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Protestant Clergymen and American Destiny: I. Promise and Judgment, 1781–1800*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 August 2011

James H. Smylie
James H. Smylie
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia
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Extract

Americans in “search” of the “goals,” “prospects,” and “purpose” of the United States share an interest in the latter part of the eighteenth century. This was the age of the democratic revolution in Western civilization which produced the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights, those primary and permanent legacies paramount to our national existence. Although remote in time this period is the common experience of Americans because our lives are still regulated by the political instruments it produced.

Type
Research Article
Information
Harvard Theological Review , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 1963 , pp. 217 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1963

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References

1 Cf. Huston Smith (ed.), The Search for America (1959); Goals for Americans (Prentice-Hall, 1960); Prospect for America (Doubleday, 1961); J. K. Jessup et al., The National Purpose (1960).

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20 Winchester, op. cit., II, pp. 369–370.

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23 Daniel Foster, A Sermon (Boston: Thomas Adams, 1790), p. 28.

24 David Tappan, A Discourse (Salem: Samuel Hall, 1783), pp. 12–13.

25 Samuel McClintock, op. cit., p. 19.

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27 James Manning and Nathan Miller to the Governor of Rhode Island, September 28, 1786, Rhode Island State Archives.

28 Cf. James H. Smylie, American Clergymen and the Constitution of the United States of America, 1781–1796 (Typed Th.D. Dissertation, Princeton Theological Seminary), pp. 176–181; also Forrest McDonald, We the People (1958).

29 Hall, Aaron, An Oration (Keene: James D. Griffith, 1788), pp. 6–7Google Scholar; Cf. Hitchcock, Enos, An Oration (Providence: Bennett, Wheeler, 1758), pp. 9Google Scholar, 12; Rogers, William, An Oration (Philadelphia: T. Dobson, 1789), pp. 16–17Google Scholar.

30 Cf. Samuel Stillman at the Massachusetts ratifying convention, Jonathan Elliot (ed), The Debates in the Several State Conventions, 4 vols. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1836), II, p. 174; Corwin, Edward S., “The Constitution as Instrument and as Symbol,” The American Political Science Review 30 (1936), 1071–1085CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also, Smylie, op. cit., pp. 242–249.

31 Cf. James Dana, Ms. Sermon (n.d.), Rare Book Room, Sterling Library. Yale University.

32 Cf., e.g., Osgood, David, A Sermon (Boston: Benjamin, Russell, 1788), p. 8Google Scholar; Linn, William, The Blessings of America (New York: Thomas Greenleaf, 1791), pp. 20–21Google Scholar; McCorkle, Samuel E., A Sermon, on the Comparative Happiness and Duty of the United States of America (Halifax: Abraham Hodge, 1795), pp. 31–32Google Scholar.

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34 Austin, op, cit., p. iii.

35 Muir, James, An Examination of the Principles contained in the Age of Reason (Baltimore: S & J Adams, 1795), pp. 115–116Google Scholar.

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37 Perry Miller, “From the Covenant to the Revival,” op. cit., p. 351.

38 Perry Miller, Jonathan Edwards, op. cit., p. 329.

39 Price, Richard, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, and The Means of Making it a Benefit to the World (London: Printed; Trenton: Reprinted by Isaac Collins, 1785), p. 87Google Scholar. Price's observations were also published in Boston, Bennington, New Haven, and Philadelphia.

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45 Cf. Psalm 82:6.

46 Samuel Davies, Sermons on Important Subjects, 5th ed., 3 vols. (New York: T. Allen, 1792), III, p. 345. Cf. also sermons concerning the death of Washington, e.g., Benjamin Trumbull, The Majesty and Mortality of Created Gods (New Haven: Read & Morse, 1800), p. 31.

47 Cf. Richard Eddy, Universalism in America, 2 vols. (Boston: Universalist Publishing House, 18S6); Charles Chauncy, Salvation for All Men (Boston: T. and J. Fleet, 17S2), and The Mystery Hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by the Gospel-Revelation; or, The Salvation of All Men the Grand Thing Aimed at in the Scheme of God (London: C. Dilly, 1784). The following items deal with Universalism in terms of public morality: Isaac Backus, The Doctrine of Universal Salvation Examined and Refuted (Providence: John Carter, 1782) ; Jonathan Edwards, Jr., The Necessity of the Belief of Christianity by the Citizens of the State in Order to our Political Prosperity (Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin, 1794); Robert Annan, Brief Animadversions on the Doctrine of Universal Salvation (Philadelphia: R. Aitken & Son, 17S7); Thomas Reese, An Essay on the Influence of Religion in Civil Society (Charleston: Markland & M'lvcr, 1788), p. 32; David Caldwell, ''The Doctrine of Universal Salvation Unscriptural,” in E. \V. Caruthers, A Sketch of the Life and Character of the Rev. David Caldwell (Grecnsborough: Swaim and Sherwood, 1842), pp. 285–302.

48 Goen, op. cit., p. 38.

49 Baptist Henry Abbot at the North Carolina ratifying convention, in Elliot, op. cit., IV, pp. 195–196.

50 Cf. Proverbs 14:34; Samuel West, A Sermon (Boston: Samuel Etheridge, 1795), p. 11.

51 John Murray, Jerubbaal, or Tyranny's Grove Destroyed, and the Altar of Liberty Finished (Newbury-Port: John Mycall, 1784), p. 60.

52 Reese, op. cit., p. 86; cf. also, Andrew Hunter, Ms. Sermon, preached January 5, 1788, October 6, 1793, November, 1795, Speer Library, Princeton Theological Seminary.

53 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Structure of Nations and Empires (1959), pp. 182f.

54 Cf. Smylic, op. cit., pp. 371–376.

55 Samuel Hopkins, A Discourse upon the Slave-Trade, and the Slavery of Africans (Providence: J. Carter, 1793); Jonathan Edwards, Jr., The Injustice and Impolicy of the Slave Trade (New Haven : Thomas and Samuel Green, 1791); Samuel Miller, A Sermon (New York: Thomas Grccnlcaf, 1793), p. ?7; David Rice, Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy (Philadelphia: 179:; London: M. Gurncy, 1793); Robert Semple, A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia (Richmond: Joh n O'Lynch, 1810), p. 79; [David Barrow], Circular letter … 1798 (Norfolk: Willett & O'Connor, n.d.), p. 4.

56 Cf. Joshua 7; Samuel Hopkins to Moses Brown, October 22, 1787, Moses Brown Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society.

57 Cf. Minutes of the Warren Association (Boston: John W. Allen, 1787), p. 5; Rice, op. cit., p. 24.

58 Charles Nisbet to Charles Wallace, October 31, 1797, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library; An Address from the Presbytery of Newcastle to th e Congregations under their Care (Wilmington: James Adams, 1785), p. 12; Vcrnon Stauffer, New England and the Bavarian Illuminati (New York: Th e Columbia University Press, 1918).

59 Cf. William Linn, The Blessings of America, op. cit.; Jedidiah Morse, The Present Situation of Other Nations of the World, contrasted with our own (Boston: Samuel Hall, 1795), p. 37.

60 Hans Kohn, op. cit., p. 263.

61 Samuel Miller, op. cit., pp. 17–18.

62 Charles Nisbet to Alexander Addison, January 26, 1786, October 21, 1786, November 5, 1790, all in the Darlington Memorial Library, University of Pittsburgh; Charles Nisbet to Charles Wallace, September 2, 1790, Manuscript Division, New York Public Library. Cf. E. P. Link, Democratic-Republican Societies, 1790–1800 (1942).

63 Hayes emphasizes the importance of a common language and historical traditions, e.g., religious, territorial, political, economic, and cultural. Carlton J. H. Hayes, Nationalism: A Religion (1960).

64 Smylic, op. cit., pp. 65–115; Edward Frank Humphrey, Nationalism and Religion in America, 1774—1789 (1924).

65 Weinberg, A. K., Manifest Destiny (1935Google Scholar); Reinhold Nicbuhr, The Irony of American History (1952).

66 David Potter, People of Plenty (1954).

67 Joseph Sittler has a very suggestive treatment of “The Tyranny of Boundlessness” in American life, see The Ecology of Faith (1961), pp. 14–25.

68 Herbert Butterfield, Christianity and History (1949), p. 58.