Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T00:01:54.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Protestant Clergymen and American Destiny: II. Prelude to Imperialism, 1865–1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

John Edwin Smylie
John Edwin Smylie
Affiliation:
Occidental College, Los Angeles, California
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

If in the Civil War God was preserving American nationality, giving the nation a baptism of blood, after that sacramental rebirth the question naturally arose, why had nationality been preserved, and what purpose was the regenerated nation to serve? In asking the question Protestant clergymen assumed that history had meaning, a plot, and that the United States would play a role in it. When they looked forward, what did they see ahead for America on the world stage? Upon investigation that forward look emerges as more than a blurred daydream. Leaders of Protestant thought analyzed American destiny in terms of sophisticated contemporary interpretations of history. From their analysis grew serious intellectual ideas of destiny which in retrospect appear as a prelude to later imperialism.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 56 , Issue 4 , October 1963 , pp. 297 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Clebsch, William C., Baptism of Blood: Christian Contributions to the Interpretation of the Civil War in American History (Th.D. dissertation, Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1957)Google Scholar, summarized in “Christian Interpretations of the Civil War,” Church History 30 (1961), 212–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The impact of this thesis is blunted because the idea of “nationality” is treated with little reference to the broader stream of nineteenth-century thought.

2 Perry Miller's “From the Covenant to the Revival,” in Religion in American Life, Vol. I, The Shaping of American Religion (Princeton, 1961)Google Scholar, shows that by this time the past orientation of covenant theology was giving way to the future perspective of revivalism.

3 See chapters 2–4 of my Protestant Clergymen and America's World Role 1865–1900, A Study of Christianity, Nationality and International Relations (Th.D. dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J., 1959)Google Scholar for a fuller treatment of the issues raised in this paper.

4 Allen, A. V. G., “The Theological Renaissance of the Nineteenth Century,” The Princeton Review 58 (1882), 263–282, 59 (1883), 78–90.Google Scholar

5 Hodge, Charles, Systematic Theology, Vol. I (New York, 1873), p. 615.Google Scholar

6 Ibid., p. 590.

7 Ibid., p. 588.

8 Hodge, Charles, “President Lincoln,” The Princeton Review 37 (1865), 436.Google Scholar

9 Charles Hodge, Letter to Dr. H. L. Hodge, Princeton, April 15, 1865. Mss collection in Firestone Library, Princeton, N.J.

10 Strong, A. H., Systematic Theology, Vol. II (Philadelphia, 1907), p. 431.Google ScholarParkhurst, Charles H., “Divine Drift in Human History,” Magazine of American History 24 (1890), 333.Google Scholar

11 Hegel, G. W. F., The Philosophy of History, trans, by Sibree, J. (New York, 1956), 14.Google Scholar

12 Henry, Francis A., “Historic Forces,” The Princeton Review 56 (1880), 7.Google Scholar See also A. V. G. Allen, op. cit.

13 Strong, Josiah, The New Era, or the Coming Kingdom (New York, 1893), p. 30.Google Scholar

14 Francis A. Henry, op. cit., 22.

15 Read, Hollis, The Hand of God in History (Philadelphia, 1870), pp. 574, 627.Google Scholar

16 Hitherto the problem of national destiny during this period has been treated apart from current philosophies of history. See, for example, Williams, Daniel D., “Tradition and Experience in American Theology,” in Religion in American Life, Vol. I, The Shaping of American Religion (Princeton, 1961), pp. 485–491.Google Scholar

17 Edwards, Jonathan, History of the Work of Redemption, The Works of President Edwards, Vol. I (New York, 1852), pp. 312, 468–470.Google Scholar

18 Froom, LeRoy Edwin, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, The Historical Development of Prophetic Interpretation, Vol. IV (Washington, D.C., 1954).Google Scholar

19 G. W. F. Hegel's The Philosophy of History appeared in its standard English translation by J. Sibree in 1861 and was widely quoted in the last decades of the century.

20 Sanders, Charles Richard, Coleridge and the Broad Church Movement (Durham, N.C., 1942).Google Scholar

21 Guizot, F. P. G., General History of Civilization in Europe, ed. by Henry, C. S. (New York, 1846).Google Scholar

22 Hofstadter, Richard, Social Darwinism in American Thought (Boston, 1955), pp. 31–42.Google Scholar

23 Swing, Albert T., Theology of Albrecht Ritschl (New York, 1901)Google Scholar; and Ritschl, Albrecht, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation, Vol. III (Edinburgh, 1900).Google Scholar

24 Read, Hollis, op cit.; Rufus Anderson, Foreign Missions, Their Relations and Claims (New York, 1869)Google Scholar; Pierson, Arthur Tappan, The Divine Enterprise of Missions (New York, 1891)Google Scholar, The New Acts of the Apostles (New York, 1894)Google Scholar; Stevenson, Richard T., The Missionary Interpretation of History (Cincinnati, 1905).Google Scholar

25 Alexander, S. C., The Stone Kingdom (Saint Louis, 1885)Google Scholar; Wild, Joseph, The Lost Ten Tribes (London, 1880)Google Scholar; Howlett, T. R., Anglo-Israel (Philadelphia, 1896)Google Scholar; Smith, Uriah, Our Country's Future, The United States in the Light of Prophecy (Battle Creek, Michigan, 1884).Google Scholar

26 Wilson, William C., “Our Historical Position as Indicated by Nature and Philosophy,” Methodist Quarterly Review 48 (January, 1866)Google Scholar; Mulford, Elisha, The Nation (Boston, 1894)Google Scholar, The Republic of God, An Institute of Theology (Boston, 1884)Google Scholar; Sterrett, James M., Reason and Authority in Religion (New York, 1891)Google Scholar; Hedge, Frederic H., “The Method of History,” North American Review 111 (1870)Google Scholar, The Primeval World of Hebrew Tradition (Boston, 1870).Google Scholar

27 Thompson, Hugh Miller, The World and the Man (New York, 1890)Google Scholar, The World and the Kingdom (New York, 1888)Google Scholar; Henry, Caleb Sprague, History and Its Philosophy (New York, 1868)Google Scholar; Harris, Samuel, The Kingdom of Christ on Earth (Andover, 1874)Google Scholar; Herron, George D., The Christian State, A Political Vision of Christ (New York, 1897)Google Scholar; Powell, E. P., The Philosophy of History (New York, 1893).Google Scholar

28 Elisha Mulford, The Nation, pp. 418, 127.

29 Ibid., p. 368.

30 Elisha Mulford, The Republic of God, p. 216.

31 Sterrett, James M., Reason and Authority in Religion, p. 102Google Scholar; Herron, George D., The Christian State, p. 54Google Scholar.

32 Schaff, Philip, “Anglo-Germanism or the Significance of the German Nationality in the United States …” (Chambersburg, Pa., 1846)Google Scholar; America (New York, 1855)Google Scholar; “American Nationality” (Chambersburg, Pa., 1856)Google Scholar; “The English Language,” in Literature and Poetry (New York, 1891), pp. 1–62Google Scholar; “Progress of Christianity in the United States of America,” Princeton Review 55 (1879).Google Scholar

33 Philip Schaff, America, pp. 262–267.

34 Schaff, Philip, History of the Christian Church, Vol. I (New York, 1882), p. 3.Google Scholar

35 Schaff, Philip, Germany: Its Universities, Theology and Religion (Philadelphia, 1857), p. 375.Google Scholar

36 Shedd, W. G. T., Lectures upon the Philosophy of History (Andover, 1861)Google Scholar; Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy (New York, 1893).Google Scholar

37 Hegel, op. cit., pp. 80, 99, 103f.

38 Guyot, Arnold Henry, The Earth and Man, Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography and its Relation to the History of Mankind (New York, 1890).Google Scholar

39 Magoon, E. L., Westward Empire; or, the Great Drama of Human Progress (New York, 1856).Google Scholar

40 Philip Schaff, America, p. 101.

41 Baritz, Loren, “The Idea of the West,” American Historical Review 66 (1961).CrossRefGoogle Scholar This article shows the larger context of the distinction made here, although its documentation stops short of our period.

42 William C. Wilson, Methodist Quarterly Review 48, 6f.; and E. P. Powell, The Philosophy of History, pp. 397f.

43 Nevin, John W., “Commencement Address, July 25, 1867,” Mercersburg Review 14 (1867), 494f.Google Scholar

44 Strong, Josiah, Our Country (New York, 1885), pp. 168, 29.Google Scholar

45 Leavitt, John McDowell, Our Flag, Our Rose and Our Country with Other Poems (New York, 1909), p. 3.Google Scholar

46 Collingwood, R. G., The Idea of History (Oxford, 1951), pp. 88–91Google Scholar; Hegel, op. cit., pp. 74f.

47 Bushnell, Horace, Christian Nurture (New York, 1861), pp. 195–223.Google Scholar

48 Dorchester, Daniel, The Problem of Religious Progress (New York, 1881)Google Scholar; and Sidney L. Gulick, The Growth of the Kingdom of God (New York, n.d.).

49 Josiah Strong, The New Era, pp. 62f.; Sidney Gulick, op. cit., p. 316.

50 Schaff, Philip, “The English Language,” Literature and Poetry (New York, 1891), pp. 1–62.Google Scholar

51 Thompson, Hugh Miller, The World and the Man (New York, 1890), p. 11.Google Scholar

52 Hegel, op. cit., pp. 51, 435.

53 J. Edwards, op. cit., p. 469.

54 Peck, Jesse T., The History of the Great Republic (New York, 1868), p. 47.Google Scholar

55 William Stevens Perry, “Four Centuries of Conflict for the Continent of North America,” (Pamphlet, n.p., n.d.); America, The Study of Nations: Her Religious Destiny (Davenport, Iowa, 1893), p. 7.Google Scholar

56 Fisher, George P., Discussions in History and Theology (New York, 1880), p. 169.Google Scholar

57 Hegel, op. cit., pp. 23, 26; Guizot, op. cit., p. 269; R. Hofstadter, op. cit., p. 42.

58 Frederick H. Hedge, North American Review III, 324f.

59 Hollis Read, op. cit., p. 834.

60 Abbott, Lyman, Christianity and Social Problems (Boston, 1897), p. 240.Google Scholar

61 Haven, Gilbert, National Sermons (Boston, 1869), p. 471.Google Scholar

62 Josiah Strong, Our Country, pp. 1–3.

63 Pierson, A. T., The Crisis of Missions (New York, 1886), p. 27.Google Scholar

64 Smith, B. B., Saturday Evening; or, Thoughts on the Progress of the Plan of Redemption (New York, 1876).Google Scholar

65 MacKenzie's, Kenneth M. study of Methodist opinion in The Robe and the Sword (Washington, D.C., 1961)Google Scholar offers the most recent documentation of Protestant opinion during those crises. Other studies of the same problem include Karraker's, William ArchibaldThe American Churches and the Spanish American War (Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1940)Google Scholar, and Pratt's, Julius W.Expansionists of 1898 (Baltimore, 1936).Google Scholar My own study (op. cit., chapters 7 and 8) attempts to study these opinions in the larger context of nineteenth-century interpretations of history and moral philosophy.

66 Beard, Charles A., “Introduction,” in Brooks Adams, The Law of Civilization and Decay (New York, 1955), p. viii.Google Scholar