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Lyman Beecher's Long Road to Conservative Abolitionism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

J. Earl Thompson Jr
Affiliation:
Associate professor of church history in the Andover Newton Thelogical School

Extract

Lyman Beecher's approach to antislavery reform has received remarkably little attention from historians. No thorough study has been made of his attitudes toward chattel slavery, the methods he advanced to ameliorate or eradicate it, and his feelings toward free blacks and their future in America. The interpretations that have been proposed have been deficient in design, superficial in exposition and misleading in conclusion.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1973

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References

1. Although Vincent Harding has not attempted a systematic analysis of Beecher's antislavery thought, he has offered some valuable insights in the course of his intellectual biography of Beecher. “Lyman Beecher and the Transformation of American Protestantism” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Chicago, 1965), passim.Google Scholar

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13. For an astute interpretation of the themes of subversion and counter-subversion in pre-Civil War America, see Davis, David Brion, “Some Themes of Counter-Subversion: An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 47 (09, 1960), pp. 205–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Davis, David Brion, “Some Ideological Functions of Prejudice in Ante-Bellum AmericaAmerican Quarterly, 15 (Summer, 1963), pp. 115–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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29. Ibid., p. 394.

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33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. Ibid., p. 283.

36. Professor George M. Frederickson's interpretation of colonization confirms this conclusion of my own independent research. The Black Image in the White Mind, pp. 1–21.

37. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 281Google Scholar. For interesting comparisons, see The Christian Spectator, 5 (09, 1823), pp. 485493 and 10 (11, 1828), p. 495Google Scholar; Dana, , A Discourse …., pp. 810Google Scholar; Wheeler, John, A Sermon, Preached before the Vermont Colonization Society, at Montpelier, October 25, 1825 (Windsor: W. Spooner, 1825), pp. 5, 1920Google Scholar; and The Quarterly Christian. Spectator, 2 (09, 1830), pp. 470–71 and 5 (06, 1832), p. 326.Google Scholar

38. 10 (July, 1828), p. 368.

39. A Plea for the West (2d ed.; Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1835 and New York: Leavitt, Lord and Co., 1835), p. 39.Google Scholar

40. The Christian Spectator, 5 (10, 1823), p. 547Google Scholar. For example, in the 1820s the free blacks accounted for 1/74 of the population in Massachusetts but 1/6 of the state prison inmates; and in Connecticut, 1/34 of the population but 1/3 of the convicts. The Christian Spectator, 10 (07, 1828), p. 368.Google Scholar

41. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 281.Google Scholar

42. For some discussions of this theme by New England colonizationists, see The Christian Spectator, 5 (09 1823), p. 493Google Scholar; Dana, , A Discourse …, p. 9Google Scholar; Wheeler, , A Sermon …;, pp. 13141920Google Scholar; Address to the Public, by the Managers of the Colonization Society of Connecticut. With an Appendix (New Haven: Treadway and Adams, 1828), pp. 45Google Scholar; Smith, Reuben, Africa Given to Christ: A Sermon Preached before the Vermont Colonization Society, at Montpelier, Oct. 20, 1830 (Burlington: Chauncey Goodrich, 1830), pp. 69Google Scholar; and The Quarterly Christian Spectator, 3 (03, 1831), pp. 5675Google Scholar; 6 (September, 1834), pp. 447–51; and 7 (December, 1835), p. 524.

43. Address to the Public, …, p. 6.

44. Frederickson, , The Black Image in the White Mind, p. 19Google Scholar. See pp. 16–21, 30.

45. Address to the Public, …, p. 5. For a description of the vast discrimination against blacks in free states, see Litwack, Leon F., North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1961).Google Scholar

46. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 282.Google Scholar

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49. “Union of Colonizationists and Abolitionists,” The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), p. 398.Google Scholar

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51. Richards, Leonard L., “Gentlemen of Property and Standing”: Anti-Abolition Mobs in Jacksonian America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 44Google Scholar. Professor Richards has added that for many Northerners “this alternative was as immutable as the law of gravity or the Ten Commandments: if slaves were freed, it followed that the two races must completely separate or wholly merge.” Ibid. See pp. 43–46.

52. A Sermon …, pp. 19–20. This was affirmed by other New England colonizationists, for instance, The Christian Spectator, 5 (10, 1823), pp. 542, 548Google Scholar and The Quarterly Christian Spectator, 4 (06, 1832), p. 327Google Scholar; and 6 (September, 1835), pp. 509–10.

53. The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), p. 398.Google Scholar

54. Ibid., pp. 398–99.

55. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 283.Google Scholar

56. Ibid., p. 280.

57. His first public statement of this position appeared in The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), pp. 396402.Google Scholar

58. Ibid., p. 281.

59. Nathaniel William Taylor, 1786–1858: A Connecticut Liberal (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1942), p. 206.Google Scholar

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61. McLoughlin, William G. Jr, Modern Revivalism: Charles Grandison Finney to Billy Graham (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1959), p. 37.Google Scholar

62. Compare Religious Intelligencer, 12 (07, 1827), pp. 140–41Google Scholar; Beecher, , Sermons …, pp. 289–90Google Scholar; Letters of the Rev. Dr. Beecher and Rev. Mr. Nettleton, on the “New Measures” in Conducting Revivals of Religion. With a Review of a Sermon by Novanglus (New York: G. and C. Carvill, 1828), pp. 9798Google Scholar; Beecher, Lyman, “Propriety and Importance of Efforts to Evangelize the Nation,” The National Preacher, 3 (03, 1829), pp. 153– 54Google Scholar; and The Boston Recorder, 31 (10 15, 1846), p. 166Google Scholar. The best exposition of Beecher's tireless labors in behalf of a cooperative evangelical Protestantism is by Vincent Harding, “Lyman Beecher, …” passim.

63. The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), p. 399Google Scholar. See pp. 399–401.

64. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 279.Google Scholar

65. Ibid., p. 282.

66. Ibid., p. 281. See pp. 281–82.

67. The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), p. 396.Google Scholar

68. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 280.Google Scholar

69. Ibid., p. 281.

70. Ibid., p. 280. See pp. 280–81.

71. Ibid., p. 283.

72. “Statement of the Faculty Concerning the Late Differences at Lane Seminary,” History of the Foundation and Endowment [of Lane Seminary] and Catalogue of the Trustees, Alumni, and Students (Cincinnati, 1848), p. 37.Google Scholar

73. “The Reform of the Racist Religion of the Republic,” in Elwyn A. Smith, ed., The Religion of the Republic (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1971), p. 282Google Scholar. Vincent Harding has written the most thorough and balanced account of the Lane Rebellion. See “Lyman Beecher …,” pp. 487–526.

74. History of the Foundation …, p. 39.

75. Ibid., p. 40.

76. Wyatt-Brown, , Lewis Tappan …, p. 177.Google Scholar

77. For a perceptive treatment of how the concept of the moral government of God was interpreted and used by Timothy Dwight, Nathaniel William Taylor and Lyman Beecher, see Smith, Elwyn A., “The Voluntary Establishment of Religion,” in Elwyn A. Smith, ed., The Religion of the Republic, pp. 154–82.Google Scholar

78. The Spirit of the Pilgrims, 6 (07, 1833), p. 401.Google Scholar

79. The African Repository and Colonial Journal, 10 (11, 1834), p. 282.Google Scholar

80. Ibid.

81. Ibid., p. 281.

82. Beecher, , Works, 1, p. 409.Google Scholar

83. Cross, ed., The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, 2, p. 260.Google Scholar

84. Stowe, Charles Edward and Stowe, Lyman Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe: The Story of Her Life (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911), p. 140.Google Scholar

85. Wyatt-Brown, , Lewis Tappan …, p. 128.Google Scholar

86. The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, 2, pp. 259–60.

87. The New York Evangelist, 7 (07 9, 1836), p. 110Google Scholar. Apart from the claim of abolitionist William Goodell that Beecher masterminded these prohibitory resolutions. I have found no other incriminating evidence. See The Friend of Man, 1 (08 11, 1836), p. 30Google Scholar and Barnes, , The Antislavery Impulse, 1830–1814, pp. 9596Google Scholar. Vincent Harding has argued persuasively that the Reverend Leonard Bacon and Beecher planned this action mainly in order to keep the Reverend Asahel Nettleton and his ilk out of New England pulpits where they could conveniently attack the New Haven theology. “Lyman Beecher …,” pp. 584–86.

88. The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, 2, p. 321. The most recent and convincing discussion of the Presbyterian schism is by Marsden, George M., The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience: A Case Study of Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Century America (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970), Chaps. 3–4Google Scholar. He has demonstrated that slavery was only one causative factor in the division of the Presbyterian Church.

89. Vincent Harding cited an anonymous letter, perhaps written by Beecher. that appeared in the Cincinnati Journal, July 13, 1837, contending that New School Presbyterians would not become radical abolitionists as a result of the schism. “Lyman Beecher …,” p. 604.

90. Birney, James Gillespie to Tappan, Lewis, 07 29, 1837. Letters of James Gillespie Birney, ed. Dumond, Dwight L. (New York and London: D. Appleton - Century Company, 1938), 1, p. 399.Google Scholar

91. Wright, Elizur Jr, to Birney, James Gillespie, 08 14. 1837, Letters of James Gillespie Birney, 1, p. 414.Google Scholar

92. Stanton, H. B. to Birney, James Gillespie, 08 7, 1837, Letters of James Gillespie Birney. 1, p. 411.Google Scholar

93. The Politics of the Universe …, pp. 108–14. I have also found some of Aileen S. Kraditor's comments about conservative abolitionism suggestive. Means and Ends in American Abolitionism: Garrison and His Critics on Strategy and Tactics, 1834–1850 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967).Google Scholar

94. The Church and Slavery. Second edition. (Philadelphia: Parry and McMillan, 1857), p. 167.Google Scholar

95. Ibid., p. 169.

96. Lane Seminary gave sanctuary to some blacks during this riot. Harding, , “Lyman Beecher …,” pp. 573–74.Google Scholar

97. The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher, 2, p. 335. But in a recruitment letter of the Reverend Thomas Brainerd, an Old School Presbyterian leader in Virginia, on May 23, 1840, Beecher also said: “‘Our trustees and faculty are not abolitionists [did he mean radical abolitionists]—and our students are conservatives rather than ultra and young men from the south will not be annoyed here or disqualified for usefulness at home.’” Harding, , “Lyman Beecher …,” p. 624, n. 1.Google Scholar

98. Birney, James Gillespie to Tappan, Lewis, 04 29, 1836, Letters of James Gillespie Birney, 1, p. 321.Google Scholar

99. Howard, Victor B., “The Anti-Slavery Movement in the Presbyterian Church, 1835–1861” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Ohio State University, 1961), pp. 4142.Google Scholar

100. Ibid., pp. 89–90.

101. The Cincinnati Observer, 1 (11 5, 1840).Google Scholar

102. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 3 (11 10, 1842).Google Scholar

103. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 1 (05 13, 1841).Google Scholar

104. Howard, , “The Anti-Slavery Movement …,” p. 98. See pp. 9899Google Scholar. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 3 (06 1, 1843).Google Scholar

105. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 2 (06 23, 1842), p. 168.Google Scholar

106. For discussions of the Graham case, see The Cause and Manner of the Trial and Suspension of the Rev. William Graham, by the New School Synod of Cincinnati (Privately printed, n.d.) and Howard, , “The Anti-Slavery Movement …,” pp. 112–14Google Scholar. There is also ample material in the pages of The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), beginning December 5, 1844, and continuing into 1846.

107. Marsden, , The Evangelical Mind …, pp. 99100.Google Scholar

108. The Cause and Manner …, p. 8.

109. Ibid.

110. Ibid., p. 10.

111. In 1844 the Synod of Cincinnati censured Graham and instructed his presbytery to continue their efforts to reclaim him, and in 1845 the synod suspended him from the ministry. Although this judgment against Graham was overturned by the General Assembly in 1846 and sent back to synod for correction, nothing further happened because Graham moved into the Old School Presbyterian Church.

112. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 6 (01 1, 1846), p. 54.Google Scholar

113. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 6 (02 20, 1845), p. 82.Google Scholar

114. The Boston Recorder, 21 (08 26, 1836), p. 140.Google Scholar

115. Ibid. Beecher invoked some of the same biblical arguments used by immediatists in the 1830s. See Shanks, Caroline L., “The Biblical Anti-Slavery Argument of the Decade 1830–1840”, Journal of Negro History, 16 (04, 1931), pp. 132–57CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Marsden, , The Evangelical Mind …, pp. 100–03.Google Scholar

116. The Watchman of the Valley (Cincinnati), 6 (02 20, 1845), p. 82.Google Scholar

117. For suggestive comments about the evangelical Protestant longing for a national leader and spokesman, see Wyatt-Brown, Bertram, “Prelude to Abolitionism: Sabbatarian Politics and the Rise of the Second Party System,” The Journal of American History, 58 (09, 1971), pp. 323–27, 345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar