twice a year, to consult together upon questions of
+ministerial duty and upon matters of mutual benefit to their
+churches. From these Associations, delegates were to be chosen
+annually to meet in one General Association, holding its session in
+the spring, at the time of the general elections. The Associations
+were to look after pastorless churches and to recommend candidates for
+the ministry. Up to this time a man's bachelor of arts degree had been
+considered sufficient guarantee that he would make a capable
+minister. Henceforth, there could no longer be complaint that "there
+was no uniform method of introducing candidates to the ministry nor
+sufficient opportunity for churches to confer together in order to
+their seeing and acting harmoniously." [58] In order that there should
+be no more confusion arising from calling councils against councils
+with their often conflicting judgments, the Articles formed
+Consociations, or unions of churches within certain limits, usually
+those of a county. These Consociations were to assist upon all great
+or important ecclesiastical occasions.  They were to preside over all
+ordinations or installations; they were to decide upon the dismissal
+of members, and upon all difficulties arising within any church within
+their district. If necessary, Consociations could be joined in
+council.  Their decisions were to have the force of a judgment or
+sentence _only_ when they were "approved by the major part of the
+elders present and by such a number of the messengers"--one or two
+from each church--as should constitute a majority vote. A church could
+call upon its Consociation for advice before sentencing an offender,
+but the offender could not appeal to the Consociation without the
+consent of his church. By these last provisions, authority and power
+tended still more to concentrate in the hands of the elders.  The
+Fifteen Articles, though they did not make the judgments of the
+Consociations decisive, urged upon individual churches a reverent
+regard for them.
+
+The attitude of the churches towards these Fifteen Articles varied,
+and it was already known in the Synod that such would be the case.
+Some churches would find them more palatable than others. Many were
+already converts to the Rev. Solomon Stoddard's insistent teaching
+that "a National Synod is the highest ecclesiastical authority upon
+earth," [59] that every man must stand to the judgment of a National
+Synod.  Even five years before the convening of the Synod at Saybrook,
+there had issued from a meeting of the Yale trustees,[a] "altogether
+the most representative ecclesiastical gathering in the colony," a
+circular letter which urged the Connecticut ministers to agree on some
+unifying confession of creed, and that such be recommended by the
+General Court to the consideration of the people. The immediate answer
+to the letter, if any, is unknown. Trumbull says that--
+
+    the proposal was universally acceptable, and the churches and the
+    ministers of the several counties met in a consociated council and
+    gave their assent to the Westminster and Savoy Confessions of
+    Faith. [60]
+
+It seems that they also "drew up certain rules of ecclesiastical
+discipline as preparatory to a General Synod which they still had in
+contemplation,"[61] but took no further step to obtain the approval of
+the Court. This first definite move toward the Saybrook system bore
+fruit when the Fifteen Articles were added to the Platform.  Their
+authoritative tone was to satisfy those within the churches who
+preferred Presbyterian classes and synods, while their interpretation
+could be modified to please the adherents of a purer Congregationalism
+by reading them in the light of the Heads of Agreement which preceded
+them. Of their possible purport two great authorities upon
+Congregationalism speak as follows. Dr. Bacon writes:--
+
+    The "Articles" by whomsoever penned, were obviously a compromise
+    between the Presbyterian interest and the Congregational; and like
+    most compromises, they were (I do not say by design) of doubtful
+    interpretation. Interpreted by a Presbyterian, they might seem to
+    subject the Churches completely to the authoritative government of
+    classes or presbyteries under the name of consociations.
+    Interpreted by a Congregationalist, they might seem to provide for
+    nothing more than a stated Council, in which neighboring Churches,
+    voluntarily confederate, could consult together, and the proper
+    function of which should be not to speak imperatively, but, when
+    regularly called, to "hold forth light" in cases of difficulty or
+    perplexity.[62]
+
+Dr. Dexter sums them up in the following words:--
+
+    Taken by themselves, the fifteen articles were stringent enough to
+    satisfy the most ardent High Churchmen among the
+    Congregationalists of that day; taken, however, in connection with
+    the London document previously adopted, and by the spirit of
+    which--apparently--they were always to be construed, their
+    stringency became matter of differing judgment, so that what on
+    the whole was their intent has never been settled to this
+    day. [63]
+
+In accordance with the system of government outlined in the Platform,
+the churches of the colony were at once formed into five Associations
+and five Consociations, one each in New Haven, New London, and
+Fairfield counties, and two in Hartford. In later years, new bodies
+were organized, as the other four Connecticut counties were set off
+from these original ones. The churches of the New Haven county
+Consociation, long cleaving to the purest Congregationalism, refused
+to adopt the Platform until they had recorded their liberal
+construction of it. Fairfield went to the other extreme, and put on
+record their acceptance of the Consociations as church
+courts. Hartford and New London accepted the Platform as a whole, as
+it came from the synod, leaving to time the decision as to its loose
+or strict construction.
+
+A legislative act was necessary to make the Platform the legal
+constitution of the Congregational Establishment. Such an act
+immediately followed the presentation of the report by the committee,
+whom the Saybrook convention, in accordance with the Court's previous
+command, sent to the Assembly. Having examined the Platform, the
+Legislature declared its strong approval of such a happy agreement,
+and in October, 1708, enacted that--
+
+    all the Churches within this government that are, and shall be
+    thus united in doctrine, worship and discipline, be, and for the
+    future shall be, owned and acknowledged, established by law:
+
+    Provided always that nothing herein shall be intended or construed
+    to hinder or prevent any society or church that is or shall be
+    allowed by the laws of this government, who soberly differ or
+    dissent from the united churches hereby established, from
+    exercising worship and discipline in their own way, and according
+    to their conscience. [64]
+
+The purport of this proviso was to safeguard churches which had been
+approved according to the standards formerly set up by the Court, and
+also to prevent the Act of Establishment from seeming to contradict a
+"Toleration Act for sober dissenters" from the colony church that had
+been passed at the preceding May session.  Out of this proviso grew a
+misunderstanding in the Norwich church, which happens also to furnish
+a typical illustration of the difficulties sometimes encountered in
+trying to collect a minister's salary.
+
+When Mr. Woodward, pastor of the Norwich church, read the act
+establishing the Saybrook Platform, he omitted the proviso. The
+Norwich deputies, who had been present at the passage of the act,
+immediately informed the people of the provision which the Court had
+made for the continuance of those churches of which it had previously
+approved and which might be reluctant to adopt the stricter terms of
+the new system, at least until their value had been demonstrated. For
+this behavior, the deputies were censured by the pastor and by the
+majority of the church, who sided with him. Thereupon, the minority
+withdrew and for three months worshiped apart. Then the breach was
+healed, though seeds of discord remained. By 1714, six years later,
+they had germinated and had attained such development that it was very
+difficult to collect the minister's salary. In Norwich, as elsewhere,
+there had formerly been a custom of collecting the ministerial rates
+together with those of the county. This custom had arisen because of
+difficulty in collecting the former, and in 1708 [65] this practice
+was legalized, provided that in each case the minister made formal
+application to have his rates thus collected. In the year 1714 and the
+following year the General Court was obliged to issue a special order
+commanding the town of Norwich to fulfill its agreement with their
+minister and to pay his salary in full. The second year, the Court
+added the injunction that the money should be collected by the
+constables. But at the session following the order, the Norwich
+deputies informed the Court that, owing to differences existing among
+their townsmen, they had not seen fit to urge its commands upon their
+people.  Upon learning that Mr. Woodward's family were actually
+suffering, the Court appointed a date, and ordered the Norwich
+constables to produce at the time set a receipt, signed by Mr.
+Woodward, and showing that his salary had been paid in full. If the
+receipt was not forthcoming at the appointed time, the secretary of
+the colony was empowered to issue, upon application, a warrant to
+distrain all or any unpaid portion of the minister's salary from the
+constables, and, also, any additional costs. This legislation seems to
+have had due effect, though feeling ran so high that, in the following
+year, it was decided to divide the church. When the two parishes were
+formed, Mr. Woodward retired, and the life of the divided church was
+continued under new ministers.
+
+From the adoption of the Saybrook Platform, the Connecticut churches
+were for many years preeminently Presbyterian in character.  The terms
+Congregational and Presbyterian were often used interchangeably. As
+late as 1799, the Hartford North Association, speaking of the
+Connecticut churches, declared them "to contain the essentials of the
+Church of Scotland or Presbyterian Church in America." The General
+Association in 1805 affirmed that "The Saybrook Platform is the
+constitution of the Presbyterian Church in Connecticut."[b] Whether
+called by the one name or the other, Presbyterianized
+Congregationalism was the firmly established state religion, for under
+the Saybrook system the local independence of the churches was largely
+sacrificed. The system further exalted the eldership and the pastoral
+power.  It replaced the sympathetic help and advisory assistance of
+neighboring churches by organized associations and by the authority of
+councils.
+
+In the new system the ecclesiastical machinery which, at first,
+brought peace and order, soon developed into a barren autonomy and
+gave rise to rigid formalism in religion, with its consequent baneful
+results upon the spiritual and moral character of the people. The
+Established Church had attained the height of its security and power,
+with exclusive privileges conferred by the legislature. That body had
+turned over to the "government within a government" the whole control
+of the church and of the religious life of the colony, and had endowed
+it with ecclesiastical councils which rapidly developed into
+ecclesiastical courts.
+
+"There was no formal coercive power; but the public provision for the
+minister's support, and the withdrawal of it from recalcitrant members
+formed a coercive power of no mean efficiency." [66]
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] The charter for the college, together with an annual grant of
+three hundred dollars, was granted in 1701. None but ministers were to
+be trustees.
+
+[b] The Hartford North Association in 1799 gave "information to all
+whom it may concern that the Constitution of the Churches in the State
+of Connecticut, founded on the common usage and confession of faith,
+Heads of Agreement, Articles of discipline adopted at the earliest
+period of the settlement of the State, is not Congregational, but
+contains the essentials of the Church of Scotland, or Presbyterian
+Church in America, particularly, as it gives a decisive power to
+Ecclesiastical Councils and a Consociation consisting of Ministers and
+Messengers, or lay representatives, from the churches, is possessed of
+substantially the same authority as a Presbytery." The fifteen
+ministers at this meeting of the Hartford North Association declared
+that there were in the state not more than ten or twelve
+Congregational churches, and that the majority were not, and never had
+been, constituted according to the Cambridge Platform, though they
+might, "loosely and vaguely, though improperly," be "termed
+Congregational Churches."--See MS. Records. Also G. L. Walker,
+_First Church in Hartford_, p. 358.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERATION ACT
+
+
+    They keep the word of promise to our ear and break it to our
+    hope.--_Macbeth,_ Act V, Sc. viii.
+
+The Connecticut General Court incorporated in the act establishing the
+Saybrook Platform the proviso--
+
+    that nothing herein shall be intended or construed to hinder or
+    prevent any Society or Church that is or shall he allowed by the
+    laws of this government, who soberly differ or dissent from the
+    United Churches hereby established from exercising worship and
+    discipline in their own way, according to their conscience.
+
+Here then was the measure of such religious toleration as could be
+expected. It appears a liberal measure. It was liberal in that day and
+generation, when men's minds were so firmly possessed by the belief
+that civil order was closely dependent upon religious uniformity. The
+exact purport of the proviso, however, can best be gauged by
+considering it in connection with a legislative act that immediately
+preceded it, and by studying the conditions which prompted or enforced
+this earlier legislation, known as the Toleration Act of 1708.[a]
+
+As conditions were at its passage, the proviso applied only to certain
+Congregational churches that, preferring the polity of the Cambridge
+Platform, were determined to adhere to it. In earlier years, these
+churches, with their exacting test of regenerative experience, had
+constituted the majority. In later years, the Half-Way Covenant
+practice and Stoddardeanism had shifted the relative position of
+church parties.  Now, the proviso represented that liberal-minded
+party within the church who would extend tolerance to the minority who
+still clung to the outgrown convictions and principles of an earlier
+age.  This tolerance was extended from a two-fold motive: for the
+reason just assigned, and because the government hoped, by permitting
+a liberal interpretation of the Saybrook Articles, to win over these
+tolerated Congregational churches. It trusted that the anticipated
+benefits, proceeding from the new order of church government, would
+further convince them of the superior advantages derivable from the
+Presbyterian or more authoritative rendering of the Saybrook
+instrument, and that through such a policy, the ready acceptance of
+the Saybrook Platform by all the churches in the colony would be
+secured. Furthermore, it would not do for the colony to make an
+important law, following the great English precedent of 1689 which had
+granted toleration to dissenters, and then, within six months, frame a
+constitution for its Established Church, so rigid that no room could
+be found in the colony for any fundamental differences in faith or
+practice. Consequently, the proviso was made to include both tolerated
+Congregationalists and any dissenters who might in the future be
+permitted to organize their own churches, or, in the words of the
+Court, "any Society or Church that is or shall be allowed by the laws
+of this government." Thus the proviso was practically forced into the
+October legislation of the General Court by the passing of the
+Toleration Act at its spring session, notwithstanding the fact that
+its inclusion was in accord with the sentiment of the liberal party.
+
+Toleration Act and proviso notwithstanding, no rival church was
+desired at this time in Connecticut. No rival creed was
+recognized. True, there were a few handfuls of dissenters scattered
+through the colony, but Congregationalism, with a strong tincture of
+Presbyterianism, was almost the unanimous choice of the people. It was
+largely outside pressure that had forced the passage of the Toleration
+Act, even if it accounts for itself as a loyal following of the
+English precedent of 1689. Although it had always been understood that
+the colonies should make no laws repugnant to the organic or to the
+common law of England, Connecticut was determined to protect as much
+as possible her own approved church, to keep it free from the
+contamination not only of infidels and heretics, but also from
+Church-of-England dissenters and from all others. Accordingly she
+placed side by side upon her statute book a Toleration Act with a
+proviso in favor of her Established Church, and a Church platform with
+a proviso for "sober dissenters" therefrom.
+
+The circumstances which led up to and enforced the passage of the
+Toleration Act were many and varied. The motives were complex.
+Considerations religious, political, social, and economic entered into
+the problem which met the Connecticut legislators when they found
+their colony falling into disfavor with the King. This problem,
+resolved into its simplest terms, consisted in securing continued
+exemption from external interference. If Connecticut could retain the
+King's approval, she could prevent the intrigues of her enemies at the
+English court and could control the situation in the colony, whatever
+its aspects, secular or religious. And with reference to the latter,
+she would still be able to exalt her Establishment and to keep
+dissenters, however they might increase in kinds or numbers, in a
+properly subordinated position.
+
+In order to obtain a grasp of the situation within the colony at the
+time when its government concluded that the passing of the Toleration
+Act would be politic, it is necessary to examine the status of the
+dissenters there. Of these there were four classes, the Quakers or
+Society of Friends, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, and the
+Rogerines. Of these, the Quakers and the Episcopalians were the first
+to make the Connecticut government forcibly realize that, if she
+interfered with what they believed to be their rights, there would
+probably have to be a settlement with the home government. But as the
+efforts of these sects to interest the English government in their
+behalf run parallel with and mix themselves up with other complaints
+against Connecticut, it will make the history of the times clearer if
+the early story of the Baptists and Rogerines is first told.
+
+The Baptists early appeared in New England, but it was not until 1665
+that Massachusetts permitted their organization into churches, and not
+until 1700, only eight years before the Saybrook Platform, that Cotton
+Mather wrote of them, "We are willing to acknowledge for our brethren
+as many of them as are willing to be acknowledged." In her dislike of
+them, Massachusetts had the full sympathy of Connecticut.  And it was
+with great dissatisfaction that the authorities of the latter colony
+saw these dissenters, early in the eighteenth century, crossing the
+Rhode Island boundary to settle within her territory. Accordingly, in
+1704, the General Court of Connecticut refused them permission to
+incorporate in church estate. When in the following year, in spite of
+the legislature's refusal, they organized a church at Groton under
+Valentine Wightman,[b] the Assembly proceeded to inflict the full
+penalties of the law. While the Baptists had cheerfully paid all
+secular taxes, they had made themselves liable to fines and
+imprisonments by their refusal, on the ground of conscience, to pay
+the ecclesiastical ones, and, as they continued to refuse, fines and
+imprisonment and even flogging became their portion. Governor
+Saltonstall, mild in his personal attitude toward the three other
+groups of dissenters, thoroughly disapproved of the Baptists, seeming
+to fear their growing influence in New England and their increasing
+importance in the mother country. He believed in a policy of
+restriction and oppression toward the mere handful of them that had
+settled within his jurisdiction.
+
+Apart from the main body of the Baptists, there were in Connecticut a
+number of Seventh-day Baptists and Rogerine Baptists or Rogerine
+Quakers. There were a very few of them,--not more than a dozen in
+1680.[c] Setting aside the earliest persecution of the Quakers, these
+Rogerines were the first dissenters to fall under the displeasure of
+the Connecticut authorities. They were the first to be systematically
+fined, whipped, and imprisoned for conducting themselves contrary to
+the laws for the support and honor of the Connecticut
+Establishment. For this reason, though they were weak in numbers and
+often an exasperating set of fanatics, they deserve a hearing. Their
+persecution began about 1677, while these people were chiefly resident
+in New London and the Seventh-day men were mostly members of the
+Rogers family. Later, the Rogerines spread to Norwich and Lebanon and
+their immediate vicinity.
+
+This sect of Rogerines arose from the intercourse through trade of two
+brothers, John and James Rogers of New London, with the Sabbatarians
+or Seventh-day Baptists of Rhode Island.  These brothers were baptized
+in 1674 and 1675, and their parents in the following year. All were
+received as members of the Seventh-day church at Newport. This did not
+trouble the Connecticut authorities, who appear not to have interfered
+with the converts until they committed a flagrant offense and put
+public dishonor upon the colony church; as in 1677, when elders of the
+Rhode Island church arrived in New London to baptize the wife of
+Joseph Rogers, another brother of the first two converts. The elders
+selected for their baptismal ceremony a quiet spot about two miles
+from the town. This did not suit John Rogers, who insisted that the
+town was the only proper place, and led the little procession into
+it. Mr.  Hiscox, one of the elders, was seized while preaching and
+carried before the magistrates, but was soon released. Deprived of
+their leader, the Sabbatarians withdrew to another place, and John
+Rogers, arrogating to himself the office of elder, performed the
+baptismal service. From this time forth he began to draw disciples to
+himself.  When he pushed his personal opinions too far, the Newport
+church attempted to discipline both him and his following, but, this
+attempt failing, the Rogerines became henceforth a distinct sect.
+
+The Rogerines, though strictly orthodox in the fundamental articles of
+the Christian faith, were opposed by the Connecticut magistrates as
+teachers of doctrines tending to undermine religion, as a persistently
+rebellious sect, and as notorious breakers of the peace. In faith and
+practice, these Rogerines bore some resemblance to the Baptists and
+also to the Quakers. Hence, they were often called Rogerine-Baptists
+or Rogerine-Quakers. Like the earlier Baptists and the Quakers, they
+believed it wrong to take an oath.  They differed from the
+Congregationalists chiefly in their form of administering baptism and
+the Lord's supper and in their opposition to any paid ministry. Rogers
+also claimed that there were certain tests of personal regeneration
+which the Congregationalists denied. John Bolles, one of the later
+leaders of the sect, declared the Congregational Sunday to be "a great
+Idol in this Country, and all the Religion built on the Holiness of
+the pretended Sabbath is Hypocrisy and further that it is contrary to
+Scripture, for Christians to exercise Authority over one another in
+matters of Religion." [67] Rogers, with less dignity and more
+pugnaciousness, called the authorities "the scarlet beast" and the
+Establishment a "harlot," hurling scriptural texts with rankling,
+exasperating abusiveness in his determination to prove her customs
+evil and anti-Christian. Not content with such railing, the Rogerines
+determined to show no respect to their adversaries' opinions and
+worship. Thus, while maintaining that there should be no _public_
+worship, Rogers, after his separation from the Seventh-day Baptists,
+perversely chose Sunday as the day most convenient for the Rogerines
+to hold their meetings. They not only exhorted and testified in the
+streets, but forced their way into the churches, pestering the
+ministers to argue disputed points.  They offended in another way,
+for, according to the colony law, they profaned the Sabbath by
+working, claiming that, as all days were holy, all were alike good for
+work. Fines and imprisonment began in 1677. They were continued in the
+hope, held by the authorities, that they could suppress the Rogerines
+by exactions which should melt away their estates. Sometimes these
+penalties were unjust, as when John Rogers could rightly claim that he
+was sentenced without benefit of jury, and, at another, that the
+authorities had seized his son's cattle to settle the father's fines.
+John Bolles pleaded against the injustice of forcing men "to pay Money
+for his (the minister's) preaching when they did not hear him and
+professed it was against their Consciences." [68] But such a plea was
+many, many years in advance of his time. The Rogerines, important, in
+their own estimate, as called of God, and angered by opposition,
+seized upon every scriptural passage that bade them exhort and
+testify, feeling it their duty to do so both in season and out. Had
+they been willing to give up this practice in public, they would
+probably have been left in comparative peace, for Governor Saltonstall
+wrote to Rogers offering him protection for his followers if they
+would consent to give up "testifying" and would hold their services
+quietly and privately. Rogers refused upon the ground that he had a
+right to use the colony churches for his preaching, since he and his
+people were obliged to contribute to their maintenance. This was
+logical, but not acceptable to the Connecticut magistrates, who
+continued to cool the enthusiasm of the Rogerines by occasional heavy
+penalties, and to look upon them as a set of fanatics, doomed to
+self-extinction.
+
+The attitude of the Connecticut authorities at this time toward the
+Quakers, or Society of Friends, was quite different from that assumed
+toward the Baptists and Rogerines. A retrospect of their history in
+the colony shows them to have been the earliest dissenters, and also
+the ones to whom concessions, though only temporary, were first
+made. Previous to the Restoration, the Quakers were the only
+dissenters with whom Connecticut had to deal. They appeared in
+Massachusetts in 1655, and in the following year New Haven colony
+found no laws could be too severe for the "cursed sect of the
+Quakers."  The General Court of Connecticut seconded the efforts of
+both New Haven and Massachusetts to exclude the obnoxious and
+determined sect, but it soon decided that its fears had been greatly
+exaggerated, and that mild laws and town legislation were
+sufficient. Accordingly, town officers were instructed to prevent
+Quakers settling in the colony, to forbid their books and writings,
+and to break up their meetings. It was forbidden, however, to lay upon
+them a fine of more than ten pounds or, under any circumstances, the
+death penalty.
+
+While New Haven whipped, branded, and transported Quakers,[d]
+Connecticut mildly enforced her laws against them, [69] and how mildly
+the following incidents will show. In 1658, John Rous and John
+Copeland, traveling preachers, reached Hartford. They were allowed to
+hold a discussion in the presence of the governor and magistrates upon
+"God is a Spirit." At its close, they were courteously informed that
+the laws of the colony forbade their remaining in it, and were
+requested to continue without further delay their journey into Rhode
+Island. This request was heeded, but while on their way, to quote
+Rous, "The Lord gave us no small dominion." It would seem as if the
+wise Quaker had taken the benefit of the law which forbade his
+remaining "more than fifteen days in a town," and, also, of the
+friendly curiosity of the people along his route. Rous further
+testified in behalf of Connecticut that "Among all the colonies found
+we not like moderation as this; most of the magistrates being more
+noble than those of the others." [70] A short time after Rous's visit,
+two Quakers, who persisted in holding services, were arrested and
+banished.[e] Still later, two women who attempted to conduct services
+in Hartford met with similar treatment, of whom their historian
+records: "Except that some extra apparel which they took with them was
+sold by the jaoler to pay his fee, no act of persecution befell them
+at Hartford."  [71] As late as 1676, when the Congregationalists and
+the constables of New London, with great violence, broke up a Friends'
+meeting, held by William Edmundson, he tells us that "the sober people
+were offended at them," [72] and that on the following Sunday, at "New
+Hartford" (Hartford), after the regular morning service, he was
+allowed to speak unhindered. The same afternoon, when he attempted to
+speak in another meeting-house, the officers, urged on by the
+minister, "haled me," he writes, "out of the worship-house, and hurt
+my arm so that it bled." When he asked them if they thought that was
+the right treatment of a man faint from fasting all day, they, with
+excuses for the conduct of the minister and the magistrates, hurried
+him to an inn. There the people were allowed to listen to his
+discourse, and, the next morning, he was bidden to go freely on his
+way.
+
+Most of the Connecticut Quakers were in the border towns. Few, if any,
+organized societies were formed in Connecticut until about the time of
+the Revolution. Their scattered converts were ministered to by
+traveling preachers, and, where possible, members would cross the
+boundaries to attend the Quarterly or Monthly Meetings in neighboring
+Rhode Island, or possibly Massachusetts, or on Long Island. These
+dissenters had quickly perceived the strength of union, and as early
+as 1661 the Rhode Island Yearly Meeting had been established, with its
+system of subordinate Quarterly and Monthly Meetings. Soon after,
+Yearly Meetings at Philadelphia brought reports from the southern and
+middle colonies.  Those at Flushing, Long Island, collected news of
+converts from New York as far east as the Connecticut River, while the
+Yearly Meeting at Newport, Rhode Island, heard from all members east
+of that river. The custom of exchanging yearly letters, giving the
+gist of these three annual meetings, was soon instituted. After the
+establishment of the London Yearly Meeting, the frequent exchange of
+letters with the colonial Quakers, begun in 1662, was reinforced by
+the exchange of English and American preachers.  By similar means, the
+whole Society the world over was bound closely together. Their common
+interests were guarded, and every infraction of their liberties
+known. If in any of the colonies, as in Connecticut, they were
+oppressed for their refusal to pay ecclesiastical taxes and to bear
+arms, the facts were known in England. Secular taxes they cheerfully
+met, but others were against their conscience. They were excellent
+citizens, and they were everywhere friendly with the Indians. Because
+of this friendship, and because the Connecticut colony desired the
+good offices of the Rhode Island authorities during the dangerous King
+Philip's War, the General Court had decided to show favor to the few
+Quakers who were then within the colony. Accordingly, in 1675, a bill
+was passed temporarily releasing the Quakers from fines for absence
+from public worship, provided "that they did not gather into
+assemblies within the colony or make any disturbance." How long this
+law was operative is uncertain, but probably until about 1702. It, is
+omitted in the revision of the laws of that year, and Gough, in his
+"History of the People called Quakers," says that the persecuting
+spirit died away, but was renewed by Connecticut in 1702.[f] We know
+some of the causes that probably led to its revival, such as the
+extravagances of the Rogerines, the increase of the Baptists, and the
+general feeling that the Congregational churches were inherently weak
+among themselves before this threatening increase of external
+foes. Moreover, in this same year, there began a very definite
+propaganda in behalf of an American episcopate. The attempt to revive
+persecution against the Quakers was unfortunate. They believed in
+liberty of conscience as a natural, inalienable right, and its
+practical exercise they meant to have. Their leaders were constant in
+their loyal addresses and dignified petitions to the throne. The great
+English Toleration Act had befriended them, and the Act of 1693 had,
+by substituting affirmation for oath, allowed them to take full
+advantage of the toleration measure. Such religious liberty as they
+enjoyed in England, they meant to possess in England's colonies; and
+when Connecticut, in 1702, again put on the thumb-screws of
+persecution, these dissenters at once sent a protest across the seas.
+Their great leader, William Penn, was again in favor at court and with
+the Queen, who, in Privy Council, October 11, 1705, favorably heard
+their petition and promptly annulled the Connecticut law of 1657
+against "Heretics, Infidels and Quakers," declaring it void and
+repealed. "The repealing of this Act put a final period to the
+persecuting of Quakers in New England." [73] To be more exact, it put
+an end to persecution, but not to occasional fines or to legalized
+taxes which the Quakers still considered unjust. But as Connecticut
+had many serious problems on her hands at this time, she thought it
+prudent to follow the lead of the Crown, and repealed the law of 1657,
+in so far as it applied to the Quakers.
+
+The year that the Quakers scored this victory, the Episcopalians
+lodged with the home government a serious complaint of the intolerance
+that Connecticut showed towards members of the Church of England. They
+complained that--
+
+    they have made a law that no Christians who are not of their
+    community, shall meet to worship God, or have a minister without
+    lycence from their Assembly; which law even extends to the Church
+    of England, as well as other professions tolerated in
+    England. [74]
+
+This was not the first time that such a complaint had been carried to
+England. As early as 1665 [g] it had been made, within a year after
+Connecticut had satisfied the Commissioners of Charles II, sending
+them home convinced that the Church of England services would be
+allowed in the colony as soon as there were settlers who desired
+them."[h] As there were no Episcopalians in the colony then, nor for
+nearly thirty years afterwards, and as Connecticut was in high favor
+with the Stuarts, little heed was paid to the complaint at the time,
+nor until long years afterwards, when it was coupled with graver
+offenses.
+
+Back of the personal affront to the sovereign in the persecution or
+oppression of members of the Church of England, there were graver
+causes of offense such as the Crown regarded as mistakes, or even
+misdemeanors. For many years Connecticut had been virtually an
+independent and sovereign state within her own borders. Her charter
+was a most liberal one. She had sought approval for it from the
+sovereigns, William and Mary, and, while she had been unable to obtain
+for it the crown's expressed approval, she had secured from the best
+legal talent a judgment declaring it still valid. She continued to be
+practically exempt from external interference with her domestic policy
+for a number of years after the Revolution of 1688, yet from that time
+on there was always at the English court a party, at first largely
+influenced by Sir Edmund Andros and his following, who were either
+jealous of Connecticut's charter or envious of her prosperity. They
+were always scheming and ready to prejudice the king against his
+colony, or to antagonize the Board of Trade.
+
+Within her own borders, Connecticut was peaceful, prosperous, and
+contented. For the most part, she was free from the harassing danger
+of Indian war. She readily contributed her share for the common
+defense of the colonies, and sent her loyal quotas to fight for
+England's territorial claims. For many years, Connecticut was shrewd
+enough to steer clear of the disastrous inflation of paper currency
+which overtook her sister colonies. Many strangers were attracted by
+her prosperity, so that, notwithstanding frequent emigrations of her
+people, she trebled her population about once in twenty years all
+through the first century of her existence.[i] With this increasing
+population came, in the latter part of the seventeenth century,
+members of the Church of England, who settled in Stratford and in the
+towns adjacent to New York.[j] They quickly found that their previous
+impressions were erroneous, and that Connecticut would not tolerate
+their religious services. Consequently, a report of the religious
+condition in Connecticut was made in England, in 1702, at about the
+time the Quakers complained of renewed persecution and at a time when
+the enemies of the colony were extremely active in charging her with
+misconduct.
+
+A report of Connecticut's ecclesiastical constitution and of her
+oppression of dissenters was made to the Bishop of London by John
+Talbot, who, with George Keith, had traveled through Connecticut on
+his way from New York to Boston. These men were missionary priests of
+the Church of England. In New London, Governor Saltonstall, then the
+minister of that town, knowing that there were a few Church-of-England
+men in the place, had met the travelers, "civilly entertained them at
+his house," and "invited them to preach in his church." [75] The
+Governor might not, the magistrates certainly did not, feel so kindly
+disposed toward Talbot a year or so later, when it was found that,
+upon his return to New York, he had written home to his superiors in
+England, earnestly advocating an American episcopate. True, he urged
+that the American bishop should have ecclesiastical powers only, and
+that those ecclesiastico-civil in character, such as the probating of
+wills, granting of marriage licenses, and the presentation of livings,
+should remain in the hands of the colonial governors. But the
+Connecticut authorities were not forgetful of Laud's purpose in 1638
+to appoint a bishop over New England, and its frustration by the
+political unrest at home. They recalled that the revival of such a
+project had floated as a rumor about those royal commissioners of 1664
+to whom they had given such satisfactory, if evasive,
+answers. Moreover, an Order in Council of 1685, of which there is
+external evidence, though the order itself is not recorded, had vested
+ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the colonies in the Bishop of
+London. [76] Connecticut knew also that four years later, in 1689 (the
+year that Episcopacy erected King's Chapel, Boston, with its royal
+endowment of £100 per year), the first commissary had been dispatched
+to Virginia to superintend the churches there. The Crown, as yet, had
+deemed it unwise to thrust an episcopate upon its dissenting colonies,
+and, except for a short time before Queen Anne's death, it was to take
+no interest in the plans for the American episcopate until some forty
+years later, when the King thought to discern in it some political
+advantage. But early in 1700, when complaints were lodged against
+Connecticut, there was a strong party within the English Church itself
+who were most anxious to see the episcopal bond between the mother
+country and her colonies strengthened. For this purpose, they had sent
+to America, in 1695, the Reverend Thomas Bray to report upon the
+conditions and churchly sentiment within the colonies.  His report was
+published under the title, "A Memorial representing the State of
+Religion in the Continent of North America." It was an appeal for
+episcopal oversight, and resulted in the formation in England, in
+1701, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
+Parts.  To this organization belonged all the English bishops with all
+their influential following. The Society regularly maintained
+missionary churches and missionary priests throughout the colonies.
+Candidates for this priesthood were required to submit to a thorough
+examination as to their fitness. Before sailing, they were required to
+report to the Bishop of London as their Diocesan and to the Archbishop
+of Canterbury as their Metropolitan. They were required to send full
+semi-annual reports of their work and to include in them any other
+information that promised to be of interest or advantage to the
+Society. John Talbot and George Keith were two of these missionaries.
+
+Talbot's appeal for the American episcopate was seconded in 1705 by
+fourteen clergymen from the middle colonies who convened at
+Burlington, N. J., to frame a petition to the English archbishop and
+bishops. In it they set forth the necessity in America of a bishop to
+ordain and to supply other ecclesiastical needs.  The petitioners
+added that a bishop was also necessary to counteract "the
+inconveniences which the church labors under by the influence which
+seditious men's counsels have upon the public administration and the
+opposition which they make to the good inclinations of well-affected
+persons." [77] In this appeal for a bishop stress was laid upon the
+cost and dangers of a trip to England for ordination, [78] and also to
+the frequent loss of converts from the independent ministry because of
+the lack of ordination privileges in America. These references, and
+also that to the "counsel of seditious men," could not be agreeable to
+large numbers of dissenting colonists. They would not be viewed with
+favor in Connecticut, where, by 1705, Episcopalians had become so
+numerous that a wealthy New Yorker, Colonel Heathcote by name, and a
+man thoroughly acquainted with his New England neighbor, undertook to
+look after the Church-of-England men as unfortunate brethren of a
+common faith. He appealed to the English Society for the
+Propagating[k] of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to extend its missions
+into Connecticut.  He asked that Rector Muirson be stationed at Rye,
+New York. Colonel Heathcote's idea was:--
+
+    to first plant the church securely in Westchester on the border of
+    Connecticut; and secondly, from that point to act upon
+    Connecticut, which was wholly Puritan and withal not a little
+    bigoted and uncharitable.
+
+Naturally, whatever of tolerance the Connecticut people might have
+shown two traveling preachers would turn to opposition when they saw
+the deliberate and well-organized attempt of this proselyting church,
+this old enemy of their forefathers, to invade their colony and
+undermine their own Establishment. Consequently, when, in company with
+Mr. Muirson, Colonel Heathcote began itinerating through southwestern
+Connecticut, ministers and magistrates frequently opposed and
+threatened them. The people occasionally welcomed them. They did not
+object to hear and to criticise the strangers, and were sometimes
+willing to have their good neighbors, if they chanced to be
+Church-of-England men, enjoy the ministrations of these passing
+visitors.  In some places, however, the civil officers went so far as
+to go about among the people, even from house to house, to dissuade
+them from attending Mr. Muirson's services,[l] and, at Fairfield, the
+meeting-house was closed lest it should be "defiled by idolatrous
+worship and superstitious ceremonies." [79] The Episcopalians
+themselves later acknowledged that, until 1709, they suffered little
+persecution beyond "that of the tongue." [m] When they were not
+permitted to organize churches, and were forced to pay taxes for the
+support of Congregationalism, they complained bitterly to their
+friends in England, and such oppression was listed among the many
+other misdemeanors, which, at this time, were cited against the former
+"dutiful colony of Connecticut."
+
+One of the schemes that Connecticut's enemies sought to carry out,
+both for their own advancement, and as a proposed punishment for an
+unruly colony, was a consolidation of the New England provinces under
+a royal governor. This consolidation was approached when Governor
+Fletcher of New York was appointed military chief of Connecticut. His
+attempt, in 1693, to enforce his military authority over Connecticut
+troops engaged in protecting the northern frontier, resulted in his
+failure, and in his angry report to the home authorities of
+Connecticut's insubordination and disloyalty. The colony at great
+expense sent Major Fitz-John Winthrop to England to answer these
+charges. He was successful in proving that Connecticut had not
+exceeded her charter rights in her determination to appoint her own
+military officers; that, in the wars, she had faithfully contributed
+her share to the common defense; and moreover, that it was essential
+that she should have the immediate control of her own troops to quell
+internal disorder, should it arise, or to repel the sudden approach of
+an enemy upon her exposed borders.  Major Winthrop also succeeded in
+having the colony's military obligations defined as the furnishing to
+the common defense of a number of her militia, proportionate to her
+population and to be under their own officers, and in war time a
+further draft of a hundred and twenty men to be under the direct
+control of the governor of New York. Notwithstanding the splendid
+success of Winthrop's mission, this same charge of insubordination was
+repeated in a long and later list of grievances against the colony.
+
+The consolidation scheme was revived by the appointment of Governor
+Bellomont over New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and
+as military head of Rhode Island and Connecticut; but the governor
+never tried to enforce his authority in Connecticut. In 1701 and 1706,
+bills aiming at this proposed consolidation were introduced into
+Parliament. That of 1701 failed of consideration from "shortness of
+time and multiplicity of issues." In 1704 an attempt was made to
+secure the appointment of a royal governor over Connecticut through an
+Order in Council, but that body preferred to leave the matter to
+Parliament,--hence the bill of 1706 favoring consolidation which
+failed of passage in the Lords. It failed largely because of the
+energy and eloquence of Sir Henry Ashurst, the Connecticut agent.
+
+Sir Henry also succeeded in getting a copy of the various charges
+against the colony, which were thought to justify annulling her
+charter, and in obtaining a grant of time to submit them to the
+Connecticut General Court for a reply.  The colony found that it was
+charged with encouraging violations of the Navigation Laws; with
+holding in contempt the Courts of Admiralty; with failing to furnish
+troops and to place them under officers of the Crown; with executing
+capital punishment without any authority in her charter; with
+encouraging manufactures, contrary to the known wishes of the Crown;
+with irregular and unjust court proceedings; with treating
+contumaciously the royal commissioners sent to settle the Mohegan land
+controversy; with injustice to the Quakers; with forbidding services
+of the Church of England; and with disallowing appeals to
+England. These were the more important complaints. In behalf of the
+colony, Sir Henry appeared before the Privy Council, and in able
+argument showed that many of the charges were without foundation; that
+some of the colony's acts which were complained of as unlawful were
+well within her charter privileges; and that the decisions of her
+courts, far from being illegal, had, in nearly every case, when
+brought to the attention of the English government, been approved by
+it. Further than this, the Connecticut agent obtained a stay in the
+proceedings of the Mohegan case,[n] though it was soon reopened and
+seriously menaced the colony until the settlement in her favor in
+1743. In the famous Liveen or Hallam case, Connecticut opposed an
+appeal to the Crown, because such an appeal would give the Privy
+Council the right to interpret the charter and pass upon the colony
+laws.[o] Though Sir Henry Ashurst had succeeded in having many of the
+charges dropped, the danger had been so great to the colony that he
+privately advised the government to conciliate the Crown by protesting
+its immediate readiness to fulfill all military obligations, and, as a
+further proof of loyalty, to repeal at once the old law of 1657
+against heretics which Queen Anne had just annulled (October 11, 1705)
+at the request of the Quakers.  The General Court, as we have seen,
+followed his advice, and repealed the law in so far as it concerned
+Quakers. But this was not enough to satisfy other dissenters in the
+colony.  The Rev. John Talbot had arrived in England in 1706 to plead
+in person [80] for an American bishop, and Colonel Heathcote in 1707
+wrote [81] with respect to the Episcopalians in Connecticut that it
+would be absolutely necessary to procure an order from the Queen
+freeing the Church of England people from the established rates, or
+they would always be so poor as to be dependent upon the Society for
+Propagating the Gospel.  He further asked the repeal of the law
+whereby the Connecticut magistrates "refuse liberty of conscience to
+those of the established (English) church." Colonel Heathcote adds
+that it would not be much more than had been granted to the Quakers,
+and that it "would be of the greatest service to the Church than can
+at first sight be imagined."
+
+So great was the importunity of the Connecticut Episcopalians, that,
+in 1708, Governor Saltonstall wrote to England to disarm their
+complaints against the colony. It looked as if religious discontent
+might become a dangerous thing. Royal disfavor certainly would be. It
+might be better to condone the lack of religious uniformity among a
+few scattered dissenters, differing among themselves, and to endure
+it,--obnoxious as it was,--than to suffer the loss of the Connecticut
+charter. Moreover, this tendency to the spread of nonconformity might
+be controlled by judicious legislation. Furthermore, it would be
+politic to have upon the colony lawbook some relief for dissenters
+from its Establishment similar to the English statutes relieving
+nonconformists there from adherence to the Church of England. Hence
+the Toleration Act, and, of necessity, the proviso in the act of the
+following session of the General Court whereby it approved the
+Saybrook Platform.
+
+The Toleration Act was of no benefit to Rogerine or Quaker, who by
+their principles were forbidden to take the oath of allegiance that it
+demanded. It was of little practical advantage to Baptist or
+Episcopalian, but it was a move in the right direction. According to
+its terms, dissenters, before the county courts, could qualify for
+organization into distinct religious bodies by taking the oath of
+fidelity to the crown, by denying transubstantiation and by declaring
+their sober dissent from Congregationalism. They could have such
+liberty, provided that it in no way worked to the detriment of the
+church established in the colony,--that is, the law did not exclude
+any dissenter "from paying any such (established) minister or town
+dues as are or shall hereafter be due from him."
+
+At best, such toleration would provide a rigorous test of a
+dissenter's sincerity. He would have nothing of worldly advantage to
+gain and much to lose as a "come-outer" from the Establishment.
+Social prestige would remain almost entirely within the state
+church. It would be to a man's pecuniary advantage to stay within its
+fold.  Without it, he would be doubly taxed; by the State for the
+support of Congregationalism, by his conscience to maintain the church
+it approved.  If he lapsed in duty toward his own, he would easily
+become a marked man among his few co-religionists. If he failed to
+attend regularly the church of his choice, the ancient law of the
+colony would hale him before the judge for neglect of public worship,
+and fine him for the benefit of a form of religion which he viewed
+with aversion as unscriptural, if not also anti-Christian. In a new
+and thinly settled country where life was hard and money scarce, this
+double taxation was of itself almost prohibitive of dissent. And yet
+this Toleration Act, notwithstanding its meagre terms, and which,
+considered in the light of the twentieth century, implies one of the
+worst forms of tyranny, was a measure of undreamed-of and dangerous
+liberality if looked at from the point of view of the sixteenth
+century, or even from that of many princes of the eighteenth. The very
+summer following the passage of this act saw London crowded with
+refugees from the religious tyranny of the Palatinate, whose Elector
+was determined to force the people, after over a hundred and thirty
+years of Protestantism, back to Rome because he was himself a
+Romanist, and IMPERII RELIGIO RELIGIO POPULI. The Connecticut
+law-makers had a good deal of faith in this same principle, though
+they never had resorted, and did not wish to do so, to extreme
+penalties to secure religious uniformity. The solidarity of the people
+and the geographical position of the colony had contributed largely to
+a uniform church life. Far from the usual ports of entry, the early
+dissenters had for the most part passed her by. But at the beginning
+of the eighteenth century, watching the signs of the times elsewhere,
+and aware of the cosmopolitan element creeping into her population,
+the Connecticut authorities were ready to admit that soon it might be
+necessary to modify somewhat the old dictum that the religion of the
+government must be the religion of all its people. England had seen
+fit to make such modification, and her test of roughly twenty years
+had shown conclusively that religious toleration and civil disorders
+were not synonymous, as had formerly been believed. The Connecticut
+colony had no particular desire to follow in England's steps. If it
+had, after-history would have associated it in men's minds less with
+the Puritanical narrowness of New England and more with such tolerance
+as was shown in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Rhode Island. Tolerance,
+Connecticut thought, might work well under a government like that of
+England, but her leaders were not convinced that it would be
+altogether wise for their own land. They, therefore, had preferred to
+postpone as long as they could the possible evil day. Now that
+toleration could no longer be delayed, they had admitted it most
+guardedly, and at once had proceeded to strengthen their own church
+foundations by the establishment of the Saybrook system of
+ecclesiastical government.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] "For the ease of such as soberly dissent from the way of worship
+and ministrie established by the ancient laws of this government, and
+still continuing, that if any such persons shall at the countie court
+of the countie they belong to, qualifie themselves according to an act
+made in the first year of the late King William and Queen Mary,
+granting libertie of worshipping God in a way separate from that which
+is by law established, they shall enjoy the same libertie and
+privilege in any place in this colonie without let, or hindrance or
+molestation whatsoever. Provided always that nothing herein shall be
+construed to the prejudice of the rights and privileges of the
+churches as by law established or to the _excluding any person from
+paying any such minister or town dues as are or shall hereafter be due
+from him_." (The italics are mine. M. L. G.)
+_Conn. Col. Rec_. v, 50.
+
+Failure to comply with the law was punished by a heavy fine, and in
+default thereof, by heavy bail or by imprisonment until the time for
+trial.
+
+[b] Later in 1707, Mr. Wightman and Mr. John Bulkley,
+Congregationalist minister of Colchester, by permission of the
+authorities, who were troubled by the rumor that the Baptists and
+Seventh-day Baptists were about to begin proselytizing in earnest in
+Connecticut, entered into a public debate as to the merits of their
+respective religious beliefs. Not much came of it to the
+Congregationalists, who had expected to see Mr.  Wightman's arguments
+annihilated, while the Baptists had a fine opportunity to publish
+broadcast their views. Such a discussion was steadily forbidden Browne
+and Barrowe in 1590.  A century had developed sufficient toleration to
+make interesting, as well as permissible, a public discussion of
+divergent beliefs.
+
+[c] The report to the Commission of Trade and Foreign Plantations made
+in 1680 gave:
+
+"26 Answ. Our people in this colony are some strict Congregational
+men, others more large Congregational men, and some moderate
+Presbyterians, and take the Congregational men of both sorts, they are
+the greatest part of the people in the colony.
+
+"There are 4 or 5 Seven-day men, in our Colony, and about so many
+Quakers.
+
+"17 Answ. (1) Great care is taken for the instruction of ye people in
+ye X'tian religion, by ministers catechising of them and preaching to
+them twice every Sabbath daye and sometimes on lecture dayes; and so
+by masters of famalayes instructing and catechising the children and
+servants being so required by law. In our corporation there are
+twenty-six towns and twenty-one churches. There is in every town in
+the colony a settled minister except in two towns newly begun."--This
+was equivalent to one minister to 460 persons, or to about 90
+families.--_Conn. Col. Rec._ iii, 300. Trumbull's _Hist. of
+Conn._ i, 397.
+
+[d] Humphrey Norton in the New Haven colony was whipped severely,
+burnt in the hand with the letter "H" for heretic, and banished for
+being a Quaker. The next year, for testifying against the treatment of
+Norton, William Bond, Mary Dyer, and Mary Whetherstead were
+apprehended by the same authorities, and forcibly carried back to
+Rhode Island.--H. Rogers, _Mary Dyer_, p. 36. For the Quaker Laws
+of both colonies see Note 69.
+
+[e] The notorious William Ledra of later Massachusetts fame was one of
+these.
+
+[f] This year a law was passed requiring every person to carefully
+apply himself on the Lord's day to the duties of religion.  See _New
+Haven Hist. Soc. Papers_, ii, 399.
+
+[g] "Articles of Misdemeanor vs. Connecticut, July, 1665. "They deny
+to the inhabitants the exercise of the religion of the church of
+England; arbitrarily fining those who refuse to come to their
+congregational assemblies."
+
+Law Book of Conn, printed 1670. "It is ordered that when the ministry
+of the word is established according to the Gospel, throughout this
+Colony, every person shall duly resort and attend thereunto
+respectively upon the Lord's day, upon public fast days and days of
+thanksgiving as are generally kept by appointment of authority; and
+any person ... without necessary cause, withdrawing himself from the
+public ministry of the word, he shall forfeit for his absence from
+every such meeting five shillings."--_Conn. Col. Rec_. iii, 294.
+
+[h] They reported that the colony would "not hinder any from enjoying
+the sacraments and using the common prayer book, provided that they
+hinder not the maintenance of the public minister."--Hutchinson,
+_Hist, of Mass._, p. 412.
+
+Dr. Beardsley suggests that influential citizens may have assured them
+that the laws would be modified to accommodate
+Episcopalians.--E. E. Beardsley, _Hist. of the Episcopal Church_,
+i, p. 116.
+
+[i] Population in 1656, 800; 1665, 9000; 1670-80, 10,000-14,000; 1689,
+17,000-20,000; 1730, approximately, 50,000; 1756, 130,000; 1761,
+145,000; 1776, 200,000; 1780, 237,946--F. B. Dexter, Estimates of the
+Population of the American Colonies, in _American Antiquarian
+Society Proceedings_, 2d series, vol. 5.
+
+[j] Up to 1680, there was only one Episcopal clergyman in New England,
+Father Jordan, of Portsmouth, N. H. There was an Episcopal clergyman
+at the fort in New York, and outside of Virginia and Maryland only two
+others in North America. There were a few Episcopal families in
+Stratford in 1690.
+
+[k] Or "Propagation,"--as it is most frequently called.
+
+[l] Mr. Muirson's report after his first visit to Stratford was that
+he had had "a very numerous congregation both forenoon and afternoon."
+He continues, "I baptized about twenty-four persons the same
+day.... "The Independents threatened me and all who were instrumental
+in bringing me thither, with prison and hard usage. They are very much
+incensed to see the Church (Rome's sister, as they ignorantly call
+her) is likely to gain ground among 'em, and use all stratagem they
+can invent to defeat my enterprise,"--_Church Doc. Conn._, i,
+p. 17.
+
+Colonel Heathcote wrote, "The Ministers are very uneasy at our coming
+amongst them, and abundance of pains were taken to persuade and
+terrify the people from hearing Mr.  Muirson, but it availed
+nothing;"--not even the threat to jail the rector for holding services
+contrary to the colony law which the magistrates had read to him at
+his lodgings.--_Church Doc. Conn._, i, p. 20.
+
+[m] "We received no persecution than that of the tongue until
+December, 1709."--_Ibid._, i, p. 42.
+
+[n] The Mohegan Indians had sold certain lands to the colony in 1659,
+Major John Mason acting as agent. These lands had been conveyed to
+English proprietors. John Mason, the major's grandson, representing
+his own and other interests, pretended that both his grandfather and
+the Indians had been overreached and wronged by the colony in the
+transaction; that the colony had taken more land than agreed upon from
+the Indians, and had also seized some that belonged by private
+purchase to the Mason heirs. For the sake of peace and the credit of
+magnanimity, the government offered to the chief, Owaneco, who
+represented the Indians, to pay them again for the land, but Mason and
+his party resolved to prevent such a settlement. One of them went to
+England with a false report of extortion practiced upon the savages,
+and a commission was sent out to investigate. Connecticut was willing
+to answer the commissioners if they sought facts for a report, but
+when they assumed the right to decide the question judicially, the
+colony could only protest against their pretensions. The commissioners
+adjudged the land in dispute to the Indians and the Mason party, and
+charged the colony nearly £600 and costs. The colony appealed to the
+Crown and won the case in 1743; but it was again appealed by Mason,
+and in this fashion dragged along until after the Revolution, when the
+Indians were content to accept the reservation allotted by the State
+to them.--C. W. Bowen, _Boundary Disputes_, pp. 25-27.
+
+[o] John Liveen of New London in 1689 left property to the "ministry
+of the town." Major Fitz-John Winthrop and his brother-in-law Edward
+Palmes were executors. Major Winthrop was absent with the army on the
+northern frontier, but made no objection to the probating of the will
+at a special court in New London in 1689. This probating Major Palmes,
+a former friend of Andros, declared void, since Andros had ruled that
+all wills should be probated at Boston. Upon special application of
+Mrs. Liveen, in 1690, the county court probated a copy of the will,
+since Palmes held the original. To this probating the latter also
+objected on the ground that, though the court had been again
+legalized, the "ministry" referred to must be that recognized by the
+English law and not the Congregational ministry of the town,--the only
+one then existing. The colonial courts decided against him, and John
+and Nicholas Hallam, the widow's sons by a former marriage, virtually
+accepted the terms of the will and the court's decision by being
+parties to the sale of a portion of the Liveen estate, the ship
+"Liveen." The estate could not be wholly settled; so the town
+continued to receive a regular dividend until after the widow's death
+in 1698. Then the sons attempted to contest the will. The Court of
+Assistants confirmed the proceedings of the lower courts. Not
+satisfied with this decision, Nicholas Hallam went to England in
+1700-1702, and was allowed to plead his case before the Privy
+Council. Sir Henry Ashurst held that the charter gave the right of
+final decision, but the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations
+thought otherwise, and it looked as if Hallam was to win his case,
+when he was ordered to return to America and, because of
+technicalities, to retake all the testimony. In 1704, because of his
+acknowledged signature in the sale of the "Liveen," the suit was
+decided in favor of the colony.--F. M. Caulkins, _Hist. of New
+London_, pp. 222-228.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE FIRST VICTORY FOR DISSENT
+
+
+    Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear
+    thy God; for I am the Lord your God.--Leviticus, xxv, 17.
+
+The dissenters found the terms of the Toleration Act too narrow; the
+conditions under which they could enjoy their own church life too
+onerous.  Consequently, they almost immediately began to agitate for a
+larger measure of liberty, and persisted in their demands for almost
+twenty years before obtaining any decided success.
+
+Foremost among the dissenters pressing for greater liberty, for
+exemption from taxes for the benefit of Congregational worship, and
+for the same privileges in the support of their own churches as the
+members of the Connecticut Establishment enjoyed, were the
+Episcopalians. The year following the passage of the Toleration Act
+witnessed the first persecution of these people beyond that of tongue
+and pen. Fines and imprisonments began in earnest and were continued,
+more or less frequently, for many years. Even as late as 1748, the
+Episcopalians of Reading were fined for reading the Prayer-book and
+for working on public fast-days. Still later, in 1762, there was
+occasional oppression, as in the case of the New Milford
+Episcopalians. They desired to build a church, but had to wait for the
+county court to approve the site chosen. The court was averse to the
+building of the church, and accordingly was a long time in complying
+with this technicality. Meanwhile, the Episcopalians could not build,
+neither would they attend Congregational worship, and the magistrates,
+refusing to recognize the services held in private houses, fined them
+for absence from public worship. This treatment was abandoned as soon
+as it became known that the rector had counseled his people to submit,
+as he intended to send a copy of the court's proceedings to England to
+be passed upon as to their legality. It was such petty, yet costly,
+persecution as this that became frequent after 1709, and from which
+the Episcopalians were determined to escape.
+
+These Church-of-England men were increasing in numbers in the colony,
+and, at the passage of the Toleration Act, were quite hopeful that the
+Rev. John Talbot's mission to England to secure a bishop for America
+would prove successful.  Although he was not successful in obtaining
+the episcopate, his mission received so much encouragement from those
+in high places that, upon Talbot's return, a home for the prospective
+bishop was purchased, in 1712, in Burlington, New Jersey. It was known
+that Queen Anne was much interested in the proposed bishopric, and
+letters were exchanged between the leaders of the movement in England
+and the prominent Independent clergymen in the colonies, in order to
+sound the state of public opinion. A bill for the American expansion
+of the Church of England, as a branch to be severed from the
+jurisdiction of the Bishop of London and to be planted in the colonies
+under a bishop with full ecclesiastical powers, was prepared and was
+ready for presentation in Parliament when the Queen's death, August 1,
+1714, caused its withdrawal, and felled the hopes of Churchmen. George
+I had too many temporal affairs to occupy his mind to burden himself
+with the intricate rights, powers, and privileges of a new episcopate,
+sought by a few colonials scattered through the American
+wilderness;--too many vexatious secular affairs in the colonies, and
+too heavy war-clouds darkening his European horizon. The Society for
+the Propagation of the Gospel, in 1715, made one futile attempt to
+interest the king, and then gave up any hope of the immediate
+appointment of an American bishop.
+
+In the Connecticut colony, the Episcopalians had so increased that, in
+1718, there was in Stratford a church of one hundred baptized persons,
+thirty-six communicants, and a congregation that frequently numbered
+between two and three hundred people. They were ministered to by
+traveling missionaries of the Society for the Propagation of the
+Gospel. When these Stratford people appealed to the Society for a
+settled minister, they complained that "there is not any government in
+America but has our settled Church and minister, but this of
+Connecticut." [82] Still all the Society could then do was to send a
+missionary priest, and to keep alive in England, among the powerful
+Church party there, so keen an interest that it would seize upon the
+first opportunity to use its great influence and to compel the English
+government to force the Connecticut authorities to comply with the
+demands of the colonial Churchmen for the unrestricted enjoyment of
+their religion. Such an interest was kept up by the regular, full
+reports which the Society required of all its missionaries.  And these
+reports, be it remembered, were expected to contain news of any kind,
+and of everything that happened in the colony of Connecticut, or
+elsewhere, that could possibly be turned to advantage in influencing
+the home authorities, in pushing the interests of the English
+Establishment in America, and in strengthening its membership
+there. Although, after the death of Queen Anne, the king's
+indifference checked the movement for the American episcopate, its
+friends did not abandon it, and a persistent effort for its success
+was soon begun. One of its prime movers was the Rev. George Pigott,
+missionary to Stratford, Connecticut, in 1722.
+
+Under Mr. Pigott, the Church of England in Connecticut made a most
+encouraging and important gain, when, in 1722, Timothy Cutler, Rector
+of Yale College, and six of his associates proclaimed their
+dissatisfaction with Congregationalism, or, as they termed it, "the
+Presbyterianism" of the Connecticut established church.  They asserted
+that "some of us doubt the validity, and the rest are more fully
+persuaded of the invalidity of the Presbyterian ordination in
+opposition to the Episcopal."
+
+Three of these men remained in "doubt," and continued within the
+Congregational church.[a] Four of them, Rector Timothy Cutler, Tutor
+Daniel Brown, Rev. James Wetmore of North Haven, and Rev. Samuel
+Johnson of West Haven, went to England to receive Episcopal
+ordination.[b] The story of their conversion is to Churchmen an
+illustration of the scriptural command, "Cast your bread upon the
+waters and it will return to you after many days." The Connecticut
+authorities had chosen the Rev. Timothy Cutler because of his
+eloquence, and had sent him to Stratford to counteract the early
+successes of the Church-of-England missionary priests, who were at
+work among the people there. Later, in 1719, Cutler, because of his
+abilities, was chosen President, or Rector, of Yale, as, in the early
+days, the head of the college was called. The seeds of doubt had
+entered his mind during his Stratford pastorate. He and his associates
+found many books in the college library that, instead of lessening,
+increased their doubts. After presiding for three years over the
+greatest institution of learning in the colony, which had for its
+object the preparation of men for service in civil office and, even
+more in those days, for service in religion, Rector Cutler, together
+with his associates, announced their change of faith. The colony was
+taken by storm, and there spread throughout its length and breadth,
+and throughout New England also, a great fear that Episcopacy had made
+a _coup d'etat_ and was shortly to become the established church
+of her colonies as well as of England herself. Naturally, among the
+colonial Churchmen, it excited the largest hope "of a glorious
+revolution among the ecclesiastics of the country, because the most
+distinguished gentlemen among them are resolutely bent to promote her
+(the Church's) welfare and embrace her baptism and discipline, and if
+the leaders fall in there is no doubt to be made of the people." [83]
+
+These hopes were in a degree confirmed by the conversion of one or two
+more ministers, and by the Yale men that the classes of 1723, 1724,
+1726, 1729, and 1733 gave to Episcopacy. By the impetus of these
+conversions, within a generation, "the Episcopal Church under a native
+born minister had penetrated every town, had effected lodgment in
+every Puritan stronghold, and had drawn into her membership large
+numbers of that sober-minded, self-contained, tenacious people who
+constitute the membership of New England to-day."[84] After the
+conversions of 1722, the movement for the apostolic episcopate in
+America became more determined, and never wholly ceased until the
+consecration of Samuel Seabury as bishop of Connecticut in 1784.
+
+A decided change took place in Connecticut's policy upon the death of
+Governor Saltonstall in 1724, and under his successor in office,
+former Lieutenant-Governor Joseph Talcott. The new governor was a
+Hartford man, more liberal in his ecclesiastical opinions and opposed
+to severe measures against dissenters. Hardly had Governor Talcott
+taken office when Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, wrote him, urging
+in behalf of the Episcopalians a remittance of ecclesiastical
+taxes. "If I ask anything," wrote the Bishop, "inconsistent with the
+laws of the country, I beg pardon; but if not, I hope my request for
+favors for the Church of England will not appear unreasonable." The
+Bishop accompanied his letter with a paper, a copy of a circular
+letter to the different colonial governors, in which, among other
+matters relating to his clergy, he professed his readiness to
+discipline them if necessary "in order to contribute to the peace and
+honor of the government." This proposal was due, in part, to the
+scandalous reputation in New England which the southern settled clergy
+bore. Because of this reputation, the Society for the Propagation of
+the Gospel had from the first made a special point of the morals of
+their missionary priests. Indeed, these priests, themselves, had
+warned the Society that, if it expected any returns from its missions
+in New England, it would have to take great pains to send out a
+superior class of men. Governor Talcott replied to Bishop Gibson,
+under date of December 1, 1725,[c] "that there is but one Church of
+England minister in this colony, [d] and the church with him have the
+same protection as the rest of our Churches and are under no
+constraint to contribute to the support of any other minister." After
+reflecting upon the number and character of the few persons in another
+town or two "who claim exemption from rates," Governor Talcott quotes
+the colony law for the support of the ministry in every town, and adds
+that, upon the death of an incumbent, the townspeople "are quickly
+supplied by persons of our own communion, educated in our public
+schools of Learning; which through divine blessing afforded us, we
+have sufficiency of those who are both learned and exemplary in their
+lives." This was a polite way of informing the bishop that Connecticut
+preferred to do without his missionaries.  It was one thing for the
+tolerant governor to grant exemption from Congregational taxes in the
+case of an influential church like that of Stratford, and quite
+another to extend the same toleration to every scattered handful of
+people who might claim to be members of the Church of England, and who
+might welcome the coming of her missionary priests.
+
+The Episcopalians, however, were not content to rest their privileges
+upon their numerical power in each little town, or upon the personal
+favor of the magistrates. They therefore continued their agitation for
+exemption from support of Congregationalism and from fines for
+neglecting its public worship. Under the lead of the wardens and
+vestry of Fairfield, they obtained favor with the General Court in
+1727,[e] when an act was passed, "providing how taxes levied upon
+members of the Church of England for the support of the Gospel should
+be disposed of," and exempting said members from paying any taxes "for
+the building of meeting houses for the present established Churches of
+this government." The law further declared that if within the parish
+bounds--
+
+    there be a Society of y'e Church of England, where there is a
+    person in orders, according to y'e Canons of y'e Church of
+    England, settled and abiding among them and performing divine
+    service so near to any person that hath declared himself of y'e
+    Church of England, that he can conveniently and doth attend y'e
+    public worship there, then the collectors, having first
+    indifferently levied y'e tax, as aforesaid, shall deliver y'e
+    taxes collected of such persons declaring themselves, and
+    attending as aforesaid, unto y'e minister of y'e Church of
+    England, living near unto such persons; which minister shall have
+    power to receive and recover y'e same, in order to his support in
+    y'e place assigned to him.
+
+    But if such proportion of any taxes be not sufficient in any
+    Society of y'e Church of England to support y'e incumbent there,
+    then such Society may levy and collect of them who profess and
+    attend as aforesaid, greater taxes, at their own discretion, to
+    y'e support of their ministers.
+
+    And the parishoners of y'e Church of England, attending as
+    aforesaid, are hereby excused from paying any taxes for y'e
+    building meeting houses for y'e present Established Churches of
+    this government.[85]
+
+After the passing of this law, the magistrates contented themselves
+with occasional unfair treatment of the weaker churches. They
+sometimes haggled over the interpretation of the terms "near" and
+"conveniently" as found in the law. They objected to the appointment
+of one missionary to several stations or towns.  They also did not
+always enforce upon the Presbyterian collectors strict accuracy in
+making out their lists, and when the Episcopalians sought redress for
+unreturned taxes or unjust fines, they found their lawsuits blocked in
+the courts.  The magistrates, also, showed almost exclusive preference
+for Congregationalists as bondsmen for strangers settling in the
+towns, while the courts continued to frequently refuse or to delay the
+approval of sites chosen for the erection of Episcopal churches.
+
+Finally, there was a certain amount of political and social ostracism
+directed against Churchmen. A notable attempt to defraud the
+Episcopalians of a due share of the school money, derived from the
+sale of public lands and from the emission of public bills, was
+defeated in 1738 by a spirited protest, setting forth the illegality
+of the proceeding, the probable indignation of the King at such
+treatment of his good subjects and brethren in the faith, and by
+pointing to the fact, as recently shown by a test case in
+Massachusetts, that the Connecticut Establishment itself could not
+exist without the special consent of the King. [86] The petition was
+signed by six hundred and thirty-six male inhabitants of the
+colony. They asserted in their protest that they had a share in equity
+derived from the charter; that they bore their share of the expenses
+of the government; and that the teaching of the Church of England made
+just as good citizens as did that of the Presbyterian Church. The
+public lands, from the sale of which the school money was derived,
+were those along the Housatonic river.  The money was appropriated
+according to a law enacted in 1732 which distributed it among the
+older towns as a reward for good schools. But, in 1738, the
+legislature passed a bill by which a majority vote of the town or
+parish could divert the money to the support of "the gospel ministry
+as by law in the colony established." Naturally this new law operated
+against all dissenters, who, equally anxious with the
+Congregationalists to have good schools, were an ignored minority
+whenever the latter chose to vote the money to the support of their
+church. As a result of this spirited protest of the Episcopalians, the
+enactment of 1738 was repealed two years later "because of
+misunderstanding." Notwithstanding such hardships as the Episcopalians
+suffered in Connecticut, their own writers declare that, at this
+period of colonial history, the Churchmen in Connecticut had less to
+complain of than their co-religionists in New York and in the southern
+colonies.
+
+While the Episcopalians were agitating for a larger liberty than that
+granted by the Toleration Act, the other dissenters, Rogerines,
+Quakers, and Baptists, were not idle.
+
+The efforts of the Rogerines were marked more by violence than by
+success. They had become less fanatic, and persecution had died away
+during the first ten years following the passage of the Toleration
+Act. All might have gone smoothly had they not suddenly stirred
+Governor Saltonstall to renewed dislike, the magistrates to fresh
+alarm, and the people to great contempt and indignation. This they
+accomplished by a sort of mortuary tribute to their leader, John
+Rogers, who died in 1721. This tribute took the form of renewed zeal,
+and was marked by a revival of some of their most obnoxious
+practices. The Rogerines determined to break up the observance of the
+Puritan Sabbath. Immediately, an "Act for the Better Detecting and
+more effectual Punishment of Prophaneness and Immorality" was
+passed. It was especially directed against the Rogerines. Its most
+striking characteristic was that it changed the policy of the
+government from the time-honored Anglo-Saxon theory that every man is
+innocent until proved guilty, to the doctrine that a man, accused,
+must be guilty until proved innocent. In so oft-recurring a charge as
+that of being absent from public worship, it became lawful to exact
+fines unless the accused could prove before a magistrate that he had
+been present. But this first act did not dampen sufficiently the
+renewed zeal of the Rogerines, and for two years there was a
+continuance of sharp legislation to reduce their disorderliness. They
+were fined five shillings for leaving their houses on Sunday unless to
+attend the orthodox worship, and twenty shillings for gathering in
+meeting-houses without the consent of the ministers. They were given a
+month, or less, in the house of correction, and at their own expense
+for board, for each offense of unruly or noisy behavior on Sunday near
+any meeting-house; for unlawful travel or behavior on that day; and
+for refusal to pay fines assessed for breaking any of the colony's
+ecclesiastical laws. These laws [87] were enforced one Sunday in 1725
+against a company of Rogerines who were going quietly on their way
+through Norwich to attend services in Lebanon.  The outburst of
+religious fervor spent itself in two or three years. Governor Talcott
+did not believe in strong repressive measures, and it was soon
+conceded that the ignoring of their eccentricities, if kept within
+reasonable bounds, was the most efficient way to discourage the
+Rogerines.  Summarizing the influence of this sect, we find that they
+contributed nothing definite to the slow development of religious
+toleration in Connecticut.  If anything, their fanaticism hindered its
+growth, and they gained little for themselves and nothing for the
+cause. As the years went on and their little sect were permitted to
+indulge their peculiar notions, and the props of the State were not
+weakened nor the purity of religion vitally assailed, the Rogerines
+contributed their mite towards convincing mankind, and the Connecticut
+people in particular, that brethren of different creeds and religious
+practices might live together in security and harmony without danger
+to the civil peace.
+
+During the seventeen years that Governor Talcott held office, 1724-41,
+the life of the colony was marked by its notable expansion through the
+settlement of new towns, [f] and by the dexterity with which its
+foreign affairs--its relations to England and its boundary disputes
+with its neighbors--were conducted. The last dragged on for years,
+calling for several expensive commissions and causing much
+confusion. The Massachusetts line was determined in 1713; that of
+Rhode Island in 1728; and that of New York in 1735. Connecticut, in
+all these cases, had to be wary lest the attempts to settle these
+disputed claims should weary, antagonize, or anger the King.[88] Many
+of the old charges were renewed, and Connecticut was no longer
+regarded as a "dutiful" colony, but rather as one altogether too
+independent, from whom it might be wise to wrest her charter,
+subjecting her to a royal governor. As early as 1715, her colonial
+agent had been advised to procure a peaceable surrender of the
+charter. To this proposal, Governor Saltonstall had returned a
+courteous and dignified refusal. But the danger was always cropping
+up.  Governor Talcott's English official correspondence is full of
+details concerning Connecticut's increasing anxiety concerning the
+attitude and the decisions of the home government; over the dangers
+consequent to her institutions or to her charter. It was repeatedly
+suggested that that charter should be surrendered, modified in favor
+of the King's supervision, or annulled. In the Governor's letters, one
+follows the intricacies of the boundary disputes, of the complicated
+Mohegan case, and sounds the dangers to the colony from the
+disposition and decisions of the Crown.[89]
+
+One case in particular demands a passing consideration because of its
+far-reaching effects, and because it paralleled in time the
+legislation in the colony which broadened the Toleration Act. This was
+the famous case of John Winthrop against his brother-in-law, Thomas
+Lechmere, to recover real estate left by the elder Winthrop to his son
+and daughter. The suit brought up the whole question of land entail in
+Connecticut, and, with it, the possibility of an economic and social
+revolution in the colony which would have been the death-blow to its
+prosperity. Winthrop, by appealing the case to England, brought
+Connecticut into still greater disfavor, and risked the loss of the
+charter, together with many special privileges in religion and
+politics which the colony enjoyed through a liberal interpretation of
+that instrument. In the course of the suit, the constitutional
+relations of Crown and colony had to be threshed out.
+
+John Winthrop's father died in 1717, when, according to Connecticut,
+but not English, law of primogeniture, Winthrop received as eldest son
+a double portion of his father's real estate, and his sister, Thomas
+Lechmere's wife, the rest.  Winthrop's brother-in-law was not a man
+wholly to be trusted to deal justly with his wife's property; but
+this, in itself, was a very small factor in the suit. Winthrop was at
+variance with the Connecticut authorities, and was dissatisfied with
+his share both of his father's property and of his uncle's, whose heir
+he was. No matter how much his own personal interests might endanger
+the colony, Winthrop resolved to have all the property due him as
+eldest son and heir under English law. He appealed his case to
+England, taking it directly from the local probate court, and ignoring
+the Court of Assistants, where he might have obtained some
+redress. Moreover, to influence the decision in his favor he included
+in his list of grievances many of the old offenses charged against
+Connecticut. He did this, even while acknowledging that the colonial
+Intestate Act, framed in 1699,[90] was but the embodiment of custom
+that had existed from the beginning of the colony. While this case
+dragged on, it was again intimated to Connecticut that the surrender
+of her charter, or at least the substitution of an explanatory
+charter, might be an acceptable price for the royal confirmation of
+her Intestate Law. Finally, Winthrop went to England, and was given a
+private hearing, at which no representative of the colony was present.
+As a result of this hearing, an order in Council was issued February
+15, 1728, annulling the Connecticut Intestate Act as contrary to the
+laws of England and as exceeding charter rights. Moreover, the
+colonial authorities were ordered to measure off the lands, claimed by
+Winthrop, and to restore them to him.
+
+Of course, it would take some time to obey the order. Meanwhile, if
+this restitution were made, if the decision were submitted to, it
+would invalidate so many land titles as to threaten the very existence
+of Connecticut's economic structure.  The colony sought the best legal
+talent obtainable. For seventeen years Connecticut continued this
+expensive lawsuit, urging always her willingness to comply in the case
+of Winthrop, if only the decision be made a special one and not a
+precedent,--if only an order in Council, or an act of Parliament,
+would reinstate the Connecticut Intestate Law. Her agents in England
+were instructed to demonstrate how well the colonial division of
+property had worked, and that under the English division, where all
+real estate went to the eldest son, if it were practiced in a new and
+heavily wooded country, whose chief wealth was agriculture, the rental
+of lands would yield income barely sufficient to pay taxes and repair
+fences, and there could be no dowry for the daughters. A still further
+result would be, that the younger sons would be driven into
+manufacturing or forced to emigrate. In each case the Crown would
+suffer, either by the loss of a colonial market for its manufactured
+products, or by an impoverished colony, incapable of making
+satisfactory returns to the royal treasury. [91] Moreover, in the case
+of emigration, when Connecticut, lacking men to plow her fields, could
+no longer produce the foodstuffs the surplus of which she sold to the
+"trading parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island" to supply the
+fisheries, the Crown would feel still another baneful effect from its
+attempt to enforce the English law of entail. Again, there was another
+aspect from which to view the annulment of the Connecticut Intestate
+Law. Its annulment would render worthless many past and present
+land-titles.  Creditors who had accepted land for debt would
+suffer. Titles to lands, held by towns, as well as individuals, would
+become subject to litigation; the whole colony would be plunged into
+lawsuits, and its economic framework would be rent in pieces. The
+Intestate Law was in accordance with custom throughout New
+England. When in 1737 a similar statute in Massachusetts was sustained
+by the King in Council in the appeal of Phillips _vs._ Savage,
+Connecticut, notwithstanding the renewed and repeated suggestions to
+give up her charter, took courage to continue the contest.
+
+During these years the question of the constitutional relation of
+colony and Crown was frequently raised, and Connecticut was called
+upon to show that her laws were not contrary to the laws of
+England. She had to prove that they were not contrary to the common
+law of England; nor to the statute law, existing at the founding of
+the colony; nor to those acts of Parliament that had been expressly
+extended to the colony. This was the most commonly held of the three
+interpretations of "not contrary to the laws of England." The most
+restricted interpretation was that all colonial laws higher than
+by-laws, and "which even within that term touched upon matters already
+provided for by English common or statute law, were illegal" or
+"contrary." Under this interpretation, "the colonies were as towns
+upon the royal demesne."  Connecticut herself held to a third
+construction, maintaining that, as her own charter nowhere stipulated
+that her administration should accord with the civil, common, or
+statute law of England, she, at least, among the colonies was free to
+frame her own laws according to her own needs and desires. Holding to
+this opinion, which had never been corrected by the Crown, Connecticut
+maintained that "contrary to the laws of England" was limited in its
+intent to contrary to those laws expressly designed by Parliament to
+extend to the plantations. Moreover, Connecticut insisted that the
+colonies were not to be compared to English towns, because, unlike the
+towns, they had no representation in Parliament. The Connecticut
+Intestate Act was opposed to the English law according to the first
+two interpretations, but not according to the third. Further, the
+Connecticut authorities felt that if the conditions which had given
+rise to the law were fully realized in England, the apparent
+insubordination of the colony would disappear in the light of the real
+equity of the colonial statute. In Governor Talcott's letter, dated
+November 3, 1729, under "The Case of Connecticut Stated," there is a
+summary of the reasons why the colony hesitated to appeal directly to
+Parliament for a confirmation of the Intestate Act. She was afraid of
+exciting still greater disfavor by seeming to ask privileges in
+addition to those already conferred upon her in her very liberal
+charter. She was afraid of courting inquiry in regard to her
+ecclesiastical laws, her laws relating to the collegiate school, and
+also sundry civil laws. The colony feared that the result of such an
+investigation would be that she would thereafter be rated, not as a
+government or province, but as a corporation with a charter permitting
+only the enactment of by-laws. Moreover, she dreaded to be ranked with
+"rebellious Massachusetts," and thus further expose herself to a
+probable loss of her charter.
+
+After contesting the decision against her for many years, at last in
+1746 she virtually won her case through a decision given in England in
+the suit of Clarke _vs._ Tousey,[92]--a suit which had been
+appealed from the colony, and which presented much the same claim as
+Winthrop's.  The decision in favor of Clarke was equivalent to a
+recognition of Connecticut's Intestacy Law.  It has been pointed out
+that, important as the Winthrop controversy was from the economic
+standpoint, it was equally important as fore-shadowing the legislation
+of the English government some thirty years later, and as defining the
+relation of colony and Crown. Moreover, in 1765, as in 1730, "economic
+causes and conditions," writes Professor Andrews in his discussion of
+the Connecticut Intestacy Law, "drove the colonists into opposition to
+England quite as much as did theories of political independence, or of
+so-called self-evident rights of man."
+
+It was during the continuance of this troublesome Winthrop suit, while
+boundary lines were still unsettled, while as yet the Mohegan titles
+remained in dispute, while the most grievous charge of encouraging
+home manufactures, and many other complaints were brought against
+Connecticut,--it was in the midst of her perplexities and conflicting
+interests that the dissenters within her borders sought greater
+religious liberty. They sought it, not only through their own local
+efforts, but through the strength of their friends in England, who
+brought all their influence to bear upon the home government. With
+such help Episcopalians had won exemption in 1727, and within two
+years Quakers and Baptists were accorded similar freedom.
+
+Connecticut Quakers, though few in numbers, were very determined to
+have their rights. From 1706, the Newport Yearly Meeting had
+encouraged the collecting and recording of all cases of "sufferance."
+In 1714, at the close of Queen Anne's War (1702-13), the Newport
+Yearly Meeting reported to that of London that "there is much
+suffering on account of the Indians at the Eastward, yet not one (of
+ours) had fallen during the last year, Travelling preachers having
+frequently visited those parts without the least harm.... Friends in
+several places have suffered deeply on account of not paying
+presbyterian priests, and for the Refusing to bear Armes, an Account
+of which we Doe herewith Send." In 1715, the English law had granted
+them the perpetual privilege of substituting affirmation for oath. The
+Quakers were determined to have the same freedom in the colonies as in
+England. Accordingly, they watched with interest the test case between
+the Quaker constables of Duxbury and Tiverton,--both, then, under the
+jurisdiction of Massachusetts,--and the authorities of that
+colony. Fines and persecutions were so much alike in Connecticut and
+Massachusetts that a dissenter's victory in one colony would go far
+towards obtaining exemption in the other. The Quaker constables had
+refused to collect the church rate, and for this refusal were thrown
+into prison. Thereupon a petition, with many citations from the colony
+law books, was sent to England, begging that the prisoners be released
+and excused from their fines, and that such unjust laws be annulled.
+The Privy Council ordered the prisoners released and their fine
+remitted. This decision was rendered in 1724, and, with the success of
+the Episcopalians three years later, still further encouraged both
+Quakers and Baptists to seek relief from ecclesiastical taxes and
+fines. Two years later, in May, 1729, the Quakers appealed to the
+Connecticut Court for such exemption, and were released from
+contributing to the support of the established ministry and from
+paying any tax levied for building its meeting-houses, provided they
+could show a certificate from some society of their own (either within
+the colony or without it, if so near its borders that they could
+regularly attend its services) vouching for their support of its
+worship and their presence at its regular meetings. [93]
+
+Turning to the Baptists, the oppressive measures employed to make them
+violate their conscience ceased on the inauguration of Governor
+Talcott in 1724. Thereafter, those among them who conformed to the
+requirements of the Toleration Act received some measure of freedom.
+To the neighborly interest of the Association of Baptist Churches of
+North Kingston, Rhode Island, and to the influence of leading Baptists
+in that colony, including among them its governor (who subjoined a
+personal note to the Association's appeal to the Connecticut General
+Court), was due the favor of the Court extended in October, 1729, [94]
+to the Baptists, whereby they were granted exemption upon the same
+terms as those offered the Quakers.
+
+Thus in barely twenty years from the passage of the Toleration Act,
+Episcopalian, Quaker, and Baptist had driven the thin edge of a
+destroying wedge into the foundations of the Connecticut
+Establishment. Each dissenting body was pitifully small in absolute
+strength, and they had no inclination toward united action. Quakers
+and Baptists were required to show certificates, a requirement soon to
+be considered in itself humiliating. The new laws were negative, in
+that they empowered the assessor to _omit_ to tax those entitled
+to exemption, but they provided no penalty to be enforced against
+assessors who failed to make such omission. Indeed, in individual
+cases, the laws might seem to be scarcely more than an admission of
+the right to exemption. However, it was an admission that a century's
+progress had brought the knowledge that brethren of different
+religious opinions could dwell together in peace. It was an exemption
+by which the government admitted, as well as claimed, the right of
+choice in religious worship.  It was a far cry to the acknowledgment
+that a man was free to think his own thoughts and follow his own
+convictions, provided they did not interfere with the rights of other
+men. The new laws were a concession by a strongly intrenched church to
+the natural rights of weaker ones, whose title to permanency it
+greatly doubted.  They were a concession by a government whose best
+members felt it to be the State's moral and religious obligation to
+support one form of religion and to protect it at the cost, if
+necessary, of all other forms,--a concession, by such a government, to
+a very small minority of its subjects, holding the same appreciation
+of their religious duty as that which had nerved the founders of the
+colony. It was a concession by the community to a very few among their
+number, who were divergent in church polity and practice, but who were
+united in a Protestant creed and in the conviction, held then by every
+respectable citizen, that every man should be made to attend and
+support some accepted and organized form of Christian worship.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] The Rev. John Hart of East Guilford, Samuel Whittlesey of
+Wallingford, and Jared Ellis of Killingworth. These men were always
+friendly to the Churchmen.
+
+[b] The Rev. Daniel Brown died in England.  In the next forty years,
+one tenth of those who crossed the sea for ordination perished from
+dangers incident to the trip.
+
+[c] This year the home influence of the Church of England had been
+brought to bear with sufficient pressure to forbid the calling of a
+general synod of the New England churches which had been desired, and
+towards which Massachusetts had taken the initial step. See
+A. L. Cross, _Anglican Episcopate_, pp. 67-70.
+
+[d] Stratford.
+
+[e] This same year, George I granted to Bishop Gibson a patent
+confirming the jurisdiction which, as Bishop of London, he claimed
+over the Church of England in the colonies. George II renewed the
+patent in 1728-29.
+
+[f] Between 1700 and 1741 more than thirty new towns were organized,
+making twice as many as in 1700.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+"THE GREAT AWAKENING."
+
+
+    Wake, awake, for night is flying:
+    The watchmen on the heights are crying,
+    Awake, Jerusalem, arise!--Advent Hymn.
+
+The opposition of Episcopalian, Quaker, and Baptist to the Connecticut
+Establishment, if measured by ultimate results, was important and
+far-reaching. But it was dwarfed almost to insignificance, so feeble
+was it, so confined its area, when compared to that opposition which,
+thirty-five years after the Saybrook Synod and a dozen years after the
+exemption of the dissenters, sprang up within the bosom of the
+Congregational church itself, as a protest against civil enactments
+concerning religion. This protest was a direct result of the moral and
+spiritual renascence that occurred in New England and that became
+known as the "Great Awakening."  History in all times and countries
+shows a periodicity of religious activity and depression.  It would
+sometimes seem as if these periodic outbreaks of religious aspirations
+were but the last device of self-seeking,--were but attempts to find
+consolation for life's hardships and to secure happiness
+hereafter. Fortunately such selfish motives are transmuted in the
+search for larger ethical and spiritual conceptions. An enlarged
+insight into the possibilities of living tends to slough off
+selfishness and to make more habitual the occasional, and often
+involuntary, response to Christlike deeds and ideals. But so ingrained
+is our earthly nature that, in communities as in nations, periods
+alternate with periods, and the pendulum swings from laxity to
+morality, from apathy to piety, gradually shortening its arc. So in
+Connecticut, numbers of her towns from time to time had been roused to
+greater interest in religion before the spiritual cyclone of the great
+revival, or "Great Awakening," swept through the land in 1740 and the
+two following years.  The earlier and local revivals were generally
+due to some special calamity, as sickness, failure of harvest,
+ill-fortune in war, or some unusual occurrence in nature, such as an
+earthquake or comet, with the familiar interpretation that Jehovah was
+angry with the sins of his people.  Sometimes, however, the zeal of a
+devoted minister would kindle counter sparks among his people. Such a
+minister was the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, who mentions five notable
+revivals, or "harvests,"[a] as he calls them, during his sixty years
+of ministry in the Northampton church.  A few other New England towns
+had similar revivals, but they were brief and rare.
+
+Notwithstanding these occasional local "stirrings of the heart," at
+the beginning of the second quarter of the eighteenth century a cold,
+formal piety was frequently the covering of indifferent living and of
+a smug, complacent Christianity, wherein the letter killed and the
+spirit did not give life. This was true all over New England, and
+elsewhere. Nor was this deadness confined to the colonies alone, for
+the Wesleys were soon to stir the sluggish current of English
+religious life. In New England, the older clergymen, like the Mathers
+of Massachusetts, conservative men, whose memories or traditions were
+of the golden age of Puritanism, had long bemoaned the loss of
+religious interest, the inability of reforming synods to create
+permanent improvement, and the helplessness of ecclesiastical councils
+or of civil enactments to rouse the people from the real "decay of
+piety in the land," and from their indifference to the immorality that
+was increasing among them. This indifference grew in Connecticut after
+the Saybrook Platform had laid a firm hold upon the churches. Its
+discipline created a tendency, on the one hand, to hard and narrow
+ecclesiasticism, and, on the other, to careless living on the part of
+those who were satisfied with a mere formal acceptance of the
+principles of religion and with the bare acknowledgment of the right
+of the churches to their members' obedience.[b]
+
+It is a great mistake [writes Jonathan Edwards] if any one imagines
+that all these external performances (owning the covenant, accepting
+the sacraments, observing the Sabbath and attending the ministry), are
+of the nature of a _profession_ of anything that belongs to
+_saving grace_, as they are commonly used and
+understood.... People are taught that they may use them all, and not
+so much as make any pretence to the least degree of _sanctifying
+grace_; and this is the established custom. So they are used and so
+they are understood.... It is not unusual ... for persons, at the same
+time they come into the church and pretend to own the covenant, freely
+to declare to their neighbors, that they have no imagination that they
+have any true faith in Christ or love to Him.[95]
+
+The General Court, relieved from the oversight of the churches, had
+bent itself to preserving the colony's charter rights from its enemies
+abroad, and to the material interests involved in a conservative,
+wise, and energetic home development. The people's thoughts were with
+the Court more than with the clergy, who had fallen from a healthy
+enthusiasm in their profession into a sort of spiritual deadness and
+dull acceptance of circumstances. [96] As a sort of corollary to
+Stoddard's teaching that the Lord's Supper was itself a means toward
+attaining salvation, it followed that clergymen, though they felt no
+special call to their ministry, were nevertheless believed to be
+worthy of their office. The older theology of New England had tended
+to morbid introspection. Stoddard, in avoiding that danger, had thrown
+the doors of the Church too widely open, and the result was a gradual
+undermining of its spiritual power. The continued acceptance of the
+Half-Way Covenant, "laxative rather than astringent in its nature,"
+helped to produce a low estimate of religion. The tenderness that the
+Cambridge Platform had encouraged towards "the weakest measure of
+faith" had broadened into such laxity that, in many cases, ministers
+were willing to receive accounts of conversions which had been written
+to order for the applicants for church membership. The Church,
+moreover, had come directly under the control of politics, a condition
+never conducive to its purity. The law of 1717, "for the better
+ordering and regulating parishes or societies," had made the minister
+the choice of the majority of the townsmen who were voters. This
+reversed the early condition of the town, merged by membership into
+the church, to a church merged into the town. [97] There was still
+another factor, often the last and least willingly recognized in times
+of religious excitement, namely, the commercial depression throughout
+the country, resulting from years of a fluctuating currency. This
+depression contributed largely to the revival movement, and helped to
+spread the enthusiasm of the Great Awakening. Connecticut's currency
+had been freer from inflation than that of other New England
+colonies. But her paper money experiments in the years from 1714 to
+1749 grew more and more demoralizing. Up to 1740, Connecticut had
+issued £156,000 in paper currency. At the time of the Great Awakening
+she had still outstanding £39,000 for which the colony was
+responsible. Of this, all but £6000 had been covered by special
+taxation.  There still remained, however, about £33,000 which had been
+lent to the various counties.  Taxation was heavy, wages low and
+prices high, and there was not a man in the colony who did not feel
+the effect of the rapidly depreciating currency.[98] This general
+depression fell upon a generation of New Englanders whose minds no
+longer dwelt preëminently upon religious matters, but who were, on the
+contrary, preëminently commercial in their interests.
+
+Such were the general conditions throughout New England and such the
+low state of religion in Connecticut, when, in the Northampton church,
+Solomon Stoddard's grandson, the great Jonathan Edwards, in December,
+1734, preached the sermons which created the initial wave of a great
+religious movement. This religious revival spread slowly through
+generally lax New England, and through the no less lax Jerseys, and
+through the backwoods settlements of Pennsylvania, until it finally
+swept the southern colonies.  At the time, 1738, the Rev. George
+Whitefield was preaching in Carolina, and acceptably so to his
+superior, Alexander Garden, the Episcopal commissary to that
+colony. Touched by the enthusiasm of the onflowing religious movement,
+Whitefield's zeal and consequent radicalism, as he swayed toward the
+Congregational teaching and practices, soon put him in disfavor with
+his fellow Churchmen. Such disfavor only raised the priest still
+higher in the opinion of the dissenters, and they flocked to hear his
+eloquent sermons. Whitefield soon decided to return to England. There
+he encountered the great revival movement which was being conducted,
+principally by the Wesleys, and he at once threw himself into the
+work. Meanwhile, he had conceived a plan for a home for orphans in
+Georgia, and, a little later, he determined upon a visit to New
+England in its behalf. Upon his arrival in Boston in 1740, the
+Rev. George Whitefield was welcomed with open arms. Great honor was
+paid him. Crowds flocked to hear him, and he was sped with money and
+good-will throughout New England as he journeyed, preaching the
+gospel, and seeking alms for the southern orphanage.  His advent
+coincided in time with the reviving interest in religion, especially
+in Connecticut.  Interest over the revival of 1735 had centred on that
+colony the eyes of the whole non-liturgical English-speaking
+world. Whitefield's preaching was to this awakening religious
+enthusiasm as match to tinder.
+
+The religious passion, kindled in 1735 by Edwards, and hardly less by
+his devoted and spiritually-minded wife, had in Connecticut swept over
+Windsor, East Windsor, Coventry, Lebanon, Durham, Stratford, Ripton,
+New Haven, Guilford, Mansfield, Tolland, Hebron, Bolton, Preston,
+Groton, and Woodbury. [99] The period of this first "harvest" was
+short. The revival had swept onward, and indifference seemed once more
+to settle down upon the land. But the news of the revival in
+Connecticut had reached England through letters of Dr. Benjamin
+Coleman of Boston. His account of it had created so much interest that
+Jonathan Edwards was persuaded to write for English readers his
+"Narrative of the Surprising Work of God." Editions of this book
+appeared in 1737-38 in both England and America, and all Anglo-Saxon
+non-prelatical circles pored over the account of the recent revival in
+Connecticut. Religious enthusiasm revived, and was roused to a high
+pitch by Whitefield's itinerant preaching, as well as by that of
+Jonathan Edwards, and by the visit to New England of the Rev. Gilbert
+Tennant, one of two brothers who had created widespread interest by
+their revival work in New Jersey.  A religious furor, almost mania,
+spread through New England, and the "Great Awakening" came in earnest.
+
+The Rev. George Whitefield reached Newport, Rhode Island, in
+September, 1740. Crowds flocked to hear him during his brief visit
+there.  In October, he proceeded to Boston, where he preached to
+enthusiastic audiences, including all the high dignitaries of Church
+and State. During his ten days' sojourn in the city, no praise was too
+fulsome, no honor too great. Whitefield next went to Northampton,
+drawn by his desire to visit Edwards. After a week of conference with
+the great divine, Whitefield passed on through Connecticut, preaching
+as he went, and devoted the rest of the year to itinerating through
+the other colonies. Already his popularity had been too much for him,
+and he frequently took it upon himself to upbraid, in no measured
+terms, the settled ministry for lack of earnestness in their calling
+and lack of Christian character. This visit of Whitefield was followed
+by one from the Rev. Gilbert Tennant, who arrived in Boston in
+December, and spent his time, until the following March, preaching in
+Massachusetts and Connecticut. Tennant was also outspoken in his
+denunciations, and both men, while sometimes justified in their
+criticisms, were frequently hasty and censorious in their judgments of
+those who differed from them.
+
+Ministers throughout New England were quick to support or to oppose
+the revival movement, and a goodly number of them, as itinerants, took
+up the evangelical work. Dr. Colman and Dr. Sewall of Boston, Jonathan
+Edwards and Dr. Bellamy of Connecticut, were among the most
+influential divines to support the Great Awakening,--to call the
+revival by the name by which it was to go down in
+history. Unfortunately, among the aroused people, there were many who
+pressed their zeal beyond the reverent bounds set by these
+leaders. The religious enthusiasm rushed into wild ecstasies during
+the preaching of the almost fanatic Rev. James Davenport of Southold,
+and of those itinerant preachers who, ignorant and carried away by
+emotions beyond their control, attempted to follow his example.
+
+During this religious fever there were times when all business was
+suspended. Whole communities gave themselves up to conversion and to
+passing through the three or more distinct stages of religious
+experience which Jonathan Edwards, as well as the more ignorant
+itinerants, accepted as signs of the Lord's compassion.  Briefly
+stated, these stages were, first, a heart-rending misery over one's
+sinfulness; a state of complete submissiveness, expressing itself in
+those days of intense belief both in heaven and in a most realistic
+hell, as complete willingness "to be saved or damned,"[c] whichever
+the Lord in his great wisdom saw would fit best into His eternal
+scheme. Finally, there was the blessed state of ecstatic happiness,
+when it was borne in upon one that he or she was, indeed, one of the
+few of "God's elect." [100] The revival meetings were marked by
+shouting, sobbing, sometimes by fainting, or by bodily contortions.
+All these, in the fever of excitement, were believed by many persons
+to be special marks of supernatural power, and, if they followed the
+words of some ignorant and rash exhorter, they were even more likely
+to be considered tokens of divine favor,--illustrations of God's
+choice of the simple and lowly to confound the wisdom of the
+world. The strong emotional character of the religious meetings of our
+southern negroes, as well as their frequent sentimental rather than
+practical or moral expression of religion, has been credited in large
+measure to the hold over them which this great religious revival of
+the eighteenth century gained, when its enthusiasm rolled over the
+southern colonies. Be that as it may, any adequate appreciation of the
+frequent daily occurrences in New England during the Great Awakening
+would be best realized by one of this twentieth century were it
+possible to form a composite picture, having the unbridled
+emotionalism of our negro camp-meetings superimposed upon the solid
+respectability and grave reasonableness of the men of that earlier
+day.  As the lines of one and the other constituent of this composite
+picture blend, the momentary feeling of impatience and disgust
+vanishes in a wave of compassion as the irresistible earnestness and
+the pitiless logic of those days press, for recognition, and we
+realize the awful sufferings of many an ignorant or sensitive soul. It
+was not until the religious revival had passed its height that the
+people began to realize the folly and dangers of the hysteria that had
+accompanied it. It was not until long afterward that many of its
+characteristics, which had been interpreted as supernatural signs,
+were known and understood, and correctly diagnosticated as outward
+evidence of physical and nervous exhaustion.
+
+Such, outwardly, were the marked features of the Great Awakening. Yet
+its incentives to noble living were great and lasting. Its immediate
+results were a revolt against conventional religion, a division into
+ecclesiastical parties, and a great schism within the Establishment,
+which, before the breach was healed, had improved the quality of
+religion in every meeting-house and chapel in the land and broadened
+the conception of religious liberty throughout the colony.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] At Northampton in 1680, 1684, 1697, 1713, and 1719.
+
+[b] As early even as 1711, the Hartford North Association suggested
+some reformation in the Half-Way Covenant practice because it noted
+that persons, lax in life, were being admitted under its terms of
+church membership.
+
+[c] This "to be saved or damned" was, later, a marked characteristic
+of Hokinsianism, or the teaching of the Rev. Samuel Hopkins,
+1723-1813.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GREAT SCHISM
+
+
+    If a house be divided against itself.--Mark iii, 25.
+
+From such a revival as that of the Great Awakening, parties must of
+necessity arise. Upon undisciplined fanaticism, the Established church
+must frown. But when it undertook to discipline large numbers of
+church members or whole churches, recognizedly within its embracing
+fold and within their lawful privileges, a great schism resulted, and
+the schismatics were sufficiently tenacious of their rights to come
+out victorious in their long contest for toleration.
+
+The proviso of the Saybrook Platform had arranged for the continued
+existence of churches, Congregational rather than Presbyterian in
+their interpretation of that platform; yet, as late as 1730, when but
+few remained, the question had arisen whether members of such
+churches, "since they were allowed and under the protection of the
+laws," ought to qualify according to the Toleration Act. The Court
+decided in the negative, [101] arguing that, although they differed
+from the majority of the churches in preferring the Cambridge Platform
+of church discipline, they had been permitted under the colony law of
+May 13, 1669, establishing the Congregational church, and had been
+protected by the proviso of 1708.  The Court in its decision of 1730
+seems also to have included a very few churches that had revolted from
+the religious formalism creeping in under the Saybrook system, and
+that had returned to the earlier type of Congregationalism.  After the
+Great Awakening, churches "thus allowed and under the protection of
+our laws" were found to increase so rapidly that the movement away
+from the Saybrook Platform threatened to undermine the ecclesiastical
+system, and to endanger the Establishment. Seeing this, the Court, or
+General Assembly,[a] began to enforce the old colony law that with it
+alone belonged the power to approve the incorporating of churches. And
+shortly after it began to harass these separating churches, and to
+enact laws to prevent the farther spread of reinvigorated
+Congregationalism unless of the Presbyterian type.  Soon after 1741,
+the churches that drew away from the Saybrook system of government
+became known as Separate churches, and their members as
+Separatists. When these people found that the Assembly would no longer
+approve their organizing as churches, they attempted, as sober
+dissenters from the worship established in the colony, to take the
+benefit of the Toleration Act.  The Assembly next "resolved that those
+commonly called Presbyterians or Congregationalists should not take
+the benefit of that Act." [102]
+
+Here was a difficulty indeed. There was no place for the Separatist,
+yet there was need of him, and he felt sure there was. Furthermore,
+there were others who felt the need to the community of his strong
+religious earnestness, though they might deplore his
+extravagances. His strong points were his assertion of the need of
+regeneration, his reassertion of the old doctrines of justification by
+faith and of a personal sense of conversion, including, as a duty
+inseparable from church membership, the living of a highly moral
+life. The weakness of the Separatist lay in his assertion, first, that
+every man had an equal right to exercise any gifts of preaching or
+prayer of which he believed himself possessed; secondly, of the value
+of visions and trances as proofs of spirituality; and finally, of
+every one's freedom to withdraw from the ministry of any pastor who
+did not come up to his standard of ability or helpfulness. It followed
+that the Separatists insisted upon the right to set up their own
+churches and to appoint their own ministers, although the latter might
+have only the doubtful qualification of feeling possessed with the
+gift of preaching. The Separatists organized between thirty and forty
+churches. Some of them endured but a short time, suffering
+disintegration through poverty. Others fell to pieces because of the
+unrestrained liberty of their members in their exhortations, in their
+personal interpretation of the Scriptures, and in their exercise of
+the right of private judgment, with the consequent harvest of
+confusion, censoriousness, and discord that such practices created. In
+years later, many of the Separate churches, tired of the struggle for
+recognition and weighed down by their double taxation for the support
+of religion, buried themselves under the Baptist name. Indeed they
+"agreed upon all points of doctrine, worship, and discipline, save the
+mode and subject of baptism." A few Separatist churches, a dozen or
+more, continued the struggle for existence until victory and
+toleration rewarded them.  After the teachings of Jonathan Edwards had
+purified the churches and had driven out the Half-Way Covenant,
+against which the Separatists uttered their loudest protests, many of
+these reformers returned to the Established church.
+
+In the practice of--their principles, the Separatists, both as
+churches and as individuals, were often headstrong, officious,
+intermeddling, and censorious. They frequently stirred up ill-feeling
+and often just indignation. The rash and heedless among them accused
+the conservative and regular clergy of Arminianism, when the latter,
+influenced by the Great Awakening, revived the doctrines of original
+sin, regeneration, and justification by faith, but were careful to add
+to these Calvinistic dogmas admonitions to such practical Christianity
+as was taught by Arminian preachers. The Separatists feared lest the
+doctrine of works would cause men to stray too far from the doctrine
+of justification by faith alone, and they were often very intemperate
+in their denunciation of such "false teachers." It was a day of freer
+speech than now, and at least two of the great leaders in the revival
+had set a very bad example of calling names. Mr. Whitefield considered
+Mr. Tennant a "mighty charitable man," yet here are a few of the
+latter's descriptive epithets, collected from one of his sermons and
+published by the Synod of Philadelphia. Dr. Chauncey of Boston quotes
+them in an adverse criticism of the revival movement.  Mr. Tennant
+speaks of the ministers thus:--hirelings, caterpillars, letter-learned
+Pharisees, Hypocrites, Varlets, Seed of the Serpent, foolish Builders
+whom the Devil drives into the ministry, dead dogs that cannot bark,
+blind men, dead men, men possessed of the devil, rebels and enemies of
+God. [103]
+
+Naturally, party lines were soon drawn in New England. There were the
+Old Calvinists or Old Lights on the one side, and the Separatists and
+New Lights on the other. The New Lights were those within the churches
+who were moved by the revival and who desired to return to a more
+vital Christianity. In many respects they sympathized with the
+Separatists, although disapproving their extravagances. In many
+churches, hounded by the opposition of the conservatives, the New
+Lights drew off and formed churches of their own. Thus while the
+Separatists may be compared to the early English Separatists, the New
+Lights would correspond more to the Puritan party that desired reform
+within the Establishment. In the eighteenth century movement, in
+Connecticut, the Old Lights held the political as well as the
+ecclesiastical control until, in the process of time, the New Lights
+gained an influential vote in the Assembly. Always, there was a good,
+sound stratum of Calvinism in both the Old and the New Light parties,
+and also among the Separatists, and the latter were generally included
+in the New Light party, especially if spoken of from the point of view
+of political affiliations.  The idiosyncrasies of the Separatists
+softened down and fell away in time. The Calvinism of Old and New
+Lights became a rallying ground whereon each, in after years, gathered
+about the standard of a reinvigorated church life; and then the terms
+Old Light and New, with their suggestions of party meaning, whether
+religious, or political, passed away. The term Separatist was retained
+for a while longer, merely to distinguish the churches that preferred
+to be known as strict Congregationalist rather than as
+Presbyterianized Congregationalist, or, for short, Presbyterian.
+
+From the time of the Great Awakening, there were nearly forty years of
+party contest over religious privileges, many of which had been
+previously accorded but which were speedily denied to the Separatists
+by a party dominant in the churches and paramount in the legislature;
+by a party which was determined to bring the whole machinery of Church
+and State to crush the rising opposition to its control. Accordingly,
+it was nearly forty years before the Separatists received the same
+measure of toleration as that accorded to Episcopalian, Quaker, and
+Baptist.  It was ten years before the New Lights in the Assembly
+could, as a preliminary step to such toleration, force the omission
+from the revised statutes of all persecuting laws passed by the Old
+Light party.
+
+The keynote to the long struggle was sounded at a meeting of the
+General Consociation at Guilford, November 24, 1741. This was the
+first and only General Consociation ever called.  It was convened at
+the expense of the colony, to consider her religious condition and the
+dangers threatening her from the excitement of the Great Awakening,
+from unrestrained converts, from rash exhorters, and from itinerant
+preachers, who took possession of the ministers' pulpits with little
+deference to their proper occupants.  The General Consociation
+decided--
+
+    that for a minister to enter another minister's parish, and preach
+    or administer the seals of the Covenant, without the consent of,
+    or in opposition to the set tied minister of the parish, is
+    disorderly, notwithstanding if a considerable number of the people
+    in the parish are desirous to hear another minister preach,
+    provided the same be orthodox, and sound in the faith and not
+    notoriously faulty in censuring other persons, or guilty of any
+    scandal, we think it ordinar rily advisable for the minister of
+    the parish to gratify them by giving his consent upon their
+    suitable application to him for it, unless neighboring ministers
+    advise him to the contrary. [104]
+
+This was not necessarily an intolerant attitude, but it was hostile
+rather than friendly to the revival. It left neighboring ministers,
+that is, the Associations, if one among their number seemed to be too
+free in lending his pulpit to itinerant preachers, to curb his
+friendliness. Intolerance might come through this limitation, for the
+local Association might be prejudiced. If its advice were disregarded
+and disorders arose, the Consociation of the county could step in to
+settle difficulties and to condemn progressive men as well as
+fanatics. In its phrasing, this ecclesiastical legislation left room
+for the ministrations of reputable itinerants, for among many, some of
+whom were ignorant and self-called to their vocation, there were
+others whose abilities were widely recognized. Foremost among such men
+in Connecticut were Jonathan Edwards himself, Dr. Joseph Bellamy of
+Bethlem, trainer of many students in theology, Rev. Eleazer Whelock of
+Lebanon, Benjamin Pomroy of Hebron, and Jonathan Parsons of
+Lyme. Among itinerants coming from other colonies, the most noted,
+after Whitefield and Tennant, was Dr. Samuel Finley of New Jersey,
+later president of Princeton.  Naturally men like these, who felt
+strongly the need of a revival and believed in supporting the "Great
+Awakening," despite its excitement and errors, did not countenance the
+rash proceedings of many of the ignorant preachers, who ran about the
+colony seeking audiences for themselves.
+
+The measures of the General Consociation were mild in comparison with
+the laws passed by the legislature in the following May. Governor
+Talcott, tolerant toward all religious dissenters, had recently died,
+and the conservative Jonathan Law of Milford was in the chair of the
+chief magistrate. Governor Law had grown up among the traditions of
+that narrow ecclesiasticism which had always marked the territory of
+the old New Haven Colony. Moreover, the measures of the Consociation
+had been futile. One of the chief offenders against them was the
+Rev. James Davenport of Southold, Long Island, who not only went
+preaching through the colony, stirring up by his fanaticism, his
+visions, and his ecstasies, the common people, and finding fault with
+the regular clergy as "unconverted men," but who pushed his religious
+enthusiasm to great extremes by everywhere urging upon excitable young
+men the duty to become preachers like himself. He had introduced a
+kind of intoning at public meetings. This tended to create nervous
+irritability and hysterical outbursts of religious emotionalism, and
+these, Davenport taught his disciples, were the signs of God's
+approval of them and their devotion to Him. The government, watching
+these tumultuous meetings, concluded that it was time to show its
+ancient authority and to save the people from "divisions and
+contentions," the ecclesiastical constitution from destruction, and
+the ministry from "unqualified persons entering therein." Accordingly,
+in May, 1742, the Assembly passed a series of laws, [105] so severe
+that even ordained ministers were forbidden to preach outside their
+own parishes without an express invitation and under the penalty of
+forfeiting all benefits and all support derived from any laws for the
+encouragement of religion ever made in the colony. The new enactments
+also forbade any Association to license a candidate to preach outside
+its own bounds or to settle any disputes beyond its own
+territory.[106] These laws also permitted any parish minister to lodge
+with the society clerk a certificate charging that a man had entered
+his parish and had preached there without first obtaining
+permission. Furthermore, there was no provision for confirming the
+truth or proving the falsity of such a statement. In connection with
+the certificate clause, it was also enacted that no assistant, or
+justice of the peace, should sign a warrant for collecting a
+minister's rates until he was sure that nowhere in the colony was
+there such a certificate lodged against the minister making
+application for this mode of collecting his ministerial dues. [107]
+Finally, the laws provided that a bond of £100 should be demanded of a
+stranger, or visiting minister, who had preached without invitation,
+and that he should be treated as a vagrant, and sent by warrant "from
+constable to constable, out of the bounds of this Colony."[108]
+
+    These laws restrained both _ordained Ministers_ and
+    _licensed candidates_ from preaching in _other_ Men's
+    Parishes without _their_ and the _Church's_ consent and
+    wholly prohibited the _Exhortations of Illiterate Laymen_.
+
+    These laws were a high-handed infringement of the rights of
+    conscience, and in a few years fell and buried with them the party
+    that had enacted them.  These were the laws which he (Davenport)
+    exhorted his hearers to set at defiance; and seldom, it must be
+    acknowledged, has a more plausible occasion been found in New
+    England to preach disregard for the law.
+
+The laws were framed to repress itinerants and exhorters through loss
+of their civil rights. By them, a man's good name was dishonored and
+he was deprived of all his temporal emoluments. By many, in their own
+day, the laws were regarded as contrary to scriptural commands, and to
+the opinion and practice of all reformers and of all Puritans. These
+laws, with others that followed, were not warranted by the
+ecclesiastical constitution of the colony, and could find no parallel
+either in England or in her other colonies. Trumbull calls them--
+
+    a concerted plan of the Old Lights or Arminians both among the
+    clergy and civilians, to suppress as far as possible, all zealous
+    Calvinistic preachers, to confine them entirely to their own
+    pulpits; and at the same time to put all the public odium and
+    reproach upon them as wicked, disorderly men, unfit to enjoy the
+    common rights of citizens. [109]
+
+Yet for these laws the Association of New Haven sent a vote of thanks
+to the Assembly when it convened in their city in the following fall.
+
+Jonathan Edwards opposed both the spirit of the General Consociation
+and also the legislation of the Assembly. He expressed his attitude
+toward the Great Awakening both at the time and later. In 1742 he
+wrote:--
+
+    If ministers preached never so good a doctrine, and are never so
+    laborious in their work, yet if at such a day as this they show
+    their people that they are not well affected to this work [of
+    revival], they will be very likely to do their people a great deal
+    more hurt than good.
+
+Six years later Edwards wrote a preface to his "An Humble Inquiry into
+the Qualifications for Full Communion in the Visible Church of God," a
+treatise severely condemning the Half-Way Covenant, and urging the
+revival of the early personal account of conversion. In this preface
+he excuses his hesitation in publishing the work, on the ground that
+he feared the Separatists would seize upon his arguments to encourage
+them and strengthen them in many of their reprehensible
+practices. These, Edwards reminds his reader, he had severely
+condemned in his earlier publications, notably in his "Treatise on
+Religious Affections," 1746, and in his "Observations and Reflections
+on Mr. Brainerd's Life."  In his preface Edwards repeats his
+disapproval of the Separatist "notion of a _pure church_ by means
+of a _spirit of discerning_; their _censorious outcries_
+against the standing ministers and churches in general, their _lay
+ordinations_, their _lay-preaching_ and _public
+exhortings_ and administering sacraments; and their
+self-complacent, presumptuous spirit." Edwards believed that
+enthusiasts, though unlettered, might exhort in private, and even in
+public religious gatherings might be encouraged to relate in a proper,
+earnest, and modest manner their religious experiences, and might also
+entreat others to become converted. He maintained that much of the
+criticism of an inert ministry was well founded, that much of the
+enthusiastic work of laymen and of the itinerants deserved to be
+recognized by the regular clergy, and that they ought to bestir
+themselves in furthering such enthusiasm among their own
+people. Edwards urged also his belief in the value of good works, not
+as meriting the reward of future salvation, but as manifesting a heart
+stirred by a proper appreciation of God's attributes. Jonathan Edwards
+held firmly to the foundation principles of the conservative school,
+while he sympathized with and supported the best elements in the
+revival movement.
+
+This attitude of Edwards eventually cost him his pastorate, for he
+judged it best to resign from the Northampton church, in 1750, because
+of the unpopularity arising from his repeated attacks upon the
+Half-Way Covenant and the Stoddardean view of the Lord's
+supper. Nevertheless, it was the influence of Jonathan Edwards and of
+his following which gradually brought about a union of the religious
+parties, after the Separatists had given up their eccentricities and
+the leaven of Edwards' teachings had brought a new and invigorated
+life into the Connecticut churches. This preacher, teacher, and
+evangelist was remarkable for his powerful logic, his deep and tender
+feeling, his sincere and vivid faith. These characteristics urged on
+his resistless imagination, when picturing to his people their
+imminent danger and the awful punishment in store for those who
+continued at enmity with God. Of his work as a theologian, we shall
+have occasion to speak elsewhere.
+
+Some illustrations of church life in the troublous years following the
+Great Awakening will best set forth the confusion arising, the
+difficulties between Old and New Lights, and the hardships of the
+Separatists. Among the colony churches, the trials of three may be
+taken as typical,--the New Haven church[110], the Canterbury
+church,[111] and the church of Enfield.[112] Nor can the story of the
+first two be told without including in it an account of later acts of
+the Assembly and of the attitude of the College during the years of
+the great schism.
+
+The pastor of the New Haven church was Mr. Noyes, whom many of his
+parishioners thought too noncommittal, erroneous, or pointless in
+discussing the themes which the itinerant preachers loved to dwell
+upon. Moreover, Mr.  Noyes had refused to allow the Rev. George
+Whitefield to preach from his pulpit while on his memorable pilgrimage
+through New England. Mr.  Noyes had also forbidden the hot-headed
+James Davenport to occupy it. As a result of their minister's actions,
+the New Haven church was divided in their estimate of their
+pastor. There were the friendly Old Lights and the hostile New.
+Neither party wished to carry their trouble before the Consociation of
+New Haven county, for that had come at last to be a tribunal "whose
+decision was at that time considered _judicial_ and
+_final_." Moreover, at the meeting of the General Consociation at
+Guilford in November, 1741, it was known that Mr. Noyes had been a
+most active worker in favor of suppressing the New Light
+movement. Consequently the New Lights, though at the time in the
+minority, sought to find a way out from under the jurisdiction of the
+Saybrook Platform and its councils by declaring that the church had
+never _formally_ been made a Consociated church. This was
+literally true, but the weight of precedent and their own observances
+were against them. Like other churches in the county, which had come
+slowly to the acceptance of the Saybrook councils as ecclesiastical
+courts, it had finally accepted them in their most authoritative
+character. Such being the case, the New Lights hesitated to appeal
+against their minister before a court presumably favorable to
+him. After the New Lights had declared the church not under the
+Saybrook system, Mr. Noyes determined to take the vote of his people
+as to whether they considered themselves a Consociated church. But as
+he was a little fearful of the result of the vote, he secured the
+victory for his own faction by excluding the New Lights from
+voting. Thereupon, the New Lights took the benefit of the Toleration
+Act as "sober dissenters," and became a Separate church. The
+committee, appointed for the organization of the new church, declared
+that "they were reestablished as the original church." The benefit of
+the Toleration Act accorded to these New Light dissenters in New
+Haven, to some in Milford,[b] and to several other reinvigorated
+churches in the southern part of the colony, roused the opposition of
+the Old Lights in the Assembly, and, as they counted a majority, they
+repealed the act in the following year, 1743. Three or four weeks
+after the New Haven New Lights had formed what was afterwards known as
+the North Church, the General Assembly met for its fall session in
+that city, and, as has been said, the New Haven Association
+immediately sent a vote of thanks for the stringent laws passed at the
+May meeting. The Court, moved by this indication of the popular
+feeling, by the importance of the church schism and its influence
+throughout the colony, by the conservative attitude of Yale College,
+and also by having among its delegates large numbers of Old Lights,
+proceeded to enact yet more stringent measures than those of the
+preceding session. The result was that the North Church could hire no
+preacher until they could find one acceptable to the First Church and
+Society, because the pastor elected by the First Church was the only
+lawfully appointed minister, since he owed his election to the
+majority votes of the First Society. Furthermore, the Court, in 1743,
+refused a special application of the North Church for permission to
+settle their chosen minister, and it was some five or six years before
+it ceased this particular kind of persecution and permitted the church
+to have a regular pastor.
+
+The story of this New Haven church extends beyond the time-limit of
+this chapter, but it is better completed here. The stringency of the
+laws only increased the bitterness of faction. In 1745, feeling ran so
+high that a father refused to attend his son's funeral merely because
+they belonged to opposing factions, and an attempt to build a house of
+worship for this Separate church resulted in serious disturbances and
+in the charge of incendiarism. The New Lights preferred imprisonment
+to the payment of taxes assessed for the benefit of the First
+Church. At last, in 1751, the October session of the General Assembly
+thought it best "for the good of the colony and for the peace and
+harmony of this and other churches" infected by its example, to advise
+that the differences within it be healed by a council to be composed
+of both Old and New Lights.[113] The suggestion bore no fruit, and a
+year later the New Lights themselves again asked for a council, even
+offering to apologize to the First Church for their informality in
+separating from it, and for their part in the heated controversy that
+followed; but Mr. Noyes induced his party to refuse to accede to the
+proposed conference. As the North Church had grown strong enough by
+this time to support a regular pastor, Mr. Bird accepted its call; yet
+for six years longer, because the Assembly refused to divide the
+society, the New Lights were held to be members of the First Society
+and taxable for its support. But in 1757, the New Lights gained the
+majority both in church and society, a majority of _one_. At
+once, the New Lights were released from taxes to the First Church. Now
+the dominant party, they attempted to pay back old scores, and
+accordingly demanded a division of both church and society
+property. The claim to the first was unfair, and they eventually
+abandoned it.  The church quarrel finally ceased in 1759, after a
+duration of eighteen years, and in 1760 Mr.  Bird was formally
+installed with fitting honors.
+
+In the early days of the Great Awakening, the Canterbury church became
+divided into Old Lights and New, and a separation took place.  Before
+the separation, a committee, who were appointed to look up the church
+records, gave it as their opinion that the church was not and never
+had been pledged to the Saybrook Platform.  Nevertheless, the very men
+who gave this decision became the leaders of the minority, who
+determined to support the government in carrying out its oppressive
+laws of 1742. These laws had been passed while the committee were
+searching the church records. The majority of the church, incensed at
+having their liberty curtailed, proceeded to defy the law by listening
+to lay exhorters and to itinerants just as they had been in the habit
+of doing ever since the church had felt the quickening influences of
+the Great Awakening. This majority declared that it was "regular for
+this church to admit persons into this church that are in full
+communion with other churches and come regularly to this." This
+decision the minority characterized as unlawful according to the
+recent acts of the Assembly.  The majority proceeded to argue the
+right of the majority in the church as above the right of the majority
+in the society, or parish, to elect the minister and to guide the
+church. In an attempt to satisfy both parties, candidates were tried,
+but they could not command a sufficient number of votes from either
+side to be located permanently.  A meeting in 1743 of the Consociation
+of Windham (to whose jurisdiction the Canterbury church belonged),
+together with a council of New Lights, brought temporary peace. A
+candidate was agreed upon; but in a few months the New Lights became
+dissatisfied with him because of his approval of the Saybrook system
+of church government, his acceptance of the Half-Way Covenant, and
+other opinions. Controversy revived. The majority of the church
+withdrew, and for a while met in a private house for services, which
+were conducted by Solomon Paine or by some other layman. As a result,
+the Windham Association passed a vote of censure against the
+seceders. Paine wrote a sharp retort, for which he was arrested,
+although ostensibly on the charge of unlawfully conducting public
+worship.  He refused to give bonds and was committed to Windham jail
+in September, 1744. Such crowds flocked to the prison yard to hear him
+preach, and excitement ran so high, that the officer who had conducted
+his trial appeared before the Assembly to protest that such legal
+proceedings did but tend to increase the disorders they were intended
+to cure. Accordingly, Paine was released in October.
+
+The interest of the whole colony was now centred on the defiant and
+determined Canterbury Separate church, and the November meeting of the
+Windham Association had the schism under consideration, when Yale
+expelled two Canterbury students whose parents were members of that
+church.
+
+In October, 1742, in order to protect the college and the ministry and
+to deal a blow at the "Shepherd's Tent," a kind of school or academy
+which the New Lights had set up in New London for qualifying young men
+as exhorters, teachers, and ministers, the General Assembly had
+decided that no persons should presume to set up any college, seminary
+of learning, or any public school whatever, without special leave of
+the legislature.[115] The Court had also enacted that no one should
+take the benefit of the laws respecting the settlement and support of
+ministers unless he were a graduate of Yale or Harvard, or some other
+approved Protestant university. It had also given explicit directions
+for the supervision of the schools throughout the colony and of their
+masters' orthodoxy,[116] and had advised Yale to take especial care
+that her students should not be contaminated by the New Lights.  The
+Congregationalists had reported the "Shepherd's Tent" as a noisy,
+tumultuous resort, because it was occasionally used for meetings, and
+had added that it was openly taught in that school that there would
+soon be a change in the government, and that disobedience to the civil
+laws was not wrong. The Assembly, fearing that it might "train up
+youth in ill practices and principles," sought to put an end to it. As
+to the advice to the college, Yale was only too eager to follow it,
+and the same year expelled the saintly David Brainerd[117] for
+criticising the prayers of the college preachers as lacking in
+fervor. His offense was against a college law of the preceding year
+which forbade students to call their officers "hypocritical, carnal or
+unconverted men." The college, as the New Light movement increased,
+came to the further conclusion that--
+
+    since the principal design of erecting this college was to train
+    up a succession of learned and orthodox ministers by whose example
+    people might be directed in the ways of religion and good order
+    ... it would be a contradiction to the civil government to support
+    a college to educate students to trample upon their own laws, to
+    break up the churches which they establish and protect, especially
+    since the General Assembly in May 1742, thought proper to give the
+    governors of the college some special advice and direction upon
+    that account, which was to the effect that proper care should be
+    taken to prevent the scholars from imbibing those or like errors;
+    and those who would not be orderly and submissive, should not be
+    allowed the privileges of the college.
+
+Solomon Paine made answer to this law. With fine irony, he assured the
+people that in effect it forbade all students attending Yale College
+to go to any religious meeting even with their parents, should they be
+Separatists or New Lights, because--
+
+    no scholar upon the Lord's day or other day, under pretence of
+    religion, shall go to any public or private meeting, not
+    established or allowed by public authority or approved by the
+    President, under penalty of a fine, confession, admonition or
+    otherwise, according to the state and demerit of the offence, for
+    fear that such preaching would end in "Quakerism," open
+    infidelity, and the destruction of all Christian religion, and
+    make endless divisions in the Christian church till nothing hut
+    the name of it would be left in the world.
+
+The two Cleveland brothers, John and Ebenezer, had spent the fall
+vacation of 1744 [c] with their parents at their home in Canterbury,
+and by request of their elders had frequented the Separatist church
+there. On their return to Yale, the boys were admonished. They
+professed themselves ready to apologize, but not in such words as the
+authorities thought sufficiently submissive, for the latter considered
+that the boys had broken the laws "of God, of the Colony and of the
+College."[119] The boys very ably argued that, under the
+circumstances, there had been nothing else for them to do but to go to
+church with their parents when requested to do so, and held to their
+position. Yale expelled them, and there followed a sensation
+throughout the colony.[120]
+
+The leaders of the New Light party in the church of Canterbury were
+the nearest relatives and friends of the Cleveland boys, who came to
+be regarded as martyrs to their religion. Their treatment opened the
+question as to whether the steadily increasing numbers of New Lights
+were to lose for their children the benefit of the college, that they
+helped to support. Must they, in order to send their sons to college,
+deprive them for four years of a "Gospel ministry" and lay them open
+to consequent grave perils? Why should New Lights be required to make
+such a sacrifice, or why, in vacation, should their children be
+required to submit to the ecclesiastical laws of the college? If
+Episcopalians were permitted to have their sons, students at Yale,
+worship with them during the vacations, why should not the same
+liberty be granted to equally good citizens who differed even less in
+theological opinions?
+
+Because of this college incident the difficulties in the Canterbury
+church attracted still more attention, but the end of the schism was
+at hand.  In the month that witnessed the expulsion of the Clevelands,
+the minority of the original First Church voted that they were "The
+Church of Canterbury," and that those who had gone forth from among
+them in the January of the preceding year, 1743, as Congregationalists
+after the Cambridge Platform, had abrogated that of
+Saybrook. Consequently, to the minority lawfully belonged the election
+of the minister, the meeting house, and the taxes for ministerial
+support.  Having thus fortified their position, they by a later vote
+declared:--
+
+    That those in the society who are differently minded from us, and
+    can't conscientiously join in ye settlement of Mr. James
+    Coggeshall as our minister may have free liberty to enjoy their
+    own opinion, and we are willing they should be released and
+    discharged from paying anything to ye support of Mr. Coggeshall,
+    or living under his ministry any longer than until they have
+    parish privileges granted them and are settled in church by
+    themselves according to ye order of ye Gospel, or are lawfully
+    released.  [121]
+
+At the repeal of the Toleration Act in 1743, a new method had been
+prescribed for sober dissenters who wished to separate from the state
+church, and who were not of the recognized sects.  The method of
+relief, thereafter, was for the dissenters, no matter how widely
+scattered in the colony, to appeal in person to the General Assembly
+and ask for special exemption. Moreover, they were promised only that
+their requests would be listened to, and the Assembly was growing
+steadily more and more averse to granting such petitions. As a result
+of this policy, the Separatist church of Canterbury did not have a
+very good prospect of immediate ability to accept the good-will of the
+First Church, which went even farther than the resolution cited
+above. The First Church offered to assist the Separatists in obtaining
+recognition from the Assembly. This offer the Separatists refused,
+preferring to submit to double taxation, and thus to become a standing
+protest to the injustice of the laws.
+
+After the expulsion of the Clevelands, Yale made one more pronounced
+effort to discipline its students and to repress the growth of the
+liberal spirit. She attempted to suppress a reprint of Locke's essay
+upon "Toleration" which the senior class had secretly printed at their
+expense.  An attempt to overawe the students and to make them confess
+on pain of expulsion was met by the spirited resistance of one of the
+class, who threatened to appeal to the King in Council if his diploma
+were denied him. His diploma was granted; and some years after, when
+the sentiment in the colony had further changed, the college gave the
+Cleveland brothers their degree.
+
+The church in Enfield[122] had an experience somewhat similar to that
+of Canterbury, to which it seems to have looked for spiritual advice
+and example. The Enfield Separate church was probably organized
+between 1745 and 1751, though its first known documents are a series
+of letters to the Separate church in Canterbury covering the period
+1751-53. These letters sought advice in adjusting difficulties that
+were creating great discord in the church, which had already separated
+from the original church of Enfield. In 1762, the Enfield Separatists,
+once more in harmony, renewed their covenant, and called Mr. Nathaniel
+Collins to be their pastor.  They struggled for existence until 1769,
+when they appealed to the General Assembly for exemption from the
+rates still levied upon them for the benefit of the First
+Society. They asked for recognition, separation, and incorporation as
+the Second Society and Church of Enfield. They were refused; but in
+May of the following year,--a year to be marked by special legislation
+in behalf of dissenters,--the Enfield Separatists again memorialized
+the Assembly, and in response were permitted to organize their own
+church. [123] This permission, however, was limited to the
+memorialists, eighty in number; to their children, if within six
+months after reaching their majority they filed certificates of
+membership in this Separate church; and to strangers, who should enter
+the new society within one year of their settling in the town.  The
+history of the Enfield Separatists gives glimpses of the frequent
+double discord between the New Lights and the Old and among the New
+Lights themselves. The period of the Enfield persecution extended over
+years when, elsewhere in the colony, Separatists had obtained
+recognition of their claims to toleration, if only through special
+acts and not by general legislation.
+
+If churches suffered from the severe ecclesiastical laws of 1742-43,
+individuals did also.  Under the law which considered traveling
+ministers as vagrants, and which the Assembly had made still more
+stringent by the additional penalty "to pay down the cost of
+transportation," so learned a man as the Rev. Samuel Finley,
+afterwards president of Princeton, was imprisoned and driven from the
+colony because he insisted upon preaching in Connecticut. Indeed, it
+was his persistence in returning to the colony that caused the
+magistrates to increase the severity of the law.[124] When the
+ministers John Owen of Groton and Benjamin Pomeroy of Hebron, as well
+as the itinerant James Davenport of Southold, criticised the laws, all
+of them were at once arraigned for the offense before the Assembly.
+There was so much excitement over the arrest of Pomeroy and Davenport
+that it threatened a riot. All three men were discharged, but
+Davenport was ordered out of the colony for his itinerant preaching
+and for teaching resistance to the civil laws. Pomeroy, his friend,
+had declared that the laws forbade any faithful minister, or any one
+faithful in civil authority, to hold office. Events bore out his
+statement, for ministers were hounded, and the New Light justices of
+the peace, and other magistrates, were deprived of office.  Pomeroy,
+himself, was discharged only to be complained of for irregular
+preaching at Colchester and in punishment to be,deprived of his salary
+for seven years.[125] The Rev. Nathan Stone of Stonington was
+disciplined for his New Light sympathies. Philemon Bobbins of Branford
+was deposed for preaching to the Baptists at Wallingford. This last
+procedure was the work of the Consociation of New Haven county, which
+thereby began a six years' contest, 1741-47, with the Branford
+church. In 1745 this church attempted to throw off the yoke of the
+Consociation by renouncing the Saybrook Platform.
+
+During these years of persecution, the opposition to the Old Light
+policy was gradually gaining effective power, although the college had
+expelled Brainerd, and Mr. Cook, one of the Yale corporation, had
+found it expedient to resign because of his too prominent part in the
+formation of the North Church of New Haven. The Old Lights in the
+legislature of 1743 passed the repeal of the Toleration Act because
+the New Lights had no commanding vote; but they were increasing
+throughout the colony. Fairfield East Consociation had licensed
+Brainerd the year that Yale expelled him. Twelve ministers of New
+London and Windham county had met to approve the revival,
+notwithstanding the repeal of the Toleration Act and the known
+antagonism of the Windham Association to the Separatists.  Windham
+Consociation and that of Fairfield East favored the revival. Large
+numbers of converts were made in these districts, and many also in
+Hartford county. In the New Haven district the spirit of antagonism
+and of persecution was strongest.
+
+It was in accordance with the laws of 1742-43 that Mack, Shaw, and
+Pyrlæus, Moravian missionaries, on a visit in 1744 to their mission
+stations among the Indians in Connecticut, were seized as Papists and
+hustled from sheriff to sheriff for three days until "the Governor of
+Connecticut honorably dismissed them," though their accusers insisted
+upon their being bound over under a penalty of £100 to keep the law.
+"Being not fully acquainted with all the special laws of the country,
+they perceived a trap laid for them and thought it prudent to retire
+to Shekomeko" (Pine Plains, Dutchess County, N. Y.). Missionaries sent
+out from Nazareth and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, had established this
+sub-centre for work in New York and Connecticut, and in the latter
+colony, in 1740-43, had made Indian converts at Sharon, Salisbury
+Indian Pond, near Newtown, and at Pachgatgoch, two miles southwest of
+Kent. Here was their principal station in Connecticut. They had made,
+in all, some twenty converts among the Indians, and had reclaimed
+several of their chief men from drunkenness and idleness. Moravian
+principles forbade these missionaries to take an oath. Consequently,
+the greed of traders, the rivalry of creeds, together with the belief
+that there was something wrong about men who would not swear
+allegiance to King George,--notwithstanding their willingness to
+affirm it, and notwithstanding their denial of the Pretender,--gave
+rise to the conviction that they must be Papists[d] in league with the
+French and their Indian allies. Accordingly both magistrates and
+ministers arrested the missionaries, and hurried them before the court
+at Poughkeepsie or at New Milford. Though the governors of both states
+recognized the value of the mission work, popular feeling ran so high
+that New York, in September, 1744, passed a law requiring them to take
+the oaths prescribed or to leave the country, and also commanding that
+"vagrant Teachers, Moravians, and disguised Papists should not preach
+or teach in public or private" without first obtaining a license. In
+Connecticut, as has been said, the laws of 1742-1743 were enforced
+against them; later, when during the Old French War groundless rumors
+of their intrigues with hostile Indians were circulated against them,
+a vain hunt was made for three thousand stands of arms that were said
+to be secreted in their missions. The severe persecution in New York
+had driven these missionaries into Pennsylvania and into Connecticut,
+but these rumors of intrigue broke up their work and caused the
+abandonment of their stations in the latter colony. Some of these,
+such as Kent, Sharon, and Salisbury, were revived in 1749-1762, at the
+request of the English settlers as well as of the Indian
+converts.[126]
+
+Returning to the main story of the progress of dissent, we find that
+in 1746 the General Court of Connecticut felt obliged to safeguard the
+Establishment by the passage of a law entitled, "Concerning who shall
+vote in Society Meetings."[127] Its preamble states that persons
+exempted from taxes for the support of the established ministry,
+because of their dissenting from the way of worship and ministry of
+the Presbyterian, Congregational, or Consociated churches, "ought not
+to vote in society meetings with respect to the support or to the
+building and maintaining of meeting houses," yet some persons,
+exempted as aforesaid, "have adventured to vote and act therein," as
+there was no express law to the contrary. The new law forbade such
+voting, and limited the ecclesiastical ballot to members of the
+Establishment who "were persons of full age and in full communion with
+the church," and to other unexempted persons who held a freehold rated
+at fifty shillings per year, or personal property to the value of
+forty pounds. This law was just, in that it excluded all dissenters
+who had received exemption from Presbyterian rates. It included all
+others having the property qualification, whether they wanted to vote
+or not. That it was felt to be a necessity is a witness to the
+increasing recognition of the strength of the dissenting element.
+
+In 1747, the Consociation of Windham sent forth a violent pamphlet
+describing the Separatists as a people in revolt against God and in
+rebellion against the Church and government.  But the tide of public
+opinion was turning, and popular sentiment did not support the writers
+of this pamphlet. Moreover, the secular affairs of the colony were
+calling minds away from religious contentions as the stress of the Old
+French War was more and more felt. In 1748, venturing upon the
+improvement in public sentiment, Solomon Paine sent to the legislature
+a memorial signed by three hundred and thirty persons and asking for a
+repeal of such laws as debarred people from enjoying the liberty
+"granted by God and tolerated by the King."[128] It was known to these
+memorialists that a revision of the laws, first undertaken in 1742,
+was nearing completion, and their desire was that all obnoxious or
+unfair acts should be repealed. The petition met with a sharp rebuff,
+and, as a punishment, three members were expelled from the Assembly
+for being Separatists. But by such measures the Old Lights were
+overreaching themselves. A mark of the turning of public opinion was
+given this same year, when, upon the request of his old church in
+Hebron, the church vouching for his work and character, the Assembly
+restored to his ministerial rights and privileges the Rev.  James
+Pomeroy. The unjust laws of 1742-43 and of the following years were
+never formally repealed, but were quietly dropped out of the revision
+of the laws issued in 1750.
+
+Thenceforth the people began to tolerate variety in religious opinions
+with better grace, and the dominant authoritative rule of the Saybrook
+Platform began to wane, though for twenty years more it strove to
+assert its power. In 1755, the Middletown Association advised
+licensing candidates for the ministry for a term of years. The idea
+was to prevent errors arising from the personal interpretation of the
+Scriptures and indifference to dogmatic truths of religion from
+creeping into the churches. About the same time, the Consociation of
+New Haven invited their former member, Mr. Bobbins of Branford, to sit
+with them again at the installation of Mr.  Street of East
+Haven. Conciliatory acts and measures such as these originated with
+both the Old and New Lights, and did much to lessen the division
+between them. Discussion turned more and more from personal opinions,
+character, and abilities, to considerations of doctrinal points. The
+churches found more and more in common, while worldly interests left
+the masses with only a half-hearted concern in church discussions.
+
+To summarize the effect of the Great Awakening as evidenced by the
+great schism and its results thus far considered: The strength of the
+revival movement, as such, was soon spent. The number of its converts
+throughout New England was estimated by Dr. Dexter to be as high as
+forty or fifty thousand, while later writers put it as low as ten or
+twelve thousand, out of the entire population of three hundred
+thousand souls. The years 1740-42 were the years of the Great
+Awakening, and after them there were comparatively few conversions
+during any given time. Even in Jonathan Edwards's own church in
+Northampton there were no converts between 1744 and 1748.  The
+influence of the Great Awakening was not, however, transient, nor was
+it confined to the Congregational churches, whether of the Cambridge
+or the Saybrook type. Baptist churches felt the impetus, receiving
+many directly into their membership, and also indirectly, from those
+Separatist churches which found themselves too weak to
+endure. Episcopalians added to their numbers from among religiously
+inclined persons who sought a calm and stable church home unaffected
+by church and political strife. The Great Awakening created the
+Separatist movement and the New Light party, revitalized the
+Established churches, invigorated others, and through the persecution
+and counter-persecution that the great schism produced, taught the
+Connecticut people more and more of religious tolerance, and so
+brought them nearer to the dawn of religious liberty.  Such liberty
+could only come after the downfall of the Saybrook, Platform, and
+after a complete severance of Church and State. The last could not
+come for three quarters of a century. Meanwhile the leaven of the
+great revival would be working. On its intellectual side, the Great
+Awakening led to the discussion of doctrinal points, an advance from
+questions of church polity. These themes of pulpit and of religious
+press led, finally, to a live interest in practical Christianity and
+to a more genial religion than that which had characterized the
+Puritan age.  The Half-Way Covenant had been killed. Education had
+received a new impulse, Christian missions were reinvigorated, and the
+monthly concert of prayer for the conversion of the world was
+instituted.  [129] True, French and Indian wars, the Spanish
+entanglement with its West Indian expedition, and the consuming
+political interests of the years 1745-83, shortened the period of
+energetic spiritual life, and ushered in another half century of
+religious indifference. But during that half century the followers of
+Edwards and Bellamy were to develop a less severe and more winning
+system of theology, and the fellowship of the churches was to suggest
+the colonial committees of safety as a preliminary to the birth of a
+nation, founded upon the inherent equality of all men before the
+law. This conception of political and civil liberty was to develop
+side by side with a clearer notion of the value of religious freedom.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] This term came with the royal charter of 1662, but only gradually
+displaced the familiar "General Court."
+
+[b] The Milford church, like that of New Haven, suffered for many
+years from unjust exactions and taxation.
+
+[c] Commencement then came in September.
+
+[d] And this notwithstanding their willingness to include in their
+affirmation a denial of Mariolatry, purgatory, and other vital Romish
+tenets.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ABROGATION OF THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM
+
+
+    That house cannot stand.--Mark iii, 25.
+
+    The times change and we change with them.--Proverb.
+
+The omission of all persecuting acts from the revision of the laws in
+1750 was evidence that the worst features of the great schism were
+passing, that public opinion as a whole had grown averse to any great
+severity toward the Separatists as dissenters. But the continuance in
+the revised statutes of the Saybrook Platform as the legalized
+constitution of the "Presbyterian, Congregational or Consociated
+Church," and the almost total absence of any provision for exempting
+Congregational Separatists from the taxes levied in its behalf,
+operated, notwithstanding the many acts of conciliation between these
+two types of churches, to revive at times the milder forms of
+persecution. And such injustice would continue until the Separatists
+as a body were legally exempted from ecclesiastical rates, and until
+the Saybrook Platform was either formally annulled or, in its turn,
+quietly dropped from the statute book. But henceforth, the measure of
+intolerance would be determined more by local sentiment and less by
+the text of the law, more by the proportion of Old Lights to New in a
+given community. And the measure of toleration must eventually take
+the form of legalized rights rather than of special privileges, and
+this through a growing appreciation of the value of the Separatists as
+citizens. The abrogation of the Saybrook Platform might follow upon a
+reaffiliation of all Presbyterians and all Congregationalists in a new
+spirit of mutual tolerance and helpfulness. Whatever the events or
+influences that should bring about this reaffiliation, the new bonds
+of church life would necessarily lack the stringency of the palmy days
+of Saybrook autocratic rule. Consequently when such a time arrived,
+the Platform, at least in its letter, could be dropped from the
+law-book. The old colonial laws for the support of religion would
+still suffice to protect and exalt the Establishment, and to preserve
+it as the spiritual arm of the State. It so happened that toleration
+was granted to the Separatists at the beginning of the Revolutionary
+struggle, and that the abrogation of the Saybrook Platform followed
+close upon its victorious end. Many influences, both religious and
+secular, had their part in bringing about these progressive steps
+toward religious freedom, toward full and free liberty of conscience.
+
+The revision of the laws completed in 1750 had been under
+consideration since 1742. At the beginning of the great schism, the
+important task had been placed in the hands of a committee consisting
+of Roger Wolcott, Thomas Fitch, Jonathan Trumbull, and John Bulkley,
+Judge of the Superior Court. The first three names are at once
+recognized as Connecticut's chief magistrates in 1750-54, 1754-66,
+1769-1783, respectively. During the eight years that the revision was
+in the hands of this committee, the church quarrel had passed its
+crisis; the Old Lights had slowly yielded their political, as well as
+their ecclesiastical power; and their controlling influence was
+rapidly passing from them.  The Old French War, with its pressing
+affairs, had so affected the life of the colony as to lessen religious
+fervor, weaken ecclesiastical animosities, and, at the same time, to
+develop a broader conception of citizenship.
+
+English influence, moreover, had modified the ecclesiastical laws in
+the revision of 1750. The Connecticut authorities, when imbued with
+the persecuting spirit, did not always stop to distinguish between the
+legally exempt Baptist dissenters and the unexempted Separatists. This
+was due in part to the fact that many of the latter, like the church
+of which Isaac Backus was the leader, went over to the Baptist
+denomination. The two sects held similar opinions upon all subjects,
+except that of baptism. It was much easier to obtain exemption from
+ecclesiastical taxes by showing Baptist certificates than to run the
+risk of being denied exemption when appeal was made to the Assembly,
+either individually or as a church body, the form of petition demanded
+of these Separatists. The persecuted Baptists at once turned to
+England for assistance, and to the Committee of English Dissenters, of
+which Dr. Avery was chairman.
+
+This committee had been appointed to look after the interests of all
+dissenters, both in England and in her colonies, for the English
+dissenting bodies were growing in numbers and in political
+importance. To this committee the Connecticut Baptists reported such
+cases of persecution as that of the Saybrook Separatist church, which
+in 1744 suffered through the arrest of fourteen of its members for
+"holding a meeting contrary to law on God's holy Sabbath day."  These
+fourteen people were arraigned, fined, and driven on foot through deep
+mud twenty-five miles to New London, where they were thrust into
+prison for refusing to pay their fines, and left there without fire,
+food, or beds. There they were kept for several weeks, dependent for
+the necessaries of life upon the good will of neighboring
+Baptists.[130] The Separatists could report the trials of the Separate
+church of Canterbury, of that of Enfield, of the First Separate church
+of Milford, hindered in the exercise of its legal rights for over
+twenty years, and they could also recount the persecution of churches
+and of individuals in Wethersfield, Windsor, Middletown, Norwich, and
+elsewhere. Upon receiving such reports, Dr. Avery had written, "I am
+very sorry to hear of the persecuting spirit which prevails in
+Connecticut.... If any gentleman that suffers by these coercive laws
+will apply to me, I will use my influence that justice be done them."
+The letter was read in the Assembly, and is said to have influenced
+the committee of revision, causing them to omit the persecuting laws
+of 1742-44, in order that they might no longer be quoted against the
+colony. Governor Law replied to Dr. Avery that the disorders and
+excesses of the dissenters had compelled the very legislation of which
+they complained. To which Dr. Avery returned answer that, while
+disorders were to be regretted, civil penalties were not their proper
+remedy. This was a sentiment that was gaining adherents in the colony
+as well as in England. Among other instances of persecution among the
+Baptists was that of Samuel, brother of Isaac Backus, who in 1752,
+with his mother and two members of the Baptist society, was imprisoned
+for thirteen days on account of refusal to pay the ecclesiastical
+taxes.[131] Another was that of Deacon Nathaniel Drake, Jr.,[132] of
+Windsor, who, in 1761, refused to pay the assessment for the Second
+Society's new meeting-house. For six years the magistrates wrestled
+with the Deacon, striving to collect the assessment. But the Deacon
+was obstinate, and rather than pay a tax of which his conscience
+disapproved, he preferred to be branded in the hand. Outside of
+Baptist or Separatist, there were other afflicted churches, such as
+that of Wallingford,[133] where the New Lights could complain that, in
+1758, the Consociation of New Haven county had refused to install the
+candidate of the majority, Mr. Dana; and had attempted to discipline
+the twelve ministers who had united in ordaining him; and that as a
+result the twelve were forced to meet in an Association by themselves
+for fourteen years, or until 1772.
+
+The Separatists attempted to obtain exemption through petitions to the
+Assembly, trusting that, as each new election sent more and more New
+Lights to that body, each prayer for relief would be more favorably
+received. One of the most important of these petitions was that of
+1753, when more than twenty Separatist churches, representing about a
+thousand members, united in an appeal wherein they complained of the
+distraining of their goods to meet assessments and taxes for the
+benefit of the Established churches; of imprisonments, with consequent
+deprivation of comforts for their families; and of the danger to the
+civil peace threatened by these evils. The Assembly refused
+redress. Whereupon the petition was at once reconstructed,[a] and,
+with authentic records and testimonies, to which Governor Fitch set
+the seal of Connecticut, was sent, in 1756, [134] to London.  The
+Committee in behalf of Dissenters were to see that it was presented to
+the King in Council.  The petition charged violation of the colony's
+charter, excessive favoritism, and legislation in favor of one
+Christian sect to the exclusion of all others and to the oppression,
+even, of some.  The English Committee thought that these charges might
+anger the King and endanger the Connecticut charter. Accordingly, they
+again wrote to the Connecticut authorities, remonstrating with them
+because of their treatment of dissenters.  At the same time, they sent
+a letter advising the petitioners to show their loyalty to the best
+interests of the colony by withdrawing their complaint. These
+dissenters were further advised to begin at once a suit in the
+Connecticut courts for their rights, and with the intent of carrying
+their case to England, should the colony fail to do them
+justice. Legal proceedings were immediately begun, but were allowed to
+lapse, partly because of the press of secular interests, for the
+colonial wars, the West India expedition, and other affairs of great
+moment claimed attention, and partly because there were indications
+that the government would regard the Separatists more favorably.
+
+In the colony itself a change was taking place through which the
+college was to go over to the side of the New Lights. In 1755,
+President Clap had established the College Church in order to remove
+the students from the party strife that was still distracting the
+churches. In order to avoid a conflict over the matter, he refused to
+ask the consent of the Assembly, claiming the right of an incorporated
+college and the precedent of the English universities, since, in 1745,
+the Assembly had formally incorporated "The President and Fellows of
+Yale College," vesting in them all the usual powers appertaining to
+colleges. In the same year, also, the initial step toward establishing
+a chair of divinity had been taken, and it became the first toward the
+founding of the separate College Church. President Clap always
+maintained that "the great design of founding Yale was to educate
+ministers in our way,"[135] and the chair of divinity had been
+established in answer to the suggestion of the Court that the college
+take measures to protect its students from the New Light
+movement. President Clap was hurried on in his policy of establishing
+the College Church both by his desire to separate the students from
+the New Light controversy in Mr. Noyes's church, where they were wont
+to attend, and by an appeal to him, in 1753, of Rector Punderson, the
+priest recently placed in charge of the Church-of-England mission in
+New Haven. The rector had two sons in college, and he asked that they
+and such other collegians as were Episcopalians might be permitted to
+attend the Church-of-England services.  President Clap refused to give
+the desired permission, except for communion and some special
+services, and he at once proceeded to organize a church within the
+college. The trustees and faculty upheld him, but the Old Lights, then
+about two-thirds of the deputies to the Assembly, opposed his course
+of action, and succeeded in taking away the annual grant that, at the
+incorporation of the college, had been given to Yale. After this, they
+regarded President Clap as a "political New Light," but as the latter
+party increased in the Assembly, and became friendly to Yale, the
+college gradually reinstated itself in the favor of the legislature.
+
+If in his petitions the Separatist demanded only exemption, only that
+much toleration, in his controversial writings he ably argued the
+right of all men to full liberty of conscience.  Unfortunately, the
+ignorance and follies of many of the Separatists, when battling in
+advance of their age for religious liberty, militated against the
+logic of their position. Harmony among themselves would have commended
+and strengthened their cause, and given it a forceful dignity.  They
+blundered, as did their English predecessors of a much earlier date,
+by laying too much stress upon the individual, upon his
+interpretations of Scripture, and upon his right of criticism. Much of
+their work in behalf of religious liberty took the form of
+pamphleteering. Again, it was their misfortune that the Establishment
+could boast of writers of more ability and of greater training. Yet
+the Separatists had some bold thinkers, some able advocates, and, as
+time wore on, and their numbers were increased and disciplined, the
+strength and quality of their petitions and published writings
+improved greatly.  Sometimes these dissenters were helped by the
+theories of their opponents, which, when pushed to logical conclusions
+and practical application, often became strong reasons for granting
+the very liberty the Separatists sought. Sometimes an indignant member
+of the Establishment, smarting under its interference, was roused to
+forceful expression of the broader notions of personal and church
+liberty that were slowly spreading through the community. A few
+extracts from typical pamphlets of the time will give an idea of the
+atmosphere surrounding the disputants.
+
+In 1749, a tract was issued from the New London press by one
+E. H. M. A. entitled, "The present way of the Country in maintaining
+the Gospel ministry by a Public Rate or Tax is Lawful, Equitable, and
+agreable to the Gospel; As the same is argued and proved in way of
+Dialogue between John Queristicus and Thomas Casuisticus, near
+Neighbors in the County." In answer to this, and for the purpose of
+vindicating the religious practices and opinions of the Separatists,
+Ebenezer Frothingham, a Separatist minister, took the field in 1750 as
+the champion of religious liberty. His book of four hundred and fifty
+pages had for its title "The Articles of Faith and Practice with the
+Covenant that is confessed by the Separate Churches of Christ in this
+land. Also a discourse." So influential and so characteristic was this
+work, that rather long extracts from it are permissible, and, with a
+few arguments from other writers, will serve to reflect the thought
+and feeling of the day, and will best give the point of view of both
+dissenter and member of the Establishment, of liberal and
+conservative; for the pamphlet of the period was apt to be religious
+or political, or more likely both.
+
+Frothingham, speaking of the injustice done the Separatists, writes:--
+
+    That religion that hath not authority and power enough within
+    itself to influence its professors to support the same, without
+    Bargains, Taxes or Rates, and the Civil Power, and Prisons, &c. is
+    a false Religion.  ... Now, if the Religion generally professed
+    and practiced in this land, be the Religion of Jesus Christ, why
+    do they strain away the Goods of the Professors of it, and waste
+    their substance to support it? which has frequently been done. And
+    which is worse, why do they take their Neighbors (that don't
+    worship with them, but have solemnly covenanted to worship God in
+    another place) by the throat, and cast them into Prison? or else
+    for a Rate of Twenty Shillings, Three or Six Pounds, send away
+    Ten, Twenty, or Thirty Pounds worth of Goods, and set them up at
+    Vendue; where they will generally assemble the poor, miserable
+    Drunkard, and the awful foul-mouthed Swearer, and the bold,
+    covetous, Blasphemous Scoffer at things Sacred and Divine, and the
+    Scum of Society for the most part will be together, to count and
+    make their Games about the Goods upon Sale, and at the owners of
+    them too, and at the Holy Religion that the Owners thereof
+    profess; and at such Vendues there are rarely any solid, thinking
+    men to be found there; or if there are any such present, they do
+    not care to act in that oppressive way of supporting the
+    Gospel. Such men find something is the matter. God's Vice-regent
+    in their Breasts, tells them it is not equal to make such Havock
+    of men's Estates, to support a Worship they have nothing to do
+    with; yes, the Consciences of these persons will trouble them so
+    that they had rather pay twice their part of the Rates, and so let
+    the oppressed Party go free.
+
+Upon the difficulty of securing collectors, Frothingham remarks: "If
+it be such a good Cause, and no good men in the Society, to undertake
+that good Work, surely then such a Society is awfully declined, if
+that is the case." Frothingham quotes the Suttler of the "Dialogue" as
+saying, "We have good reason to believe, that if this Hedge of human
+Laws, and Enclosure of Order round the Church, were wholly broken
+down, and taken away, there would not be, ('t is probable) one regular
+visible Church left subsisting in this land, fifty years hence, or, at
+most, not many. "To this, Frothingham replied that if by the "visible
+church, here spoken of," is meant "Anti-Christ's Church, we should be
+apt to believe it," for "it needs Civil Power, Rates and Prisons to
+support it. But if the Gospel Church, set up at first without the aid
+of civil power could continue and spread, why can't it subsist without
+the Civil Power now as well as then?" "To this day," this author adds,
+"the true Church of Christ is in bondage, by usurping Laws that
+unrighteously intrude upon her ecclesiastical Rights and civil
+Enjoyments; .... And Wo! Wo! to New England! for the God-provoking
+Evil, which is too much indulged by the great and mighty in the
+Land. The cry of oppression is gone up into the ears of the Lord God
+of Sabbaoth."
+
+Frothingham thrusts at the payment or support of the ministry by
+taxation in his assertion that "there is no instance of Paul's
+entering into any civil Contract or Bargain, to get his wages or Hire,
+in all his Epistles; but we have frequent accounts of his receiving
+free contributions."[136] (Here, he but repeats a part of the Baptist
+protest in the Wightman-Bulkley debate of 1707.) Frothingham states
+that "the scope and burden of it [his book] were to shew ...  both
+from scripture and reason that the standing ministers and Churches in
+this Colony [Connecticut] are not practising in the rule of God's
+word."
+
+The book at once commanded the attention desired by its author. It
+drew upon Frothingham the concentrated odium of the Rev.  Moses
+Bartlett, pastor of the Portland church, in a fifty-four-paged
+pamphlet entitled "False and Seducing Teachers." Among such Bartlett
+includes and roundly denounces Frothingham and the two Paines, Solomon
+and his brother Elisha.  Elisha Paine had removed to Long
+Island. Returning to Canterbury for some of his household goods, he
+was seized by the sheriff for rates overdue, and thrown into Windham
+jail.[137] After waiting some weeks for his release, he sent the
+following bold and spicy letter to the Canterbury assessors:--
+
+    To you gentlemen, practioners of the law from your prisoner in
+    Windham gaol, because his conscience will not let him pay a
+    minister that is set up by the laws of Connecticut, contrary to
+    his conscience and consent.
+
+    The Roman Emperor was called Pontifex Maximus, because he presided
+    over civil and ecclesiastical affairs; which, is the first beast
+    that persecuted the Christians that separated from the Established
+    religion, which they call the holy religion of their forefathers;
+    and by their law, fined, whipped, imprisoned and killed such as
+    refused obedience thereto. We all own that the Pope or Papal
+    throne is the second beast, because he is the head of the
+    ecclesiastical, and also meddles in civil affairs.... He also
+    compels all under him to submit to his worship, decrees and laws,
+    by whips, fines, prisons, fire and fagots. Now what your prisoner
+    requests of you is a clear distinction between the Ecclesiastical
+    Constitution of Connecticut, by which I am now held in prison, and
+    the aforesaid two thrones or beasts in the foundation,
+    constitution and support thereof. For if by Scripture and reason
+    you can show they do not all stand on the throne mentioned in
+    Psalm xciv: 20, [b] but that the latter is founded on the Rock
+    Christ Jesus, I will confess my fault and soon clear myself of the
+    prison.  But if this Constitution hath its rise from _that
+    throne_ ... better is it to die for Christ, than to live
+    against him.
+
+    From an old friend to this civil constitution, and long your
+    prisoner.
+
+    ELISHA PAINE.
+
+    WINDHAM JAIL, Dec. 11, 1752.
+
+In 1744, in addition to his memorials and letters, Solomon Paine had
+published "A Short View of the Constitution of the Church of Christ,
+and the Difference between it and the Church Established in
+Connecticut." Frothingham, when alluding to Moses Bartlett's
+denunciation of himself and Paine, refers to this book in his remark,
+"Elder Paine and myself have labored to prove, and I think it evident,
+that the religious Constitution of this Colony is not founded upon the
+Scriptures of truth, but upon men's inventions."
+
+In the year 1755, the same in which he established the college church,
+President Clap issued his "History and Vindication of the doctrines
+received and established in the Churches of New England," [c] to which
+Thomas Darling's "Some Remarks on President Clap's History" was a
+scathing rejoinder. Darling asserted that for the President to uphold
+the Saybrook System of Consociated Churches was to set up the
+standards of men, a thing the forefathers never did;[138] that the
+picture of the Separatists' "New Scheme," which the President drew,
+was a scandalous _spiritual_ libel;[139] and then, falling into
+the personal attacks permitted in those days, Darling adds that
+President Clap was an overzealous sycophant of the General Assembly, a
+servant of politics rather than of religion, and that it would be
+better for him to trust to the real virtues of the Consociated Church
+to uphold it than to strive for legal props and legislative favors for
+his "ministry-factory,"[140] the college. To raise the cry of heresy,
+Darling declared, was the President's political powder, and "The
+Church, the Church is in danger!" his rallying cry. He concluded his
+arraignment with:--
+
+    But would a man be tried, judged and excommunicated by such a
+    standard as this? No! Not so long as they had one atom of
+    _common_ sense left. These things will never go down in a
+    free State, where people are bred in, and breathe the free air,
+    and are formed upon principles of liberty; they might answer in a
+    popish country, or in _Turkey_, where the common people are
+    sank and degraded almost to the state of brutes.... But in a free
+    state they will be eternally ridiculed and abhorred.... 'T is too
+    late in the Day for these things, these gentlemen should have
+    lived twelve or thirteen hundred years ago.
+
+Among the champions of religious liberty was the Seventh-day Baptist,
+John Bolles. He wrote "To worship God in Spirit and in Truth, is to
+worship him in true Liberty of Conscience," and also "Concerning the
+Christian Sabbath, which that Sabbath commanded to Israel, after they
+came out of Egypt, was a Sign of. Also Some Remarks upon a Book
+written by Ebenezer Frothingham." These works were published in 1757,
+and, five years later, called out in defense of the Establishment
+Eobert Ross's "Plain Address to the Quakers, Moravians, Separates,
+Separatist-Baptists, Rogerines, and other Enthusiasts on immediate
+impulses, and Revelation, &c," wherein the author considers all those
+whom he addresses as on a level with Frothingham, whom he names and
+scores for "trampling on all Churches and their Determinasions, but
+your own, with the greatest disdain."[141]
+
+In the same year, 1762, the Separatist Israel Holly published a
+defense of his opinions, quoting freely from Dr. Watts and from his
+own earlier work, "A Seasonable Plea for Liberty of Conscience, and
+the Eight of private Judgment in matters of Religion, without any
+control from Human Authority." This "A Word in Zion's Behalf" [d]
+boldly ranges itself with Frothingham and Bolles, arguing against, and
+emphatically opposing, the state control of religion.  Holly also
+engaged in a printed controversy, publishing in connection with it
+"The Power of the Congregational Church to ordain its officers and
+govern itself."
+
+In 1767, while the Separatists still outnumbered the Baptists in
+Connecticut, Ebenezer Frothingham put forth another powerful and
+closely argued tract, "A Key to unlock the Door, that leads in, to
+take a fair view of the Religious Constitution Established by Law in
+the Colony of Connecticut," [e] etc. In his preface he states:--
+
+    The main Thing I have in View thro' the whole of this Book is free
+    Liberty of Conscience... the Right of thinking and choosing and
+    acting for one's self in matters of Religion, which respects God
+    and Conscience ... for my Readers may see Liberty of Conscience,
+    was the main and leading Point in View in planting this Land and
+    Colony.
+
+Frothingham defines the Religious Constitution as "certain Laws in the
+Colony Law Book, called ecclesiastical, with the Confession of Faith,
+agreed upon by the Elders and Messengers of the Churches, met at
+Saybrook, especially the Articles of Administration of Church
+Discipline." This Constitution Plan "gives the General Assembly (which
+is, and always should so remain, a civil body to transact in civil and
+moral things) power to constitute or make a spiritual or
+ecclesiastical body."[142]
+
+Such power, Frothingham maintains, is contrary to reason. Citing from
+the Colony Law Book the statute, "Concerning who shall vote in town or
+Society meeting" Frothingham comments thus:--
+
+    This supposes no person to have a right to form themselves into a
+    religious society without their [the Assembly's] leave. No,--not
+    King George the Third himself would have liberty to worship God
+    according to his conscience. [Yet] any Atheist, Deist, Arian,
+    Socinian, a Prophane Drunkard, a Sorcerer, a Thief, if they have
+    such a freehold (as the law demands), can vote to keep out a
+    minister. [Such a] plan challenges the sole right of making
+    religious societies and the government of conscience. Yea, I think
+    it assumes the prerogative that belongs to the Son of God
+    alone.[143]
+
+    The fines for the neglect of the established worship and for
+    assembling for worship approved by conscience [leave] no gap for
+    one breath of gospel liberty. For if we exercise our gifts and
+    graces in the lawful assemblies, we are had up, and carried to
+    prison, for making disturbance on the Sabbath.  I myself have been
+    confined in Hartford prison near five months, for nothing but
+    exhorting and warning the people, after the public worship was
+    done and the assembly dismissed. And while I was there confined,
+    three more persons were sent to prison; one for exhorting, and two
+    for worshipping God in a private house in a separate meeting. And
+    quick after I was released, by the laws being answered by natural
+    relations unbeknown to me, then two brethren more was committed
+    for exhorting and preaching, and several afterward, for attending
+    the same duties and I myself was twice more sent to prison for the
+    ministers rates.[144]
+
+    I have no Man or Men's persons as such, in View in my Writings,
+    But would as much as is proper, separate Ministers, Civil Rulers,
+    and Churches, from the Constitution, and consider this Religious
+    Constitution as it is compiled or written, as though it was not
+    established in this Colony; but presented here from some remote
+    part of Christendom, for Examination, to see if it was according
+    to the Word of God, and the sacred Right of Conscience.[145]
+
+In scathing terms, Frothingham attacks the "Anti-Christian" character
+of the Establishment and its fear that, by granting liberty of
+conscience, an open door for church separation would result, and
+thereby its speedy downfall, because of the multiplication of churches
+and the loss of taxes enforced for its support. Experience had taught
+the authorities that, even when all the people favored one form of
+religion, compulsory support had to be resorted to as a spur to
+individual contributious. Moreover, the best governments of which they
+knew had recourse to a similar system in order to maintain purity of
+religion and the moral welfare of the state. The authorities could not
+see, as did the champion of religious liberty, the opportunities of
+oppression that such a system afforded; nor could they feel with him
+the harshness of its taxation, nor the injustice of distraining
+dissenters' goods,--or, as he phrased it, "their lack of faith in God
+and in God's people to uphold religion." They certainly would not
+acknowledge Frothingham's charge that they seriously feared the loss
+of political power through the granting of soul liberty, and as a
+consequence the probable disintegration of the Establishment.
+
+Frothingham argues that to suffer the existence of different sects
+would really strengthen the authority of the colony; since,--
+
+    when persons know that the Most High is alone the absolute Lord of
+    Conscience; that no mortal breathing has any right to hinder them
+    from thinking and acting for themselves, in religious
+    affairs... the law of nature, reason and grace will lay subjects
+    under strong obligations to their rulers, when equal justice is
+    ministered to them of different principles, in the practice of
+    religion. [l46]
+
+Frothingham confutes the declaration that there was liberty of
+conscience in the colony, "for the separates have gone to the General
+Assembly with their prayers, from year to year, asking nothing but
+their just rights, full and free liberty of conscience, and have been,
+and still are, denied their request."
+
+Furthermore, the colony law supported criminals in prison and gave the
+poor man's oath to debtors, but nothing to the man who was in prison
+for conscience's sake. Such a one was dependent upon the charity of
+his friends for the very necessities of life. Such laws and the
+ecclesiastical constitution which they support become--
+
+    a forfeiture of the charter grant because they exercise that
+    oppression and persecution contrary to its first intent, and are
+    the direct cause of contention and disunion, which is repugnant to
+    the principal design of constituting the colony; viz. that it "May
+    be so religiously, peaceably and civilly governed as may win and
+    invite the natives to the Christian faith." [l47]
+
+This "Key to unlock the Door" was probably the strongest work put
+forth from the dissenter's standpoint, and within three years it was
+followed by a legislative act granting a measure of toleration. But
+there were other important books of similar character. Two among these
+were Robert Bragge's "Church Discipline,"[f] reprinted in 1768, and
+Joseph Brown's (Baptist) "Letter to the Infant Baptizers of North
+Parish in New London." Brown closes his book with a mild and
+reasonable appeal to every one to try to put himself in the place of
+the oppressed dissenter.[g] In Brown's argument, as in that of the
+majority of the dissenters, the plea is for toleration in the choice
+of the form of religion to be supported, and not for liberty to
+support or neglect religion itself. Those who believed in the
+voluntary support of religion were not seeking exemption as
+individuals, but as organized societies or churches, whose highest
+privilege it was to support Christ's teachings. Considered from this
+point of view, they were only seeking those privileges which had been
+granted the Episcopalians, the Quakers, and Baptists in
+1727-29. Looked at from the point of view of the government, however,
+these Separatists varied so slightly from the legalized polity and
+worship, and yet withal so dangerously, that they did not deserve to
+be classed as "sober dissenters." To recognize them as such would be
+to set the seal of approval upon all who chose to question the
+authority, or the righteousness, of the Saybrook system. With the fear
+of such an undermining of authority, and realizing the increasing
+tendency of churches throughout the colony to renounce the Saybrook
+Platform, the very conservative people felt that to grant toleration
+to the Separatists might prove disastrous both to Church and civil
+order.
+
+While the Baptists and the Separatists were waging the battle for
+toleration and for religious liberty with the great weapon of their
+time,--the pamphlet,--the Consociated Churches were also making
+valiant use of it, not only in defense of the Establishment, but in
+controversial warfare among themselves, for in the New England of the
+second half of the eighteenth century, two schools of religious
+thought were slowly developing. They gained converts more rapidly as
+the means of communication, of publication, and of exchange of opinion
+increased. The improvement of roads, the introduction of carriages and
+coaches, the establishment of printing-presses, and the founding of
+newspapers, were important agents in developing and moulding public
+opinion. Of these, the printing-press was foremost, for with its
+pamphlet and its newspaper it gained a hearing not only in the cities,
+but in the isolated farmhouses of New England, carrying on its weekly
+visit the gist of the secular and religious news.
+
+The newspaper made its first appearance in Connecticut in 1755, when
+the "Connecticut Gazette" [h] issued from the recently established New
+Haven press. The newspaper arrived later in the distant colony of
+Connecticut than in those on the seaboard that were in closer touch
+with European thought by reason of their more direct and frequent
+sailing vessels. Among American newspapers, the year 1704 saw the
+birth of the "Boston News Letter"; the year 1719, of the "Boston
+Gazette" and of the "American Weekly Mercury" of Philadelphia.  Boston
+added a third paper, the "New England Courant," in 1721, while New
+York issued its first sheet in 1725. Benjamin Franklin founded the
+"Pennsylvania Gazette" in 1729, and, in 1741, began the publication of
+the "General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for, all the British
+Plantations in America." In 1743, Boston sent out the "American
+Magazine and Historical Chronicle," containing, along with European
+news, not only lists of new books and excerpts therefrom, but full
+reprints of the best essays from the English magazines. New York, in
+1752, issued the "Independent Reflector," a magazine of similar
+character. Thus, through papers and magazines, as well as through a
+limited importation of books, and through personal correspondence, the
+life of Europe, and preeminently of England, was brought home to the
+colonists.
+
+In the religious non-prelatical world of England, the Presbyterian
+churches were undergoing a transformation, and were, by 1750,
+prevailingly Arian. The English Congregationalists resisted Arianism,
+but they, also, felt its influence, as well as that of Arminianism,
+and they began to attach less importance to creeds, and to develop a
+broader tolerance of many shades of religious belief. New England
+sympathized more with the Congregational movement, but, as interest in
+both was awakened, English thought came to have great influence in the
+religious development of New England during the next half-century.
+Broadly speaking of these progressive changes, Connecticut, and
+Connecticut-trained men in western Massachusetts, developed the
+so-called New Divinity, while Massachusetts clergy, especially those
+of her eastern section, favored that liberal theology which, after the
+Revolutionary period, gave rise to the Unitarian conflict.
+
+The older religious controversies had concerned themselves with church
+polity, or, popularly speaking, with what men thought concerning their
+relation to God through his church, in distinction from doctrine, or
+what men felt should be their attitude towards God and their
+fellow-men. Pushing aside polity and doctrine, the twentieth century
+emphasizes action, or man's reflection of the life of Christ. Doctrine
+came to the front with Jonathan Edwards. In his opposition to the
+Arminian teaching of the value of a sincere obedience to God's laws
+and "the efficacy of means of grace," Jonathan Edwards asserted the
+Calvinistic idea of the sovereignty of God, and maintained that
+justification was by faith alone; but his idea of justification held
+within it the duty of personal responsibility in loving and obeying
+God. Edwards, though defining love as general benevolence, a delight
+in God's holiness, and the essence of all true virtue, did introduce,
+as factors in personal religion, the will and the emotions. These
+characteristics of true, personal religion, as his mind, influenced by
+the Great Awakening, conceived and elaborated them, he set forth in
+his "Religious Affections," published in 1746. In his "Qualifications
+for Full Communion," 1749, he again dwelt upon the same theme; but his
+main purpose was to uproot the Half-Way Covenant practice and the
+Stoddardean view of the Lord's supper. He attempted to do this by
+exposing the inefficiency of "means," and at English Arminianism in
+particular Edwards leveled his "Freedom of the Will," [i] published in
+1754. His friend and disciple, Joseph Bellamy, put forth in 1750 "True
+Religion Delineated," wherein he advances from Edwards's limited
+atonement theory to that of a general one. [j] In 1758, Bellamy, in
+brilliant dialogue, replied to "A Winter's Evening Conversation Upon
+the Doctrine of Original Sin in which the Notion of our having sinned
+in Adam and being on that Account only liable to eternal Damnation, is
+proved to be unscriptural," a book by Rev. Samuel Webster of
+Salisbury, Massachusetts, and of which a reprint had appeared from the
+New Haven Press in 1757, the year of its publication. Bellamy took
+sides with the Rev. Peter Clark of Danvers, Massachusetts, who replied
+in "A Summer Morning's Conversation."  Both men summoned as their
+authority a work of Edwards, "Original Sin Defended," which was about
+to appear from the press, and to which Edwards's followers were
+looking forward as the last work of their master, he having died while
+its pages were still in press. Edwards had destined the book to be a
+refutation of English Arianism of the Taylor school, of which Webster
+was a follower. This same year, 1758, Bellamy discoursed upon "The
+Wisdom of God in the Permission of Sin," and gave a series of sermons
+on "The Divinity of Jesus Christ," a defense of the Trinity, which
+Jonathan Mayhew of Boston had attacked. Bellamy may have felt that
+this defense was due from a Connecticut man because the colony,
+strenuously orthodox, had in the revision of the laws in 1750 added
+the requirement of a belief in the Trinity, and caused the denial
+thereof to be ranked as felony.  Denial of the Trinity, or of the
+divine inspiration of the Scriptures, was punishable, for the first
+offense, by ineligibility to office, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or
+military, and, upon a second conviction, by disability to sue, to act
+as guardian or as administrator. [148] Though there was never a
+conviction under the statute, the presence of such a law in the colony
+code indicates the religious temper of her people at a time when
+radical changes were creeping into man's conception of religion.
+
+Joseph Bellamy's influence, great as it was as writer and preacher,
+was even greater as a teacher.  His home in Bethlehem from 1738 to
+1790 was virtually a divinity school, and it is estimated that at
+least sixty students, trained in his system of theology and in his
+antagonism to the Half-Way Covenant, [k] spread through New England
+an influence counter to that of the Mayhews, Briant, [l] Webster, and
+other disciples of the Liberal Theology. Upon Bellamy, as a leader,
+fell Edwards's mantle.
+
+While Bellamy was the great exponent of Jonathan Edwards's teachings
+in Connecticut, another friend and famous pupil of the great divine's,
+Samuel Hopkins, taught at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, 1743-69,
+and in Newport, Ehode Island, 1770-1803, urging an extension of his
+master's principles--especially of that of "benevolence." Hopkins,
+however, attributed a certain value to "means of grace," while
+teaching that sin and virtue consist in exercise of the will, or in
+definite acts. [m] Consequently, he included in his theology a denial
+of man's responsibility for Adam's sin, which Edwards had
+maintained. Hopkins advocated also a willing and disinterested
+submission to'God's will, the Hopkinsian "to be saved or damned,"
+since God, in his wisdom, will do that which is best for his
+universe. These characteristic doctrines, both of Bellamy and Hopkins,
+were modified by the younger generation of students, notably by
+Stephen West, John Smalley, Jonathan Edwards, Jr., and--greatest of
+all--Nathaniel Emmons, who, together with the first Timothy Dwight,
+were to introduce two sub-schools of the New Divinity. [n] Emmons,
+following Hopkins, developed extreme views of sin, even in little
+children; held the theories of reprobation and election; and was most
+intensely Calvinistic. Dwight developed a more conciliatory and benign
+system of theology, but his influence, as founder of a school of
+religious thought, belongs to the post-Revolutionary era.  Emmons held
+one long pastorate at Franklin, Massachusetts, 1773-1827, [o] where,
+as a trainer of youth for the ministry, his influence was greatest,
+and his powers at their best. Nearly a hundred ministers passed to
+their pulpits from his tutelage.
+
+Such were the teachings that fashioned a generation of preachers, of
+ministers, wielding a tremendous influence over the men and measures
+of pre-Revolutionary and Revolutionary days. The clergy were then the
+close friends of their parishioners; their counselors in all matters,
+spiritual or worldly; and frequently their arbitrators in disputed
+rights, for the legal class was still small, and its services
+costly. The pastor knew intimately every soul in his parish. He was
+the State's moral guardian. He was the intellectual leader and more,
+for, in the scarcity of books and newspapers, not alone in his Sunday
+sermon but in those on fast days and thanksgivings, and on all public
+and semi-public occasions, he talked to his people upon current
+events. The story is told of a clergyman who in his Sunday prayer
+recounted the life of his parish during the preceding week, making
+personal mention of its actors; who then passed, still praying, from
+local history to the welfare of the nation, including a tribute to
+Washington and a description of a battle; and who did not end his
+hour-long prayer until he had anathematized the enemy, and circled the
+globe for recent examples of divine wrath and benevolence. Such a
+clergyman is by no means a myth. Each pastor made his own
+contribution, inconspicuous or notable as it might be, to the
+broadening of thought, and contributed his part to the development
+among his people of ideas of personal liberty, even as the colonial
+wars were developing confidence in the ability to defend that liberty
+should it be endangered. A voluntary theocracy may uphold a faith
+which teaches that only a very limited number are of the "elect," but,
+under the ordinary conditions of life, such a belief is discouraging,
+deadening, and as men threw off this idea of spiritual bondage, they
+advanced to a larger conception of personal responsibility, dignity,
+and freedom. Such enlargement of ideas necessitated a mutual tolerance
+of diverse opinions. It also tended to create revolt against
+infractions of civil liberty or violations of political justice. The
+colonists were not so badly taxed--as colonial policy went--when they
+made their stand for "no taxation without representation," when they
+exhausted their resources in a long war because of acts of Parliament
+that, had they submitted to them, would have offered a precedent for
+still more repressive measures and for the overthrow of the
+Englishman's right to determine, through the representatives of the
+people, how the people's money should be spent.
+
+If the town-meeting, the sermon, the religious or political pamphlet,
+and the newspaper did each its part in developing a people, there was
+also another factor that, starting as part of a discussion of
+ecclesiastical polity, brought before all men important questions of
+civil, political, and personal liberty, and of constitutional rights.
+However unnecessary the severe anguish of Jonathan Mayhew's spirit,
+due to his exaggerated fear of the American episcopate, he did but
+express "the sincere thought of a multitude of his most rational
+contemporaries." [l49] A review of events will show some reason for
+the antagonism and horror that filled New England when the project of
+the episcopate was revived. After the death of Queen Anne in 1714, the
+Crown took no interest in the project of an American episcopate until
+Thomas Sherlock became Bishop of London in 1748. The Connecticut
+clergy of the Church of England, together with others of New England
+and the Middle colonies, had, however, never ceased their efforts to
+secure an American bishop; and now, in Bishop Sherlock, their
+Metropolitan in London, they had one who firmly believed in the
+necessity of colonial bishops, who deliberately refused to exercise
+the traditional powers of his office, or to obtain a legal renewal of
+them (in so far as they applied to the colonies), because he had
+determined that by such a policy he would force the English government
+to appoint one--or preferably several--American bishops. He defined
+his scheme for the episcopate as one in which the Bishop was: (1) to
+have no coercive power over the laity, only regulative over the
+clergy; (2) to have no share in the temporal government; (3) to be of
+no expense to the colonists; (4) and to have no authority, except to
+ordain the clergy, in any of the colonies where the government was in
+the hands of dissenters from the Church of England. This plan was
+essentially the same as that advocated later by Bishops Secker and
+Butler, and by succeeding bishops to the time of the
+Revolution. Bishop Sherlock obtained the King's permission to submit
+his plan to the English ministers of state. So great was the dread
+inspired in America by the rumors of a revival of active measures for
+a colonial episcopate, that a deputation, sent to England in 1749,
+appointed a committee of two to wait upon those nearest to the King
+and to advise them that the appointment would be "highly Prejudicial
+to the Interests of Several of the Colonies." [150] This committee
+redoubled its energies in 1750, and it was due to its watchfulness as
+well as to the clearer foresight of the King's ministers that Bishop
+Sherlock's plan was frustrated. The chief advisers of the government
+objected to it on the ground that it would be repugnant to the
+dissenting colonies, to the dissenters of all sorts in England, and
+would also rouse in the home-land party-differences that had slumbered
+since the overthrow of the Pretender in 1745.
+
+Despite the English opposition to Bishop Sherlock's scheme, its
+discussion in England and the journey of the bishop's agent through
+the several American colonies to sound their sentiment had created so
+much apprehension that the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
+enjoined its missionaries, in 1753, "that they take special care to
+give no offence to the civil government by intermeddling with affairt,
+not relating to their calling or function." Even Bishop Seeker of
+Oxford, a strong adherent of Bishop Sherlock, saw fit, in 1754, to
+suppress Dr. Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, bidding his enthusiasm
+wait until a more propitious season, and advising him, and the rest of
+his clergy, to conciliate the dissenters. Bishop Sherlock, himself, in
+1752, withdrew sufficiently from his first position to assume the
+ecclesiastical oversight of the colonies, although he would not take
+out a commission to renew that which had expired by the death of
+Bishop Gibson. Meanwhile, Sherlock's demonstration that the Bishop of
+London had little authority in law, or in fact, over the American
+colonies created two parties. One [p] held that the colonies were a
+part of the English nation and consequently were subject to the civil
+and religious laws existing in the home country, and that the
+authority of the Church of England extending to the colonies had been
+reinforced by the Gibson patent of 1727-28.  The other party
+maintained that the colonists were not members of the Church of
+England, nor subject to its rules. They quoted the Lord Chief Justice,
+who declared to Governor Dummer, in 1725, that "there was no regular
+establishment of any national or provincial church in these
+plantations" (of New England), and that Bishop Gilman, in his letter
+of May 24, 1735, to Dr. Colman had written, "My opinion has always
+been that the religious state of New England is founded on an equal
+liberty to all Protestants, none of which can claim the name of a
+national establishment, or of any kind of superiority over the rest."
+This party further maintained that no acts of Parliament, passed after
+the founding of the colonies, were binding upon them, unless such acts
+were specially extended to the colonies. Here again was the old
+contention that had appeared in the earlier controversy over the
+Connecticut Intestacy Act.
+
+An American controversy, parallel in time with the attempt to
+establish the episcopate, roused the always latent New England
+hostility to the Episcopal church as one contrary to gospel
+teaching. This controversy of 1747-51 [q] broke out over the validity
+of Presbyterian ordination versus Episcopal. The battle surged about
+the contingent questions of (1) whether the Church of England extended
+to the colonies; (2) whether it was prudent for the long established
+New England churches to go over to the English communion; and (3)
+whether it would be lawful. In debating the last two, incidental
+matters of expense, of unwise ecclesiastical dependence, and of the
+consequent decay of practical godliness in the land, were discussed by
+the Rev. Noah Hobart of Stratford, Conn., who represented the
+Consociated churches, while Episcopacy was defended by Rev. James
+Wetmore of Rye, N. Y., Dr. Johnson of Stratford, Conn., Rev. John
+Beach of Reading, Conn., and by the Rev. Henry Caner of Boston.
+
+This discussion at once suggested to a few far-sighted men that the
+bishops recently proposed, and which at the end of the Seven Years'
+War, in 1763, were again earnestly advocated by Bishop Seeker (who had
+become Archbishop of Canterbury) should not acquire any powers in
+addition to those suggested by Bishop Sherlock.  The growing fear of
+such increased authority flamed out again in the Mayhew controversy of
+1763-65, when all the inherited Puritan dislike to the Church of
+England as a religious body, and all the terror of such a hierarchy,
+as a part of the English state, hurled itself into argument, and threw
+to the front the discussion of the American episcopate as a measure of
+English policy,--an attempt to transplant the Church as an arm of the
+State; an attempt to "episcopize," to proselyte the colonies, and
+eventually to overturn the New England ecclesiastical and civil
+governments.[r] "It was known," wrote John Adams fifty years later,
+"that neither the king nor ministry nor archbishop could appoint
+bishops in America without Act of Parliament, and if Parliament could
+tax us, it could establish the Church of England with all its creeds,
+articles, ceremonies, and prohibit all other churches as conventicles
+and schism-shops." [s] Therefore, when England declared her right to
+tax the colonies, and followed it by Sugar Act and Stamp Act, the
+political situation threw a lurid light about the Chandler-Chauncy
+controversy [t] of 1767-71 as it rehearsed the _pros_ and
+_cons_ of the proposed episcopate. The New England colonies were
+greatly excited, and others shared the unrest, for, even where the
+Church of England was strongest, the laity as a body preferred the
+greater freedom accorded them under commissaries as sub-officers of
+the Bishop of London.  The indifference of the American laity as a
+whole to the project of the episcopate; the impotence of the English
+bishop to attain it, thwarted as he was by the threefold opposition of
+the ministry, the colonial agents, and the great body of English
+dissenters, did not lessen the prevailing suspicion and fear among the
+colonists, especially among those of New England.  They felt no
+confidence in the profession [u] that authority purely ecclesiastical
+would alone be accorded to the bishop, or that American churchmen
+themselves would long be satisfied with a bishopric so shorn of
+power. And already, on November 1, 1766, the Episcopalians of New
+York, New Jersey, and Connecticut had met together in their first
+annual convention at Elizabethtown. [v] The avowed object of their
+conference was the defense of the liberties of the Church of England,
+and "to diffuse union and harmony, and to keep up a correspondence
+throughout the united body and with their friends abroad."  [151]
+
+It was a time of drawing together, whether of the colonies as
+political bodies, or of their people as groups of individuals
+affiliating with similar groups beyond the local boundaries. Upon
+November 5, 1766, also at Elizabethtown, the Consociated Churches of
+Connecticut had united with the Presbyterian Synod of New York and
+Philadelphia in their first annual convention, which was composed of
+Presbyterian delegates to the Synod and of representatives from the
+Associations in Connecticut. While the general object was the
+promotion of Christian friendship between the two religious bodies,
+the spread of the gospel, and the preservation of the liberties of
+their respective churches, the conventions of 1769-75 determined to
+prosecute measures for preserving these same liberties, threatened "by
+the attempt made by the friends of Episcopacy in the Colonies and
+Great Britain, for the establishment of Diocesan Bishops in America."
+[152] Accordingly this representative body at once entered into
+correspondence with the Committee of Dissenters in England. In
+recalling these movements towards combination, one remembers that,
+among the dissenters, the Quakers had long held to their system of
+Monthly, Quarterly, and Annual Meetings, to their correspondence with
+the London Annual Meeting, and to the frequent interchange of
+traveling preachers. In the years 1767-69, the scattered Baptists of
+New England had united in the Warren (Rhode Island) Association. It
+was a council for advice only, yet its approval lent multiple weight
+to the influence of any Baptist preacher. It urged the collection of
+all authentic reports of oppression or persecution, and a firm, united
+resistance on the part of the weaker churches. [w] The founding of
+Brown University, Rhode Island, as a Baptist College in 1764, gave the
+sect prestige by marking their approval of education and of a "learned
+ministry."
+
+To return to the subject of the episcopate, the Chandler controversy
+had been precipitated by Dr. Johnson of Connecticut, who, at the
+Elizabeth convention, urged that the opposition to the American
+bishops was largely caused by ignorance concerning their proposed
+powers and office, and that if some one would put the scheme more
+fully before the people, they might be won over. The task was assigned
+to Thomas Bradbury Chandler, who published his "An Appeal to the
+Public," 1767. Dr. Charles Chauncy of Boston replied to Chandler,
+giving the New England view of bishops in "The Appeal Answered."
+Chandler, as has been said, retorted with his "The Appeal Defended,"
+and the newspapers took up the controversy. The discussion turned
+immediately and almost entirely from the ecclesiastical aspect, with
+its dangers to New England church-life, to the political and
+constitutional phases of this proposed extension of the Church of
+England. The New York and Philadelphia press agitated the subject in
+1768-69, while all New England echoed Mayhew's earlier denunciations
+of the evils to be anticipated. In the pulpit, by the study fire, and
+at the tavern-bar, leaders, scholars, people discussed the possible
+loss of civil and personal liberty. Let the bishops once be seated;
+and would they not introduce ecclesiastical courts, demand uniformity,
+and impose a general tax for their church which might be perverted to
+any use that the whim of the King and of his subservient bishops might
+propose? There is no question that this subject of the episcopate,
+with its political and constitutional phases, and with the
+considerations of personal and civil liberty involved, did much to
+familiarize the people with those principles upon which they made
+their final break with England, and helped to prepare their minds for
+the separation from the mother country.
+
+In considering the various elements that contributed to the
+development of the national spirit, to the destruction of that
+provincialism so marked in the colonies before 1750, and to the
+creation in each of breadth of thought and clearness of vision, trade
+and commerce had their part. Because of them, came increasing
+knowledge of the widely different habits of life in the thirteen
+colonies. It came also from the association of the people of the
+different sections when as soldiers of their King they were summoned
+to the various wars. Still another impetus was given to the national
+idea by the fashion of long, elaborate correspondence. Especially was
+this true after the Albany convention of 1754, called to discuss
+Franklin's Plan of Union, had introduced men of like minds, abilities,
+and purpose, and also the needs of their respective sections, and had
+interested them in the common welfare of all. Moreover, Franklin was
+the highest representative of still another movement that roused the
+slumbering intelligence of men by opening their minds to impressions
+from the vast and unexplored world of natural science.  He founded, in
+1743, the University of Pennsylvania and the American Philosophical
+Society.  The recognition, in 1753, [x] of his work by European
+scholars was an honor in which every American took pride as marking
+the entrance of the colonies into the world of scientific
+investigation.  Such honorable recognition produced a widespread
+interest in the stuiy of the physical world and its forces. Following
+this awakening and broadening of the intellectual life, there came, at
+the very dawn of the Revolution, the first out-cropping of genuine
+American literature in the satires and poems of Philip Freneau of New
+York, a graduate of Princeton, and in those of John Trumbull and Joel
+Barlow [y] of Yale. New Haven became a centre of literary life, and
+the cultivation of literature took its place beside that of the
+classics, broadening the preeminently ministerial groove of the Yale
+curriculum.
+
+In considering some of the individual acts leading up to Connecticut's
+part in the Revolution, we find that the colony had disapproved
+Franklin's Plan of Union of 1754. She thought it lacking in efficiency
+and in dispatch in emergencies, and possibly dangerous to the
+liberties of the colonies. She also believed it liable to plunge the
+colonies into heavy expense, when many of them were already
+floundering in debt. Yet Connecticut had, with Massachusetts,
+willingly borne the brunt of expense and loss necessary to protect the
+colonies in the wars arising from French and English claims. She,
+accordingly, greatly rejoiced at the Peace of Ryswick, 1763, for it
+gave security to her borders by the cession of Canada to England,
+brought safety to commerce and the fisheries, and promised a new era
+of prosperity.  The attempt of England to recoup herself for the
+expenses of the war by a rigid enforcement of the Navigation Laws--an
+enforcement that paralyzed commerce, and turned the open evasion of
+honorable merchantmen into the treasonable acts of smugglers--grieved
+Connecticut; the Sugar Act provoked her, and the proposed Stamp Act
+drove her to remonstrance. Her magistrates issued the dignified and
+spirited address, "Reasons why the British Colonies in America should
+not be charged with Internal Taxes by Authority of Parliament." [z] It
+was firmly believed in the colony that when the severity of the
+English acts should be demonstrated, they would at once be removed and
+some substitute, such as the proposed tax on slaves or on the fur
+trade, would be adopted. Jared Ingersoll, the future stamp-officer,
+carried the address to England. There it received praise as an able
+and temperate state-paper. Ingersoll is credited with having succeeded
+in slightly modifying the Stamp Act and in postponing somewhat the
+date for its going into effect. Having done what he could to modify
+the measure, and not appreciating the growth of opposition to it
+during his absence, he accepted the office of Stamp-Distributer, and
+returned to America, where he was straightway undeceived as to the
+desirability of his office, but made his way from Boston to
+Connecticut, hoping for better things. On reaching New Haven, he was
+remonstrated with for accepting his office and urged to give it
+up. But learning that Governor Fitch, after mature deliberation, had
+resolved to take the oath to support the Stamp Act, and had done so,
+though seven of his eleven Councilors, summoned for the ceremony, had
+refused to witness the oath, Ingersoll decided to push on to
+Hartford. Starting alone and on horseback, he rode unmolested through
+the woods; but as he journeyed through the villages, group after group
+of stern-looking men, bearing in their hands sticks peeled bare of
+bark so as to resemble the staves carried by constables, silently
+joined him, and, later, soldiers and a troop of horse. Thus he was
+escorted into Wethersfield, where, virtually a prisoner, he was made
+to resign his commission. The cavalcade, ever increasing, proceeded
+with him to Hartford, [aa] where he publicly proclaimed his
+resignation and signed a paper to that effect. Everywhere the towns
+burned him in effigy. Everywhere the spirit of indignation and of
+opposition spread. The "Norwich Packet" discussed the favored East
+Indian monopolies and the Declaratory and Revenue Acts of
+Parliament. The "Connecticut Courant" (founded in Hartford in 1764),
+the "Connecticut Gazette," the "Connecticut Journal and New Haven
+Post-Boy," [ab] and the "New London Gazette" encouraged the spirit of
+resistance.  A Norwich minister[153] preached from the text "Touch not
+mine anointed," referring to the people as the "anointed" and arguing
+that kings, through Acts of Parliament which take away, infringe, or
+violate civil rights, touch the "anointed" people in a way forbidden
+by God.  This Norwich minister was not alone among the clergy, for the
+sermons of the three sects, Baptist, Separatist, and Congregational,
+"connected with one indissoluble bond the principles of civil
+Government and the principles of Christianity."  The laity of the
+Episcopal church were, as a body, patriots, and so, also, were many of
+their clergy; but party spirit, roused by the discussion of the
+episcopate and of their relation to the King, as head of their church
+as well as head of the State, tended to Toryism. From their pulpits
+was more frequently heard the doctrine of passive obedience. But in
+all the opposition to the Stamp Act, in all the preparations for
+resistance, in the carrying out of non-importation agreements, in the
+movement that created small factories and home industries to supply
+the lack of English imports, and later during the struggle for
+independence, the Connecticut colonists, whether Congregationalists,
+patriotic Episcopalians, Baptists, or Separatists, worked as one.
+
+Toward the Separatists, oppressed dissenters yet loyal patriots, there
+began to be the feeling that some legislative favor should be
+shown. Accordingly the Assembly, having them in mind, in 1770 passed
+the law that--
+
+    no person in this Colony, professing the Christian protestant
+    religion, who soberly and conscientiously dissent from the worship
+    and ministry established or approved by the laws of this Colony
+    and attend public worship by themselves, shall incur any of the
+    penalties ... for not attending the worship and ministry so
+    established on the Lord's day or on account of their meeting
+    together by themselves on said day for the public worship of God
+    in a way agreeable to their consciences.
+
+And in October of the same year, it was further decreed that--
+
+    all ministers of the gospel that now are or hereafter shall be
+    settled in this Colony, during their continuance in the ministry,
+    shall have all their estates lying in the same society as well as
+    in the same town wherein they dwell exempted out of the lists of
+    polls and rateable estates. [154]
+
+But for the Separatists to obtain exemption from ecclesiastical taxes
+for the benefit of the Establishment required seven more years of
+argument and appeal. During the time, they and the Baptists continued
+to increase in favor. The Separatist, Isaac Holly, preached and
+printed a sermon upholding the Boston tea-party. The Baptists were so
+patriotic as to later win from Washington his "I recollect with
+satisfaction that the religious society of which you are members have
+been throughout America uniformly and almost unanimously the firm
+friends of civil liberty, and the persevering promoters of our
+glorious revolution." [155] In 1774, good-will was shown to the
+Suffield Baptists by a favorable answer to their memorial to be
+relieved from illegal fines. In behalf of these Baptists, Governor
+Trumbull frequently exerted his influence.  He also wrote to those of
+New Roxbury, who were in distress as to whether they had complied with
+the law, assuring them that the act of 1770 had done away with the
+older requirement of a special application to the General Assembly for
+permission to unite in church estate. [156] Notwithstanding such
+favor, there was still so much injustice that the Baptists of Stamford
+wrote, during the rapid increase of the sect through the local
+revivals of 1771-74, that the emigration from Connecticut of Baptists
+was because "the maxims of the land do not well suit the genius of our
+Order, and beside, the country is so fully settled, as population
+increases, the surplusage must go abroad for settlements."
+
+Among the Baptists, the most vigorous champion for mutual toleration
+and for liberty of conscience was Isaac Backus, "the father of
+American Baptists," and their first historian. In _An Appeal to the
+Public for Religious Liberty_, Boston, 1773, after calling
+attention to the lack of state provision in Massachusetts as well as
+in Connecticut for ecclesiastical prisoners,[157] he thus defines the
+limits of spiritual and temporal power:--
+
+    And it appears to us that the true difference and exact limits
+    between ecclesiastical and civil government is this. That the
+    church is armed with _light and truth_, to pull down the
+    strongholds of iniquity and to gain souls to Christ and into his
+    church to be governed by his rules therein; and again to exclude
+    such from their communion who will not be so governed; while the
+    state is armed with _the sword to guard the peace and to punish
+    those who violate the same_. Where they have been confounded
+    together no tongue nor pen can fully describe the mischiefs that
+    have ensued.
+
+He proceeds to argue that every one has an equal right to choose his
+religion, since each one must answer at God's judgment seat for his
+own choice and his life's acts. Consequently, there is no warrant for
+the making of religious laws and the laying of ecclesiastical
+taxes. With this premise, it followed that the Baptist exemption act
+of 1729 was defective and unjust, in that it demanded certificates;
+and from this time there began a steadily increasing opposition to the
+giving of these papers. Backus objected to the certificates upon
+several grounds, chief of which were:--
+
+    (1) Because the very nature of such a practice implies an
+    acknowledgement that the civil power has right to set one
+    religious sect up above another....  It is a tacit allowance that
+    they have the right to make laws about such things which we
+    believe in our own conscience they have not.
+
+    (2) The scheme we oppose tends to destroy the purity and life of
+    religion.
+
+    (3) The custom which they want us to countenance is very hurtful
+    to civil society.... What a temptation then does it not lay for
+    men to contract guilt when temporal advantages are annexed to one
+    persuasion and disadvantages laid upon another? _i.e._, in
+    plain terms, how does it tend to lying hypocrisy and lying? [159]
+
+In all his writings this man pleads the cause of religious liberty,
+and, whenever possible, he emphasizes the likeness of the struggle of
+the dissenters for freedom of conscience to that of the colonists for
+civil liberty, and argues the injustice of wresting thousands of
+dollars from the Baptists for the support of a religion to them
+distasteful, while they exert themselves to the utmost to win
+political freedom for all; "with what heart can we support the
+struggle?"
+
+Two remarkable little books of some eighty or ninety pages that were
+issued from the Boston press in 1772 require a word of notice because
+of their hearty welcome. Two editions were called for within the year,
+and more than a thousand copies of the second were bespoken before it
+went to press. They had originally been put forth, the first in 1707,
+"The Churches Quarrel Espoused: or a Reply In Satyre to certain
+Proposals made, etc." (the Massachusetts "Proposals of 1705"), and the
+second in 1717, "A Vindication of the Government of the New England
+Churches, Drawn from Antiquity; Light of Nature; Holy Scripture; the
+Noble Nature; and from the Dignity Divine Providence has put upon it."
+In 1772 their author, the Rev. John Wise, a former pastor of the
+church in Ipswich, Massachusetts, had been dead for over forty
+years. In his day, he had regarded the "Proposals" as treasonable to
+the ancient polity of Congregationalism, and had attacked what he
+considered their assumptions, absurdities, and inherent tyranny. His
+books were forceful in their own day, serving the churches, persuading
+those of Massachusetts to hold to the more democratic system of the
+Cambridge Platform, and largely affecting the character of the later
+polity of the New England churches. The suffering colonist of 1772,
+smarting under English misrule, turned to the vigorous, clear, and
+convincing pages wherein John Wise set forth the natural rights of
+men, the quality of political obligation, the relative merits of
+government, whether monarchies, aristocracies, or democracies, and the
+well developed concept that civil government should be founded upon a
+belief in human equality. In his second attempt to defend the
+Cambridge Platform, Wise had advanced to the proposition that
+"Democracy is Christ's government in Church and State." [160]
+
+Such expositions as these, and those in Isaac Backus's "The Exact
+Limits between Civil and Ecclesiastical Government," published in
+1777, and in his "Government and Liberty described," of 1778, together
+with the discussion prevalent at the time, and with the logic of the
+Revolutionary events, opened the mind of the people to a clearer
+conception of liberty of conscience, though their practical
+application of the notion was deferred. For many years longer, persons
+had to be content with a toleration that was of itself a contradiction
+to religious liberty. Yet in May, 1777, such toleration was broadened
+by the "Act for exempting those Persons in this State, commonly styled
+Separates from Taxes for the Support of the established Ministry and
+building and repairing Meeting Houses," on condition that they should
+annually lodge with the clerk of the Established Society, wherein they
+lived, a certificate, vouching for their attendance upon and support
+of their own form of worship. Said certificate was to be signed by the
+minister, elder, or deacon of the church which "they ordinarily did
+attend." [161]
+
+Israel Holly's "An Appeal to the Impartial, or the Censured Memorial
+made Public, that it may speak for itself. To which is added a few
+Brief Remarks upon a Late Act of the General Assembly of the State of
+Connecticut, entitled an 'Act for Exempting those Persons in this
+State Commonly styled Separates, from Taxes for the Support of the
+Established Ministry &c.'"  gave in full an "Appeal" of eleven
+Separatist churches to the General Assembly in May, 1770.  That body
+would not suffer the petition to be read through, stopping the reader
+in the midst, while some of its members went so far as to declare that
+"all, who had signed it, ought to be sent for to make answer to the
+Court for their action." But the majority of the legislature were not
+so intolerant, so that during the session the act above mentioned was
+passed. Holly, in his book, includes with the "Appeal" a severe
+criticism of the new law, and, in quoting the petition, he gives a
+full explanation of its text as well as the comments of the Assembly
+upon it and their objections to parts of it. When recounting the long
+struggle for toleration and in detail the persecutions of the Suffield
+Separatists, Holly dwells upon the fact that before the recent
+legislation of the Assembly, the spirit of fair dealing had in some
+communities influenced the members of the Establishment in their
+treatment of the Separatists. Holly also enlarges upon the
+inconsistency between demanding freedom in temporal affairs from Great
+Britain and refusing it in spiritual ones to fellow-citizens. The
+"Censured Memorial" closes [162] with an expressed determination on
+the part of the Separatists to appeal to tte Continental Congress if
+the state continue to refuse to do them justice. Holly, remarking upon
+the act of 1777, expresses great dissatisfaction with it as falling
+short of the liberty desired, and, particularly, with its retention of
+the certificate clause.
+
+Such continued agitation of the rights of individuals and of churches
+eventually created a broader public opinion, one that, permeating the
+Establishment itself, tended to make its ministers resent any great
+exercise of authority on the part of those among them who clung to the
+strong Presbyterian construction of the Saybrook
+Articles. Communications upon the subject of religious liberty were to
+be found in many of the newspapers. Two governors of Connecticut wrote
+pamphlets that tended to weaken the hold of the Saybrook Platform over
+the people.  Governor Wolcott in 1761 wrote against it, and in 1765
+Governor Fitch (anonymously) explained away its authoritative
+interpretation. The term "Presbyterian" came to be applied more
+frequently to the conservative churches of the Establishment, and
+"Congregational" to those wherein the New Light ideas prevailed. Some
+years later, while the two terms were still used interchangeably, the
+term "Congregational" rose in favor, and, after the Revolution,
+included even the few Separatist churches. As for the latter, they had
+by 1770 concluded that with reference "to our Baptist brethren we are
+free to hold occasional communion with such as are regular churches
+and ... make the Christian profession and acknowledge us to be
+baptized." [163] For some years these two religious parties attempted
+to unite in associations, but finding that they disagreed too much on
+the question of baptism, they mutually decided to give up the attempt,
+and separated with the greatest respect and good will toward each
+other. In 1783, the Presbyterians refused to meet the Separatists in
+the attempt to devise some plan of union between them, but did advance
+to the concession "to admit Separatists to Ordination with the
+greatest care." [164] The Presbyterians were beginning to realize that
+if the Saybrook Platform was to govern the churches of the
+Establishment, its old judicial interpretation must give way. An
+example of the revolt to be anticipated, if such interpretation were
+insisted upon, followed the attempt by the Consociation of Windham in
+1780 to discipline Isaac Foster, a Presbyterian minister, for "sundry
+doctrines looked upon as dangerous and contrary to the gospel;" [ac]
+and a similar attempt to reprove Mr. Sage of West Simsbury drew forth
+such stirring retorts from Isaac Foster and from Dan Foster, minister
+of Windsor (who defended Mr. Sage), that church after church promptly
+renounced the Saybrook Platform. These churches agreed with Isaac
+Foster in his declaration of the absolute independence of each church
+and that--
+
+    no clergyman or number of clergymen or ecclesiastical council of
+    whatever denomination have right to make religious creeds, canons
+    or articles of faith and impose them upon any man or church on
+    earth requiring subscription to them.... A church should be the
+    sole judge of its pastor's teachings so long as he teaches nothing
+    _expressly_ contrary to the Bible.  ... The Consociation has
+    no right to pretend that it is a divinely instituted assembly with
+    the Saybrook Platform for its charter, imposing a tyranny more
+    intolerable on the people than that from which they are trying to
+    free themselves.  [165]
+
+The result of all this agitation for liberty of conscience, emphasized
+by its counterpart in the political life of the state and nation, was
+that in the first edition of the "Laws and Acts of the State of
+Connecticut in America," [ad] appearing in 1784, all reference to the
+Saybrook Platform was omitted, and all ecclesiastical laws were
+grouped under the three heads entitled Eights of Conscience,
+Regulations of Societies, and the Observation of the Sabbath. [166]
+Under the Sunday laws, together with numerous negative commands, was
+the positive one that every one, who, for any trivial reason, absented
+himself from public worship on the Lord's day should pay a fine of
+three shillings, or fifty cents. The society regulations remained much
+the same, with the added privilege that to all religious bodies
+recognized by law permission was given to manage their, temporal
+affairs as freely as did the churches of the Establishment. Dissenters
+were even permitted to join themselves to religious societies in
+adjoining states, [ae] provided the place of worship was not too far
+distant for the Connecticut members to regularly attend services. To
+these terms of toleration was affixed the sole condition of presenting
+a certificate of membership signed by an officer of the church of
+which the dissenter was a member, and that the certificate should be
+lodged with the clerk of the Established society wherein the dissenter
+dwelt. While legislation still favored the Establishment, toleration
+was extended with more honesty and with better grace. All strangers
+coming into the state were allowed, a choice of religious
+denominations, but while undecided were to pay taxes to the society
+lowest on the list. Choice was also given for twelve months to
+resident minors upon their coming of age, and also to widows. In any
+question, or doubt, the society to which the father, husband, or head
+of the household belonged, or had belonged, determined the church home
+of members of the household unless the certificates of all dissenting
+members were on file. If persons were undecided when the time of
+choice had elapsed, and they hadjiot presented certificates, they were
+counted members of the Establishment.  Thus the Saybrook Platform, no
+longer appearing upon the law-book, was quietly relegated to the
+status of a voluntarily accepted ecclesiastical constitution which the
+different churches might accept, interpreting it with only such
+degrees of strictness as they chose. Consequently, all Congregational
+and Presbyterian churches drew together and remained intimately
+associated with the government as setting forth the form of religion
+it approved.
+
+As toleration was more freely extended, oppression quickly ceased. The
+smaller and weaker sects [af] that appeared in Connecticut after 1770
+received no such persecution as their predecessors. Among them the
+Sandemanians [ag] appeared about 1766, and from the first created
+considerable interest. The Shakers were permitted to form a settlement
+at Enfield in 1780. The Universalists began making converts among the
+Separatist churches of Norwich as early as 1772.  The year 1784 saw
+the organization of the New London Seventh-day Baptist church, the
+first of its kind in Connecticut.
+
+The abrogation of the Saybrook Platform was implied, not expressed, by
+dropping it out of the revised laws of 1784. The force of custom, not
+the repeal of the act of establishment, annulled it. As in the
+revision of 1750, certain outgrown statutes were quietly sloughed off.
+After the abrogation of the Saybrook system, the orthodox dissenters
+felt most keenly the humiliation of giving the required certificates,
+and the favoritism shown by the government towards Presbyterian or
+Congregational churches. This favoritism did not confine itself to
+ecclesiastical affairs, but showed itself by the government's
+preference for members of the Establishment in all civil, judicial,
+and military offices. If immediately after the Revolution this
+favoritism was not so marked, it quickly developed out of all
+proportion to justice among fellow-citizens.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] As a petition "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council."
+
+[b] "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which
+frameth mischief by law?"
+
+[c] The "History" is brief, and the "Vindication" is largely of
+President Clap's own reasons for establishing the college church. See
+F. B. Dexter, "President Clap and his Writings," in _New Haven
+Hist. Soc. Papers_, vol. v, pp. 256-257.
+
+[d] "Let no man, orders of man, Civil or Ecclesiastical Rulers,
+majority, or any whoever pretend they have a right to enjoyn upon me
+what I shall believe and practice in matters of Religion, and I bound
+to subject to their Injunctions, unless they can convince me, that in
+case there should happen to be a mistake, that they will suffer the
+consequences, and not I; that they will bear the wrath of God, and
+suffer Damnation, in my room and stead. But if they can't do this,
+don't let them pretend to a right to determine for me what religion I
+shall have. For if I must stand or fall for myself, then, pray let me
+judge, and act and choose (in Matters of Religion) for myself
+now. Yea, when I view these things in the Light of the Day of Judgment
+approaching, I am ready to cry out Hands off! Hands off! Let none
+pretend a right to my subjection in matters of Religion, but my Judge
+only; or, if any do require it, God strengthen me to refuse to grant
+it." _A Word in Zion's Behalf._ Quoted by E. H. Gillett in
+_Hist.  Magazine,_ 2d series, vol. iv, p. 16.
+
+[e] _A Key to unlock the Door, that leads in, to take a fair view of
+the Religious Constitution Established by Law in the Colony of
+Connecticut; With a Short Observation upon the Explanation of the
+Say-Brook-Plan; and Mr. Hobart's Attempt to establish the same
+Plan,_ by Ebenezer Frothingham.
+
+[f] Robert Bragge, _Church Discipline_, London, 1738. The author
+takes for his text 1 Peter ii, 45, and under ten heads considers the
+Congregational church as the true Scriptural church, its rights,
+privileges, etc. Under topic four, "The Charter of this House," he
+says: "The charter of this house exempts all its inhabitants from
+obeying the whole ceremonial law:...  from the doctrines of men in
+matters of faith,... from man's commands in the worship of God. Man
+can no more prescribe how God shall be worshipped, under the new
+testament than he could under the old.... He alone who is in the bosom
+of the Father hath declared this. To worship God according to the will
+and pleasure of men is, in a sense to attempt to dethrone him: for it
+is not only to place man's will on a level with God's, but above
+it."--_Church Discipline_, p. 39.
+
+[g] "Now suffer me to say something respecting the unreasonableness of
+compelling the people of our persuasion to hear or support the
+minister of another. Can a person who has been redeemed, be so
+ungrateful as to hire a minister to preach up a doctrine which in his
+heart he believes to be directly contrary to the institutions of his
+redeemer? How if one of you should happen to be in the company with a
+number of Roman Catholicks, who should tell you that if you would not
+hire a minister to preach transubstantiation and the worshipping of
+images to your children and to an unlearned people, they would cut off
+your head; would you do it? Can you any better submit to hire a
+minister to preach up a doctrine which you in your heart believe
+contrary to the institution of Christ? I do not doubt but that many of
+you, and I do not know but that all of you know what it is to
+experience redeeming love; and if so, now can you take a person of
+another persuasion, and put him in gaol for a trifling sum, destroy
+his estate and ruin his family (as you signify the law will bear you
+out) and when he is careful to support the religion which he in his
+conscience looks upon to be right, who honestly tells you it is
+wronging his conscience to pay your minister, and that he may not do
+so though he suffer?... Is it not shame? Are we sharers in redemption,
+and do we grudge to support religion? No: let us seek for the truth of
+the gospel. If we can't think alike, let us not be cruel one to
+another."
+
+[h] _Connecticut Gazette_ (New Haven) April 1755-Apr. 14, 1764;
+suspended; revived July 5, 1765-Feb. 19, 1768. The _New London
+Gazette_, founded in 1763, was after 1768 known as the _
+Connecticut Gazette _, except from Dee. 10, 1773, to May 11, 1787,
+when it was called _The Connecticut Gazette and Universal
+Intelligencer_.
+
+Maryland published her first newspaper in 1727, Khode Island and Sonth
+Carolina in 1732, Virginia in 1736, North Carolina in 1755, New
+Hampshire in 1756, while Georgia fell into line in 1763.
+
+[i] Edwards's _Nature of True Virtue_, written about 1755, was
+not published until 1765.
+
+[j] This book, otherwise essentially Edwardean, was second only to
+Edwards's _Religious Affections_ in popularity and in its success
+in spreading the influence of this school of theology, and it did
+much, in Connecticut, to break down the opposition to the New
+Divinity. Edwards himself approved its manuscript, and in his writings
+recommended it highly.
+
+[k] In 1769-70, Bellamy wrote a series of tracts and dialogues
+against this practice. They were very effective in causing its
+abandonment by those conservative churches that had so long clung to
+its use.
+
+[l] Experience Mayhew in his _Grace Defended_, of 1744.
+
+Lemuel Briant's _The Absurdity and Blasphemy of Depreciating Moral
+Virtue_, 1749. This was replied to in Massachusetts, by Rev. John
+Porter of North Bridgewater in _The Absurdity and Blasphemy of
+Substituting the Personal Righteousness of Men_, etc.; also by a
+sermon of Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, Dr.  Charles Chauncy's colleague; and
+by Rev. Samuel Niles's _Vindication of Divers Important Gospel
+Doctrines_.  Jonathan Mayhew, son of Experience, wrote his
+_Sermons_ (pronouncedly Arian) in 1755, and in 1761 two sermons,
+_Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate_.
+
+Other ministers were affected by these unorthodox views, notably
+Ebenezer Gay, Daniel Shute, and John Rogers. This religious
+development was cut short by the early death of the leaders and by the
+Revolutionary contest. Briant died in 1754, Jonathan Mayhew in 1766,
+and his father in 1758.--See W. Walker, _Hist. of the Congregational
+Churches in the United States_, chap. viii.
+
+[m] Hopkins replied in 1765 to Jonathan Mayhew's sermons of
+1761. Mayhew died before he could answer, but Moses Hemenway of Wells,
+Maine, and also Jedediah Mills of Huntington, Conn, (a New Light
+sympathizer), answered Hopkins's extreme views in 1767 in _An
+Inquiry concerning the State of the Unregenerate under the
+Gospel_. This involved Hopkins in further argumentation in 1769,
+and drew into the discussion William Hart (Old Light) of Saybrook, and
+also Moses Mather of Darien, Conn, (also Old Light). This attack upon
+Hopkins resulted in 1773 in his greatest work, _An Inquiry into the
+Nature of True Holiness_. The whole question at stake between the
+Old Calvinists and the followers of the New Divinity was how to class
+men, morally upright, who made no pretensions to religious experience.
+
+[n] West, in his _Essay on Moral Agency_, defended Edwards's
+_Freedom of the Will_ against the Rev. James Dana of New Haven in
+1772, but his _Scripture Doctrine of Atonement_, published in
+1785, was his best-known work. In his doctrinal views, he was greatly
+influenced by Hopkins. Both West and Smalley trained students for the
+ministry. The latter was the teacher of Nathaniel Emmons. Smalley was
+settled in what is now New Britain, Conn., from 1757-1820.
+
+[o] Emmons died there, in 1840, at the age of ninety-five.  Apart from
+his influence upon the development of doctrine, he did more than any
+other man to bring back the early independence of the churches and to
+create the Congregational polity of the present day.
+
+[p] To fortify their position, this party cited various acts of
+Parliament and the Act of Union, 1707, wherein Scotland is distinctly
+released from subjection to the Church of England,--an exemption,
+they maintained, that had never formally been extended to the
+colonies.
+
+[q] On January 30, 1750, Jonathan Mayhew preached a forceful sermon
+upon the danger of being "unmercifully priest-ridden."
+
+[r] Rev. East Apthorpe, S. P. G. missionary at Cambridge, Mass., had
+replied to a newspaper criticism upon the policy of the Society for
+Propagating the Gospel in New England, in his _Considerations on the
+Institutions and Conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the
+Gospel in Foreign Parts_. Jonathan Mayhew published in answer his
+_Observations on the Character and Conduct of the Society_,
+censuring the Society not only for intruding itself into New England,
+but for being the champion of the proposed episcopate, which he
+denounced. This was in 1763. For two years the controversy
+raged. There were four replies to Mayhew. Two were unimportant, a
+third presumably from Rev. Henry Caner, and the fourth, _Answer to
+the Observations_, an anonymous English production, really by
+Archbishop Seeker. Mayhew wrote a _Defense_, and Apthorpe summed
+up the whole controversy in his _Review_.--A. L. Cross,
+_Anglican Episcopate_, p. 145 _et seq._; footnote 1, p. 147.
+
+[s] John Adams's _Works_, x, 288.
+
+[t] Dr. Charles Chauney attacked the S. P. G. as endeavoring to
+increase their power, not to proselytize among the Indians, but to
+episcopize the colonists. Dr. Chandler, of Elizabethtown, N. J.,
+replied in _An Appeal to the Public_. Chauney retorted with
+_The Appeal Answered_, and Chandler with _The Appeal
+Defended_. The newspapers of 1768-69 took up the controversy.
+
+[u] In 1767, Dr. Johnson in a letter to Governor Trumbull assured him
+that "It is not intended, at present, to send any Bishops into the
+American Colonies,... and should it be done at all, you may be assured
+that it will be done in such manner as in no degree to prejudice, nor
+if possible even give the least offense to any denomination of
+Protestants."--E. E.  Beardsley, _Hist, of the Epis. Church in
+Conn._, i, 265.
+
+[v] There were nine clergymen from Connecticut, and twenty-five from
+New York and vicinity.
+
+[w] The Association had sent petitions in behalf of the Baptists to
+the legislatures of Massachusetts and Connecticut.  Both were
+refused. For its Circular Letter of 1776, see Hovey's _Life of
+Backus_, p. 289; also p. 155.
+
+[x] This year the Royal Society awarded him the Copley medal for his
+discovery that lightning was a discharge of electricity.
+
+In 1761 the medal of the Royal Society was also awarded to the
+Rev. Jared Eliot of Killingworth, Conn., for making iron and steel
+from black ferruginous sand.
+
+[y] John Trumbull, b. 1750, d. in Michigan, 1831; Joel Barlow,
+b. 1754, d. in Poland, 1812; Gen. David Humphreys, b.  1752, d. in New
+Haven, 1818. These Yale men, together with Dr. Lemuel Hopkins, were
+the leadjng spirits in the club known as "The Hartford Wits."
+Dr. Dwight was a fellow collegian with them. Trumbull and Dwight did
+much to interest the students in literature. The latter was also tutor
+in rhetoric and professor of belles-lettres and oratory.
+
+[z] Conn. Col. Rec. xii, Appendix. This was drawn up by the Governor
+and three members of the General Assembly, May, 1761.
+
+[aa] With grim humor, he turned to one of his escort, saying that he
+at last realized the description in Revelation of "Death riding a
+white horse and hell following behind."
+
+[ab] The latter half of the title was omitted about 1775.
+
+[ac] Foster replied: "One man is not to be called a 'heretick,' purely
+because he differs from another, as to the articles of faith. For
+either we should all be 'hereticks' or there would be no 'heresy'
+among us.... Heresy does not consist in opinion or sentiments: it is
+not an error of head but of will."--Foster, _A Defense of Religious
+Liberty_, p. 47.
+
+[ad] This revision of the laws was in charge of Roger Sherman and
+Richard Law.
+
+[ae] Quakers and Baptists frequently crossed the state line to attend
+services in Rhode Island.
+
+[af] There was only an occasional Romanist; Unitarians first took
+their sectarian name in 1815; Universalists were few in number until
+the second quarter of the new century.
+
+[ag] This sect received its name from Robert Sandeman, the son-in-law
+of its founder, the Rev. John Glass of Scotland.  Sandeman published
+their doctrines about 1757. In 1764, he left Scotland and came to
+America, where he began making converts near Boston, in other parts of
+New England, and in Nova Scotia. He died at Danbury, Connecticut,
+1771. The members of the sect are called Glassites in Scotland, where
+the Rev. John Glass labored. He died there in 1773. See W.  Walker, in
+_American Hist. Assoc. Annual Report_, 1901, vol. i.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+CONNECTICUT AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION
+
+
+    The piping times of peace.
+
+During the fifteen years following the ratification of the
+Constitution of the United States by Connecticut, January 9, 1788, no
+conspicuous events mark her history. These years were for the most
+part years of quiet growth and of expansion in all directions, and,
+because of this steady advancement, she was soon known as "the land of
+steady habits" and of general prosperity.
+
+Even in the dark days of the Revolution, Connecticut's energetic
+people had continued to populate her waste places, and had carved out
+new towns from old townships,--for the last of the original plats had
+been marked off in 1763. In 1779-80, the state laid out five towns;
+from 1784 to 1787, twenty-one,--twelve of them in one year, 1786. [a]
+Tolland County was divided off in 1786 as Windham had been in 1726,
+Litchfield in 1751, and Middlesex in 1765.  These, with, the four
+original counties of Fairfield, New Haven, Hartford, and New London,
+made the present eight counties of the state.  The cities of Hartford,
+New Haven, New London, Middletown, and Norwich were incorporated in
+1784. They were scarcely more than villages of to-day, for New Haven
+approximated 3,000 inhabitants, and Hartford, as late as 1810, only
+4,000. The Litchfield of the post-Revolutionary days, ranking, as a
+trade-centre, fourth in the state, was as familiar with Indians in her
+streets as the Milwaukee of the late fifties, and "out west" was no
+farther in miles than the Connecticut Reserve of 3,800,000 acres in
+Ohio which, in 1786, the state had reserved, when ceding her western
+lands to the new nation. Thither emigration was turning, since its
+check on the Susquehanna and Delaware by the award, in 1782, to
+Pennsylvania of the contested jurisdiction over those lands, and of
+the little town of Westmoreland, which the Yankees had built
+there. [b] After the decision new settlements were discouraged by the
+bitter feuds between the Connecticut and Pennsylvanian claimants to
+the land.
+
+The Revolution had left Connecticut exhausted in men and in means. Her
+largest seaboard towns had suffered severely. With her commerce and
+coasting trade almost destroyed, she found herself, during the period
+preceding the adoption of the national Constitution and the
+establishment of the revenue system, a prey to New York's need on the
+one hand and to Massachusetts' sense of impoverishment on the other;
+and thus, for every article imported through either state, Connecticut
+paid an impost tax. It was estimated that she thus provided one third
+of the cost of government for each of her neighbors. Consequently she
+attempted to reinstate and to enlarge her early though limited
+commerce, and was soon sending cargoes, preëminently of the field and
+pasture, [c] to exchange for West India commodities, while with her
+larger vessels she developed an East Indian trade. As another means to
+wealth, the state, in 1791, passed laws for the encouragement of the
+small factories [d] that the necessity of the war had created; but it
+was not until after the act of 1833, creating the joint-stock
+companies, that Connecticut turned from a purely agricultural
+community to the great manufacturing state we know to-day. She shared
+in the national prosperity, which, as early as 1792, proved the wisdom
+of Hamilton's financial policy, and about 1795 her citizens wisely
+bent themselves to the improvement of internal communication. This was
+the era of the development of the turnpike and of the multiplicity of
+stage-lines. Kegular stages plied between the larger cities. Yet up to
+1789 there was not a post-office or a mail route in Litchfield county,
+and the "Monitor" was started as a weekly paper to circulate the
+news. In 1790 Litchfield had a fortnightly carrier to New York and a
+weekly one to Hartford, while communication with the second capital
+[e] of the state was frequent.  From 1800, there was a daily stage to
+Hartford, New Haven, Norwalk, Poughkeepsie, and Albany. [167] Wagons
+and carriages began to multiply and to replace saddle-bags and
+pillions, yet as late as 1815 Litchfield town had only "one phaeton,
+one coachee, and forty-six two-wheeled pleasure-wagons." [168]
+
+Towns continued to commend and encourage good public schools. Every
+town or parish of seventy families had to keep school eleven months of
+the year, and those of less population for at least six
+months. Private schools and academies sprang up. [f] Harvard and Yale,
+as the best equipped of the New England colleges, competed for its
+young men, and drew others from the central and southern sections of
+the nation.  Neither had either Divinity or Law School. [g] Young men
+after completing their college course usually went to some famous
+minister for graduate training. Rev. Joseph Bellamy, John Smalley, and
+Jonathan Edwards, Junior, were the foremost teachers in Connecticut,
+though the first-named had ceased his active work in 1787. [h] The New
+Divinity was very slowly spreading. Even as late as 1792, President
+Stiles of Yale declared that none of the churches had accepted it. [i]
+This versatile minister interested himself in languages, literatures,
+natural science, and in all religions, as well as in the phases of New
+England theology.  He esteemed piety and sound doctrine, whether in
+Old or New Divinity men, and welcomed to his communion all of good
+conscience who belonged to any Christian Protestant sect. He was
+liberal-minded and tolerant beyond the average of his colleagues. His
+tolerance, however, was more for the old Calvinistic principles in the
+New Divinity, and not for its advanced features, for which he had
+little regard. President Stiles held very firmly to the belief that
+his ministerial privileges and authority remained with him after he
+became president of the college, although he was no longer pastor by
+the election of a particular church.
+
+The first law school in America was established in Litchfield in 1784
+by Judge Tappan Reeve, later chief justice of Connecticut. He
+associated with him in 1798 Judge James Gould.  "Judge Keeve loved law
+as a science and studied it philosophically." He wished "to reduce it
+to a system, for he considered it as a practical application of moral
+and religious principles to business life." His students were drilled
+in the study of the Constitution of the United States and on the
+current legislation in Congress. Under Judge Gould, the common law was
+expounded methodically and lucidly, as it could be only by one who
+knew its principles and their underlying reasons from _a_ to
+_z_. [169] In 1789, Ephraim Kirby of Litchfield published the
+first law reports ever issued in the United States. [j] Law students
+from many states were attracted to the town. The roll of the school,
+kept regularly only after 1798, included over one thousand lawyers,
+among them one vice-president of the United States, several foreign
+ministers, five cabinet ministers, [k] two justices of the United
+States Supreme Court, ten governors of states, sixteen United States
+senators, fifty members of Congress, forty judges of the higher state
+courts, and eight chief justices of the state. [170]
+
+Among Connecticut towns, the two capitals of the state were also
+literary centres, while Norwich, New Haven, and New London were fast
+becoming commercial ports. Middletown soon had considerable coasting
+trade. Wethersfield had vessels of her own. Even Saybrook and Milford
+sent a few vessels to the West and East Indies.  Farmington was a big
+trading centre, shipping produce abroad and importing in vessels of
+her own that sailed from Wethersfield or New Haven.  Some few towns
+developed a special industry, like Berlin and New Britain, that made
+the Connecticut tin-peddler a familiar figure even in the Middle and
+Southern states. There were also several towns with large shipyards,
+where some of the largest ships were built. But back of all such
+centres of activity, the whole state was solidly agricultural.
+Connecticut's commerce was an import commerce exchanging natural
+products for foreign ones, such as sugar, coffee, and molasses from
+the West Indies; tea and luxuries from the East; and obtaining, either
+directly or indirectly, from Europe, all the fine manufactured
+products, whether stuffs for personal use or tools for labor.
+
+In measuring the prosperity and intelligence of the Connecticut people
+neither the parish library nor the newspaper must be overlooked.  "I
+am acquainted," wrote Noah Webster in 1790, "with parishes where
+almost every householder, has read the works of Addison, Sherlock,
+Atterbury, Watts, Young, and other familiar writings: and will
+conversely handsomely on the subjects of which they treat." [171] "By
+means of the general circulation of the public papers," wrote the same
+author, "the people are informed of all political affairs; and their
+representatives are often prepared to debate upon propositions made in
+the legislature." [172]
+
+Through the agricultural communities of Connecticut, as well as in the
+towns, the weekly newspapers of the state began to circulate freely as
+soon as carriers or mail routes were established. Even by 1785 there
+was in Connecticut a newspaper circulation of over 8000 weekly copies,
+which was equal to that published in the whole territory south of
+Philadelphia. [173] These papers lacked locals and leaders, leaving
+the former to current gossip, and for the latter substituting, to some
+extent, letters and correspondence. The newspapers gave foreign news
+three months old, the proceedings of Congress in from ten to twelve
+days after their occurrence, and news from the Connecticut elections
+three weeks late. Subjects relating to religion and politics were
+heard _pro_ and _con_ in articles, or rather letters, signed
+with grandiloquent pseudonyms and frequently marked "Papers, please
+copy" in order to secure for them a larger public.  Fantastic bits of
+natural science, or what purported to be such, and stilted admonitions
+to virtue, as well as poems, eulogies, and obituaries, were admitted
+to the columns of these colonial papers. In 1786, the "Connecticut
+Courant" apologized for its meagre reports of legislative proceedings,
+especially of those of the Upper House, Council, or Senate, and
+promised to give full details. This reporting was a new thing, and it
+was fully five years more before the practice became general among the
+half dozen papers published in Connecticut. [l] Space was also given
+in the papers to the reproduction of selections, even whole chapters,
+from current and popular writers. Among such letters was a series on
+"the Establishment of the Worship of the Deity essential to National
+Happiness." In one of the letters, the author suggests:--
+
+    To secure the advantages ... allow me to propose _a general and
+    equitable tax collected from all the rateable members of a state,
+    for the support of the public teachers of religion, of all
+    denominations, within the state...._ Let a moderate poll tax be
+    added to a tax of a specified sum on the pound, and levied on all
+    the subjects of a state and collected with the public tax, and
+    paid out to the public teachers of religion of the several
+    denominations in proportion to the number of polls or families,
+    belonging to each respectively; or according to their
+    estimates. [For]
+
+    1. It would be equitable.
+
+    2. It would be for the good order of the civil state.
+
+    3. All ought to contribute to such a religious education of the
+    people as would conduce to civil order.
+
+    4. It would promote the peace in towns and societies.
+
+    5. It would do away with the legal expenses consequent upon
+    difficulties in collecting rates.
+
+    6. It would "extinguish the ardor of the founders of new delusions
+    and their weak and mercenary abettors."
+
+    7. It would prevent separation except upon the firmest principles;
+    "the powerful motive of saving a penny or two in the pound, would
+    cease to operate, because their tax would continue still the same,
+    go where they will." [174]
+
+It was also suggested that the Assembly should fix ministers' salaries
+at so much per hundred families, and that congregations should be
+permitted to add to the annual grant by voluntary contributions. These
+are but examples of the reaching out of the public mind for some
+equitable method of enforcing the support of public worship,--a
+principle to which the majority still adhered.
+
+The Laws of the State of Connecticut, under which after the Revolution
+parishes were organized, contained no reference to the Episcopal
+church as such. All societies and congregations were placed on the
+same footing precisely, _i.e._, they "had power to provide for
+the support of public worship by the rent or sale of pews or slips in
+the meeting-house, by the establishment of funds, or in any other way
+they might deem expedient." With this amount of freedom Episcopalians
+were content, since by the consecration, in 1784, of Samuel Seabury,
+Bishop of Connecticut, their ecclesiastical equipment was complete.[m]
+Further, many of them had been Tories, and, satisfied with the
+clemency shown them at the close of the war by the authorities, they
+gladly affiliated with them in all Federal measures of national
+importance, and also, for over thirty years, in all local issues.
+
+From 1783 to 1787 there was throughout the United States a general
+disintegration of political parties. [175] Federalists and nascent
+Anti-Federalists were alike seeking some basis for a safe national
+existence. The Constitution once established, political parties
+differentiated themselves as the party in power and the "out-party"
+developed their respective interpretations of the Constitution and of
+measures permitted under it. The Anti-Federalist party in Connecticut
+is sometimes said to have been born in 1783 out of opposition both to
+the Commutation Act of the Continental Congress, voting five years'
+full pay instead of half-pay for life to the Revolutionary officers,
+and to the formation of the Cincinnati. Both of these measures touched
+the main spring of party difference. America had caste as well as
+Europe. Though of a different type, it existed in every town and
+county. There were the people of position, attained by family
+standing, professional prominence, superior intelligence (rarely by
+wealth alone), and then, as now, by natural leadership. There were the
+common people of ordinary abilities and meagre possessions, who looked
+up to this first class.  Between the two there was an invisible
+barrier.  The customs of the day emphasized it. Yet the institutions
+of the land and its democracy demanded that this barrier, not
+impassable to men of parts and character who could push up from the
+masses, should never become insurmountable, as it often did under a
+monarchy; that it should be steadily leveled by intrusting the
+governing power more and more to the whole people, rather than to a
+few leaders; and by educating the masses up to their responsibilities.
+But many of the leading Federalists preferred to concentrate power in
+the hands of the few, hesitating to trust the judgment of the great
+body of citizens with the new and novel government. And to the people
+at large any measure that bore a remote resemblance to monarchical
+institutions or monarchical aspirations--however far remote from
+either--was subject to suspicion and antagonism.  The Cincinnati might
+be the beginning of a nobility, and half-pay or five years' full pay
+to the officers ignored the common soldiery who had done most of the
+fighting, and who had suffered even more severely in their
+fortunes.[n] When the measures of the first Congress pressed hardest
+upon the impoverished landed proprietors of the South and upon the
+small farmers in other sections, of the country, they welded the
+landed aristocracy of the South and the democracy of the North into
+the Anti-Federal party. Add to their sense of impoverishment, their
+common hatred of England, and these classes would hold their prejudice
+longer than the merchants, the lawyers, and the clergy, whose
+business, studies, and labors would tend to soften the antagonism
+created by the war. New England, however, was largely Federal, and
+Connecticut was one of the strongholds of that party, priding herself
+upon returning Federal electors as long as there was the shadow of the
+Federal name to vote for.  Moreover, the "Presbyterian Consociated
+Congregational Church" and the Federalists were so closely allied that
+the party of the government and the party of the Establishment were
+familiarly and collectively known as the "Standing Order." During the
+early years of statehood, by far the larger number of the dissenters
+were also good Federalists. But they drew away from the party at a
+later date, when the Democratic-Republicans began, in their
+Connecticut state politics, to call for a broader suffrage and full
+religious liberty, while the Federal Standing Order still continued to
+claim, as within its patronage, legal favors, political office, and
+the honors of judicial, military, and civil life.
+
+After the Revolution, the rapidly increasing Baptists continued their
+warfare waged against certificates and in behalf of religious liberty.
+Methodists soon sympathized, for Methodist itinerants, entering
+Connecticut in 1789, gained a footing, in spite of much opposition and
+real oppression through fines and imprisonments, [o] and quickly made
+many converts. Their preachers urged upon penurious and backward
+members the importance of voluntary support of the gospel in almost
+the same words as those of the Baptist leader: "It is as real
+_robbery_ to neglect the _ordinances_ of God, as it is to
+force people to support preachers who will not trust his influence for
+a temporal living." [176] Baptists, Methodists, and many other
+dissenters were far from satisfied with their status, and the
+government from time to time was forced to take notice of the
+dissatisfaction. Temporary legislation was enacted to allay the
+unrest, but, as there was a settled determination to protect the
+Establishment and to keep the political leadership among its friends,
+the various measures were not successful. For instance, the
+legislature in 1785-86 had arranged for the sale of the Western Lands
+and for the money expected from their sale to be divided among the
+various Christian bodies, and it had also enacted--
+
+    that there shall be reserved to the public five hundred acres of
+    land in each township for the support of the gospel ministry and
+    five hundred acres more for the support of schools in such towns
+    forever; and two hundred and forty acres of good ground in each
+    town to be granted in fee simple to the first gospel minister who
+    shall settle in such town. [177]
+
+Nothing is here said of the Presbyterians, or of any other sect, yet
+that denomination was sure to receive the greater benefit under the
+working of the law. They were a wealthy body, and in the next year,
+they began, under the General Association of Connecticut, to renew
+their earlier efforts for an organized planting of missions.  Attempts
+to establish missionary posts were begun as early as 1774, but they
+had been interrupted by the war, and were not revived until 1780, when
+two missionaries were sent to Vermont. After a little, the missionary
+spirit languished through lack of support; but interest had been
+roused again by the promised lands and money from the sales in the
+Western Reserve, and by the contributions that, flowing in from 1788
+to 1791, warranted the dispatch of missionaries into the western field
+in 1792, and regularly thereafter. [178]
+
+Turning to the religious and more strictly theological side of the
+development of toleration, there was within the Establishment itself a
+gradual modification of opinion concerning membership. It was
+witnessed to by the contents of a book entitled "Christian Forbearance
+to Weak Consciences a Duty of the Gospel," by John Lewis of Stepney
+parish, Wethersfield. It was sent out in 1789 for the purpose of
+"Attempting to prove that Persons, absenting themselves from the
+Lord's Table, through honest scruples of Conscience, is not such a
+breach of Covenant but that they partake other Privileges." One may
+recall that twenty years previous, 1769-71, Dr. Bellamy was thundering
+not only against the Half-Way Covenant, but also against the
+Stoddardean view of the Lord's Supper as a "means" of grace,--as a
+sacrament the partaking of which would help unworthy or unconverted
+men to conversion and to the leading of moral and holy lives. One
+might, for a moment, anticipate that the Wethersfield pastor was
+harking back to the old idea. But this was not his point of view. "I
+reprobate," he writes,"the idea of a Half-Way Covenant, or sealing of
+such a covenant." [179] Lewis contended that all seekers after
+holiness were to enter the church through the "very same covenant,"
+but that to all of them were to be extended the same and all church
+privileges, and that they were to accept them "as far as in their
+conscience they can see their way clear, hoping for further light." If
+they could accept baptism and church oversight, and could not, because
+of honest scruples of conscience (lest they were not worthy), approach
+the Lord's Table, they were not for that reason to be considered
+reprobates. As to such charity opening a way for persons of immoral
+lives to creep into the churches or to put off willfully the partaking
+of communion, the author's experience of many years had proved the
+contrary, though he could not deny that the possibility of hypocrisy
+and backsliding might exist under any form of membership.
+
+As a side light upon the growth of toleration during twenty years
+within the churches of the Establishment, two entries in President
+Stiles's diary may be quoted. Writing in 1769, to the Rev. Noah Wells
+of Stamford, Conn., with reference to the call of the Rev. Samuel
+Hopkins to a pastorate in Newport, R. I., where Dr. Stiles was then
+preaching, the latter says: "If I find him (Hopkins) of a Disposition
+to live in an honorable Friendship, I shall gladly cultivate it.  But
+he must not expect that I recede from my Sentiments both in Theology
+and ecclesiastical Polity more than he from his, in which I presume he
+is immovably fixed. We shall certainly differ in some things. I shall
+endeavor to my utmost to live with him as a Brother; as I think (it)
+dishonorable that in almost every populous place on this Continent,
+where there are two or more Presb.[yterian] or Cong.[regational] Chhs.
+[churches], they should be at greater variance than Prot. [estants]
+and Romanists: witness every city or Town from Georgia to Nova Scotia
+(except Portsm'th) [p] where there are more Presb.  chhs than one. The
+Wound is well nigh healed here, may it not break out again." [180]
+Writing some two years after the appearance of Lewis's book, President
+Stiles, commenting upon the fact that each dissenting sect was so
+absolutely sure that it alone had the only perfect type of faith and
+polity, notes the greater tolerance among the Congregational churches,
+for the latter were not as a rule close communion churches, as were
+those of the dissenting sects.
+
+Indeed, the intolerance shown towards dissenters was by this time not
+so much sectarian, not so much a lack of tolerance toward slightly
+varying fundamentals of faith, form of worship, and organization, as
+an intolerance based upon the conviction that the body politic must be
+protected by a state church. There was, of course, a little of the
+exasperating sense of superiority in belonging to the favored
+Establishment. The old objection to dissent as heresy--as a sin for
+which the community was responsible--had for the most part given way
+to opposition to it as introducing a system of voluntary contributions
+for the support of religion. And there was a very general and
+well-defined fear that such a support would prove inadequate. If so,
+deterioration of the state and of its people would follow.  For
+individual worth and character, many among the dissenters were highly
+respected, and the great body of them were esteemed good citizens.
+Among the churches, some few of the established ones were beginning to
+have their own services occasionally conducted by dissenting
+ministers.  The First Society of Canterbury entered a vote to this
+effect in 1791. As the churches translated more liberally the Articles
+of the Saybrook Platform, they approached a polity more in common with
+that of Separatist and Baptist. By 1800, the teachings of John Wise of
+Ipswich, reinforced by those of Nathaniel Emmons, "the father of
+modern Congregationalism," had permeated all New England. Wise, in his
+efforts to revive the independence of the single churches, had
+exploded the Barrowism which New England usage had introduced into
+original Congregationalism, and the rebound had carried the churches
+as far beyond the Cambridge Platform towards original Brownism as the
+Presbyterian movement had carried their polity away from the Cambridge
+instrument. The later Edwardean school had devoted itself to the
+discussion of doctrine rather than to polity, and, in the alliance
+with Presbyterianism outside of Connecticut, it had affiliated without
+attaching much weight to differences in church government. Their
+common interest, at first, was to unite against a possible supremacy
+of the Church of England, and against the danger to their own churches
+and to good government from the increase of dissenters. Later, their
+united efforts were directed to forwarding Christian missions in order
+that the gospel might not be left out of the civilization on the
+frontier. In this later work, they had competitors as soon as the
+Baptists and Methodists became strongly organized bodies. Accordingly
+Presbyterians and Congregationalists still further sank their
+differences of discipline in the Plan of Union of 1801, formed for the
+furtherance of the mission work. Thus it was many years before
+questions of polity again took front rank in the Congregational
+churches. Already their very indifference to it, the long years of the
+gradual abandonment of the Saybrook system, together with the
+development in civil life of a broader conception of humanity, had
+tended to bring back the independence of the individual church, while
+custom had preserved the inroojted principle of church-fellowship. It
+needed only Nathaniel Emmons to embody practice and opinion in a
+system that should break away from the aristocratic Congregationalism,
+the semi-Presbyterianized Congregationalism of the eighteenth century,
+and give to the nineteenth a democracy in the Church equivalent to
+that in the State.  Emmons, however, carried his theory to extremes
+[q] when opposing ministerial associations; yet with some
+modifications modern Congregationalism is essentially that of his
+school. Church polity, however, did not become a topic of general
+interest for at least half a century more, nor was it formulated anew
+until the Albany Convention of 1862 passed "upon the local work and
+responsibility of a Congregational Church."
+
+From the politico-ecclesiastical point of view, the legislative
+measures in the history of Connecticut, during the fifteen years after
+the colony became a state, that are of chief importance are the
+Certificate Laws and Western Land bills.  In order to properly
+appreciate their significance this summary of the industrial, social,
+and religious life of the Connecticut people during the years
+following the Revolution was necessary.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] Five towns were laid out in 1785; from 1784 to 1787, twenty-one in
+all; from 1787 to 1800, ten; and from 1800 to 1818,
+eleven.--Hollister, _Hist, of Connecticut_, pp. 469-70.
+
+[b] Of the seven hundred members of the Susquehanna Land Company,
+formed in 1754, six hundred and thirty-eight were Connecticut men. A
+summer settlement was made on the Delaware in 1757 and on the
+Susquehanna in 1762. The first permanent settlement was in 1769. At
+the close of the Revolution, renewed attempts to colonize resulted in
+a reign of lawlessness and bloodshed.
+
+[c] Horses, cattle, beef, pork, stages, flour, grain. During the
+European wars, the United States exported foodstuffs in great
+quantities, to feed both French and English armies, amounting to over
+100,000 men.
+
+[d] President Stiles was interested in silk culture and in the
+manufacture of silk. His commencement gown in 1789 was of Connecticut
+make. Through the efforts of General Humphreys (1784-94) attempts were
+made to introduce the Spanish merino sheep and to establish factories
+for fine broadcloth. Iron works were set up in different parts of the
+state. The earliest cotton factories centred about Pomfret. Clocks,
+watches, cut shingle-nails, paper, stone, and earthenware pottery,
+were among the manufactures started in Norwalk between 1767 and 1773,
+while in Windham, hosiery, silk and tacks were manufactured.
+
+[e] In 1701 the General Court enacted that the May session of the
+Legislature should be held at New Haven, and the October one at
+Hartford. This was a concession to the former sovereignty of the New
+Haven Colony. The arrangement continued until 1873. The biennial
+sessions, introduced by the constitution of 1818, alternated between
+the two capitols.
+
+[f] "Mr. Dwight is enlarging hia School to comprehend the Ladies,
+... promising to carry them through a course of belles Lettres,
+Geography, Philosophy, and Astronomy. The spirit for Academy making is
+vigorous."--_Stiles Diary_, iii, 247.
+
+Of the academies, the more famous were Lebanon, Plainfield, Greenfield
+(under Dr. Dwight), Norwich, Windham, Waterbury (for both sexes), and
+Stratfield from 1783 to 1786.  There was also a second school in
+Norwich from 1783 to 1786.  See _Stiles Diary_, iii, 248.
+
+[g] Harvard Divinity School was established 1815; Yale, 1822.
+Previously both universities had each a professor of divinity.
+
+[h] "For three years and three months before his [Bellamy's] death he
+was disabled by a paralytic Shock, we impaired his Intellect as well
+as debilitated his Body. Few were equal to him in the Desk & he was
+Communicative and instructive in Conversation upon religious
+Subjects." The passage closes with the prophecy, "His numerous noisy
+Writings have blazed their day, and one Generation more will put them
+to sleep."--_Stiles Diary_, March 16, 1790 (on hearing the news
+of Bellamy's death). See vol. iii, pp. 384-385. See Trumbull, ii, 159,
+for a more favorable opinion.
+
+[i] Referring to the successor of Dr. Wales in the Yale chair of
+divinity, Pres. Stiles wrote, "An Old Divinity man will be acceptable
+to all the Old Divy. _Ministers & to all the Churches_: a New
+Divt man will be acceptable to all the New Divy. Ministers and to
+_None of the Churches_, as none of the Chhs. in New Engl. are New
+Divt."--_Stiles Diary_, iii, 506, note (Sept. 8, 1793).  See also
+under date of Nov. 16, 1786, where churches are said to take New
+Divinity pastors "because they can get no others, but persons in the
+parish know nothing of the New Theology."
+
+[j] "Law Reports of the Superior and Supreme Courts, 1785-1788, by
+E. Kirby. Just published at this office and ready for subscribers and
+gentlemen disposed to purchase, for which most kinds of country
+produce will be received."--Advertisement in _Litchfield Monitor_
+of Apr. 13, 1789.
+
+[k] Calhoun, Woodbury, Mason, Clayton, and Hubbard. Judge Reeve
+retired in 1820; Judge Gould in 1833.
+
+[l] Reporters were admitted to the national House of Representatives
+in 1790 and to the Senate in 1802.
+
+[m] Bishop Seabnry was consecrated by the Scotch non-juring bishops,
+Nov. 14, 1786. The latter, about four years later, were restored to
+their position as an integral part of the Anglican
+hierarchy. Meanwhile, Dr. Samuel Provoost of New York and Dr. William
+White of Pennsylvania, on Feb. 4, 1787, were consecrated by the
+Archbishops of Canterbury and York, assisted by the Bishops of Wells
+and Peterborough, after a special Act of Parliament permitting the
+consecration to take place without the usual oaths of allegiance to
+the King as head of the church. In 1789, Bishop Seabury became
+president of the House of Bishops thus formed in America. The
+following year, James Madison of Virginia was consecrated by the
+English bishops, thus giving to the United States three bishops after
+the English succession, so that the validity of the Scottish rite
+should hot be questioned in the consecration of future American
+bishops.
+
+[n] The eighty dollars proposed for privates would not go far toward
+mending broken fortunes, or care for broken constitutions and crippled
+bodies.
+
+At the Middletown Convention, Sept. 3, 1783, delegates from Hartford,
+Wethersfield, and Glastonbury met to denounce the Commutation Act. At
+its adjourned meeting on Sept. 30 fifty towns, a majority in the
+state, disapproved the Act in an address to the General Assembly, and
+called attention to the Society of the Cincinnati. At the last
+meeting, March, 1784, an address to the people of the state was framed
+which condemned both the Commutation Act and the Cincinnati.--
+J. H. Trumbull, _Notes on the Constitution_, p. 18. Noah Webster,
+_History of the Parties in the United States_, pp. 317-320.
+
+[o] Methodism was twenty-eight years old, when, in 1766, Robert
+Strawbridge introduced it into New York, and Philip Embury preached
+his first sermon in a sail-loft. In 1771, Francis Asbury, later Bishop
+Asbury, was appointed John Wesley's "Assistant" in America. In 1773,
+the first Annual Conference was held. Methodism rapidly spread in the
+Middle and Southern states. By the year 1773-74, the year's increase
+in members was nine hundred and thirteen; in 1774-75, ten hundred and
+seventy-three. The preachers traveled on foot or on horseback,
+preaching as they went; living on the smallest allowance; sleeping
+where night overtook them; and meeting often with grudging
+hospitality, suspicion, and, sometimes, open violence.
+
+Methodism "began when Episcopacy was at its lowest point, both in
+efficiency, and in the good-will of the people." It agreed with
+Jonathan Edwards on the nature of personal religion, and separated
+from the Church of England in this, the Methodist's central principle
+of "conscious conversion" or "emotional experience." Later in New
+England, Wesley's missionaries united in Methodist societies many of
+the converts to the Edwardean theology.
+
+At the opening of the Revolution, the whole body of Methodists were
+within the Church of England. Of the English missionaries only Asbury,
+Dempster, and Wharcott remained in America to carry on, with native
+preachers, the work of proselytizing. It was "the only form of
+religion that advanced in America during that dark period, and during
+the war, it more than quadrupled both its ministry and members." At
+the beginning of the war, it had eighty traveling preachers, beside
+local preachers and exhorters; a membership of one thousand, and
+auditors ten thousand. In 1784, there was a year's increase of
+fourteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-eight members, and of one
+hundred and four preachers to rejoice in the consecration of Bishop
+Asbury. In the November of that year, Bishops Coke and Asbury,
+organizing the "American Episcopal Church," in spite of Wesley's
+anathemas probably led out one hundred thousand souls as the nucleus
+of the new church.
+
+For a while the Connecticut authorities refused to recognize "as sober
+Dissenters" any converts other than the stationed preachers and their
+charges. The persecutions which the Methodists suffered were those of
+slander, the refusal to them of halls, churches, or public buildings;
+the refusal to permit their ministers, unless located, to perform the
+marriage ceremony; and petty fines, with occasional unjust
+imprisonment.
+
+[p] Portsmouth, N. H.
+
+[q] "A pure democracy which places every member of the church upon a
+level and gives him perfect liberty with order."  Under such a
+definition of a church as this, its pastor becomes only a moderator at
+its meetings, and every church is absolutely independent. It would
+follow that from its decisions there could be no appeal. Emmons was
+fond of declaring that "Association leads to Consociation;
+Consociation leads to Presbyterianism; Presbyterianism leads to
+Episcopacy; Episcopacy to Roman Catholicism, and Roman Catholicism is
+an ultimate fact."
+
+In spite of his teaching as to democracy, Emmons was as intolerant of
+it in the State as he was earnest for it in the Church.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+CERTIFICATE LAWS AND WESTERN LAND BILLS
+
+
+   And make the bounds of Freedom wider yet.--Alfred Tennyson.
+
+The legal recognition of conscience, the acknowledgment of fundamental
+dogmas held in common, the gradual approachment of the various
+religious organizations in polity, their common interest in education
+and good government, would seem to furnish grounds for such mutual
+esteem that the government would willingly do away with the
+objectionable certificates. On the contrary, the old conception of a
+state church, and of its value to the body politic, was so strongly
+intrenched in the hearts of the majority of the people that they felt
+it incumbent upon them to require the certificates as guarantees that
+those who were without the Establishment were fulfilling their
+religious duties. Particularly was this the case when new sects
+continued to increase and radical opinions to spread among the
+masses. And as the government saw these apparently destructive ideas
+permeating the people, it endeavored, rather unwisely, to hem dissent
+in closer bounds, and to favor still more Cougregationalists and
+Presbyterian-Congregationalists.
+
+The aggressively successful proselytizing by the Methodists revived
+the old dislike of rash exhorters and itinerant preachers, and the old
+contempt for an ignorant and unlearned ministry.  The proselytizing
+movement had also created a suspicion that it was hypocritical, and
+that it was masking a deliberate attempt to undermine the
+Establishment. Outside this Methodist propaganda there were also all
+sorts of unorthodox ideas that were spreading notions of Universalism,
+Arianism, deism, atheism, and freethinking, and making many
+converts. These proselytes were frequent among the untutored and
+irresponsible members of society who caught at the doctrines of
+greater freedom, and sometimes translated them, theoretically at least,
+into principles of greater personal license; and where they did not do
+this, the authorities felt sure that they would soon, and if
+unrestrained by ecclesiastical law, would quickly become lawless,
+first in religious affairs and then, as a consequence, in moral
+ones. Not only in this radical class, but among the recognized
+dissenters and among a minority of other, religious folk, there was a
+tendency to question both the authority and the justice of the
+government in its restrictive religious laws, its ecclesiastical
+taxation, and its Sabbath-day legislation. Particularly was there
+opposition to the fine for absence from public worship on Sunday,
+unless excused by weighty reasons, and to the assessment upon every
+one of a tax for the support of some form of recognized public
+worship, even though the tax-payer had no personal interest or liking
+for that which he was obliged to support. The feeling that such
+injustice ought not to continue was strong among some members of the
+Establishment. They found a powerful advocate in Judge Zephaniah Swift
+of Windham, the author of the "System of the Laws of the State of
+Connecticut."
+
+Judge Swift was a thorough-going Federalist, but so bitter an opponent
+of the union of Church and State that his enemies, and even members of
+his own party, taunted him with being a freethinker,--a serious charge
+in those days. Nevertheless, Judge Swift held the loyalty of a county
+and of one rather tolerant of dissent. "The Phenix or Windham Herald,"
+founded in 1790, though Federal in politics, became Judge Swift's
+organ; and so acceptable were his opinions, taken all in all, to the
+community, that from 1787 to 1793 it returned this arch-enemy of the
+Establishment as its deputy to the House, and then his congressional
+district honored him with a seat in the national council until
+1799. He became chief justice in 1806, and died in 1819, having lived
+to see the charter constitution set aside and Church and State
+divorced.
+
+The small Anti-Federal party in the state, though making but very few
+converts at this time, and though of very little importance
+politically, were the pronounced advocates of a wider suffrage, a
+larger tolerance, and of radical changes in the method of
+government. The last they believed necessary before any great
+improvement in the terms of the franchise or in those of religious
+toleration could be secured. "An Address to the Baptists, Quakers,
+Rogerines, and all other denominations of Christians in Connecticut,
+freed by law from supporting what has been called the 'Established
+Religion,'" went the rounds of the newspapers urging continued
+resistance to the support of any religious system that enforced a
+tax. The "Address" closed with the cheerful prediction that, as their
+numbers were increasing very rapidly, they might hope yet "to carry
+the vote against those who have put on haughty airs and affected to
+treat us as their inferiors."
+
+Such seething opposition among various classes induced the government
+to enact some special legislation; but it was unfortunately not of a
+conciliatory character. In May, 1791, a law was passed varying the old
+requirement that certificates, after being signed by a church officer,
+should be lodged with the Society clerk, to the demand that they be
+signed by two civil officers, or, where there was only one, by the
+justice of the peace of the town in which the dissenter
+lived. Considering that the justices were mostly Congregationalists,
+the enactment amounted to an intrenchment of the Standing Order at the
+expense of the dissenters. With these officers lay full power to pass
+upon the validity of the certificates and upon the honesty of intent
+on the part of the persons presenting them. The certificates read:--
+
+    We have examined the claim of ---- who says he is a Dissenter from
+    the Established Society of ---- and hath joined himself to a
+    church or Congregation of the name of ----; and that he ordinarily
+    attends upon the public worship of such Church or Congregation;
+    and that he contributes his share and proportion toward supporting
+    the public worship and ministry thereof, do upon examination find
+    that the above facts are true.
+
+    Dated
+
+    Justice of the Peace. [182]
+
+A veritable doubt, spite, malice, prejudice, or mistaken zeal, might
+determine the granting of the certificate to the dissenter.
+
+The authorities defended this measure upon the ground that it was the
+_civil_ effect of preaching that gives the _civil_
+magistrate jurisdiction.  "The law," they said, "has nothing to do
+with _conscience_ and _principles_." [183] They further
+declared that there were persons who were taking undue advantage of
+the certificate exemptions, and that there were good reasons, to doubt
+the validity of many of the certificates.
+
+This Certificate Act roused the dissenters throughout the state. "In
+public society meetings and in speaking universal abroad, sensible
+that their numbers though scattered were large," they strove to create
+a sentiment that should send to the next legislature a "body of
+representatives who would remember their petition and see that equal
+religious liberty should be established."
+
+In regard to the certificates, a writer in the "Courant" exclaims:--
+
+    It is sometimes said that the giving of a certificate once a year
+    or once in a man's life is but a trifle, and none but the
+    obstinate will refuse it as none but the covetous desire it. True
+    it is but a trifle--ten times as much would be but a trifle if it
+    was right.  If it must be done, let them who plead for it do the
+    little trifle; they have no scruples of conscience about
+    it.... The certificate law is as much worse than the tax on tea as
+    religious fetters are worse than civil. [184]
+
+The Rev. John Leland's "The Rights of Conscience inalienable;
+therefore Religious Opinions not cognizable by Law; Or The High flying
+Churchman, stript of his legal Robe appears a yaho" was a powerful
+arraignment of the government and defense of the right of all to
+worship as conscience bade them. Leland had recently come from
+Virginia and settled in New London. In the southern state he had been
+one of the most influential among the Baptist ministers and a great
+power in politics. In Virginia he had seen the separation of Church
+and State in 1785, and had witnessed the benefits following that
+policy. After the publication of his "Rights of Conscience" the
+question before the Connecticut people became one of establishment or
+disestablishment, because Leland, not content with showing the falsity
+of the position that civil necessities required an established church,
+or with a logical demonstration of the inalienable rights of
+conscience, proceeded to boldly attack the Charter of Charles II as
+being in no rightful sense the constitution of the state of
+Connecticut. He maintained that, "Constitution" though it was called,
+it was not such, because it had been enforced upon the people by a
+mere vote of the legislature [a] and was a "constitution" never
+"assented to further than passive obedience and non resistance" by the
+people at large; a constitution--
+
+    contrary to the known sentiments of a far greater part of the
+    States in the Union; and inconsistent with the clear light of
+    liberty, which is spreading over the world in meridian splendor,
+    and dissipating those antique glooms of tyrannical darkness which
+    were ever opposed to free, equal, religious liberty among men.
+
+Leland arraigns a union of Church and State that presupposes a need of
+legislative support for religion, which the example of other states
+has proved unnecessary; and which the experience of communities,
+persisting in such union, has shown to be productive of evil, of
+ignorance, superstition, persecution, lying and hypocrisy, a weakness
+to the civil state, and a conversion of the Bible and of religion to
+tools of statecraft and political trickery.
+
+    Government has no more to do with religious opinions of men than
+    it has with the principles of mathematics.... Truth disdains the
+    aid of law for its defence, ... it will stand upon its own
+    merit....  Is it just to balance the Establishment against the
+    rights guaranteed in the charter, and to enact a law which has no
+    saving clause to prevent taxation of Jew, Turk, Papist, Deist,
+    Atheist, for the support of a ministry in which they would not
+    share and which violated their conscience? [185]
+
+Many Federalists of Judge Swift's type sympathized with Leland's bold
+arraignment of the Establishment, if not with his view of the
+unconstitutionality of the charter government. These men repudiated
+the new certificate law.
+
+The authorities felt that they had gone too far, and in October, 1791,
+after an existence of only six months, they repealed the certificate
+law by one hundred and five yeas to fifty-seven nays.  The new law
+that was substituted permitted each dissenter to write his own
+certificate, release, or "sign-off," as the papers were colloquially
+called, and required him to file it with the clerk of the Established
+Society wherein he dwelt. [186] This favor was not so great a
+privilege as it seemed.  It bore hard upon the dissenters in two
+ways. It created "Neuters," people who wished to be relieved from the
+ecclesiastical taxes, but who were too indifferent to the principles
+and welfare of the churches to which they allied themselves to
+faithfully support them. For their churches to complain of such
+persons to the authorities would only give the latter reasons for
+enforcing the laws for the support of the Establishment. Then again,
+the new certificate law did not relieve the dissenters who lived too
+far from their churches to ordinarily attend them from petty fines and
+from court wrangles as to the justice of them, for with the judges lay
+the determination of what the words "far" and "near" and "ordinarily
+do attend" in the laws meant. [b] The important question of how many
+absences from church would prevent a man from claiming that he was a
+regular attendant was thus left in the hands of judges, who were for
+the most part prejudiced or partial.  Many amusing and exasperating
+legal quibbles occurred in the courts between judges, who were
+determined to sentence for neglect of public worship, and defendants,
+who were equally positive of their rights. Many dissenters attempted
+later to ridicule the law out of existence by substituting for the
+formal--
+
+    I certify that I differ in sentiment from the worship and ministry
+    in the ecclesiastical society of ---- in the town of ----
+    constituted bylaw within certain local bounds, and have chosen to
+    join myself to the (Insert here the name of society you have
+    joined) in the town of ----.
+
+    Dated at ---- this ---- day of ---- A. D.
+
+declarations, undignified in wording and sometimes written in doggerel
+rhyme. While granting the new certificate law, the Assembly were
+careful to pass a minor ecclesiastical statute enforcing a fine of
+from six to twelve shillings upon all who should neglect to observe
+all public fasts and thanksgivings. [187] This law at times proved
+unsatisfactory to the Episcopalians, for the Congregational fasts and
+feasts were appointed by the authorities, who naturally did not
+consider the Churchman's feeling when called upon to celebrate a feast
+or thanksgiving during an Episcopalian season of fasting, or to
+observe a public fast, to go in sackcloth, upon an anniversary that
+should be marked by joy and praise.
+
+In 1792, the year following the attempt to remodel the certificate
+laws, certain legislative measures with reference to Yale College fed
+the discontent among the dissenting sects. For some years there had
+been an increasing dissatisfaction with the management of the
+college. It culminated in 1792 in the reorganization of the governing
+board, to which were added eight civilians, including the governor,
+lieutenant-governor, and the six senior councilors or state
+senators. At the same time, and in consideration of the admission of
+laymen to the board, $40,000 was given to the college. [c] This money
+was a part of the taxes which had been collected to meet the expenses
+of the Revolutionary war, and which were in the state treasury when
+the United States government offered to refund the state for such
+expense. It was granted to the college on condition that she should
+invest it in the new United States bonds, and that half the profits of
+the investment should be at the disposal of the state.  This
+arrangement relieved the crippled finances of the college and
+gratified many of its friends.  But there were many who regarded the
+measure as out-and-out favoritism to a Congregational college, and who
+put no faith in the proposed half-sharing of profits. They maintained
+that eventually the college would get the whole benefit of the money
+that had been collected for other purposes, and from many persons who
+could derive no benefit from such a disposal of it. These prophets
+were not far wrong, for after Yale had paid into the state treasury a
+little more than $13,000 she was relieved from further payments by a
+repeal, in 1796, of the conditional clause of the grant.
+
+This favoritism to Yale was not the only legislation to anger the
+dissenters, and especially the Baptists. Another measure, mooted at
+the same time as the certificate acts and the special grant to the
+college, was accepted as a further mark of the government's
+determination to ignore the rights of dissenters. In 1785-86 the
+Assembly had granted lands for the support of the Gospel ministry, for
+schools, and to the first minister to settle in each township of the
+Western Reserve. This act, as has been shown, was considered to unduly
+favor the Presbyterians. But little had come of this legislation
+beyond the survey of the land and the opening of a land office there
+for its sale. Five years later, in 1791, even though no part of the
+tract had been sold, the Assembly introduced a new bill appropriating
+the anticipated proceeds from the sale of the land to the several
+ecclesiastical societies as a fund with which to pay their ministers
+so as to enable them to do away with the tax for salaries. But the
+excitement roused by the first certificate law--of 1791--was so great
+that it was deemed prudent to continue this Western Land bill over to
+the next session of the legislature, and there it was lost. The
+session of May, 1792, contented itself with only such legislation in
+regard to the Western Reserve as that by which it granted the "Fire
+Lands," so called, a grant of 500,000 acres as indemnity to the
+citizens of New London, Groton, Fairfield, Norwalk, and Danbury, for
+the destruction of their property in the burning of their towns by
+British troops.
+
+As the lands of the Western Reserve did not sell well, [d] the
+Assembly, in 1793, appointed a committee to dispose of the tract to
+the highest bidder if the amount offered should be duly guaranteed
+with interest; principal and interest payable to the state within four
+or six years, whether paid in lump sum on demand, or by installments.
+The sale was widely advertised both within and without the state. It
+was now calculated that the amount realized from the sale of the lands
+would be a sum yielding an annual interest of $60,000, or an average
+of $600 to a town, beside a bonus to Yale of $8000. Therefore, the
+Assembly, in October, 1793, voted that--
+
+    moneys arising from the sale of the territory belonging to the
+    State, lying west of the state of Pennsylvania, be, and the same
+    is hereby established a perpetual fund, the interest whereof is
+    granted, and shall be appropriated to the use and benefit of the
+    several ecclesiastical societies, churches, congregations of all
+    _denominations_ in this State, to be by them applied to the
+    support of their respective ministers or preachers of the Gospel,
+    and schools of education, under such rules and regulations as
+    shall be adopted by this or some future session of the General
+    Assembly. [188]
+
+An earlier bill had been proposed, discussed, and tabled. This act was
+originally a resolution framed by a large committee whose members
+represented both the friends and opponents of the proposal for the
+immediate sale of the lands.  When the vote passed, it was by
+eighty-three yeas to seventy nays in the House and by a large and
+favorable majority in the Council.
+
+One fault that the dissenters found with the law was that, under the
+rules and regulations adopted by the Assembly, they believed that the
+alternative which the law allowed of voting the money to the
+ministerial fund, or to the school, would work to their
+disadvantage. Where there were few dissenters, the Presbyterian vote
+would carry the money over to the minister's use, and where there were
+many, the same vote would be sufficient, if thrown, as it probably
+would be, to direct the money to the school appropriation. It would
+follow that the dissenters might never have the use of the money for
+the support of their own worship.
+
+The Baptists voiced the general opposition among the dissenters,--an
+opposition so strong that it appealed to some of the conservatives as
+sufficient reason in itself to condemn the law.  "A Friend to Society"
+wrote to the "Hartford Courant" that--
+
+    if a religion whose principles are universal love and harmony is
+    to be supported and promoted by a means which will blow up the
+    sparks of faction and party strife into a violent flame, it is a
+    new way of promoting religion. Much better would it be for the
+    State of Connecticut that their Western Lands should be sunk by an
+    earthquake and form part of the adjoining lake than that they
+    should be transplanted hither for a bone of contention.
+
+Apart from sectarian interests, the law met with hostility. There were
+those who thought that the money ought to be applied at once to the
+remaining indebtedness of the state, rather than for it to wait for
+another installment on the Revolutionary debt that was still due from
+the national government. There were more who thought that the money
+ought to go for the expenses of government, or for direct advantages,
+such as the repair of bridges and highways. But the expenses of
+government were light, [e] and, as a rule, the people were willing to
+keep the highways in repair. There was still another party who
+contended that the money should go for schools, both because they were
+needed in larger numbers, and because they ought to be able to pay
+larger salaries and not ones so small as to tempt only the farmer lad,
+or the ambitious student, to keep a country school for a few months in
+winter, or a somewhat similarly equipped woman to teach in summer. And
+there was yet another party who were convinced that the money should
+go to the support of the ministry, for they believed that morality
+could be taught only by religion, and that the people were losing
+interest in the latter because of the inferiority of the preachers
+whom the small salaries and insecure support kept in the field. [189]
+
+
+While this discussion of certificate laws, of grants to Yale, and of
+grants of land and money to the ecclesiastical societies had been
+constantly before the public, there had also been present a minor
+grievance due to the Assembly's interest in the missionary work that
+the General Association had extended to include parts of Vermont,
+western New York, Pennsylvania, and the outlying settlements in
+Ohio. In the western field the missionaries sent by Connecticut
+frequently met those sent out by the Presbyterian General
+Assembly. Drawn together by their interests in these missions in 1794,
+the practice was begun of having three delegates from the General
+Association meet with the Presbyterian General Assembly in their
+annual convention, and three delegates from the General Assembly take
+their seats in the yearly convocation of the General Association of
+Connecticut. So long as the Connecticut churches were strongly
+Presbyterian in sentiment, there was no clashing of interests among
+the workers in the mission field. Naturally, Connecticut wanted to do
+her full share of missionary work; and feeling the need of more money
+for the purpose, the General Association, in 1792, appealed to the
+legislature for permission to take up an annual collection for three
+years. The Association hesitated to take up such a collection in all
+the churches, dissenting or Established, without such permission. The
+Baptists expressed their indignation at the wording of Governor
+Huntington's proclamation, "that there be a contribution taken up in
+every congregation for the support of the Presbyterian Missions in the
+western territory." More than that, they refused to contribute, on the
+ground that if the collection had been "recommended" they would gladly
+have helped a Christian cause, but that it was inexpedient to yield to
+a demand that all societies should contribute to the support of
+missions that were entirely under the control of one religious
+body. Furthermore, with reference to the appropriation of money from
+the Western Lands, they would join with other dissenters in opposing
+it, on the ground that, in order to obtain their share of the money,
+they would have to admit their inferiority through the showing of the
+compulsory certificates. Moreover, even the scant favor secured
+through these was in danger from the continual favoritism of the
+legislature, with its treasury open at all times to its Congregational
+college, and with its enactments in favor of the Established Churches.
+
+At the May session of the Assembly, 1794, the Baptists from all over
+the state thronged the steps of the capitol at Hartford, angered
+almost to the point of precipitating civil war. There John Leland
+addressed them, urging the necessity of government; the power of
+constitutional reform; arguing for rights of conscience, citing both
+European and colonial history to prove their reasonableness and their
+value to the body politic; and setting forth Connecticut's departure
+from the glorious freedom mapped out by her founders. He declared to
+that great and angry crowd:--
+
+    Government is a necessary evil and so a chosen good. Its business
+    is to preserve the life, liberty and property of the many units
+    that form the body politic.... When a constitution of government
+    is formed, it should be simple and explicit; the powers that are
+    vested in, and work to be performed by each department should be
+    defined with the utmost perspicuity; and this constitution should
+    be attended to as scrupulously by men in office as the Bible
+    should be by all religionists.... Let the people first be
+    convinced of the deficiency of the constitution, and remove the
+    defects thereof, and then, those in office can change the
+    administration upon constitutional grounds.
+
+               *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [The right to worship] God according to the dictates of
+    conscience, without being prohibited, directed or controlled
+    therein by human law, either in _time, place or manner_,
+    cannot be surrendered up to the general government for an
+    equivalent.  [190]
+
+Had not Governor Haynes said to Roger Williams, "The Most High God
+hath provided and cut out this part of the world for a refuge and
+receptacle for all sorts of consciences?"  How had not Connecticut
+fallen? How passed her ancient glory, how ignored her charter's
+rights? How firm a grip upon her had that incubus of her own raising,
+the pernicious union of Church and State? Break that, as elsewhere it
+had been broken, and then as freemen demand a constitution
+guaranteeing both civil and religious liberty.
+
+The result of the widespread hostility was the attempt at the May
+session of 1794 to repeal the offensive law. The Lower House did
+repeal it, after a lively debate, by a vote of 109 yeas to 58 nays,
+but the Council, or Upper House, where the conservatives were
+intrenched, refused to pass the bill. However, they were induced to
+pass a resolution suspending the sale of the lands. The debate in the
+House was published verbatim in the "Hartford Gazette" of May 19,
+1794, and was copied by the papers throughout the state. In the
+following October a bill was passed by the Council, but continued over
+by the House and ordered to be printed in all the papers, that the
+people might have opportunity to consider it before it should come up
+to be passed upon by their representatives in the May session of
+1795. [191] The terms of the bill were that the principal sum of money
+received from the sale of the Western Lands should be apportioned
+among the several school societies according to the list of polls and
+rateable estates, and that the interest arising from the money so
+divided should be appropriated to the support of schools that were
+kept according to the law, or to the support of the public worship of
+God and the Christian ministry, "as the majority of the legal voters
+should annually determine." [192]
+
+The proposed law was subjected to public scrutiny of all sorts. It was
+agitated in town meetings, and the discussions for and against it were
+noticed in the newspapers, where much space was given to its
+consideration. Ministers made it the subject of their
+sermons. Dr. Dwight discoursed upon the subject in his Thanksgiving
+sermon. [193] When the proposed bill came up before the legislature,
+it encountered considerable opposition, but after some modifications
+it became a law. As in school societies the dissenters had an equal
+vote, and in all town affairs were worth conciliating, there was more
+justice in the new law than in the old, where the ecclesiastical
+society was made the unit of division. From 1717 to 1793 the towns,
+parishes, and occasionally the ecclesiastical societies had charge of
+the schools. [194] But in 1794 school districts were authorized and
+the change to them begun. Such districts could, upon the vote of two
+thirds of all the qualified voters, locate schools, lay taxes to build
+and repair them, and appoint a collector to gather such rates. The act
+of May, 1795, appropriating the money from the Western Lands to the
+schools, provided also that the school districts should be erected
+into school societies to whom the money should be distributed, and by
+whom the interest thereon should be expended; and that it should go
+"to no other Use or Purpose whatsoever; except in the Case and under
+the circumstances hereafter mentioned." The circumstances here
+referred to were in cases where two thirds of the legal voters in a
+school society meeting, legally warned, voted to use the interest
+money for the support of the ministry in that Society, and appealed to
+the General Assembly for permission to so use the money. Upon such an
+expression of the wish of voters, the General Assembly was empowered
+to answer in the affirmative. The act also repealed that of 1793. The
+legislature appointed another commission for the sale of the
+lands. They were sold in the following October for $1,200,000. By this
+legislation was laid the foundation of Connecticut's School Fund. The
+Connecticut Land Company, which had made the purchase, petitioned the
+legislature in 1797 that Connecticut should surrender her jurisdiction
+over the lands to the United States. The state complied. In 1798 the
+organization of the new school societies was perfected, and the
+control of the schools passed entirely into their hands until the
+district system of 1856 was adopted.
+
+The Western Land bills had resulted in the establishment of a public
+school fund and in its just distribution, without reference to
+sectarianism, among the people. All the agitation attending both the
+certificate acts and Western Land bills had demonstrated the intense
+opposition of the dissenting minority, and that they were beginning to
+look to the increase of their numbers and the power of the ballot as
+the only means of changing the vexatious laws under which they were
+treated as inferiors. To the Congregationalists, strong both as the
+Established Church and as members of the Federal party, which counted
+many adherents among all the dissenting sects, the possibility that
+any voting strength could be brought against them, adequate to oppose
+their party measures, seemed improbable. Such a possibility must be
+very remote. Yet within twenty years, they were to see the downfall of
+the Federal party, of the Established Church, and of Connecticut's
+charter government.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] The vote of the Assembly was: "That the ancient form of civil
+government, containing the charter from Charles the Second, King of
+England, and adopted by the people of this State, shall be and remain
+the Civil Constitution of the State under the sole authority of the
+people thereof, independent of any King, or ftince whatever. And that
+this Republic is and shall forever be and remain a free, sovereign,
+and independent State, by the name of the State of
+Connecticut."--Revision of Acts and Laws, Ed. 1784, p. 1.
+
+[b] "Courts and juries had usually been composed of what was
+considered the standing church, and they had frequently practiced such
+quibbles and finesse with respect to the forms of certificates and the
+nature of dissenting congregations as to defeat the benevolent
+intentions of the law."--Swift's _System of Laws_, pp. 146, 147.
+
+[c] Yale received in all $40,629.80. In 1871, six alumni replaced the
+six senior councilors.
+
+[d] So far the highest bid for the tract of land had been $350,000.
+
+[e] The annual expenses were estimated to be approximately $90,000. In
+_Advice to Connecticut Folks_, 1786, occurs the following
+estimate:--
+
+  ===================================================================
+						 Necessary  Unneces'y
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------
+  Governor's salary,                       £300     £300
+  Lieutenant-Governor's,                    100      100
+  Upper House attendance and travel
+    60 days at £10 per day,                 600      600
+  Lower House attendance and travel
+    170 members at 6s. a day, 60 days,    3,060    1,530      £1,530
+  Five Judges of the Superior Court at
+    24s. a day, suppose 150 days,           900      900
+  Forty Judges of Inferior Court at
+    9s. a day, suppose 40 days,             720      720
+  Six thousand actions in the year, the
+    legal expenses of each, suppose £3,  18,000    1,000      17,000
+  Gratuities to 120 lawyers, suppose
+    £50 each,                             6,000    1,000       5,000
+  Two hundred clergymen at £100 each,    20,000   20,000
+  Five hundred schools at £20 a year,    10,000   10,000
+  Support of poor,                       10,000   10,000
+  Bridges and other town expenses,       10,000   10,000
+  Contingencies and articles not
+    enumerated,                          10,000   10,000
+  -------------------------------------------------------------------
+  Total,                                £89,680  £66,150     £23,530
+
+As a glimpse at society, it may be added that the _Advice_ itself
+is an energetic and statistical condemnation of the prevalent use of
+"Rum," estimated at £90,000 or "ninety-nine hundredths unnecessary
+expense" in living. "Deny it if you can, good folks. Now say not a
+word about taxes, Judges, lawyers, courts and women's extravagances.
+Your government, your courts, your lawyers, your clergymen, your
+schools and your poor, do not all cost you so much as one paltry
+article which does you little or no good but is as destructive of your
+lives as fire and brimstone."--Noah Webster's _Collection of
+Essays,_ pp. 137-139.
+
+The evil was beginning to be recognized in all its danger.  Here and
+there voluntary temperance clubs were beginning to be formed among the
+better classes, but it was a time when hardly a contract was closed
+without a stipulation of a certain quantity of rum for each workman.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONNECTICUT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
+CENTURY
+
+
+    As well dam up the waters of the Nile with Bullrushes as to fetter
+    the steps of Freedom.--L. M. Child.
+
+Leland's attack upon the constitution of Connecticut during the
+excitement over the Western Land bills called for new tactics on the
+part of the dissenters. Thus far, in all their antagonism to the union
+of Church and State, there had been on their part practically no
+attack upon the constitution itself. Yet even as early as 1786 the
+Anti-Federalists had proclaimed that the state of Connecticut was
+without a constitution; that the charter government fell with the
+Declaration of Independence; and that its adoption by the legislature
+as a state constitution was an unwarranted excess of authority. The
+Anti-Federalists maintained also that many of the charter provisions
+were either outgrown or unsuited to the needs of the state. But the
+majority of the dissenters, like the Constitutional Reform party of
+recent date, preferred redress for their grievances through
+legislation rather than through the uprooting of an ancient and
+cherished constitution. Accordingly, it was not until the elections of
+1804-6 that this question of a new constitution could reasonably be
+made a campaign issue. But from 1793 the dissenters began to lean
+towards affiliation with the Democratic-Republican [a] party, the
+successors to the Anti-Federal; yet it was not until toward the close
+of the War of 1812 that the Republican party made large gains in
+Connecticut and the dissenters began to feel sure that the dawn of
+religious liberty was at hand. But before that time the Republicans
+made three distinct though abortive attempts to secure the electoral
+power.
+
+The Anti-Federalists early began to probe for weak spots in the
+constitutional government of Connecticut. The Fundamental Orders had
+given four deputies to each of the three original towns, and had made
+the number of deputies from each new town proportionate to its
+population. The Charter had limited the deputies to two from each
+town. The Fundamental Orders gave the General Court, composed of
+Governor, Magistrates or Assistants, and Deputies, supreme governing
+power, including, together with that of legislation, the granting of
+levies, the admission of freemen, the disposal of public lands, and
+the organization of courts. It had also a general supervision over
+individuals, magistrates, and courts, with power to revise decisions
+and to mete out punishments. The Charter of 1662 did not materially
+alter the laws and customs of the government as previously established
+under the Fundamental Orders, or the "first written constitution." The
+Charter emphasized the executive, and began the segregation of the
+Upper House or Council, since by it the "Particular Court" of the
+founders became the Governor's Council, serving upon like occasions,
+but requiring the presence of at least six magistrates for the
+transaction of business. The Particular Court had consisted of the
+Governor or Deputy-Governor, and three Assistants. In emergencies
+occurring during adjournment of the General Court, the Particular
+Court was to serve in place of the larger body. After 1647 this
+special court could consist of two or three magistrates who, in the
+absence of the Governor or Deputy-Governor, chose one of their number
+to act as moderator. After 1662 the formula of the General Court "Be
+it ordered, enacted and decreed" was changed to "Be it enacted by the
+Governor and Council and House of Representatives in General Court
+assembled." At the regular session of the General Court or General
+Assembly, the Councilors first sat as a separate body in 1698. After
+the Declaration of Independence this Upper House or Council became the
+Senate, and for many years was referred to under any one of the three
+names.
+
+The power of the General Court--this jumble of legislative, executive,
+and judicial--worked well so long as the community consisted of a few
+hundred or a few thousand souls with little diversity of sentiment or
+industrial interest. It was not until the last quarter of the
+eighteenth century that the inefficiency of the "first written
+constitution" began to be felt. Then there arose the need of a new
+constitution to modify the body of laws and customs that had grown up;
+to destroy much of the erroneous legislation that in effect perverted
+or nullified their original intent; and to furnish a constitutional
+basis for the government of a larger and less homogeneous people. Here
+and there a few thoughtful men, irrespective of their church or party,
+were beginning to apprehend the difficulty of piloting a democratic
+state under the old royal charter. The more prominent among them
+belonged to the Anti-Federal party, and naturally they sought to
+expose the constitutional difficulties which they believed impeded
+progress. [b]
+
+One of the earliest party tilts grew out of the increase of new towns
+and the unequal development of some of the older ones. Then as now,
+though on a much smaller scale, the unit of town representation
+threatened rotten boroughs and a fictitious representation of the will
+of the majority as represented by the delegates to the Lower
+House. The state in 1786 had not recovered from the exhaustion due to
+the Revolutionary War, and the support of the many new deputies, due
+to the increase of the towns, was a burden which the October
+legislation of that year attempted to lighten. With the object of
+cutting down state expenses a bill was introduced into the House to
+refer to the freemen some proposition for reducing the number of their
+delegates and for equalizing representation. Mr. James Davenport of
+Stamford moved to substitute for the bill [c] another in which this
+reduction should be made by the legislature without submitting the
+proposed change to the freemen. This was objected to on the ground
+that a reduction of delegates was a constitutional question, "the
+Assembly having no right to alter the representation without authority
+given by their constituents." The supporters of the bill contended
+with Mr. Davenport that--
+
+    _we have no Constitution_ but the laws of the State.  The
+    _Charter is not the Constitution_. By the Revolution
+    _that_ was abrogated. A law of the State gave a subsequent
+    sanction to that which was before of no force; if that law be
+    valid, any alteration made by a later act will also be valid; if
+    not, we have no Constitution, so defined, as to preclude the
+    Legislature from exercising _any_ power necessary for the
+    good of the people.
+
+The bill was carried over to the May session of 1787, when it was
+defeated by sixty-two yeas to seventy-five nays, the towns of
+Hartford, East Hartford, Berlin, Stamford and Woodbury favoring it. A
+confidential letter of February, 1787, from Dr. Gale, the probable
+author of "Brief, decent but free Remarks or Observations on Several
+Laws passed by the Honorable Legislature of the State of Connecticut
+since the year 1775, by a Friend to his Country," suggested that in
+addition to the reduction of representatives, laws should be passed
+forbidding any citizen to hold, at the same time, more than one place
+of public trust, either civil or military, and also requiring an
+increase in the number of councilors, or senators, from the total of
+twelve to three from each county. [d] Dr. Gale believed that if these
+senators should be elected by each county, and not upon a general
+ticket, the change would be beneficial. [195]
+
+In regard to the senators, the Fundamental Orders prescribed that
+nominations for the magistrates should be made by the towns through
+their deputies to the fall session of the General Court, and that the
+election should take place the following spring at the Court of
+Elections.  As the life of the colony expanded, modifications of this
+rule were made; in time, vote by proxy took the place of the freeman's
+presence at the Court of Election. After 1689, the Assistants to be
+nominated, twenty in number, were balloted for in the fall town
+meetings. The sealed lists were sent to the legislature, where they
+were opened, and the ticket for the spring election was made out from
+the twenty names receiving the largest vote. The Court could no longer
+as in earlier times add any new names. Hence, the custom grew up of
+listing nominations, not according to popularity, but first according
+to seniority in office, and then according to the number of votes
+received. These lists were published in the papers throughout the
+state. The candidates for election were presented at the April town
+meetings, where each name was read in order and voted upon. A much
+later enactment provided twelve ballots, and forbade any one to cast
+more than twelve, whether for or against a candidate or in blank. If a
+man held any one of his slips in reserve for a more satisfactory
+candidate, he had none for the teller, and thus the secrecy of the
+ballot was almost destroyed. New candidates or those not up for
+reelection, whose names appeared at the foot of the list, whatever the
+number of votes received, were sometimes kept waiting years for an
+election, until those above them had died in office or resigned. [e]
+For instance, Jonathan Ingersoll received 4600 votes in nomination in
+1792, while the senior councilor, William Williams, had only 2000; yet
+Williams's name was preferred, and Ingersoll's had to wait over
+another year, when he was again nominated and elected, and held his
+seat from 1793 to 1798. An election was a wearisome affair, and many
+men would not stay until the voting upon the list was finished,
+preferring for various reasons to cast an early ballot. The natural
+tendency was to support the experienced and known, even if
+indifferently efficient councilor, rather than to vote for an untried
+and unfamiliar man whose name would come up later, or even for popular
+men who could not be proposed until far into the day. As a result the
+party in power felt assured of their continuance in office. Moreover,
+proxies for the election were returned in April, but the result was
+not announced until the legislature met in May, nor was there any
+supervision compelling an honest count. Thus it was easy to keep in
+office Federal candidates, and thus the Senate, or Council, came to
+reflect public opinion about twenty years behind the popular
+sentiment. Furthermore, the clergy of the Establishment would get
+together and talk matters over before the elections, and the parish
+minister would endeavor to direct his people's vote according to his
+opinion of what was best for the commonwealth. This ministerial
+influence was not shaken until about 1817.
+
+There was still another grievance against the Council besides that
+just mentioned. It had come to be almost a Privy Council for advice
+and consultation. Furthermore it was, until 1807, the Supreme Court of
+the state to which lay appeals in all cases, civil or criminal, where
+errors of law had been committed in the trial courts. Its twelve
+members were mostly, if not all, lawyers, holding a tremendous power
+of patronage over the members of the Lower House, many of whom were
+also lawyers, eager for preferment; over the courts throughout the
+state, from which, since 1792, the old non-professional judges had
+been debarred, and also over the militia, whose officers, from the
+earliest times, had been appointed by the General Court. Further, the
+united action of the two houses was necessary to pass or to repeal a
+law, and thus much important legislation centred upon a majority of
+seven in the Council.
+
+Furthermore, at the opening of the nineteenth century, the courts of
+law also were thought to need reorganizing. The judges were declared
+partisan, as they naturally would be under the conditions of their
+appointment. The Republicans could not meet the Federals upon an equal
+footing in the state tribunals. They were disparaged in their business
+relations, "were treated as a degraded party, and this treatment was
+extended to all the individuals of the party however worthy or
+respectable; in fact as the Saxons were treated by the Normans and the
+Irish by the English government." [196]
+
+Because of these political conditions, early in statehood, there were
+three schools of politicians; namely, those who approved a
+constitutional convention, expressly called to frame a new
+constitution; those who wished such a convention merely to amend the
+existing charter-constitution; and those, until 1800, predominately in
+the majority, who were convinced that whether the state had a
+constitution or not was a most frivolous and baneful question, mooted
+only by "visionary theorists," or by those who were desirous of a
+change, no matter how disastrous it might be to good government. The
+conservative party held that, since the charter had been drawn
+according to the tenor of a draft submitted by Winthrop and outlining
+the government according to the Fundamental Orders, framed in 1639 by
+the "inhabitants and residents of Hartford, Windsor and Wethersfield,"
+the charter was not a grant of privileges but an approval asked and
+obtained for a government already existing.  Consequently, such
+government as had been exercised before and was continued under the
+charter was essentially a creation of the people.  It therefore needed
+only the declarative act of the legislature to annul those clauses of
+the charter that bound the colony to the crown and to continue over
+into statehood the government of the colonial period. Further,
+granting that the separation from Great Britain annulled the
+constitution, the subsequent conduct of the people in assenting to,
+approving of, and acquiescing in such acts of the legislature, had
+established and rendered those acts valid and binding, and had given
+them all the force and authority of an express contract. [197] Such
+discussion of constitutional questions, confined at first to the few,
+spread among the many after Leland's attack upon the charter, and were
+debated with great earnestness. Leland's attack gained him, at the
+time, comparatively few adherents, but it brought the question of
+disestablishment fairly before the people, demonstrating to the
+discontented that there was very little hope for larger liberty, for
+greater justice, until the power of legislation, granted by the old
+charter, should be curtailed, and the bond between Church and State
+severed.
+
+The growth in Connecticut of the Democratic-Republican party, outside
+its following among Methodists, Baptists and a few radical thinkers,
+was very slow. The Episcopalians were held in much higher esteem by
+the Federal members of the Establishment, or "Standing Order," as they
+were called, than were the other dissenters. Yet notwithstanding the
+wealth and conservatism of the sect, they were looked at askance when
+it came to giving them political office, for the old dislike to a
+Churchman still lingered in New England. Accordingly, they were
+somewhat dissatisfied at the treatment they received as political
+allies of the Standing Order, and, in order to quiet their incipient
+discontent, the government thought best to occasionally extend some
+small favor to them. So in 1799, the legislature granted them a
+charter for a fund for their bishop which they were trying to
+raise. About the same time, Yale first conferred upon an Episcopal
+clergyman the title of doctor of divinity. The transfer of the annual
+fast day to coincide with Good Friday was appreciated by the
+Churchmen.  The change was first made in 1795, and came about through
+Governor Huntington's friendship for Bishop Seabury, and because of a
+desire to remove from the public mind a misapprehension, arising from
+the refusal of the Episcopal church in New London to comply with
+President Washington's proclamation for a national Thanksgiving. [f]
+From 1797 this change of fast-day became customary. It removed the
+long-standing complaint that Presbyterian days of fasting or rejoicing
+frequently occurred during Episcopal feasts or fasts. At an earlier
+period, the ignoring of such public proclamations was sometimes made
+the occasion for imposing fines for the benefit of the Establishment.
+
+As has been said, the Republican gains were greater among the
+Methodists and Baptists.  This was partly because not a few among
+these dissenters associated Jefferson's party with his efforts towards
+disestablishment in Virginia in 1785. Out of Connecticut's population
+of two hundred and fifty thousand, the Republicans counted upon
+recruits from the Methodist body, numbering, in 1802, one thousand six
+hundred and fifty-eight, and from the Baptists, approximating four
+thousand six hundred and sixty members. In 1798-1800 the division of
+the Federalists over national issues strengthened the Republicans in
+Connecticut, as they were the successors to the Anti-Federalists,
+those "visionary theorists" of 1786. The new Democratic-Republican
+party received further additions to their ranks through the opposition
+in Connecticut to the Federal and obnoxious "Stand-up Law" of
+1801. This law, which required a man to stand when voting for the
+nomination of senators, "was made to catch the secret vote of the
+Republicans," [198] and revealed at once the opposition of every
+dissenter, debtor, employee, or of any one who had cause to fear
+injury to himself if he gave an honest vote. It was passed by a
+compact and reunited body of Federalists whose boast was that no
+division upon national questions could affect their unity and strength
+in the Land of Steady Habits.
+
+The Republican-Democratic party in the state would have gained
+recruits more rapidly had it not been for its attitude as a national
+party toward France. To appreciate the situation in Connecticut, one
+must consider, first of all, the influence of the French
+Revolution. One must realize the intense interest, the mingled
+exultation and terror with which conservatives who, though they might
+differ in their religious preferences, were yet the rank and file of
+the state, watched its varying aspects from its outbreak in 1789 on
+through the years of its earliest experiments in statecraft, of its
+exaggerated exploitation of "liberty, equality, and fraternity," and
+of its casting off of all religious bonds and trammels. As the Federal
+party lost its sympathy with the French cause the attitude of the
+nation changed. The consolidated factions of the Anti-Federalists,
+however, increased their ardor for the French republic, and took from
+1792 the name Democratic-Republican. They carried their keen sympathy
+even to expressing their French sentiments by their dress and
+manners. The change in the national attitude was reflected in
+Connecticut by the whole-hearted antipathy of large numbers of her
+people to what they considered "radicalism of the most destructive
+character." English Arianism and Arminianism, with which the
+Edwardeans had waged war, were nothing compared to the influx of
+French infidelity and atheism which appeared to be sweeping over the
+land. Books formerly guarded by the clergy were on sale
+everywhere. They found among the masses many like Aaron Burr, who,
+during his period of study with Dr. Bellamy, had preferred the logic
+of the printed books upon the shelves to that of the master who placed
+them there. Dr. Bellamy proposed to confute the pernicious arguments
+of these books, bringing them one by one before his select body of
+students, so that they should be able to guide their future
+parishioners when the insidious poison of these dangerous authors,
+these "followers of Satan," should force its way among them.
+
+All sects attempted to oppose such an influx of irreligion. All but
+the Episcopalians fell back upon revivals as their chief means. In
+these revivals the Methodists and Congregationalists were perhaps the
+most successful in securing converts. The policy of the Episcopal
+church did not favor this phase of religious life. It felt that its
+whole attitude was a protest against exaggerated liberty, or license,
+and against all atheistical ideas. During the revivals the Baptists,
+also, added largely to their numbers. The Methodists, however, brought
+to their revival meetings the peculiar strength of fervent proselytes
+to a new faith; of one rapidly becoming popular, appealing strongly to
+the emotions, and having a touch of martyrdom still clinging to its
+profession. Among those Federalists who were also Congregationalists,
+the French Revolution was believed to be the "result of a combination
+long since formed in Europe by infidels and atheists to root out and
+effectually destroy religion and civil government." Holding this
+opinion; seeing the Baptists and Methodists increasing in importance,
+both in the nation and in the state; watching the continual increase
+of the unorthodox and of the freethinker, and perceiving the growing
+loss of confidence in the Federal party both in the nation and the
+state, the Standing Order felt itself face to face with imminent
+peril.  It scented danger to itself and to the existence of the
+commonwealth. But it sadly lacked a great leader, until the year 1795,
+when it found one in the recently elected president of Yale, the
+Rev. Timothy Dwight. He was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and was a
+man of amazing energy, of varied training, and of great personal
+charm.
+
+In his experience Dr. Dwight counted a college education, a
+theological training under Jonathan Edwards, Jr., a tutorship at Yale,
+a chaplaincy among the rough soldiers of the war of the Revolution,
+home-life on his father's farm at Northampton, where the men in the
+field vied with each other "to rake or hoe beside Timothy" in order to
+hear him talk. In political life Dr.  Dwight had served an
+apprenticeship in the General Court of Massachusetts, where he sat as
+deputy from Northampton. He had had experience as a preacher in
+several small towns, and as pastor at Greenfield Hill, a part of
+Fairfield.  There he had added to his income by establishing the
+Greenfield Academy for both sexes. Upon accepting the presidency of
+Yale he became also professor of theology, and in addition he took
+under his special care the courses in rhetoric and oratory. These last
+two, together with literature, had, he thought, been entirely too much
+neglected. [g] His coming was a forecast of the man of the nineteenth
+century.[199] Dr. Stiles had been a fine type of the
+eighteenth. Dr. Dwight was a man of less acquirements in languages,
+but he was a more accurate scholar, of broader intelligence, and with
+a mind well stocked and ready. He had a pleasing power of expression,
+was tactful, and could readily adapt himself to men and
+circumstances. It was he who was to give Yale its initial movement
+from college to university. He himself was to become a celebrated
+teacher and theologian. He was to be one of the founders of the New
+England school, whose principles Dr. Taylor, in 1827, was to make
+known under the name of the New Haven Theology. [h] In his own day
+Dr. Dwight was equally celebrated as a power both in religion and
+politics.  "Pope Dwight" his enemies termed him, and they nicknamed
+his ministerial following his "bishops," while they dubbed the Council
+or Senators "his Twelve Cardinals."
+
+Outside his college duties, and as a part of his care for its
+spiritual welfare, President Dwight's immediate purpose was to combine
+all forces that could be used to stem the dangerous currents rushing
+against the bulwarks of Church and State. He had early favored the
+drawing together of Congregational and Presbyterian bodies. He had
+discerned, as early as 1792, a stirring of new life in the religious
+world, the breaking down of the apathy of half a century that had been
+indicated by revivals in places far scattered, not only throughout New
+England but in other states. Towns in Massachusetts, with East Haddam
+and Lyme in Connecticut, had been roused as early as the year
+named. That element of personal experience which had been so marked a
+feature of the Great Awakening reappeared, but without that excessive
+emotionalism [i] which characterized the earlier revival. Nor was
+there any such pronounced leadership as then. There was the same
+conviction of sinfulness, the peace after its acknowledgment, and the
+joyous satisfaction in the determination to lead an upright life,
+seeking God's grace and will. Recognition of this spiritual awakening
+had in some measure entered into the proposed disposal of the money
+from the Western Lands, as it had also in the discussion of the joint
+missionary work of 1791-1794, and again in 1797-98, [200] when the
+General Association of Connecticut was incorporated as the Connecticut
+Missionary Society, [j] In all of these movements President Dwight had
+taken an active part. Upon entering the presidency of Yale he at once
+began a series of sermons, which he delivered Sunday mornings, and
+which were so arranged that in each four years the course was
+complete. These lectures were his "Theology Explained and Defended,"
+first published in 1818.  President Dwight, with the leading
+Presbyterian or Congregational ministers, together with the Methodist
+and Baptist clergy, continued to favor the revival movement. This
+reached its height in 1807. From beginning to end it lasted nearly a
+quarter of a century, and was punctuated by the revival years of 1798,
+1800, and 1802, that were especially fruitful of conversions in
+Connecticut. That of 1802 attracted large numbers of the college
+students. The success of the revivals was marked by increasing
+austerities, such as the denunciation of amusements, both public and
+private, and the revival of dead-letter laws for the more strict
+observance of Sunday. Traveling or driving was prohibited without a
+pass signed by a justice of the peace. Travelers were held up over
+"holy time." Attempts were made to prevent the young people from
+gathering in companies on Sunday evenings after the Sabbath was
+legally over. Too much hilarity, though innocent, was condemned. Such
+restrictions were extremely distasteful to a large minority in the
+state, and seemed to many citizens only repeated proofs of how closely
+the government and the Presbyterian-Congregational church were banded
+together. Accordingly the Republicans began to think it was time to
+test the strength of such a platform as they could put forth while
+making a bid for the whole dissenting vote.
+
+The election of Adams and Jefferson [k] in 1797 was a spur to both
+parties, lending hope to the scattered Republicans, and prodding the
+recently over-confident Federalists. In March, 1798, the whole nation
+was roused almost to forgetfulness of party lines by the anger created
+by the publication of the "X Y Z Papers." A few months later the
+Federal party, through its Alien and Sedition laws, had lost its
+renewed hold upon the nation. Connecticut denounced the Virginia and
+Kentucky resolutions of 1798-99, and was to all appearances stanchly
+Federal. But her leaders were looking for another presidential
+candidate than Adams, while the Republicans, elate with the
+anticipated national victory in 1800, were making preparations to
+catch any and every dissatisfied voter in the state. The scattered
+Republican clubs and committees awoke to new activity. As Jefferson
+kept his party well in hand, and let the national dissatisfaction
+increase that he might rush to victory at the presidential election of
+1800, so the Connecticut Republicans matured their plans. They did not
+formally organize their party till 1800, first making sure of their
+great leader as the nation's executive, and almost of his
+reëlection. Then they began to urge the acceptance of their platform
+upon the oppressed Connecticut dissenters, and to taunt the Federal
+Episcopalians with an allegiance that as late as 1802 had not been
+thought of sufficient worth to warrant the small favor of a college
+charter for their academy at Cheshire. The Federalists attempted to
+disarm the Episcopal dissatisfaction over the refusal by granting them
+a license for a lottery to raise $15,000 for the bishop's fund.
+
+The leader of the Republicans in Connecticut was Pierpont Edwards, a
+recently appointed United States district judge. He was brother of
+Jonathan Edwards, Jr., for years the pastor of the North Church at New
+Haven, and in 1800 president of Union College. This Republican leader
+was the maternal uncle of his opponent in Federal state politics,
+President Dwight, and also of the Republican Vice-President, Aaron
+Burr.  Another nephew of his was Theodore Dwight, the brother of
+Yale's president, who led the Federal civilians, and who was editor of
+the "Hartford Courant," the organ of the Connecticut Federalists. The
+Hartford "American Mercury" voiced the sentiments of the
+Republicans. The latter party throughout the state was formally
+organized in 1800 at a meeting in New Haven, the home of Mr. Edwards
+and of his henchman, Abraham Bishop, son of that city's mayor.
+
+The close personal relationship of the leaders, [l] the scorn of the
+radicals, the abhorrence of the conservatives for the principles,
+opinions, and even, in some cases, habits of life of their opponents,
+entered into the strife and vituperation of the political campaigns
+from 1800 to 1806.  Personalities were unsparing, passion rose high,
+and speeches were bitter. This was particularly the case in New Haven,
+where Abraham Bishop's impudent boldness of attack and denunciation
+was exaggerated by his father's position. Samuel Bishop, the father,
+was a man of seventy-seven, and old in the service of both Church and
+State.  He was senior deacon in the North Church, or what was at that
+time known as the Church of the United White Haven and Fair Haven
+Societies. He was also a justice of the peace, town clerk, and mayor
+of the city. The last office was held, according to the charter,
+during the pleasure of the legislature. Samuel Bishop was also chief
+judge of the court of common pleas for New Haven County, and sole
+judge of probate, annual offices which the General Assembly had
+re-conferred upon him in 1800 and in 1801. His son was a graduate of
+Yale (1778). He was a lawyer of somewhat indifferent practice, and
+from 1791 to 1798 clerk of the county court under his father, while
+from 1798 he had been clerk of the superior court. Before settling
+down to practice at the bar he had lived abroad, and had been caught
+in the whirl of French thought and democratic ideas. He had returned
+home bearing words of recommendation to Washington's secretary of
+state from Jefferson's European friends.  A personal meeting with that
+party leader had added to Bishop's enthusiasm. For some years he had
+lived in Boston, and tried his hand at literature. He had returned to
+New Haven in 1791, and had thrown himself into politics.  He purposely
+exaggerated his opinions. He was careless of his unorthodox
+expressions even to the verge of blasphemy. Though himself a believer
+in God, he was perhaps what one would probably have termed a little
+later a Unitarian.  His enemies exaggerated his exaggerations,--and
+Unitarianism was a crime according to the Connecticut statutes. [m]
+
+In his speeches and essays Abraham Bishop struck out boldly, with
+earnestness, logic, shrewd wit, and irony, and, as has been said, at
+times with dangerous irreverence,--often with down-right impudence
+when that would serve his purpose. An illustration of his extreme use
+of it was in 1800, about the time of the organization of the
+Republican party throughout the state.
+
+He had been honored with the Phi Beta Kappa oration, annually
+delivered on the eve of the Yale Commencement, then in September.  A
+polished literary effort was expected. He broke tradition, courtesy,
+and every implied obligation in the choice of his subject. In August
+he sent to the committee his paper for their acceptance or refusal. It
+was entitled "The Extent and Power of Political Delusions," and was an
+out and out campaign document. The presidential election was due in
+November! Further, Bishop made political capital of the anticipated
+refusal of his paper, which was not sent him until the eleventh
+hour. The readers of the morning paper, wherein the committee offered
+an apology for the change of speakers at the Society's meeting to be
+held that night, were confronted by the announcement that the refused
+address would be given to all who cared to listen to it in the parlors
+of the White Haven church that same evening, and by the still further
+notice that copies of it were fresh from the printer's hands and were
+ready to be distributed to the remotest parts of the state. Needless
+to state, the Phi Beta Kappa audience dwindled away to swell the crowd
+of fifteen hundred, wherein Bishop gleefully counted "eight clergymen
+and many ladies." The address met with great favor, and the
+Wallingford Republicans at their celebration of March 11, 1801, in
+honor of the election of Jefferson and Burr, asked Mr. Bishop to be
+their orator. [n]
+
+To top Bishop's insult,--as it was regarded by every friend of the
+Standing Order,--came in the following spring Jefferson's displacement
+of Elizur Goodrich, President Adams's appointee as collector of the
+port of New Haven, and the substitution of Samuel Bishop. President
+Jefferson considered himself at liberty to make this change; and all
+the more so because President Adams had made the appointment as one of
+his last official acts, when he must have known it would have been
+unacceptable to the incoming Republican administration. The merchants
+of New Haven immediately united in a petition to President Jefferson,
+in which they declared that Samuel Bishop was too old to perform the
+duties of the office, and, moreover, not acquainted with
+accounts. Assuming that his son Abraham would assist him, they
+denounced the latter as "entirely destitute of public confidence, so
+conspicuous for his enmity to commerce and opposition to order, so
+odious to his fellow citizens, that we presume his warmest partizans
+would not have hazarded a recommendation of him."  Notwithstanding
+this protest the appointment was continued, the President pointing out
+the honors bestowed upon the father and the care with which he,
+Jefferson, had investigated the case before acting upon it. Reproving
+the authorities for so long excluding the Republicans entirely from
+office, Jefferson expressed his regret at finding upon his accession
+to the presidency not even a "moderate participation in office in the
+hands of the majority." He further stated that when such a situation
+was in some measure relieved he would be only too glad to make the
+question "Is he capable? Is he honest? Is he faithful to the
+Constitution?" the only tests for obtaining and holding office. Samuel
+Bishop died in 1803, and the collector ship was then bestowed upon his
+son, who held it until his death in 1829.
+
+In Connecticut the two political parties prepared for conflict. The
+Republicans desired a new constitution and disestablishment. The old
+constitutional and religious debates were opened and fiercely fought
+out in pamphlet, press, sermon, and political oration. Noah Webster
+replied to the "Extent and Power of Political Delusion" by "A Rod for
+the Fool's Back."  John Leland published his famous Hartford speech as
+"A Blow at the Root, a fashionable Fast-Day Sermon," and his "High
+Flying Churchman," as contributions in behalf of civil and religious
+liberty. Abraham Bishop took up the latter topic in his "Wallingford
+Address, Proofs of a Conspiracy Against Christianity and the
+Government of the United States," published in 1802, as well as in his
+"Extent and Power of Political Delusion" of 1800. A fair type of
+Mr. Bishop's style and treatment is shown in his "Connecticut
+Republicanism," a campaign document, wherein he sets forth his opinion
+of the union of Church and State. [o]
+
+In his campaign document under the title "Connecticut Republicanism"
+Bishop declared:
+
+    Christianity has suffered more by the attempts to unite church and
+    state than by all the deistical writings, yet the men who denounce
+    them are pronounced atheists and no proof of their atheism is
+    required but their opposition to Federal measures.... Church and
+    state cannot be better served than by keeping them distinct and by
+    placing them where they ought to be, above, instead of beneath the
+    control of men who care no more for either of them than they can
+    turn to their personal benefit. The self-styled friends of order
+    have in all nations been the cause of all the convulsions and
+    distresses which have agitated the world.... The clergyman
+    preaches politics, the civilian prates of orthodoxy, and if any
+    man refuse to join their coalition they endeavor to hunt him down
+    to the tune "The Church is in danger."...  In 1787 this visible
+    intolerance had abated in New England; there was no written law in
+    force that none but church-members should be free burgesses: yet
+    the avowed charge of Christ's church was in our law-books, some
+    nice points of theology were settled in our statutes and the
+    common law of church and state was in full force.... The
+    Trinitarian doctrine is established by laws, and the denial of it
+    is placed in the rank of felony. Though we have ceased to
+    transplant from town to town Quakers, New Lights, and Baptists;
+    yet the dissenters from our prevailing denominations are even at
+    this moment praying for a repeal of those laws which abridge the
+    rights of conscience.
+
+               *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Break the league of church and state which first subjugates your
+    consciences, then treating your understanding like galley slaves,
+    robs you of religion and civil freedom.... Thirty thousand freemen
+    are against the union of church and state. Thirty thousand more
+    men, deprived of voting because they are not rich or learned
+    enough, are ready to join them. [201]
+
+In his "Wallingford Address," Bishop exclaims "The clerical
+_politician_ is a useless preacher; the _political_
+Christian is a dangerous statesman." On the title page of this address
+appeared the epigram, "Our statesmen to the Constitution; our Clergy
+to the Bible." The unfortunately irreverent parallel which Bishop drew
+between the Saviour of the world and the leader of the national
+Republican party, or of the democracy or common people, gave to the
+epigram an evil significance not intended, and to its author a
+reputation not wholly deserved.
+
+David Daggett, a prominent New Haven Federalist and lawyer, [p] tried
+in "Facts are Stubborn Things" to refute the charge that the people
+were priest-ridden, the legislature arbitrary and tyrannical, the
+clergy bigots. In the course of his argument he gives an account of
+the reception of a Baptist petition which, voicing the smouldering
+discontent that was kept burning by the certificate law, had been
+presented to the legislature. Daggett charged the Republicans with
+instituting the custom of holding their party meetings in Hartford and
+New Haven at the time of the meeting of the Assembly in those cities,
+and of making the political gathering a means of directing what topics
+should be brought up for discussion in the House of Representatives,
+and what discussed in their party organ the "American Mercury."
+Daggett accused the Republicans of purposely choosing subjects of
+discussion of an inflammable character, and declared that it was in
+Babcock's paper (so called from its editor) that the Baptist petition
+originated, which, circulated through the state, received some three
+thousand signatures, "many of whom doubtless sought the public good."
+[202] The petition was presented for trial in 1802 and a day set for
+its hearing, upon which Mr. Pierpont Edwards and Mr. Gideon Granger
+were to advocate it. The gentlemen, according to Mr.  Daggett's
+account, did not appear, and of course no trial was held. Instead, the
+Assembly referred it to a committee of eighteen from the two
+houses. Mr. Daggett insisted that "it was thoroughly canvassed, and
+every gentleman professed himself entirely satisfied that there was no
+ground of complaint which the Legislature could remove, except John
+T. Peters, Esq., who declared that nothing short of an entire repeal
+of the law for the support of religion would accord with his idea."
+
+The truth of the matter was that the committee were chiefly
+Federalists. Mr. Peters was a Republican. In their answer to the
+petition, the committee assumed that it "was an equitable principle,
+that every member of the society should, in some way, contribute to
+the support of religious institutions and so the complaint of those
+who declined to support any such institution was invalid." If there
+was ground for complaint because of sequestration of property for the
+benefit of Presbyterians only, the committee failed to find any such
+cause, and if such existed, the proper channel of appeal was through
+the courts.  All other complaints in the petition were considered to
+be answered by the assumption that the legislature had the right, on
+the ground of utility, to compel contributions for the support of
+religion, schools, and courts, whether or not every individual
+taxpayer had need of them. The next year, 1803, the petition gained a
+hearing, but that was all. It continued to be presented at every
+session of the Assembly, and was first heard by both houses in
+1815. It was finally withdrawn at the session that passed the bill for
+the new constitution of 1818.
+
+As one of the preliminary steps in the education of the people in
+Republican principles and aims, John Strong of Norwich in 1804 founded
+the "True Republican," thus giving a second paper for the
+dissemination of Republican opinions. From 1792 the "Phenix or Windham
+Herald" had been dealing telling blows at the Establishment and at the
+courts of law through a discussion in its columns carried on by Judge
+Swift, the inveterate foe of the union of Church and State, and a
+lawyer, frank to avow that partiality existed in the administration of
+justice.  Though both the paper and the judge were strongly Federal in
+their politics, they were both materially helping the Republican
+advocates of reform. From the Windham press came, also, a
+republication of "A Review of the Ecclesiastical Establishments of
+Europe," edited by R. Huntington, with special reference to the
+bearing of its arguments upon the conditions existing in Connecticut,
+where illustration could be found of the absurdities and dangers that
+the book had been originally written to expose. In 1803 John Leland,
+representing forty-two Baptist clergymen, twenty licensed exhorters,
+four thousand communicants, and twenty thousand attendants, sent out
+another plea for disestablishment in his "Van Tromp lowering his Peak
+with a Broadside, containing a Plea for the Baptists of Connecticut."
+In it he urges that thirteen states have already granted religious
+liberty, and that many of them have formed newer constitutions since
+the Revolution. Such should also be the case in Connecticut. Moreover,
+it could readily be accomplished at the small cost of five cents per
+man. Such a small sum would pay the expenses of a convention to
+formulate a constitution and another to ratify it, while five cents
+more per person would furnish every citizen with a copy of the
+proposed document, so that each could decide for himself upon the
+constitutionality of any measure proposed, and would no longer be
+obliged to read pamphlet after pamphlet or column after column in the
+newspaper to determine its validity. [203]
+
+All this was preparatory; and the first purely political note of
+warning and call to battle for a new constitution was sounded by
+Abraham Bishop at Hartford, May 11, 1804, in his "Oration in Honor of
+the Election of President Jefferson and the peaceful acquisition of
+Louisiana." He sums up the situation thus:--
+
+    Connecticut has no Constitution. On the day independence was
+    declared, the old charter of Charles II became null and void. It
+    was derived from royal authority, and went down with royal
+    authority. Then, the people ought to have met in convention and
+    framed a Constitution. But the General Assembly interposed,
+    usurped the rights of the people, and enacted that the government
+    provided for in the charter should he the civil constitution of
+    the State. Thus all the abuses inflicted on us when subjects of a
+    crown, were fastened on us anew when we became citizens of a free
+    republic. We still live under the old jumble of legislative,
+    executive and judicial powers, called a Charter. We still suffer
+    from the old restrictions on the right to vote; we are still ruled
+    by the whims of seven men.  Twelve make the council. Seven form a
+    majority, and in the hands of these seven are all powers,
+    legislative, executive and judicial. Without their leave no law
+    can pass; no law can be repealed. On them more than half of the
+    House of the Assembly is dependent for re-appointments as
+    justices, judges, or for promotion in the militia. By their breath
+    are, each year, brought into official life six judges of the
+    Superior Court, twenty-eight of the probate, forty of county
+    courts, and five hundred and ten justices of the peace, and, as
+    often as they please, all the sheriffs. Not only do they make
+    laws, but they plead before justices of their own appointment, and
+    as a Court of Errors interpret the laws of their own making. Is
+    this a Constitution? Is this an instrument of government for
+    freemen? And who may be freemen? No one who does not have a
+    freehold estate worth seven dollars a year, or a personal estate
+    on the tax list of one hundred and thirty-four dollars.... For
+    these evils there is but one remedy, and this remedy we demand
+    shall be applied. _We demand a constitution that shall separate
+    the legislative, executive and judicial power, extend the
+    freeman's oath to men who labor on highways, who serve in the
+    militia, who pay small taxes, but possess no estates._ [204]
+
+Abraham Bishop threw down the gauntlet, and in the following July his
+party issued a circular letter. It emanated from the Republican
+General Committee, of which Pierpont Edwards was chairman. It stated
+"that many very respectable Republicans are of the opinion that it is
+high time to speak to the citizens of Connecticut plainly and
+explicitly on the subject of forming a constitution; but this ought
+not to be done without the approbation of the party."  A general
+meeting was proposed to be held in New Haven on August 29, 1804. In
+response, ninety-seven towns sent Republican delegates to assemble at
+the state house in New Haven on that date. Major William Judd of
+Farmington was chosen chairman. The meeting was held with closed
+doors, and a series of resolutions was passed in favor of adopting a
+new constitution. It was declared "the unanimous opinion of this
+meeting that the people of this state are at present without a
+constitution of civil government," and "that it is expedient to take
+measures preparatory to the formation of the Constitution and that a
+committee be appointed to draft an Address to the People of this State
+on that subject." The address reported by this committee was printed
+in New Haven on a small half-sheet with double columns, and ten
+thousand copies were ordered distributed through the state.
+
+The issue was fairly before the people. From the Federal side, just
+before the September elections, came David Daggett's "Count the Cost,"
+in which he ably reviewed the Republican manifesto, impugning the
+motives of the leaders of the Republican party, and eloquently urging
+every friend of the Standing Order and every freeman to "count the
+cost" before voting with the Republicans for the proposed reform.
+
+The fall election of 1804 was lost to the Republicans, for while they
+made many gains here and there throughout the state, [q] the immediate
+slight access to the Federal ranks showed that the people generally
+were not yet ready for a constitutional change.
+
+As one result of the defeat at the polls, there arose a wider sympathy
+for the defeated party.  When the legislature met in October, the
+Federal leaders resolved to administer punishment to the defeated
+Republicans. So strong was the popular feeling, and so determined the
+attitude of the legislature, that it summoned before it all five of
+the justices of the peace [r] who had attended the New Haven
+convention of August 29, to show why they did not deserve to be
+deprived of their commissions. Their oath of office ran "to be true
+and faithful to the Governor and Company of this state, and the
+Constitution and government thereof." What right, the Federals asked,
+had they to attack a constitution they had sworn to uphold? At the
+same time, several of the militia, known to be of Republican
+sympathies, were also deposed or superseded.  Mr. Pierpont Edwards was
+allowed to make the defense for the justices. Mr. Daggett appeared for
+the state. Reviewing the proceedings of the Republican meeting,
+Mr. Daggett traced the history of the government of the colony and
+state in order to demonstrate that the charter was peculiarly a
+constitution of the people, "_made by the people_ and in a sense
+not applicable to any other people." He declared the New Haven
+"address" an outrage upon decency, and it to be the duty of the
+Assembly to withdraw their commissions from men who questioned the
+existence of the constitution under which they held them. The day
+after the hearing, a bill to revoke the commissions was passed
+unanimously by the governor and council, and by a majority of eleven
+in the Lower House, the vote standing 67 yeas to 56 nays. This attempt
+to stifle public opinion won a general acknowledgment that the
+minority were oppressed.  The feeling of sympathy thus roused was
+increased by the death of Major Judd, who had been taken ill after his
+arrival in New Haven.  His partisans asserted that his death was
+caused by his efforts to save himself and friends, and his consequent
+obligation to appear at the trial when really too ill to be about. The
+day after his death, the Republicans published and distributed
+broadcast his "Address to the people of the State of Connecticut on
+the subject of the removal of himself and four other justices from
+office."
+
+From this time forward the minority thoroughly realized that it was
+"not a matter of talking down but of voting down their opponents."
+Their leaders also understood it. Bishop entered the lists, not only
+against his political antagonist David Daggett, but against such men
+as Professor Silliman, Simeon Baldwin, Noah Webster, Theodore Dwight,
+and against the clergy, led by President Dwight, Simon Backus, Isaac
+Lewis, John Evans, and a host of secondary men who turned their
+pulpits into lecture desks and the public fasts and feasts into
+electioneering occasions. Their general plea was that religion
+preserved the morals of the people, and consequently their civil
+prosperity, and hence the need for state support. Occasionally one
+would insist that it was a matter of conscience with the Presbyterians
+which made them enforce ecclesiastical taxes and fines, and that all
+had been given the dissenters that could be; that the Presbyterians
+had "yielded every privilege they themselves enjoyed and subjected
+them (the dissenters) to no inconvenience, not absolutely
+indispensable to the countenance of the practice" (of dissent). David
+Daggett maintained that there was a just and wide-spread alarm lest
+the Republicans should undermine all religion, and therefore it
+behooved all the friends of stable government to support the Standing
+Order.
+
+The Republicans vigorously contested the elections of 1804,1805, and
+1806. Their second general convention, that of August, 1806, at
+Litchfield, was more outspoken in its criticism, and so much bolder in
+its demands that many conservative people hesitated to follow its
+programme. The Republican gains were so small that after 1806 there
+was a lull in the agitation for constitutional reform for some
+years. It was well understood that the religious establishment was the
+greatest clog upon the government. It was also thoroughly understood
+by many that its destruction meant the destruction of the Federal
+party in Connecticut. Consequently the Federal patronage distributed
+the several thousand offices within the gift of Church and State with
+a "liberality equalled only by the fidelity with which they were paid
+for." So firm was the Federal control over the state that even in 1804
+they risked antagonizing the Episcopalians by again refusing to
+charter the Cheshire Academy as a college with authority to confer
+degrees in art, divinity, and law. In the face of a strong protest, it
+was refused again in 1810. The House approved this last petition, but
+the Council rejected it. Naturally, the Episcopalians felt still more
+aggrieved when in 1812 the charter was once more refused; but still
+they did not desert the Federal party. The latter clung to the spoils
+of office for their partisans, to the old restrictive franchise, and
+to the obnoxious Stand-up Law, nor were they less disdainful of the
+dissenters and of the Republican minority.
+
+Yet many of their best men had come to feel that there was wrong and
+injustice done the minority; that there should be a stop put to the
+open ignoring of Democratic lawyers, numbering in their ranks many men
+of wide learning and of great practical ability; that the spectacle of
+a Federal state-attorney prosecuting Republican editors was not
+edifying, and that the imprisonment of such offenders and their trial
+before a hostile judiciary opened that branch of the state government
+to damaging and dangerous suspicion.  [205]
+
+In July, 1812, a meeting was called in Judge Baldwin's office in New
+Haven, with President Dwight in the chair, to organize a Society for
+the Suppression of Vice and the Promotion of Good Morals. At this
+meeting the political situation was thoroughly discussed, and measures
+were taken to cope with it.
+
+I am persuaded [wrote the Rev. Lyman Beecher to Rev. Asahel Hooker in
+the following November] that the time has come when it becomes every
+friend of the State to wake up and exert his whole influence to save
+it from innovation.... That the effort to supplant Governor Smith [s]
+will be made is certain unless at an early stage the noise of rising
+opposition will be so great as to deter them; and if it is made, a
+separation is made in the Federal party and a coalition with
+Democracy, which will in my opinion be permanent, unless the overthrow
+by the election should throw them into despair or inspire repentance.
+
+If we stand idle we lose our habits and institutions piecemeal, as
+fast as innovations and ambitions shall dare to urge on the work.
+
+My request is that you will see Mr. Theodore Dwight, expressing to him
+your views on the subject, ... and that you will in your region touch
+every spring, _lay_ or clerical, which you can touch prudently,
+that these men do not steal a march upon us, and that the rising
+opposition may meet them early, before they have gathered
+strength. Every blow struck now will have double the effect it will
+after the parties are formed and the lines drawn. I hope we shall not
+act independently, but I hope we shall all act, who fear God or regard
+men. [206]
+
+Writing of the meeting to organize the Society for the Suppression of
+Vice and the Formation of Good Morals, Dr. Beecher in his
+"Autobiography" gives a sketch of the politics of the time that had
+led up to the occasion. One of the prominent actors of the time, he
+tells us that this meeting, composed of prominent Federalists of all
+classes, was unusual, for--
+
+    it was a new thing in that day for the clergy and laymen to meet
+    on the same level and co-operate. It was the first time there had
+    ever been such a consultation in our day. The ministers had always
+    managed things themselves, for in those days the ministers were
+    all politicians. They had always been used to it from the
+    beginning.... On election day they had a festival, and, fact is,
+    when they got together they would talk over who should be
+    Governor, and who Lieutenant-Governor, and who in the Upper House,
+    and their councils would prevail. Now it was a part of the old
+    steady habits of the state ... that the Lieutenant-Governor should
+    succeed to the governorship. And it was the breaking up of this
+    custom by the civilians, against the influence of the clergy, that
+    first shook the stability of the Standing Order and the Federal
+    party in the state. Lieutenant Governor Treadwell (1810) was a
+    stiff man, and the time had come when many nlen did not like that
+    sort of thing.  He had been active in the enforcement of the
+    Sabbath laws, and had brought on himself the odium of the opposing
+    party. Hence of the civilians of our party, David Daggett and
+    other wire-pullers, worked to have him superseded, and Roger
+    Griswold, the ablest man in Congress, put in his stead. That was
+    rank rebellion against the ministerial candidate. But Daggett
+    controlled the whole of Fairfleld County bar, and Griswold was a
+    favorite with the lawyers, and the Democrats helped them because
+    they saw how it would work; so there was no election by the
+    people, and Treadwell was acting Governor till 1811, when Griswold
+    was chosen. The lawyers, in talking about it, said: "We have
+    served the clergy long enough; we must take another man, and they
+    must look out for themselves." Throwing Treadwell over in 1811
+    broke the charm and divided the party; persons of third-rate
+    ability on our side who wanted to be somebody deserted; all the
+    infidels in the state had long been leading on that side ... minor
+    sects had swollen and complained of certificates. Our efforts to
+    reform morals by law were unpopular. [t]
+
+Finally the Episcopalians went over to the Democrats.  The Episcopal
+split was due to a foolish and arbitrary proceeding on the part of the
+Federals.  In the spring of 1814, a petition was presented to the
+General Assembly for the incorporation of the Phoanix Bank of
+Hartford, offering "in conformity to the precedents in other states,
+to pay for the privilege of the incorporation herein prayed for, the
+sum of sixty thousand dollars to be collected (being a Premium to be
+advanced by the stockholders) as fast as the successive instalments of
+the capital stock shall be paid in; and to be appropriated, if in the
+opinion of your Honors it shall be deemed expedient, in such
+proportion as shall by your Honors be thought proper, to the use of
+the Corporation of Yale College, of the Medical Institution,
+established in the city of New Haven, and to the corporation of the
+Trustees of the Fund of the Bishop of the Episcopal church in this
+state, or for any purpose whatever, which to your Honors may seem
+best."  The capital asked for was $1,500,000. "The purpose of this
+offer [u] a was a double one,--creating an interest in favor of the
+Bank Charter among Episcopalians and retaining their influence on the
+side of the Charter Government, as there was no inconsiderable amount
+of talent among them." The Bishop's Fund, slowly gathering since 1799,
+amounted to barely $6000. This bonus would give it a good start, and
+conciliate the Episcopalians, still indignant at the refusal of the
+Assembly to incorporate their college. When presented to the Assembly,
+the Lower House favored the bank charter; the Council, rejecting it,
+appointed a committee to consider its request. They soon originated an
+act of incorporation, granting a capital of $1,000,000, and ordered
+the bonus to be paid into the treasury. An act of incorporation,
+rather than a petition, was, they claimed, the way established by
+custom of granting bank charters.  The same session of the legislature
+originated bills giving $20,000 to the Medical Institution of Yale
+College, and one of the same amount to the Bishop's Fund, "in
+conformity to the offer of the petitioners for the Phœnix Bank, and
+out of the first moneys received from it as a bonus."  The bill for
+the medical school was passed unanimously by the House; that for the
+Bishop's Fund uniformly voted down. [v] The Episcopalians, to whom the
+Republicans were quick to offer their sympathy, asserted that by the
+"grant to Yale the legislature had _committed themselves in good
+faith_ to make the grant to the two other corporations connected
+with it in the same petition." [w] Stripped of formal and courteous
+wording, the petition, both in letter and in spirit, had offered its
+conditions to all, if accepted by one; or, if refused at all, the
+opportunity to divert the money from all three recipients to some
+other and quite different use which should be approved by the
+legislature.
+
+The further bad faith of both branches of the Assembly increased the
+enmity of the Episcopalians. In the spring of 1815, they petitioned
+for their first installment of $10,000. They were told that the
+treasury was empty, and that war time was no time to attend to such
+matters. In the fall, in answer to their second petition, they found
+the Lower House still hostile; the majority of the Council, including
+the governor, in their favor, until the discussion came up, when the
+Council, with one exception, sided with the House. The explanation of
+the change appeared to the Episcopalians to be due to the fact that
+during the session the Medical School had petitioned for the balance
+of the $30,000, and seemed likely to receive it at the spring
+meeting. This was too much for the Episcopalians, and thereafter the
+Democrats claimed nine tenths of their vote. The sect was estimated in
+1816 to contain from one eleventh to one thirteenth of the
+population. The Democratic-Republicans had won over discontented
+radicals, a majority of the dissatisfied dissenters, a few
+conservatives, and now the indignant Episcopalians. Their political
+hopes rose higher, but the War of 1812-1814 interfered, substituting
+national interests for local ones, yet all the while adding recruits
+to the Republican ranks, so that at its close there was a strong
+party. There was also a Federal faction in process of
+disintegration. The result was that when the constitutional reform
+movement again became the issue of the day, though supported by the
+Republicans, the question at issue soon drew to itself a new political
+combine which under various forms kept the name of the Toleration
+Party, and which eventually won the victory for religious freedom and
+disestablishment.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] This party, called for short "Republican," stood for the
+principles known as "democratic,"--the appellation of the party itself
+since 1828. This was the school of Jefferson.
+
+[b] There were men of mark among the Anti-Federalist leaders, such as
+William Williams of Lebanon, a signer of the Declaration, Gen. James
+Wadsworth of Durham, and Gen.  Erastus Wolcott of East Windsor,--these
+three were members of the Council; Dr. Benjamin Gale of Killingworth,
+Joseph Hopkins, Esq., of Waterbury, Col. Peter Bulkley of Colchester,
+Col. William Worthington of Saybrook, and Capt.  Abraham Granger of
+Suffield. At the ratification of the Constitntution the Tote stood 128
+to 40. Afterwards for about ten years, in the conduct of state
+politics, there was little friction, for in local matters the
+Anti-Federalists were generally conservatives."
+
+[c] Two deputies were allowed every town rated at $60,000.  In 1785
+Oliver Ellsworth had prepared a bill limiting towns of £20,000 or
+under to one deputy. It passed the Senate, but was defeated in the
+House.--_The Constitution of Connecticut_, 1901, State Series,
+p. 105.
+
+[d] In his pamphlet Dr. Gale advises that each town nominate one man,
+and from the nominations in each county, the General Assembly elect
+two, four or six delegates from each county to meet and frame a new
+constitution, since "any legislature is too numerous a body, and too
+unskilled in the science of government to properly perform such a
+task" (p. 29).--J. Hammond Trumbull, _Hist. Notes on the
+Constitution of Conn._, p. 17, and Wolcott's Manuscript in
+_Mass. Hist. Soc. Col._ vol. iv.
+
+[e] A similar method of election applied to the representatives in
+Congress. Eighteen names were voted on in May for nomination, of which
+the seven highest were listed for election in September.
+
+[f] Bishop Seabury's church, St. James of New London, had neglected to
+ohserve President Washington's proclamation of a national thanksgiving
+on February 19, 1795, which fell in Lent. This roused some antagonism,
+and was made the subject of a sharp and rather censorious newspaper
+attack upon the Episcopalians. At the same time a few Federal
+Congregationalists were further stirred by Bishop Seabury's signature,
+viz. "Samuel, Bishop of Connecticut and Rhode Island," to a
+proclamation that the prelate had issued, urging a contribution in
+behalf of the Algerine captives. This signature was regarded as a
+"pompous expression of priestly pride." Governor Huntington was a
+personal friend of Bishop Seabury. Moreover, at this particular time,
+the congregation to which the Governor belonged in Norwich was
+worshiping in the Episcopal church during the rebuilding of their own
+meeting-house, which had been destroyed by fire. The Governor had
+previously been approached with a suggestion that the fasts and feasts
+of the Congregationalists and Episcopalians should be made to
+coincide, or at least that the annual fast day should not be appointed
+for any time between Easter Week and Trinity Sunday, and that the
+public thanksgivings, when occasion required them, should, if
+possible, not be appointed during Lent. In 1795, the annual fast day
+would have fallen upon the Thursday in Holy Week. In order to avoid
+laying any stress upon the sanctity of certain days of the week, and
+because Governor Huntington wished to turn the public mind away from
+the petty controversy, he appointed the fast day on Good Friday. In
+1796, the annual fast fell in the Lenten season. In 1797, in order to
+avoid having the fast interfere with the regular sessions of the
+County Courts, and at the same time to avoid its falling in Easter
+week, Governor Trumbull appointed it again on Good Friday. The
+arrangement was accepted with satisfaction by the Episcopalians and
+with no objections from the Congregationalists, and thereafter it
+became the custom. (Bishop Seabury had been elected to the bishopric
+of Rhode Island in 1790.)--William DeLoss Love, Jr., _Fasts and
+Thanksgivings of New England_, pp. 346-361.
+
+[g] Early in his career he had written a versification of the Psalms,
+in 1788 his _Conquest of Canaan_, and later _Triumph of
+Infidelity_. President Dwight taught the seniors rhetoric, logic,
+ethics, and metaphysics, and the graduate students in theology.  In
+1805 he was appointed to the professorship of the latter study.
+
+[h] Dr. Dwight's _Theology Explained_ was not published until
+1818, after his death, and his _Travels_ not until 1821-22.
+
+[i] Except among the backwoodsmen of Kentucky in 1799-1803.
+
+[j] The Society was granted a charter in 1802. In 1797 interest in the
+missions was intensified by the free distribution of seventeen hundred
+copies of the report of missionary work in England and America.
+
+[k] The Rev. Jedidiah Champion of Lifcchfield, an ardent Federalist,
+on the Sunday following the news of the election of Adams and
+Jefferson, prayed fervently for the president-elect, closing with the
+words, "0 Lord! wilt Thou bestow upon the Vice-President a double
+portion of Thy grace, _for Thou knowest he needs it._" This was
+mild, for Jefferson was considered by the New England clergy to be
+almost the equal of Napoleon, whom one of them named the "Scourge of
+God."
+
+[l] Pierpont Edwards, b. April 8, 1750, graduated at Princeton, 1768,
+died April 5, 1826.
+
+Timothy Dwight, b. May 14, 1752, died January 11, 1817.
+
+Aaron Burr, b. February 6, 1756, Vice-President 1801-05, died
+September 14, 1836.
+
+Theodore Dwight, b. December 15, 1754, educated for the law under
+Pierpont Edwards, and practiced it for a time in New York city with
+his cousin, Aaron Burr. He broke the partnership because of difference
+in politics, and went to Hartford. He became a member of the
+governor's council, 1809-1815; secretary of the Hartford Convention,
+1814. He established the _Connecticut Mirror_ in 1809; founded
+and conducted the _Albany Daily Advertiser_, 1815-16, and the
+_Daily Advocate_, New York, 1816-36. He died June 12, 1846.
+
+[m] The crimes against religion punishable by law were Blasphemy (by
+whipping, fine, or imprisonment); Atheism, Polytheism, Unitarianism,
+Apostaey (by loss of employment, whether ecclesiastical, civil, or
+military, for the first offense).--_Swift's System of Law_, ii,
+320, 321.
+
+[n] _Oration delivered in Wallingford on the eleventh of March 1801,
+before the Republicans of the State of Connecticut at the General
+Thanksgiving for the election of Thomas Jefferson to the Presidency,
+and of Aaron Burr to the Vice-Presidency, of the United States of
+America 1801._
+
+See the appendix to the Oration for an account of the New Haven
+episode.
+
+[o] "Connecticutensis," or David Daggett, also replied in _Three
+Letters to Abraham Bishop._ Theodore Dwight's _Oration at New
+Haven before the Society of the Cincinnati, July 7, 1801,_ took up
+the constitutionality of the charter government.
+
+[p] Later chief justice.
+
+[q] Windham County was steadily Republican after this election.
+
+[r] Major William Judd of Farmington, Jabez H. Tomlinson of Stratford,
+Augur Judson of Huntington, Hezekiah Goodrich of Chatham, and
+Nathaniel Manning of Windham.
+
+[s] Federalist.
+
+[t] To preserve our institutions and reform public morals, to bring
+back the keeping of the Sabbath was our aim ... We tried to do it by
+resuscitating and enforcing the law (That was our mistake, but we did
+not know it then.) and wherever I went I pushed that thing; Bear up
+the laws--execute the laws.... We took hold of it in the Association
+at Fairfield, June, 1814, ... recommending among other things a
+petition to Congress." (_Autobiography_, i, 268.) At this meeting
+originated the famous petition against Sunday mail.
+
+Dr. Beeeher urged a domestic missionary society to build up waste
+places in Connecticut. His sermon "Reformation of Morals practicable
+and desirable" warned against "profane and profligate men of corrupt
+minds and to every good work reprobate."
+
+[u] Judge Church.
+
+[v] The final speech in favor of the bill was made by Nathan Smith, a
+lawyer of New Haven. When he had finished his eloquent setting forth
+of the benefits and dangers attendant upon passing the bill, there was
+an unusual and solemn silence.  Dr. Gillett says if the bill had been
+promptly put to vote it would probably have been passed, but the
+churchlike silence was broken by a shrill voice piping forth,
+"Mr. Speaker, Mr.  Speaker, what shall we sing?" The laughter which
+followed broke the orator's charm and sealed the fate of the bill.
+
+[w] See _Columbian Register_ of June 17, 1820, for a full
+account of the Bishop's Fund and the final award of the bonus.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+DISESTABLISHMENT
+
+
+    No distinction shall I make between Trojan and Tyrian.
+
+The Federal grip upon Connecticut, one of the last strongholds of that
+party, was weakening.  Preceding the deflection of the Episcopalians
+in Connecticut, there had been throughout New England a strong Federal
+opposition to the national government and its commands during the War
+of 1812. Such conduct had shattered party prestige, and when its
+opposition culminated in the Hartford Convention of 1814, it wrote its
+own death-warrant. The Republicans, on the contrary, had dropped local
+questions of constitutional reform and religious liberty, preferring
+to bend all their energies to the support of the general
+government. When as a national party they humbled England and brought
+the war to a victorious close, the contrast of their loyalty to state
+and national interests steadily drew the popular favor. In the era of
+good feeling and prosperity that followed, the great national
+political parties dissolved somewhat and crystallized anew. In
+Connecticut a similar change took place in local politics. In the
+years immediately following the war, the Democratic-Republicans, the
+majority of the dissenters, and the dissatisfied among the
+Federalists, formed different coalitions that, under the general name
+of Toleration, [a] opposed the Standing Order. In 1816 the agitation
+for constitutional reform was revived, and after three years resulted
+in the overthrow of the Federalists and the triumph of a peaceful
+revolution whereby religious liberty was assured.
+
+The conduct of the Federal party, both within and without Connecticut
+from 1808 to 1815, was quite as much the real cause of their downfall
+in the state as that coalition between clergy and lawyers described by
+Dr. Beecher as causing the breakdown of party machinery and its
+ultimate ruin. Glancing somewhat hastily at some of the most
+far-reaching acts of the Federalists, we find first the Federal
+opposition to the embargo that from December 22, 1807, for over a year
+paralyzed New England commerce. In February, 1809, John Quincy Adams,
+who had recently resigned the Massachusetts senatorship because of his
+unpopular support of the embargo, informed President Jefferson that
+the measure could no longer be enforced. He assured the President that
+the New England Federalist leaders, privily encouraged by England,
+were preparing to break that section off from the union of the states
+if the embargo were not speedily repealed. This information, whether
+accurate or not, so influenced the President and his advisers that the
+Non-intercourse Act, applying only to France and England, replaced the
+embargo, whose repeal took effect from March 4, 1809. In the following
+December, Madison's administration (in the belief that France had
+withdrawn her hostile decrees) limited non-intercourse to England
+alone, after having vainly urged upon her a repeal of her Orders in
+Council. With the embargo lifted, New England commerce revived, and
+Connecticut seamen, Connecticut farmers, [b] Connecticut merchants,
+together with artisans of all the allied industries that were called
+upon in the fitting out of ships and cargoes, enjoyed two years of
+prosperity.  The period was given over to money-getting, and the
+ordinary rules of national or commercial honesty were flung to the
+winds. Napoleon sold licenses to British vessels to supply his
+famishing soldiers stationed in continental ports, while forged
+American and British papers were openly sold in London. So enormous
+were the profits of a successful voyage that the possibility of
+capture only added zest to the American ventures and contributed not a
+little to the daring of the privateers in the years of the war. So
+enriched was the state that by May, 1811, Connecticut had so far
+recovered from her late financial distress that the "state owed no
+debt and every tax was paid," while her exports were: domestic,
+$994,216; foreign, $38,138, or a total of $1,032,354.
+
+The ninety days' embargo of 1812, the declaration of war (June
+18,1812), and the patrolling of Long Island Sound by a British fleet,
+brought such desolation to Connecticut that ships again lay rotting at
+the wharves, ropewalks and warehouses were deserted, cargoes were
+without carriers, and seamen were either scattered or idling about, a
+constant menace to the public peace.  National taxes to support a
+detested war were laid upon the people at a time when their incomes
+were ceasing, and their homes and property were laid bare to a
+plundering enemy. "A nation without fleets, without armies, with an
+impoverished treasury, with a frontier by sea and land extending many
+hundreds of miles, feebly defended" by fortifications old and
+neglected, had rushed headlong into war with the strongest nation of
+the earth without "counting the cost."  Such was the opinion of the
+Federalists everywhere and, at first, of the large wing of the
+Republican party who preferred peace. The Federalists of Connecticut,
+when they saw a small majority sweep the nation into the conflict with
+Great Britain, believed the war threatened liberty of speech. They
+feared military despotism, when the general government demanded the
+control of the militia; and that the war would prostrate" their civil
+and religious institutions by increasing taxation and loss of income."
+[c] They feared "national dismemberment" when the war measures,
+together with the presence of the British fleet blockading the coast,
+alternately angered the people almost to rebellion against an
+apparently indifferent central government, or drove them into plans
+for self-defense. Much of the opposition in New England is in part
+accounted for by the rebound towards Federalism which the declaration
+of the war caused, and by the belief that the national election of
+1812 would be a Federal victory. Though it turned out to be a defeat,
+it consolidated and so strengthened that party in New England that
+before the close of 1813 all the state executives were Federalists and
+were arrayed against the administration. The Republicans kept their
+hold upon the minority, partly by the diversion of the capital, thrown
+out of the carrying trade, into privateer ventures, war supplies, and
+manufactures.
+
+At the beginning of the war, Governor Griswold, of Connecticut, backed
+by both houses of the legislature, joined with Governor Strong of
+Massachusetts (supported only by the House of Representatives) in a
+refusal to place the militia under regular officers of the United
+States army. They refused also to allow the quotas called for by
+General Dearborn (under the Act of Congress of April 10, 1812), for
+the expedition against Canada, to leave the state. These executives
+claimed that the troops were not needed to execute the laws of the
+United States, to suppress insurrection, or to repel invasion,--the
+only three constitutional reasons giving the President the right to
+consider himself "commander in chief of the militia of the several
+states." [207] By taking such a stand, the state governors assumed to
+decide whether a necessity existed that gave the President his
+constitutional right to call out the militia. Mr. Henry Cabot Lodge,
+in his "Memoir of Governor Strong," exonerates that executive by
+pleading his intense convictions of duty, his loyal patriotism, and
+his later efficient aid [d] in defending the eastern coast of the
+state.  Mr. Lodge reminds his reader that the governor's position was
+supported by the best lawyers, whom he had been at great pains to
+consult concerning state and federal rights, which, at that period,
+had not been so carefully examined and discriminated between as
+since. The same pleas may be urged for Governors Griswold [e] and
+Smith. The Connecticut legislature immediately passed an act for
+raising twenty-six hundred men for state defense under state
+officers. Governor Griswold's successor, Gov. J. Cotton Smith, when
+Decatur was blockaded in the Thames, when the descent upon Saybrook
+was made, at the attack upon Stonington, and during those months when
+the enemy hovered upon the long exposed coast line, kept a large force
+of militia ready for duty.  The state supported these troops, for, in
+the wrangle over officership, the national government refused the
+promised supplies.
+
+The New England Federalists soon found seven great reasons for party
+action. They were the uncertain success of the war by land; the great
+commercial distress; [f] the possession by the enemy of a large part
+of Maine; the publication of the terms upon which England would grant
+peace; [g] the proposed legislation in the fall of 1814, providing for
+the increase of the United States army by draft or conscription; the
+proposed modified form of impressment of sailors; and the bill
+allowing army officers to enlist minors and apprentices over eighteen
+years of age, with or without consent of parents or guardians. [h]
+These measures drove the New England Federalists, at the call of
+Massachusetts, to the formation of the Hartford Convention. The
+Connecticut legislature approved the sending of delegates by a vote of
+153 to 36 opposed. Massachusetts and Rhode Island answered with like
+enthusiasm.  New Hampshire and Vermont hesitated, but the counties of
+Cheshire and Grafton in the former state and of Windham in the latter
+sent each a delegate to the convention. Rhode Island sent four
+delegates and Massachusetts twelve, of whom George Cabot was elected
+president of the convention. Connecticut furnished the secretary of
+the convention, and later its historian in Theodore Dwight of
+Hartford. She also sent seven other delegates, namely: Chauncey
+Goodrich, mayor of Hartford, and from 1814 to 1815 governor of the
+state; John Treadwell, ex-governor; James Hillhouse, who had served as
+United States representative and senator; Zephaniah Swift, United
+States representative and later chief judge of superior court of
+Connecticut; Calvin Goddard, United States representative; Nathaniel
+Smith, United States representative and later judge of the supreme
+court; and Roger Minot Sherman, a distinguished lawyer and member of
+the state legislature. All the delegates to the Hartford Convention
+were men of high character, and most of them well-known leaders of the
+Federal party. The convention lasted for three weeks, and, as its
+sessions were conducted with the greatest secrecy, many prejudicial
+rumors and surmises arose. The Massachusetts summons had bidden the
+delegates convene for measures of safety "not repugnant to our
+obligations as members of the Union," and the convention acknowledged
+that it found the greatest difficulty in "devising means of defense
+against dangers, and of relief from oppressions proceeding from the
+act of their own Government without violating constitutional
+principles or disappointing the hopes of a suffering and injured
+people." The secrecy, the known antagonism to the Administration, the
+knowledge of New England's early disbelief in the cohesive power of
+the Union, and the convention's demands and resolutions, combined to
+give a bad and traitorous reputation to the Hartford Convention that
+has never been absolutely cleared away.
+
+As early as 1796, over the signature "Pelham," there had appeared in
+the "Hartford Courant" a series of articles written with great ability
+and keen foresight as to the difficulties that would arise in making
+any impartial legislation for a nation composed of parts having such
+diverse economic systems as those of the North and the South. The
+articles suggested the development of two nations instead of
+one. During the War of 1812, various suggestions had been thrown out
+by different newspapers enlarging upon the resources of New England
+and hinting at a separate peace with England. There were not a few
+who, upon learning of the resolutions of the convention, felt that
+"Pelham" was a close adviser of its measures if not one of its
+delegates. Public opinion was so wrought up by the assumed disloyalty
+of the Hartford Convention that in 1815 it forced the publication of
+the convention's brief and non-committal "Journal." From it little
+more was learned than that the convention had resolved that the
+different states should take measures to protect themselves against
+draft by the national government, that New England should be allowed
+to defend herself, and for that purpose should have returned to each
+of her states a reasonable share of the national taxes to meet the
+expense of their arming. In addition, each New England state should
+set apart a certain portion of her militia under her governor to give
+aid in cases of extremity should she be called upon by the governor of
+another state. At the close of the convention, delegates were
+appointed to proceed to Washington with these resolutions and also
+with six proposed amendments [i] to the national constitution. These
+demands and resolves were reinforced by the proposal that should the
+Administration refuse to consider the propositions, another convention
+should be held in the following summer to consider further action.
+When the delegates arrived in Washington with the resolutions, of
+which two state legislatures had meantime approved, the news of peace
+had been declared. In the general jubilation they saw fit to leave
+their message undelivered. For years the taint of rebellion clung to
+the Hartford Convention, and forced its secretary, in 1833, to publish
+his "History," a defense of its members and their measures. Even this
+did not remove the stigma. The delegates had in their own communities
+always retained their reputation for high personal character, but
+politically they were irretrievably ruined by their participation in
+the Hartford gathering. They had dealt their party in their states a
+mortal blow, and the Hartford Convention has been well named "the
+grave of the Federal party."
+
+However much the members of the convention swathed their sentiments in
+expressions of allegiance to the Union, at least until extreme
+provocation should force a separation; or however much they declared
+their conviction that peace, not war, should be the time chosen for
+such a separation, and that, first of all, distinction should be
+carefully made between a bad constitution and a bad government, and a
+good constitution or government badly administered, there was no doubt
+but that they proposed to push nullification to the point of active
+resistance within what they considered their legal rights. They had
+also proposed a set of amendments which they knew stood no chance of
+meeting with approval from any number of the states.  Moreover the
+Hartford Convention, whatever its intentions, seriously alarmed and
+embarrassed the Administration. Because of the consequences of their
+policy, its members were culpable in the opinion of all who hold that,
+in the distress of war, to hamper one's own government is to lend
+assistance to the enemy. [j]
+
+The war at first was not popular, but made friends for itself as it
+progressed. Connecticut sailors were among the seamen that England had
+impressed, and Connecticut captains had surrendered ships and rich
+cargoes at the command of the mistress of the seas. But the naval
+triumphs of the first year caught the popular fancy, for "not until
+the Guerriere's colors were struck to the Constitution had a British
+frigate been humiliated on the ocean." The victories on land were
+about equally balanced. The disclosures of English perfidy in
+attempting through her secret agents [k] to detach New England from
+the Union before war should break out, and during the conflict, by
+favoritism to Massachusetts, helped to increase the supporters of the
+war policy.  Further, the war brought out the latent powers of the
+nation, both for defense and for prosperity.  The gradual introduction
+of machinery since 1800 had enlarged the small manufactories of
+Connecticut, and begun the exchange of products between near
+localities. But before the War of 1812 no manufacturing in Connecticut
+had achieved a notable success. [l] There was invention and skill, [m]
+and often profit, in the home market for the coarser products, but
+there was a general tendency to prefer imported goods of finer make.
+The war cut off such supplies, and the need created a paying demand
+and developed an ability to supply it. The political party that
+conducted the war to a successful finish developed the policy of
+protection of infant industries, and the tariff of 1816 gave birth to
+Connecticut as a manufacturing state. The repeal of the obnoxious war
+measures, the speedy reduction of the national expenses, and the
+promise of prosperity smoothed out lingering resentment. The Federal
+party was virtually extinct outside of its last strongholds in New
+England and Delaware. In the Era of Good Feeling following the war the
+whole people composed one party, with principles neither those of the
+original Federal party nor those of the original Republican party, but
+a combination of both." [n]
+
+In New England during the War of 1812, as in the Revolution, the
+clergy had been the nucleus of the local dominant party, and with its
+leaders had been bitter opponents of the "unrighteous war." [208]
+Consequently the Congregational clergy shared in the popular
+disapproval and condemnation that overtook the Federalists. In
+Connecticut, for a time, the Standing Order by its affiliation with
+the Federal party prolonged its control.  of the state. But the tide
+was turning. Dr.  Lyman Beecher, Dr. Dwight's able lieutenant, made
+vigorous and laudable efforts to uphold the Dwights, the Aaron and
+Moses, as it were, of the waning political power. The "Home Missionary
+Society," [o] Bible societies, the "Domestic Missionary Society for
+the Building up of Waste Places," and the many branches of the
+"Society for the Suppression of Vice and Promotion of Good Morals" [p]
+did much good among those who welcomed them. Where their results were
+simply those of a morality enforced by law, they caused still greater
+dissatisfaction with the ruling party. [q] The union of the clergy and
+lawyers was not as influential as had been anticipated in the early
+days of 1812. Soon after the war the clergy adopted a less vigorous
+policy, preferring an attitude of defense against calumny and a
+withdrawal from politics. [r]
+
+The elections showed the change in public opinion. At the April
+election, 1814, the Federals reelected Governor Smith, while the
+Republican candidate, Mr. Edward Boardman, received 1629 votes. The
+following year, notwithstanding Governor Smith's reëlection, Mr.
+Boardman polled 4876 votes, and the Republicans made a gain of twenty
+in the House of Representatives, while in the fall nominations for
+Assistants, the highest Federal vote was 9008 and that of the
+Republicans was 4268. [209]
+
+In January, 1816, "a meeting of citizens from various parts of the
+state" was held in New Haven to agree upon a nomination for governor
+and lieutenant-governor, which would bind together the Republicans and
+such of the Federalists as were opposed to the Standing Order.  Oliver
+Wolcott and Jonathan Ingersll were unanimously agreed upon. Oliver
+Wolcott had been living out of the state for fourteen years, and for
+most of that time had not been in politics. His Republican supporters
+had had time to forget him as a staunch Federalist, and remembered him
+only as a man of parts who had held the secretaryship of the treasury
+under Washington and Adams, and who had "opposed the Hartford
+Convention; like Washington was a friend to the _Union_, a foe to
+rebellion; with mild means resisted bigotry, with a glowing heart
+favored toleration." [210] As he had approved the policy of the
+general government since the days of Madison, he was pronounced an
+available candidate. A good Congregationalist, he would not offend the
+Federalists, would be acceptable to the Republicans, and would stand
+to the capitalists and farmers as favorable to a protective tariff and
+to more equitable taxation within the state. The prestige given him by
+the executive abilities of his father and grandfather in the
+gubernatorial chair also counted in his favor.  The candidate for
+lieutenant-governor was Jonathan Ingersoll, a Federalist, an eminent
+New Haven lawyer, a prominent Episcopalian, senior warden of Trinity
+Church, and chairman of the Bishop's Fund. He had had political
+training in the Council, 1792-1798, and had been judge of the Superior
+Court, 1798-1801, and again from 1811 to 1816. His nomination was the
+price of the Episcopal vote, for "it was deemed expedient by giving
+the Episcopalians a fair opportunity to unite with the Republicans, to
+attempt to affect such change in the Government as should afford some
+prospect of satisfaction to their united demands." [s]
+
+The "Connecticut Herald," indignant at the Assembly's conduct in the
+Phoenix Bank affair, left the Federal party and independently
+nominated Jonathan Ingersoll for lieutenant-governor instead of the
+regular candidate of that party, Chauncey Goodrich. The "American
+Mercury," the organ of the American Toleration party, the union of
+Republicans, dissenters, and dissatisfied, in order "to produce that
+concord and harmony among parties which have too long, and without any
+real diversity of interests, been disturbed, and which every honest
+man must earnestly desire to see restored," nominated for governor,
+Oliver Wolcott; for lieutenant-governor, Jonathan Ingersoll. The
+Federal candidate for the executive was Governor John Cotton Smith, up
+for reëlection. The Tolerationists failed by a few hundred votes to
+seat their candidate for the executive, with the result that the
+election of 1816 raised to office Governor Smith and
+Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll. Governor Smith received 11,589 votes,
+Mr. Wolcott 10,170, while Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll polled a
+majority of 1453 over his opponent, Mr. Calvin Goddard. [t] It was the
+first time that a dissenter had held so high an office. The
+Federalists might have seized the opportunity to renew their former
+friendship with the Episcopalians had it not been for their
+stubbornness and for their old fear of Churchmen in political
+office. At the October town meetings, the returns from ninety-three
+towns gave a Federal vote of 7995 and a Republican of 6315 for
+representatives, with a Federal majority of about thirty in the
+House. [2ll]
+
+The Federalists, realizing that the Episcopal vote was almost lost to
+them, that their domestic policy was in disfavor, and that their
+conduct during the war had damaged them and was leading to their
+downfall in Connecticut even as in the nation, resolved upon a
+desperate measure to conciliate a larger number of the dissenters.
+This was the Act of October, 1816, for the Support of Literature and
+Religion. Briefly, it divided the balance of the money which the
+nation owed Connecticut for expenses during the war, namely $145,000,
+among the various denominations. To the Congregationalists it gave in
+round numbers, and including the grant to Yale, $68,000; to the
+Episcopalians, $20,000; to Methodists, $12,000; and to Baptists,
+$18,000; to Quakers, Sandemanians, etc., nothing. [u] The Quakers were
+assumed to be satisfied with their recent exemptions from military
+duty upon the payment of a small tax; Sandemanians and other
+insignificant sects to be conciliated by the act of the preceding
+April, which repealed, after a duration of nearly one hundred and
+eighty years, the fine of fifty cents for absence from church on
+Sunday.  The people were at last free, not only to worship as they
+chose, but when they chose, or to omit worship. They had yet to obtain
+equal privileges for all denominations, and exemption from enforced
+support of religion.  The passage of the Act for the Support of
+Literature and Religion raised, as the Congregationalists ought to
+have known it would, a violent protest from every dissenter and from
+every political come-outer. Some of the towns in town-meetings opposed
+the bill as unnecessary for the support of schools and clergy; as
+wasteful, when it would be wiser to create a state fund; and as unduly
+favorable to Yale, where the policy was to create an intellectual
+class and not to advance learning and literature among the
+commonalty. At Andover, February 1, 1817, Episcopalians, Baptists, and
+Methodists met together and denounced the act because they disapproved
+of the union of Church and State which it encouraged; because of
+Yale's tendency to bias religion; because they all approved of the
+voluntary support of religion; and because they all scorned such a
+political trick as the bill appeared to them, namely, an attempt to
+win by their acceptance of the money their apparent approval of the
+enforced support of religion.  The Baptist societies in different
+towns met to condemn the measure on the same grounds, and on the
+additional ones that it was unfair to the Quakers, who had no paid
+preachers; to the Universalists, because they were numerically still
+too small to be of political importance; and indeed to many men,
+since, as every man had contributed to the expense of the war, every
+man ought to be rewarded proportionally. The Methodists agreed in all
+these criticisms, and were no more backward in denouncing a measure
+which forced on them money they did not seek, and for a purpose of
+which they disapproved. The Methodist Society of Glastonbury were most
+outspoken, declaring the law--
+
+    incompatible with sound policy and inconsistent with any former
+    act of the legislature of the state; the ultimate consequence of
+    which will prove a lasting curse to vital religion, which every
+    candid and reflecting mind may easily foresee; and we view it as a
+    very bold and desperate effort to effectuate a union between
+    Church and State.... We are induced to believe that Pilate and
+    Herod, and the chief Priests are still against us,... $12,000 to
+    the contrary notwithstanding. Resolved--
+
+    (1) We don't want such reparation for being characterized as an
+    illiterate set of enthusiasts devoid of character; our clergy a
+    set of worthless ramblers, unworthy the protection of our civil
+    laws.
+
+    (2) Pity and contempt for the Legislature should be expressed for
+    bribery.
+
+    (3) We believe the money, if received, would be a lasting curse.
+
+    (4) The measure was intended for politics, not religion, and was
+    a species of Tyranny.
+
+    (5) We should use our best endeavors to have the money used for
+    state expenses.
+
+    (6) Thanks should be sent to the members of the Legislature who
+    had opposed the measure.
+
+All Methodists were further angered by the affront put upon them by
+the General Assembly, which, in spite of their known determination not
+to receive the money, appointed Methodist trustees, of whom a majority
+were Federalists, to receive their share of the appropriation. The
+trustees accepted the money, defending their action on the ground that
+they believed that their claim would become void if they did not draw
+the money, and it might then be put to a worse use. But the Methodist
+societies did not uphold the trustees, and "regretted the committee
+imposed on us by the Legislature of the state." The chairman of the
+committee, the Rev. Augustus Bolles, refused to serve, and the
+societies rejected the money. [v]
+
+As a result of the unwelcome legislation, the Republicans received the
+whole vote of the Methodists for the "Toleration and Reform Ticket" of
+1817, which repeated the nominations of the preceding election. The
+Episcopalians of course favored the reëlection of Lieutenant-Governor
+Ingersoll. One small provocation by the Congregationalists of the
+First Church of New Haven--the attempt to place the odium of expulsion
+upon a member who became an Episcopalian--did not tend to allay
+feeling. The Toleration party were sure of the votes of the more
+feeble dissenters, whose interests they promised to regard, as well as
+of those of the Baptists and of such Federalists as disapproved of the
+high-handed policy of the Standing Order. The Tolerationists were also
+counting upon a steady increase of recruits from the Federal ranks as
+soon as the appreciation of a recent attack by the legislature upon
+the judiciary and its danger should become more and more
+realized. Many such recruits, convinced of the necessity of
+constitutional reform, had gathered at the general meeting of
+Republicans held in New Haven in October, 1816, to make up the ticket
+for the spring election of 1817. The campaign issue was "whether
+freemen shall be tolerated in the free exercise of their religious and
+political rights." It was met by the election of Governor Wolcott with
+a majority of 600 votes over ex-Governor J. Cotton Smith, and by no
+opposition to the reëlection of Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll. [w] At
+the same election many minor Republican officials were seated, and the
+House went Republican by an assured majority of nearly two to one, the
+Senate remaining strongly Federal.
+
+Governor Wolcott's inaugural placed before the Assembly the following
+subjects for consideration: (1) A new system of taxation; for, as the
+governor pointed out, the capitation tax was equivalent to about
+one-sixteenth of the laboring man's income. (2) Judges of the Superior
+Court should hold their office during good behavior instead of by
+annual appointment by the legislature. (3) There should be a complete
+separation of legislative and judicial powers of government. (4)
+Rights of conscience and the voluntary support of religion, though if
+necessary with "laws providing efficient remedies for enforcing the
+voluntary contracts for their [ministers'] support," should be
+considered; and (5) Freedom of suffrage. In concluding, the governor
+urged that "whenever the public mind appears to be considerably
+agitated on these subjects, prudence requires that the legislature
+should revise its measures, and by reasonable explanation or
+modifications of the law, restore public confidence and tranquillity."
+[x]
+
+To consider briefly these various points: Taxes upon mills, machinery,
+and manufactures needed to be light in order to secure their continued
+existence. The necessities of war-time had created a larger market for
+their products, but one that could not be continued after the close of
+the war allowed European products to enter free of duty.  Nor could
+the factories exist if burdened with heavy taxes before the new tariff
+measures of 1816 had revived these depressed industries. In
+agriculture, taxes upon horses, oxen, stock, dairy products, and
+increased areas of tillage handicapped the farmer. Again, the tax upon
+fire-places, rather than upon houses, weighed heavily upon the poor
+and the moderately well-to-do, who built small and inexpensive houses
+with say three fireplaces, while the rich owners of older and more
+pretentious dwellings were often rated for fewer. [y] Money was
+scarce, rich men rare.  So also was great poverty. There was a scanty
+living for the majority. Trades were few, wages low. A farm-hand
+averaged three shillings a day, paid in provisions. Women of all work
+drudged for two shillings and sixpence per week, while a farm overseer
+received a salary of seventy dollars a year. The children of people in
+average circumstances walked barefoot to church, carrying their shoes
+and stockings, which they put on under the shelter of the big tree
+nearest to the meeting-house. Their fathers made one Sunday suit last
+for years. The wealthy had small incomes, though relatively great. It
+was whispered that Pierpont Edwards, the rich and prosperous New Haven
+lawyer, had an income from his law practice of two thousand dollars
+per year.
+
+Points (2) and (3) in the governor's address were prompted by the
+widespread interest created by the action of the legislature in
+October, 1815, when it had set aside the conviction, by a special
+Superior Court at Middletown, of Peter Lung for murder, on the ground
+that the court was irregularly and illegally convened. The chief judge
+was Zephaniah Swift of Windham, author of the "System of Connecticut
+Laws." [z] Judge Swift appealed to the public [aa] to vindicate his
+judicial character from the censure implied by the Assembly's
+action. An ardent Federalist, who in the early days of statehood could
+see no need of a better constitution than he then insisted Connecticut
+possessed through the adoption of her ancient charter, he had long
+opposed the ecclesiastical establishment which that charter upheld. In
+his defense of the constitution he had maintained that "it ought to be
+deemed an inviolable maxim that _when proper courts of law are
+constituted, the legislature are divested of all judicial
+authority_." [2l2] But when the legislature claimed as
+constitutional the right to call to account any court, magistrate, or
+other officer for misdemeanor or mal-administration, [ab] Judge Swift
+admitted the lack of "a written constitution." He further argued that
+the one "made up of usages and customs, had always been understood to
+contain certain fundamental axioms which were held sacred and
+inviolable, and which were the basis on which rested the rights of the
+people." Of these self-evident principles one was that the three
+branches of government--the executive, legislative, and judicial--were
+coordinate and independent, and that the powers of one should never be
+exercised by the other. "It ought to be held as a fundamental axiom,"
+the judge declared, "that _the Legislature should never encroach on
+the jurisdiction of the Judiciary,_ nor assume the province of
+interfering in private rights, nor of overhauling the decisions of the
+courts of law." Otherwise, "the legislature would become one great
+arbitration that would engulf all the courts of law, [ac] and
+_sovereign discretion_ would be 'the only rule of decision,--a
+state of things _equally favorable to lawyers and criminals."_
+[213]
+
+With respect to the fifth point in the governor's address, the right
+of suffrage, the Republicans and their allies demanded its extension
+from householders haying real estate rated at $7 (40s.), or personal
+estate of $134 (£40), to "men who pay small taxes, work on highways,
+or do service in the militia."
+
+In the fall of 1817, the reform party had forced the repeal of the
+obnoxious Stand-Up Law, and it demanded that other restrictive
+measures should be annulled. So bitter was the Federal antagonism in
+the Council that during all the spring session of 1817, the
+Tolerationists loudly complained that every reform measure proposed in
+the House was lost in the Federal Senate. The committees to which
+parts of the governor's speech had been referred for consideration did
+little. That on taxation made a report in the fall recommending that a
+careful investigation of conditions and resources should be made,
+because, as capital sought investment, in banks, manufacturing, and
+various commercial enterprises unknown to the earlier generations,
+[ad] the fairness of the old system of taxation was lapsing. The mixed
+committee, including several Tolerationists and having an Episcopal
+chairman, that was to report upon the religious situation, gave no
+encouragement to dissenters. The spring session allowed one barren act
+to pass, the "Act to secure equal rights, powers, and privileges to
+Christians of all denominations in this state."  It enacted that
+henceforth certificates should be lodged with the _town clerk,_
+and permitted a come-outer to return to the society from which he had
+separated. In the following spring, when an attempt was made to pass a
+bill to supersede this act, it was maintained that the law of 1817
+"did not effect the object or answer the desire of the aggrieved
+party," for it retained the certificate clause and continued to deny
+to dissenters the measure of religious liberty freely accorded to the
+Established churches.
+
+The Tolerationists were determined to carry the elections of 1818. In
+the fall elections of 1817, they again had a majority of nearly two to
+one in the House, and consequently the struggle was for the control of
+the Senate. At the fall meetings, they placed in nomination their
+candidates for senators, and all through the winter they agitated in
+town meetings and in every other way the discussion of their
+"Constitution and Reform Ticket." Party pamphlets were scattered
+throughout the state. One of these, the most in favor, was "The
+Politics of Connecticut: by a Federal Republican" (George H. Richards
+of New London). At the spring elections of 1818, the Constitution and
+Reform Ticket carried the day, seating the reflected governor and
+lieutenant-governor, eight anti-Federal senators, and preserving the
+anti-Federal majority in the House. The political revolution was
+complete, and the preliminary steps towards the construction of a new
+constitution were at once begun. [ae]
+
+The governor's inaugural address specified the main task before the
+Assembly in the following words:--
+
+    As a portion of the people have expressed a desire that the form
+    of civil government in this State should be revised, this highly
+    interesting subject will probably engage your [the Assembly's]
+    deliberations.... Considered merely as an instrument denning the
+    powers and duties of magistrates and rulers, the Charter may
+    justly be considered as unprovisional and imperfect. Yet it ought
+    to be recollected that what is now its greatest defect was
+    formerly a pre-eminent advantage, it being then highly important
+    to the people to acquire the greatest latitude of authority with
+    an exemption from British influence and control.
+
+    If I correctly comprehend the wishes which have been expressed by
+    a portion of our fellow citizens, they are now desirous, as the
+    sources of apprehension from external causes are at present
+    happily closed, that the Legislative, Executive and Judicial
+    authorities of their own government may be more precisely denned
+    and limited, and the rights of the people declared and
+    acknowledged. It is your province to dispose of this important
+    subject in such manner as will best promote general satisfaction
+    and tranquillity.
+
+The House appointed a select committee of five to report upon the
+revision of the form of civil government. The Council appointed
+Hon. Elijah Boardman (Federalist) and Hon. William Bristol
+(Tolerationist) to act as joint committee with several gentlemen
+selected by the House. The joint committee reported that "the present
+was a period peculiarly auspicious for carrying into effect the wishes
+of our fellow-citizens,--the general desire for a revision and
+reformation of the structure of our civil government and the
+establishment of a Constitutional Compact" and "that the organization
+of the different branches of government, the separation of their
+powers,the tenure of office, the elective franchise, liberty of speech
+and of the press, freedom of conscience, trial by jury, rights which
+relate to these deeply interesting subjects, ought not to be suffered
+to rest on the frail foundation of legislative will."  [214]
+Immediately, the House passed a bill requiring the freemen of the
+towns to assemble in town meeting on the following Fourth of July "to
+elect by ballot as many delegates as said towns now choose
+representatives to the General Assembly," said delegates to meet in
+constitutional convention at Hartford on the fourth Wednesday of the
+following August (Aug.  26) for "the formation of a Constitution of
+Civil Government for the people of this state."  The bill further
+declared that the constitution when "ratified by such majority of the
+said qualified voters, convened as aforesaid, as shall be directed by
+said convention, shall be and remain the Supreme Law of this State."
+An attempt was made to substitute "one delegate" for "as many
+delegates" as the towns sent. Upon the question in the convention, as
+to what majority should be required for ratification, there was
+considerable diversity of opinion. "Two-thirds of the whole number of
+_towns"_ was suggested, but was opposed on the ground that
+"two-thirds of the whole number of the _towns_ might not contain
+one-fourth of the people." _"Three-fifths_ of the legal voters of
+the state" was also suggested. In the final decision, the simple
+"majority of the freemen" was accepted. Had this not been the case,
+the constitution would have failed of ratification, for, as Burlington
+made no returns, the vote stood 59 out of 120 towns for ratification,
+with 13,918 yeas to 12,364 nays, giving a majority of but 1554.
+
+Several causes tended to bring about an eager, an amiable, or tolerant
+support of the work of the convention. Eepublicans and Tolerationists
+hoped for sweeping reforms. The Federalists were divided. Many there
+were who believed it dangerous for the state to continue destitute of
+fundamental laws defining and limiting the powers of the legislature,
+and to such as these the need of a bill of rights, and of the
+separation of the powers of the government, was immediate and
+imperative. The influential faction of the New Haven Federalists were
+moved to modify any opposition existing among them by the proposed
+change to annual sessions of the legislature with alternate sittings
+in the two capitals.  There were still other Federalists who accepted
+the proposed change in government as inevitable, and who wisely
+forebore to block it, preferring to use all their influence toward
+saving as much as possible of the old institutions under new
+forms. And in this resolve they were encouraged by the high character
+of the men that all parties chose as delegates to the constitutional
+convention.
+
+The convention met August 26,1818, at Hartford. Governor Wolcott, one
+of the delegates from Litchfield, was elected president, and Mr.
+James Lanman, secretary. Mr. Pierpont Edwards was chosen chairman of a
+committee of three from each county to draft a constitution. The
+estimated strength of the parties was one hundred and five Republicans
+to ninety-five Federalists, and, of the drafting committee, five
+members belonged to the political minority. [af] An idea of the
+character of the men chosen for this important task of framing a new
+constitution is gained from a glance at some of the names. To begin
+with, over thirty-nine of the delegates to the convention either were
+Yale alumni or held its honorary degrees, and half of the drafting
+committee were her graduates. Ex-Governor Treadwell and Alexander
+Wolcott led the opposing parties, while their able seconds in command
+were General Nathaniel Terry of Hartford and Pierpont Edwards of New
+Haven. The latter still held the office of judge of the United States
+District Court, to which Jefferson had appointed him. Among the
+delegates, there were Mr. Amasa Learned, formerly representative in
+Congress, the ex-chief-judges Jesse Root and Stephen Mix Mitchell,
+Aaron Austin, a member of the Council for over twenty years until the
+party elections of 1818 unseated him, ex-Governor John Treadwell, and
+Lemuel Sanford,--all of whom had been delegates to the convention of
+1788, called to ratify the constitution of the United States. Five
+members of the drafting committee were state senators, namely:
+Messrs. William Bristol, Sylvester Wells, James Lanman, Dr. John
+S. Peters of Hebron, and Peter Webb of Windham. Five others,
+Messrs. Elisha Phelps, Gideon Tomlinson, James Stevens, Orange Merwin,
+and Daniel Burrows were afterwards elected to that office, while
+Gideon Tomlinson and John S.  Peters became in turn governors of the
+state.  James Lanman, Nathan Smith (a member also of the committee),
+and Tomlinson entered the national Senate. Among the delegates, there
+were nearly a dozen well-known physicians, most of them to be found
+among the Tolerationists.  Messrs. Webb, Christopher Manwaring of New
+London, Gideon Tomlinson of Fairfield, and General Joshua King of
+Ridgefield, together with Joshua Stow of Middletown (also on the
+drafting committee), had been for years the warhorses of the
+democracy, loyal followers of their leader Alexander Wolcott, who had
+been the Republican state manager from 1800 to 1817.
+
+The method of procedure in the convention was to report from time to
+time a portion of the draft of the constitution, of which each article
+was considered section by section, discussed, and amended. After each
+of the several sections had been so considered, the whole article was
+opened to amendment before the vote upon its acceptance was
+taken. When all articles had been approved, the constitution was
+printed as so far accepted, and was again submitted to revision and
+amendment before receiving the final approval of the convention.
+
+While the constitutional convention was in session, the Baptists and
+Methodists resolved that no constitution of civil government should
+receive their approbation and support unless it contained a provision
+that should secure the full and complete enjoyment of religious
+liberty.  [2l5] And it was known that the Episcopalians were ready to
+second such resolutions. These expressions of opinion were of weight
+as foreshadowing the kind of reception that many of the towns where
+the dissenters were in the ascendant would accord any constitution
+sent to them for ratification.
+
+In the convention both the old Federal leader and the old Democratic
+chief objected to the incorporation in the constitution of a bill of
+rights.  Governor Treadwell opposed it on the ground that such
+_"unalterable"_ regulations were unnecessary where, as in a
+republic, all power was vested in the people. Alexander Wolcott
+objected that such a "bill would circumscribe the powers of the
+General Assembly" and also because of his disapproval of some of its
+clauses.  [216] When the draft of fourth section was under discussion,
+namely that "No preference shall be given by law to any religious sect
+or mode of worship," the Kev. Asahel Morse, a Baptist minister,
+offered the substitute,--
+
+    That rights of conscience are inalienable, that all persons have a
+    natural right to worship Almighty God according to their own
+    consciences; and no person shall be compelled to attend any place
+    of worship, or contribute to the support of any minister, contrary
+    to his own choice.
+
+The substitute was rejected, and after some discussion, the wording of
+the section was changed by substituting "Christian" in place of
+"religious" and this change retained in the final revision. [ag]
+
+The seventh article, "Of Religion," was the subject of a long and
+earnest debate.
+
+    Sec. 1. It being the right and duty of all men to worship the
+    Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe, in
+    the mode most consistent with the dictates of their own
+    consciences; no person shall be compelled to join or support, nor
+    by law be classed with or associated to any congregation, church
+    or religious association. And each and every society or
+    denomination of Christians in this State, shall have and enjoy the
+    same and equal powers, rights and privileges; and shall have power
+    and authority to support and maintain the Ministers or Teachers of
+    their respective denominations, and to build and repair houses for
+    public worship, by a tax on the members of the respective
+    societies only, or in any other manner.
+
+    Sec. 2. If any person shall choose to separate himself from the
+    society or denomination of Christians to which he may belong, and
+    shall leave written notice thereof with the Clerk of such society
+    he shall thereupon be no longer liable for any future expenses,
+    which may be incurred by said society.
+
+The Federalists contested its passage at every point, and succeeded in
+modifying the first draft in important particulars, but could not
+prevent complete severance of Church and State, nor the constitutional
+guarantee to all denominations of religious liberty and perfect
+equality before the law. To the first clause as reported--"It being
+the right and _duty_ of all men to worship the Supreme Being, the
+Great Creator and Preserver of the Universe, in the mode most
+consistent with the dictates of their consciences"--Governor Treadwell
+objected that "Conscience may be perverted, and man may think it his
+duty to worship his Creator by image, or as the Greeks and Romans did;
+and though he would _tolerate_ all modes of worship, he would not
+recognize it in the Constitution, as the _duty_ of a person to
+worship as the heathen do." Mr. Tomlinson afterwards moved to amend
+the clause to its present shape, "The duty of all men to
+worship... and their right to render that worship." Governor Treadwell
+objected that the same clause went "to dissolve all ecclesiastical
+societies in this State.  That was probably its intent as
+Messrs. Joshua Stow and Gideon Tomlinson had drafted it. The former
+answered all objections by asserting that "if this section is altered
+_in any way_, it will curtail the great principles for which we
+contend." [ah]
+
+The first section was finally adopted by a vote of 103 to 86, while a
+motion to strike out the second section was rejected by 105 to 84. On
+its final revision it read:--
+
+    Sec. 1. It being the duty of all men to worship the Supreme Being,
+    the Great Creator and Preserver of the Universe, and their right
+    to render that worship in the mode most consistent with the
+    dictates of their consciences; no person shall, by law, be
+    compelled to join or support, nor be classed with, or associated
+    to, any congregation, church, or religious association.  But every
+    person now belonging to such congregation, church, or religious
+    association, shall remain a member thereof, until he shall have
+    separated himself therefrom, in the manner hereinafter
+    provided. And each and every society or denomination of
+    Christians, in this state, shall have and enjoy the same and equal
+    powers, rights and privileges; and shall have power and authority
+    to support and maintain the ministers or teachers of their
+    respective denominations, and to build and repair houses for
+    public worship, by a tax on the members of any such society only,
+    to be laid by a major vote of the legal voters assembled at any
+    such society meeting, warned and held according to law, or in any
+    other manner. [ai]
+
+During the last revision of the constitution Mr. Terry had offered the
+two amendments that continue the old ecclesiastical societies as
+corporate bodies.  [217]
+
+The draft of the whole constitution was read through for the last time
+as amended and ready for acceptance or rejection, and put to vote on
+September 15, 1818. It was passed by 134 yeas to 61 nays. The
+constitution then went before the people for their consideration [aj]
+and ratification. For a while its fate seemed doubtful; but by the
+loyalty of the Federal members of the convention and their efforts in
+their own districts the whole state gave a majority for
+ratification. The southern counties, with a vote of 11,181, gave a
+majority for ratification of 2843; the northern counties, with a vote
+of 15,101, gave a majority _against_ ratification of 1189.  [218]
+
+The Toleration party as such had triumphed, and they felt that they
+had won all they had promised the people, for they had secured "the
+same and equal powers, rights and privileges to all denominations of
+Christians." They had also cleared the way for a broader suffrage and
+for the proper election laws to guarantee it. At the last two
+elections the Republicans in the Toleration party had carefully
+separated state and national issues, and had in large measure forborne
+from criticism of the partisan government, insisting that the people's
+decision at the polls would give them--the people--rather than any
+political party, the power to correct existing abuses. The Republicans
+also insisted that the Tolerationists, no matter what their previous
+party affiliation, would with one accord obey the behests of the
+sovereign people. But when the constitution was an assured fact the
+Republicans felt that the Federalist influence had dominated the
+convention, and the Federalists that altogether too much had been
+accorded to the radical party. Nevertheless it was the loyalty of the
+Federal members of the convention that won the small majority for the
+Tolerationists and for the new constitution, even if that loyalty was
+founded upon the belief, held by many, that the choice of evils lay in
+voting for the new regime.
+
+The constitution of 1818 was modeled on the old charter, and retained
+much that was useful in the earlier instrument. The more important
+changes were: (1) The clearer definition and better distribution of
+the powers of government.  (2) Rights of suffrage were established
+upon personal qualifications, and election laws were guaranteed to be
+so modified that voting should be convenient and expeditious, and its
+returns correct. (3) The courts were reorganized, and the number of
+judges was reduced nearly one half, while the terms of those in higher
+courts were made to depend upon an age limit (that of seventy years),
+efficiency, and good behavior.  Their removal could be only upon
+impeachment or upon the request of at least two thirds of the members
+of each house. Judges of the lower courts, justices of the peace, were
+still to be appointed annually by the legislature, and to it the
+appointment of the sheriffs was transferred. [ak] (4) Amendments to
+the constitution were provided for. (5) Annual elections and annual
+sessions of the legislature, alternating between Hartford and New
+Haven, were arranged for, and by this one change alone the state was
+saved a yearly expense estimated at $14,000, a large sum in those
+days. (6) The governor [al] was given the veto power, although a
+simple majority of the legislature could override it. (7) The salaries
+of the governor, lieutenant-governor, senators, and representatives
+were fixed by statute, and were not alterable to affect the incumbent
+during his term of office. (8) And finally, _the union of Church and
+State was dissolved_, and all religious bodies were placed upon a
+basis of voluntary support.
+
+Among the minor changes, the law that before the constitution of 1818
+had conferred the right of marrying people upon the located ministers
+and magistrates only, thereby practically excluding Baptist, Methodist
+and Universalist clergy, now extended it to these latter. While
+formerly the only literary institution favored was Yale College,
+Trinity College, despite a strong opposition, was soon given its
+charter, and one was granted later to the Methodists for Wesleyan
+College at Middletown. Moreover, the government appropriated to both
+institutions a small grant. The teaching of the catechism, previously
+enforced by law in every school, became optional.  Soon a normal
+school, free to all within the state, was opened. The support of
+religion was left wholly to voluntary contributions. [am] The
+political influence of the Congregational clergy was gone.  "The lower
+magistracy was distributed as equally as possible among the various
+political and religious interests," and the higher courts were
+composed of judges of different political opinions.
+
+The battle for religious liberty was won, Church and State divorced,
+politics and religion torn asunder. The day of complete religious
+liberty had daw'ned in Connecticut, and in a few years the strongest
+supporters of the old system would acknowledge the superiority of the
+new. As the "old order changed, yielding place to new," many were
+doubtful, many were fearful, and many there were who in after years,
+as they looked backward, would have expressed themselves in the frank
+words of one of their noblest leaders: [an] "For several days, I
+suffered what no tongue can tell _for the best thing that ever
+happened to the State of Connecticut."_
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] Party names were "American," "American and Toleration,"
+"Toleration and Reform."
+
+[b] Three fourths of Connecticut's exports were products of
+agriculture.
+
+[c] "All institutions, civil, literary and ecclesiastical, felt the
+pressure, and seemed as if they must he crushed. Our schools, churches
+and government even, in the universal impoverishment, were failing and
+the very foundations were shaken, when God interposed and took off the
+pressure."--Lyman Beecher, _Autobiography_, i, 266.
+
+[d] The Massachusetts militia were placed under General Dearborn,
+August 5, 1812.
+
+[e] Governor Griswold died Octoher, 1812, and was succeeded in office
+by Lieutenant-Governor John Cotton Smith.
+
+[f] The direct tax laid July 22-24,1813, by the national government,
+was apportioned in September, as follows: To Massachusetts,
+$316,270.71; to Rhode Island, $34,702.18; and to Connecticut,
+$118,167.71, divided as follows (which shows the relative wealth of
+the different sections of the state), Litchfield, $19,065.72;
+Fairfield, $18,810.50; New Haven, $16,723.10; Hartford, $19,608.02;
+New London, $13,392.04; Middlesex, $9,064.20; Windham, $14,524.38; and
+Tolland, $6,984.69. Duties were levied upon refined sugar, carriages,
+upon licenses to distilleries, auction sales of merchandise and
+vessels, upon retailers of wine, spirits, and foreign merchandise;
+while a stamp tax was placed upon notes and bills of exchange.--See
+_Niles Register_, v, 17; _Schouler_, ii, 380. The tax in
+1815 was $236,335.41.--_Niles_, vii, 348.
+
+[g] Briefly, an independent Indian nation between Canada and the
+United States; no fleets or military posts on the Great Lakes, and no
+renunciation of the English rights of search and impressment.
+
+[h] The April (1815) session of the Connecticut legislature passed an
+"Act to secure the rights of parents, masters and guardians." It
+declared the proposed legislation in Congress contrary to the spirit
+of the Constitution of the United States, and an unauthorized
+interference with state rights. It commanded all state judges to
+discharge on habeas corpus all minors enlisted without consent of
+parents or guardians, and it enacted a fine, not to exceed five
+hundred dollars, upon any one found guilty of enlisting a minor
+against the consent of his guardian, and a fine of one hundred dollars
+for the advertising or publication of enticements to minors to enlist.
+
+[i] "Amendments: (1) Restrictions npon Congress requiring a two thirds
+vote in making and declaring war, (2) in laying embargoes, and (3) in
+admitting new states. (4) Restriction of the presidential office to
+one term without reëlection, and with no two successive Presidents
+from the same state. (5) Reduction of representation and taxation by
+not reckoning the blacks in the slave states. (6) No foreign born
+citizen should be eligible to office.
+
+[j] "They advocated nullification and threatened dissolution of the
+Union."--J. P. Gordy, _Political History of the United States_,
+ii, 299.
+
+[k] The President in March, 1812, sent to Congress the documents for
+which he had paid one John Henry $50,000. The latter claimed to be an
+agent sent from Canada in 1809 to detach New England Federalists from
+their allegiance to the Union. Congress by resolution proclaimed the
+validity of the documents. The British minister solemnly denied all
+knowledge of them on the part of his government. The American people
+believed in their authenticity, which belief was confirmed during the
+war by the distinct favor shown for a while to Massachusetts, and by
+the hope, openly entertained by England, of separating New England
+from New York and the southern states.
+
+[l] Manufactures in Connecticut (abridged from the U. S. marshal's
+report in the autumn of 1810, cited in _Niles' Register_, vi,
+323-333) were represented by 14 cotton mills, 15 woolen mills. (By
+1815 New London county alone had 14 woolen mills and 10 cotton.) These
+had increased to 60 cotton in 1819, and to 36 woolen. Flax cloth,
+blended or unnamed cloths, and wool cloth,--all these made in
+families,--amounted to a yearly valuation of $2,151,972; hempen cloth,
+$12,148; stockings, $111,021; silks (sewing and raw), $28,503; hats to
+the value of $522,200; straw bonnets, $25,100; shell, horn, and ivory
+in manufactured products, $70,000. Looms for cotton numbered 16,132;
+carding machines, 184; fulling mills, 213, and there were 11,883
+spindles.
+
+In iron, wood, and steel: 8 furnaces, with output of $46,180; 48
+forges, $183,910; 2 rolling and slitting mills, 32 trip-hammers,
+$91,146; 18 naileries, $27,092; 4 brass foundries, 1 type foundry,
+brass jewelry, and plaited ware, $49,200; metal buttons, 155,000
+gross, or $102,125; guns, rifles, etc., $49,050.
+
+Among other manufactories and manufactures there were 408 tanneries,
+$476,339; shoes, boots, etc., $231,812; the tin plate industry,
+$139,370; 560 distilleries, $811,144; 18 paper mills, $82,188;
+ropewalks, $243,950; carriages, $68,855, and the beginnings of
+brick-making, glass-works, pottery, marble works, which, with the
+state's 24 flaxseed mills and seven gunpowder mills, brought the sum
+total to approximately $6,000,000.
+
+Still the great impetus to manufacturing, which completely
+revolutionized the character of the state, followed the Joint-stock
+Act of 1837, with its consequent investment of capital and rush of
+emigration, resulting in later days in a development of the cities at
+the expense of the rural districts.
+
+[m] Gilbert Brewster, the Arkwright of American cotton machinery, Eli
+Whitney, with his cotton gin and rifle improvements, and John Fitch,
+with his experiments with steam, are the most distinguished among a
+host of men who made Yankee ingenuity and Yankee skill proverbial.
+
+[n] "Era of Good Feeling, 1817-1829. The best principles of the
+Federalists, the preservation and perpetuity of the Federal
+government, had been quietly accepted by the Republicans, and the
+Republican principle of limiting the powers and duties of the Federal
+government had been adopted by the Federalists.  The Republicans
+deviated so far from their earlier strict construction views as in
+1816 to charter a national bank for twenty years, and to model it upon
+Hamilton's bank of 1791 which they had refused to re-charter in
+1811,"--A. Johnson, _American Politics_, pp. 80, 81.
+
+[o] "This was for the support of missions outside the state.  The
+Domestic or State Home Missionary Society undertook the buiding up of
+places within the state that were without suitable religious care. The
+former finally absorbed the latter when its original purpose was
+accomplished. Then, there was the Litchfield County Foreign Mission
+Society, founded in 1812, the _first _auxiliary of the American
+Board, which began its career in 1810, and was incorporated the same
+year that its youngest branch was organized."--Lyman Beecher,
+_Autobiography_, i, 275, 287-88 and 291.
+
+[p] Organized in New Haven in October, 1812, with Dr. Dwight as
+chairman. Members of the committee upon organization included nearly
+all the prominent men of that day, both of the clergy and of the
+bar. A list is given in Lyman Beecher, _Autobiography_, i, 256.
+
+[q] "We really broke up riding and working on the Sabbath, and got the
+victory. The thing was done, and had it not been for the political
+revolution that followed, it would have stood to this day.... The
+efforts we made to execute the laws, and secure a reformation of
+morals, reached the men of piety, and waked up the energies of the
+whole state, so far as the members of our churches, and the
+intelligent and moral portion of our congregation were
+concerned. These, however, proved to be a minority of the suffrage of
+the state."--Lyman Beecher, _Autobiography_, i, 268.
+
+"In Pomfret the Justice of the Peace arrested and fined townspeople
+who persisted in working on Sunday, and held travellers over until
+Monday morning."--E. D. Lamed, _History of Windham_, ii, 448.
+
+[r] "The odium thrown upon the ministry was inconceivable.  ... The
+Congregational ministers agreed to hold back and keep silent until the
+storm blew over. Our duty as well as policy was explanation and
+self-defence, expostulation and conciliation."--_Autobiography_,
+i, 344.
+
+[s] "Aristides," March 26, 1826, and "Episcopalian," March 13, issues
+of the _American Mercury_.
+
+"When the Episcopal Church petitioned the legislature in vain, as she
+did for a series of years, for a charter to a college, he (the
+Rev. Philo Shelton of Fairfield) with others of his brethren
+_proposed a union with the political party, then in a minority_,
+to secure what he regarded a just right. And the first fruit of the
+union was the charter of Trinity (Washington) College, Hartford. He
+was one of a small number of clergymen who decided on this measure,
+and were instrumental in carrying it into effect; and it resulted in a
+change in the politics of the State which has never yet been
+reversed."--_Sprague's Annals of American Pulpit_ (Episcopal), v,
+35.
+
+[t] Total vote for governor 21,759. Mr. Goddard received 9421
+votes.--J. H. Trumbull, _Hist. Notes_, p. 36.
+
+[u] The law apportioned one third of the money to the
+Congregationalists; one seventh to Yale; one seventh to the
+Episcopalians; one eighth to the Baptists; one twelfth to the
+Methodists, and the balance to the state treasury.--Cited in
+_Connecticut Courant_, November 8, 1816. _Acts and Laws_,
+pp.  279, 280.
+
+[v] The first installment, $50,000, was paid into the Treasury in
+June, 1817. The Methodists, and later the Baptists, accepted their
+share, but not until political events had removed some of their
+objections.
+
+See the _Mirror_, February 16, 1818. It was not until 1820 that
+the final acceptance of the money took place.
+
+J. H. Trumbull, _Hist. Notes_, p. 36, foot-note, gives the
+following figures. By November, 1817, $61,500 had been received and
+apportioned: Congregationalists, $20,500.00; Trustees of the Bishop's
+Fund, $8,785.71; Baptist Trustees, $7,687.50; Methodist Trustees,
+$5,125.00; Yale College, $8,785.71, and a balance still unappropriated
+of $10,616.08.
+
+[w] Legal returns gave Wolcott            13,655
+                   Smith        13,119
+                   Scattering      202    13,321
+                                ------    ------
+                                             334
+
+"The correction of errors increased the majority to 600, which the
+Federalists conceded.--J. H. Trumbull, _Hist. Notes_, p. 38,
+footnote.
+
+[x] Governor Wolcott's speech, _Connecticut Courant_, May 20,
+1817; also _Niles' Register_, xii, pp. 201-204.
+
+[y] "In our climate, three fireplaces are occasionally necessary to
+the comfortable accommodation of every family."--Governor's speech.
+
+[z] Published 1795.
+
+[aa] A vindication of the calling of the Special Superior Court at
+Middletown... for the trial of Peter Lung... with observations, &c,
+Windham, 1816.
+
+[ab] The legislature had also interfered with decisions regarding the
+Symsbury patent. See E. Kirby, _Law Reports,_ p. 446.
+
+[ac] A summary of the Connecticut constitution, taken from _Niles's
+Register,_ asserts that the General Court has sole power to make
+and repeal laws, grant levies, dispose of lands belonging to the state
+to particular towns and persons, to erect and style judicatories and
+officers as they shall see necessary for the good government of the
+people; also to call to account any court, magistrate, or other
+officer for misdemeanor and maladministration, or for just cause may
+fine, displace, or remove, them, or deal otherwise as the nature of
+the ease shall require; and may deal or act in any other matter that
+concerns the good of the state except the election of governor,
+deputy-governor, assistants, treasurer and secretary, which shall be
+done by the freemen at the yearly court of election, unless there be
+any vacancy by reason of death or otherwise, after an election, when
+it may be filled by the General Court. This court has power also, for
+reasons satisfactory to them, to grant suspension, release, and jail
+delivery upon reprieves in capital and criminal cases.
+
+The elections for the assistants and superior officers are annual; for
+the representatives, semi-annual. The sessions of the General Court
+are semi-annual. The Governor and the speaker have the casting vote in
+the Upper and Lower House, respectively.
+
+The Superior Court consists of one chief judge and four others, and
+holds two sessions in each county each year. Its jurisdiction holds
+over all criminal cases extending to life, limb, or banishment; all
+criminal cases brought from county courts by appeal or writ of error,
+and in some matters of divorce.
+
+The county court consists of one judge and four justices of the
+quorum, with jurisdiction over all criminal cases not extending to
+life, limb, or banishment, and with original jurisdiction in all civil
+actions where the demand exceeds forty shillings.  Justices of the
+Peace, in the various towns, have charge of civil actions involving
+less than forty shillings, and criminal jurisdiction in some cases,
+where the fine does not exceed forty shillings, or the punishment
+exceed ten stripes or sitting in the stocks. Judges and Justices are
+annually appointed by the General Court, and commonly reappointed
+during good behavior, while sheriffs are appointed by the governor and
+council without time-limit and are subject to removal.  Recently
+county courts determined matters of equity involving from five pounds
+to two hundred pounds, the Superior Court two hundred pounds to
+sixteen hundred, and the General Assembly all others.
+
+Probate districts, not coextensive with the counties, exist, with
+appeal to the Superior Court.
+
+In military matters, the governor is the captain-general of the
+militia, and the General Court appoints the general officers and field
+officers, and they are commissioned by the governor.  Captains and
+subalterns are chosen by the vote of the company and of the
+householders living within the limits of the company, but must be
+approved by the General Court and commissioned by the governor before
+they can serve. All military officers hold their commissions during
+the pleasure of the General Assembly and may not resign them without
+permission, except under penalty of being reduced to the ranks.--
+_Niles' Register,_ 1813, vol. iii, p. 443, etc. Corrected
+slightly by reference to Swift's _System of Laws._
+
+[ad] Banks and insurance companies began to organize about 1790 to
+1810.
+
+[ae] In 1818, for the first time, a dissenter, Mr. Croswell, rector of
+Trinity Church, New Haven, preached the Election Sermon.
+
+[af] Messrs. Pitkin, Todd, G. Lamed, Pettibone, and Wiley. Of these,
+the first had been twenty times state representative, five times
+speaker of the House, and for thirteen years had been representative
+in Congress.
+
+[ag] The first seven sections of the Bill of Bights according to the
+final revision are:--
+
+    Sec. 1. That all men when they form a social compact, are equal in
+    rights; and that no man, or set of men are entitled to exclusive
+    public emoluments or privileges from the community.
+
+    Sec. 2. That all political power is inherent in the people, and
+    all free governments are founded on their authority, and
+    instituted for their benefit; and that they have, at all times, an
+    undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of
+    government, in such a manner as they may think expedient.
+
+    Sec. 3. The exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and
+    worship, without discrimination, shall forever be free to all
+    persons in this state; provided, that the right, hereby declared
+    and established, shall not be so construed as to excuse acts of
+    licentiousness, or to justify practices inconsistent with the
+    peace and safety of the state.
+
+    Sec. 4. No preference shall be given by law to any Christian sect
+    or mode of worship.
+
+    Sec. 5. Every citizen may freely speak, write, and publish his
+    sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of
+    that liberty.
+
+    Sec. 6. No law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain the
+    liberty of speech or of the press.
+
+    Sec. 7. In all prosecutions or indictments for libels, the truth
+    may be given in evidence; and the jury shall have the right to
+    determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court.
+
+[ah] Mr. Trumbull asserts that "writers and historians are in error
+when attributing to Mr. Morse of Suffield (the Baptist minister
+aforementioned) the drafting of the Article on Religious Liberty. The
+drafting committee were Messrs. Tomlinson and Stow, and the first
+clause, as reported, seems to have been taken with slight alteration
+from Governor Woleott's speech to the General Assembly, May, 1817,
+namely, 'It is the right and duty of every man publicly and privately
+to worship and adore the Supreme Creator and Preserver of the Universe
+in the manner most agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.'"
+--J. H. Trumbull, _Notes on the Constitution_, pp. 56, 57.
+
+[ai] The second section remained unchanged.
+
+[aj] Seven hundred copies were distributed among the towns.
+
+[ak] By later amendments, judges of the Supreme Court of Errors and
+the Superior Court are nominated by the governor and appointed by the
+General Assembly. Judges of probate are now elected by the electors in
+their respective districts; justices of the peace in the several towns
+by the electors in said towns; and sheriffs by their counties.
+
+[al] By amendment of 1901, the vote for governor, lieutenant-governor,
+secretary, treasurer, comptroller, and attorney-general was changed
+from a majority to a plurality vote, the Assembly to decide between
+candidates, if at any time two or more should receive "an equal and
+the greatest number" of votes.
+
+[am] "It cut the churches loose from dependence upon state support--It
+threw them wholly on their own resources and on God." "The mass is
+changing," wrote Dr. Beecher. "We are becoming another people. The old
+laws answered when all men in a parish were of one faith."--Lyman
+Beecher, _Autobiography,_ i, pp. 344, 453.
+
+[an] Lyman Beecher.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+
+NOTES
+
+
+CHAPTER I. THE EVOLUTION OF EARLY CONGREGATIONALISM.
+
+1, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, p. 49.
+
+2, Robert Browne, A True and Short Declaration, p. l.
+
+3, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, p. 70.
+
+4, Report of Conference April 3, 1590, quoted in F. J. Powicke, Henry
+Barrowe, p. 54.
+
+5, W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 12.
+
+6, Ibid., pp. 14, 15; also H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in
+Literature, pp. 96-104.
+
+7, Robert Browne, A Treatise on Reformation without Tarrying, pp. 4,
+7,12.
+
+8, Robert Browne, A True and Short Declaration, p. 7; Book which
+Sheweth, pp. 117-148.
+
+9, Robert Browne, Book which Sheweth, Questions 55-58.
+
+10, Ibid., Def. 35-40; Henry Barrowe, Discovery of False Churches,
+p. 34, and The True Description in Appendix IV of F. J. Powicke's
+Henry Barrowe.
+
+11, Robert Browne, Book which Sheweth, Def. 53 and 54.
+
+12, Henry Barrowe, Discovery of False Churches, p. 48.
+
+13, Henry Barrowe, Discovery of False Churches, pp. 166, 275; Robert
+Browne, Book which Sheweth, Def. 51; A True and Short Declaration,
+p. 20; The True Confession of Faith, Article 38.
+
+14, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, pp. 221,
+232; also John Brown, Pilgrim Fathers of New England, pp. 22-25.
+
+15, The True Confession, Art. 39.
+
+16, "The Seven Articles," of which the following is the text:--
+
+    (1) "To ye confession of fayth published in ye name of ye Church
+    of England and to every artikell thereof wee do w'th ye reformed
+    churches wheer wee live & also els where assent wholly.".
+
+    (2) "And as wee do acknowlidg ye doctryne of fayth theer tawght so
+    do wee ye fruites and effeckts of ye same docktryne to ye
+    begetting of saving fayth in thousands in ye land (conformistes &
+    reformistes) as ye ar called w'th whom also as w'th our brethren
+    wee do desyer to keepe speirtuall communion in peace and will
+    pracktis in our parts all lawful thinges."
+
+    (3) "The King's Majesty wee acknowlidg for Supreme Governor in his
+    dominion in all causes, and over all parsons [persons] and ye none
+    maye decklyne or apeale his authority or judgment in any cause
+    whatsoever, but ye in all thinges obedience is dewe unto him,
+    either active, if ye thing commanded be not against God's woord,
+    or passive yf itt bee, except pardon can bee obtayned."
+
+    (4) "Wee judge itt lawfull for his Majesty to apoynt bishops,
+    civill overseers, or officers in awthoryty onder hime in ye
+    severall provinces, dioses, congregations or parishes, to oversee
+    ye churches, and governe them civilly according to ye Lawes of ye
+    Land, uutto whom ye ar in all thinges to geve an account and by
+    them to bee ordered according to Godlyness." (This is not an
+    acknowledgment of spiritual--superiority or authority, only the
+    recognition that as church officers were also magistrates, the
+    king could appoint them as his civil servants.)
+
+    (5) "The authority of ye present bishops in ye land wee do
+    acknowlidg so far forth as ye same is indeed derived from his
+    Majesty untto them and as ye proseed in his name, whom wee will
+    also therein honor in all thinges and hime in them."
+
+    (6) "Wee believe ye no sinod, classes, convocation or assembly of
+    Ecclesiastical Officers hath any power or awthority att all but ye
+    same by ye Majestraet given unto them." (Intended to be a denial
+    of Presbyterianism.)
+
+    (7) "Lastly wee desyer to geve untto all Superiors dew honour to
+    preserve ye unity of ye spiritt w'th all ye feare God to have
+    peace w'th all men what in us lyeth and wherein wee err to bee
+    instructed by any." (Text of Points of Difference and Seven
+    Articles in W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, pp. 75-93.)
+
+
+CHAPTER II. THE TRANSPLANTING OF CONGREGATIONALISM.
+
+17, The Commons prayed, "that no man hereafter be compelled to make or
+yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such like charge, without
+common consent by Act of Parliament. And that none be called to make
+answer, or to take such oaths, or to be confined or otherwise molested
+or disputed concerning the same, or for refusal thereof. And that no
+freeman may in such manner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or
+detained."--Extract from the Petition of Right. See J. R. Green, Short
+History of the English People, pp 486, 487.
+
+18, E. H. Byington, The Puritan in England and New England, pp. 486,
+487.
+
+19, See Gott's Letter in Bradford's Letter-Book, Mass. Hist. Soc.,
+iii, 67,68.
+
+20, G. L. Walker, History of the First Church in Hartford, p. 154.
+
+
+CHAPTER III. CHURCH AND STATE IN NEW ENGLAND.
+
+21, Thomas Hooker, Survey of Church Discipline, chap. 3, p. 75; also
+Mass. Col. Rec., iii, 424; J. Cotton, Way of the Churches, pp. 6, 7.
+
+22, J. Cotton, Way of the Churches, pp. 6, 7; Plymouth Col. Rec., ii,
+67; Mass. Col. Rec., i, 216, iii, 354; Hartford Town Voter, in
+Conn. Hist. Soc. Coll., vi, 32; Conn. Col. Rec., i, 311, 545.
+
+23, Plymouth Col. Laws, ed. 1836, p. 258; Conn.  Col. Rec., i, pp. 96,
+138, 290, 331, 389, 525.
+
+24, J. Cotton, A Discourse about Civil Government in a New Plantation
+whose Design is Religion (written many years since), London, 1643,
+pp. 12, 19. (This is a misprint in the title-page, for the author was
+John Davenport.)
+
+25, Mass. Col. Rec., i, 87.
+
+26, J. Cotton, Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, pp.  50, 53.
+
+27, Mass. Law of 1636; Conn. Col. Rec., i, 341.
+
+28, Conn. Col. Rec., i, 525.
+
+29, G. F. Ellis, Puritan Age in Massachusetts, p. 34.
+
+30, Winthrop, i, 81.
+
+31, Mass. Col. Rec., i, 142.
+
+32, Winthrop, i, 287; H. M. Dexter, Ecclesiastical Councils of New
+England, p. 31.
+
+33, J. A. Doyle, Puritan Colonies, ii, 70.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV. THE CAMBRIDGE PLATFORM AND THE HALF-WAY COVENANT.
+
+34, C. Mather, Magnalia, ii, 277.
+
+35, Horace Bushnell, in Discourse on Christian Nurture, p. 25.
+
+36, Cotton Mather, Magnalia, ii, 179.
+
+37, Results of Half-Way Covenant Convention, Prop. 4. See W. Walker,
+Creeds and Platforms, p. 296.
+
+38, W. Walker, Creeds and Platforms, p. 295. See Question 7, of
+Results.
+
+39, Conn. Col. Rec., i, 386, 426.
+
+40, Conn. State Papers (Ecclesiastical), vol. i, Doc.  106. Quoted in
+the Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register, x, p. 116.
+
+41, Beardsley, Hist, of the Church in Connecticut, i, 101; Perry,
+Hist, of Epis. Church in the United States, i, 283, 284.
+
+42, Conn. Col. Rec., i, 437, 438.
+
+43, G. L. Walker, Hist, of First Church in Hartford, p. 200.
+
+44, Record of the United Colonies, i, 506.
+
+45, G. L. Walker, Hist, of First Church in Hartford, p. 209.
+
+46, L. Bacon, Coatr. to Eccl. Hist, of Connecticut, p. 29.
+
+47, E. Stiles, Christian Union, p. 85; J. A. Doyle, Puritan Colonies,
+ii, 69; Conn. Col. Rec., i, 545; ii, 290 and 557.
+
+48, Conn. Col. Rec., vii, 33; viii, 74.
+
+
+CHAPTER V. A PERIOD OF TRANSITION.
+
+49, Thomas Prince, Christian History, i, 94.
+
+50, Preface to Work of the Reforming Synod.
+
+51, C. Mather, Magnalia, Book v, p. 40.
+
+52, C. Mather, Ratio Discipline, p. 17.
+
+53, C. M. Andrews, Three River Towns, p. 86. See also Bronson, Early
+Government, in New Haven Hist.  Soc. Papers, iii, 315;
+Conn. Col. Rec., 290-293, 321, 354.
+
+54, Conn. Col. Rec., v, 67.
+
+55, L. Bacon, Contr. to Ecel. History, p. 33.
+
+56, Conn. Col. Rec., v, 87.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM.
+
+57, Saybrook Platform.
+
+58, L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, pp.  190, 191.
+
+59, S. Stoddard, Instituted Churches, p. 29.
+
+60, Trumbull, Hist, of Connecticut, i, 406; T. Clap, Hist, of Yale
+College, p. 30.
+
+61, Trumbull, Hist, of Connecticut, i, 406.
+
+62, L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, p.  190.
+
+63, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, pp. 489,
+490.
+
+64, Conn. Col. Rec., v, 87.
+
+65, Ibid., v, 50.
+
+66, A. Johnston, Connecticut, p. 232.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII. THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM AND THE TOLERATION ACT.
+
+67, John Bolles, A Relation of the Opposition some Baptist People met
+at Norwich in 1761.
+
+68, Ibid., p. 7.
+
+69, Quaker Laws. The New Haven Laws against Quakers deal thus
+fiercely:--
+
+    "_Whereas_ there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen up
+    in the world, which are commonly called Quakers, who take upon
+    them that they are immediately sent of God and infallibly assisted
+    by his spirit, who yet write and speak blasphemous opinions,
+    despise governments and the order of God, in church and
+    commonwealth... we do hereby order and declare
+
+    "That whosoever shall hereafter bring, or cause to be brought,
+    directly or indirectly, any known Quaker or Quakers, or other
+    blasphemous heretics, into this jurisdiction, every such person
+    shall forfeit the sum of 600 pounds to the jurisdiction, except it
+    appear that he wanted true knowledge or information of their being
+    such... and it is hereby ordered that what Quaker or Quakers
+    soever come into this jurisdiction, from foreign parts or places
+    adjacent, if it be about their civil, lawful occasions to be
+    quickly despatched among us, which time of stay shall be limited
+    by the civil authority in each plantation, and that they shall not
+    use any means by words, writings, books, or any other way, to go
+    about to seduce others, nor revile nor reproach, nor any other way
+    make disturbance or offend. They shall upon their first arrival,
+    or coming in, appear to be brought before the authorities of the
+    place and from them have license to put about and issue their
+    lawful occasions, and shall have one or more to attend upon them
+    at their charge until such occasions of theirs be discharged, and
+    they return out of the jurisdiction which if they refuse to do,
+    they shall be denied such free passage and commerce and be caused
+    to return back again, but if this first time they shall offend in
+    any of the ways as before expressed, and contrary to the intent of
+    this law, they shall be committed to prison, severely whipped,
+    kept to work, and none suffered to converse with them during their
+    imprisonment, which shall be no longer than necessity requires,
+    and at their own charge sent out of the jurisdiction."
+
+For a second offense, they were to be branded, as well as to be
+committed to prison. For a fourth offense, they were to have their
+tongues bored through with hot irons. Their books, papers, etc., were
+to subject their possessors to a fine of 5 pounds, and entertaining or
+concealing a Quaker was to be punished by a fine of 20s.; while
+undertaking to defend any of their heretical opinions was doubly
+fined.--New Haven Col. Kec., ii, 217, 238,363.
+
+In 1656, the Connecticut Court, in conformity to a suggestion from the
+commissioners of the United Colonies, ordered that "no towne within
+this jurisdiction shall entertaine any Quakers, Kanters, Adamites, or
+such notorious heretiques, or suffer them to continue with them above
+the space of fourteen days,... and shall give notice to the two next
+towns to send them on their way under penalty of £5 per week for any
+town entertaining any such person, nor shall any master of a ship land
+such or any."  In August, 1657, the above fine was imposed on the
+individual who entertained the Quaker, etc., as well as on the town,
+and an officer was appointed to examine suspects. A little later, a
+penalty of 10s. was imposed for Quaker books and MSS. found in the
+possession of any but a teaching elder. Twice the Court saw fit to
+leave, notwithstanding all former orders, all such cases to the
+jurisdiction of the separate towns, to order fines, banishment, or
+corporal punishment, provided the fines "exceed not ten pounds."
+
+The tone is brief and businesslike, dealing with a matter that had
+already caused great trouble to the other United Colonies, and which
+might become a menace to Connecticut. There are almost no recorded
+cases of sentence being imposed.  See Conn. Col. Kec., i, 283,303,308,
+324.
+
+70, J. Bowden, History of the Society of Friends, i, 104, quoting
+Norton's Ensign, p. 52.
+
+71, Ibid., i, 106.
+
+72, Ibid., i, 440.
+
+73, R. P. Hallowell, The Pioneer Quakers, p. 47.
+
+74, R. R. Hinman, Antiquities of the Charter Government of
+Connecticut, p. 229.
+
+75, E. E. Beardsley, History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut,
+i, 19.
+
+76, A. L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate in the American Colonies, pp. 33
+et seq.
+
+77, Ibid., p. 95, note.
+
+78, C. F. Hawkins, Missions of the Church of England, 377, 378.
+
+79, Church Documents, Conn., i, 14.
+
+80, Ibid., i, 59.
+
+81, Ibid., i, 136.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII. THE FIRST VICTORY FOR DISSENT.
+
+82, Church Documents, Conn., i, 153.
+
+83, Ibid., i, 56.
+
+84, S. D. McConnell, History of the American Episcopal Church, p. 132.
+
+85, Conn. Col. Rec., viii, 106; and Church Documents, Conn., i, 280,
+283.
+
+86, Conn. Col. Rec., vii, 459, and viii, 123, 334.
+
+87, Rogerine Laws. See Conn. Col. Rec., v. 248, 249.
+
+88, C. W. Bowen, The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut, especially
+pp. 48, 58, and 74.
+
+89, The Talcott Papers, published in vols. iv and v of the
+Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections.
+
+90, Conn. Col. Rec., iv, 307.
+
+91, Talcott Papers, i, 147, 189, and ii, 245, 246, in
+Conn. Hist. Soc. Collections, vols. iv and v.
+
+92, C. M. Andrews, The Connecticut Intestacy Law, in Yale Review, iii,
+261 et seq.
+
+93, Conn. Col. Rec., vii, 237.
+
+94, Ibid., vii, 257.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX. THE GREAT AWAKENING.
+
+95, Jonathan Edwards' Works, iv, 306-324.
+
+96, Ibid., iv, 81.
+
+97, Lauer, Church and State, p. 77; also Conn.  Col. Rec., vi, 33.
+
+98, A. Johnston, Hist, of Conn., pp. 255, 256; also H. Bronson,
+Historical Account of Conn. Currency, in New Haven Hist. Soc. Papers,
+i, 51 et seq.
+
+99, Joseph Tracy, The Great Awakening, p. 13.
+
+100, Edwards' Works, iv, 34-37.
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE GREAT SCHISM.
+
+101, Conn. Col. Rec., vii, 309.
+
+102, Ibid., viii, 522.
+
+103, Charles Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts, p.  249.
+
+104, Conn. Col. Rec., viii, 438, 468; also Joseph Tracy, The Great
+Awakening, p. 303.
+
+105, Conn. Col. Rec., viii, 454 et seq.; B. Trumbull, Hist, of
+Connecticut, ii, 165; C. Chauncy, Seasonable Thoughts, p. 41.
+
+106, Conn. Col. Rec., viii, 456.
+
+107, Ibid., viii, 456.
+
+108, Ibid., viii, 457.
+
+109, Trumbull, Hist, of Conn., ii, 135.
+
+110, S. W. S. Button, Hist, of the North Church in New Haven.
+
+111, E. D. Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, vol.  ii, book 5, chapter
+3.
+
+112, O. W. Means, Hist, of the Enfleld Separate Church.
+
+113, Conn. Col. Rec., October, 1751.
+
+114, E. D. Lamed, Hist, of Windham County, vol.  ii, book 5, chapter
+3.
+
+115, Conn. Col. Rec., viii, 501.
+
+116, Ibid., viii, 502.
+
+117, E. D. Larned, Hist, of Windham County, ii, 417, 419, 425, 426;
+L. Bacon, Thirteen Historical Discourses, p. 245.
+
+118, Solomon Paine's View, pp. 15, 16.
+
+119, Thomas Clap, History of Yale, p. 27.
+
+120, G. P. Fisher, Church of Christ in Yale College, app. 6.
+
+121, E. D. Lamed, History of Windham County, i, 425, 426.
+
+122, S. L. Blake, The Separatists, pp. 183, 192.  (This book gives the
+origin and end of every Separate church.) Also 0. W. Means, History of
+the Enfield Separate Church.
+
+123, Conn. Col. Rec., xii, 269, 341.
+
+124, Ibid., viii, 507.
+
+125, Trumbull, History of Connecticut, i, 132, 133.
+
+126, W. C. Reichel, Dedication of Monuments erected by the Moravian
+Historical Societies in New York and Connecticut.
+
+G. H. Loskiel, Hist, of Missions of the United Brethren among the
+Indians of North America.  J. Heckwelder, Missions of the United
+Brethren among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians, pp. 51 et seq.
+
+127, Conn. Col. Rec., ix, 218.
+
+128, I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 80.
+
+129, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, p. 503.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. THE ABROGATION OF THE SAYBROOK PLATFORM.
+
+130, Frederick Dennison, Notes of the Baptists and their Principles in
+Norwich, Conn., p. 10.
+
+131, Ibid., p. 16.
+
+132, Stiles, Ancient Windsor, p. 439.
+
+133, C. H. S. Davis, Hist, of Wallingford, pp. 164-210.
+
+134, "To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council." (Quoted in
+Frederick Dennison, Notes of the Baptists.)
+
+135, T. Clap, History of Yale, pp. 41-60.
+
+136, Quoted by E. H. Gillett, Civil Liberty in Connecticut, Historical
+Magazine, 2d series, vol. iv.
+
+137, E. D. Lamed, History of Windham County, i, 468.
+
+138, Thomas Darling, Some Remarks, p. 6.
+
+139, Ibid., p. 41.
+
+140, Ibid., pp. 43, 46.
+
+141, Robert Ross, Plain Address, p. 54.
+
+142, E. Frothingham, Key to Unlock, p. 147.
+
+143, Ibid., pp. 56, 58.
+
+144, Ibid., pp. 51-53.
+
+145, Ibid., p. 42.
+
+146, Ibid., p. 156.
+
+147, Ibid., p. 181.
+
+148, Loomis and Calhoun, Judicial and Civil History of Connecticut,
+p. 55.
+
+149, M. C. Tyler, Literary History of the American Revolution, i, 133.
+
+150, Fulham, MSS. cited in A, L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate in the
+American Colonies, p. 115. See also pp. 122 et seq. and 332, 345.
+
+151, A. L. Cross, Anglican Episcopate, pp. 164 and 216. Perry,
+American Episcopal Church, i, 415.
+
+152, Minutes of the Association, i, 3.
+
+153, F. M. Caulkins, History of Norwich, p. 363.
+
+154, Conn. Col. Rec., xiii, 360.
+
+155, I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 340.
+
+156, E. D. Lamed, History of Windham County, ii, 103.
+
+157, I. Backus, An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty, Boston,
+1773, p. 28.
+
+158, Ibid., p. 13.
+
+159, Ibid., pp. 43-48.
+
+160, John Wise, Vindication, Edition of 1717, p. 84.
+
+161, Public Records of the State of Connecticut, i, 232.
+
+162, Quoted in E. H. Gillett, Civil Liberty in Connecticut,
+Hist. Magazine, 1868.
+
+163, I. Backus, History of the Baptists, ii, 304.
+
+164, Minutes of Hartford North Association.
+
+165, I. Foster, Defense of Religious Liberty, pp.  30, 32; also 135
+and 142.
+
+166, Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut, 1784, pp. 21, 22, 213,
+235.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. CONNECTICUT AT THE CLOSE OF THE REVOLUTION.
+
+167, P. K. Kilbourne, History of Litchfield, pp.  166, 169.
+
+168, James Morris, Statistical Account of the Towns of Litchfield
+County.
+
+169, Judge Church, in his Litchfield County Centennial Address.
+
+170, J. D. Champlin, Jr., "Litchfield Hill."
+
+171, Noah Webster, Collection of Essays (ed. of 1790), p. 379.
+
+172, Ibid., p. 338.
+
+173, Ibid., p. 338.
+
+174, Letter of Sept. 11,1788, one of the series in answer to the
+quotations from Richard Price's "Observations on the Importance of the
+American Revolution." See American Mercury, Feb. 7, 1785. Connecticut
+Journal, Feb. 16, and Connecticut Courant, Feb. 22, 1785.
+
+175, James Schouler, History of the United States, i, 53.
+
+176, Isaac Backus, The Liberal Support of the Gospel Minister, p. 35.
+
+177, Report of Superintendent of Public Schools, 1853, pp. 62, 63.
+
+178, W. Walker, The Congregationalists, pp. 311 et seq.
+
+179, John Lewis, Christian Forbearance, p. 31.
+
+180, E. Stiles, Diary, i, 21.
+
+181, H. M. Dexter, Congregationalism as seen in Literature, p. 523.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII. CERTIFICATE LAWS AND WESTERN LAND BILLS.
+
+182, Acts and Laws of the State of Connecticut (ed. of 1784), pp. 403,
+404.
+
+183, Courant, May 28, 1791.
+
+184, Ibid., May 28, 1791.
+
+185, J. Leland, High Flying Churchman, pp. 10, 11, 16, 17.
+
+186, Acts and Laws (ed. of 1784), p. 418.
+
+187, Ibid., p. 417.
+
+188, Cited from Report of the Superintendent of Public Schools, 1853,
+p. 65.
+
+189, The American Mercury, Feb. 24 and Apr.  17, 1794.
+
+190, J. Leland, A Blow at the Boot, pp. 7, 8.
+
+191, See Rep. of Supt. of Public Schools, 1853, pp. 74-95.
+
+192, Ibid., pp. 101, 102.
+
+193, Published in Courant of March 16, 23 and 30, 1795.
+
+194, See Hollister, Hist, of Connecticut, ii, 568-575; Report of
+Superintendent of Public Schools, 1853; Swift's System of Laws, i, 142
+et seq.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV. THE DEVELOPMENT or POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONNECTICUT.
+
+195, Wolcott Manuscript, in vol. iv, Library of Conn. Historical
+Society, Hartford, Conn.
+
+196, Judge Church's Manuscript, deposited with New Haven Historical
+Society.
+
+197, Swift, System of the Laws of Connecticut, i, 55-58.
+
+198, Hollister, Hist, of Connecticut, ii, 510-514, quoting Judge
+Church.
+
+199, D. G. Mitchell, American Lands and Letters, i, 142; F. B. Dexter,
+Hist, of Yale, p. 87.
+
+200, Minutes of the General Association, Report of the Session of
+1797.
+
+201, A. Bishop, Proofs of a Conspiracy, p. 32.
+
+202, Connecticut Journal, April 30, 1816, quotes the Petition and
+reply.
+
+203, J. Leland, Van Tromp lowering his Peak, p, 33.
+
+204, A. Bishop, Oration in Honor of the Election of Jefferson, pp. 9,
+10, 11-16.
+
+205, Judge Church's Manuscript.
+
+206, Lyman Beecher, Autobiography, i, 257, 259, 260, 342, 343.
+
+207, Constitution of the United States, Article II, Sect, ii, 1;
+Art. I, Sect, viii, 15. For the correspondence between General
+Dearborn and Gov. J. C.  Smith, see Mies' Register, viii, 209-212.
+
+208, Hildreth, History of United States, vi, 319-325; Schouler, Hist,
+of United States, ii, 270.
+
+209, Niles' Register, viii, 291; ix, 171; also American Mercury of
+April 19, 1815.
+
+210, New Haven Register, and also the American Mercury of Feb. 12,
+1817.
+
+211, Niles' Register, xi, 80.
+
+212, Swift, System of Law, i, 74.
+
+213, Swift, Vindication of the calling of the Special Superior Court,
+pp. 40-42.
+
+214, Report of the Committee. See also J. H.  Trumbull, Historical
+Notes, pp. 43-47.
+
+215, Connecticut Courant of Aug. 25, 1818.
+
+216, J. H. Trumbull, Historical Notes, pp. 55, 56.
+
+217, Journal of the Convention, pp. 49, 67. (The Connecticut Courant
+and the American Mercury published the debates of the Convention in
+full as they occurred.)
+
+218, Trumbull, Historical Notes, p. 60. See also the text, preceding
+this note, p. 483.
+
+
+The Constitution of 1818, admirable for the conditions of that time,
+leaves now large room for betterment. The century-old habit of
+legislative interference was not wholly uprooted in 1818, and soon
+began to grow apace. The Constitution stands to-day with its original
+eleven articles and with thirty-one amendments, some of which, at
+least in their working, are directly opposed to the spirit of the
+framers of the commonwealth. The old cry of excessive legislative
+power is heard again, for the legislature by a majority of one may
+override the governor's veto, and, through its powers of confirmation
+and appointment, it may measurably control the executive department
+and the judicial. Moreover, apart from these defects in the
+constitution, certain economic changes have resulted in a
+disproportionate representation in the House of Representatives. The
+Joint-Stock Act of 1837 gave birth to great corporations, and with
+railroads soon developed the formation of large manufacturing
+plants. As a result, there was a rush, at first, of the native born,
+and, later, of large numbers of immigrants, who swelled the
+population, to the cities. This, together with the development of the
+great grain-producing western states, changed Connecticut from an
+agricultural to a manufacturing state, and from a producer of her own
+foodstuffs to a consumer of those which she must import from other
+states.
+
+Such shifting of the population has produced a condition where a bare
+majority of one in a House of two hundred and fifty-five members may
+pass a measure that really represents the sentiment of but
+one-fifteenth of the voters of the state. There results a system of
+rotten boroughs and the opportunity for a well-organized lobby and the
+moneyed control of votes. It is asserted that the first section of the
+bill of rights, namely, "That no man or set of men are entitled to
+exclusive public emoluments or privileges from the community," is
+constantly violated by this misrepresentation, which especially
+affects the population in the cities, and is felt not only in all
+state measures, but in all local ones about which the legislature must
+be consulted. As an illustration of the inequality of representation,
+the following figures are given. In the Constitutional Convention of
+1818, 81 towns sent _two_ delegates each, and 39 towns sent
+_one_, from communities out of which 11 had a population of less
+than 1000, and 100 ranged between 1000 and 4000, while only 9
+surpassed this last number.  In the Constitutional Convention of 1902,
+87 towns, with an aggregate population of 781,954, sent each
+_two_ delegates, while 81, with a combined population of 126,411,
+sent each _one_ delegate. Thus it happened that in 1902, New
+Haven, population 108,027, sent _two_ delegates, and the town of
+Union, population 428, also sent _two_ delegates, while ten other
+towns, with a population ranging from 593 to 885 each, sent _two_
+delegates.
+
+The "Standing Order" of to-day is not a privileged church, but a
+dominant political party strong in the privilege and powers derived
+from long tenure of office and intrenched behind constitutional
+amendments which, in addition to this unequal representation in the
+House, provide for the election of Senators upon town and county lines
+rather than upon population. The Constitutional Reform Party of to-day
+propose radical measures to remedy these more glaring defects in the
+administration of government, and to consider these, called the
+Constitutional Convention of 1902. In it, the influence of the small
+towns on the drafting of the proposed constitution was so great that,
+when it was presented to the people for ratification, an adverse
+majority in every county refused to accept it. In fact, only fifteen
+per cent of the whole people thought it worth while to express any
+opinion at all.
+
+References for the Constitutional Convention of 1902: Clarence Deming,
+Town Eule in Connecticut, Political Science Quarterly, September,
+1889; and M. B. Carey, The Connecticut Constitution.  (These will be
+found useful as summing up much of the newspaper discussion of the
+period, and also for the data upon which the argument for the desired
+changes is based.) There is also "The Constitutions of Connecticut,
+with Notes and Statistics regarding Town Representation in the General
+Assembly, and Documents relating to the Constitutional Convention of
+1902," printed by order of the Comptroller, Hartford, Conn.
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+A. HISTORIES
+
+1. GENERAL
+
+A few titles are given of those works found most useful in acquiring a
+general historic setting for the main topic.
+
+Bancroft, George. History of the United States. New York, 1889.
+
+Gardiner, S. R. History of England from Accession of James I. London,
+1863.
+
+----History of England under the Duke of Buckingham and Charles
+I. London, 1875.
+
+----History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate.  London and New York,
+1894-1903.
+
+Green, John Richard. Short History of the English People.  London,
+1884.
+
+----History of the English People. New York, 1880. 4 vols., chiefly
+vol. iii.
+
+Hildreth, Richard. History of the United States to 1824.  New York,
+1887. 6 vols.
+
+McMaster, John Bach. A History of the People of the United States from
+the Revolution to the Civil War.  New York, 1884-1900. 5 vols.
+
+Schouler, James. History of the United States of America under the
+Constitution. Washington, Philadelphia, and New York, 1882-99. 6 vols.
+
+Tyler, Moses Coit. A History of American Literature, 1607-1765. New
+York, 1879. 2 vols.
+
+----The Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763-1783. New
+York and London, 1897. 2 vols.
+
+Winsor, Justin. Narrative and Critical History of America.  Cambridge,
+1886-89. 8 vols.
+
+2. SPECIAL
+
+Adams, Henry. Documents relating to New England Federalism,
+1800-1815. Boston, 1877.
+
+Adams, John. Works with a Life of the Author, Notes and
+Illustrations. (Ed. by Charles Francis Adams.)  Boston, 1850-56. 10
+vols.
+
+Arber, Edward. The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1606-1623 A. D. as
+told by themselves, their Friends and their Enemies, edited from the
+original Texts. London, 1897.
+
+Barlow, Joel. Political Writings. New York, 1796.
+
+Bradford, William. History of "Plimoth" Plantation.
+
+  Reprint from original MS. with report of proceedings incident to its
+  return. Boston, 1898.
+
+Brown, John. The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and their Puritan
+Successors. London, 1895. Revised American ed. 1897. [a]
+
+Byington, Ezra B. The Puritan in England and New England. Boston,
+1897.
+
+Campbell, Douglas. The Puritans in Holland, England and America. New
+York, 1892. 2 vols.
+
+Cobb, Sanford H. Rise of Religious Liberty in America.  New York and
+London, 1902.
+
+  Pages 236-290 and 512-514 treat of Connecticut, while 454-482 deal
+  with the American Episcopate.
+
+Doyle, John Andrew. The English in America; The Puritan Colonies. New
+York, 1889. 2 vols.
+
+Ellis, George E. The Puritan Age and Rule in the Colony of
+Massachusetts Bay, 1629-1685. Boston and New York, 1888.
+
+Felt, Joseph Barton. The Ecclesiastical History of New England,
+comprising not only Religious but Moral and other Relations. Arranged
+chronologically and with index. Boston, 1855-62. 2 vols.
+
+Fish, Carl Russell. The Civil Service and the Patronage.  New York,
+1905.
+
+  Pages 32-39, Jefferson's removal of Mr. Goodrich of New Haven.
+
+Fiske, John. The Beginnings of New England; or, The Puritan Theocracy
+in its Relations to Civil and Religious Liberty. Boston and New York,
+1880.
+
+Gardiner, S. R. The First Two Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution,
+1603-1660. London, 1887.
+
+Goodwin, John Abbott. The Pilgrim Republic: An Historical Review of
+the Colony of New Plymouth, with sketches of the Rise of other New
+England Settlements, the History of Congregationalism and the Creeds
+of the Period [New England to 1732]. Cambridge, 1895.
+
+Heckewelder, J. A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren
+among the Delaware and Mohigan Indians from 1740 to
+1808. Philadelphia, 1820.
+
+Lauer, P. E. Church and State in New England. Baltimore, 1892.
+
+  Also in Johns Hopkins University Studies, Nos. 2 & 3.
+
+Lodge, Henry Cabot. A Short History of the English Colonies in
+America. New York, 1881.
+
+Love, Wm. De Loss, Jr. The Fasts and Thanksgiving Days of New
+England. Boston, 1895.  Includes a bibliography.
+
+Loskiel, George H. History of the Missions of the United Brethren
+among the Indians in North America. London, 1794.
+
+Mather, Cotton. Magnalia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical
+History of New England from its First Planting in the Year 1620 to the
+Year of our Lord 1698.  Ed. London, 1702,--Hartford, 1820. 2 vols. [a]
+
+  3d ed. with Introduction and occasional Notes by T. Bobbins.
+  Hartford, 1853, 2 vols.
+
+Mourt's Relation or Journal of a Plantation settled at Plymouth, in
+New England and proceedings Thereof.  London, 1622.  2d ed. Annotated
+by A. Young. Boston, 1841. Also found in Young's Chronicle of the
+Pilgrim Fathers. Boston, 1846. [a]
+
+  Reprint with illustrative cuts, George B. Cheever, Editor, New York,
+  1849.
+
+  Reprint ed. by H. M. Dexter. Boston, 1865. (See vol. viii, 1st
+  series, Mass. Hist Soc. Col., also Library of New England History,
+  vol. i.)
+
+Neal, Daniel. History of the Puritans, or Protestant Non-conformists:
+from the Reformation in 1517 to the death of Queen Elizabeth, with an
+Account of their principles: their Attempts for a further Reformation
+in the Church: their Sufferings, and the Lives and Characters of their
+considerable Divines, etc. London, 1732, 4 vols. Revised ed. London,
+1837, 3 vols. [a]
+
+Palfrey, John G. Comprehensive History of New England.  Boston,
+1858-90. 5 vols.
+
+Prince, Thomas. A Chronological History of New England in the form of
+Annals. Boston, 1736. Edited by Drake with Memoir of the
+Author. Boston, 1852. [a]
+
+  Reprint to Mass. Hist. Soc. Col., 2d series, vol. vii, 1818. New
+  edition, edited by N. Hale. Boston, 1826. Found also in Arber's
+  English Garner, vol. ii, 1879.
+
+Reichel, W. C. Memorial of the Dedication of Monuments erected by
+Moravian Historical Society to mark the sites of ancient missionary
+stations. Philadelphia, 1858.
+
+Schaff, Philip. Religious Liberty. See American Historical Society
+Annual Report, 1886-87.
+
+Thornton, J. Wingate. The Pulpit of the American Revolution.  Boston,
+1876.
+
+Weeden, William B. Economic and Social History of New England. Boston,
+1890. 2 vols.
+
+Winthrop, John. History of New England, 1636-47, edited by James
+Savage. Boston, 1853. 2 vols.
+
+Wood, John (Cheetham, James). History of the Administration of John
+Adams. New York, 1802.
+
+----History of the Administration of J. Adams, with Notes. New York,
+1846.
+
+3. STATISTICAL
+
+Baird, Robert. Religion in America; or An Account of the Origin,
+Relation to the State and Present Condition of the Evangelic Churches
+in the United States.  New York, 1856.
+
+Bishop, J. Leander. A History of American Manufactures,
+1608-1860. 1868. 3 vols.
+
+  This includes a history of the origin and growth of the principal
+  mechanical arts and manufactures: notice of important inventions;
+  results of each decennial census; tariffs; and statistics of
+  manufacturing centres. It has a good index by which the industrial
+  history of each colony and state can be quickly traced.  Bolles,
+  Albert S. The Financial History of the United States. New York,
+  1879-86. 3 vols.
+
+Carroll, Henry King. Religious Forces in the United States,
+enumerated, classified and described on the basis of the Government
+Census of 1890. New York, 1893.
+
+Dorchester, Daniel. Christianity in the United States from the first
+settlement down to the present time.  New York and Cincinnati, 1888.
+
+Hayward, John. The Religious Creeds and Statistics of every Christian
+Denomination in the United States.  Boston, 1836.
+
+4. LOCAL
+
+Connecticut-State, county, town, etc., of which only the more
+important town and county histories, and reports of anniversary
+celebrations are given. Those omitted are of small interest outside of
+their respective towns, except to genealogists or to those whose
+families chance to be mentioned in the sketch of historical
+development or of commercial growth. The many books of this type
+contribute general coloring, and some of them a few important bits of
+information, to the story of the development of the state, but many
+are not worth enumerating as sources, or as assistants to the general
+reader or student.
+
+Allen, Francis Olcott. The History of Enfleld, compiled from all the
+public records of the town known to exist, covering from the beginning
+to 1850. Lancaster, 1900.  3 vols.
+
+  Carefully compiled and attested by the town clerk. Includes also
+  graveyard inscriptions and extracts from Hartford, Northampton and
+  Springfield records.
+
+Andrews, Charles M. The River Towns of Connecticut, Wethersfield,
+Hartford and Windsor. Baltimore, 1889. (Also Johns Hopkins Historical
+and Political Science Papers, vii, 341-456.)
+
+Atwater, Edward E. (editor). History of the City of New Haven. New
+York, 1887.
+
+  Good for the earlier history, for a few extracts from records;
+  contains descriptions of public men and events, also extracts from
+  old newspapers, etc.
+
+----History of the Colony of New Haven to its absorption into
+Connecticut. New Haven, 1881.  A much better book, being the best
+special history of the New Haven Colony.
+
+Baldwin, Simeon E. Constitutional Reform. A Discussion of the Present
+Inequalities of Representatives in the General Assembly [of
+Connecticut]. New Haven, 1873.
+
+----The Early History of the Ballot in Connecticut.  American
+Historical Association Papers, i, 407-422.  New York, 1890.
+
+----The Three Constitutions of Connecticut. In New Haven Historical
+Society Papers, vol. v.
+
+Barber, John W. Connecticut Historical Collections.  New Haven, 1856.
+
+  A book of brief anecdotal town histories, curious legends, notable
+  events, newspaper clippings, together with a goodly number of
+  illustrations.
+
+Bolles, John Rogers. The Rogerenes: Some hitherto unpublished annals
+belonging to the Colonial History of Connecticut. Part
+1. A. Vindication, by J. R. Bolles.  Part 2. History of the Rogerenes,
+by Anna B. Williams.  Boston, 1904.
+
+Bowen, Clarence W. The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut.  Boston,
+1882.
+
+Breckenridge, Francis A. Recollections of a New England Town
+(Meriden). Meriden, 1899.
+
+Typical of the life in New England towns, 1800-1850.
+
+Bronson, Henry, Early Government of Connecticut.  (New Haven
+Historical Society Papers, iii, 293 et seq.)
+
+Bushnell, Horace. "Work and Play," being the first volume of his
+"Literary Varieties." New York, 1881.
+
+  Contains an historical estimate of Connecticut.
+
+Caulkins, Frances M. History of New London, Connecticut.  New London,
+1852.
+
+----History of Norwich, Connecticut. Norwich, 1845.
+
+  These two histories are readable, reliable and full of detail,
+  culled from original records, many of which are now deposited with
+  the New London Historical Society.
+
+Clap, Thomas. Annals or History of Yale College. New Haven, 1766.
+
+Cothren, William. History of Ancient Woodbury, Connecticut,
+1669-1879. (Including Washington, Southbury, Bethlehem, Roxbury, and
+part of Oxford and Middlebury.) Waterbury, 1854, 1872, 1879. 3 vols.
+
+  Vols. i and ii, history, with considerable genealogy. Vol. iii,
+  1679-1879, births, marriages and deaths.
+
+Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Thomas Clap and his Writings.  See New
+Haven Historical Society Papers, vol. v.
+
+----Sketch of the History of Yale University. New Haven, 1887.
+
+Dwight, Theodore. History of Connecticut. New York, 1841.
+
+----History of Hartford Convention. Hartford, 1833.
+
+  Of the 447 pages, 340 are devoted to recounting the events which led
+  to the calling of the convention, and, with much political bias, to
+  the history of Jefferson's political career from 1789, quoting from
+  official correspondence and his private letters. Pages 340-422 deal
+  with the convention proper, giving, pp. 383-400, its "Secret
+  Journal." The Appendix, pp. 422-447, has brief biographies of the
+  members.
+
+Dwight, Timothy. Travels in New England and New York. New Haven,
+1831. 4 vols.
+
+Dodd, Stephen. The East Haven Register in Three Parts.  New Haven,
+1824.
+
+  A rare little book of 200 pages compiled by the pastor of the
+  Congregational Church in East Haven. Part i contains a history of
+  the town from 1640 to 1800; part ii, names, marriages, and births,
+  1644-1800; part iii, account of the deaths in families, from 1647 to
+  1824.
+
+Field, David Dudley. A History of the Towns of Haddam and East
+Haddam. Middletown, 1814.
+
+  A book of some forty-eight pages, of which six are devoted to
+  genealogies "taken partly from the records of the towns, and partly
+  from the information of aged people" by the pastor of the church in
+  Haddam. Though largely ecclesiastical, its author-- a college
+  A. M.--realizes the value of statistics in references to population,
+  necrology, taxes, militia, farming, and other industries, and weaves
+  them into his rambling story.
+
+----Statistical Account of the County of Middlesex.  Middletown, 1819.
+
+Fowler, William Chauncey. History of Durham, 1662- 1866.
+
+  Includes in chapter xii--pp. 229-443--extracts trom Town Records,
+  Ministerial Records, Proprietor's Eecords.
+
+Gillett, E. H., Rev. The Development of Civil Liberty in
+Connecticut. In Historical Magazine, 2d series, vol. iv (1868),
+pp. 1-34, Appendices, pp. 34-49. Morrisania, N. Y., 1868.
+
+  Appendix A. Report of the Rev. Elizur Goodrich, D. D., to the
+  Convention of Delegates from the Synod of New York and Philadelphia
+  and from the Associations of Connecticut, held annually from 1766 to
+  1775 inclusive (being a statement on the subject of Religious
+  Liberty in the Colony), with notes by E. H. G. pp. 34-43.
+
+  Appendix B. Letter of Rev. Thomas Prince of Boston to Rev.  John
+  Drew of Groton, Conn., May 8, 1744, pp. 43-47. (Sympathizing with
+  the New Lights.)
+
+  Appendix C. Three short paragraphs omitted from the body of the
+  article.
+
+  Appendix D. Extracts from the American reprint of Graham's
+  "Ecclesiastical Establishments of Europe," pp. 47, 48.
+
+    This article in itself contains Israel Holly's "Memorial," Joseph
+    Brown's "Letter to Infant Baptisers of North Parish in New London"
+    (in part); also copious citations from the pamphlets of Bolles,
+    Frothingham, Bragge, the Autobiography of Billy Hibbard (Methodist
+    preacher) and extracts from Abraham Bishop's pamphlets.
+
+Hartford Town Votes, 1635-1716. (Transcribed by Chas. J. Hoadly.) See
+Connecticut Historical Society Collections, 1897, vol. vi.
+
+Hollister, Gideon H. Address in Litchfleld, April 9,1856, before the
+Historical and Antiquarian Society, on the occasion of completing its
+organization. Hartford, 1856.
+
+Hollister, Gideon H. The History of Connecticut. New Haven, 1855. 2
+vols.
+
+  A history of Connecticut from the first settlement of the colony to
+  the adoption of the present Constitution in 1818.
+
+Hurd, D. Hamilton. History of Fairfield County, Connecticut, with
+illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and
+Pioneers. Philadelphia, 1881.
+
+Johnson, William Samuel. Letters to the Governors of Connecticut,
+1766-1771. See Mass. Historical Society Collections, series 5,
+vol. ix, pp. 211-490.
+
+Johnston, Alexander. The Genesis of a New England State,
+Connecticut. Baltimore, 1883. Revised 1903.  (Also in Johns Hopkins
+University Studies, vol. i, no. 11.)
+
+----Connecticut; a Study of a Commonwealth Democracy.  Boston and New
+York, 1887. Revised 1903.
+
+Jones, Frederick R. History of Taxation in Connecticut.  Johns Hopkins
+University Studies in Political Science, series 14, no. 8. Baltimore,
+1896.
+
+Journal of the Proceedings of the Convention of Delegates Convened at
+Hartford, August 26, 1818. Hartford, 1873. Reprinted by order of the
+state comptroller, Hartford, 1901.
+
+Kilbourne, P. K. Sketches and Churches of the Town of
+Litchfield. Historical, biographical, statistical. Hartford, 1859.
+
+  An excellent account, drawing in part upon Woodruff's (George C.)
+  History of Litchfield, 1845, and Morris' Statistical Account of
+  Litchfield County, 1818, with additional matter.
+
+Kingsley, F. J. Old Connecticut. See New Haven Historical Society
+Papers, vol. iii.
+
+Kingsley, James Luce. Sketch of Yale College. Boston, 1835.
+
+Lambert, Edward R. History of the Colony of New Haven, before and
+after the Union with Connecticut.  New Haven, 1838.
+
+Larned, Ellen D. History of Windham County. Worcester, 1874. 2 vols.
+
+  One of the best of the local histories.
+
+Vol. 1, book iii. Account of Canterbury Church difficulties and of the
+Clevelands.
+
+----Historic Gleanings in Windham County, Connecticut.  Providence,
+1899.
+
+Levermore, Charles H. The Republic of New Haven.  Also in Johns
+Hopkins University Studies, extra vol. i.  Baltimore, 1886.
+
+Litchfleld Book of Days, A collection of the historical, biographical
+and literary reminiscences of Litchfleld, Connecticut. Edited by
+George C. Boswell. Litchfield, 1899.
+
+Litchfleld County Centennial Celebration, August 13-14,
+1851. Hartford, 1851.
+
+Loomis (Dwight) and Calhoun (J. Gilbert). The Judicial and Civil
+History of Connecticut. Boston, 1895.
+
+Orcutt, Samuel. History of New Milford and Bridgewater, Connecticut,
+1703-1882. Hartford, 1882.
+
+----History of Old Town of Derby. Springfield, 1880.
+
+  "Prepared with great fidelity and thoroughness, and to take rank
+  with the best town histories," wrote Noah Porter on Feb. 1,
+  1880. Biography and Genealogy, pp. 523-785.
+
+----History of the Old Town of Stratford and the City of
+Bridgeport. New Haven, 1886. 2 pts.
+
+The Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates from the states of
+Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, the Counties of Cheshire and
+Grafton in the State of New Hampshire and the County of Windham in the
+State of Vermont convened at Hartford in the State of Connecticut,
+December 15, 1814. Hartford, 1815.
+
+Sanford, Elias B. A History of Connecticut. Hartford, 1887.
+
+A school history.
+
+Selleck, Charles M. History of Norwalk. Norwich, 1886.
+
+Statistical Account of the Towns and Parishes in the State of
+Connecticut, published by Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences,
+vol. i, no. 1. New Haven, 1811.
+
+Steiner, Bernard Christian. A History of the Plantation of Menunkatuck
+and of the Original Town of Guilford, Connecticut (present towns of
+Guilford and Madison) written largely from the manuscripts of The Hon.
+Ralph Dunning Smyth. Baltimore, 1897.
+
+  The book draws upon the preceding histories of Guilford, namely that
+  of the Rev. Thomas Kuggles, Jr., and the later sketch of Guilford
+  and Madison by Daniel Dudley Field, first written in 1827 for the
+  Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. It was revised by
+  R. D. Smyth in 1840 and published in 1877 after his
+  death. Mr. Sterner has added matter derived from a study of the town
+  records and other sources, making a history that covers all points
+  of development.
+
+----Governor William Leete and the absorption of New Haven by the
+Colony of Connecticut. American Historical Association, Annual Report,
+1891, pp. 209-222.
+
+----History of Slavery in Connecticut. (See Johns Hopkins Historical
+Studies, ii, 30 et seq.) Baltimore, 1893.
+
+Stiles, Ezra. A Discourse on the Christian Union. Brookfield, 1799.
+
+----The Literary Diary of Ezra Stiles, edited under the authority of
+the corporation of Yale University by F. B. Dexter, M. A. New York,
+1901. 3 vols.
+
+Stiles, Henry Reed. Ancient Windsor. Hartford, 1891.  2 vols.
+
+Swift, Zephaniah. System of the Laws of the State of
+Connecticut. Windham, 1795.
+
+Trumbull, Benjamin. A Complete History of Connecticut, Civil and
+Ecclesiastical, 1639 to 1713, continued to 1764. New Haven, 1818. 2
+vols.
+
+  Reprint with Introductory Notes and Index by Jonathan Trumbull. New
+  London, 1898.
+
+Trumbull, J. Hammond (Editor). Hartford County Memorial
+History. Hartford, 1886. 2 vols.
+
+Vol. i, part i, The County of Hartford treated topically, as early
+history, the colonial period, "Bench and Bar," "Medical History,"
+etc. Part ii, Hartford, Town and City. Vol. ii, Brief Histories of the
+different towns.
+
+Trumbull, J. Hammond. Historical Notes of the Constitutions of
+Connecticut, 1639 to 1818; and Progress of the Movement which resulted
+in the Convention of 1818, and the Adoption of the present
+Constitution.  Hartford, 1873. Reprinted by order of State
+Comptroller, Hartford, 1901.
+
+----Origin and Early Progress of Indian Missions in New
+England. Worcester, 1874.
+
+----Defense of Stonington (Connecticut) against a British
+Squadron. Hartford, 1864.
+
+----The True Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven and the False Blue
+Laws invented by the Rev.  Samuel Peters. To which are added specimens
+of the Laws of other Colonies and some of the Blue Laws of
+England. Hartford, 1876.
+
+----List of Books printed in Connecticut, 1709-1800 (edited by his
+daughter Annie E. Trumbull). The list contains 1741 titles and also a
+list of printers. Hartford, 1904.
+
+Webster, Noah. Collection of Papers on Political, Literary and Moral
+Subjects. New York, 1843.
+
+5. LOCAL BIOGRAPHIES
+
+Bacon, Leonard. Sketch of Life and Public Services of James
+Hillhouse. New Haven, 1860.
+
+Blake, B.L. Gurdon Saltonstall. In New London Historical Society
+Papers, part 5, vol. i.
+
+Dexter, Franklin B. Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Yale. 3
+vols. May, 1701-May, 1745; New York, 1885. May, 1745-May, 1763; New
+York, 1896. May, 1763-May, 1778; New York, 1903.
+
+Kilbourne, P. K. Biographical History of the County of Litchfield. New
+York, 1851.
+
+Mitchell, Donald G. American Lands and Letters. 3 vols.
+
+  First volume, for early newspapers, the Hartford Wits and literati
+  of the colonial period.
+
+Sprague, W. B. Annals of the American Pulpit. New York, 1857-69. 9
+vols.
+
+  Biographical Sketches in chronological order, contributed by 540
+  writers of sectarian prominence, and with intent to show development
+  of churches and the power of character.
+
+Vols. i and ii, Trinitarian-Congregationalists. Vols. iii and iv,
+Presbyterian. Vol. v, Episcopalians (reference for the Episcopal
+Republican coalition in 1818 in Connecticut). Vol. vi, Baptists.
+Vol. vii, Methodists. Vol. viii, Unitarians. Vol. ix, Lutherans, Dutch
+Reformed, etc.
+
+Tyler, Moses Coit. Three Men of Letters (George Berkeley, Timothy
+Dwight and Joel Barlow). New York and London, 1895.
+
+
+B. CONNECTICUT NEWSPAPERS
+
+_w_. abbreviation for weekly
+
+HARTFORD
+
+American Mercury, _w_. Anti-Federal.
+
+  Founded July 12, 1784, with Joel Barlow, editor, and Elisha Babcock,
+  publisher. In 1833 merged into the Independent Press.
+
+  Yale University Library has a file practically complete to 1828,
+  only 20 numbers missing.
+
+Connecticut Courant. _w_. Federal, Whig, Republican.
+
+  Founded 1764, by Thomas Green as organ of the Loyal Sons of Liberty;
+  later supported Washington and Adams; continued as the weekly and
+  now daily Hartford Courant. Said to be the oldest newspaper still
+  published in the United States.  Connecticut Courant and the Weekly
+  Hartford Intelligencer, 1774.
+
+  Connecticut Courant and the Weekly Intelligencer, Feb.  1781.
+
+  The latter part of title dropped March 21, 1791.
+
+  In 1837 the Daily Courant was established. This paper bought out the
+  Independent Press (which in turn had absorbed the American Mercury);
+  and the staff of the Press, including Charles Dudley Warner,
+  Gen. J. K. Hawley and Stephen A. Hubbard, joined William
+  H. Goodrich, who was the business manager of the Couraut.
+
+Connecticut Mirror, _w_. Federal.
+
+  Founded July 10, 1809, by Charles Hosmer, publisher. During the War
+  of 1812, it was the organ of the "extreme right" of the Federal
+  party. It was continued until about 1835.
+
+  Yale University Library contains an almost complete file up to 1831.
+
+Times. _w_. Democratic-Republican.
+
+  Founded Jan., 1817, with Frederick D. Bolles, publisher, and
+  M. Niles, editor. Its slogan was "Toleration" and the New
+  Constitution.
+
+  March 2,1841, it became the Daily Times, and still continues.
+
+NEW HAVEN
+
+Columbian Register, _w_. Democrat.
+
+  Founded Dec. 1, 1812, Joseph Barber, publisher, to give "proceedings
+  of Congress, latest news from Europe and history of New England,
+  particularly of Connecticut." Daily edition, 1845; Sunday edition,
+  1877.
+
+  Yale University has a continuous file.
+
+The Connecticut Gazette, _w_.
+
+  Printed by James Parker, April, 1755. Suspended April 14,1764.
+  Eevived by Benjamin Mecom, July 5, 1765. Ended Feb. 19, 1768.
+
+Connecticut Herald, _w_. Federal, Republican.
+
+  Founded 1803, by Corostock, Griswold & Co., publishers, Thomas Green
+  Woodward, editor. A Daily Herald, issued Nov. 16,1832.  In 1835 its
+  publishers, Woodward & Carrington, bought the Connecticut Journal.
+  The Daily Herald and Journal of 1846 soon became, by buying out the
+  Courier, The Morning Journal and Courier, as now, and its weekly
+  edition, the Connecticut Herald.
+
+  Yale University has a continuous file.
+
+The Connecticut Journal and New Haven Post Boy. _w_.  Federal.
+
+  Founded 1767 by Thomas and Samuel Green. It was started about four
+  months before the Connecticut Gazette (New Haven).  It failed April
+  7,1835, and was sold to Woodward & Carrington, owners of the Daily
+  Herald.
+
+  The title "and New Haven Post Boy" was omitted about 1775. It was
+  known in 1799, for a few months only, as the Connecticut Journal and
+  Weekly Advertiser, and in 1809, for a few months only, as the
+  Connecticut Journal and Advertiser.
+
+  Yale's file dates from 1774 to 1835.
+
+The New Haven Gazette and the Connecticut Magazine, _w_.  Meigs &
+Dana, Feb. 16, 1786-1798.
+
+NEW LONDON
+
+The Connecticut Post and New Haven Visitor, _w_.
+
+  Founded Oct. 30, 1802, as the Visitor; title changed Nov. 3, 1803.
+  Ended its existence about Nov. 8, 1834.
+
+The New London Gazette, _w_. (Connecticut Gazette.)
+
+  Founded by Timothy Green, November, 1763. The earlier Connecticut
+  Gazette, published at New Haven, April, 1755-April 14, 1763, having
+  ended February, 1768, the New London Gazette adopted the New Haven
+  paper's name. The firm became Timothy Green & Son, 1789-1794. Samuel
+  Green (the son) conducted the paper to 1841, except the year 1805,
+  and from 1838 to 1840. Known as the Connecticut and Universal
+  Intelligencer, Dec. 10, 1773-May 11, 1787.
+
+  Yale University flies are from 1765 to 1828, except 1775, '76, '77,
+  and '78.
+
+OUTSIDE OF CONNECTICUT
+
+Niles' Weekly Register, _w_. Baltimore, 1811-1849.
+
+  It was known from 1811 to 1814 as the Weekly Register; from 1814 to
+  August, 1837, as Niles' Weekly Register, and from 1837 to 1849 as
+  Niles' National Register. It devoted itself to the record of public
+  events, essays and documents dealing with political, historical,
+  statistical, economic and biographical matter.
+
+
+C. PUBLIC RECORDS AND OTHERS TOUCHING UPON CONNECTICUT HISTORY
+
+New Haven Colonial Records, ed. by C. J. Hoadly. 2 vols.  1638-1649;
+1653-1664. Hartford, 1857-58.
+
+Connecticut, Colonial Records of, ed. by C. J. Hoadly and J. Hammond
+Trumbull. 15 vols. 1635-1776,.  Hartford, 1850-90.
+
+State of Connecticut, Records of the, ed. by C. J. Hoadly.  2
+vols. 1776-1778; 1778-1780. Hartford, 1894-95.
+
+United Colonies of New England, Records of the, in vol.  ii. of
+E. Hazard's "Historical Collections consisting of State Papers and
+other authentic Documents, etc."
+
+Plymouth Colony, Records of, ed. by N. R. Shurtleff and
+D. Pulsifer. 12 vols. Boston, 1855-61.
+
+Records of the General Association of Connecticut, June 20, 1738, June
+19, 1799; Hartford, 1888. 8 vols.
+
+Minutes of Proceedings of the General Association, 1818, on.
+
+Proceedings of Connecticut Missionary Society, 1801-1819.
+
+Report of the Superintendent of Common Schools of Connecticut, 1853.
+
+  This annual report has a detailed account of the Western Land Bill
+  appropriations, pp. 64-108.
+
+The Constitutions of Connecticut, with Notes and Statistics regarding
+Town Representation in the General Assembly, and Documents relating to
+the Constitutional Convention of 1902. Printed by Order of the State
+Comptroller. Hartford, 1901.
+
+The Code of 1650. In Hinman's "Antiquities of Connecticut."
+
+The Public Statute Laws of the State of Connecticut.  Hartford, 1808.
+
+Acts and Laws, 1784-1794. (Supplements to Oct., 1795, laid in.) New
+London, 1784.
+
+Acts and Laws, 1811-1821.
+
+
+D. HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS
+
+American Historical Association Annual Report. 1889-1904.
+
+Connecticut Historical Society Collections. 8 vols.
+
+  Especially vol. i, Extract from Hooker's Sermon. Vol. ii, Hartford
+  Church Papers. Vol. iii, Extract from Letter to the Rev.  Thomas
+  Prince. Vols. v and vi, Talcott Papers.
+
+Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792-1904.  64 vols.
+
+  Volumes containing the Mather, Sewall, and Winthrop Papers were
+  especially useful.
+
+Narragansett Club Publications. Providence, 1866. 6 vols.
+
+The Correspondence of Roger Williams and John Cotton, vols.  i and ii.
+
+New Haven Colony Historical Society Papers. 6 vols.
+
+Rhode Island Historical Society Collections. 8 vols. 1827-92.
+Proceedings, 4 vols., 1871-92, and Publications, 1892, onwards.
+
+MANUSCRIPTS
+
+Judge Church's MS. in New Haven Historical Society Library.
+
+A sketch prepared for the historian Hollister.
+
+Manuscript Records of the Newport Yearly Meeting, deposited in the
+Friends' School, Providence, R. I.
+
+Manuscript Minutes of the Hartford North Association, deposited in
+Yale library.
+
+Stiles, Ezra. Itinerary and Memoirs, 1760-1794, deposited in Yale
+College.
+
+
+E. DENOMINATIONAL LITERATURE
+
+1. BAPTIST
+
+Asplund, John. The Annual Register of the Baptist Denomination in
+North America ... to Nov. 1,1790; containing an account of the
+Churches and their Constitutions, Ministers, Members, Associations,
+their Plan and Sentiments, Rule and Order, Proceedings and
+Correspondence.  Worcester, 1791-94.
+
+Backus, Isaac. A History of New England with Particular Reference to
+the Denomination of Christians called Baptists. Newton, Mass., 1871. 2
+vols.
+
+  This edition by D. Weston includes Isaac Backus' prefaces to vol. i,
+  finished 1777; vol. ii, 1784; and vol iii, 1796.
+
+  This contemporary writer is regarded as an authority, as much of his
+  work was founded upon the court, town, and church records and upon
+  the minutes of ecclesiastical councils. He searched diligently the
+  records of Plymouth, Taunton, Boston, Essex, Providence, Newport,
+  Hartford and New Haven. The book has a chronological record of the
+  Connecticut churches. It is very discursive.
+
+Benedict, David. A General History of the Baptist Denomination in
+America and other parts of the world.  Boston, 1813.
+
+  This contains a more complete list of the associations and churches
+  than that given by Backus. There is a valuable chapter, "Baptist
+  Communities who differ from the main body of the denomination and
+  who are also distinguished by some peculiarities of their own."
+
+Burrage, Henry S. A History of the Baptists in New
+England. Philadelphia, 1894.
+
+  Particularly useful in tracing the progress of the denomination in
+  the different states, and in its contribution to the history of
+  religious liberty.
+
+Cathcart, William (Editor). The Baptist Encyclopedia: A Dictionary of
+the Doctrines ... of the Baptist Denomination in all
+Lands. Philadelphia, 1883. 2 vols.
+
+Curtis, Thomas F. The Progress of Baptist Principles in the Last
+Hundred Years. Boston, 1856.
+
+Denison, Frederic. Notes of the Baptists and their Principles in
+Norwich. Norwich, 1859.
+
+  This contains the famous Separatist Petition to the King in 1756.
+
+Guild, Reuben A. History of Brown University, with Illustrated
+Documents. Providence, 1867.
+
+Hovey, Alvah. A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Reverend Isaac
+Backus, A. M. Boston, 1858.
+
+Newman, Albert H. A History of the Baptist Churches in the United
+States. New York, 1894.
+
+2. CONGREGATIONALIST
+
+A Confession of Faith, Owned and Consented to by the Elders and
+Messengers of the Churches in the Colony of Connecticut in New England
+Assembled by Delegates at Saybrook, Sept. 9, 1708.
+
+  First Edition (first book printed in Connecticut), New London, 1710.
+
+  Second Edition, New London, 1760, with Heads of Agreement; Edition
+  of Hartford, 1831. [a]
+
+A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion
+of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton and the Neighboring Towns.... In
+a letter to the Rev'd. Doctor Benjamin Colman of Boston, written by
+the Rev'd. Mr. Edwards, Minister of Northampton, on Nov. 6,
+1736. London, 1737.
+
+Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, D. D. New York, 1864. 3vols.
+
+  Especially valuable for the attitude of the Congregational clergy
+  during the first constitutional reform movement in Connecticut.
+
+Bacon, Leonard. The Genesis of the New England Churches. New York,
+1874.
+
+----Thirteen Historical Discourses, on completion of Two Hundred Years
+from the beginning of the First Church, New Haven. New Haven, 1839.
+
+Baldwin, Simeon E. Ecclesiastical Constitution of Yale College. In New
+Haven Historical Society's Papers, vol. iii.
+
+Contributions to the Ecclesiastical History of Connecticut: prepared
+under the direction of the General Association, to commemorate the
+completion of one hundred and fifty years since its first annual
+Assembly. New Haven, 1861.
+
+  See under L. Bacon, the history of David Brainerd.
+
+Barrowe, Henry. Answer to Mr. Gifford.
+
+----A Briefe Discoverie of the False Church. Date, 1590. London
+ed. 1707.
+
+----A True Description of the Word of God, of the Visible Church, 1589.
+
+Briggs, Charles Augustus. American Presbyterianism: Its Origin and
+Early History. New York, 1885.
+
+Browne, Robert. An Answer to Master Cartwright His Letter for Joyning
+with the English Churches. London, 1585.
+
+----A True and Short Declaration. Middelburg, 1584.
+
+----A Treatise of Reformation without tarrying. Middelburg, 1582.
+
+----The Book which Sheweth the life and manners of all true Christians,
+and how unlike they are unto Turkes and Papists and Heathen folk. Also
+the pointes and partes of all Divinitie that is of the revealed will
+and words of God, and declared by their severall Definitions and
+Divisions in order as followeth. Middelburg, 1582.
+
+Browne, Robert. "A New Years Guift:" an hitherto lost
+treatise. (Letter of Dec. 31, 1588, to his uncle, M.  Flower.) Edited
+by Champlin Burrage. London, 1904.
+
+Clap, Thomas. Religious Constitution of Colleges, with Special
+Reference to Yale. New London, 1754.
+
+Cotton, John. Civil Magistrates Power in Matters of Religion.  London,
+1655.
+
+----The Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and Powers thereof according to
+the Word of God. London, 1644.
+
+----Questions and Answers upon Church Government.  London, 1713.
+
+----Way of the Churches of Christ in New England.  London, 1645.
+
+----Way of the Congregational Churches Cleared. London, 1648.
+
+Cotton, John. In title, but a misprint for:--
+
+Davenport, John. A Discourse about Civil Government in a New
+Plantation whose design is Religion, written many years
+since. Cambridge, 1643.
+
+Dexter, Henry Martyn. The Congregationalism of the last Three Hundred
+Years: as seen in its Literature with special reference to certain
+Recondite, Neglected or Disputed Passages. New York, 1880.
+
+Lectures, with Bibliography of over 7000 titles and Index. An
+historical review of Congregationalism from its earliest forms to the
+last half of the nineteenth century.
+
+----History of Congregationalists. Hartford, 1894.  Brief popular
+history.
+
+----Story of the Pilgrims. Boston and Chicago, 1894.  Dunning, Albert
+E. Congregationalists in America. New York, 1894.
+
+Dutton, S. M. S. History of the North Church, New Haven, from its
+Formation in May 1742, during the Great Awakening, to the Completion
+of the Century, in May 1842. New Haven, 1842.
+
+Edwards, Jonathan. Works of, with Memoir by S. E.  Dwight. New York,
+1829. 10 vols.
+
+Fisher, George P. Discourses ... Church of Christ in Yale College,
+November 22, 1857. New Haven, 1858.
+
+Frequent citations from the diaries of the Cleveland brothers.
+
+Fitch, Thomas. Explanation of the Saybrook Platform.  The Principles
+of the Consociated Churches in Connecticut; Collected from the Plan of
+Union. By one that heartily desires the Order, Peace and Purity of
+these Churches. Hartford, 1765.
+
+Hobart, Noah. An Attempt to illustrate and confirm the Ecclesiastical
+Constitution of the Consociated Churches in the Colony of
+Connecticut. New Haven, 1765.
+
+Hooker, Richard. Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.  London, 1648.
+
+Hooker, Thomas. Survey of the Summe of Church Discipline.  London,
+1648.
+
+Lechford, Thomas. Plaine Dealing. London, 1642.
+
+Letter of Many Ministers in Old England requesting the Judgment of
+their Brethren in New England concerning Nine Positions
+... 1637.... Together with their Answer thereunto returned Anno 1639
+(by J. Davenport).  London, 1643.
+
+Mather, Cotton. Magualia Christi Americana; or, The Ecclesiastical
+History of New England 1620-1698.  London, 1702. Hartford, 1855. 2
+vols.
+
+----Ratio Discipline Fratrum Nov-Anglorum; A Faithful Account of the
+Discipline Professed and Practised in the Churches of New
+England. Boston, 1726.  Mather, Richard. Church Government and Church
+Covenant Discussed. London, 1643.
+
+Prince, Thomas. The Christian History of the Revival and Propagation
+of Religion. Boston, 1743.
+
+Purchard, George. History of Congregationalism from about 250 A. D. to
+1616. New York and Boston, 1865-1888.  5 vols.
+
+Walker, George Leon. History of the First Church of
+Hartford. Hartford, 1884.
+
+----Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England with special
+reference to Congregationalists. New York, Boston and Chicago, 1897.
+
+Walter, Williston. The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism.  New
+York, 1893.
+
+----A History of the Congregational Churches in the United
+States. (American Church History Series).  New York, 1894.
+
+White, Daniel Appleton. New England Congregationalism in its Origin
+and Purity: illustrated by the foundation and early records of First
+Church in Salem. Salem, 1861.
+
+Wolcott, Roger. A Letter to Rev. Mr. Noah Hobart.  [The New English
+Congregational Churches....  Consociated Churches.] Boston, 1761.
+
+3. EPISCOPALIAN
+
+Beardsley, E. Edwards, D. D. History of the Episcopal Church in
+Connecticut. New York, 1865-68. 2 vols.
+
+  An account of the church in Connecticut with strong church bias and
+  inclination to excuse the Tory sentiments of the early
+  rectors. Second volume gives the Episcopal side of the "Toleration"
+  conflict of 1817-18. Much interesting detail.
+
+Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register. In American Quarterly
+Church Review, vol. x, p. 116. New Haven and New York, 1848-91.
+
+Collections of the Protestant Episcopal Historical Society, The. New
+York, 1851-53. 2 vols.
+
+  These MSS. are found in Perry and Hawks's Documentary History, and
+  include a valuable article on the Episcopate before the Revolution,
+  by F. L. Hawks, also "Thoughts upon the present state of the Church
+  of England in the Colonies," [1764] by an unknown contemporary.
+
+Cross, Arthur Lyon. The History of the Anglican Episcopate and the
+American Colonies. New York and London, 1902.
+
+Hawkins, E. Historical Notices of the Missions of the Church of
+England in the North American Colonies.  London, 1845.
+
+Chiefly drawn from MS. documents of the Society for the Propagation of
+the Gospel.
+
+Hawks (Frances Lister) and Perry (William Stevens).  Documentary
+History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United
+States. Containing ... documents concerning the Church in
+Connecticut. New York, 1863-34. 2vols.
+
+See Perry, William Stevens.
+
+McConnell, Samuel Davis. History of the American Episcopal Church. New
+York, 1890.
+
+  A brief general history with a number of pages devoted to the
+  attempts to establish the Episcopate in America and to the political
+  hostility that it roused.
+
+Perry, William Stevens (Bishop of Iowa). [See F. L.  Hawks.]
+Documentary History of the Protestant Episcopal Church. New York,
+1863-64. 2 vols.
+
+  Unbiased; arranged under topical heads; has illustrated monographs
+  by different authors; illustrations, including facsimiles; and also
+  critical notes, frequently referring to original sources. It
+  contains many letters from the missions established by the London
+  Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
+
+Shaw, W. A. A History of the Church of England.  2 vols.
+
+4. METHODIST
+
+Asbury's (Francis) Journal. New York, 1821. 3 vols.  A brief diary of
+all Bishop Asbury's American journeys: Vols.  ii and iii concern New
+England, with comments on his surroundings, his preaching and the
+people.
+
+Bangs, Nathan. History of the Methodist Episcopal Church. New York,
+1841-45. 4 vols.
+
+Clark, Edgar F. The Methodist Episcopal Churches of Norwich. Norwich,
+1867.
+
+  Convenient secondary authority gives, pp. 6-21, a connected account
+  of the early days of Connecticut Methodism.
+
+Scudder, Moses Lewis. American Methodism. Hartford, 1870.
+
+  General attitude of New England towards the introduction of
+  Methodism.
+
+Stevens, Abel. Memorials of the Introduction of Methodism into the
+Eastern States. Boston, 1848.
+
+  Biographical notices of the early preachers, sketches of the earlier
+  societies, and reminiscences of struggles and successes.  "Some
+  account of every Methodist preacher who was regularly appointed to
+  New England during the first five years" of New England Methodism,
+  derived from original sources, letters, and from books now out of
+  print. The fullest account of Connecticut Methodists. It contains
+  frequent citations from Jesse Lee's diary.
+
+  Appendix A contains valuable statistics; appendix B has a scurrilous
+  pamphlet, "A Key to unlock Methodism, or Academical Hubbub," etc.,
+  published in Norwich, 1800.
+
+----The Centenary of American Methodism: a Sketch of its History,
+Theology, Practical System, and Success.  New York, 1866.
+
+----The History of the Religious Movement of the Eighteenth Century,
+called Methodism. New York, 1858-61. 3 vols.
+
+5. QUAKERS, OR THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
+
+Besse, Joseph. A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called
+Quakers, for the Testimony of a Good Conscience, etc., to the year
+1689. London, 1753. 2 vols.
+
+  Vol. ii contains a full account of their persecutions, together with
+  copies of the proceedings against them and letters from the
+  sufferers.
+
+Bowden, James. History of the Society of Friends in America. New York
+and London, 1845. 2 vols.
+
+  A history of the sect throughout New England, containing many short
+  biographies. It is fair and frank in its record of New England
+  persecutions. The author adopts the unique plea that the excesses of
+  the converts were inspired by the Holy Spirit as a reproof to their
+  persecutors for the kind of persecution and punishment that was
+  meted out to innocent persons.
+
+Evans, Charles. Friends in the Seventeenth Century.  Philadelphia,
+1876.
+
+Gough, John. History of the People called Quakers.  Dublin, 1789-90. 4
+vols.
+
+Hallowell, Richard Price. The Pioneer Quakers. Boston and New York,
+1887.
+
+Manuscript Records of Early Newport Yearly (Friends') Meetings--at
+Friends' School, Providence, R. I.
+
+Minutes of meetings, reports of cases of oppression, of converts, etc.
+
+Sewel, William. The History of the Rise, Increase and Progress of the
+Christian People called Quakers, Intermixed with Several Remarkable
+Occurrences. Written originally in Low Dutch by W. S. and by himself
+translated into English.
+
+  1st ed., Amsterdam, 1717; 2d ed., London, 1722; 3d ed., 1725, 2
+  vols. Philadelphia, 1728, etc. New York, 1844. [a]
+
+Wagstaff, William R. History of the Friends (compiled from standard
+records and authentic sources). New York and London, 1845.
+
+  A defense of the excesses in Quaker eccentricities as religious
+  enthusiasm in persons who were driven by persecution to the verge of
+  madness. A similar view is expressed by R. P.  Hallowell and by
+  Brooks Adams in his "Emancipation of Massachusetts."
+
+
+F. TRACTS (RELIGIOUS, POLITICAL OR BOTH)
+
+Of these, several titles that are found at full length either in the
+text or footnotes are omitted here. Many more might have been added,
+but it is thought best to omit them because of their cumbrous titles,
+their scant interest to the average reader, and their inaccessibility,
+being found only in the largest libraries or among rare Americana. For
+similar reasons, works strictly theological in character are also not
+listed. Any sizable library possesses a copy of H. M. Dexter's
+"Congregationalism as seen in the Literature of the last Three Hundred
+Years." Its bibliography of over 7000 titles gives all the religious,
+ecclesiastical or politico-ecclesiastical tracts, and theological
+works touching upon Congregationalism. Yale University library has a
+large amount of the Americana collected by Mr. Dexter.
+
+Trumbull's list of books published in Connecticut before 1800 gives
+the titles of books and pamphlets of strictly local import
+
+The Baptist Confession of Faith; first put forth in 1648; afterwards
+enlarged, corrected and published by an Assembly of Delegates (from
+the churches in Great Britain) met in London, July 3, 1689; adopted by
+the Association at Philadelphia, September 22, 1742, and now received
+by churches of the same denomination in most of the American States,
+to which is added a System of Church Discipline. Portland, 1794.
+
+Bartlett, Moses. False and Seducing Teachers. New London, 1757.
+
+Beecher, Lyman. Sermon. A Reformation of Morals practicable and
+indispensible. ... New Haven, 1813.  Andover, 1814.
+
+Bishop, Abraham. Connecticut Republicanism. An Oration on the extent
+and power of Political Delusion.  Delivered in New Haven, September,
+1800.
+
+----Proofs of a Conspiracy against Christianity and the Government of
+the United States; exhibited in several views of the Church and State
+in New England. Hartford, 1802.
+
+----The Oration in honor of the election of President Jefferson and the
+peaceful acquisition of Louisiana, 1801.
+
+Bishop, George. New England Judged, Not by Man's, but the Spirit of
+the Lord: And the Summe sealed up of New England's Persecutions. Being
+a Brief Relation of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers in
+these Parts. London, 1661.
+
+Bolles, John. Concerning the Christian Sabbath. 1757.
+
+----To Worship God in Spirit and in Truth is True Liberty of
+Conscience. 1756.
+
+----A Relation of the Opposition which some Baptist People met at
+Norwich. 1761.
+
+Booth, Abraham. Essay on Kingdom of Christ. London, 1788. New London,
+1801. [a]
+
+  American edition edited by John Sterry of the Norwich "True
+  Republican," together with notes containing his strictures on the
+  Connecticut and English Established Church.
+
+Bragge, Robert. Church Discipline. London, 1739. Republished, New
+London, 1768. [a]
+
+"A Defence of simple Congregationalism and disestablishment."
+
+Browne, Joseph. Principles of Baptism. A Letter to Infant Baptisers in
+the North Parish of New London.  New London, 1767.
+
+  Quoted by Rev. E. H. Gillett, Hist. Mag. 2d series, vol. iv, p. 28.
+
+Browne, Robert. A Treatise of reformation without tarrying for
+Magistrates and of the wickednesse of those Preachers which will not
+reforme till the Magistrates commande or compell them. Middelburg,
+1582.  Only three copies known. Reprint at Boston and London.
+
+Chauncy, Charles, Rev. Seasonable Thoughts. Boston, 1743.
+
+Treats of the Great Awakening, of which the author was a determined
+opponent.
+
+Clap, Thomas. Brief History and Vindication of the Doctrines received
+and established in the Churches of New England. New Haven, 1755.
+
+Daggett, David. Argument, before the General Assembly of Connecticut,
+Oct. 1804, in the case of Certain Justices of the Peace.... New Haven,
+1804.
+
+----Count the Cost. An Address to the People of Connecticut.... By
+Jonathan Steadfast. Hartford, 1804.
+
+----Facts are Stubborn Things, or Nine Plain Questions to the People of
+Connecticut. By Simon Holdfast.  Hartford, 1803.
+
+----Steady Habits Vindicated. Hartford, 1805.
+
+----Sun-Beams may be extracted from Cucumbers, but the process is
+tedious. An Oration, pronounced 4 July, 1799.... New Haven, 1799.
+
+Darling, Thomas. Some Remarks on President Clap's "History and
+Vindication." New Haven, 1757.
+
+Foster, Isaac. Defence of Religious Liberty. Worcester, 1779.
+
+Frothingham, Ebenezer. A Key to unlock the Door, That leads in, to
+take a Fair View of the Religious Constitution, Established by Law, in
+the Colony of Connecticut ... with a short Observation upon the
+Explanation of Saybrook Plan, etc. and Mr. Hobart's attempt
+etc. Reviewing R. Ross, Plain Address. Boston, 1767.
+
+Hobart, Noah. An Attempt to Illustrate and Confirm the Ecclesiastical
+Covenant of the Connecticut Churches,--occasioned by a late
+Explanation of the Saybrook Platform. New Haven, 1765.
+
+Holly, Israel. A Plea in Zion's Behalf: The Censured Memorial made
+Public ... to which is added a few Brief Remarks upon ... an Act for
+Exempting ...  Separatists from Taxes, etc. 1765.
+
+  Quoted by Rev. E. H. Glllett, Hist. Mag., 2d series, vol. iv.
+
+Huntington, R. (Editor). Review of the Ecclesiastical Establishments
+of Europe (by William Graham).  1808.
+
+  Special reference to the bearing of the book on the Connecticut
+  Establishment, and particularly upon its Parish System.
+
+Judd, William. Address to the People of the State of Connecticut, on
+the removal of himself and four other Justices from Office.... New
+Haven, 1804.
+
+Leland, John. A Blow at the Root. Being a fashionable Fast-Day
+Sermon. New London, 1801.
+
+----The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box: No. I.  Containing, The
+High-flying Churchman stript of his legal Robe appears a Yaho. New
+London, 1802.
+
+----Van Tromp lowering his Peak with a Broadside: Containing a plea for
+the Baptists of Connecticut. Danbury, 1803.
+
+----The Rights of Conscience inalienable; ... Or, The high-flying
+Churchman, stript of his legal Robe, appears a Yaho.
+
+  See The Connecticut Dissenters' Strong Box.
+
+Martin-Mar-Prelate Tracts. See H. M. Dexter's Congregationalism as
+seen in Literature, Lecture iii, pp.  131-205.
+
+Norton, John. The Heart of New England rent at the Blasphemies of the
+Present Generation. Or a brief Tractate concerning the Doctrine of the
+Quakers etc.  Cambridge, New England, 1659.
+
+Paine, Solomon. A Short View of the Difference between the Church of
+Christ, and the established Churches in the Colony of Connecticut in
+their Foundation and Practice with their Ends: being a Word of Warning
+to several Ranks of Profession; and likewise Comfort to the Ministers
+and Members of the Church of Christ.  1752.
+
+Richards, George H. The Politics of Connecticut; by a Federal
+Republican. New London, 1817.
+
+Rogers, John. A Midnight Cry from the Temple of God to the Ten
+Virgins. See F. M. Caulkins' History of New London, pp. 202-221.
+
+----John Rogers, A Servant of Jesus Christ ... giving a Description of
+True Shepherds of Christ's Flocks and also of the Anti-Christian
+Ministry. 4th ed. Norwich, 1776.
+
+----New London Prison.
+
+  See F. H. Gillett, Hist. Mag., 2d series, vol. iv.
+
+Ross, Robert. Plain Address to the Quakers, Moravians, Separatists,
+Separate Baptists, Rogerines, and other Enthusiasts on Immediate
+Impulses and Revelations, etc. New Haven, 1752.
+
+Stiles, Ezra. A Discourse on Christian Union. (Appendix containing a
+list of New England Churches. A. D.  1760.) Boston, 1761.
+
+Stoddard, Solomon. The Doctrine of Instituted Churches Explained and
+Proved from the Word of God. 1700.  Webster, Noah. A Rod for the
+Fool's Back. New Haven, 1800.
+
+Being a reply to Abraham Bishop.
+
+Williams, Nathan. An Inquiry Concerning the Design and Importance of
+Christian Baptism and Discipline.  Hartford, 1792.
+
+Wolcott, Roger. The New-English Congregational Churches are and always
+have been Consociated Churches, and their Liberties greater and better
+founded, in their Platform of Church Discipline agreed to at
+Cambridge, 1648, than what is contained at Saybrook, 1705,
+etc. Boston, 1761.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[a] This is the edition referred to in text.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Development of Religious Liberty
+in Connecticut, by M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN CONNECTICUT ***
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