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Early Religious Leaders
of Newport
Eight Addresses delivered before the
Newport Historical Society
1917
(/»
fj
Newport, Rhode Island
Published by
The Newport Historical Society
1918
MERCURY PUBLISHING CO.
NEWPORT, R. I.
1918
PREFACE
The religious element in the history of Newport can never be
neglected by one who seeks to obtain a fair impression of the purposes
and acts of its first settlers and the events which naturally followed.
Driven from the colony of Massachusetts Bay by inability to accept
the narrow religious conditions there imposed upon them, the founders
of Portsmouth and Newport made welcome to their settlements people
of every faith and form of worship ; thereby giving what is perhaps
the first instance in the history of the world of a free and independent
community separating absolutely civil rights from religious opinions.
As might be imagined it was but a few years before this invitation
was known and accepted ; and the little city of Newport soon found
among its citizens not only the Baptists and the Congregationalists, the
first settlers of the city, but also Friends, Hebrews, Moravian Brethren,
the Church of England, and the followers of George Whitefleld, who
soon organized a Methodist Church.
The history of Newport proves that this broad and liberal policy
was wise as well as just. TTiese men of different faiths, some of them
subject to constant persecution in other colonies, proved themselves most
useful, and patriotic, many bringing to the city wealth and a love of
literature and of the arts.
CONTENTS
(Note — The following papers are arrnnged in the order, approximately, of thr estaliHsh-
ment in Newport of the different religious bodies represented.)
DR. JOHN CLARKE Page 5
By Rev. FRANKLIN G. McKEEVER, D.D.
Pastor Second Baptist Church, Newport
Paper read before the Society May S, IQI7
THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS . Page 21
By Dr. WILLIAM J. HULL
Professor of History, Swarthmore College
Paper read before the Society August 14, 1917
REV. DR. SAMUEL HOPKINS .... Page 51
By Rev. CLARIS EDWIN SILCOX
Pastor United Congregational Church, Newport
Paper read before the Society, February 6, 1917
VERY REV. DEAN GEORGE BERKELEY, D.D. Page 77
By Rev. STANLEY C. HUGHES
Rector Trinity Church, Newport
Paper read before the Society, Marc|i 6, 1917
THE SEPHARDIC JEWS OF NEWPORT . . Page 97
By Rev. J. PEREIRA MENDES. D.D.
Pastor Synagogue Shearith Israel, New York
Paper read before the Society, June 12, 1917
REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD .... Page 1 1 3
By Rev. WILLIAM I. WARD
Pastor First Methodist Church, Newport
Paper read before the Society-, January 2, 1917
REV. DR. WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING . Page 125
By Rev. WILLIAM SAFFORD JONES
Pastor Channing Memorial Church, Newport
Paper read before the Society, April t,, 1917
REV. DR. EZRA STILES Page 149
By Rev. RODERICK TERRY, D.D.
Vice President of the Society
Paper read before the Society, July lo, 1917
Dr. JOHN CLARKE
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
May 8th, 1917
By
Rev. franklin G. McKEEVER, D.D.
JOHN CLARKE
Biography is the recounting of the facts of a human Hfe
in their historical relation. Rightly to weigh these facts and
trace their consequences, one must acquaint himself with
their antecedent inspiration, as well as with the history of
events in the midst of which they found expression. In this
task the biographer wdll be influenced and guided by the
known character, inherited or acquired, of the person of
w^hom he writes.
John Clarke was born in Westhorp, Suffolk, England,
October 8, 1609. From his ancestors, through many genera-
tions, he must have inherited a love of liberty : for the spirit
of liberty had been long on the wing, seeking for noble souls
of such ample mold as to be able to receive his afflatus. For
more than a century and a half, the thoughtful of Europe
had been awakening from the sleep of ages, until at the be-
ginning of the seventeenth century, tyranny over body or
mind, tenaciously exercised by the strong arm of secular and
ecclesiastical power, w^as intolerable longer, to men who
claimed the God-given right to think. Such was John
Wycliffe, who on finishing his translation of the Scriptures
into the English tongue, exultantly offered to the plowman
an equal opportunity with the Priest to know the w ill of God.
Never before had the English people felt such thrills of self-
conscious power and holy ambition to free themselves from
the chains that bound the soul, as w^hen they became ac-
quainted with the dealings of God with ancient nations, and
the incomparable moral ideals of Jesus and his apostles. The
multiplication of printed Bibles following the invention of
movable types by a far-seeing German genius had made this
possible, and set astir not only England but the whole west-
ern world like an awakened giant conscious of his powers.
The sixteenth century was still young when the Monk of
Wittenberg defied the Holy See, set an example of independ-
ence in speech and thought, and proclaimed to all the civil-
ized world a message of personal responsibility to
God, and therefore personal freedom from all who inter-
pose themselves between God and the soul : thus laying the
corner-stone of a new civilization. The Renaissance whetted
ambition to a fine edge, and the domination of scholasticism
and feudalism, and of the church in secular matters, was
over-powered by the onrush of nationalism and humanism.
Discovery and adventure became a passion. A new heavens
and a new earth invited the emancipated spirit of mankind
to new prowess. The artist, the philosopher, the scientist, the
statesman, the scholar, had his first inspiration to move in
the realm of liberty. The great universities became the Mecca
of favored sons of fortune, but humbler spirits also claimed
the right to think; especially in those spheres which con-
cerned their temporal and eternal well-being^religion and
government. Encouraged by the benign and brilliant Eliza-
beth, freedom unfurled a flag never again to be folded while
there should be men on earth willing to sacrifice comfort and
even life to realize the heaven-born principle of liberty in
state and church.
But it must not be supposed that the spirit of freedom
had smothered forever the fires of tyranny and persecution.
James I, succeeded Elizabeth to the throne in 1603. Puritan-
ism had appeared as early as the reign of Edward VI. Eliza-
beth, a Protestant at heart, pursued for state policy, a tem-
porizing course toward the Papacy and disappointed the
hopes of her Puritan subjects, extreme Protestants that they
were, who boldly taught that the church and state were en-
dowed with separate and distinct functions which were
never intended to be united, and that "conscience and not the
power of man will drive men to seek the Lord's Kingdom."
James I, an extreme reactionist and pronounced bigot, em-
ployed his great power to compel all his subjects to respect
the Roman doctrine and liturgy, saying of the Puritans: "I
will make them conform, or I will harry them out of my
kingdom." The record of persecutions and martyrdoms in
that reign is a dark blot on the pages of Christian history.
The most painful sufferers in that period of madness were
the Puritans, of whom Macaulay says : "The hardy sect grew
up and flourished in spite of every thing that seemed likely
9
to stunt it, struck its roots into a barren soil, and spread its
branches wide to an inclement sky."
Into this environment came John Clarke. Of his pro-
genitors we know little. But it is not ditFicult for the imagina-
tion to summon them back to our company from the long
past. That they did not lack material possessions; that they
prized intellectual and spiritual riches higher than the ma-
terial, we may justly infer from the record of their illustrious
son: "a man of liberal education and of bland and courtly
manners." "One of the ablest men of the seventeenth cen-
tury." "A scholar bred." Unhappily, we have no reliable rec-
ord as to where John Clarke received his education but facts
\v» 11 substantiated, prove him to have been a man of learning
far above the average of his time. He is described as a jnan
of high repute for ability and scholarship in languages, in-
cluding Latin, Greek and Hebrew, law, medicine and theol-
ogy. In his will he bequeathed to a friend, "my Concordance
and Lexicon to it belonging, written by myself, being the
fruit of several years study; my Hebrew Bibles, Buxtorf's
and Pastor's Lexicon, Cotton's Concordance, and all the rest
of my books." The Lexicon written by himself, to which ref-
erence is here made, is believed to be the one now preserved
in the library of Harvard University. These, and other liter-
ary works assure us that Clarke was a man of learned tastes
and attainments. Up to the time of his leaving England he
was doubtless in sympathy with Puritan views: for with
them the contemptuously styled Anabaptists of the time held
natural afTmity, drinking together at the fountain of soul
liberty.
John Clarke came to Massachusetts in September, 1637,
when that colony was but seven years from its birth. The re-
ligious controversy which he found on landing in Boston,
seems in the main, trivial to us now. But it was such as to
induce bitterest strife and kindle the fires of torture and
exile, which the state-church was not slow to employ. Anne
Hutchinson, keen minded, brave spirited, was the fearless
advocate of a free church in a free state. Her followers,
among whom were William Coddington, John Clarke, and
many other well-to-do and intelligent citizens, were being
first disarmed and bereft of protection against the savages.
10
and then banished from the colony. It is not germain to our
subject to enter at length into this not too proud chapter in
our colonial history. It has been facetiously said, that the
Puritans on landing in the new world, "first fell on their
knees, and then on the aborigines." Certain it is that the
leaders among the Puritans of John Clarke's day, intro-
duced, or rather imported from the old world, a galling
tyranny, practiced in New England upon others the abuses
that they had come far to escape, and refused to others the
right to differ from them in religious faith and practice. It
was a long time ago. Listening to its recital seems like hear-
ing a lingering echo of the Dark Ages.
With the sentence of banishment and torture iinpend-
ing, the liberty party of Boston resolved to find and found a
new home in the yet untried wilderness, and endeavor to
win the friendship of savage chiefs. To the heart of at least
one man of that party, peace was a boon worthy to be cov-
eted and secured even at the cost of protracted hardship
and privation. This man was John Clarke. He was chosen to
seek out an eligible place for settlement. Chilled by the rigors
of a New England winter, and having previously essayed a
more northerly latitude, his party set sail from Boston in the
spring of 1638, with their eyes either on Long Island or the
coast of Delaw are. But while their vessel was rounding Cape
Cod, Clarke with soine companions determined to journey
overland, "to a town called Providence .... which was be-
gun by one M. Roger Williams, who for matter of conscience
had not long before been exiled from the former jurisdic-
tion." Williams received the explorers hospitably, and of-
fered valuable suggestions as to two tracts of territory near at
hand: Sowames, now Warwick, and Aquidneck, now Rhode
Island. Ascertaining with Williams' aid that the former
lay within the Patent of Plymouth, and resolving, "through
the help of Christ, to get rid of all and be by ourselves," they
investigated the prospect of the latter. And finding that
Island unencumbered by English settlers, they, still with the
aid of Mr. Williams, set about procuring its possession. In
a fair and friendly way they, in no long time, succeeded in
purchasing Aquidneck on the following terms: the payment
of forty fathoms of white beads, to be equally divided be-
11
tween the two chiefs, Canonicus and Miantonomoh; to-
gether with ten coats and twenty hose, to be distributed
among the natives on condition that they remove from the
Ishmd before the next winter. The wily Coddington, of whom
we shall have more to say further on, succeeded in having
the deed made to him, personally. But this action he was
later compelled to retract.
We may now accompany the adventurers to their new-
ly acquired possession, and see what manner of life they
devised for themselves in the new world. Here we become
acquainted with the invaluable services of John Clarke as
a citizen. He is now twenty-nine years of age, strong in body,
cultivated in mind, and possessed of a well-developed moral
sense, to which the liberty of the soul of every man in things
pertaining to God, made strong appeal.
Before setting out from Boston, eighteen dissenters from
the Established Church there — eighteen of the seventy-six
who had been disarmed because of suspicion that they might
use their weapons in defense against the decrees of the
court — formed a compact, which they would use in their new
home, as yet "not knowing whither they went." This agree-
ment reads as follows : "We whose names are underwritten,
do here solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, incorporate
ourselves into a Bodie Politick, and as He shall help, will
submit ourselves, lives and estates, unto our Lord Jesus
Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to all those
proper and most absolute laws of His given in His holy word
of truth, to be guided and judged thereby."
John Clarke's name is the second signature to this com-
pact. Passages of Scripture affixed to it turn our thoughts to
Clarke as its probable author. These passages are: Exodus
24:3; II Chronicles 11:3,4; II Kings 11:17. The first of these
passages bases civil government on divine law. The second
teaches that religious difl'erences shall not disturb the har-
mony of the state. The third affirms principles long before
held by Baptists, that while rendering obedience to the state
in civil matters, Christians must be subject, in matters of
religion and conscience, only to Christ who is their King and
Law-giver.
It is not without reason conjectured that the author of
12
this first compact was John Clarice. He was the principal re-
ligious teacher of the company. By his advice they were re-
moving from the Massachusetts jurisdiction to enjoy free-
dom of their consciences, and repeatedly thereafter he
taught: "the servant of the Lord must not strive."
When all material affairs relating to the purchase and
settlement of Aquidneck had been legally and amicably ar-
ranged with the natives, the immigrants from Massachusetts
proceeded to establish themselves first on the northern end
of the Island, at Pocassett. Evidences of their industry in
that locality still exist in wells, etc., there preserved. The
company proceeded in orderly way to distribute the lands,
provide military defence, open highways, collect revenues,
hold assemblies, and elect civil officers. Breaches of the law
of God that tend to civil disturbance came under the juris-
diction of the civil authorities. No religious tests appear in
any laws then or thereafter enacted. Liberty in the matter
of conscience was accorded to all comers. This broad plat-
form attracted large numbers to the Island, and as was to
be expected, these additions varied in character as in all
new settlements. True however to Puritan instincts, the
leaders set up as one of their very first acts, a place of
worship. The settlement consisted of people of various theo-
logical and ecclesiastical persuasions, but all united in wor-
ship under John Clarke, a Baptist Elder, (as ministers of
that denomination were then called,) as preacher and relig-
ious teacher. For, as one remarks, "the mind of John Clarke,
balanced, constructive, persuasive, was in the front rank at
least, if not foremost of the leaders." It was inevitable that
many would follow his teaching and become 'Baptists. Yet
great as was his influence, inherent in the office of the re-
ligious minister of that period, rigorous discipline had to
be maintained, and the customary penal institutions of the
day were found necessary. Breaches of the law were not in-
frequent, and side by side with the church were set up a
prison, a pair of stocks and a whipping post; while fines
for offenses that now seem to us puerile were imposed by the
magistrate. These, however, were but eddies, incident to
the coming of some vicious and troublesome elements into
the settlement. The larger part were orderly and valuable
citizens.
13
But the whole Island of Aquidneck invited the exploring
impulses of the settlers at Pocassett. Before a twelvemonth,
John Clarke, along with a few companions, had traversed all
the shores of the Island, and conceiving its southern end
more inviting to permanent plans of a colony, they founded
here, in the spring of 1639, a settlement which they called
Newport, having first rechristened their whole purchase,
"the Isle of Bhodes," from the Island of that name in the
Mediterranean Sea. Before another year had passed there
were found to be about two hundred families in the New-
port settlement. John Clarke, wdth tw^o assistants, had been
commissioned to survey and apportion the lands to a dis-
tance of five miles, and all the arrangements of an orderly
government had been instituted. Not the least of these was
the provision for religious worship. Religious toleration pre-
vailed, spite of denominational differences. There were,
amongst tlie settlers. Baptists from England, members of
John Cotton's church in Boston who had adopted Baptist
sentiments, and others in a state of transition. To the whole
of this heterogeneous population Dr. Clarke ministered in
religious things. We do not read of serious disagreement
as to their beliefs for many years, and there appears to have
been no neglect of social worship. A despised and persecu-
ted sect both in England and in the Massachusetts Bay Col-
ony, the Baptists of Rhode Island exhibited a tolerant and
catholic spirit in their new home, and the settlers showed
their appreciation of it by accepting John Clarke both as
civil and religious leader. Amongst his hearers on the Sab-
bath were, without doubt, William Coddington, first elected
judge, Anne Hutchinson, the reformer, two brothers of the
minister, and not a few others whose names are perpetuated
in the honored families of the Island to this day.
At exactly what date a church was instituted, avowing
the principles and using the practice of Baptists, we do not
know, for the early records are not preserved. "But," as an
historian of the First Baptist Church of Newport remarks,
"while the date of its origin is veiled in obscurity, there is
no uncertainty as to its first minister, "^ a position which Dr.
Clarke adorned to the close of his life.
While thus engaged, and also practicing his profession
14
as a physician, this Christian minister was the inspirer and
organizer of most if not all the advance movements in civic
affairs. He not only occupied at different times, responsible
offices under the government, but he is with good reason sup-
posed to be the potential author of the government itself.
The first aggressive move for a charter for the Island of
Aquidneck and adjacent Islands and lands was made in
1642, when a committee of whom John Clarke was a mem-
ber was appointed to draw up a petition to Parliament, and
at the same time to seek the assistance of Sir Henry Vane,
then influential at court. Previous to this, endeavors to the
same end had been made by Clarke himself, almost unaided.
When five years later, 1647, Rhode Island became a State
under a charter accredited by many to the efforts of Roger
Williams, its provisions and code of laws are declared by
Williams himself, to be modeled after those in force in
Newport. It is supposed, and for good reasons,' that John
Clarke was the author of the government framed: both of
the code of laws and of the means of enforcing it. That code
concludes with these words : "And otherwise than thus what
is herein forbidden, all men may walk as their consciences
persuade them, every one in the name of his God. And let
the saints of the Most High walk in this colony without mo-
lestation, in the name of Jehovah their God, forever and
ever."
While Dr. Clarke was thus busy with weighty affairs of
state, we find him engaged in tasks which he must have re-
garded as of quite equal moment. Now he is in Providence,
endeavoring to resusitate churches otherwise uncared for;
and again, making fatiguing journeys to minister to small
groups of believers, who, not finding churches of their faith
within easy reach had continued their membership with the
church at Newport. Such was one William Witter, aged,
blind and infirm, living near the then village of Lynn, Mas-
sachusetts. In July, 1651, he entreated his pastor to visit him
and administer spiritual consolation. Taking with him Obe-
diah Holmes and John Crandall, elders connected with the
church in Newport, Dr. Clarke essayed the no inconsidera-
ble journey. The three reached Witter's home in the evening
of Saturday, and while engaged in administering the duties
15
of their office on tlie Sabbatli, they were arrested on a war-
rant issued by the magistrate, and later presented before the
court in Boston. The charges preferred against the strangers
were concerned with teacliings contrary to those of the
standing, ecclesiastical order. Clarke proposed to discuss
publicly their differences, but he was summarily and rudely
denied that privilege. "Without producing either accuser,
witness, jury, law of God or man," Governor John Endicott
pronounced sentence as follows: that John Clarke should
pay a fine of twenty pounds or else be well whipped; that
Obediah Holmes should pay a fine of thirty pounds or else
be well whipped; and John Crandall should pay a fine of
twenty pounds or else be well whipped. Holmes refused to
acknowledge himself a criminal by either paying his fine or
permitting any one to pay it for him. "I durst not accept de-
liverence in such way," he said. The record of how he was
"unmercifully whipped" on a September day in Boston, two
magistrates being present to see it done severely; how, for
taking Holmes by the hand after his punishment, two spec-
tators were apprehended, imprisoned, and sentenced to pay
a fine of forty shillings or be whipped, is one of the shame-
spots in Puritan colonial history. Kind friends paid the fines
of Clarke and Crandall without their consent, and the latter
was at once released, but Clarke was held in custody for
some time afterward when he also was released "to be gone
out of the colony."
On his return to Newport, Dr. Clarke found the colony in
peril, and its government in jeopardy. William Coddington
was president of the four united towns in 1648, and contin-
ued in that office until the execution of Charles I, in 1649. In
the midst of the confusion incident to the accession of the
Commonwealth, this astute politician sailed secretly to Eng-
land, and succeeded in obtaining a commission as governor
for life, of the Islands of Aquidneck and Conanicut, thus nul-
lifying the charter of 1643. The whole colony was moved to
a high degree of indignation, and in 1651, the two men most
able and most representative of the people, John Clarke for
the Rhode Island towns, and Roger Williams for the towns
of Warwick and Providence Plantations, were despatched
to England to secure the withdrawal of Coddington's com-
16
mission. Their mission accomplished, Williams returned to
Providence in 1654, and Clarke remained at court as guar-
dian of the interests of the reunited Commonwealth at home.
And then began an epoch in this great man's life, which,
for diplomatic efiiciency and self-sacrificing devotion, has
seldom been equaled in the annals of public service. Dr.
Clarke remained in England twelve years, nearly the whole
of the time at his own charges; for the meager appropriation
of two hundred pounds, voted by the colony, was not col-
lected till long after, and then only when a further vote pro-
hibited the payment of any bills until this debt, increased
to three hundred and forty-three pounds seventeen shillings,
was paid. Meantime Clarke was obliged to mortgage his
property at home. During the whole period he was engaged
in literary and ministerial labors to eke out his living, while
employed specifically, in service for the state. Yet his life at
this time could not have been wholly without compensation,
since two of his intimate friends and helpers of his plans
were Sir Henry Vane and John Milton.
The year after reaching England, or in 1652, Dr. Clarke
published a book entitled: "111 Newes from New England or
a Narrative of New England's Persecutions." In this volume
it is declared that "while old England is becoming new, New
England is becoming old." And in this volume he incorpora-
ted the substance of a tract previously written, entitled : "A
Brief Discourse Touching New England, and Particularly
Rhode Island, as also a Eaithful Relation of the Prosecution
of Obediah Holmes, John Crandall and John Clarke, merely
for Conscience Toward God, by the Principle Members of
the Church or Commonwealth of Massachus(?tts, in New
England, which Rules Over that Part of the World."
The years passed on and Clarke successfully parried the
determined efforts of the agents of the other colonies to
thwart the far reaching purposes of Rhode Island to foster
and maintain a government hospitable to religious liberty.
On the death of Cromwell, and the accession of Charles II,
in 1660, the labor of years would probably have come to
naught but for the able diplomacy of John Clarke. A new
charter was an imperative necessity, if Rhode Island's rights
and liberties were to be preserved. To this task Dr. Clarke
IT
unreservedly addressed himself. He appealed by letters to
the King, in which he professed the loyalty of the colony
to the Crown, and argued for the granting of a charter of
civil corporation. His constituents would establish a corpo-
rate government duly protected by English law, so far forth
as the nature and constitution of the place and the professed
cause of their consciences would permit. "Your petitioners
have it much on their hearts," he says, "to hold forth a live-
ly experiment that a flourishing Civil State may stand, yea,
and best be maintained, and that among English spirits,
with a full liberty in religious concernments, and that true
piety, rightly grounded upon Gospel principles, will give the
best and greatest security to true sovereignty, and will lay
in the hearts of men the strongest obligations to truer loy-
alty."
It is no small tribute to the greatness of Dr. Clarke's
diplomatic skill that, spite of the determined opposition in
Parliament, and the no less determined opposition from
Massachusetts and Connecticut, he, on the eighth day of July
1663, obtained the signature and seal of that astute Monarch,
Charles H. It is noteworthy that freedom of worship and of
conscience was made the basis of individual rights. And con-
sidering the times, it is amazing that such a provision as the
following could emanate from the English throne : "Our
royal will and pleasure is, that no person within the said
colony, at any time hereafter, shall be anywise molested,
punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differ-
ences of opinion in matters of religion." Not without reason
is Dr. Clarke believed by many, including Thomas Jefferson,
to have been the author of this epoch-making docinnent,
which became the constitutional law of Rhode Island and
Providence Plantations from the time of its enactment until
the American revolution, and whose provisions Jefferson in-
corporated into the constitution of the new republic.
His arduous task accomplished Dr. Clarke turned his
face again toward Newport and his family, from whom he
had been separated twelve years, and was received with
marked demonstrations of honor and gratitude. At a public
meeting of the citizens, November 24, 1663, the charter was
read, the stamp and seal of his Majesty, Charles II, were duly
18
displayed, and thanks were voted to the King, to the Earl
of Clarendon, who had been the friend and helper of the
enterprise, and to John Clarke. It was Newport's day.
Dr. Clarke had now given twenty-five years to public
service for the colony which he founded. He had fostered re-
ligion and education, having at the very beginning of the
settlement instituted a public school, the first in America if
not in the world, and a Church, which, after two hundred
and seventy-eight years is still in existence and at the pres-
ent time bears his name. One would expect to find him, at
the age of fifty-five, wishing to devote his remaining years
to those beloved interests, along with the practice of his
profession as a physician. But the colony was not yet ready
to dispense with his services and counsel. He was elected to
various public offices, was appointed by the first Assembly
under the charter, to revise atnd codify the laws, and was for
three successive years elected Deputy Governor, two of those
years serving in that office.
But time, for this man of many parts, was hastening,
and dear to him as life was the Kingdom of God. As he en-
tered upon what was to be the last decade of human ex-
istence, his mind turned affectionately toward that object,
and his remaining energies and matured judgment were
placed more fully at its service. Five years before his death
he retired from all public office; but that did not exempt
him, only sixteen days before the final summons from the
Ruler of All, from a summons from the General Assembly:
"the Assembly desiring to have the advice and concurrence
of the most judicious inhabitants in the troublous times and
straits into which the colony has been brought." 'Seven days
later he was put in charge of the Island's defenses.
Dr. Clarke died suddenly April 20, 1676. His ashes lie in
an unkempt cemetery, the land of which was once owned by
himself, on West Broadway, in Newport, His grave is a per-
petual reminder of the ingratitude of republics. He be-
queathed his estate to a self-perpetuating body of trustees, to
be forever devoted to the causes of religion and education,
in the Church and city which he founded, the poor being
the special objects of his beneficence. Thus "he being dead
yet speaketh."
19
The theological beliefs of Dr. Clarke were those held
throughout their history by the body of Baptists, and his
doctrinal writings, the fruit of his profound studies of
later years, are in accord with Baptist Confessions of Faith.
From the same fountain he also drank in those principles
concerning magistracy and religious liberty, so dominant in
his life, and which became the warp and woof of the charter
of 1663. It was the guiding hand of John Clarke that steered
the ship of our state clear of the rocks that split both Eng-
land and Massachusetts asunder. "His is the glory of first
showing in an actual government, that the best safeguard
of personal rights is Christian law, that church and state
inay safely be separated, and that absolute license of thought
and utterance not issuing in crime against persons and es-
tates, may be most rightly and wisely placed far above tol-
eration, on the secure basis of personal statute."
History bears undivided testimony to John Clarke's
claim to the veneration and gratitude, not alone of Rhode
Island, but of all mankind. A successor of his in the pastor-
ate. Rev. John Callender, who lived among men who knew
Dr. Clarke, wrote: "To no man is Rhode Island more in-
debted than to him. No character in New England is of purer
fame than is John Clarke." Isaac Backus, the Baj^tist his-
torian of the eighteenth century, said of him: "Mr. Clarke
left as spotless a character as any man I know of that ever
acted in any public station in this country I have not
met with a single reflection cast upon him by any one." Gov-
ernor Arnold's opinion was: "His character and talents ap-
pear more exalted the more closely they are examined."
.... "One of the ablest men of the seventeenth century. He
was a ripe scholar, learned in the practice of two profes-
sions, besides having large experience in diplomatic and
political life. With all these public pursuits, he continued
the practice of his original profession as a physician, and
also retained the pastoral charge of his church. His life was
devoted to the good of others. He was a patriot, a scholar,
and a Christian. The purity of his character is conspicuous
in many trying scenes, and his blameless, self-sacrificing life
disarmed detraction, and left him without an enemy."
Let one more testimonial from history suffice : George Ban-
20
crofl says: "Never did a young Commonwealth possess a
more faithful friend. The modest and virtuous Clarke, the
persevering and disinterested envoy, .... whose whole life
was a continual exercise of benevolence. Others have sought
otiice to advance their fortunes. He parted with his little
means for the public good. He had powerful enemies in Mas-
sachusetts, and left a name without a spot."
The last act of this scholar, physician, minister, states-
man, patriot, was worthy of his pious and philanthropic
spirit. His will, signed on the day of his death, "willingly
and readily" commits his soul into the hands of his "merci-
ful Redeemer;" provides that his body be "decently interred,
without any vain ostentation;" and that his estate be admin-
istered for "the bringing up of children unto learning," civil
and religious, and for the relief of the poor.
Efforts more or less spasmodic and inadequate have
been made in recent years to honor the name and perpetuate
the memory of Dr. Clarke, but as has been before pointed
out, the duty belongs not alone to Newport, nor to Rhode
Island, but to our whole nation, which bears the honor
through him, of possessing the first government on earth
which gave to all equal civil and religious liberty.
The Early History of the Friends
in Newport
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
August 14th, 1917
By
WILLIAM I. HULL
Professor of History in Swarthmore College
The Religious Society of Friends
I fear that it may seem very much Uke "carrying coal to
Newcastle" for me, a Baltimorean by birth and a Pennsyh a-
nian by adoption, to present to an audience of Newport his-
torical students a discourse on what must be to them so
familiar a theme as the one assigned me. But perhaps a lack
of new information may be atoned for by a sympathetic ap-
preciation of the opportunity afforded to the Friends in
Rhode Island to practise without interference or molestation
the faith and ideals which inspired them. It may well be that
a Maryland and Pennsylvania Quaker, familiar with the re-
ligious toleration granted in their respective colonics by Lord
Baltimore and William Penn, can doubly appreciate the re-
ligious liberty established by Roger Williams, William Cod-
dington, and their compeers in Rhode Island.
It may be permitted me to plead, also, that my interest
in the early Friends of Newport has a personal as well as a
religious origin. For, coming to the neighboring island of
Conanicut a score of years ago for the first of a series of
summer sojourns, I was pleased to find here one link in my
own family chain which has stretched from Massachusetts
and Maine, through Rhode Island, Connecticut and New
York, down to Maryland. Captain John Hull of Newport and
Conanicut was the third link in that chain and my children
are the tenth. Across the gulf of two centuries and a half, he
speaks to his descendants; and as one of the early Friends of
Newport, and a type, doubtless, of many, he may engage our
attention for a few moments. The grandson of Rev. Joseph
Hull, who settled a colony of 106 persons in Weymouth, Mas-
sachusetts, in 1636, and the son of Tristram, the first of the
family to embrace Quakerism, John was born in Barnstable
and adopted his father's religious faith and his occupation of
captain in the merchant marine. Many of the Quaker emi-
grants to Pennsylvania were brought over in John Hull's
24
ships, during the great exodus in the Eighties under WilUam
Penn; but he sailed for the most part between Newport and
London. In the lattter city he became acquainted with and
married a young Quakeress, Ahce Tiddeman, by name, and
three years afterwards, in 1681, came with his wafe and in-
fant daughter Mary to Newport. Thirty years before this,
Wilham Coddington, Benedict Arnold and three associates
had purchased the Island of Conanicut, and here John Hull
bought a farm of 370 acres and in 1690 built a house upon
it and settled his family in it. His fifth child and second son,
John, who was also my ancestor, was born in this house and
is said by your local historians to have been the first white
child born upon the island.
With Indian neighbors and other Friends' families who
settled gradually upon the island, John lived in the intervals
of his sea-faring life, and to his Conanicut home he retired
in old age, dying there an octogenarian about the year 1732.
His house was burned by the British during the Revolution,
but his farm is still called the "Old Hull Place;" and near-
by is a thicket called "Hull's Swamp," where the patriots
concealed themselves and their valuables during the Revolu-
tion and thus incited the British to cut down the fine old
trees and burn the bushes.
John. Hull's farm evidently made quite a landsman of
him, for w^e learn from the records that he served James'
town for a score of years as asssessor, town-clerk, head-war-
den, town councillor, and representative for a half-dozen
terms in the colonial legislature. But the chroniclers of New-
port have been chiefly interested in his career as a sea-cap-
tain and especially his connection with Admiral Sir Charles
Wager, afterwards first Lord of the British Admiralty, and
appointed Privy Councillor by Queen Anne. Wager's mater-
nal grandfather w^as Admiral William Goodson, and his
father was Admiral Charles Wager, while he was closely re-
lated to Admiral Sir Thomas Tiddeman.* Of his father, the
diarist Pepys records: "There was never any man that be-
haved himself in the Straits [of Gibralter] like poor Charles
Wager, whom the very Moors do mention with tears some-
*The names Wager and Tiddeman have been borne by sundry members
of the Hull family.
25
times." Of Wager himself, the historian Walpole says : "Old
Charles Wager is dead at last and has left the fairest char-
acter." The younger Charles died in 1743, aged seventj^-nine,
and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
"He lies where the minister's groined
arches curve down
To the tomb-crowded transept of
England's renown."
The remains of his preceptor lie in an unmarked grave,
— is it in the Coddington Grave-yard in Newport, or in soine
over-grown and forgotten God's acre on Conanicut? The
story of his life is recorded in England's naval history and
the lovers of lighter literature may find some of its incidents,
in considerably distorted form, in Colonel Joseph C. Hart's
novel, "Miriam Coffm."* Here it is mentioned simply for the
sake of associating him with the early Friends of Newport^
and it may not be inappropriate to rehearse its best known
incident which illustrates both his own character and that of
John Hull, from whom his seamanship was learned. His
father died when Charles was an infant, and his mother
married a London merchant and Friend, Alexander Parker.
The call of the sea was loud in the London boy's heart, and
he was apprenticed in youth to Captain John Hull, his par-
ents' friend. John, who was about a dozen years his senior,
is said to have remarked to him when he appeared at his
ship: "Step on board, Charles: perhaps thou may get to be
a captain one of these days." And the youth, with his father's
example in mind, replied: "I shall be disappointed if I do
not get to be an admiral." An English merchant ship was
often attacked by French and Spanish privateersmen in
those days of Louis XIV's aggressive warfare, and John
Hull's Quaker ship was not immune from such attacks. On
one of these occasions, the story goes, a French armed
schooner bore down upon him in the British Channel, and
at Wager's urgent request John retired to the cabin and
Wager was left in charge of the ship to deal with the priva-
teersman. It appears, however, that Wager's manoeuvers did
*The first edition of this story was published in San Francisco, m 1834 ;
the 2nd. edition, in the same city, in 1872.
26
not commend themselves to Captain Hull, who called out to
him from the companion-way: "Charles, if thou intend to
run over that schooner, thou must put the helm a little more
to the starboard." Charles followed the advice and sank the
schooner with all on board. Captain Hull, we are glad to be
informed, after this lapse from his Quaker principles, got his
ship about as soon as possible to rescue the privateersman's
crew : but a stiff" breeze and heavy sea prevented the finding
or rescue of a single victim.* When the ship arrived in Lon-
don and the story was told, the Admiralty warmly com-
mended Hull and offered him a captaincy in the royal navy.
In moments free from excitement and professional pride,
however, John was too much of a Quaker to accept such an
offer; but he yielded to his apprentice's desire and recom-
mended him to the Admiralty, from whom came an ap-
pointment as midshipman. Wager rose to the admiral's rank
in the British navy, and never became a Friend; but he seems
to have cherished always an admiration and gratitude for
his Quaker instructor, "my honored master," as he called
him, sending him yearly a pipe of wine, and visiting him
often in Newport and Conamcut. f
Long before John Hull settled in Newport, however, the
Friends had made it their, home. In fact, before the first
Quakers from England found their way thither, it was the
home of a group of people who appear to have been Quakers
in all but name. The followers of Anne Hutchinson and of
Samuel Gorton, who found a refuge in Rhode Island from
their Massachusetts persecutors, had some striking points
of resemblance with their later contemporaries, the Quak-
ers, and some of them joined the Society of Fjriends when it
established its meetings among them a score of years later.
*Connected with this, or another similar occasion, there is another story
(which was told me by your late distinguished townsman. Honorable Wm.
P. Sheffield, but which it may be permitted a descendant to hope is apocry-
phal), that when John Hull, looking out of a porthole saw a Frenchman lay
hold of a rope with the intent of climbing on board, he quietly cut the rope,
saying to him : "Friend, if thee wants that rope, thee may have it."
tOne branch of the family of Hull still remains on Conanicut Island, and
for many years after John's death his descendants retained membership in
the Society of Friends and were prominent in the religious and political life
of the island and of Newport.
27
But there was another group of the founders of Rhode Island
who still more closely resembled the Friends in doctrine and
practice, and who also later joined the society. These were
among the founders of Portsmouth and Newport, with Wil-
liam Coddington and Nicholas Easton at their head. They
were "antinomians," like the Hutchinsonians and Gortoni-
ans, and like them were driven from Massachusetts to their
refuge on Aquidneck, or Rhode Island proper. Here, relig-
ious difierences caused them to separate fi'om their fellow-
exiles in Portsmouth, in 1638, and the next year to leave
Portsmouth and found Newport. Their leader in Massachu-
setts, Portsmouth and Newport was William Coddington,
who was elected the first "judge" in Portsmouth and New-
port as well. When the two settlements united, in 1640,
Coddington was elected the new colony's first governor, and
under his leadership the people in popular assembly de-
clared, in May, 1641, for the two great American and Quaker
principles of self government and religious liberty. "It is
ordered," runs one of the famous resolutions, "that none bee
accounted a delinquent for doctrine."*
Where there is liberty, there is always diversity, and in
Newport there developed as early as 1641 two main groups
of religious thinkers, one, under the leadership of John
Clarke, which united with the Baptists, and one, under Cod-
dington's leadership, which formed a kind of Quaker meet-
ing. Thus, nearly a score of years before the real Quakers
came to Newport, and a half-dozen years before the Founder
of Quakerism began his public mission in England, Newport
saw the rise of what might be called a Pre-Foxian, Quaker
people. They looked askance upon a separate, exclusive
clergy; laid great stress on spirituality in ministry and wor-
ship; sought for this spirituality in the Divinity that doth
dwell within man himself; and were adverse to relying upon
"carnal" as opposed to "spiritual weapons." As illustrative
of this last principle, they cooperated with Roger Williams
the Baptist and set an example for William Penn the Quaker
*The author desires to acknowledge here his indebtedness for many
details in this paper to Professor Rufus M. Jones's very readable book, " The
Quakers in the American Colonies, "N. Y., 1911, and also to your Society's
admirable collection of books and manuscripts.
28
in a just and peaceful dealing with their Indian neighbors,
and at least one of their number, Nicholas Easton, was fined
five shillings in 1639 for refusing to carry weapons to meet-
ing.*
New England, like Old England, was seething during
these years with many varieties of extreme Puritans, and
Rhode Island had more than its share, thanks to its religious
tolerance,- of these varied seekers after God. Massachusetts
did its best to curb or expel them, and regarded Rhode Island
as a horrible example of the folly of toleration. Cotton
Mather called it "the Gerizzim of New England" and wrote :
"I believe there never was held such a variety of religions
together on as small a spot of ground as have been in that
colony." If a man should lose his religion, he suggests, he
might find it there "at the general muster of the opinionists."
It is small wonder, then, that the Quakers should have
found congenial soil, with seed already sown, in Newport,
and that the town should have become both a nursery of
Quakerism and a place whence it was transplanted to other
parts of New England.
The chief reasons why the Quakers were persecuted by
the Puritans of Boston were precisely the reasons why they
found toleration and prosperity in Newport. These were,
first, the Puritans' fear of the Dutch, the French, and the
Indians, and it is notorious that fear hath no ears; but the
Rhode Islanders placed all their dealings with these possible
foes on a basis of justice and friendship, hence feared them
not, and were not obliged to seek strength abroad through
suppression and enforced uniformity at home. Again, the
Puritan clergy were chiefly responsible for persecution in
New England, while the democratic laity were opposed to it,
— as was shown especially in the case of the Gortonites and
the Quakers; but in Rhode Island there was no established
clergy to act as guardians over the state or to inflame the
persecution of dissenters. Again, the Puritans feared and de-
tested the doctrine of private inspiration and denounced its
exponents, like Anne Hutchinson and Samuel Gorton, as
"proud and pestilent seducers;" but in Rhode Island this
doctrine was like a native element and seemed to its popu-
"Rhode Island Colonial Records, I. 95.
29
lation of "Seekers" as natural as the sunshine. Finally, the
Puritan union of church and state, the separation of the
clergy from the laity, the primacy of the clergy in secular
affairs, the collection of tithes, were all threatened by the
Quakers' denial of their right to exist : but Rhode Island had
acted from the beginning on the American principle of en-
tire separation between church and state, and hence charged
not this against the Quakers as a heresy and a mence to the
public weal or safety.
While it is easy to explain the reasons for religious per-
secution elsewhere in New England and its absence in Rhode
Island, the fact remains as the corner-stone of Rhode Island's
history, and the student of its history in full appreciation of
this fact might almost wish that the emblem upon its shield
should be not even Hope or Faith, but Charity, which is
greatest of the things that endure. Newport not only ac-
corded toleration to the Quakers, but, as has been stated, it
paved the way for them by developing a home-made Quak-
erism of its own. The leader of this group of Quaker aborig-
ines was the pioneer and founder of the settlement as well,
William Coddington, Our friends the Baptists lay just claim
to Roger Williams, the founder of Providence; but as "there
is glory enough to go round" they may well yield first place
in Rhode Island proper to William Coddington. John Clarke,
it is true, was in the front rank of Rhode Island's founders,
and he appears to have founded the first Baptist church in
America. It would be unseemly to repeat, in behalf of the
two leaders and the two rival communities in the early
settlement, the slogan of "Coding's your friend, not Short!";
but in the interest of historic truth it may be recalled that
Coddington was one of the founders of Massachusetts; that
he was active in the affairs of that colony even before Bos-
ton was named; that he built Boston's first house, which be-
came the Governor's house for many years, — including those
during which the governors persecuted Coddington's fel-
low-Quakers; that he secured in 1637 the deed from Canoni-
cus and Miantonomo, the two chief sachems of the Narra-
gansetts, which conveyed the Island of Aquidneck, or Rhode
Island, to "William Coddington and his friends;" that he
held the island in his own name for fifteen years and then
30
transferred all rights which he might claim under the deed
to the company of which he was the leader; that in 1638,
when Portsmouth was settled and a compact for civil gov-
ernment was signed by the settlers, Coddington's name was
first among the signatures and Clarke's came second;
that in 1639, when it was agreed to settle Newport, Codding-
ton was the first of the nine pioneers who signed the agree-
ment; that he was the first "judge" in Portsmouth and the
first in Newport, the first governor of the two settlements
united (1640-1647), the President of the united colony of
Rhode Island and Providence in 1648, and commissioned
proprietor of the Narragansett Islands and governor for life
of both Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1651. This last
position was resented by his fellow-Rhode Islanders and he
was alienated froin them for a time;* but he manfully with-
drew his claims within a year and was at once elected by
Newport to the General Court. When in 1663 a charter was
granted to the united colony of Providence and Rhode
Island, its four leading citizens, Arnold, Brenton, Codding-
ton, and Easton, were mentioned in alphabetical order, and
the other incorporators regardless of order.
At the age of seventy-four, Coddington was elected gov-
ernor for two terms (1674-6) and in that office presided over
Rhode Island's destiny during King Philip's terrible war.
While governor of Aquidneck in 1640, he had made a
treaty of friendship with the Narragansett Indians, and
thus set an example for his great Quaker successor in
Pennsylvania forty-two years later. But unlike Penn, he
lived to see his colony ravaged by Indian foes. He and his
fellow-Quakers did their best to prevent the' war, and then
to shield the mainland of Rhode Island from its horrors.
Pessicus, the chief of the Narragansetts, was very kindly
disposed towards the colony and its Quaker rulers, but told
them that he could restrain his chieftains on the island
alone, but not on the mainland. Thus, while the mainland
was devastated, the island became, in the words of the old
chronicler, Drake, "the common Zoar, or place of refuge for
*The trouble came to a head in 1648, and seems to have been due in the
first place to Coddington's determination that Rhode Island should not
enter the New England Confederation.
31
the distressed." As Holland has been to the Belgian refugees
of our day, so Newport and her sister towns on the island
became the hosts and guardians of the many fugitives who
fled from the Indian tomahawk and fire-brand. The assem-
bly appointed a committee of six, including three Quakers
(Walter Clarke, Joshua Coggeshall and Caleb Carr), to urge
the mainland inhabitants to come to the island, to supply
each fugitive family with land, or with a cow to be pastured
on the commons, and to distribute £800 for their support.
At this time, too, the Quakers of Newport had a golden
opportunity of heaping coals of fire upon the heads of their
Massachusetts persecutors. In the winter of 1675-76, after the
battle atSouthKingstown, the wounded New England soldiers
were brought to Newport by the Quakers and cared for in
their homes. The Massachusetts and Confederation authori-
ties expressed their thanks for this kindness; but when they
made the further request that Rhode Island should send 100
or 200 soldiers to the trenches, as well as provide Red Cross
aid. Governor Coddington replied with a Quaker refusal to
fight, and reminded the Massachusetts petitioners that at that
very time the Massachusetts clergy were lamenting, as one of
the sins which had caused the war, "the recent neglect to
suppress the Quakers and their meetings," and the Massa-
chusetts authorities were enforcing a fine of £5 and impris-
onment at hard labor on bread and water for any person
who should attend a Quaker meeting!
At the time of the Revolution, also, Massachusetts was
feign to accept the charity of the Rhode Island Quakers. A
committee of them took £1968 to distribute among the vic-
tims of the siege of Boston, and in company wath the select-
men they went from house to house distributing food, cloth-
ing and fuel. These activities were pursued in sixteen Massa-
chusetts towns, through many of which the Quakers had
been whipped at the cart-tail a century before. Salem, and
probably other towns, made an amende honorable by pass-
ing votes of thanks to the Quaker philanthropists in 1775 and
1776.
After King Philip's war, Massachusetts denounced the
Quaker war-policy of Rhode Island as "scarcely showing
English spirit;" and within the colony itself there was a
32
strong militant opposition, which succeeded in replacing the
Quaker governor, Walter Clarke, by the chief Quaker rival
and twelve-times governor, Benedict Arnold. But Arnold
died before his term was ended, and Coddington was again
elected to the governor's chair. By this time, however, he
was in his seventy-eighth year and worn out by the many
heavy labors and strange vicissitudes of his life, and he too
died before his term of otFice expir.ed.
The verdict of two of Rhode Island's historians upon
this pioneer Rhode Islander and pioneer Quaker in New-
port gives some idea of his strength and his weakness. Cal-
lender says of him : "A good man, full of days, he died pro-
moting the welfare and the prosperity of the little common-
wealth which he had in a manner founded." And Judge
Durfee hands down as his opinion that "he had in him a
little too much of the future for Massachusetts and a little
too much of the past for Rhode Island," — which opinion em-
phasizes, perhaps, the defects of Massachusetts and the mer-
its of Rhode Island, rather than those of Coddington. A
student of physiognomy as well as of history may be able
to strike the balance between these, and other conflicting
opinions of him by a study of his portrait which hangs in
Newport's city hall.*
The citizens of Newport erected a monument in his
memory on the two hundredth anniversary of the town's
settlement, and inscribed upon it this tribute :
That illustrious man, who first purchased this Island from
the Narragansett Sachems Conanicus and Miantonomo for, and
on account of himself and Seventeen others his associates in the
purchase and Settlement.
He presided many years as chief Magistrate of the Island
and Colony of Rhode Island and Died much respected and lamented
on the 1st. day of November, 1678 Aged 77 years.
He was buried, the old records say, on the "6 day of ye
9 mo. 1678;" and around him in death as in life, in the Cod-
dington Burial-ground which is located appropriately on
*A copy of this portrait is in the Redwood Library ; but there are good
reasons for believing that this portrait is not authentic. Gf the Bulletin of
the Newport Historical Society, No. 9 (October, 1913): "On the So-called
Portrait of Governor 'William Coddington in the City Hall at Newport,
by Hamilton B. Tompkins.
33
Farewell St., there lie the remains of a number of hts as-
sociates and their descendants. His own son, William Cod-
dington, Jr., who was governor from 1683 to 1685, and died
at the age of tliiriy-scven; sundry members of the Thurston,
Martin, James and Wanton families; and doubtless many
another "rude forefather of the hamlet sleeps, Each in his
narrow cell forever laid," but left in Quaker oblivion and
not marked by visible sign.
One of the village Hampdens whose graves are marked
is Nicholas Easton, who died August 15, 1675, at the age of
eighty-three. He was a pioneer in Newbury, Massachusetts,
and built the first Englishman's house in Hampton. Coming
to Rhode Island for religion's sake, he was one of the nine-
teen signers of the Portsmouth "contract," and the second
signer of the Newport "Agreement." With his two sons, Peter
and John, he rowed down from Pocasset (Portsmouth) to an
island in Newport's harbor, which he called Coaster's Har-
bor, now the site of the Naval War College and Training
School, and which may be regarded as being, historically,
to Newport w^hat Cape Cod is to Plymouth. The Eastons
built the first house and the first wind-mill in Newport, on
Marlborough St.; but the house was destroyed by fire in
1641, and a modern jail stands on or near the site of the
mill.
Easton became a Friend, with Coddington and most of
his other associates, about 1657, but remained one of the
pillars of the state as well as of the Quaker church. He was
a member of the governor's council, a member and modera-
tor of the assembly, president of the first united colony, and
deputy-governor and governor of the second. When George
P'ox spent two months in Rhode Island in 1672, Easton was
governor of the colony, but accompanied Fox almost con-
stantly on his missionary tour. His sons, Peter and John,
emulated their father's civic activities, the former serving
as member of the assembly and of the governor's council,
attorney-general and treasurer; the latter as attorney-gen-
eral for fourteen years, member of the assembly and coun-
cil, deputy-governor, and governor from 1690-95. In this last
position, he successfully resisted Sir William Phipps's claim
to command the Rhode Island militia.
34
Another leading Newport Quaker was Walter Clarke,
who served as member of the assembly and council, twenty-
three terms as deputy-governor (fifteen of them successive-
ly: from 1700-1714), and four terms as governor. In this last
position, he successfully withstood Governor Andros's de-
mand for Rhode Island's precious charter, although he was
at the time a member of Andros's Council for New England.
Not a Charter Oak, as in Hartford, but a Quaker house and
Quaker diplomacy concealed and secured Rhode Island's
charter. When ordered by Andros to send the charter. Gov-
ernor Clarke declined to do so "because of the tediousness
of the bad weather;" and when Andros came in person to
fetch the charter, Nov. 7, 1687, Clarke sent it from his own
house to his brother's, and then for Andros's benefit, caused
a great search to be made for it through his own house!
Following this defense of Rhode Island's fundamental con-
stitution on parchment, Governor Clarke refused to permit
the establishment or recognition of an English court of admi-
ralty in the colony. Thus he asserted, three-quarters of a
century before 1776, the American right of self-government,
and based that right upon the bed-rock of charter privileges.
Among other early Quaker governors were Caleb Carr,
who was treasurer as well, and Henry Bull, a follower of
Anne Hutchinson, a founder of Portsmouth and Newport,
and builder of what was for many years Rhode Island's old-
est extant house, where his wife Ann, the widow of Nicholas
Easton, presided, and where many Quaker meetings were
held.*
Time does not suffice to tell of such early colonial Quak-
ers of Newport as John and Joshua Coggeshall, George Law-
ton, Walter Newberry, Edward Thurston, Daniel and John
Gould (after whom one of Narragansett's familiar islands
is named) ; or of the later, pre-Revolutionary Quakers, whose
annals are made picturesque or impressive by the beauty of
Polly Lawton,** the preaching of Mary Callender, the varied
*This house was destroyed by fire in 1912.
**Her portrait is in the Redwood Library, and a glowing description of
her beauty in the Comte de Segur's "Memoirs." Her home is now a fruit-
store, on the corner of Spring and Touro Streets.
35
activities of the Wanton and Robinson families, the philan-
thropy of Abraham Redwood, and the statesmanship of
Stephen Hopkins.
But a short time at least should be devoted to the com-
ing of the English Quakers to Newport, their union with the
pre-Quakers of the town, and ^'the things that are more ex-
cellent" for which the Newport Quakers stand in the his-
tory of the city, the state and the nation.
The first Quakers to set foot on American soil were Mary
Fisher and Ann Austin, who had some very trying experi-
ences in Boston in the summer of 1656. They were de-
spatched straight back to Barbadoes, after five weeks' im-
prisonment and an examination for witchcraft, and had no
chance to get to Rhode Island; but the first Quaker convert
in New England, Nicholas Upsall of Boston, came to Rhode
Island, after he had been fined and banished for supplying
the two Quakeresses with food while in prison, for offering
to buy the one hundred "heretical books" which they brought
with them, and which the Boston hangman burned in the
market-place, and for making a public protest against the
first penal law which Massachusetts launched against the
Quaker. The eight Quakers who arrived in Boston two days
after Mary Fisher and Anna Austin were expelled were also
immediately placed in close confinement for eleven weeks
and then sent back to England: but New England heard
much of them, Samuel Gorton of Warwick invited them to
settle in that town, and some of them returned as speedily
as possible the next year in the Quaker Mayflower, "The
Woodhouse."
This ship, so famous in Quaker annals, was regarded
by its Quaker captain and passengers as a second Noah's Ark
which God led, in Robert Fowler's, the courageous and pious
skipper's, quaint words, "as a man leads a horse by the
head;" and when, after leaving five missionaries in New
Amsterdam, the remaining eleven arrived, on the 3rd. of
August, 1657, in Newport, they were convinced that God
had led them to a second Ararat, whence they should re-
plenish the New World, submerged by barbarism of various
kinds, with a Quaker civilization. In Newport, at least, they
found congenial soil among the community of Coddington
36
and Easton; and not only did this community convert itself
into the first Quaker meeting of Newport, but the town be-
came a base of operations for both native and English
Quakers in their invasion of the rest of New England.
The familiar procedure was for a company of English
Friends to come to Newport, then to go with Newport
Friends to Massachusetts, where they protested against the
penal laws, and were imprisoned and whipped, and then to
return to Rhode Island, "the habitation of the hunted-
Christ," as they call it, "where we ever found a place of rest
when weary we have been."
One such party, including two women, Sarah Gibbons
and Dorothy Waugh, travelled on foot from Newport all the
way to Salem, through the wilderness and through what
appears from their description to have been a March bliz-
zard; after a fortnight of inissionary endeavor, they were
whipped in Boston and sent back to Newport, Among the
Salem converts on this journey, were Lawrence and Cassan-
dra Southwick*, who fled to Shelter Island, and Joshua
Buflum, who came to Rhode Island.
Another English Quakeress who made Newport a base of
operations was Elizabeth Hooton, the first woman convinced
by George Fox, and the first woman Friend to appear in the
ministry. She suffered bitter persecution in England;
sailed to Virginia and thence to Newport; gave her "testi-
mony" in Boston; was imprisoned and then banished to
Rhode Island; returned to Boston; was whipped through
Cambridge, Watertown and Dedham; left in the woods
during a cold night, she arrived torn and bleeding in
Newport; returning to Cambridge, she was again whipped
through three towns, to Rhode Island; to Boston once
more, she was whipped at the cart tail through Boston,
Roxbury, Dedham and Medfield, and left in the woods;
travelling seventy miles on foot back to Newport, she was
again refreshed, and again went to Boston!
Such were the stories that were told at Rhode Island
firesides and that turned many families to join the perse-
•^Cf. Whittier's "Cassandra Southwick, 1658."
37
cuted * ; and in such incidents the Newport Quakers were
often participators. The most famihar and most tragic of
them all was associated with Mary Dyer, Daniel Gould, and
other Friends of Newport, who went to Boston in Septem-
ber, 1659, with William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephen-
son of England, Hope Clifton, Mary and Patience Scott of
Providence (the latter an eleven years' old niece of Ann
Hutchinson) and other Rhode Island Friends, "being moved
of the Lord," as they told the Massachusetts authorities, "to
look your bloody laws in the face and to accompany those
who should suffer by them." Mary Dyer, who went repeat-
edly to protest against the unrighteous laws of Massachusetts,
was the wife of William Dyer, (or Dyre) of Newport, who
spent his life in upholding Rhode Island's righteous laws,
having been the first clerk of the settlement in Portsmouth,
the first secretary of united Portsmouth and Newport, the
first recorder of Providence Plantations, and attorney-gen-
eral of the colony. After imprisonments and whippings, sen-
tence of death, reprieve on the gallows, and banishment on
pain of death in case of return, Mary Dyer was at last hung
on Boston Common. Her death was doubtless more impres-
sive to the American colonists than was that of her three
fellow martyrs, men and Englishmen as they were, and we
can well appreciate the shock which it sent through the
Quaker circles of Newport. The blood of martyrs became
the seed of the church, on this as on so many occasions; and
Edward Wanton, a citizen of Boston, who stood within the
shadow of Mary Dyer's gallows, marveling at her heroic
constancy, was converted to her faith, removed to Rhode
Island, and became the ancestor of a line of Quaker worth-
ies, among whom were at least three governors of the Island
commonwealth. The other Rhode Islanders who accompa-
nied Mary Dyer to Boston were imprisoned for two months
*Cf. Whittier's "Snow-Bound."
Then, haply, with a look more grave,
And soberer tone, some tale she gave
From painful Sewell's ancient tome,
Beloved in every Quaker home,
Of faith fire-winged by martyrdom."
38
and then whipped, Daniel Gould receiving thirty lashes.*
John Rous, an English Quaker missionary, writing to
Margaret Fell on the 3rd of September, 1658, from what he
described as "the Lion's den called Boston prison," gives the
following enthusiastic report : "Truth is spread here above
200 miles, and many in the land are in fine conditions, and
very sensible of the power of God, and walk honestly in
their measures. And some of the inhabitants of the land,
who are Friends, have been forth in the service and they do
more grieve the enemy than we, for they have hope to be rid
of us, but they have no hope to be rid of them. We keep
the burden of the service off from ithem at present, for no
sooner is there need in a place, but straightway some or
other of us step to it, but, when it is the will of the Father
to clear us of this land, then will the burden fall on them."
After speaking of the condition of "the Seed" in Boston,
Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven, Rous reports: "We
have two strong places in this land, the one at Newport in
Rhode Island, and the other at Sandwich, which the enemy
will never get dominion over. " The Massachusetts "enemy"
tried for a score of years, especially by enforcing the notori-
ous "Cart and Whip Act," to get dominion over the Friends,
but Rous's prophecy proved true.
The first meeting-place of the Friends of Newport was
the large living-room in the house of Wm. Coddington,
which stood for many years on Marlborough St., opposite
Duke St. The lot on which it stood was six acres in size,
and bounded by Marlborough, Farewell, North Baptist and
Thames Streets. In this were held the Yearly Meetings, at
least until Coddington's death, and many another meeting
which was too large for the house. The first Meeting House
proper was built near the corner of Marlborough and Fare-
well Streets in 1672, and is believed to have been the first
house built distinctly as a house of worship in Rhode Island.
*This punishment, Gould says, was inflicted upon him while he was"tyed
to the carriage of a great Earn." Two other men received fifteen stripes,
and the women ten stripes, each ; after which, Gould records, "we were all
lead back to prison where our lodgings were with our sore backs upon the
boards, where we remained until after the Execution. And this is my
comfort to this day, and I bless God for it, that my sufferings were in great
Innocence."
39
Its successor, on the same site, was built in 1699-1700.* The
women's section was added in 1808, since which time it has
retained its present form and dimensions.
The following items relating to the building of the Meet-
ing House I culled from the minutes of the Newport Monthly
Meeting, Vol. 1 (1676-1707-8), which are preserved in the
vaults of the Newport Historical Society:
P. 60 (98) : At a monthly mens meeting at newport in
Rhoad Island at our meeting house ye 7th. Day of ye 12th
moth 1698 : ffriends have proposed to have a meeting house
Built at Portsmouth and alsoe to have a Large meeting
house built at new porte and ffriends are Desired to sub-
scribe what theye are willing: ffor ye performing of of
Boath (mathew Borden Gidion ffreborne John Borden and
Abraham Anthony (are appynted to carey one the meeting
house at Portsmouth and to Receive ye colections tfor that
purpose and that theye doe agree wheare to Erect it and
make Report to our next Monthly meeting.
Walter Clarke Ebinezer Slocum Jacob mott John Bor-
den: are aded to Execators of Wm Edwards to maneg and
take ceare of ye land bought of Ann Bull and all other con-
sarnes Relating to the Estate of Wm Edwards wch is Left to
this meeting."
P. 64 (102) : At a monthly mens meeting at newport at
our monthly meeting house ye 27 4th mo. 1699 . . . This
meeting hath thought convenient to choose some ffriends &
appoynte ym to erect and Build a meeting house and theye
consult aboute the mater how and wheare & ye Demensions
and make Returne to our next mens meeting.
John Easton : Senr Walter Clarke Edward Thurstone :
John Easton Junr Danl: Gould John: StantonTho: Cornell
Lathum: Clark John: Gould Wm Barker Wm Alen ffor
newporte ffor cononicutt : Joseph : mody & Eb-
inezer Slocum
ffor portsmoth: Jacob mott: & ma-
thew borden
*This is the middle part of the present house, 45 x 46 ft., with two rows
of galleries, one above the other, a hipped roof, and a tower, 10 ft. square
and 10 ft. high. It cost £261 18s. 9d.
40
and that They doe meete togeather at our meeting house ye
10th daye of ye 5th: moth: 1699: being one 2d daye of ye
week.
7-19 1699 flfriends have appoynted to Laye out ye
place wheare ye meeting house shal : stand & to doe it after
ye meeting
8-17-1699 ffriends have Layed oute and appoynted ye
place wheare ye meeting house shall stand and have brought
Great Stones & other stones to Laye ye ffoundation
Quarterly Meeting at Newport,4-4-1700: Rhoad Island
monthly meeting being called one (to know what Buisiness
theye have Refered to this meeting) Thomas Cornell & Jacob
mot : acquainted this meeting yt some ffriends were not Sat-
tisfied aboute ye Lanthorne, and ye new meeting house [at
Portsmouth] ; ffriends having had much Debate in Love and
condisending one to another have Left ye mater [sold Ports-
mouth's old meeting house to Joseph mory 3-28-1700; for
11:14; towards new house (see Minute for 5-23-1700; Books
and papers of Mtg. placed in care of John Easton Jr.]
8-25-1700 Thomas Cornell desires yt ffriends would ap-
poynt some to : account with him aboute ye charge in build-
ing ye new meeting house in Newport ffriends have
chosen [4]
9-12-1700 Thomas Cornell's charge presented —
£ s d
ye whole charge is 261 : - 18 - 9
colected by subscription 168 - 05 - 0
oute of: ffriends stock 100 '- 00 - 0
268 - 5-0
£ s d
The overplusse is 6 : 6 : 3 : wch is
given to Thomas Cornell's wife
Thomas Cornell is ordered to ffite ye old meeting house
ffor this winter season.
10-10-1700 Two Friends desired to "Build a shedd in
ffriends yarde at new porte to sett horses under".
41
6-19-1701 "It is proposed to Build a meeting house at
providence wch is Liked & Refered to our next mens meet-
ing."
The records of the births, deaths and marriages of the
Newport Friends begin in 1672, probably as a result of the
advice of George Fox, who visited them that year. On the
inside cover of the book for recording marriages is the fol-
lowing memorandum : "Friends two books bought at Bos-
ton cost 20 shillings, the biggest for births and Deaths, and
the lesser book for marriages only. So ordered at the mans
meeting of friends at the House of William Coddington in
the town of New Port in Road Island in the yeare 1672, the
22th day of ye 8-m 1672." The first death recorded is that of
Mary Coddington, the wife of William, in 1647, and the
record is accompanied b}'^ the statement that she "was buried
in the burying place of Friends that was given to the Friends
by William Coddington, her husband."
The Newport Monthly Meeting was established in 1658,
eighteen years before its records began; and this was soon
followed by the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, which con-
stituted with those of Salem and Sandwich the only three
Quarterly Meetings which New England possessed before
1784. The Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting was held once in
three months at Smithfield, Dartmouth, Swansea, and Green-
wich, respectively, while Newport was the seat of the Yearly
Meeting. This last meeting was the most important meeting in
New England*, for while it was at first a large "General
Meeting" for worship and fellowship only, it soon came to
exercise disciplinary powers and to be the focus of all the
monthly and quarterly meetings of New England. Its first
session was held in Newport in 1661 at the suggestion of
George Rofe, an F^nglish Friend, and was so largely attended
that the Boston officials are said by a contemporary** to
have "made an alarm that the Quakers were gathering to
kill the people and fire the town of Boston." Until 1695, the
Friends of Long Island, as well as of New England, came to
Newport to attend the Yearly Meeting and we may almost
say of it what Whittier said of the Quaker Alumni of the
*Its records date from 1683.
**Bishop's "New England Judged."
42
Providence School: "From the well-springs of Hudson, the
sea-cliffs of Maine, Grave men, sober matrons, you gather
again"; and we can well understand how it became for all
northern Quakerism in those isolated and seemingly hum-
drum days the great social and educational as well as relig-
ious event of the year. The meeting's size may be estimated
from the fact that by 1700 one-half of Rhode Island's popula-
tion and one-third of its places of worship belonged to the
Quakers. Indeed, they and the Baptists had practically
preempted the colony between them, much to the disgust of
the clergymen of the Church of England, one of whom
complained that the Quakers turned their backs on every-
body's reading of the Scriptures except their own, and were
unapproachable and unyielding in matters of faith.
The Newport Yearly Meeting grew steadily until the
middle of the Eighteenth century, and was especially large
when some distinguished visitor was expected to be present.
George Fox and six other eminent ministers attended it in
1672, and so many people flocked to it from all sides that
they required two days after it was over, to take leave of all
the friends they had made during its sessions*. The name of
Farew^ell Street was again appropriate to the scene. When
such men as Thomas Chalkley, John Richardson, Thomas
Story, John and Samuel Fothergill, visited the meeting in
later years, its attendants numbered, in 1722, 2000, and 5000
in 1743, when it was probably the largest in the world. About
the end of the century, 1798, the system of definite represen-
tation in it of monthly and quarterly meetings was estab-
lished, and, with a similar system in the Yearly Meetings of
the South, and the pure democracy of the many monthly
meetings, it rivalled the Puritan town meeting, the Cavalier
county court, and the colonial assemblies, as a nursery of
that government of the people, by the people, and for the
people which blossomed forth nearly a century later.
*George Fox's "Journal", II, 160: "The glorious power of the Lord
which was over all, and His blessed truth and life flowing amongst them,
had so knit and united them together that they spent two days in taking
leave of one another and of the Friends of the Island, and then, being
mightily filled with the presence and power of the Lord, they went away
with joyful hearts to their various habitations."
43
Roger ^Yilliams attended the Newport Yearly Meeting
in 1671, and was moved to make some comment on the
doctrine he had heard; bnt he was "stopt", he says, "by the
sudden praying of the Governor's wife [Ann, the wife of
Nicholas Easton]". He stood up again, and again he was
"stopt by John Burnett's [Burnyeat's] sudden falling to
prayer and dismissing the assembly".* He did not come to
the meeting the next year when George Fox and his compan-
ions were there; but they went to Providence and held two
large meetings, one of them in "a greate barne", says Fox,
"which was soe full of people, yt I was extremely soaked
with sweat, but all was well". All was wrong, Roger Williams
thought, and he challenged Fox to debate fourteen proposi-
tions, or accusations against the Quakers, with him. This
challenge was not received by Fox until he had left Newport
on his way south; but it was accepted by some of his associ-
ates whom Williams calls "His Holiness, George Fox's Jour-
neymen and Chaplains."
The debate was arranged in a visit which the Friends
made to Williams's home in Providence, and the day before
it was to be held in Newport the sturdy septuagenarian
rowed thirty miles down the Bay to engage in it. "God
graciously helped me", he says, "in rowing all day with my
old bones so that I got to Newport toward the midnight
before the morning appointed." He had engaged to debate
his propositions with all comers, and encountered three
Quaker champions, and, before great crowds of listeners,
with Governor Easton presiding and maintaining "the civil
peace",the theological, ecclesiastical and at times personal
debate waxed and waned throughout three long summer
days. It must have been a strange scene to any eyes, and
doubly so to ours accustomed in Newport to contests of such
different kinds, — tennis, yachting, polo, dog-shows, etc., —
which was enacted down on Marlborough Street in those
quaint old colonial times. Providence was jealous of New-
port's good fortune, and it was accordingly arranged that
half of the debate should be held in that town. The audience,
or a large part of it, appears to have accompanied the
* "George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes. "
44
debaters to Providence, but a single day was sufTicient then
to end it. Leave to print was given to the respective contest-
ants, and Roger WilUams issued his "George Fox Digged out
of his Burrowes", while the Friends replied in "A New Eng-
land Firebrand Quenched".* John Burnyeat says in his
"Journal"**: "It would be tedious here to insert the Dis-
course [that is, an account of the debate in Newport], if I
were able; but I cannot remember it. There is a Book in
Manuscript, of what was taken in Short-hand of the Dis-
course at that present."
It is probably fortunate that the Ms. Book is not well
known; for judging from expressions in the printed books,
the debate was probably at times bitter and undignified.
Roger Williams, for example, characterizes William Ed-
mondson, one of the Quaker champions, as having "A flash
of wit, a face of Brass, and a Tongue set on fire from the Hell
of Lyes and Fury"; while Edmondson calls Williams "an
old Priest and an enemy of Truth, a bitter old man
full of Weakness, Folly and Envy against the Truth and the
Friends."
More pleasing is it for us to recall the meeting at New-
port in more kindly years between Channing and Whittier
and the English Friend, Joseph Sturge, when —
"No bars of sect or clime were felt, —
The Babel strife of tongues had ceased,—
And at one common altar knelt
The Quaker and the Priest. " ***
Theological controversy, however, was like the breath
of life in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Gentiiries; and
the Newport Friends showed their recognition of its import-
ance by engaging James Franklin, Benjamin's brother, who
became the first printer in Newport in 1729, to issue as one of
his first books Robert Barclay's "Apology for the True
*Staples believes that this was written chiefly by Richard Scott, ''the
first Friend in Providence."
**P. 53.
***Whittier's "Channing."
45
Christian Divinity, as the same is set forth and preached by
the people called in scorn Quakers."*
But the Quakers of the olden times, — as they "walked
with noiseless feet the round of uneventful years, and o'er
and o'er they sowed the spring and reaped the autumn
ears", — realized in every successive day's experience that
"From scheme and creed the light goes out,
The saintly fact survives :
The blessed Master none can doubt
Revealed in Holy lives."
And we believe that the early Friends of Newport strove,
in spite of human weakness and defects, so to live that when
they left this island home they should leave it in some slight
measure "hallowed by pure lives and tranquil deaths." Like
their fellows elsewhere, they were Puritans of an advanced
type, and set up in their "advices," "queries," "family visits,"
and meetings for discipline and worship, a standard of mor-
ality which gave first place to honesty, sobriety and simplic-
ity. This led them to insist on the strict keeping of promises
in business, and to punish such business practices as "the
salting up unmerchantable beef and exposing it for sale;"
also to denounce lotteries, at a time when even churches and
colleges depended upon this, now admittedly, dishonest
source of revenue; to deprecate "fiddling, dancing and card-
playing," at a time when these were almost the sole and the
universal diversion of youth and age alike, but when they so
often led to evil habits; and to moderate the strong, natural
desire to "follow the fashion." Wigs, — or "Perry Wiggs," as
they spelled and called them, — gave them an inordinate
amount of trouble. One meeting, for example, expressed its
sentiments on this, at that time, capital article of apparel as
follows: "All Friends who suppose that they have need of
wiggs ought to take the advice and approbation of the vis-
itors [that is, the overseers] of their respective [monthly]
meetings before they proceed to get one. And it is the tender
advice and brotherly request of this Meeting that all be care-
*This is the 6th Edition in English ; a copy of it is in the Redwood
Library, and a copy is in the Historical Society. Franklin also printed, in
Newport in 1752, Barclay's "Catechism."
46
fill to observe the same, and not in a careless or overly-
minded cutt of their hair (which is given them for a cover-
ing) to put on a wigg or indecent capp which has been ob-
served of late years to be a growing practice among too
many of the young men in several parts, to the trouble of
many honest Friends, it plainly appearing (in some) for a
imitation and joyning with the spirit and fashion of the
world."
As early as 1673, the monthly, quarterly, and yearly
ineetings of Rhode Island began to oppose the use, manufac-
ture, sale or gift of alcoholic liquors, except for medicinal
purposes, and thus gave an early impulse to the prohibition
wave which is running high in our time, both in peace and
in war. It was not only for their own members that they
were thus concerned. The Yearly Meeting of 1784, for ex-
ample, passed the following minute : "We entreat that they
[the members of the Society in New England] forbear the
said practices that a line may in due time be draw^n, and the
standard be raised and spread to the nation."
The Quaker testimony against the taking of oaths,
whether as an expletive in private conversation or in judicial
procedure, received recognition in Rhode Island from the
very beginning, and affirmation was permitted in their stead.
In this too, the nation has followed the Quaker lead, to which
Rhode Island's Quaker Government gave such early prestige.
The great curse of the slave-trade, domestic and foreign,
and of slave ownership, was a truly formidable one for the
Quakers to grapple with, especially perhaps in Newport,
which was of such commercial importance, and in Rhode
Island, where slavery existed on a relatively large scale.
From the beginnings of the Society, the meetings dealt
fseverely with their members for any case of cruel treatment
of their slaves, and insisted on a treatment of them consistent
with humanity and religion.
Rhode Island's Quaker governor, Walter Clarke, refused
to permit his colony to participate in New England's sale of
Indian prisoners into slavery, after King Philip's War, in
1676, and procured the passage of a law providing that "no
Jndian in this colony be a slave."
As early as 1717, the Yearly Meeting in Newport began
47
to oppose both the trade in and ownership of negro slaves.
After the painful efforts of two generations of such Quaker
opponents of slavery as "College Tom" Hazard of South
Kingstown, and the saintly John Woolman, of New Jersey,
and as a result of the even more painful "dealings" of the va-
rious New England monthly meetings with their slave-owning
members (such as Stephen Hopkins, for example, and
Joshua Rathbun), the Newport Yearly Meeting in 1773 was
able at last to wipe the stain of the iniquitous system entire-
ly from its skirts. The next year, 1774, the Yearly Meeting
appointed a committee to work for abolition in Rhode
Island, and had the satisfaction in the same year of seeing
one of its former members, Stephen Hopkins, draft Rhode
Island's act against the further enslavement of negroes with-
in its borders. The Yearly Meeting's gratification at this event
was probably increased by the reflection that its distin-
guished member, who was nine times governor of the colony,
had been "disowned" by Smithfield Monthly Meeting be-
cause he would not yield to Friends in the freeing of his one
slave woman.
Thus the Newport and Rhode Island Friends bore an
honorable part in that colonial movement for abolition
which was to become, through a long course of moral, polit-
ical and industrial education, a great national reality.
The Quaker "testimony" which appears to be of most
public interest in the present day is the rejection of war
as a means of settling disputes between and among nations
and the substitution for it of a more civilized and effective
means. Newport Quaker history sheds much instructive light
upon this great world-problem, and a bare glimpse of it
must be given here in concluding this over-long address.
The use of "carnal" weapons the Quakers have rejected
from the beginning of their history, both as wrong in itself
and as fatal to the success of those "spiritual" weapons
which alone they regard as right and effective. In their ef-
forts to keep their members up to this standard, the meet-
ings have "labored with" or "disowned" many a "fighting
Quaker," like the favorite general of Washington in the Rev-
olution, Nathaniel Greene of Warwick, Rhode Island, and
Jacob Browne of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who held high
48
command in the War of 1812. In spite of such distinguished
dehnquents, the Society as a whole has kept its ancient testi-
mony bright and untarnished, and accepts with due appre-
ciation our national government's recognition of it during
the present great war. It is a cause of gratification to many
Friends today that the Society has strenuously endeavored
to persuade the government to place this exemption, not
upon corporate membership, but solely upon individual
conscience, and that it has in some small measure succeeded
in its endeavor. While the Quakers in the colonies suffered
much by fine and imprisonment for refusing to "train" and
to bear arms in Queen Anne's, King George's, and the French
and Indian wars, Rhode Island set a better example under
its Quaker governor, Nicholas Easton, by passing, on the 13th
of August, 1673, an act exempting from military service those
who were opposed to it for conscience' sake. "The inhabit-
ants of this colony," declares this deservedly famous act,
"have a conscience against exacting an oath, .... how
much more ought such men forbear to compel their ecjual
neighbors against their conscience to trayne to fight and
to kill Bee it therefore enacted by his Majesty's au-
thority, that noe person (within this Colony), that is or here-
after shall be persuaded in his conscience that he cannot or
ought not to trayne, to learne to fight, nor to war, nor kill
any person or persons, shall at any time be compelled against
his judgment and conscience to trayne, arm, or fight, to kill
any person or persons by reason of or at the command of
any officer of this Collony, civil or military, nor by reason
(of any by-law here past or formerly enacted; nor shall any
suffer any punishment, fine, distraint, penalty, nor imprison-
ment, who cannot in conscience traine, fight, nor kill any
person nor persons for the aforesaid reasons."
This sweeping exemption for conscience' sake was
passed just before King Philip's War, and when that war
became imminent the Quakers of Newport endeavored their
utmost to prevent it and to settle the respective grievances
of the Indians and the English by means of arbitration.
William Coddington was governor at the time, and doubt-
less at his suggestion a committee of five members of the
flhode Island assembly, with John Easton, Junior, the"
49
Quaker deputy-governor at their head, rowed up to King
Philip's headquarters at Mount Hope and argued and plead
an entire day with him and his chieftains in behalf of arbi-
tration. "We told them," Easton records in his "Narrative,"
"that our desire was that the quarrel might be rightly de-
cided in the best way, not as dogs decide their quarrels."
The Indians frankly "owned that fighting was the worst way;
but they inquired how right might take place without fight-
ing. We said by arbitration. They said that by arbitration
the English agreed against them, and so by arbitration they
had much wrong.. . . We said they might chuse a Indian
King and the English might chuse the Governor of New
Yorke, that neither had case [should have cause] to say
that either wear parties to the difference. They said they
had not heard of this way."
The Quaker pleader doubtless also reminded the .'ndi-
r\- t of the mutual justice and friendship which had existed
for so long in Rhode Island between them and the English,
and of the fact that his father. Governor Nicholas Easton,
had recently provided that one-half of the jury in i rials
where Indians were involved should be Indians, and that
the evidence of Indians should be accepted as equal with
that of an Englishman. But the Indians remembered the
Pequot War and many another sad and sorry incident in the
relations between the Indians and the English outside of
Rhode Island, and feared to entrust their case to arbitra-
tion. "We were persuaded," Easton concludes, "that if this
way had been tendered [by the other colonies] they would
have accepted."*
A half-dozen years later, another Quaker inaugurated
in Pennsylvania his Holy Experiment, which included among
other illustrious American principles and practices the
great method of arbitration and judicial settlement in place
of war. It is of much interest to the student of Rhode
Island's history to find thus early the statesmanlike policy
which, adopted by Penn in Pennsylvania in 1682, and ad-
*For a more detailed account of this episode, Cf. an article in the
Friends Intelligence?', for Eleventh Month 3, 1917, entitled "The Peace
Programme of Rhode Island Friends, 1675," by Wm. I. Hull.
50
vocated by him in his great "Essay" of 1693 for applicat'on
to the war-worn Europe of his time, became the corner-stone
of our A merican repubhc, and under the auspices of Ihe
Hague Conference is destined to become the accepted and
habitual practice of the nations.
In view of these and other still waters of life which
flowed through the Quaker centers of colonial Newport and
Rhode Island, some small part of which has been but faint-
ly reflected in this address, I trust that it is not too much
to claim with the modest Whittier:
"No honors of war to our worthies belong ;
Their plain stem of life never flowered into song :
But the fountains they opened still gush by the way,
And the world for their healing is better to-day."
REV. DR. SAMUEL HOPKINS
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
February 6th, 1917
By
Rev. CLARIS EDWIN SILGOX
SAMUEL HOPKINS
In one of his earliest and most fascinating books. Fried-
rich Nietzsche, the enfant terrible of German philosophy,
wrote: "Every man and nation needs a certain knowledge
of the past, whether it be through monumental, antiquarian,
or critical history, according to his objects, powers and
necessities." "History is necessary to the man of
action and power who fights a great fight and needs exam-
ples, teachers and comforters .... It ... . shows us how
to bear steadfastly the reverses of fortune, by reminding us
of what others have suffered." This is its monumental
function. Next, Nietzsche says, "history is necessary to the
man of conservative and reverent nature who looks back to
the origins of his existence with love and trust; through it,
he gives thanks for life. The possession of his ancestor's
furniture changes its meaning in his soul; for his soul is
rather possessed by it. All that is small and limited, mouldy
and obsolete, gains a worth and inviolability of its own from
the .... soul of the antiquary migrating into it, and
building a secret nest there. The history of the town
becomes the history of himself; he looks on the walls, the
turreted gates, the town council, the fair, as an illustrated
diary of his youth, and sees himself in it all ... . He greets
the soul of his people from afar as his own, across the dim
and troubled centuries; his gifts and his virtues lie in such
power of feeling and divination, his scent of a half -vanished
trail, his instinctive correctness in reading the scribbled
past." Such is the antiquarian use of history. And finally,
says Nietzsche, is the scholar's, or critical, use of history.
Here the past is brought to the bar of judgment, is interro-
gated remorselessly, and finaily condemned. "Every past,"
said the philosopher, "is worth condemning."
54
Now, our attitude tonight in considering the Hfe and
work of Samuel Hopkins, is three-fold in its nature. We
shall approach him with the love of the antiquary, because
Hopkins was an important figure in the history of this town
at its most interesting period, viz., from 1770 to the first
years of the nineteenth century. We shall also look to him
for inspiration, for he is an inspiring figure, heroic, harmo-
nizing in himself the moral severity of the Puritan with a
Christ-like passion for the souls and well-being of men. And
we shall try to be critical, not only of the man, but also of
the age, praising what is worthy of praise and modestly cen-
suring that which deserves criticism.
For the benefit of such as may not be conversant with
the outstanding facts in the life of Hopkins, it may be said
that he was not a native of Newport, but came here in 1770
and until the day of his death in December, 1803, was
minister of the First Congregational Church in this city.
Thus for thirty-three years he was associated with the his-
tory of this town, preaching in the old church now used as
an auction room on Mill street, and living in the house almost
directly opposite the Union Congregational Church on Divi-
sion street. After the Revolutionary war, when his own
church was too badly damaged to be used for Divine
worship, and until sufficient funds had been collected to
repair it, his congregation met in this meeting-house* which
was large enough for his diminished and impoverished
people. In Newport he wrote his System of Divinity which
was published in 1792 and created a great stir not only in
Newport but even in England and Scotland and won for its
many distinguishing views the name "Hopkinsian" or "Hop-
kintonian." These views were in reality a modification of
the Calvinistic position and were considered heretical and
worthy of classification under St. Paul's "philosophy and
vain deceit" by a large number of ministers and theologians,
Hopkins died and was buried here; and when the First and
Second Congregational Churches united and built their place
of worship on the present site of the United Congregational
Church, his bones were reverently disinterred and re-buried
*The Seventh Day Baptist, in which this address was delivered.
55
to the south of the church, where those interested may still
see and decipher tlie following inscription:
IN MEMORY OF
SAMUEL HOPKINS, D. D.
Pastor of the
First Congregational Church
in Newport;
Who departed this life
Dec. 20th, A. D. 1803;
In the 83rd year of his age;
Whose faithful attention to the duties
of his pastoral office, and
whose valuable writings,
will recommend his character
when this monument,
erected by his bereaved flock,
shall, with the precious dust it covers,
cease to be distinguished.
For the benefit of those who may desire to pursue their
studies of Hopkins further, it is perhaps well to mention the
following books :
Autobiography.
Memoir of the Life and Character of the
Rev'd Samuel Hopkins, D. D. — John Ferguson,
(1830.)
Life of Samuel Hopkins, by William Patten.
Memoir of the Life and Character of Hopkins,
by Edwards A. Park (1854).
Essay on Hopkins in "Old Portraits" by John
Greenleaf Whittier (1847).
The Works of Samuel Hopkins, edited by
Park, 1854. (Three volumes) .
There are many other references to his theology, but
these are the books of greatest general interest.
Samuel Hopkins, the object of this sketch, was the son of
Timothy Hopkins and Mary Judd, of Waterbury, Conn.,
where he was born, the eldest of a family of 5 sons and 4
56
daughters, on September 17, 1721. He was born on the Sab-
bath Day and baptized soon after his birth. When his father
was assured that his son would live, he promised that he
should be given a college training and fitted to be a sabbath-
day man, or minister. We know little of his youth, beyond
what he tells us in his Autobiography. He did not recall
ever hearing a profane word until he had reached the
fifteenth year of his age, which is a sure testimony to the
Christian environment in which his early years were spent.
Hopkins says:
"I from my youth was not volatile and wild,
but rather of a sober and steady make, and was
not guilty of external irregularities, such as
disobedience to parents, profanation of the
sabbath, lying, foolish jesting, quarrelling, pas-
sion and anger, or rash and profane words; and
was disposed to be diligent and faithful in
whatever business I was employed."
He admits, however, that he was generally careless
"about invisible things . . . , and sometimes, though rarely,
had some serious thoughts of God." Once he had a dream
in which he and his brother two years his junior were driven
down to hell with the rest of the wicked, and sentenced to
everlasting misery, "This greatly impressed my mind," says
Hopkins, "for a long time after,"
It is unfortunate that Hopkins in his autobiography did
not tell us more about his youth, but he was interested in
little beyojid his religious experience. It seems inconceiv-
able that a theologian must always be a theologian from his
cradle, and it would be reassuring to know that Hopkins
occasionally played games with his brothers and sisters and
shook with laughter, perchance, upon the occasion of their
discomfort. But he lived in days which are hard to recon-
struct, in which the children of pious households were early
made to realize the terror of the Lord, and w^here the only
happiness recorded seems to have been that of contem-
plating the goodness of God and the beauties of heaven.
In his Life of President Jonathan Edwards, Hopkins
tells a story which is certainly characteristic of the time.
57
When Jonathan Edwards was a boy, he with some other
lads, built a hut in the sw^amp where they were wont to
gather together. Surely this savours of perennial boyhood.
Some of the gentlemen here may, in their youth, have had
some favorite resort, a hut or a cave, to which they resorted
with their playmates. But it is very doubtful if the purpose
of their juvenile assembly was identical with that of the
companions of Jonathan Edwards. He and his 'pals' went
out to this swamp-hut to pray. When we are estimating the
influences that made the religious revival of the early half
of the eighteenth century possible, let us not forget this hut
in the swamp and its purpose. Samuel Hopkins may not
have had experiences identical with his friend, Jonathan,
but he was brought up in a very pious home where he had
ample reason to reflect upon the possibilities of his own
salvation.
In 1737, when he was sixteen years of age, he was
admitted to Yale College, then under the presidency of Elisha
Williams. The dominant studies, non-elective, were logic,
physics, mathematics, ethics, rhetoric and theology. Such
studies were inclined to develop originality of thought rather
than felicity of expression,* and the intellectual discipline to
which Yale submitted Hopkins must have contributed
largely to his fondness for abstract thinking, but we must
not forget that theologians are born, and not made. They
are probably pre-destined before the foundation of the
w^orld.
Hopkins tells us that while a member of the college he
"had the character of a sober, studious youth, and of a better
scholar than the bigger half of the members of that society;
and had the approbation of the governors of the college."
He adds: "I avoided the intimacy and the company of the
openly vicious; and indeed kept but little company, being
*President Woolsey of Yale said in an address delivered August 14, 1850:
"The effect of the modern system of education, or of society, or of both, is
to repress originality of thinking, to destroy individual peculiarities, and to
produce in general sameness among those whom it educates." (Quoted by
Professor Park in the Memoir of Hopkins). Thus we perceive that the
fallacy of the current educational theory endureth from generation to
generation. It could not be said of the curriculum to which Hopkins was
submitted that it repressed originality of thinking.
58
attentive to my studies." He desired to be known as a pious
youth, and sometime before 1740 he joined the church at
Waterbury, although he afterwards feared that he had no
positive experience of saving grace at the time. Of course,
we inust remember that conversion was at that time consid-
ered to be something catastrophic and revokitionary, as it is
still considered by some, although modern thought lays
more emphasis upon the culture of religion than upon con-
viction of sin. In 1740 George Whitefield visited Yale and
preached to the people of New Haven. He made a great im-
pression, people travelling twenty miles to hear him. Most
of his hearers approved of him. Hopkins, too, heard and
approved, although like so many hearers, he seemed to apply
the judgments of the great evangelist to others rather than
to himself. "He preached against mixed dancing and frolic-
ing of males and females together; which practice was then
very common in New England. This offended some, espe-
cially young people. But I remember I justified him in this
in my own mind; and in conversation with those w^ho were
disposed to condemn him."
Early in the next year, Gilbert Tennant came to New
Haven from Boston, and preached there wdth a "remarkable
and mighty power. Thousands were awakened, and many
cried out with distress and horror of mind, under a con-
viction of God's anger, and their constant exposedness to
endless destruction." The students who were professing
Christians before they came to college, such as young David
Brainerd, busied themselves in personal work among the
other students, canvassing them in their rooms and asking
them to accept Christ and His salvation. Brainerd came to
visit Hopkins, although Hopkins was a senior and Brainerd
only a sophomore; but Hopkins purposely refused to com-
mit himself. Nevertheless, he was not untouched. In such
a great revival of religious interest, men naturally take sides.
It is a case of being "for" or "against", just as we have
observed in the recent Billy Sunday phenomenon in New
England. The thoughts of Hopkins at this time were long,
long thoughts.
But if Hopkins had been impressed wdth Mr. Tennant
and considered his sermons to be "apples of gold in pictures
59
of silver," he was more impressed with the preaching of Jon-
athan Edwards who came to Yale in September of 1741 and
spoke on "The Trial of Spirits." He concluded that if he
were to study for the ministry he would do so with Mr.
Edwards. The character of this great preacher and his style
is, perhaps, too well known to deserve quotation; never-
theless, as it has been said that he is the only American
worthy of comparison with Dante*, two paragraphs are not
amiss; one from his private journal describes his happiness
in the contemplation of God :
"After this, my sense of divine things grad-
ually increased, and became more and more
lively, and had more than inward sweetness.
The appearance of everything was altered; there
seem'd to be as it were a calm, sweet Cast, or
appearance of divine Glory, in almost every-
thing. God's excellency, His wisdom, his purity
and love, seemed to appear in everything; in
the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds and
blue sky; in the grass, flowers and trees; in
the water and in all nature; which used greatly
to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the
moon for a long time; and so in the daytime
spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky,
to behold the sweet glory of God in these things;
in the meantime, singing forth with a low voice
my contemplations of the Creator and Re-
deemer; And scarce anything, among all the
works of nature, was so sweet to me as thunder
and lightning; Formerly nothing had been so
terrible to me. I used to be a person uncom-
monly terrified with thunder, and it used to
strike me with terror, when I saw a thunder
storm rising. But now, on the contrary, it re-
joyced me. I felt God at the first appearance of
a thunder-storm. And used to take the oppor-
tunity at such times, to fix myself and view the
clouds, and see the lightnings play, and hear the
*A statement recently made in Newport by Prof. Bliss Perry.
60
majestick and awful voice of God's thunder;
which oftentimes was exceeding entertaining,
leading me to sweet contemplation of my great
and glorious God. And while I viewed, used to
spend my time, as it always seem'd natural to
me, to sing or chant forth my meditations; to
speak my thoughts in soliloquies and speak
with a singing voice."
The other quotation reveals the preacher's power in de-
scribing the terrors of eternal punishment. It is the con-
cluding paragraph of the famous sermon on "Sinners in tlie
Hand of an Angry God," and when this was preached in
Enfield, it is said that some of the hearers w^ere so frightened
that they jumped out of the window. Need one wonder?
Listen :
"The God that holds you over the pit of hell
— much as one holds a spider or some loath-
some insect over the fire — abhors you, and is
dreadfully provoked. His wrath towards you
burns like fire; He looks upon you as being
worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the
fire. He is of purer eyes than to bear to have
you in his sight; you are ten thousand times
more abominable in his eyes than the most
hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have
offended Him infinitely more than ever a stub-
born rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing
but his hand that holds you from falling into
the fire every moment. It is to be ascribed to
nothing else that you did not go to hell the last
night; that you was suffered to wake again in
this world, after you closed your eyes to sleep.
And there is no other reason to be given why
you have not dropped into hell since you arose
in the morning, but that God's hand has held
you up. There is no other reason to be given
why you have not gone to hell since you have
sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure
eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending
61
his solemn worship. Yea, there is nothing else
to be given as a reason why you do not at this
very moment drop into hell."
Here, surely, is powerful preaching. Here is the per-
sonal application; here the divine urgency. And when
Hopkins had received his diploma from Yale and had spent
a short time at home resting, he went to Northampton and
for four months studied theology and the duties of the
pastoral oliice with this mighty New England divine. Later,
Hopkins edited the works of Edwards and wrote a memoir
of him. He was licensed to preach on April 29, 1742.
He then received invitations to preach as a candi-
date for many "comfortable" pulpits, but the first that he
considered seriously was the parish at Great Barrington, or,
as it was known in the days of Hopkins, Housatonick.
Housatonick was then on the verge of the wilderness, and
consisted of more sinners than saints. It was a heterogene-
ous community, partly Puritan, partly Dutch, on the very
frontiers of the New England settlement, encircled by In-
dians not always friendly and settled by pioneers of the dare-
devil type. It was probably the last place under God's
heaven for a man like Samuel Hopkins, fundamentally a
t^tudent and a thinker, to go. He himself hesitated a long
time. In his journal he wrote: "The circumstances of this
place appear more and more dreadful to me. There seems
to be no rehgion here. If I did not think I had a call here, I
should be quite discouraged."
Though he received an invitation to found a church
there and be its pastor and teacher, he was offered only 60
pounds for settlement, and 35 pounds a year with the in-
crease of 20 shillings a year until the maximum of 45 pounds
a year had been reached. He did not see how he could live
on it and he told them so, but he felt that this community
needed the Gospel. It seemed that it was his duty to accept
the call and so he expressed his willingness to remain there
on November 25, 1743. He was ordained on the 28th of the
following month, and there he remained and labored, "on
the edge of cultivation" until January 18, 1769, or for 25
years and 21 days.
62
He had his own troubles,for there were few tangible
evidences of the results of his ministry. He did succeed in
getting five men to be the charter members of the church,
but he saw no signs of any genuine conversion for seven
years when a certain H.D, showed symptoms of real religion,
and straightway died. But we must remember that our the-
ologian was very slow to acknowledge the genuineness of
any professed conversion as the following episode will
testify. The minister had been summoned to the bedside of
a dying woman who was "full of joy and comfort," sup-
posing she had saving discoveries of Christ. "She admired
the goodness of God, and called upon all to praise Him. Upon
examining her, I was satisfied she was deceived; that it was
only the workings of her imagination. She was confident;
but I told her my fears! How exposed to the delusions of
the devil are ignorant persons!"
In the light of this passage, we may fairly assume that
Hopkins would have had more converts had he lowered his
standards. But his rigor, and sincerity — in his later years
he was nicknamed "Old Sincerity" — made him relentless;
an opponent of the "Half-way Covenant," so common at the
time, he refused to baptize the children of all but the regen-
erate; consequently, a number of the "unregenerate"
clubbed together and invited an Episcopal clergyman to
come to Great Barrington and baptize their infants, which
he did. Henceforth, Hopkins found himself confronted not
only by his theological opponents outside of Housatonick,
for his views on the half-way covenant had aroused much
resentment, but also by many in his own parish, especially
the Dutchmen whom he could not understand, the Tories
whom he knew too well, and the Episcopalians whom he
loathed. He fought a good fight, but it was too much for
him. Many of his parishioners turned Churchmen, appar-
ently, as Hopkins said, "to get rid of paying anything for the
support of the gospel." In spite of their efforts, his church
could not raise his salary. The Tories got control of the
town meeting, and threatened to withhold part of his
salary, if not all. "If they prevail," said Hopkins, "it seems
I am done here. 'The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice.' "
Hopkins hesitated between staying on and preaching
63
the true and "lively" word gratuitously, earning his living
by farming; and leaving them for some other parish, where
he could secure the leisure required for his studies. Even-
tually, he felt forced to resign, and on January 18, 1769, the
pastoral relationship was terminated.
Four years after his settlement in Great Harrington, he
had married a wife, a Miss Joanna Ingersol, a member of his
parish who, in spite of consumptive tendencies, was spared
to live with him until her death in August, 1793. He had
been twice engaged before; but both engagements had been
broken by the ladies in question, one of them upon the
occasion of the return to town of a former suitor, when she
informed him that "however much she respected him, she
could not fulfill her engagement to him from the heart."
Let us hope that even this affliction was overruled both
for the good of the lady and of Dr. Hopkins. Dr. Hopkins
had eight children, three daughters and five sons. Upon
the death of his wife in 1793, he married a Newport woman*
who survived him.
During his twenty-five years in Housatonick he had not
only admitted to his church 116 members, 71 from the
world and 45 from other churches, but he had also done
extensive preaching among the Indians, through an inter-
preter, and one of his sermons to them which has been
preserved was as simple and free from metaphysics as most
of his published discourses are abstract. His experience
with the Indians made him realize the tragedy of the juxta-
position of a superior and inferior race, and probably influ-
enced him when he proposed the transportation of blacks to
Africa and the establishment of colonies for them on the
Guinea coast. But to that we must refer later.
Mr. Hopkins was now without a church; he was sug-
gested for Old South in Boston, also for Topham, Me., and
finally, for the First Church in Newport, then vacant. He
came to Newport to preach in July of 1769, and was heard
for five Sabbaths. At a meeting of the church held in
August, a call was extended to him, seven voting in favor of
his coming, three against, and two refrained. Straightway
"Miss Elizabeth West.
64
his theological enemies stirred up trouble against him. A
pamphlet against him was circulated very widely. Letters
were sent to Dr. Ezra Stiles, then minister of the Second
Church, evidently inviting his intervention to j)revent the
First Church from consummating the call. Two of these
letters deserve quotation : the first is from Dr. Chauncy
Whittelsey of New Haven:
"New Haven, Septeinber 17, 1769.
Reverend and Dear Sir:
Mr. Hopkins, I think, expects to settle
among you. I esteem him a man of good
sense, but I don't at all like the cast of his divin-
ity. I have read most of his published writ-
ings, and heretofore heard him converse some-
what. His divinity does not seem to be adapted
to the capacities of the vulgar, nor does it
appear to me to give the most honorable char-
acter of that Being to whom all honor is due.
His notions of baptism, if he insisted upon them,
would increase the Church of England, or your
congregation, perhaps both."
The other letter is from Charles Chauncy, dated Boston,
November 14, 1769:
"I am sorry with my whole soul that Mr.
Hopkins is like to settle in Newport. I have a
much worse opinion of his principles than of
Sandeman's. He is a troublesome, conceited,
obstinate man. He preached away almost his
whole congregation at Barrington, and was the
occasion of setting up the Church of England
there. He will preach away all his congre-
gation at Newport, or make them tenfold worse
than they are at present. I wish his instalment
could be prevented. I can add no more but
that I am your good friend and brother,
CHARLES CHAUNCY."*
*Letters quoted in the Literary Diary of Dr. Stiles.
65
Whether or not Dr. Stiles surreptitiously endeavored
to prevent his coming to Newport, the fact remains that on
March 12, 1770, the church reconsidered its call; thirty-three
voted for a call to him, and 36 against. When Mr. Hopkins
was apprised of their decision, he took it with Christian forti-
tude and charity; and stated that if they were unable to
secure a supply for the following Sunday, he would be glad
to preach for them before leaving the city permanently. As
no supply had been obtained, his offer was accepted; in the
course of his sermon he greatly moved his people by his
defence of his theological opinions; many were seen to
weep, and the church again changed its mind and asked him
to be their minister. He accepted and was duly installed.
Dr. Ezra Stiles preaching the ordination sermon on "Saving
Knowledge,"* in which the learned divine quoted Greek and
Hebrew and Latin with ease, probably with considerable
edification to himself, if to no one else.
The second church instructed their representatives at
the installing council to ask Mr. Hopkins this question:
"Whether he considered it a sin for the unregenerate to use
the means of grace." When Mr. Hopkins said that he
believed the unregenerate ought to go to church and read
the Bible and engage in prayer, they were quite contented
and did not stand longer in the way of his installation. But
apparently his attitude on the matter of infant baptism had
been interpreted by many as equivalent to a denial of the
right of all but the elect to the means of grace.
The change from the yeomanry of the Berkshires to the
seafaring folk of Rhode Island was great, for Newport was
at this time not only a centre of wealth and commerce, but
also of culture. The census of 1774 gave the population of
the town at 9,209, but this is considered an underestimation.
The population has been estimated at 11,000. The popula-
tion of Boston at this time was probably about 16,000,t and
that of New York somewhat over 21,000. Thus it will be
seen that Newport ranked with the first towns on the conti-
*This sermon was afterward published, and remains a dreadful warning
to those who persist in carrying their lexicons into the pulpit.
tin a Mss. in the possession of the United Congregational Church, Dr.
Stiles gives the population of Boston in 1752 as 15,684,
6fi
nent. It was noted not only for its scenery, "but also for
the beauty of its private residences, for its fashionable and
luxurious, as well as its intelligent and enterprising society,
its culture of the fine arts, its scientific clubs, its refinement
of taste and manners." There was much variety of religious
opinion. Dr. McSparran having said in 1752 that "neither
Epiphanius's nor Sir Richard Blackmore's catalogues con-
tain more heterodox and different opinions in religion than
are to be found in this little corner." And Professor Park,
commenting on the settlement of Dr. Hopkins, asks: "He
could not harmonize with the Dutch farmers; what will he
do with the French fashions? He was too severe for the
moderate Calvinists of Connecticut and Massachusetts; will
he not be a foreign element among the formalists and
dilettanti of Newport?"
Nevertheless, he did manage to get along very well. The
church grew. He gave it a new impulse in many directions,
including new rules of ecclesiastical order and a new creed,
new arrangements for the care of the poor and the ordering
of the church music. His Thursday night lectures were well
attended. He would speak to the young men one week and
to the young women the next. The average attendance of
the young men was 40; that of the young women was 70,
and this endeavor to apprise the junior members of his
parish of the fundamentals of the Christian faith was suc-
cessful, as there were many applicants for church member-
ship. It is not impossible that there was wisdom in his
dividing the sexes; those who came to these lectures did so
from a sense of religious duty rather than of social oppor-
tunity.
He soon was able to establish friendly relations with Dr.
Stiles of the Second Church of whom Dr. Channing said :
"This country has perhaps not produced a more learned
man." In his diary, Dr. Stiles wrote : "As the providence of
God has brought us into a connection, I determined to learn
and gather all the good I could from him, treat him with re-
spect and. benevolence, and endeavor as far as we agreed to
co-operate with him in building up the Redeemer's kingdom,
and we lived together in peace and love." Indeed, when Dr.
Hopkins was absent, Dr. Stiles occasionally held union
67
services and preached to both congregations. He was, fur-
ther, a regular attendant at the mid-week lectures. On one
occasion. Dr. Hopkins suffered from a severe nosebleed in
the course of his address, and as it could not be stopped, he
asked Dr. Stiles to continue the lecture. And it is recorded
that "furnished to all good works, he took the same text and
preached extemporaneously."
But the day of trouble was at hand. Both Dr.Stiles and
Dr. Hopkins were Whigs and in 1776 it became advisable to
leave Newport. Dr. Stiles left in March and later became
President of Yale. Dr. Hopkins remained until December,
the month the British troops arrived in Newport, and only
then'did he depart. During the next four years, he preached
in Newburyport, Mass., Stamford, Conn., and other places
as opportunity offered, and returned to Newport in the
spring of 1780. He found his parsonage destroyed, his
church in a frightful condition, having been used as a bar-
racks and hospital. Pulpit and pews were gone, together
with its bell, which the British had taken away with them
when they evacuated the town. The windows were smashed
or lost, and the money was not available to make the neces-
sary repairs. Only Trinity Church escaped the ruthless
behavior of the soldiery. Dr. Hopkins further found all
his wealthy families scattered or impoverished, and the situ-
ation was dark for a man sixty years of age. But he did not
waver. He first gathered the remnant of his parishioners
around him in a private house, and then the Seventh-Day
Baptist Meeting-HouseAvas used for his services. For a time
members of the Second Church attended his services, but as
soon as they could they secured a pastor of their own.
Dr. Hopkins wrote to Boston and Newburyport, seeking
funds to rehabilitate his church, and to some extent he was
successful. But receiving no salary, he was forced to live
simply on what found its way to the collection plate, and the
frightful prices of the day compelled him, much against his
will, to use some of the money he had collected for repairing
the church to meet his own needs, the church justifying him
in his course. It was a trying time for him, but his brave,
courageous spirit kept him up and he stood by his duty even
at great personal sacrifice and suffering. The next years
68
saw the writing and publication (in 1794) of his "System of
Divinity," which is his one monumental work and for which
he received the sum of $900. He straightway gave $100 to a
missionary society which he had lately organized.
But the ijeople were poor and, like Martha, anxious over
many things; and the sojourn of the French troops had
leavened Newport society with the scepticism of the days of
the great encyclopaedists. Dr. Hopkins might give himself
to his theology and to great social reforms, but his church
existed at only a poor dying rate.
It has been said that Hopkins's preaching diminished
the congregation. But the fundamental factor in this unfor-
tunate diminution was the Revolutionary war. True, he
was not as distinguished an orator as he was a theologian.
He had a fine presence, standing six feet in height, and was
the personification of dignity. In fact, it is said that when
Washington visited Newport, and Hopkins acted as Chaplain
for the daj the figure of the theologian as he walked beside
the great general was no less imposing than that of the dis-
tinguished visitor. But Dr. Hopkins was not graceful, and
had curious and awkward gestures. Dr. Channing has said
that his voice was like a cracked bell, but probably Chan-
ning remembered the Hopkins of his later years when he was
feeble or after he had suffered from a stroke. The children
seemed to have been afraid of him, and one of them, a little
girl who cried because she feared to go into the church, ex-
plained her distress thus : "When I look up into the pulpit, I
think I see God there." But in spite of his dignified de-
meanor, Hopkins had one of the warmest hearts that ever
beat.
The real curse in his speaking was his literary style; he
knew his own weaknesses and regretted them, but ventured
the explanation that since youth he had been more intent
upon the discovery of truth than upon its expression. And his
explanation is probably true. Few men who are felicitous
in their utterances know what they are talking about; those
who know what they are talking about seldom can express
themselves. Moses had insight enough to draw up a code of
laws for Israel, but when he wanted to communicate with his
people, he had to use the voice of Aaron. When Moses left
69
Aaron in charge of affairs, the people of Israel were persuad-
ed by him to build a golden calf. Herein is the tragedy of
the thinker who cannot speak, and the speaker who cannot
think.
It has been wrongly claimed that all Hopkins's sermons
were metaphysical and abstract. Some of them undoubtedly
were. But not all. He w^as practical, and if he alienated
many of his congregation from the church, it was not on
account of his heretical theology but rather because of his
attacks on the slave trade, to which we shall refer later. He
took his preaching office most seriously. His sermon was
always completed by nine o'clock Friday night. He spent
Saturday in prayer and communion with God, and he went
into the pulpit on Sundaj'^ directly from his private devo-
tions. Many of his sermons have been printed, and that
which w^ould most appeal to his audience is his "Farewell to
the World," delivered in 1801, and being his last sermon in
Newport. After considering the state of the world in general
including the Mohammedans and the Jews, he turned to the
church and its several branches, Greek, Roman and Prot-
estant, and assured his hearers that only such as believed in
the doctrines of John Calvin should be saved! Then he
turned to the state of religion in New England, Rhode Island
and Newport, and finally his own church : and here again I
crave your indulgence with a quotation :
"This town has long been noted for the
many religious sects and denominations into
which the inhabitants are divided, while the
body of the people have been considered, I
believe justly, to have very little true religion,
if any; and they have appeared more disso-
lute, vicious, erroneous and ignorant, than
people in general are in other parts of New Eng-
land. And there has been no general revival
of religion, or reformation, to this day; and the
state and character of the inhabitants in general
has not, become better, but the contrary ....
A great part of them (Newporters) are so inat-
tentive to religion, and so ignorant, that they
70
have really no religious principles; others have
imbibed, and are strongly fixed in, religious
maxims and notions, as contrary to the Bible
as darkness is to the light. Of those who con-
stantly attend public worship, including the
professors of religion, very few of them main-
tain any family worship or religion and by far
the greater part are so immoral in their con-
duct, or ignorant and erroneous in their notions
of religion, as to fall vastly short of the Scrip-
ture character of true Christians .... In this
dark, unpleasant and melancholy view of the
state and character of the body of the inhabi-
tants of this town, I must take my leave, with a
painful prospect of the evil which is coming
upon them and their posterity; which they
would not believe were they told. To most of
them I cannot speak, and if I could, and they
should know what 1 think and say of them, it
would only serve to excite the resentinent and
indignation of the most."
To say the least, this is direct preaching, but it is not of a
kind disposed to increase one's popularity!
But his great work was that of a theologian, and most of
his writings were concerned with the justification of the
strange ways of God with men. Into these writings we could
not go if we would. But they furnished the material for the
great theological arguments of the last half of the eigh-
teenth century and the first half of the nineteenth. Hopkins-
ianism was a mighty system, a mixture of Calvinism and
Arminianism. It would not interest many of us today except
those who study it for the history of theological thought.
Nevertheless it once was vital and generally discussed.
Among the names of the original subscribers to his System of
Divinity are those of certain colored folk, to wit, Congo
Jenkins and Zingo Stevens and Nimble Nightingale!
Whether they read the books or not, is another matter.
The doctrines which distinguished this system from
71
orthodox Calvinism were those concerning the nature of
holiness, and the reward of holiness. Hopkins' idea was
summed up in the phrase "disinterested benevolence." Sin,
said Hopkins, is selfishness and to acquire holiness one must
absolutely forget self; and think only in terms of the great-
est good to Being in general. We should live benevolently
for God and for our fellow-men, with absolutely no anxiety
concerning what joy or happiness our conduct would bring
us in this life, or in the life to come. The true believer must
do his duty and act for the glory of God. He must be willing
to do so, even if he be damned for it. His benevolence must
be absolutely disinterested. A certain divine* has summed
up the attitude of various theologies towards this matter as
follows :
Calvinism. "Love to God does not require in any one,
under any circumstances, a willingness to be damned but the
contrary."
Hopkinsianism. "No man truly loves God or his neigh-
bor, who is not willing to be damned for a greater good than
his personal salvation."
Universalism. "No man will be damned, and therefore
no man should be willing to be damned."
Arminianism. "No man ever was willing, while in the
exercise of love of God, to be accursed from him, for any
cause."
Arianism. "No man who loves God can be willing to
be damned for any cause."
Sabellianism. "Some say one thing and some another."
Socinianism. "Love to God never can imply a willing-
ness to be damned."
Deist. "The Deists are so scriptural as to believe that
no man ever hated his own flesh, and much less his soul,
if he has a soul."
All of which is very interesting. We shall dismiss the
theological system with these words, that his was a robust
and heroic faith, and he himself was the incarnation of the
theory of disinterested benevolence. Much that is said
*Ezra Stiles Ely.
72
against his theology is without any foundation, and he has
been condemned for saying and holding theories he never
held. But his doctrine of disinterested benevolence not only
aroused the admiration of men like Channing and Whittier,
but many liberal theologians declare today that his position
was one of the most valuable contributions to theology ever
made. It became common to put to all candidates for the
Congregational ministry the query: "Are you willing to be
damned for the glory of God?" until one of them in the
middle of the last century broke the spell by answering:
"No, I'm not, but I'm quite willing that the questioner be
damned if it will serve God's glory."
I have purposely reserved what may be the most sig-
nificant contribution of Samuel Hopkins until the last; and
that is, his activity on behalf of the slave. In Great Barring-
ton, as we have pointed out, Hopkins had observed the influ-
ence of the whites upon the Indians. But he had thought
but little about the condition of the negroes. He owned a
slave himself, who had been sold before he came to Newport.
But he had not been in Newport long until he was forced to
confront the slave trade in all its heinousness. Newport was
one of the foremost slave markets, then and for many sub-
sequent years. For instance, between the years 1804 and
1808, when Newport had declined, Rhode Island owned 59 of
the slavers carrying negroes into Charleston, South Caro-
lina. In that time, 17,048 slaves were brought into the port.
Of these 6,238 came in boats owned in Rhode Island and
3,488, or more than one-fifth, in boats owned in Newport.*
These figures will make the local situation very vivid.
Hopkins saw the slaves in the slave market here, and he felt
the inhumanity of this bargaining in human flesh. He de-
cided to speak against the whole business, although practi-
cally no one had ever before lifted up his voice from a
Christian pulpit with such a plea. He knew that he might
arouse the antagonism of his parish, but with disinterested
benevolence, he made his decision, and one Sunday
morning he spoke his mind. As Whittier said:"It well may
be doubted, whether, on the Sabbath day, the angels of God,
in their wide survey of his universe, looked upon a nobler
'Quoted in Park's Memoir.
73
spectacle than that of the minister of Newport, rising up
before his slave-holding congregation, and demanding, in the
name of the Highest, the 'deliverance of the captive, and the
opening of prison doors to them that were bound.' "
Whether his discourse was responsible for the measure or
not, in June, 1774, the State of Rhode Island prohibited the
further importation of slaves into this State.
But he did not stop with a sermon. He wrote a dialogue
which was published in 1776, the year of the war. He felt
that at a time when these colonies were struggling for their
own liberty, they would hearken more readily to an appeal
for liberty on the part of those whom they themselves were
oppressing. While many were at the time opposed to the
slave-trade and slave-holding, no "other man had prior to
1776 written on the theme so forcibly and fundamentally."
This dialogue was afterward reprinted in 1785 by the New
York Manumission Society of which John Jay was president
and Alexander Hamilton a member, and was widely and
powerfully used by the various abolition societies' which
were rapidly springing up. Hopkins was made an honorary
member of this society, and also of the society of which
Benjamin Franklin was president. Not only did he preach
against the slave-trade, but he succeeded in 1784 in having
his church vote as follows: "That the slave trade and the
slavery of the Africans as it has taken place among us is a
gross violation of the righteousness and benevolence which
are so much inculcated in the gospel, and therefore we will
not tolerate it in this church." True the Quakers had
adopted similar views before, but the action of the First
Congregational Church is a most significant item in the
progress of the anti-slavery movement. He also used the
press freely, furnishing anti-slavery items to the editor of
the Newport Mercury who, with fear and trembling and in
face of the threats of his slave-holding subscribers, put as
many as he dared into his paper. He wrote to Moses Brown,
to the English abolitionists, and tirelessly and wisely he
labored for this great cause. He is one of the great pioneers
in the abolition movement, and Newport should be proud of
him.
But he was no mere sentimentalist. He realized just
74
what the continuance of the traffick would mean.He feared
that it might lead some time to Civil war, and he says so in a
letter dated 1788. He also recognized the fact that the task
of assimilating the blacks would be a great one, and conse-
quently he proposed the formation of colonies on the Guinea
coast where blacks who had been cruelly torn from their
native land by the traders might be returned after having
enjoyed some of the civilizing influences of this country.
The scheme was partly missionary, and on that score
aroused the fear of his theological opponents who thought
it might be better to leave the Africans in their paganism,
rather than convert them to the Hopkinsian theology, but
it was far more than missionary in its nature. It was put
forth with a statesmanlike understanding of the situation:
as the following paragraph from one of his statements will
make clear:
"This appears to be the best and only plan
to make the blacks among us in the most agree-
able situation for themselves and to render
them most useful to their brethren in Africa, by
civilizing them and teaching them how to culti-
vate their lands and spreading the knowledge
of the Christian religion among them. The
whites are so habituated by education and cus-
tom to look upon and treat the blacks as an
inferior class of beings, and they are so low by
their situation and the treatment they receive
from us that they never can be raised to an
equality with the whites and enjoy' all the
liberty and rights to which they have a just
claim, or have all the encouragements and mo-
tives to make improvements of every kind,
which are desirable. But if they were removed
to Africa this evil would cease and they would
enjoy all desirable equality and liberty; and
live in a climate which is peculiarly suitable to
their constitution. And they would be under
advantages to set an example of industry and
the best manner of cultivating the land, of
75
civil life, of morality and religion, which
would tend to gain the attention of the inhabi-
tants of that country and persuade them to
receive instruction and embrace the gospel.
. . . .These United States are able to be at
the expense of prosecuting such a plan, at which
these hints are some of the outlines. And is not
this the best way that can be taken to compen-
sate the blacks both in America and in Africa
for the injuries they have received by the slave
trade and slavery; and that which righteous-
ness and benevolence must dictate? And even
selfishness will be pleased with such a plan as
this, and excite to exertion to carry it into
effect, when the advantages of it to the public
and to individuals are well considered and
realized. This will gradually draw otT all the
blacks in New England, and even in the Middle
and Southern states as fast as they can be set
free, by which this nation shall be delivered
from that which, in the view of every discerning
man, is a great calamity and inconsistent with
the good of society; and is now really a great in-
jury to most of the white inhabitants, especially
in the southern states." (1793).
Hopkins did not have good luck with his ventures,
although he did raise funds to train two colored men for
work in Africa. They, were old men when they sailed and
they both died within six months of their arrival in Sierra
Leone. Though his scheme came to naught, must we not
say that Dr. Hopkins was far ahead of his day, and had his
advice been taken, America might have been saved the
horror of the civil war, and the unsolved negro problem of
today?
It should also be added that in forming the society to
raise funds for the education of colored men intending to go
to Africa as missionaries, Samuel Hopkins founded what is
probably the first foreign missionary society in America, an-
tedating the American Board by 43 years, as Rev. T. C. Mc-
76
Clellan some years ago pointed out. This, surely, is addi-
tional reason for attaching significance to the work of Sam-
uel Hopkins.
Such a man was Samuel Hopkins, preacher, theologian
and reformer, who for more than thirty-three years claimed
Newport as his home. He may have lacked a sense of
humour, and some portions of his theology may make
impossible reading, but history has few more radiant exam-
ples of disinterested benevolence. Systematic in his thought,
he was systematic in his life. He rose at four every
inorning and studied until breakfast; then, after making
the necessary purchases, retired to his study, where he spent
most of the day and evening until nine o'clock, when he had
family prayers; and at ten he went to bed. Modest con-
cerning himself and his own powers, almost despondent in
his humility, nevertheless he was as a defenced city against
those who tried to make breaches in his theology or cham-
pioned unrighteousness. His life is a glorious example of
the consecration and endurance of which the Puritan spirit
was capable, and of which this nation may ever be proud
and shall ever stand in need. As Newporters, we should
know more of him, seek to preserve the edifices associated
with his name, and above all retain in our devotion to high
ideals of piety and service, something of his incomparable
spirit. As the gentle-souled Whittier once wrote:
" We need, methinks, the prophet-hero still
Saints true of life, and martyrs strong of will,
To tread the land, even now, as Xavier trod
The streets of Goa, barefoot, with his bell
Proclaiming freedom in the name of God,
And startling tyrants with the fear of hell.
Soft words, smooth prophecies, are doubtless well
But to rebuke the age's popular crime.
We need the souls of fire, the hearts of that
old time."*
"'Men of Old."
Very Rev.
Dean George Berkeley, D.D.
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
March 6th, 1917
By
Rev. STANLEY G. HUGHES
BISHOP BERKELEY
Among the eminent divines who elevated and enriched
greater influence on his friends and contemporaries, or
posesses greater charm for the reader of today, than George
Berkeley; Doctor in Divinity, Dignitary of the English
Church, Wit, Philosopher, Poet and Missionary. He landed
on our shores in January, 1729, covered with laurels won in
the old world and burning with enthusiasm for a high enter-
prise to be carried forward in the new. He departed, sailing
from Boston in the autumn of 1731, a disappointed and a
broken man, his plans thwarted and his hopes dashed to the
ground.
Of the man himself, the figure he made in the world,
the philanthropic enterprise he cherished and which led him
to come to America, his life in Newport and the causes of
his failure and retirement to his native land, I will try to tell
you in a few paragraphs, necessarily somewhat fragmentary.
For those who care to know more, an ample supply of
information coupled with entertainment and edification will
be found in the four volumes of his life and works by Alex-
ander Campbell Frazer, one of the best of biographers.
George Berkeley, son of William, an English royalist,
was born in Ireland at Kilcrin, near Thomastown on March
12th, 1684. He was sent first to the famous Kilkenny School,
founded by His Grace the Duke of Ormonde, where also
Dean Swift and Thomas Prior were pupils, and then to
Trinity College, Dublin. The troubled reigns of the Stuarts
were drawing to a close. England was full of turmoil.
Many cavalier families, like those of Swift and Berkeley, had
taken refuge in Ireland; and academic instruction was per-
haps never on a higher plane than in those days. Though an
Irish school, I fancy, is never a poor place for the sharpening
of the wits. An Irish friend of mine was classmate in such a
school of the late Father Tyrrell, author of "Christianity at
the Cross Roads." He tells how they were one day constru-
ing Latin. Tyrrell came to the word "penna;" he translated
80
it "wings." "Wrong," said the master. "The word is singu-
lar number, a wing." "Oh!" said Tyrrell, "that is merely a
difference of a pinion."
The Provost of Trinity College when Berkeley matricu-
lated in 1700 was Dr. Peter Browne, a prominent writer on
Philosophic themes. His tutor was Dr. John Hall, a learned
and diligent teacher. Twenty miles away lived Swift, at
Laracor, whence he was transferred to be Dean of St. Pat-
rick's in 1713. In 1705 Berkeley and a group of his friends
formed a Society to study the philosophy of Boyle, Newton
and Locke. Among its rules was one that the conference
begin at three in the afternoon on Friday and continue till
eight. Another ran: Whoever leaves the assembly before
it's broken up, pay threepence. Evidently these young
philosophers were bound to get at the bottom of things.
In 1709 Berkeley was ordained Deacon and published
his first philosophic work. A second work appeared in 1710.
In 1712, aged 28, he went to London; where he was presented
at Court by his friend. Dean Swift, the following year and
instantly won popularity and distinction both by his conver-
sation and his published works. It is said that he was so
greatly in demand for week-end parties at country houses
that he was once entrapped and compelled by main force to
stay over Sunday. He was a friend of Steele and a frequent
contributor to the Guardian; and on the first night of Addi-
son's Cato he was with the author in his box. Pope's
friendly description of him was: "To Berkeley every virtue
under heaven." Rarely, I suppose, has there lived a man
before whom the paths of worldly success and ecclesiastical
promotion stood more widely open. What was it, then, that
proved so attractive in this American Cathay as to draw him
away from his assured fifty years of Europe at its best?
"What did he promise himself as the reward of so much
sacrifice? It was the hope of founding a college in the
Summer or Bermuda Islands for the education of the youth
of the various American colonies; a Christian college in
which priests and prophets of the Church might be raised up
who should in turn go out into the wilderness and promul-
gate the Christian faith among the savages of the Continent.
Berkeley was not blind to the vices of his age. He saw
81
through the veneer of fashionable society and was appalled
by the corruption that lay underneath. He knew the Court
well and was often sent for to hold theological debates with
Dr. Clarke for the edification of the Queen. He had travelled
over the Continent and in Rome also. His deliberate con-
viction was that Europe was utterly debased and the only
hope for a pure and upright society lay in the unspoiled
people of the new world. It was this sentiment which
inspired his familiar verse :
The muse disgusted at our age and clime
Barren of every glorious theme.
In distant lands now waits a better time
Producing subjects worthy fame.
In happy climes, the seat of innocence,
Where nature guides and virtue rules
Where men shall not impose for truth and sense
The pedantry of courts and schools;
Not such as Europe breeds in her decay :
Such as she bred when fresh and young.
When heavenly flame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be sung.
Westward the course of empire takes its way,
The four first acts already past.
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time's noblest offspring is the last.
The thought of reforming education for the good of
mankind has always charmed and fascinated men of great
character and intellect. Berkeley was obsessed by it for
years before he came to America. In 1723 he wrote: "It is
now about ten months since I have determined to spend the
residue of my days in Bermuda, where, I trust in Providence,
I may be the mean instrument of doing great good to man-
kind." How quickly the fire of his enthusiasm caught in
other breasts may be judged from a letter of Dean Swift to
Lord Cartaret September 3, 1724: "There is a gentleman of
this kingdom just gone for England. It is Dr. George Berke-
ley, Dean of Derry, the best preferment among us
he is an absolute philosopher in regard to money, titles and
power; and for three years past has been struck with the
notion of founding a university at Bermudas, by a charter
82
from the Crown. He has seduced several of the hopefullest
young clergymen and others here . . all in the fairest way
of preferment, but in England his conquests are greater and
I doubt will spread very far this winter . . . . His heart
will break if his Deanery be not taken from him and left to
your excellency's disposal." Cartaret was Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland.
Armed with this letter of introduction to the Lord Lieu-
tenant and with many powerful friends already enlisted in
his favor, Berkeley set out for London to launch his project.
A few sentences may be quoted from his printed Pro-
posal by way of making clear the design he had at heart.
"Although there are several excellent persons of the Church
of England whose good intentions have not been wanting to
propagate the Gospel in foreign parts, who have even com-
bined into societies for that very purpose . . . . it is never-
theless acknowledged that there is at this day but little
sense of religion and a most notorious corruption of manners
in the English Colonies settled on the Continent of America,
and the Islands. It is also acknowledged that the Gospel
hath hitherto made but a very inconsiderable progress
among the neighboring Americans who still continue in
much the same ignorance and barbarism in which we found
them above a hundred years ago for the remedy of
these evils it should seem the proper method to provide, in
the first place, a constant supply of worthy clergymen for
the English churches; and, in the second place, a like con-
stant supply of zealous missionaries well fitted for propa-
gating Christianity among the savages. . . Now the clergy
sent over to America have proved, too many of them, very
meanly qualified, both in learning and morals for the
discharge of their office. . . . These considerations make
it evident that a College or Seminary in those parts is very
much wanted; and . . . the providing such a Seminary is
earnestly proposed and recommended to all those who have
it in their power to contribute to so good a work."
The Proposal goes on to discuss the proper situation for
the College and fixes on the Island of Bermuda for a number
of reasons. First : for its excellent climate. Second : because
it is remote from the mainland with its temptations and
83
distractions. Third: for the reason that it is readily acces-
sible from all parts of America, and can thus draw both
whites and savages from the various colonies.
To us, today, Bermuda may seem too remote. But we
must remember that when Berkeley gave his mind to the
study of the situation, America was a strip of colonies lying
along the Atlantic seaboard. There was nothing back of it.
All commerce and intercourse was necessarily by water. It
was not till 1776, the year in which Adam Smith's Wealth
of Nations appeared, that James Watts constructed the first
steam engine at Birmingham. Our continent is now cov-
ered with railways, then as undreamed of as automobiles
or aeroplanes. Had the College been built and endowed,
supplied with food from the farm lands of Newport which
Berkeley purchased for that purpose, and had steam locomo-
tion not been discovered, there is no good reason why it
might not have proved, if not all that its originator dreamed,
yet one of the most beneficent Christian enterprises ever
established in the Colonies. With twentieth century
America stretching over the continent we feel the Bermuda
scheme impracticable. So, no doubt, did a great many in
Berkeley's own day. But such w^as the young Irishman's
earnestness and eloquence, such his complete absorption in
his generous and philanthropic enterprise, that he bore down
all opposition and won the moral and financial support even
of the indifferent and hostile.
He had come by a small private fortune in a most extra-
ordinary fashion. On one occasion Dean Swift took him to
dine with Mrs. Vanhomrigh, whose daughter Esther was the
Vanessa referred to in Swift's Journal to Stella. It seems
probable that the lady never saw him again. But when she
died, in the year 1723, it was found that she had left him the
sum of £4000 in her will. With this assured capital in hand,
sent, it seemed, by Providence, he felt himself ready to enter
on his great work and began to solicit subscriptions and to
beseige the Court for a charter for the College of St. Paul in
Bermuda. An incident in his campaign is related by War-
ton. Lord Bathurst told him that all the members of the
Scriblers' Club being met at his house at dinner, they
agreed to rally Berkeley, who was also his guest, on his
84
scheme at Bermudas. Berkeley having listened to all the
lively things they had to say, begged to be heard in his turn;
and displayed his plan with such astonishing and animating
force of eloquence and enthusiasm, that they were struck
dumb and after some pause rose up all together with ear-
nestness exclaiming — "Let us all set out with him immedi-
ately." Not was the zest transient. He persuaded many to
help him. More than five thousand pounds was raised — a
large sum for those days — which might have been largely
increased if the author of the Proposal had continued to rely
on the good will of private persons.
By some means he won the ear of George I and the
consent, if not the approval, of Sir Robert Walpole, the
Prime Minister, then all powerful, whose name appears in
the list of subscribers opposite the sum of £200. A royal
charter was soon forthcoming, and with it a grant of £20,000
from the sale of lands in the newly ceded island of St. Chris-
tophers, approved by the House of Commons.
When one remembers the low estate of religion in Eng-
land in the 18th Centurjs such a conquest of the Court and
Court circles can be regarded as little less than miraculous.
These were the days when favorites were promoted to high
places in the Church as in the State; when Rectors, Deans,
Prebendaries and even Bishops drew their salaries while
never or rarely visiting their sees or parishs; when earnest
men like Whitfield and Wesley and Fox were driven to find
spiritual nourishment outside the Church, not willingly, but
reluctantly, in very desperation. Even the most sincere and
religious seem to have looked on the set services of the
Church as rather cold formalities. The EarJ of Egmont, for
example, a stout supporter of the Church and a warm friend
of Berkeley, has this to tell of a religious service, in his
memoirs. "Sunday, Feb. 27, 1732. After dinner I went to
the Kings' Chapel where I expected to meet the Bishop of
Salisbury, brother to the Archbishop of Dublin, and resolved
to show my resentment at the usage given Dean Berkeley.
Dean Berkeley went to the chapel and sat over against us.
I said to the Bishop : 'Yonder is one of the worthiest, most
learned men in the three kingdoms who has met with the
wretchedest usage ever was heard of.' " Then follows a
85
long debate and a rather warm one between the Earl and
the Bishop. "This discourse between us," he adds, "was
while the lessons were reading." Even the King's custom
of sleeping through the services was not much worse than
this.
Thackeray has pictured the depraved court of George II
in imperishable prose. "Show me some good person about
that Court; find me among these selfish courtiers, these
dissolute, gay people some one being that I can love and
regard. There is that strutting little Sultan, George II;
there is that humpbacked, beetle-browed Lord Chesterfield;
there is John Hervey with his deadly smile and ghastly
painted face — I hate them. There is Hoadley, cringing from
one bishopric to another; yonder comes little Mr. Pope from
Twickenham, with his friend the Irish Dean, in his new
cassock, bowing, too, but with rage flashing from under his
bushy eyebrows and scorn and hate quivering in his smile.
I read that Lady Yarmouth sold a bishopric to a clergy-
man for £5000. Was he the only prelate of his time led up by
such hands for consecration? As I peep into George IPs St.
James I see crowds of cassocks rustling up the back stairs of
the ladies of the Court; stealthy clergy slipping purses into
their laps; that Godless old King yawning under his canopy
in the Chapel Royal as the Chaplain before him is discours-
ing. Discoursing about what? About righteousness and
judgment. Whilst the Chaplain is preaching, the King is
chattering in German almost as loud as the preacher. . . No
wonder the clergy were corrupt and indifferent amongst
this indifference and corruption. No wonder that skeptics
multiplied and morals degenerated — I say I am scared as I
look round at this society — at this king, at these courtiers, at
these politicians, at these Bishops."
Surely it is an amazing and a cheering spectacle to turn
from this picture to the mild and gentle priest in his seclu-
sion on the Island of Peace, praying and studying and
spending his fortune in good works and waiting so patiently
for the promised grant that never came to erect his college
for the instruction of American youth in the word of God
and the training of priests who should go forth to convert
the native tribes to the Christian religion.
86
And while we are quoting Thackeray it may not be
amiss to add a few Unes of his about Walpole, the accom-
plished, cynical Prime Minister, who presided over this
corrupt Court and ruled England; the man to whom poor
Berkeley must look for the payment of his grant. "In
religion," says Thackeray, "he was little less than a heathen;
cracked ribald jokes at big-wigs and bishops and laughed at
High Church and Low. In private life the old pagan rev-
elled in the lowest pleasures. He passed his Sundays tip-
pling at Richmond; and his holidays bawling after dogs or
boozing at Houghton with boors over beef and punch. He
cared for letters no more than his master did."
Such was the group from which the zeal and devotion of
Berkeley wrested a reluctant but substantial support for his
enthusiastic scheme for the conversion of the blacks and
savages of the New World; such the life on which he turned
his back, rejecting its rewards and favors for the arduous
toil of the missionary and the pioneer, not unlike Moses who
esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt.
In 1727, June 14, King George I died. Strangely
enough this scarcely halted the plan of St. Paul's College.
On July 6 Berkeley writes to his friend Prior: "Dear Tom.
This is to inform you that I have obtained a new warrant for
a grant, signed by His present Majesty, contrary to the
expectations of my friends, who thought nothing could be
expected of that kind in this great hurry of business."
All went well and on September 5th, 1728, the Dean sent
his farewells to the same correspondent.
"Dear Tom : Tomorrow, with God's bressing, I set sail
for Rhode Island with my wife and a friend of hers, my Lady
Handcock's daughter, who bears us company. I am married
since I saw you to Miss Forster, daughter of the late Chief
Justice, whose humor and turn of mind pleases me beyond
anything I know in her whole sex. Mr. James, Mr. Dalton
and Mr. Smibert go with us on this voyage. We are now all
together at Gravesend."
The voyage must have occupied more than four months.
Our next information is derived from the invaluable Memoir
87
of Heiiiy Bull as published in the Newport, R. I., Republican
Jan. 3, 1832-Dec. 26, 1838 and Newport Mercury Jan. 14,
1854— Nov. 23, 1861, Vol. II p. 119.
Dean Berkeley's Arrival in Newport.*
This year, 1729, Dean Berkeley arrived in Newport, a
notice of which we extract from the New England Weekly
Journal, printed in Boston on Monday, Feb. 3rd, 1729.
"Yesterday arrived here Dean Berkeley of Londery in a
pretty large ship. He is a gentleman of middle stature, of an
agreeable, pleasant and erect aspect. He was ushered into
the town with a great number of gentlemen, to whom he
behaved himself after a very complaisant manner. It is said
he proposes to tarry here with his family about three
months."
What follows seems to be added by Henry Bull.
Having undertaken the wild scheme of establishing a
College in the Bermuda Islands for the conversion of the
American savages to Christianity, aided by the proinised
patronage of the King and many of the influential clergy of
the nation, he, with some others who followed his fortunes,
sailed from England for the Island of Bermuda. After a
tedious passage they found themselves, as they supposed, in
the latitude of the Islands but were not able to discover
them; and after cruising about for some time in the neigh-
borhood gave over the pursuit; they then concluded to
return to England, and steering a northern course, tradition
says they made land and hove out a signal, uncertain what
land it was, but supposing themselves on the coast of
America, and some part inhabited by Indans only. A boat
came alongside of the ship in which was two of the Islanders,
who informed them that the land in view was Block Island,
They then inquired if they were in any of the English colo-
nies of New England, and being answ^ered in the affirmative
they further inquired if there was any harbor and seaport
town near, and were answered that a town called New'port
^Letter from Newport dated Jan. 24, 1729.
88
lay about thirty miles distant, where was an Episcopal
church, the Rector of which was the Rev, James Honeyman.
They then started for Newport, accompanied by the two
Block Islanders who carried the ship into the west passage,
the wind being adverse for entering the harbor of Newport.
The ship cast anchor between the Island of Conanicut and
Narragansett. The two men from Block Island landed on
Conanicut and called upon a Mr. Gardner and Mr. Martin,
both of whom were members of Mr. Honeyman's church, and
informed them that a great dignitary of the church from
England — called Dean! was on board the ship, together
with other passengers. They also produced a letter from the
Dean directed to the Rev. Mr. Honeyman, on the receipt of
which Gardner and Martin came to Newport in a small boat
to bring the intelligence and also to bring the letter — when
on their arrival they found that Mr. Honeyman was at the
church, it being the day on which Divine service was held
there; they then sent the letter by a servant, who delivered
it to Mr. Honeyinan in his pulpit; he opened the letter and
read it to the congregation, from the contents of which it
appeared that the Dean might be expected to arrive every
moment. The church was then dismissed with the blessing
and the Rev. Mr. Honeyman, together with Wardens, Vestry,
church and congregation, male and female, repaired imme-
diately to the Ferry Wharf, where they arrived a little
before the ferry boat which contained the Dean, his family
and friends. The Dean was received on his landing by the
gentlemen of the church and others of the town, who had
collected thus hastily on the occasion, with the most respect-
ful and hearty welcome; and the people, forming themselves
in procession, escorted the Dean and his suite to the house of
Mr. Honeyman.
"The Dean continued about two years in Newport and
often performed Divine service at Trinity Church. He pur-
chased a farm about three miles from the compact part of
the town, and built a house there, which he named White
Hall and after his return to England in 1733 he presented the
church with a fine organ.
"What is contained in the preceding quotations was
related to the writer by an elderly intelligent gentleman who
89
states that it is according to his recollection of frequent
conversations held at his father's house when he was about
14 or 15 years of age,by his father and Messrs. Wickham,
Malbone, Pease, Rev. Dr. Eyers, Bisset and Gardner Thurs-
ton."
This entertaining and circumstantial account, the only
one we have of the Dean's arrival, seems to err in one or two
particulars. In the first place, as we have seen, the ship set
sail for Newport and was by no means lost when she sighted
Block Island, but close to her desired haven. In the second
place, the picturesque detail of the Rev. Dr. Honeyman,
wardens, vestry, church and congregation repairing to Ferry
Wharf cannot be taken at its face value. The day was
Thursday, January 23, not a holy day in the church calendar
and not the day on which Divine service was held. That day
was Sunday; and the distinguished visitor, as was quite
proper, preached at the service on the Sunday following,
from the text: The Law and the Prophets were until John;
since then the King of God is preached. St. L. 16:16. What
probably happened was that the Rector was at church for a
baptism or a wedding or some special servdce, got word of
the ship's arrival, and informed some of his neighbors who
went with him to the waterside.
However this may be the hospitable rector received the
visitor and his wife into his home and entertained them for
some months or until land had been bought and the Dean's
house, his first home, for he had lived in college rooms,
lodgings and the like all his life, w^as built. Like a loyal
cavalier he called it White Hall; and with every evidence of
comfort and satisfaction he set up his lares and penates
and enjoyed quiet domestic life; giving himself to study;
and receiving, though rarely paying, visits.
Berkeley's accounts of Newport, written home to Eng-
land, were, as is well known, most enthusiastic. He says
he was never more agreeably surprised than at the sight of
the town and harbour of Newport. Again he described it
as exhibiting "some of the softest rural and grandest ocean
scenery in the world." He purposely set his house in a
valley out of sight of the sea so that he might daily renew
the fresh surprise of catching sight of the lovely shore.
90
"To enjoy what is to be seen from the hill," he said, "I must
visit it only occasionally. If the prospect were constantly in
view it would lose its charm."
It was in July or August, 1729, that he removed from
Newport to his farm and took up his residence. His three
friends James, Dalton and Smibert removed at the same
time from Newport to Boston. Here he lived the life of a
studious recluse. He never visited Boston till the day he
sailed thence for England; and made no figure in the social
life of Newport. Now and then he paid visits to the Indians
of the mainland in whose conversion he was deeply inter-
ested. It is thus impossible to extract very much local color
from his correspondence. The passage from the memoirs of
his grandson, Monck Berkeley, is well known. As it was
written by the Dean's daughter-in-law it may be regarded as
authentic, in a sense, but it lacked the ring of versimilitude,
"In one thing the various sectaries at Newport, both men
and women, all agreed — in a rage for finery, to the great
amusement of Berkeley; two learned, elegant friends. Sir
John James and Richard Dalton, Esq., the men in flam-
ing scarlet coats and waistcoats, laced and fringed with
brightest glaring yellow. The sly Quakers, not venturing
on these charming coats and waistcoats, yet loving finery,
figured away Mdth plate on their sideboards. One, to the no
small diversion of Berkeley, sent to England and had made
on purpose, a noble large tea-pot of solid gold, and inquired
of the Dean, when drinking tea witli him whether Friend
Berkeley had ever seen such a curious thing. On being told
that silver ones were much in use in England but that he
had never seen a gold one, Ebeiiezer replied, "Aye, that was
the thing: I was resolved to have something finer than any-
body else. They say that the Queen has not got one." The
Dean delighted his ridiculous host by assuring him that this
was an unique; and very happy it made him."
But if he did not mingle very much with the gay fash-
ionable red and yellow-coated society of the day, the Dean
managed to draw round himself two circles not less inter-
esting to his mind: a conference of clergymen which occa-
sionally met at his house; and the famous Philosophical So-
ciety out of which sprung the Redwood Library. "The mis-
91
sionaries from the English Society, who resided within a
hundred miles of Newport," writes Mrs. Berkeley, the Dean's
wife, "agreed among themselves to hold a sort of Synod
there twice in a year, in order to enjoy the advantages of
his advice and exhortation. Four of these meetings were
accordingly held. One of the principal points which he then
pressed upon his fellow laborers was the absolute necessity
of conciliating by all innocent means the afi'ection of their
hearers, and also of their dissenting neighbors." No record
of the meetings of this conference has been kept. But the
letters that passed between Berkeley and the most distin-
guished of the American participants in the discussions,
Samuel Johnson, are deeply interesting and form an im-
portant link in the chain of American Philosophic thought.
"Johnson was born at Guildford, Conn., of a family
prominent in the Congregational Church. He graduated
from Yale College in 1714 and was tutor there fro ml716-
1719. By reading the w^orks of eminent Anglican divines —
I quote Prof. Frazer — and after many conferences among
themselves, Cutler, then Rector of Yale College, Johnson and
some other ministers, were led, about 1722 to doubt the va-
lidity of Presbyterian ordination and the expediency of ex-
tempore common-prayer. They soon announced their new
convictions and cast in their lot with the Church of Hoo'ier,
Cudworth and Barrow Cutler, Johnson and Brown
now resigned their pastoral charges in the neighborhood in
order to connect themselves with this communion. In 1722
they crossed the ocean to obtain Episcopal ordination in
England. Johnson is said to have visited Pope at his villa,
who gave him cuttings from his Twickenham willow. These
he carried from the banks of the Thames and planted on
the banks of his own beautiful river at Stratford, in Con-
necticut, when he was settled there in 1723." It seems that
Johnson, a very scholarly and thoughtful man, had fallen in
with Berkeley's earlier works and had been by them con-
verted to his Ideahstic Philosophy. Upon Berkeley's settling
in his vicinity he naturally sought the opportunity for fre-
quent conference. A warm acquaintance sprung up and a
copious correspondence ensued on various philosophic sub-
jects. The reader who is curious to understand Berkeley's
92
philosophy, and it is one of the the world's great systems,
cannot do better than read Alciphron, that charming Dia-
logue almost as clear and limpid in style as one of Plato's
own, written here at Newport while its author sat in his
chair near the Second Beach, gazing out over the ocean; and
then turn to the letters between Berkeley and Johnson in
which minute points are gone over at length. Take this
sentence, for example, pitched upon almost by chance : —
"You say you agree with me that there is nothing within your
mind but God and other spirits, with the attributes or prop-
erties belonging to them and the ideas contained in them."
Berkeley to Johnson, The master is setting his pupil's feet
on the assured ground of a common agreement. To know
anything is to perform an intellectual or mental process.
To be knowable, then, all things must be, in a degree, of the
same texture as the mind. As we study Nature and learn
her ways we follow an intellectual path always. And the
one great mind that holds all things in its grasp, and has
made them knowable by us is God. When Berkeley looked
on the scenery of this perfect pearl of an island he thrilled
with a sense of pleasure almost beyond words to express
because, I suppose, its beauty seemed to him to reflect visibly
the grace of God. That connection is the key thai unlocks
the secret of the loveliness of Nature. Wordsworth came
upon it as a little lad when he thrashed the hazel coppice for
nuts and then, having gotten his hazelnuts, stood aghast to
see how the shattered trees seemed to utter a mute protest
to Heaven.
And unless I now "
Confound my present feelings with the past
Ere from the mutilated bower I turned,
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky-
Then dearest Maiden, move along these shades
In gentleness of heart, with gentle hand
Touch — for there is a spirit in the woods.
Johnson learned this great truth, the secret of the high-
est poetry and the highest philosophy, from Berkeley. He
himself later published a book "Elementa Philosophica,"
93
printed by Benjamin F'ranklin at Philadelphia in 1752. He
was the founder of King's College, now Columbia University,
in New York.
Members of the Philosophic Society were Col. Updike,
Judge Scott — a grand-uncle of Sir Walter Scott — Nathaniel
Kay, Henry Collins, Nathan Townsend, the Reverend James
Honeyman and the Reverend Jeremiah Condy. Johnson of
Stratford and McSparran, Church of England Missionary in
the Narragansett country, occasionally attended the meeet-
ings.
Two children were born to the Berkeleys in Newport.
The first was a boy, Henry by name. The Church Register
gives the record of his baptism "1729 September 1st, Henry
Berkeley, son of Dean Berkeley, baptized by his father and
received into the Church." The second was a daughter who
died in infancy, and whose grave is near that of Nathaniel
Kay in the church yard.
Two strains of sadness and anxiety run through the
Newport letters. His friends had begun to wonder at his
delay in departing for Bermuda. It seemed to betoken un-
certainty; and subscriptions were no longer forthcoming.
As a matter of fact there was no sort of use in leaving New-
port till the royal grant should be paid, for he had spent
his private fortune in buying the White Hall farm and had
nothing to go on with. But this was the second trouble, the
money from the Exchequer was not forthcoming. The
royal and noble personages who had favored it and the pol-
iticians who had voted it had not the slightest interest,
naturally, in the savages or their religion. They had been
interested in and won over by the towering genius and en-
thusiasm of Berkeley. He being gone their interest died.
From the moment he sailed away from England there had
ceased to be any likelihood whatever that a penny of the
St. Christopher money would every follow him. So here in
Newport he waited and worried and ate his heart out and
wrote letters to all his friends begging them to intercede
with the Government for him. The incident furnishes an
excellent commentary on the text: Put not your trust in
Princes. December 23rd, 1730, Lord Percival wrote to say
that Walpole had finally confessed that the money would
94
never be paid; one of those statements politicians can
make in private but must resist and repel the accusation of
in public. Already the unhappy truth had forced itself
home on poor Berkeley's mind. Hope deferred had made
his heart sick. He wrote from Newport : "As for the rail-
lery of European wits I should not mind it if I saw my col-
lege go on and prosper; But I must own the disappointments
I have met with in this particular have nearly touched me,
not without affecting my health and spirits." This, with an-
other in the same tenour were the last letters he wrote from
America. In the Autumn of 1731 he sadly set sail from
Boston. On Friday, February 18th we find him preaching
the annual sermon before the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in the Church of St. Mary-
le-Bow.
"Rhode Island," he tells his hearers, "is inhabited by
an English Colony consisting chiefly of sectaries of many dif-
ferent denominations who seem to have worn off part of
that prejudice which they inherited from their ancestors
against the National Church . . . ., though it must be
acknowledged at the same time that too many have worn off
a serious sense of all religion, .... being equally careless
of outward worship and of inward principles. The native
Indians have been debauched by the whites with strong
drink," adding, "it would seem that the likeliest step towards
converting the heathen would be to begin with the English
planters To conclude : if we proportioned our zeal
to the importance of things; if we would love men whose
opinions we do not approve; if we knew the yorld more and
liked it less; if we had a due sense of the Divine perfections
and our own defects; and if, in order and all this that
were done in places of education which cannot be done so
well out of them — I say, if these steps were taken at home
while proper measures are carrying on abroad the one would
very much facilitate the other."
From which it appears that, while he had given over his
hope of elevating the education of the Colonies he had not
in the least changed his mind as to the propriety or neces-
sity of doing it.
It is to be regretted that we have no extended notice of
95
the Dean's preaching in Newport nor one of his sermons en-
tire, only the rough notes of twelve of the discourses. It
would be interesting to know what the colonists thought of
the preaching of one who was regarded as a model of elo-
quence in his own land. Personally they liked him and were
delighted to have so distinguisiied a neighbor and flocked to
the church to hear him. But whether they approved his
rhetoric or contrasted it unfavorably with that of their native
preachers, as seems not unlikely, does not appear.
As for the sermons themselves they are notable in two
respects. In the first place the earlier sermons are very gen-
eral in their nature and very conciliatory in tone. One for
example, evidently fitted to the minds of dissenters, begins
thus: Divisions into essentials and circumstantials in Re-
ligion. Circumstantials of less value (1) from the nature
of things; (2) from their being left undefined; (3) from the
concession of our Church which is foully misrepresented.
Sad that religion which requires us to love, should become
the cause of our hating one another."
But, second, as time wore on and the preacher became
better acquainted with his environment, studied the society
about him and formed a definite inpression of its deepest re-
ligious needs the tone changes. Very frankly, as a good
physician of the soul, he puts his finger on the sore spot in
the community. One can scarcely believe these later ser-
mons were as popular as the first. I quote the account of
them given by Moses Coit Tyler in his volume. Three Men
of Letters: p. 41, "Two of the most notable of his Ameri-
can sermons are significant of his penetrating study into the
characteristic vices of a community neither sensual or friv-
olous,— vices born of the ungenerous activity of a legion
of unbridled tongues. These sermons furnish us with ex-
amples of his aptitude for social criticism — criticism so fine-
ly edged as to culminate into something like satire. "Vices,
like weeds, different in different countries; national vice
familiar; intemperate lust in Italy; drinking in Germany;
tares wherever there is good seed; though not sensual, not
less deadly, e. g. detraction; would not steal sixpence, but
rob a man of his reputation; they who have no relish for
wine have itching ears for scandal; this vice often observed
96
in sober people; praise and blame natural justice; where we
know a man lives in habitual sin unrepented, we may pre-
vent hypocrites from doing evil; but to judge without in-
quiry to show a facility in believing and a readiness to re-
port evil of one's neighbor; frequency, little horror great
guilt."
Satan "tempts men to sensuality, but he is in his own na-
ture malicious and malignant; pride and ill-nature, two
vices most severely rebuked by our Saviour. All deviations
sinful, but those upon dry purpose more so; malignity of
spirit like an ulcer in the nobler parts; age cures sensual
vices, this grows with age; imposing on others and even on
themselves as religion and a zeal for God's service, when
it really proceeds only from ill-will to man and is no part
of our duty to God, but directly contrary to it." These ex-
tracts while not indicating the literary style of the Dean's
preaching at least show us something of his way of think-
ing. They show also that he agreed with St. James as
to the relative value of sins of the tongue.
Whitehall and his library he conveyed to Yale College,
a very generous gift. Later he sent an organ and a bell to
Trinity Church where he was long remembered.
He kissed hands for the Diocese of Cloyne, January 17th
1734, a position which he held till 1752 when he retired to
Oxford, residing on Holywell Street. Here, on the evening
of Sunday, January 14th, he passed away, surrounded
by his family. His wife had been reading aloud to the
little family party the lesson in the Burial Service taken
from the 15th Chapter of the I Ep. to the Corinthians, and
he had been making remarks on that sublime passage. His
daughter soon after went to offer him some tea. She found
him, as it seemed, asleep, but his body was already cold; for
it was the last sleep — the mystery of death; and the world of
the senses had suddenly ceased to be a medium of inter-
course between his spirit and those who remained.
The Sephardic Jews of Newport
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
June 12th, 1917
By
Rev. J. PEREIRA MENDES, D.D.
Ministers of the Earlier or Sephardic Jews
of Newport
Wliat is the meaning of the word "Sephardic"?
Who were, and who are, the Sephardic Jews?
In what way are they different from any other Jews?
And above all, what have they accomplished in human
history for humanity's uplift?
History is written by the finger of God.
Sometimes man attempts to write a chapter for his ow^n
gain or glory. Then paragraphs are written with blood, or
pages are blurred with tears, or deceit can be read between
the lines. But just as the battlefield, scarred, stained and
burnt, becomes in time by the magic of God, covered by
growths which hide and beautify, so the aftermath of human
sin is the mercy and pardon of God, evidencing that "God
has passed by."t The contests and sufferings which history
records, the sorrows and horrors born of man's inhumanity
to man, are by the chemistry of God made to lead to better
conditions which hide and beautify the unsightly past. By
some Divine alchemy they are made to produce a re-creation.
By some Divine miracle they are transmuted into what
stands for Human Happiness and makes for Human Pro-
gress.
In this magic and mercy of God, in this chemistry, al-
chemy, miracle of God for Human Happiness, Progress and
Uplift, the Sephardic Jews, like all other Jews, have been
humble instruments of the Divine Will. Their special work
in human history I shall presently indicate.
To show how^ human history as written by man is over-
written by the finger or hand of God, let me illustrate by cit-
ing but one or two striking instances from ancient, medieval
and modern history.
tThis expression means Divine forgiveness of human sin. It is used in
Exodus, XXXIV : 6, in the passage describing how some of the Hebrew^s were
seduced to worship Apis, the calf, one of the gods of Egypt, by the Egyp-
tians who left Egypt with them. Their disloyalty brought due punishment,
but "He passed by" and mercifully and graciously forgave.
100
Babylon wrote her conquest of Jerusalem and the
"Seventy Years' Captivity" to proclaim the triumph of
Babylon. But the hand of God overwrote or re-wrote it to
declare the triumph of God, for it tells of the purification of
our nation, its preparation for its world-task of spreading
the kingdom of God westward in and beyond Judea. And
was it mere coincidence or was it the finger of God, that just
in that very era, when Jewish thought was felt in Babylon,
the then metropolis of the world where those great Jewish
schools of learning were origincd, the three greatest thought-
leaders, Zoroaster, Gotama Buddha and Confucius carried
Eastward lofty thoughts of Hebrew tinge?* Four centuries
later Syria meant her conquest of Palestine to write Syria's
glory. But the finger of God re-wrote it, to mean the victory
of Monotheism, achieved by Judas Maccabeus, over Polythe-
ism, a victory which alone made possible the births of the
daughter-faiths, Christianity and Islam which have done so
much to lift mankind from classic mists and desert myths to
a clearer conception of the One "God Universal," to whom
Abraham, first of the Hebrews, built his early altarf and of
whom Malachi, last of the prophets, spake. $
Xerxes wrote history to proclaim Persia's ambition to
orientalize Europe. But the finger of God rewrote it to
mean the rescue of Europe forever from Orientalism, thus
to make possible Human Progress and Civilization upon
which Human Happiness rests.
In what we may call medieval history. Pope Hilde-
brand and William the Conqueror wrote the Conquest of
England to spell subjugation of peoples' rights and the in-
crease of Papal power. The Pope even ga,ve the Norman
a ring as if to mean the marriage of Church and State. But
the finger of God re-wrote that chapter of English history
to spell Runnymede, or the triumph of the peoples' rights;
to mean Wyclif, and presently Cranmer and Henry, through
*The victory of good over evil, an era of world-peace, filial reverence
are Hebrew concepts adopted by Zoroastriaism, Buddhism, Confucianism
respectively.
tGenesis xxi. 33.
JHave we not all one father — hath not one God created us ? Malachi
II : 10.
101
whom England was divorced from the Papacy, not married
to it, to mean the eternal divorce of Church and State, and
freedom of the people, freedom of conscience, "now and
forever!"
And who doubts but that the history of today now
being written with blood and blurred with tears, will, by
God's magic or alchemy, by the finger or hand of God, be re-
written to mean man's democratization, to mean human in-
stitutions and conditions that shall mean human betterment
and uplift, secured by a peace with honor for all nations,
that shall be a Peace Permanent. The Sephardic Jews have
been elements in this chemistry or alchemy of God. The
history of the Sephardic Jews has been written by man, but
it has been, time and time again, re-written by the hand of
God.
When Rome conquered Jerusalem and long lines of cap-
tives left Palestine for the galleys, the mines and amphi-
theatres of their Roman masters, Rome wrote a page of her
history designed to tell of Roman glory. But the hand of
God rewrote that page, to mean the salvation of mankind
from the coming dark and middle ages, eras of which no
Roman even dreamed or could dream.
The Sephardic Jews are those who settled in Spain,
called Sepharad, and on the Mediterranean coast. The
term "Sephardic Jews" is now applied to their descendants.
Hebrews had for ages before the destruction of Jeru-
salem, * or the Christian era, been settling in many a city
of the Roman world. The prophet Joel tells of Hebrews
sold as slaves to Greece, f The historic books speak of the
trade of Tarshish, identified with ancient Tartessus. Rojas
states that five hundred years before the Christian era, He-
brews built Toledo or Toledoth, Escaluna, Magueda, Cada-
liolsa, Guardia, Romeria, Almoroz, Noves, Nombleca and the
present Tembleque in Spain. Marianna connects the ad-
vent of the Jews in Spain with the era of Nebuchadnezzar.
De Leon remarks in his preface to the history of the Jews
of Bayonne that it is said that a synagogue existed at Toledo
*The year 70 of the common era.
tJoel IV : 6.
102
before the destruction of the Second Temple. De Leon also
speaks of a number of Jews carried with their families to
Spain after the destruction of the First Temple.
Some of these families assumed to be descended from
the royal house of David, and alleged that their ancestors
had been established from time immemorial in and around
Lucena, Toledo and Seville. Graetz mentions these tradi-
tions and the derivation of the names of several Spanish
towns from Hebrew words, such as, Toledo from Toledoth,
Escaluna from Ascalon, etc. That Hebrews were in Spain
long before the Christian era is also indicated by a letter
written by the Jews in Spain declaring that they had no part
in the Crucifixion as they were then in Spain. Some may
say these are mere traditions. But tradition is the echo of
history hovering over the hills of time.
Certainly the numbers of the Hebrews in Spain were
vastly swollen by the advent of their unfortunate brethren
driven forth by the legions of Titus and later by those of
Hadrian after the Bar-Cochba rebellion was crushed. They
were known as Sephardim, because Sepharad, mentioned by
the prophet Obadiah is identified with Spain.
Certain it is that the term Sephardim is taken to mean
the Hebrews around the whole Mediterranean coast, easterly
up to Babylon and the Euphrates, overspreading westerly
into south France, and after the expulsion from Spain in
1492 in all directions, — into Holland, the Turkish Empire,
North, Central and South America, the West Indies, Kings-
ton, Ja., and Surinam; Newport and New Amsterdam being
among the chief settlements in the Northern part of this
Hemisphere. ,
The history of the Sephardim, thanks to the hand of
man, shows tear-stains and blood-marks to mankind's eter-
nal shame.
But thanks to the hand of God as He re-wrote it, we find
that the historic work of the Sephardic Jews has been won-
derfully blessed, for it has meant the blessing of humanity,
in as much as it helped to preserve science, to cooperate with
the Arabs for the presentation of much of the learning of the
classic world, and to prepare men's minds for the tremen-
dous event in human history, the Reformation. In other
103
words, the Sephardic Jews helped to uphold the banner of
learning, to proclaim liberty of conscience, to promote the
consciousness of man's personal accountability to God and
thus to forward mankind's centuried march toward true
civilization and happiness.
How this came about may now be briefly told.
When Goths and Vandals conquered Spain, on the Fall
of the Roman Empire, they found Jews already settled in the
country.
At the end of the Sixth century, when the Roman Cath-
olic form of Christianity became the recognized religion of
Gothic Spain, persecution of the Jews began, driving many
to the neighboring shores of North Africa.
There they came in contact with the Moors, who in 711,
under Tarik, invaded Spain to avenge the outrage of his
daughter by a Spanish potentate.
In five years the Moors conquered Spain, and the glori-
ous era of the Jews in Spain began.
In the year, 750, Abd-er-Rahman ruled; he founded the
University of Cordova, the schools of Seville, Lucena, Gra-
nada, encouraged Jewish and Arab scholarship whose ex-
ponents and professors received students from all parts of
the world. Numerous Jews attained high honor and lasting
fame as poets, philosophers, astronomers, physicians, math-
ematicians, grammarians, lexicographers, financiers and
merchants. Through their linguistic skill, they translated
classic authors from Latin or Greek into Arabic, while at
the same time they gave Eastern lore to the Western world.
Withal, they united the study of the Scriptures and tradition-
al learning, combining intense mental activity with social
and domestic culture.
The Arabs had sedulously collected and translated the
Greek philosophers, but not the Greek poets because they
abominated the lewdness of the gods of Olympus and
abhorred the idea that any God could be guilty of such
licentiousness as displayed in an Iliad or Odyssey. To
every mosque was attached a school, education of the young
being considered essential. It was the dawn of a wonder-
ful revival of learning in that most remote corner of Europe,
in the very era of European history known as the dark and
middle ages.
104
Was it chance, or was it the hand of God, that while
in those sad days of darkness, ignorance, bloodshed, crime,
priestly incompetence and immorality throughout Europe
the lamps of learning, idealism, morality were lit in far-off
Spain by the Arabs and those Sephardic Jews?
Note the hand of God preparing things from far-off
times, and then see the part in the Divine plan for man-
kind's weal performed by those Sephardic Jews in Spain.
The story can be rapidly outlined.
Alexander the Great carried Greek language, Greek
philosophy, Greek art, Greek science into the East, about
330.
Justinian closed the schools in Athens in 529. But the
hand of God nevertheless continued and fostered their work
in Syria. For the teachings of those schools or what we
term "Greek learning" lived on. And before those teach-
ings could die out, the Abassid dynasty of Mohammedan
came into power (750) and encouraged the translation of
Greek learning into Syriac and Arabic. That meant their
perpetuation of those teachings. Hippocrates aild Galen in
medicine; Euclid, Archimedes and Ptolemy in mathematics
and astronomy; Aristotle, Theophrastus and Alexander of
Aphrodisias in philosophy, were so translated and carried
by the Arabs into Spain. There they and the Sephardic
Jews introduced this learning into Christian Europe through
the famous universities and schools of the Arab and Sephar-
dic-Jewish professors in Spain, and presently in South
France, Italy and Sicily and even Egypt, for those seats
of learning were thronged by students from all parts of
Europe who carried back to their distant homes, the thought-
seeds there planted in their minds.
The philosophical renaissance in Latin Europe was due
to the introduction of translations of Aristotle's works.
The learned fathers of the Christian Church, the scho-
lastics, imbibed much of their wisdom from distinctly Jewish
writers. Albertus Magnus, Vincent of Beauvais, Thomas
Aquinas used Afer's translation of the philosophy of Isaac
ben Solomon Israeli, the Arab-Jew of Egypt, (born c.855.)
William of Auvergne, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aqui-
nas, Duns Scotus, Siger of Brabant studied the Mekor Hayim
105
or Fons Vitae of Solomon, son of Yehudah Ibn Gabirol
(1021-1070). The Spanish Jew, better known as Avicebron;
Ibn Sina, more generally known as Avicenna; Ibn Roshd,
better known as Averroes; Abraham ben Hiya better known
as Savasorda, (a corruption of the Arabic title Sahib al Shor-
ta), attest the influence of Sephardic Jewish thought on the
Christian "intellectuals" of their day.
And deeply did Albertus Magnus, Alexander of Hales,
William of Auvergne, (the Bishop of Paris) and Thomas
Aquinas, study the monumental work known to us as the
More Nebuchim or "Guide to the Perplexed," of the great
Spanish-Jewish philosopher, Maimonides. And who has
not heard the familiar distich— "Si Lyrus non lyrasset, Lu-
therus non saltasset"— "If de Lyra had not played, Luther
would not have danced." — indicating Sephardic "Jewish
thought-influence on the Reformation-movement, — a move-
ment which their brethren, the Ashkenazic" or German Jews,
promoted in no slight degree.
We are told of writers on chronology, numismatics,
oratory, agriculture, irrigation, botany, zoology, pharmacy,
medicine, surgery, mathematics, both arithmetic and alge-
bra, even quadratics, trigonometry, astronomy, in that re-
markable era of the Arabs and Sephardic Jews in Spain.
I repeat they were, under the hand of God, the preservers of
the torch of learning in that remote corner of Europe just
when Europe itself was in the dark and medieval ages.
Is it any wonder that when presently some of the de-
scendants of these Jews of Spain found their way to New-
port, they brought with them culture, enterprise, commerce?
Is it any wonder that all the world over, traces of this
era of wonderful mentality are evident? Witness in our or-
dinary every-day language the many Arabic words intro-
duced and commonly used, such as syrup, julep, elixir, ad-
miral, alchemy, alcohol, algebra, chemise, cotton, cipher,
carat, zenith, the names of stars on astronomical charts, all
are Arabic. Their pupils and co-workers, the Sephardim,
carried them wherever they went, even as they carried cul-
ture, enterprise and commerce.
Those Arabs and Jews taught geography from globes!
They used the pendulum, the astrolabe, the mariner's com-
pass. They made maritime discovery easier.
106
From Barcelona and other ports, an immense trade was
carried on, mainly by Jewish energy. In the days of this
prosperity a thousand ships, we are told, carried trade to
far-off Constantinople and the Black Sea. What wonder
then, that they brought commerce to Newport when they
came — what wonder that that Newport prince-merchant,
Aaron Lopez, had such a fleet of shipping, as I shall presently
illustrate !
In those days of the Sephardic golden age, the streets
of Cordova were paved and lighted with lamps, though Paris
and London had only mud-paths, with an occasional lantern,
or no light at all. Learned professors threaded the streets
of Toledo and Seville while footpads made London streets
dangerous in those tenth, eleventh and twelfth and even
later centuries.
Houses or homes in England and France were cheerless;
often a hole in the roof was the chimney and rushes or
grass served for carj^et — or there were worse conditions, a
cranny for chimney, bare earth for carpet !
In Moorish Spain, houses stood in wonderful courtyards,
hot and cold water pipes were introduced, and even pipes
to convey perfume from flower-beds into boudoirs or ban-
quet rooms combined refinement with pleasure and conveni-
ence.
Music and poetry were cultivated. Some of the music
we have. It is plaintive, sweet, moving.
The type of Hebrew poetry of the age bespeaks nobility
of mind, lofty thought, independence of reason, reverence
for God.
As the Christian power gained and the 'Moorish power
waned, the condition of the Jews changed for the worse.
The very prosperity of the Jews begot extravagance and
disloyalty.
But, as always in Jewish history, Jewish disloyalty
meant Jewish suffering.
Persecutions began. Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican Fri-
ar, Marcus Rodrigues, Halorqui of Lerea, an apostate, were
storm-petrels, who by their preachings presaged the temp-
est.
In 1473 all Andalusia or South Spain, was deluged with
Jewish blood.
107
In 1481 the Inquisition was established under Torque-
mada. In his eighteen years of office, 10,220 Jews were
burnt aUve; 6,860 were burnt in effigy, 97,321 were con-
demned to perpetual imprisonment, confiscation, etc.
On March 31, 1492 the full fury of the tempest burst.
The decree was published that all the Jews were to be ex-
pelled from Spain.
On August 30, the law was enforced and Spain expelled
her best brains.
Thus man wrote the record.
But the finger of God wrote something else.
For on that same April 30, Columbus was ordered to
equip his fleet to sail Westward.
On August 2nd, the Jewish exiles left Spain.
On August 3rd, Columbus sailed, with him at least five
Jews, de Torres as interpreter, and four mariners, to dis-
cover a land destined to mean the aggrandizement of hu-
manity by American Ideals, American Energy and American
Enterprise and Invention.
In all of these, the Sephardim Jews have played a wor-
thy part in the history of America. But the finger of God
has written more, as we have now discovered.
For as Prof. Adams remarks, "Not jewels, but Jews,
were the real financial basis of the first expedition of Colum-
bus." That is, it is not true that Queen Isabella sold her
jewels to finance Columbus. He was financed by two Jews,
Luis de Santangel, Comptroller at one time of the State of
Arragon, and Sanchez of Saragossa.
Of these Sephardim exiles many went to Portugal, only
to be driven out in a few years; to South France, to Hol-
land where they helped "Brave Little Holland" to free her-
self from Spain's domination and the Duke of Alva's cruelty,
and to Turkey where Sultan Bajazet received them remark-
ing how strange he thought it that a King should expel such
desirable subjects!
Many of the French refugees migrated to the West In-
dies, and some to Newport and New Amsterdam.
Many from Portugal went to Brazil, and when Brazil
was captured by the Portuguese from the Dutch, they also
came to Newport and New Amsterdam.
108
Many from Holland went to New Amsterdam, that being
a Dutch settlement. Now Turkish refugees have begun to
come here, but only in the last score of years. There are
probably 25,000 in America. Ten years ago there were not
500. Many speak the old Spanish of 1492; some speak Greek
and some speak Arabic as their home language. They are
descendants of those Sephardic or Spanish Jews who, when
expelled from Spain in 1492, found refuge in Turkey, as I
stated a moinent ago.
In the spring of 1658, says Peterson in his history of
Rhode Island, "Mordecai Campanal and Moses Packeckoe
(or Pacheco) arrived in Newport with fifteen others. It
is said they introduced Free Masonry, (three degrees).
The spirit of Roger Williams assured them welcome, for
he had said "I desire not that liberty to myself which I would
not freely and impartially -weigh out to all the consciences of
the world besides. All these Consciences, yea, the very Con-
sciences of the Papists, Jews, etc. . . . ought freely and im-
partially to be permitted their several respective worships
and what of maintaining them, they freely choose."
They increased in numbers, and in prosperity soon made
headway because of their culture, strict integrity and respect
for their religion.
Governor Cozzens on 20 May, 1863, in a public speech,
said "Retween 1750-1760 some hundreds of wealthy Israel-
ites, a most distinguished class of merchants, removed here
from Spain, Portugal, Jamaica and other places, and en-
tered largely into business. One of them, Mr. Aaron Lopez,
owned a large fleet of vessels, rising 30 at one time in the
foreign trade and many more in the coasting trade.* The
order-boxes or pigeon-holes, as we sometimes call them, with
the names of his vessels upon them, are still to be seen in one
of the old stores on the Lopez (now Finch and Engs)
wharf." t
The manufacture of sperm-oil and candles t was intro-
duced into Newport by Jews from Lisbon 1745-50.
*A strange chance placed a quantity of Aaron Lopez's papers in my
hands the day after this lecture. For "the largest fleet of vessels" see
Note at end of this essay.
tSee Note.
jSee Note.
109
In 1760, they had in Newport, seventeen factories for
these ; twenty-two distilleries, four sugar refineries, five rope-
walks, many furniture factories supplying New York, West
Indies, Surinam, etc.
They certainly meant Energy, Enterprise and Invention
in Newport, then a most important city, commercially.
In 1770, eighteen vessels arrived in one day from the
West Indies. It is on record that on one occasion, the good
citizens were awakened to further progressiveness, by being
warned that New York might outstrip them!
The Lisbon earthquake in 1755 brought some accessions
to the Jewish community.
In that year, Ezra Stiles, well known today as a notable
President of Yale, wrote to a friend in Birmingham, Eng-
land, "There are fifteen Jewish families in Newport. They
have no minister." He must have been wrong about the num-
ber, for we know the names of many more. (See note in
Appendix.)
Three years later, the Rev, Isaac Touro arrived from
Jamaica to be the minister. He speedily quickened the spir-
itual life; for on the first of August, 1759, only one year after
his arrival, the foundation of the synagogue was laid in
Griftin Street, now Touro Street, and on Friday, the Second
of December, 1763 it was dedicated. Many members of the
sister-congregation in New York, of which I have the honor
of being minister, journeyed from New York for the Conse-
cration, some of them and the Congregation itself having
contributed towards the cost of erection.
The Rev. Isaac Touro proved himself a faithful shep-
herd during his all too short pastorate. He was a learned
Hebrew scholar. It was through him and later, through
Rabbi Haim Isaac Carigal of Jerusalem, that the above-men-
tioned Rev. Ezra Stiles, then Presbyterian Minister residing
in Newport, derived his own Hebrew knowledge. A close
friendship existed between these three, and Dr. Stiles in his
diary, frequently alludes to them, to his friendly relations
with them, to visits to the synagogue, etc.
In 1775 he left for a visit to his native land. Probably
the outbreak of the great war with England prevented an
early return as intended. Death intervened and prevented it
110
forever. His two sons, Abraham and Judah, had been left
in Newport, but on the outbreak of the war, were taken to
Boston by their uncle, Moses Michael Hays. His piety,
learning and modesty, his realization of his responsibilities
as minister, his zeal in the promotion of the spiritual life of
his flock, his close friendship with Christians of the stand-
ing of Dr. Stiles, combined with inherent culture which re-
flects the conditions of that Golden Age, the era of the
Jews under Arabic auspices, gained for him general re-
spect.
It was by holding up these conditions of true citizenship,
that the SejDhardic Jews brought to this country, into its na-
tional as well as its commercial and social life, the elements
which best secure a nation's prosperity and well-being. For
with energy, enterprise, invention, industry and commer-
cial ability, those early Sephardic Jews of Newport preached
by life and example the three great, the three greatest, R's,
"Reverence, Righteousness and Resi3onsibility." Without
these three "greatest" R's, no nation lives!
When the Revolutionary War broke out, to quote the
Rev. Frederick Dennison who lectured on the Jews of New-
port before the R. I. Veterans Association, (Dec. 7, 1885),
"The Jews were friends of the Colonies in the Revolutionary
struggle. They gave liberally of their means to sustain the
patriot cause. In soine cases they served in the continental
armies."
One of the Lopez family is said to have exclaimed to
the American recruiting sergeant who had rejected him be-
cause he was too old, "I am not too old to stop a British
bullet!"
A member of my congregation in New York still has
the original autograph letter of George Washington to the
Jews of Newport, and I have a photographed copy in my
study, acknowledging the loyalty of the Jews of Newport in
the highest terms. And other Jewish communities in other
lowns received similar acknowledgement.
Newport's commercial supremacy was ruined by the
war. Aaron Lopez, the most prominent Jewish citizen, lost
many a ship by British privateers. The family of Lopez,
Riviera (cousin) A. Pereira Mendes, (son-in-law) went to
Ill
Leicester: the Hays family to Boston: the Seixas family to
New York. Their names are identified with the establish-
ment of Free-Masonry in Rhode Island, the founding of the
Redwood Library and the Leicester Academy; they contrib-
uted to Trinity chimes, they were honored with trusteeship
of Long Whar.f Their record is a proud one. Not once
did they figure in any court in any civic dispute. (Sec Ap-
pendix *). Not one indictment appears against them in
court records.
The Jewish community dwindled away gradually. In
1818 but three were left and I have their pathetic letter to
my congregation asking us to take charge of their sacred
scrolls, thus making us the guardians of their affairs, as in
deed we naturally would be, by common ancestry, history
and traditions, besides kinship.
A few years later the Newport civic authorities wrote to
our congregation in New York, as the Guardians, to repair
the wall or fence of the Synagogue plot, which was done. I
have the minutes of our congregational action recording this.
The Synagogue remained closed for many years, the
building and the burial ground sustained by munificent be-
quests of the brothers , Abraham and Judah Touro, sons of
the former minister, the Rev. Isaac Touro. (See Appendix
VI.)
On the 20th December, 1882, the Trustees of the Syna-
gogue in New York extended a call to my honored father, the
Rev. A. Pereira Mendes, Head of a Collegiate Institution in
London and acting Ecclesiastical Chief of the Sephardic
Jews of that city, to take the spiritual charge of a few Jews
w^ho had recently settled in Newport. Their action was-
taken in response to the City Council's referring those new
settlers who wished to use the old building, to the New York
Congregation.
The new minister duly arrived, and maintained the high
ideals of the old settlers. He established the traditional
Ritual which he rendered with all its dignity and charm,
winning to it the new settlers, whose ritual, Hebrew pronun-
ciation, melodies and customs were different, being Ashkens-
zic not Sephardic.
Of naturally scholarly instincts, he became known to
112 - ,
Newport leaders of scholarly culture. He lectured for the
general Newport public on Jewish subjects, such as "The
Talmud"; for the Rhode Island Historical Society on "The
Old Jewish Cemetery," transcribing and translating the old
inscriptions from the Hebrew or Spanish or Portuguese or
Latin into English; and he gave Hebrew instruction to any
members of the Christian clergy who would go to him.
The new community grew but slowly.
He passed away to his eternal sleep in 1893.
His name, inscribed on a mural tablet in the Synagogue,
attests the love and respect of the little community, but his
name lives yet in the hearts of all who today remember his
ministrations, his quiet geniality, his courtliness, his loyalty
to the highest ideals of Jewish and civic culture, his life expo-
sition of all that adorned the traditions of the Sephardic
Jews of Newport and of the world.
This is the story of the Sephardic Jews. Summed up, it
is a story of effort to carry out the ideals of God, to promote
culture, to energize industry, but all on the lines of the three
greatest R's, "Reverence, Righteousness and Responsibility."
And the two Sephardic Jewish ministers of the old New-
port Synagogue, the Rev. Isaac Touro and the Rev. Abraham
Pereira Mendes were true exemplars of the best Sephardic
Jewish traditions.
Note— Aaron Lopez's ships. In one bill alone of Aaron Lopez, dated
1765, rendered to him by Geo. H. Peckham, I find mentioned the Betty
(sloop) ; Three Sallys (Sloop) ; Charlotte (brigantine) ; America (ship) ;
Guineman (ship) ; in my papers, I have twenty-nine names on one slip, and
several other lists in other memos.
Note— Finch and Engs Wharf. I was fortunate enough to obtain a bit
of an old Lopez-desk some years ago when in Newport.
Note— The manufacture of candles. The beautiful candelabra in the
Newport synagogue attest the number of candles used to illumine even
one edifice.
Appendix. The will of Judah Touro is a marvel. He left large sums
of money to Christian as well as Jewish charitable institutions.
REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
January 2, 1917
By
Rev. WILLIAM I. WARD
George Whitefield in Newport
Within a comparatively recent period of time the at-
tention of the American people has been freshly called to
the English clergyman, George Whitefield, who, by reason
of his evangelistic impulse, impassioned eloquence and un-
remitting zeal, was, a century and a half ago, at the zenith
of a remarkable career as a Christian preacher. Just a few
years ago Charles Silvester Home, a justly famed preacher
of London, delivered at Yale University, on the Lyman
Beecher foundation, an illuminating course of lectures to
which he gave the title, "The Romance of Preaching." In
one of the lectures he spoke at length of Mr. Whitefield as
a notable exemplar of the passion of evangelism and said of
him that it is he "who as pointedly raises, for the student
of oratory and its permanent effect, the problem of emo-
tional preaching." To the large number of Americans who
heard these lectures, and to the larger number who have
read them, Mr. Home described Mr. Whitefield as a preach-
er "facing the multitudes under God's sky, wdth the heavens
for a sounding board, the hillside for a meeting house, and
some rude boulder for a pulpit"; and as having a "splendid
energy expressing itself in the fold and sweep of his robes,
and a passion for souls in his kindled countenance, his flash-
ing eye, and the tender solemn tones of his voice."
Shortly after these lectures had been delivered and pub-
lished the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of George
Whitefield occurred. This was in December, 1914. At dif-
ferent places in our country, and in various ways, the an-
niversary was observed and attention called to the fact that,
during a period of thirty years, he was an active factor in
the religious history of America as well as of England. He
visited all the American colonies, from New Hampshire to
Georgia. Twice he came to Newport. This fact is our jus-
tification for making extended reference to him under the
auspices of this Historical Society.
116
Because of his great religious fervor, his intense mis-
sonary zeal, his extraordinary powers of oratory and his
marked evangelistic ardor Mr. Whitefield became conspicu-
ous among the illustrious Christian preachers of the world.
As a result of his distinguished devotion to his calling and
of his prodigious labors in his native land and also in this
new world, to which he opened his heart widely, the people
of our tongue on both sides of the Atlantic gave him earnest
and responsive hearing. He was an ordained minister of
the Church of England. With the Wesleys and several
others he shared membership in the Holy Club of Oxford,
and he was thoroughly sympathetic with its spirit of warm
personal devotion and eager religious activity. Thus he
helped earn the derisive title "Methodist" and was justly
classed with those who first bore the title. We may as well
add that he helped, not a little, to win honor for the title.
He did not, however, accept the Arminian type of theology.
Holding in this respect with the Calvinists he had distinct
affiliation with that body of dissenters who believed and
taught the tenets of the Genevan scholar. Thus it is seen
that he had belongings with several bodies of religious lead-
ers; and so it may be argued that he was too large a per-
sonality to be bound to any one of such bodies or, on the
other hand, that he was too indefinite in his thinking to ally
himself with either one of them. Certainly the facts prove
that no one of them can lay exclusive claim to him.
George Whitefield was born in the English city of Glou-
cester, at the Bell Inn, in Southgate street, in the month of
December, 1714. His father, who was the keeper of the tavern,
died about two. years later. His mother, who continued to
keep the inn, was careful about his education and sought
to keep him from too close contact with the tavern business.
Nevertheless he gave her, for a year or two, after he had
passed his fifteenth year, considerable assistance in the care
of the house. Already he had spent three years in the
grammar school conducted by a church in the city. Here
he had developed a thirst for knowledge and so much in-
terest in dramatic studies, as well as talent in this direction,
that the master of the school chose him to make the annual
speech before the corporation of the city. A little later he
117
entered Pembroke College, Oxford, earning his way for a
part of the time by working as a servant in the College.
While he was there his most intimate fellowships were with
the more religious members of the university. When he
w^as but twenty-one years of age, two years earlier than was
customarily allowed by the church, he was ordained a dea-
son, in his native city of Gloucester, by Bishop Benson who,
two years or more later, ordained him to the priesthood at
Oxford. It is said that the Bishop, becoming displeased be-
cause of some of Whitefield's activities, expressed regret
that he had ordained him; but that he subsequently took a
different view of the matter and, "when upon his death bed,
sent for Whitefield, besought him to remember him in his
prayers and gave him money for the support of his work."
Through the influence of the Wesleys Mr. Whitefield
became interested in the colony of Georgia. He collected
funds for the support of the colony and he made his
first voyage across the Atlantic to visit it. Noticing many
needy orphans in Georgia he established an asylum for them
and carried their cause very close to his heart until the end
of his life. This trip to America was repeated six times and
as often as he came he zealously endeavored to do good.
Since he was primarily an evangelist his chief work was to
quicken, by his earnest and persuasive preaching, the re-
ligious and spiritual life of the people.
But there are other abiding marks of his helpful influ-
ence in this country. He gave assistance to Harvard Col-
lege, aiding in replenishing its library after it was burned in
1764. He gave encouragement to the Indian school at Leba-
non, New Hampshire, which afterward became Dartmouth
College, raised money for it and interested his friend, Lord
Dartmouth in it. He secured funds in Scotland with which
to help establish Princeton College and he gave help to the
University of Pennsylvania in its early stages.
From his seventh and last trip to America he did not re-
turn. The days of this visit were destined to be his clos-
ing days upon earth and he was soon to find, here in New
England, the resting place for his body.
It was during his second visit to America that Mr.
Whitefield was invited to come to New^ England. Respond-
118
ing to the invitation he seems to have made Newport his
port of entry. He arrived here in September, 1710, passing,
after a brief stay, to Boston and to other points farther north,
thence westward to Northampton, Massachusetts, and then
to New^ Haven, Connecticut.
Newport became aware of the approach of the stirring
evangehstic preacher. News preceded him as to the criti-
cisms w hich were made upon his pubhc ministrations, criti-
cisms such as no preacher of his type has ever escaped.
One of the churches of the town, the Second Congregation-
alist, whose location was that of the present place of wor-
ship of the Second Baptist Church, thought it wise to declare
itself in advance of his coming. It therefore passed a for-
mal vote saying "that as Reverend George Whitefield is ex-
pected in town speedily, and as his preaching in many other
places has caused great contentions and divisions in many
churches, this meeting house be shut against said Whitefield,
and he be not suffered to preach in it." This was not, how-
ever, the unanimous or the prevailing sentiment with refer-
ence to the distinguishd visitor. The pastor of the First
Congregational Church, the Reverend Nathaniel Clapp,
greeted him cordially and went with him to call upon the
Reverend James Honeyman, rector of Trinity Church. Mr.
Honeyman granted the use of this church for a two days'
meeting. Twice on each of these days, morning and after-
noon, the people crowded into the church to listen; and
after the close of the last service a thousand persons fol-
lowed the preacher to his lodgings where he stood at the
door and preached to them on "hungering and thirsting after
righteousness."
It seems very likely that Mr. Whitefield was readily admit-
ted to the pulpit of Trinity Church by reason of the fact that
he had been fully ordained in the Church of England. And
when we remeinber that the Second Congregational Church
had been organized because of strong dissatisfaction with
Mr. Clapp's administration as pastor of the First Church, it
seems not impossible that Mr. Clapp's courtesy to Mr. White-
field may have been stimulated, to some extent, by the ac-
tion of the Second Church. Certainly the large audience
w^hich gathered to hear the preacher showed that the people
119
of Newport were fully as responsive to his eloquent oratory
as those in other places.
It was thirty years later when the famous preacher was
in Newport for the second time. Dr. Samuel Hopkins, who
became pastor of the F'irst Congregational Church in 1770,
having heard him preach in New Haven, was pleased with
him and approved him. On the third day of August, four
months after his installation, he received Mr. Whitefield as
guest in his home, the parsonage on Division Street. At
five o'clock in the afternoon of the next day the noted evan-
gelist preached in Dr. Hopkins' meeting house on Mill
Street to an audience which crowded the building, using
the text "Take not thy holy spirit from me." It is reported
that a young Jewess who heard him at this time greatly ad-
mired his preaching of the gospel of Christ. The following
day was Sunday. In the morning he preached for Dr. Ezra
Stiles, in the church whose doors had been closed against
him at the time of his earlier visit. His text at this time was
"Acquaint now thyself with God and be at peace." At six
o'clock in the evening he preached in the field close by Dr.
Hopkins' meeting house using as a text "Other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ." A
company of from one thousand to fifteen hundred persons
listened to this sermon. Dr. Edwards A. Park, from whose
"Memoir of Samuel Hopkins," we glean many of the facts
here recited, says, referring to this occasion, "He stood
while preaching on a table which is still reverently pre-
served." Two days later he preached at five o'clock in the
afternoon in the Baptist meeting house where Mr. Thurston
was minister. Thirteen hundred people were said to have
been within the building to listen while four or five hundred
more stood outside. On the next morning, at six o'clock, he
preached once more in the First Congregational Church
taking the second verse of the first chapter of Genesis as
his text.
Dr. William Patten, who was at a later period, pastor
of the Second Congregational Church and who wrote a
little book on the life of Dr. Hopkins, gives an account of
Mr. Whitefield's second visit in Newport, which varies slight-
ly from the one found in the larger book written by Dr. Park.
120
He states that the preaching in the field occurred on the
morning of the Sabbath instead of in the late afternoon.
Since Dr. Park gives the story of the whole day and writes,
upon the whole, with greater fulness of circumstances, it
seems probable that his statement is the correct one. But
some of Dr. Patten's comments are very interesting. Speak-
ing of the preacher he says "A gentleman present informed
the writer that he exceeded any man he had ever heard in
oratory and in representing to the life everything of which
he spoke. Though he stood upon a table he appeared by
his movements and gestures to be in no want of room.
When he read the psalm appeared new to him and he
could scarcely believe he had ever read or seen it. When he
prayed it was in accents so earnest and winning that he
looked up to see if the Holy Spirit, whose presence he in-
voked, were not visible in the form of a dove." Evidently
New England, proverbially cold and critical, was not un-
moved by this fervent messenger of the gospel. But this
further comment is made: "Except in cheering and excit-
ing the saints there was little apparent spiritual benefit from
these labors. Many admired his oratory, his manner and his
conversation; but only a few, if any, were brought under
conviction of sin and to repentance." In the spirit of fair-
ness the writer further remarks that it was characteristic
of Newport to be slow in responding to any definite religious
appeal.
Dr. Patten further records that Dr. Hopkins said he was
persuaded of Mr. Whitefield's piety and eminent success in
awakening sinners and bringing many to Christ; but that
his early education and his itinerant manne-r of life as a
preacher limited his opportunities for thorough investigation
as to subjects of doctrinal and experimental religion. Con-
sequently he was not as consistent and instructive as he
might otherwise have been; and, in his early ministry, he
was sometimes rash in his censures, especially with refer-
ence to ministers who did not agree with him. This fault in
Mr. Whitefield, which Dr. Hopkins pointed out so definitely
is by no means uncommon. Eager evangelists, even to our
own day, have often exhibited this weakness.
It is quite evident that Mr. Whitefield did not lack for
121
open hospitality when he made his second visit to our city.
How general was the cordial feeling toward him was, per-
haps, indicated by a social event which occurred on the last
day of his stay in Newport. He dined that day at the home
of John Wanton, a member of the Society of Friends; and
with him were Drs. Hopkins and Stiles, the Congregation-
alist minsters, Mr. Thurston, the Baptist preacher, and Mr.
Rusmeyer, the pastor of the Moravian congregation in New-
port.
We have noticed no reference to the Episcopal Church
or its rector in connection with Mr. Whitefield's second visit.
If it be true, as might seem to be implied, that this church,
whose doors were promptly opened to him thirty years be-
fore, did not now publicly recognize him, it should be re-
i?iembered that he had doubtless become during this period
of time, quite separated, in his public activities, from the
church in which he had received his early training and or-
dination lo UiC Christian ministry. Much of his public work
had been done in connection with the dissenting bodies.
During the early part of the period he had been in close
sympatliy with the Weslcys out of whose work grew the
largest of the non-conformist bodies; and he never ceased,
no matter how much he differed from them in some matters,
to agree with them as to their reasons for undertaking re-
ligious work independently of the Established Church of
England. He had been one of the leaders in the doctrinal
controversy which resulted in the organization of one of
the smaller denominational churches in England and Wales,
He had also become the head of an independent church in
London which, to this day, bears his name and is one of the
strongholds of English Congregationalism. In view of the
intense feeling which was characteristic of doctrinal and ec-
clesiastical controversies at that period it is not strange if
the Church of England and her American daughter suffered
him to come and go unnoticed.
There is reason to believe that Mr. Whitefield's ministry
in Newport was not without some permanent influence.
Some evidence to this effect is associated with the memory
of a woman who was, for many years, a notable person in
the religious life of the place, Mrs. Sarah Osborne. She
122
was a young woman when he made his first appearance
here. In the pubUshed account of the earher portion of
her Ufe, which was written by herself, she refers to him say-
ing "In September, 1740, God in His mercy sent His dear
servant Whitefield here," and it is recorded that his preach-
ing greatly impressed her and led her to a deeper religious
consecration. Not long afterward she formed some of the
women of the church into an organized body, which was
later known as the "Osborne Society," for the cultivation of
the religious life. A weekly devotional meeting was held;
and one of its members was said to be so gifted in prayer
that "she could pray for an hour and a half without in any
way repeating herself and without anyone being weary."
When Mr. Whitefield was in Newport for the second
time the American colonists were growing restless under
what they held to be the oppression of the mother country
and the time of revolt was drawing near. It is interesting
to know that Mr. Whitefield sympathized with the colonists
and expressed his sympathy warmly although the movement
which culminated in the war for American independence
was but begun when he died. When the storm of conflict
broke Newport suffered greatly, indeed was almost ruined.
Nearly five hundred private dwelling houses were destroyed,
Church buildings, with some well known exceptions, were
torn down or seized for use by the English army. Drs.
Hopkins and Stiles, pastors of the two Congregational
Churches, both of whom spoke boldly and strongly in favor
of independence, were virtually driven out of town. Neither
of their congregations could hold public worship or carry
forward the usual activities of a Christian Church. But Mrs.
Osborne was still living and full of good works. She had the
respect of the British soldiers who spoke of her as "the good
woman." Her home was among those which was spared
destruction, and in that home was held the weekly prayer
meeting of the society which she had organized, the only
visible thread of life in the Congregational body during sev-
eral troubled years. Thus the influence of Mr. Whitefield's
preaching may have had much to do with saving an im-
portant Christian organization from destruction at a very
critical period in the life of our city.
123
Allusion has been made to the fact that Mr. Whitefield
stood upon a table- when he preached in the field near the
First Congregational Church. Of this table we may say
now, as Dr. Park said many years ago, it "is still reverently
preserved." It is now the property of the United Congrega-
tional Church to whom it was given by Dr. Thatcher Thayer
some forty years after he came to Newport to become pastor
of the Church. It is circular in form and is about three feet
in diameter. The top is solid mahogany and is made in
three sections. Two of these sections are attached by hinges
to the third and central part and they form leaves which
may be turned down on the sides. The top is supported by
four curved legs two of which are so connected with the
frame that they may be swung outwardly, one on either side,
as supports for the leaves when they are extended. The
upper surface of the table has been smoothed and polished,
but the under side is still somewhat rough. A sheet of paper
is attached to the under side of the table top, covered with
glass which is framed with narrow moulding. On the paper
is the following inscription :
This table was given to me by Miss Philadelphia
Eilery, toward the end of her life. It was given to
her by her father, William Ellery, one of the
signers of the Declaration oi" Independence, who
stated to her that Whitefield preached standing
upon it.
THATCHER THAYER.
To Dr. Thomas Wood.
July, 1883.
Dr. Wood, to whom this note was addressed, was the
clerk of the United Congregational Church at the time when
the gift was made. William Ellery, one of whose descend-
ants is now a resident of Newport, was a worshipper at the
Second Church.
The table is not the only visible memorial in the city,
of Mr. Whitefield. At least four buildings in which he spent
.some time are still standing. These are Trinity Church, tlie
1:^4
Second Baptist Church, which was originally the Second
Congregational Church, the building on Mill Street which
was erected as a house of worship of the First Congregation-
al Church but is now used for business purposes, and the
house on Division Street, numbered forty-six, where Mr.
Whitefield was the guest of Dr. Hopkins.
Rev. Dr. William Ellery Ghanning
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
April 3rd, 1917
By
Rev. WILLIAM SAFFORD JONES
WILLIAM ELLERY GHANNING
" And this green, favored island, so fresh and sea-blown.
When she counts up the worthies her annals have known.
Never waits for the pitiful gaugers of sect
To measure her love, and mete out her respect.
" Three shades at this moment seem walking her strand,
Each with head halo-crowned, and with palms in his hand,—
Wise Berkeley, grave Hopkins, and, smiling serene
On prelate and puritan, Channing is seen.
"One holy name bearing, no longer they need
Credentials of party, and pass-words of creed :
The new song they sing hath a threefold accord.
And they own one baptism, one faith, and one Lord ! "
Thus Whittier, in his poem on "The Quaker Alumni",
links together in one apostolic order of the spirit these three
lights of the world in their several generations, Berkeley,
Hopkins, and Channing, all of whom in one way or another
touched and moulded Newport life and thought. But Berke-
ley, though he profoundly impressed the community with
his philosophic acumen and spiritual consecration, was after
all more or less of a bird of passage; and Hopkins, though
for so many years "a son of thunder" in an easy-going, self-
satisfied community, was not born here and did not come
here till he was well on in middle age. Channing, however,
was a son of Newport, and the blood of several generations
of Rhode Islanders flowed in his veins. Then, too, he never
lost connection with this fair isle. Even though his name
and fame are indissolubly bound up with the life and spirit
of Boston, we must remember that year after year for many
summers he returned with delight to this island of Aquid-
neck. Channing often fervently thanked God that he was
born on Rhode Island. In his correspondence with Miss
Lucy Aiken, the niece of Mrs. Barbauld, he calls this the
most beautiful island in this country.
128
And Channing was grateful for birth in a State which
treasured the "soul liberty" of Roger Williams and his ideal
of "a free church in a free state". And the spiritual atmos-
phere into which he was born had been impregnated by the
ideas of come-outers like Samuel Gorton and Anne Hutchin-
son and John Clarke. No wonder that Channing could say
at the age of fifty that he was "always young for liberty".
Before the Revolution Newport was a more important
seaport than New York. Its mail-bags were bigger. South-
ern planters came here to spend the summer, and though
on pleasure bent were not averse to buying slaves from
Africa, who were sold frequently on the wharves for rum
or cash. These poor slaves while they were being auctioned
off were crowded into cages. Then there were three hun-
dred Jewish families in Newport, furnishing merchants and
ship-owners in goodly numbers. Lopez, a Portuguese Jew,
was the owner of eighty-eight square riggers, all in the for-
eign trade. In 1774 Newport boasted a population of nine
thousand. It was larger than Providence. But the next
year there were only five thousand in Newport. The Rev-
olution hit it hard. Its foreign commerce was ruined. Its
Golden Age was over. The British occupation was a terrible
thing for the island. Hundreds of houses were burned. All
the woods and trees on the island were cut down. The win-
ter before Channing's birth, 1779-1780, was a time of bitter
distress for the Newporters who opposed King George and
supported the cause of the Colonies.
We gain a vivid idea of the Newport of that day
by dipping into the journal of the Baron du Bourg and the
letters of Comte de Rochambeau and the diary of Ezra Stiles,
Dr. Stiles, who had been elected President of Yale College
but had not yet formally severed his connection with the
Second Congregational Church, came back to Newport on a
pastoral visit in the spring of 1780. He describes his dese-
crated church and the well-nigh ruined community. While
here he preached two Sundays, May 21st and 28th. He re-
cords in his Diary, Vol. II, page 426 : "1780, May 28th. Lord's
Day. I preached to my flock A. M. Cant. II. 2-4, and ad-
ministered the Lord's Supper to thirty-two communicants.
P. M. I preached again, and baptized William Ellery Chan-
129
ning, son of the Hon. William Channing, Esq., Attorney
General of the State of Rhode Island." This child, destined
to be so famous, had been born on April 7th, in the house
which is now fittingly enough, the Children's Home. When
Channing came into the world Lafayette was on the high
seas, coming from France with the glorious news that a
French fleet and army would soon be on the way to help
secure the independence of the Colonies.
In his sermon delivered in Newport in 1836 at the
dedication of Dr. Hopkins's church as a Unitarian Congrega-
tional house of worship, Channing paid this tribute to Presi-
dent Stiles, who baptized him: "Another noble friend of
reUgious liberty [he had just spoken of the Rev. Mr. Cal-
lender] threw a luster on this island immediately before the
Revolution. I mean the Rev. Dr. Stiles, pastor of the Sec-
ond Congregational Church, and afterwards President of
Yale College. This country has not perhaps produced a
more learned man In his faith he was what was
called a moderate Calvinist, but his heart was of no sect.
He carried into his religion the spirit of liberty which
then stirred the whole country .... He respected the right
of private judgment, where others would have thought
themselves authorized to restrain it. . . . He desired to
heal the wounds of the divided Church of Christ, not by a
common creed, but by the spirit of love. He wished to
break every yoke, civil and ecclesiastical, from men's necks.
To the influence of this distinguished man, in the circle in
which I was brought up, I may owe in part the indignation
which I feel towards every invasion of human rights. In
my earliest years I regarded no human being with equal rev-
erence. I have his form before me at this moment alinost
as distinctly as if I had seen him yesterday. So strong is
the impression made on the child through the moral affec-
tions."
W^hen Dr. Samuel Hopkins came back to Newport the
very spring of Channing's birth, after the British occupation
of three years, he found the rich people mostly gone, many
houses burned (including his own), and his church, the
First Congregational, so badly burned that it was unfit for
use. But what troubled the good old man most of all was
130
the moral and spiritual condition of the town. He found
much immorality and indifference. And the religious com-
munity was split up into little groups of Quakers, Baptists,
Free-Will Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, Episcopahans,
Moravians, Methodists, Universalists, Individualists of every
peculiar kind. But there was no union of these religious
forces against scepticism, intemperance, and sensuality.
When, however, Hopkins entered the pulpit to denounce
these evils and kindred iniquities like the traffic in African
slaves and rum, it was said that "sinners trembled and
good men rejoiced".
Channing always confessed a great debt of gratitude
to Dr. Hopkins. He revered Dr. Stiles, as we have seen;
he also looked upon Dr. Hopkins as a father in Israel.
When Dr. Stiles went to Yale his congregation worshipped
with Dr. Hopkins's for the first six years of Channing's life.
From Dr. Hopkins, therefore, the boy Channing must have
received his first instruction in the catechism, and that
meant the Westminster. As the Rev. Charles T. Brooks
has said in his valuable "Centennial Memory of Channing" :
"Grace was given the child to reject the indigestible shell of
Calvinistic irrationalities and inconsistencies, and take only
(what indeed, after all, the noble-souled old warrior valued
more than all) the kernel of reverence for truth and honest
conviction."
"The more important of Channing's recollections of Dr.
Samuel Hopkins", says John White Chadwick, in his noble
biography of Channing, "are those touching the relations of
the two men in the younger's early manhood. Those touch-
ing his first impressions were much less favorable. But the
slightest contact between two religious leaders who, differ-
ing widely, had still much in common, is too precious to be
overlooked. After Jonathan Edwards, with whom Hopkins
enjoyed an affectionate intimacy, no one brought to New
England Calvinism a more intellectual and spiritual inter-
pretation. Some forty years ago Mrs. Stowe's 'Minister's
Wooing' renewed this popular interest in his character and
thought, with some violence to the facts affecting his domes-
tic life. It has been his too exclusively known opinion that
'we should be willing to be damned for the glory of God'.
131
The fact that he was actually and very practically willing
to be, and was, damned by many Newport gentlemen and
traders, for his interference with their business of slave-
catching and owning, has had scanter recognition."
When I think of Hopkins and Channing, I always think
of that early winter morning when the boy looked from his
window across the gardens between his home and the gam-
brel-roofed parsonage, and saw the grand old man working
away by candle-light on some kindling thought that prevent-
ed sulmber.
William Ellery Channing was the third of ten children,
only one of whom died in infancy. Three of the nine made
a name for themselves in the world. He came from the
best stock, what Dr. Holmes would have called "the Brahmin
caste of New England", being related to the Ellery, Gibbs,
Dana, Allston, Cabot, Lee, Jackson, and Lowell families.
The first American Channing was John Channing, who came
from Dorsetshire, England, in 171L Soon after his arrival
in Boston he married Mary Antram, who had come over on
the same ship with hiin. Their son John was a Newport
merchant who lost the fortune he had made. He married
the widow Bobinson, born Mary Chaloner. After her hus-
band's death she kept a little shop for the support of her
family. Between customers she knitted vigorously, we are
told. Everyone respected her. John Channing was the
father of William Channing and the grandfather of William
Ellery Channing. William Channing, the father, was born
in Newport, June 11, 1751. He was a graduate of Princeton
in the class of 1769. He read law in Providence, began to
practice here in 1771, and in 1773 married Lucy Ellery. He
was a lawyer of marked ability, but rather too fond of
politics for the good of his family. He was at the same time
attorney-general of the State and United States district-at-
torney. He was a loyal son of Princeton and came near
sending his boy, William Ellery, there. As Princeton theol-
ogy has always been of a very different stamp from that of
Harvard, we naturally speculate as to what might have hap-
pened if Channing had gone to Princeton instead of to Har-
vard. Would he have changed the spiritual atmosphere of
Princeton or would it have changed him?
132
The elder Channing was deeply religious, and a strong
supporter of the Congregational Church. He took an active
part in the restoration of Dr. Hopkins's meeting-house. His
intercourse with Dr. Stiles, his former minister, had broad-
ened his mind. This liberality of opinion he passed on to
his children. In a time and society much given to profanity
he was entirely free from it. "I recollect with gratitude",
says William, "the impression he made on my own mind. I
owed it to him, that, though living in the atmosphere of this
vice, no profane word ever passed my lips." A genial man,
occasionally his pent-up wrath would explode vigorously,
as it did on one occasion when William was hearing his
father plead a case in court. The boy was so frightened
that he rushed from the court-house. When Rhode Island
adopted the Federal Constitution of 1787, at the late date of
May 29, 1790 — she was the last of the original thirteen to
come into the Union — young Channing was present at the
convention with his father. It was a joyous day for both.
The elder Channing hailed the French Revolution with en-
thusiasm, but the putting to death of Louis XVI was too
much for his faith and hope. Young William's grandfather,
John Channing, the merchant, had owned slaves, but soon
after the Revolution they were all freed. In their "bewilder-
ing freedom" the elder William was very considerate in his
treatment of them. The boy was admitted to his father's
office at choir practice every week, — a keen pleasure for
him. The elder was a famous gardener, and not content
with one garden must have two, to supply his friends' tables
a^ well as his own. Rut though attached to his children, he
was never intimate with them. The custom of the time
made for a certan austerity and dignity, even in the family
circle.
Channing's mother, Lucy Ellery, whom he resembled in
feature, though not in expression, hers being hard and cold
while his was mild and luminous, was the daughter of Wil-
liam Ellery, the signer of the Declaration of Independence.
She was short in stature, as was her famous son. Rut what
was said of her could have been said of him: "She made
th' most of her inches by her erect carriage and elastic
rtiotion." William Henry Channing, the nephew of William
133
Ellery Channing and his biographer, speaks of her "rough
nobleness", which I take to mean that she was in the habit
of speaking her mind plainly, if not always calmly. We are
told that a familiar household note was: "Don't trouble
yourself, Lucy; I will make all smooth." Thus her husband
poured oil upon the angry waters. But her son William
idolized her, as we see from the following tribute: "The
inost remarkable trait in my mother's character was the
rectitude and simplicity of her mind. Perhaps I have never
known her equal in this respect. She was true in thought,
word, and life. She had the firmness to see the truth, to
speak it, to act upon it. She was direct in judgment and
conversation, and in my long intercourse with her [she lived
till he was past fifty] I cannot recall one word or action be-
traying the slightest insincerity. She had keen insight into
character. She was not to be imposed upon by others, and,
what is rarer, she practiced no imposition upon her own
mind. She saw things, persons, events, as they were, and
spoke of them by their right names. Her partialities did
not blind her, even to her children. Her love was without
illusion. She recognized, unerringly and with delight, fair-
ness, honesty, genuine uprightness, and shrank as by in-
stinct from everything specious, the fictitious in character,
and plausible in manners." What a good description of
'. Jianning's own character!
But, says his biographer, Chadwdck, "he was not a happy
Doy because his parents, doing their duty by him in the
most conscientious manner, were not affable and friendly
wiih him, gave him a stony formalism when he craved spon-
taneous affection, were of the opinion that he should be seen
and not heard, and that he should know his place. Then,
too, there was the burden of the inherited theology and the
cheerless piety of the New England Puritan early to solem-
nize his tremulous heart." But let it not be inferred from this
that he did not take part with the other boys in all their
sports and games. He was very fond of roaming about on
the wharves and climbing to the tops of the tallest masts.
His longing for a lofty outlook began early, you see. After
attending four different dame-schools he went to the school
134
kept by the famous Master Rogers, who trained the intellects
and moulded the characters of many who afterwards be-
came distinguished. Washington Allston, who was after-
wards related to him by marriage, and Malbone, were among
his school-fellows. Ruth Gibbs, his cousin, destined to be
his wife, was then a lovely little girl in the school.
Channing was not a brilliant pupil. His teachers and
schoolmates thought him a dunce. He was very slow at his
Latin. One day an assistant in his father's office said to him :
"Come, Bill, they say you are a fool, but I'll soon teach you
Latin." Soon the boy was enjoying Vergil, and he began to
make great strides in mathematics. But from the first he
was a thorough, not a superficial student. That was char-
acteristic of him all his days.
It must have been a wonderful day for the boy when
Washington came and dined with his father, about August
17, 1790. When Washington had made his eastern tour the
year before he could not enter Rhode Island, for it was for-
eign territory, it not having adopted the Constitution. In
recognition of its entrance into the compact Washington
made a special trip to this State in 1790. Under the same
roof John Jay and other noted Federalists were entertained.
I have spoken of the influence upon young Channing of
his father and mother and of Dr. Stiles and Dr. Hopkins.
At least one other helped to mould his youthful character,
his grandfather, William Ellery.
William Ellery, born in 1727, married early in life Ann
Remington, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. She looked well
to the w^ays of her household, and he w^as a devoted husband.
British trade restrictions ruined his business prospects, and
in 1770 he began to practise law. He was one of the leading
spirits in the Sons of Liberty, who were so eager for separa-
tion froin the Mother Country and Independence. Rhode
Island sent him with the venerable Stephen Hopkins to the
Continental Congress. Thus he became one of the signers
of the Declaration of Independence. He was honest, fair-
minded, and high-minded. Channing, who reverenced his
character, and who corresponded with him till his death
in 1820 at the age of ninety-two, might have said of him as
Marcus Aurelius said of his grandfather in the introduction
135
to his "Meditations" : "From my grandfather I learned good
morals and the government of my temper."
One other influence played an important part in Chan-
ning's early life, communion with Nature. He loved solitary
walks and musings. Especially did he love to pace up and
down Newport Beach. The roar of the surf was "part of his
life's unalterable good". "No spot on earth", he said, "has
helped to form me so much as that beach. There I lifted up
my voice in praise amidst the tempest. There, softened by
beauty, I poured my thanksgiving and contrite confessions.
There, in reverential sympathy with the mighty power
around me, I became conscious of power within. There
struggling thoughts and emotions broke forth, as if moved to
utterance by nature's eloquence of the winds and waves.
There began a happiness surpassing all worldly pleasures,
all gifts of fortune, the happiness of communing with the
works of God."
One anecdote of Channing's childhood illustrates the
serious impression made upon his heart and mind by what
has been called "oratorical piety", by the preaching of dog-
ma which is not taken in logical and literal reality. His
father, wishing to give him a drive, took him with him one
day to hear a famous preacher who was holding forth in the
neighborhood. Young William listened earnestly to the dis-
course. With fervent utterance and glowing imagery the
preacher described man's total depravity, his love of evil, his
w^eakness, his need of divine grace, and the necessity of un-
ceasing prayer. The world was painted in dark colors, a
curse rested upon all. The boy felt sure that if this were
true, everyone would give up his business and pleasure and
start out to convert the unregenerate. As they left the
church, his father said with emphasis to someone who had
accosted him, — "Sound doctrine. Sir". "It is all true", —
the boy thought. A cloud came over him. He was so de-
pressed that he dared not speak to his father. On the way
his father began to whistle! Instead of calling the family
together and telling them the awful news of man's doom, his
father pulled off his boots, put his feet on the fender, and
started to read his newspaper. Everything went on as usual.
The lad was shocked at such apparent callousness. "Could
136
what he had heard he true? No! his father did not beheve
it; people did not beheve it! It was not true!"
This was a rude shock to the boy's conscience. Hence-
forth he looked with distrust upon such theatrical preaching.
He learned to measure the exact meaning of words and
phrases. He detested public speaking that did not ring
true. Sincerity he demanded above all things.
At the age of twelve Channing went to New London,
Connecticut, to study with his uncle, the Rev. Henry
Channing. That community was in the midst of one of New
England's periodic revivals, and the young Channing seems
to have been affected by it. His religious nature was awak-
ened. During his visit he spent much time on a hill at
Old Lyme, overlooking the sea. When on the one hun-
dredth anniversary of his birth the church was built in New-
port in his memory, the stone for it was brought from a
quarry on that hill. From his New London studies he was
suddenly called home by his father's death on September 21,
1792. After the funeral he went back to his uncle for a year,
but he knew that on him and his elder brother would come in
the future grave responsibilities. There was only a little
property left by his father. But he left a good name, if not
great riches, to his wife and children.
Channing entered Harvard College in the fall of 1794.
Fourteen was then no uncommon entrance age. He did not
live in the College Yard, but with his uncle. Chief Justice
Dana, who had married his mother's sister. "He did not
associate much with his classmates generally", we are told,
but "drew about him a circle of choice and select friends".
His intimate friends were Story, afterwards t)ie great Judge
and expounder of the Constitution; Joseph Tuckerman,
whose name will always be associated with the ministry to
the poor in Boston; and Jonathan Phillips, destined to be
one of Boston's great citizens. In Channing's day there were
one hundred and seventy-three students in the College.
"What a contrast to the Harvard of today, which has more
than that number on the teaching staff!
In his recollections Channing's college life took on a
gloomy tinge. "College", he says "was never in a worse state
than when I entered it. Society was passing through a most
1:37
critical stage. The French Revolution had diseased the
imagination and unsettled the understanding of men every-
where The tone of books and conversation was
presumptuous and daring. The tendency of all classes was
to scepticism. At such a moment the dilFiculties of educa-
tion were necessarily multiplied. . . . The state of morals
among the students was anything but good; but poverty, a
dread of debt, and an almost instinctive shrinking from
gross vice, to which natural timidity and religious principle
contributed not a little, proved effectual safeguards."
Channing's college life covered the last two years of
Washington's second administration and the first two of
Adams's term. The Federalists, who were English in their
sympathies, were ahvays in bitter controversy with the Jef-
fersonian-Republicans, who were friends of France. The over-
whelming majority at Harvard was Federalist. In 1798
Channing called his fellow-students together to protest
against French aggression on the high seas and to offer to
President Adams "the unwasted ardor and unimpaired
energies of our youth to the service of our country". All but
three in the college signed it. On his graduation in 1798 he
was forbidden by the faculty to introduce current politics
into his Commencement oration on "The Present Age". He
got around it by pausing in his oration and saying: "But
that I am forbid, I could a tale unfold that would harrow up
your souls." Tremendous applause!
At Harvard he was a member of the Speaking Club,
later called the Institute; the Phi Beta Kappa; the Adelphi,
for those largely ministerially inclined; the Hasty Pudding,
started by his own class in 1795; the Porcellian, which was
too "epicurean and convivial for his taste".
It was while Channing was reading Hutcheson, the
English moralist, one day under the Cambridge willows,
that there flashed into his mind that great idea which was to
be "the fountain light of all his day, the master light of all his
seeing", — the idea of the dignity of human nature. It was
his Damascus vision. "He longed to die; as if heaven
alone could give rooin for the exercise of such emotion."
The book awakened him spiritually. He was also stirred by
Adam Ferguson's "Essay on Civil Society". Enthusiasm for
138
social progress and the conception of moral perfection were
awakened in his mind by Ferguson. Channing also dipped
into Locke, Berkeley, Reid, Hume, and Priestley; Richard
Price, also, loved by Benjamin Franklin, hated by Edmund
Burke. Channing happened to be in college during a Shake-
spearean revival, and felt its influence keenly. When he
came to choose his profession he first inclined towards the
law. But "the prevalence of infidelity" led him to examine
the evidences for Christianity, "and then", he says, "I found
for what I was made".
But he could not at once enter the ministry. He must
work and earn some money, he must also make special
preparation for his chosen profession. Remember that
this was before theological instruction had been differenti-
ated from other college teaching. The Divinity School of
Harvard University did not come into being as a separate
department until 1816. The custom then was for every
college graduate who intended to enter the ministry to study
with some older clergyman or to study by himself. Chan-
ning, however, being without money, had to take up teaching
for a while. He went to Richmond as a tutor in the family
of Mr. David Meade Randolph, who had known him in
Newport. He taught Mr. Randolph's children and some
others, a dozen in all. At his employer's table he met John
Marshall and other great lights in Virginia social and polit-
ical life. The open-handed hospitality of the South he com-
pared favorably with what he called "the selfish prudence of
a Yankee". But he said: "Could I only take from the
Virginians their sensuality and their slaves, I should think
them the greatest people in the world. As it is, with a few
great virtues they have innumerable vices."
As in New London, so in Richmond, the youth passed
through a great spiritual awakening. The trouble was that
it made him so morbidly introspective for the time that he
strove to keep his body under by abusing it, eating insufti-
cient food, sleeping on the floor in a cold room, wearing
clothes that did not keep him warm. He went to Richmond
a vigorous youth, he left it a physical and nervous wreck.
And all his life long he suffered from fearful headaches and
nervous indigestion as a result of this unwise asceticism.
139
No monk of old ever tried any harder than he to exalt the
spirit by punishing the body. In after life he realized the
folly of this procedure. But it was too late to remedy the
ills he had brought upon himself.
After nearly two years in Richmond he came back to
Newport in July, 1800, the voyage being an exciting one, in
a leaky coaling sloop with a drunken captain and crew.
Then his theological studies began in earnest. In a little
office near the house his Hght, like Dr. Hopkins's burned far
into the night. He spent much time at the Redwood Library,
much at the Beach he loved. In 1802 he returned to Harvard
as regent of the college, a sort of general proctor. He kept
on his studies under the guidance of President Willard and
Professor Tappan. In Cambridge he united with the First
Church, over which was settled a moderate Calvinist, Dr.
Abiel Holmes, father of Oliver Wendell Holmes. His first
sermon from the text, "Silver and gold have I none, but such
as I have give I unto thee", delivered in several pulpits in and
about Boston and in Hopkins's pulpit in Newport, attracted
attention.
He was called by two Boston parishes, the Brattle
Street Church, where Dr. Thacher needed a colleague, and
the Federal Street, a weaker and poorer church. He accepted
the Federal Street call on February 12, 1803, and was or-
dained and installed June 1, 1803. His uncle, Henry Chan-
ning of New London, gave the charge to the minister; his
classmate, Joseph Tuckerman, gave him the right hand of
fellowship; Dr. Tappan preached the sermon. The Federal
Street Church was made up of the descendants of Scotch-
Irish Presbyterians, who had founded it in 1729. In 1788 the
Massachusetts State Convention met in it to ratify the Fed-
eral Constitution. Hence the name of the street. Federal.
Boston then had fewer inhabitants than Newport has
now. It was more like an old English market town than
anything else. "The social aspect," says Chadwick, "was
that of the eighteenth century, and conservative at that.
Gentlemen of means wore colored coats and figured waist-
coats, with knee-breeches and long white-topped boots, ruf-
fled shirt-fronts and wristbands and stuffed white cravats,
cocked hats (the more elderly) and wigs The
140
stately minuet was still the evening dance. In the summer
season Boston rivalled Newport as a place of Southern
resort, its anti-slavery atmosphere not yet sharpening its
east wind. The big English dinner was the king-pin about
which the best society revolved. This society was as exclu-
sive of Jeffersonian Republicans as freezing water of animal
germs. A lady of the period said, T should as soon have
expected to see a cow in a drawing-room as a Jacobin'.
"Boston had, in 1803, little to show of that intellectual
life of which eventually it had so much. In fact, Channing,
Buckminster, and Norton were the prime movers of the new
regime. Few could speak French or read it. Madame de
Stael's 'L'Allemagne' (1814) was the first seed of German
studies, and its growth was slow. The Queen Anne men
reigned in literary taste. If Burns had been discovered, it
was probably by some miserable Jeffersonian. Words-
worth's first American reprint Avas in Philadelphia in 1802.
Of creative ability there was none, except as Nathaniel
Bowditch's 'Practical Navigator' had set sail in 1800, and
Jedidiah Morse.. had published his geography. The best
promise of Prescott and Bancroft and Motley and Parkman
and Fiske and Rhodes was the local work of Jeremy Bel-
knap, founder of the Massachusetts Historical Society, who
died in 1798. There were good lawyers like Dexter and Par-
sons; and Fisher Ames was magnified in the local atmos-
phere to the proportions of a Burke or a Bossuet. The sure
thing about Ames was that he was a political pessimist of
such sombre hue that his temper overhung the common con-
sciousness of Boston like a leaden pall. In 1795 he feared
that he might outlive the government and the Constitution of
his country, and naturally his gloom had deepened wdth the
triumph of democratic principles. He complained that
even the Federalists did not appreciate as they should 'the
progress of licentiousness', a euphemism for the spread of
Jeffersonian opinions. There were perhaps five hundred
who did so, and perhaps not.
"Fisher Ames's five hundred thorough-going pessimists
included, Mr. Henry Adams thinks, nearly all the Massachu-
setts clergy. In Boston and vicinity these clergymen were
nearly all Unitarians, the doctrines of the Trinity and the
141
more distinctive doctrines of Calvinism having for them no
longer any attraction. Had Jefterson been aware of this, his
fear and hate of the New England clergy would have been
qualified in no slight degree, for his enthusiasm for religious
liberality was even greater than for political. But he
formed his ideas of them upon the clergy against whom he
had contended in Virginia, men impervious to ideas, 'beasts
at Ephesus', whose fangs had left their memories in his
shrinking flesh. But what we are bound to consider is the
effect which the political temper of the clergy had upon the
expression of their theological opinions. Within a week of
Channing's ordination, the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, of Charles-
town, preached the Election Sermon, and he said, 'Let us
guard against the insidious encroachments of innovation —
that evil and beguiling spirit which is now stalking to and fro
in the earth, seeking whom it may destroy'. Morse was Cal-
vinistic, but his temper, a more important matter than his
opinions, was that of the whole body of clergy of which
Channing had now become a conscious part. Dr. Hedge has
characterized the period immediately preceding Channing's
settlement as 'the dryest in the history of the American pul-
pit'. The impression made by Channing's early preaching
was enhanced immensely by its vivid contrast with the
prevailing tone."
Channing began his ministry as a kind of combination of
Calvinist and Hopkinsinian, but after a few years his latent
liberalism began to show itself. For a century the Congre-
gational churches of New England, more especially Massa-
chusetts, had been, theologically, in a state of evolution.
Rigid Calvinism, with its iron decrees, in many parishes
gave way to milder Arminianism,with its emphasis on Divine
Love and Grace. Many Arians, who read in their New
Testaments that the Son was subordinate to the Father,
began to doubt the co-equality of the Three Persons in the
Godhead. Later humanitarian conceptions of Jesus as the
first-born of many brethren and not as absolute Deity, crept
into the preaching of many pulpits. The process was so
gradual and so quiet that not until 1815 did the Orthodox
party awake to what was going on. Then came the Unita-
rian-Trinitarian controversy which split the Congregational
142
churches wide open. As a result, the great majority of the
ancient jjarishes of Massachusetts espoused the Unitarian
side, preserving their historic continuity and corporate Ufe
without change of name or covenant. The First Church of
the Pilgrims in Plymouth and the First Churches of the Puri-
tans in Salem and Boston, adhered to the Liberal cause. In
many cases the Trinitarians felt obliged to go out and form
new parishes, in order to retain the old doctrinal standards.
In some cases the Unitarians were forced out. The im-
portant point is that Channing and the Liberals in the Con-
gregational churches had no intention of starting another
sect. They desired to be known merely as Christians or
Congregationalists. The opprobrious name Unitarian was
fastened on them by their opponents, the Calvinists, who
gave no quarter and asked for none. But when it became a
badge of reproach they wore it as a badge of honor, as the
Wesleys did when at Oxford they were derisively called
Methodists.
In his "Literary History of America" Professor Barrett
Wendell says: "The Unitarianism of New England, of
course, was not unique either theologically or philosophi-
cally. In its isolated home, however, it chanced to develop
one feature which distinguishes its early career from similar
phases of religious history elsewhere. The astonishing
personal purity and moral beauty of its leaders combined
with their engaging theology to effect the rapid social con-
quest of the whole region about Boston. . .King's Chapel and
Harvard College passed into Unitarian hands. The same
was true of nearly all the old Puritan churches
"The general conquest of ecclesiastical strongholds by
the Unitarians deeply affected the w^hole structure of Massa-
chusetts society. Elsewhere in America, perhaps, and
surely in England, Unitarianism has generally presented
itself as dissenting dissent, and has consequently been ex-
posed to the kind of social disfavor which aggressive radi-
calism is apt anywhere to involve. In the isolated capital of
isolated New England, on the other hand, where two
centuries had established such a rigid social system, the cap-
ture of the old churches meant the capture, too, of almost
every social stronghold. In addition to its inherent charm,the
143
pristine Unitarianism of Massachusetts was strengthened by
all the force of fashion in a community where somewhat
eccentric fashion has always had great weight. Whoever
clung to the old faith did so at his social peril."
It is not my intention to go deeply into the controversy
which made a divided fold of the Congregational commun-
ion. But I must call attention to some of the high-water
marks in that raging storm. These were Channing's
1815 article on "The System of Exclusion and Denun-
ciation in Religion", when he said, "Could the thun-
ders and lightnings of excommunication have corrected
the atmosphere of the church, not one pestilential
vapor would have loaded it for ages"; and the arti-
cles of 1819 and 1820 on "Objections to Unitarian Chris-
tianity Considered" and "The Moral Argument against Cal-
vinism", in which he maintained that "Christianity contained
no such doctrines [as those of Calvinism]. Christianity
was designed to manifest God in a character of perfect
benevolence." He laid stress on "inward purity, heavenly-
mindedness, love of Jesus Christ and God". In his Balti-
more sermon of 1819, at the ordination of Jared Sparks,
Channing dwelt on "the moral perfection of God, the oneness
of his justice and mercy, his parental character, his freedom
from those traits which constituted him a being whom we
cannot love if we would, and whom we ought not to if we
could". He rejected the idea that "Christ's suffering was a
price to God to buy his mercy to mankind". In 1821 at the
dedication of the Second Unitarian Church in New York he
preached on "Unitarian Christianity most favorable to
Piety", giving nine reasons why it is. "(1). It presents one
object of supreme homage, and does not distract the mind
with three persons having distinct qualities and relations.
(2) It holds inviolate the spirituality of God, not giving him
a material human frame. (3) Its object of devotion is as
simple as it is sublime. (4) It asserts the absolute and
unbounded perfection of God's character. (5) It accords
with nature, with the world around and within us. (6) It
introduces us to new and ever larger views of God. (7) It
assigns to Jesus his highest proper place — that of the greatest
of the sons of God. (8) It meets the wants of sinful men. (9)
It is a rational religion."
144
In his Election Sermon of 1830 Channing said: "I call
that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights
and powers, which calls no man master, which does not
content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens
itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new
truth as an angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting
others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself and uses
instructions from abroad, not to supersede but to exalt and
quicken its own energies."
Channing strongly opposed the War of 1812, considering
it an unnecessary and iniquitous war. But in 1814, when it
was expected that the British would land on our shores, he
preached on the duty of manly self-defence. And at the
"solemn festival" of thanksgiving for the downfall of Napo-
leon he cried out in his sermon, "The oppressor is fallen and
the world is free"; whereupon the congregation in King's
Chapel burst into cheers. In 1816 his sermon on "War",
before the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational Min-
isters, caused the formation of the Massachusetts Peace So-
ciety; but driving with a brother clergyman on this island
one summer day he doubled up his tiny fist and cried, "There
are times when a man must fight".
In 1822 Channing, who had then been happily married
to his cousin, Ruth Gibbs, for eight years, went abroad with
her for his health. In Rome he received word that his older
boy had died, — a terrible grief to him. In England he met
Coleridge, who saw in him "a philosopher in the double
sense of the word", saying, "He has the love of wisdom and
the wisdom of love". Of his visit to Wordsworth, when the
two rode together in a cart, which must havejDeen like Emer-
son's wagon hitched to a star, Channing wrote : "We talked so
eagerly as often to interrupt one another, and as I descended
into Grasmere near sunset, with the placid lake before me,
and Wordsworth talking and reciting poetry with a poet's
spirit by my side, I felt that the combination of circum-
stances was such as my highest hopes could never have
anticipated." After a score of years Wordsworth remem-
bered that Channing's one great evidence of the divine
origin of Christianity was "that it contained nothing which
rendered it unadapted to a progressive state of society, that
145
it put no checks on the activity of the human mind, and did
not compel it to tread always in a beaten path."
In 1823 Channing returned from Europe, and the next
year Ezra Stiles Gannett, grandson of Ezra Stiles, was or-
dained as his colleague. This gave him more time for public
work outside the pulpit, lectures and addresses and articles.
For the next eighteen years he was constantly speaking and
writing on such topics as Slavery, War, Self -Culture, Eleva-
tion of the Laboring Classes, Temperance, Annexation of
Texas (which he opposed, as he did slavery), the Duty of the
Free States, West India Emancipation, Milton, Fenelon, and
Napoleon — a wide range of subjects, to all of which he
brought his clear spiritual vision and kindling moral ear-
nestness. All his essays are sermons, as Emerson's essays
are. They could not be anything else.
In his attitude toward the slavery question, Channing was
between two fires. The radical abolitionists like Garrison
thought him timid and time-serving because he did not
endorse all their methods of propaganda. On the other
hand, the gentlemen of property and standing in his own
church were so incensed at his anti-slavery views that some
of them refused to speak to him on the street, and some only
coldly bowed. There is no justification for the scathing
attack on Channing as a moral reformer which you will find
in Maria Weston Chapman's appendix to the Autobiography
of Harriet Martineau. Lydia Maria Child has done him
full justice. Channing had to bear much, first from the fol-
lowers of Garrison who could not understand why he was
not in sympathy with everything they said and did, and
secondly from the standing committee of his parish which
refused the use of the vestry of the church for a memorial
meeting to his friend. Dr. Charles Follen, an Abolitionist.
Channing happened to be in Newport when the Broad-
cloth Mob hauled Garrison through the streets of Boston,
but the outrage inspired his pen. In his pamphlet on "Slav-
ery" he said : "A man cannot be property in the sight of God
and justice because he is a rational, immortal, moral being;
because created in God's image, and therefore in the highest
sense his child; because created to unfold Godlike facul-
ties and to govern himself by a Divine law written on his
146
heart and republished in God's Word." Here speaks the
spirit of the man who, as a cliiki, was strongly impressed by
the faithfulness of the blacks he saw in his own household
and in neighboring households. Among them was "Duchess"
Quamino, a free black of royal appearance, the epitaph for
whose tombstone was written by him.
In his application of Christ's teachings to social prob-
lems Channing was far in advance of his day, even of our
day. In a period when dancing and the theatre were banned
by the pious-minded he could conceive of a rational place
for such recreations. He watched with interest such experi-
ments as Brook Farm and the Hopedale Community. In his
own time he was the centre of inspiration for such social re-
formers as Dorothea Dix and Joseph Tuckerman and Bron-
son Alcott. We are amazed in reading Channing to note how
he anticipated in thought if not in act modern methods of
dealing with poverty, intemperance, child labor, the stagnant
life of the poor, industrial injustice. So great was his rever-
ence for man that he cried out when told of the custom of
flogging then in vogue in the navy: "What! strike a man!"
It was this awe in the presence of the Divine upspringing
in the human that made Channing sympathize in spirit,
though not in doctrine, with Theodore Parker, the gift of
God to slave-ridden America, and that caused him to view
without alarm the radical trend of the theology of the Tran-
scendentalists, with whose vagaries, however, he had no
patience.
Practically every year of his Boston ministry he went to
Newport, or, rather, to Oakland Farm at Portsmouth, for a
long summer holiday. Here, with his wife and children and
relatives and congenial friends about hira, he felt that his
happiness, in spite of ill health and the attacks of his oppo-
nents, was perfect. He loved trees and flowers, the dawn
and sunset. He said : "I sometimes think that I have a pecu-
liar enjoyment of a fine atmosphere. It is to me a spiritual
pleasure rather than physical, and seems to be not unworthy
of our future existence." Again he wrote : "What a blessing
such day as this is! So much a creature of the senses am I
still, that I can find on such a morning that it is easier to hope
in God, and to anticipate a boundless good for my race."
From his long retreats", says Chadwick, "he went back to
147
the city with a dewy freshness on his mind and with the salt
air reminiscent in the tang of many a bracing thought."
It was his custom every summer to preach to the farm-
ers and fishermen in the Portsmouth Christian Church.
Fashionable folk drove out to hear him on such occasions,
but he resented their coming. One day he began his sermon
in his low, thrilling voice, without preface or text, "This is a
beautiful world". You remember how the aged St. John
used to be brought, so runs tradition, into the Christian
assembly at Ephesus, that he might merely say to them all,
"Little children, love one another". That was Channing's
basic thought, "This is a beautiful world".
Sometimes he went into Newport and preached for Mr.
Brooks, whom he ordained in 1837, and at whose marriage he
officiated. He took part with joy in the year 1836 in the
dedication as a Unitarian Congregational Church of the old
meeting-house on Mill Street, in which he had sat as a child
and listened to Dr. Hopkins and in which he had preached
his first sermon in Newport.
"One Sunday afternoon", Mr. Brooks tells us, "when the
impatient horses of the fashionable hearers were pawing and
stamping in the street. Dr. Channing, insisting upon the exist-
ence and nearness of evil from which we, too, needed deliv-
erance, and of people's insensibility to it, exclaimed, 'They
are as indifferent to it as the very animals that stand waiting
for them at the church door!' "
It was at Mr. Brooks's ordination that Dr. Channing,
giving him the charge, said in thrilling tones, "My brother,
help men to see!" And that was what Charles Timothy
Brooks did in his long ministry of thirty-seven years in this
community. He took the torch of truth from Channing's
hand and passed it on to us. Fragrant be his memory!
Like Channing and their common Master, he was an Apostle
of Light.
On April 7, 1842, his sixty-second birthday, Channing
preached his last sermon in Federal Street Church. On August
1st, he delivered his great address at Lenox on the eighth an-
niversary of West India Emancipation, closing with these
words: "O come, thou kingdom of heaven, for which we daily
pray! Come Friend and Saviour of the race, who didst shed
thy blood on the cross to reconcile man to man and earth to
148
heaven! Come, Father Ahnighty, and crown with thine
omnipotence the humble strivings of thy children, to sub-
vert oppression and wrong, to spread light and freedom and
peace and joy, the truth and spirit of Thy Son, through the
whole earth!"
On the 2d of October, 1842, he lay dying in an inn at
Bennington, Vermont, and as he looked out on the lovely
Green Mountains his last words were: "I have received
many messages from the spirit." He passed onward and
upward looking eastward, waiting for the dawn of another
morrow.
When the sacred dust was carried, to Boston, the bells
of the Roman Catholic Cathedral were tolled with all the
rest in the city, for when the saintly Bishop Cheverus died
had not Channing honored his memory? And when Dean
Stanley visited Boston he asked Phillips Brooks to take him
first of all to Channing's grave in Mount Auburn.
In his great work, "God in History", the learned and
devout Baron Bunsen called Channing a "grand Christian
saint and man of God — a prophet of the Christian conscious-
ness regarding the future and destined to exert an increasing
influence. If such a man be not a prophet of God's presence
in humanity, I know of none such."
In France, M. Laboulaye, of the Institute, translator of
Channing's works into French (and into how many lan-
guages they have been translated!) has said: "If Channing
were but one sectary more in the religious Babel, I should
not have called attention to him, but he was a good man who,
all his life, consumed by one sentiment and idea, sought
truth and justice with all the forces of his intellect and loved
God and man with all the strength of his heart."
M. Lavolee, a Roman Catholic scholar, whose book,
"Channing: Sa Vie et Sa Doctrine", was crowned by the
Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, compares him with
Fenelon, saying: "Both have vowed to Jesus a love equally
lively and profound; but, while the one adores and prays,
the other contemplates and reveres."
And the Quaker poet, Whittier, cries : —
"In vain shall Rome her portals bar,
And shut from him her saintly prize,
Whom in the world's great calendar
All men shall canonize."
REV. DR. EZRA STILES
A Paper read before the Newport Historical Society
July 10th, 1917
By
Rev. RODERICK TERRY, D.D.
EZRA STILES
It was the golden age of Newport's history, when the
afterglow of the briUiant light shed upon its literary life by
the presence of Bishop Berkeley culminated in the Philo-
sophical Association, whose weekly meetings furnished the
thought which brought about the existence of the Redwood
Library. At this time Newport was among the leading
cities of the colonies in intellectual activities, and seems to
have deserved that name which was given to it, "The Athens
of America." At that period of our history we ranked among
the first mercantile centers; the sails of Newport ships
whitening every known sea; while successful merchants
built their beautiful houses and still more beautiful gardens
which became noted throughout the world. The hearts of
men were then thrilled with the thought of possible freedom
from the persecutions and enthralment of England, and
Newport took its place also in the forefront of this patriotic
movement.
During these golden years, our city drew to itself many
men of renown — statesmen, soldiers, scholars and artists —
but none who brought to its life richer gifts of learning and
piety than did Ezra Stiles. He stands prominently forth as
a leader in the intellectual life of the city, as one
of the most influential among its religious teachers,
and as a patriot whose clarion voice called out for freedom,
and roused the willing minds of his neighbors to serious
thinking of liberty, and to overt acts of so-called rebellion.
Ezra Stiles was born in North Haven, Connecticut, De-
cember 10, 1727, his father being the pastor of the Congrega-
tional Church of that village. The Stiles ancestry, both in
The references in this paper are taken from "The Life of Ezra Stiles",
by his son-in-law Abiel Holmes, printed in Boston 1798 ; and "The Literary
Diary of Ezra Stiles", three volumes. New York, 1901; and "Itineraries and
Correspondence of Ezra Stiles", New Haven, 1916. These last two works
are edited by Francis Bowditch Dexter, Litt, D., who has kindly given per-
mission for the use of these quotations.
152
this country and in England, were of the strong Puritan
Dissenter type, all being Congregationalists of that sturdy
and intellectual quality which belonged to so many of the
earlier residents of New England.
His mother was Keziah Taylor, whose father, the Rev.
Edward Taylor of Westfield, Massachusetts, had fled from
the persecutions which his family and friends had suffered
through being Dissenters, and had come to America in 1668.
He was of the same intellectual and religious stuff as were
the Stiles. There was, however, in the mother's ancestry a
strain of nobility and of attachment to the Church of Eng-
land, which came froin her great-grandmother, Mabel Har-
leykendon, who, a descendant of kings and of the English
nobility, had come to this country and had married a gover-
nor of Connecticut. With a knowledge of this commingling
of the staunch blood of the Dissenter with the more gentle
blood of the nobility of England, we are able to understand
some of the characteristics which will later appear in Ezra
Stiles.
We are told that in Dr. Stiles' infancy his constitution
was so feeble that it was long doubted whether he would
survive the age of childhood, and only by exercising the
greatest care by regulation of his diet and daily exercise in
the open air, was he able not only to survive that period,
but to perform during all the years of his life constant and
unwearied labors.
His intellectual activity was noticeable even from his
youth. At the age of twelve he was prepared to enter
college, but delayed matriculating until his fifteenth year,
when in 1742 he became an undergraduate? at Yale. For
thirteen years he lived in that University town, remaining
there after his graduation pursuing independent studies,
and acting as a tutor in the college.
During these years he passed through curious and inter-
esting phases in his religious experience, and not until the
end of this period was he thoroughly confirmed in his belief.
A man of keen intellectual discernment, and ever seeking for
new light upon all matters scientific, literary and theological,
it was imi)ossible for him to separate his intellectual pro-
cesses from his religious belief, and with the utmost delib-
153
eration and the broadest examinationof all facts bearing on
each particular question, he decided in regard to his faith,
not according to that he had imbibed in his youth, nor
according to that which was held by his fellow religionists,
but every problem was thoroughly studied and his conclu-
sions were firmly established. In no case was the instruction
of the apostle more fully carried out in regard to these
matters of belief, "let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind."
We are all well aware of the character of the faith of
the Congregational churches throughout New England at
the time of his birth. Like so many of his contemporaries
he grew up in that belief which we know as Orthodox Cal-
vinism, and probably had little more idea of criticising the
prevailing faith than had any of his neighbors; but it must
have been pretty early in his life that he began to be troubled
in regard to his theological views, for he declares that when
he reached the age of nineteen imagining himself to have
experienced and ended the period of doubt, he united with
the Congregational Church of which his father was the
Pastor. But this period of doubt was not ended, and his
mind soon again became troubled. He came into contact
with the Deists, a set of thinkers at that time of very consid-
erable influence in New England, who, while they professed
faith in God, were yet uncertain regarding any authority to
be placed upon the sacred Scriptures. It was a phase of the
never-ending conflict between reason and childlike faith;
and naturally a man with such a mind as Dr. Stiles at first
desired to place his whole confidence in reason, attempting to
support himself in his inherited beliefs by the study of the
recommended theologians. At length he thought himself
satisfied in his own mind, and in 1749 was licensed to preach
the Gospel. But he exercised the right very sparingly, and
indeed soon gave up preaching altogether, until his faith
should have been more firmly established. As he himself
expresses it:
* "My doubt increasing until 1752, I deter-
mined to lay aside preaching, and actually
adopted the study of the law, and took the
*Holmes, p. 36
154
attorney's oath in 1753. But at the same time I
most assiduously appUed to the study of the
evidences of Revelation, read through the Bible
with the greatest criticism and examination,
compared its several parts with each other, and
the whole with profane history, and so far em-
phasized and felt the prevalence of evidence in
its favor that by 1754 I had acquired a strong
and prevailing preponderency to the belief of
Revelation I could not see anything
against the fulfillment of prophesy and the
Christian miracle, but what would equally over-
turn the credit of all history. I made these
researches only for the sake of my personal
religion, and that I might be at peace with God.
.... Having acquired this satisfaction con-
cerning Revelation, I next in 1754 availed my-
self of journeys to Boston, New York and
Philadelphia, and determined by history to in-
form myself of all the sects in the Christian
world. This summer at Newport I went to the
Quakers' Meeting, at Boston to the Congrega-
tional and Episcopal Churches, at New York
the Episcopal and Dutch Calvinist, at Phila-
delphia to the Quakers, the Roman Catholics
and others, with a fair and unprejudiced mind,
and I was soon confirmed in that form of wor-
ship in which I had been educated, and which I
was convinced was the nearest the apostolic
form and Scriptural model. /
"In 1755, my doubts having given way, I
could honestly devote myself to the service of
the Great Immanucl. Just as I had emerged
from Deism, or' rather the darkness of skepti-
cism, it pleased the Head of the Church to open
the door at Newport."
How thoroughly this religious experience is in sympathy
with his strong intellectual mind! which was always look-
ing for information, never satisfied until he had learned all
that could be learned, and from it made his clear deductions.
155
Yet was he no worshipper of his own intellect; he had
respect for higher authority.
"I begin to be confirmed in this," he writes,
"that there is not a single doctrine or point of
pure revelation whose rationale is revealed and
explained so clearly that taking away the sup-
port of certain revelation, it would stand on the
internal e vidence, or be supported of itself
alone upon the reasonings adduced. We can go
but little further than to show that a doctrine is
not inconsistent with reason. I would rather
deduce the reasonableness of a doctrine from
its being revealed by God than infer its being
revealed from the supposed reason we may per-
ceive in it. My wish, therefore, is that the truths
of our holy religion be no longer mutilated and
dishonored by human reasonings upon them,
but be thought and delivered more didactically
and directly from the Bible, with a 'Thus saith
the Lord.' "
As we might expect, his faith, built upon such a foun-
dation, was firm and unchangeable during the remainder of
his life. No longer influenced by inherited ideas, by no
means of that class of indolent mentalities who take the
easiest course, he was one who fulfilled the Biblical instruc-
tion to "Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good."
It is not to be wondered at, however, that such a course
of theological education should have brought down upon
him the criticism and misunderstanding of his neighbors.
The mere fact that, as he said, he visited all the diflerent
churches with an open mind to their good points, that if he
found any that seemed to him preferable to the one in which
he had been educated he might unite himself with it, natu-
rally resulted in misunderstanding upon the part of his
f ellow-Congregationalists, as well as those of other faiths.
* "I have differed," he writes, "from most
of my brethren in New England in a too great
* Literary Diary, January 19, 1777
156
extent of charity, judged more of different com-
munions true children of God than they did.
And when I first set out in hfe I had a much
better opinion of mankind and the different
sects as to sincerity and virtue than I now have.
I never was particular and exclusive enough for
cordial and close union with any sect, even my
own my soul unites most sincerely
with the whole body of the Mystical Church,
with all that in every nation fear God and love
our Lord Jesus Christ There is a pref-
erence of systems, but no perfect one on earth.
I expect no great felicity from fellowship and
open communication with mankind. But intend
to become more and more the recluse, waiting
for the rest of Paradise, where I foresee my soul
will unite with affection and acquiescence in
eternal universal harmony."
These are very startling phrases for a New England
Congregationalist in the eighteenth century, and proved that
had Dr. Stiles lived at a later period, he would have shared,
indeed probably, have led in the broadening views which
have distinguished the Protestant Church in the last fifty
years.
Naturally perhaps some of the other denominations
misunderstood this breadth of feeling and desire to see the
good in everything, and from the fact that he attended their
services, were led to believe that he might become one of
them ,for Dr. Stiles writes,
*'Tn January of the year 1755 I had a
formal invitation from the Episcopal Church in
Stratford, Connecticut, to conform and succeed
(as rector) Dr. Johnson, lately appointed Pres-
ident of Kings College, now Columbia College, .
New York, and before that, in October, 1752, I
sustained a vigorous application to take orders
and become a minister in the Episcopal Church
*Holmes, p. 40
157
in Newport, then offering a living of two hun-
dred pounds sterling. I thank God that I was not
disposed to profess a mode of religion which I
did not believe for the sake of the living."
Through Dr. Stiles' mature years he remained satisfied
with the faith of his youth. As he himself often said, the
more he investigated other religions, the more satisfied he
was that the doctrines of his church were the nearest to
those prompted by the Scriptures. He never regretted that
his religious home was in the Congregational Churcli.
This incomplete picture of his religious thinking may
well come to an end by these words regarding his personal
character, written by his son-in-law.
* "Piety like a golden chain has served at
once to give a connection and ornament to the
work, which the assemblage of genius, learn-
ing, and the most refined morality could never
have furnished. Were any one of his Christian
graces to be discriminated, it should, perhaps,
be his humility, a virtue seldom attached to
great intellectual talent and to high stations,
but which confer the truest dignity on both."
"How absolutely contemptible," writes Stiles
in his Diary, "is a man glorying in some little
eminency among his fellow worms."
Not less striking than his theological liberality, and
perhaps more noticeable, was his intellectual acquisitive-
ness. His mind, like a great sponge, absorbed every item
of knowledge which came within its reach; into the natural
sciences, into linguistic studies, into the law, he plunged
deeply and continuously, almost to the same extent that he
buried himself in theological thought.
In scientific studies he was ever thirsting after know-
ledge. When Benjamin Franklin in 1749 sent to Yale
College the first electrical machine to come into New Eng-
land, Ezra Stiles was the one of all the people studying in
New Haven to apply himself to an examination and mastery
*Holmes, p. 377
158
of this new phenomenon of nature and thus to make the first
electrical experiments in New England. A correspondence
with Franklin began at that time, which continued during
the rest of his life.
He was ever seeking for knowledge from every possible
source. He writes to Mr. Bruce, a celebrated traveler of
England, to solicit more explicit information on parts of
Abyssinian geography and history; to Sir William Jones,
President of the Asiatic Society, expressing great inclination
to see a copy of the Patriarchal Ages and Chronology, as
found in the Pentateuchs of Cochin. Indeed from that
study of his on Clarke street there went out questions to all
parts of the world, to England, France, Greece, the Holy
Land and Astrachan.
His name was known so favorably abroad that the
University of Edinburgh conferred upon him the degree of
LL. D., and naturally the colleges of his own country,
Princeton, Dartmouth and Yale, and many learned societies
continually honored him.
His deep interest in scientific studies was keen. In
regard to astronomy his Diary is replete with notes refer-
ring to the movements of the Heavenly bodies. His de-
scription and notes upon the transit of Venus in 1765, and
the transit of Mercury, compose a quarto volume. He w^as
interested in geography, and for a long time puzzled in
regard to the question as to whether Asia and America
made one continent, but in 1769 he writes to his satisfac-
tion,
* "It is now known that Asia is separated
from America by water, as certainly appears
from the Baron Dulfeldt's voyage around the
north of Europe into the Pacific Ocean."
But not alone in the matter of science was his eagerness
for information noticeable. He had a thorough knowledge,
we are told, of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin languages, and
very few if any on this side of the Atlantic had made so great
progress in a knowledge of Samaritan, Chaldee, Syriac
and Arabic. On the Persian and Coptic he bestowed some
*Holmes, p. 76
159
attention. The French he wrote with faciUty. At the age of
twenty-three he pronounced in honor of Governor Law the
first of a large number of Latin orations, wliich were called
forth upon every occasion of importance, and in the giving
of which he w^as an adept. One in which we may be partic-
ularly interested was at the Commencement of Yale College
in 1753, when he pronounced a Latin oration in memory of
Bishop Berkeley, who died in January of that year.
It is a satisfaction for some of us to find that he was a
strong upholder of the study of the classics, and entered
into discussion with Rev. Mr. Rousmeyer, the Moravian
minister at Newport, upon the question of the relative
merits of the ancient and modern writers, for his friend
desired to substitute modern Christian for ancient pagan
authors. Dr. Stiles' judgment on this is as follows:
* "There can be but one objection, that the
Greek of Homer, Xenophon and Thucydides,
and the Latin of the authors of the Augustan
Age must be purer than the moderns, the He-
brew of Moses and Isaiah purer than that of the
later Jews, so that I rather incline to the an-
cients— banishing Horace, Juvenal and the un-
chaste tribes, and making choice of the best —
Cicero, Justin, Tacitus, Virgil for Latin, Homer,
Xenophon, Plato and Dionysius among the
Greeks I think cannot be excelled for purity
of language."
Professor Meigs writes of him :
t "He w^as familiarly acquainted with the
jurisprudence and civil i3olitics both of ancient
and modern nations, the treasures of ancient
history were made his owai by diligent investi-
gation, facilitated by his thorough acquaintance
with languages, and of modern history he pos-
sessed an exact know^ledge. His historical in-
formation has seldom been equalled. Theologj^
*Diary, April 2, 1771
tHolmes, p. 354
160
however, was his most favorite study. To per-
fect himself in this was the idtimate aim and
object to which his vast and various scientific
attainments were directed and devoted. I have
known no man to express so sublime and mag-
nificent conceptions of the majesty of God as
exhibited in the works of Christ,"
It appears strange that so few books were pubHshed by
such a learned man, and we must conclude that in regard
to each study he considered himself as one always "pressing
toward the mark" of satisfactory knowledge upon any sub-
ject, and never as "having attained." He had, however, in
•mind the issuing of important works, for in 1762 he writes,
* "This day I first conceived the thoughts
of writing the history of the world, which has
never been well written according to the
genius and dignity of history. True and faith-
ful narratives are as necessary to history as
, good books to a library, A roomful of books
thrown together in a confused, huge heap is no
library. The same of history, especially of the
world. There is a purity, grandeur and dig-
nity and enlargement and comprehension in
true, genuine history; of an empire, which
none ever reached but Livy, — of the world,
which was never yet reached. Voluminous
writing is not necessary to history. The history
of the world may be contained completely in
one quarto volume, especially of sucll a small
world as this."
And from a letter written to him by Thomes Hutchinson
of Boston in 1764, we learn that he had the intention of
writing a history of this country. Neither of these plans
came to fruition, and the result of his intellectual labors as
preserved by the press are a large number of Sermons and
Addresses, and a few small volumes, — "The History of the
Judges (Regicides)" in 1796; also it is said an "Account of
•Itinerary, p. 51
161
the Settlement of Bristol, Rhode Island," in 1785, and Ham-
mett in his "Bibliography of Newport" speaks of a book
called "The Memoirs of Block Island or Manisses," written
in 1762. "The above title," he adds, "is taken from the
collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society. The
book itself is not in their library, nor is there any mention of
it in the manuscripts of Dr. Stiles in Yale College Library."
It would be interesting to know what authority the Massa-
chusetts Historical Society had for mentioning such a sup-
posed book.
The four volumes, three of Selections from Dr. Stiles'
remarkable Literary Diary, and one from his Itinerary, so
often referred to in this article, are mines of information
in regard to the events of his time and his own investiga-
tions. Nothing escaped him. He records natural phenom-
ena most minutely. Being one of the few fortunate indi-
viduals at that time possessed of a thermometer, he records
patiently day by day its figures. Distinguished strangers
passing through Newport are mentioned by him. On one
occasion, as an astonishing fact, a priest of the Church of
Rome visits the city on his travels, and of course this
searcher after knowledge must have interviews with him.
He studies the landscape, the lives of the birds, the actions
of the tides. In one of his walks he makes an interesting
discovery, w^hich he thus records in his Itinerary :
* "June 22, 1767.
1728 BELIEVE
10 IN
21 CHRIST
& LIVE IN NO SIN.
"This is an inscription which I took off a
rock five and one-half feet long, two and one-
half feet widest, on the shore at Brenton's
Point, a little north of the river, and at the
southwest corner of Rhode Island, five miles
southwest of Newport. It is supposed to have
been put on by Rev. Nathaniel Clapp. Two
'Itinerary, p. 230
162
weeks later I viewed a stone at Price's Cove.
The stone, light grey and hard, the inscription
'8 21 1728 GOD PRESERVE ALL MAN-
KIND' is daily trodden upon by the passing
fishermen. The letters are done in the same
manner as those at the point about a mile west-
ward. I suppose the 10 and 21 under 1728
denote 21st day of 10th month, or October 21,
1728. Mr. Clapp died in Newport 1745, having
labored in the ministry from 1695, or fifty years.
"On another stone is a number of seeming
incisions of the Wedge or Runic kind, but evi-
dently the work of nature only."
In conjunction with Dr. Samuel Hopkins he issued a
Manifesto against slavery, in connection with which it is
interesting to note this item in his Diary, dated February
26, 1775.
'T propounded my negro servant Newport to be admit-
ted into full communion in the church."
This man was bought for Dr. Stiles at Cape Mount on
the coast of Guinea in 1757, when supposed to be about
eleven years of age, in exchange for a hogshead of whiskey.
We have but little information regarding the appear-
ence of Dr. Stiles, the following description which was made
about the time that he came to Newport being all that
seems to have been preserved. It was given by his son-in-
law.
* "A man of low stature, of a very delicate
structure, and of a well proportioned Torm,
whose ej^es were of a dark grey color, jJnd in a
moment of concentration singularly penetrat-
ing; his voice was clear and energetic, his
countenance, especially in conversation ex-
pressive of mildness and benignity, but if occa-
sion required it, becoming the index of majesty
and authority."
The first acquaintance Dr. Stiles had with Newport was
in 1754, in the course of a journey as far east as Boston. It
*Holmes, p. 349
163
is probable that during this visit he preached in one of the
churches here, and we know that the next year, 1755, he went
again to Newport in response to an invitation to preach in
the Second Congregational Church, and in the following
month, received a unanimous call to become the minister of
that church.
From what has been said of his religious experience,
we may well understand the truth of his statement that this
call somewhat embarrassed him, as he had determined to
continue in the practice of the law; and he returned to New
Haven resolved not to accept the invitation. But he writes,
* "At length, partly my friends, especially
my father's inclination, partly an agreeable
town and the Redwood Library, partly the
voice of Providence in the unanimity of the
people, partly my love of preaching and pros-
pect of more leisure for pursuing study than I
could expect in the law induced me to yield,
and I gave an affirmative answer to the church
and society."
At the College Commencement in September, he re-
signed his tutorship, after having filled that office six years
and a half.
On October 22 of this year, 1755, he was ordained the
pastor of the Second Congregational Church, when his
father, now venerable in years, preached the sermon upon
the text, "Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace
which is in Christ Jesus." An interesting evidence of his
power as a preacher and of his parental affection was con-
tained in this discourse, and the counsel of the father was
received by the son with filial reverence, and seems to have
had a considerable influence upon his pastoral character.
Dr. Stiles' personal feelings in connection with this
important event in his life he thus describes in a letter to
the Reverend Mr. Hopkins of Hadley, formerly a fellow-
tutor at Yale College.
♦Holmes, p. 29
164
* "Last week I was ordained an instructor
of mankind in the Christian religion, but, alas,
who knows whether he shall teach men right or
wrong. Many have labored through life as
Christian ministers in recommending and in-
culcating errors, and how know I but I, fond as
others of my own imaginations, foolishly as
others apprehending them momentous princi-
ples, may spend also my life to little purpose
'Operose nihil agendo' (in laboriously doing
nothing). But Heaven knows I seek light. I
would gladly be informed on the genuine inten-
tions of the Great Creator concerning man.
Heaven preserve me from mistakes, and lead
me to a just, rational and thorough under-
standing of Christian truth."
It must have struck your notice that the church to
which Dr. Stiles was called was the Second Congrega-
tional Church, which naturally gives rise to the thought as
to why there should have been two. It came about in the
following manner.
At the first forming of the town of Newport, the Baptist
Church was organized, and most, if not all of the settlers,
having become dissatisfied with the Congregational spirit in
Boston, allied themselves with the Baptist Church, and
when the Massachusetts Congregational brethren, con-
cerned about their religious condition, sent deputations here
to remonstrate, they generally had to return home disheart-
ened by failure. Cotton Mather in his "Magjialia" reports
this ill success thus,
"All the ministers which the Massachusetts
Colony sent with admonitions after them could
reclaim very few of them, and when the minis-
ters of this province have several times at their
own united expenses employed certain minis-
ters of the Gospel to make a chargeless tender
of preaching the word among them, this chari-
table offer of the ministers has been refused."
♦Holmes, p. 64
165
But after that generation had passed to their graves,
another and more successful effort was made by the Congre-
gationahsts of Boston, who sent one of their number to
locate in Newport, and provided in large part for his
support.
Nathaniel Clap was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts,
in 1668, and graduated from Harvard College in 1690. He
came here in 1695, and remained until his death fifty years
later, in 1745. To him belongs the credit of having intro-
duced Congregationalism to Newport. His language re-
garding this enterprise is as follows:
"About evangelizing the paganizing and
perishing plantations bordering upon the Mas-
sachusetts province there had been anxious
consultations, with supplications to the Lord.
Finally in the year 1695, a number of people
who were at least willing to keep together,
invited one to come and preach here the follow-
ing winter, after which they urged him to abide
from time to time, until more than a score of
years had rolled away."
At that time there had already been gathered in New-
port several congregations of Baptists, companies of
probably others, so that this plantation could hardly have
Quakers, Episcopalians, Seekers, as they were called, and
been called paganizing and perishing. The first services
were held in the Colony House, which antedated the present
State House, and is still standing. It is on the west side of
Prison street, which runs from the Parade to the back of the
present jail, and is number 12.
These facts and some of the following I have obtained
from the "History of Congregationalism in Newport,"
written in 1896 by the Rev. R. W. Wallace, then pastor of
the United Congregational Church.
He continues,
"A law soon afterwards was passed, for-
bidding the use of the (Colony) building for
religious purposes, and Mr. Clapp and his little
166
congregation were left without a place in which
to worship. But this was an emergency which
ithey had the courage and the faith to meet,
and in 1696, a small church edifice was erected
on Tanner street, now West Broadway, near
Green Lane, which is now Tilden Avenue. This
was then an important residential section.
Peterson says that the settlement of Newport
began in what is known as Tanner Street, and
extended through to Marlboro Street. After
years of faithful preparatory labor, the time
for the organizing of a religious body arrived,
and on the 3rd of November, 1720, an ecclesias-
tical council was held to form the church, and
to ordain and install its pastor. The first cele-
bration of the Lord's Supper was on October 1,
1721, when fifty-eight persons partook of the
Sacrament. But Mr. Clapp who, even according
to George Whitfield 'abounds in good works,
he gives all he has away, and is wonderfully
tender of little children,' had certain very pe-
culiar views with reference to churcli disci-
pline, and soon surprised everybody by a
positive refusal to administer the Lord's Supper
to the church, and also to baptize the child of
one of his church members. His reasons were,
so far as we can understand them, that in his
judgment his church members were not Chris-
tian enough ito engage in so holy an act as
breaking bread in remembrance of CliTist, and
in the case of the brother who was refused
baptism for his child, the pastor thought he
was not possessed of a piety deep enough to
consecrate his child to God."
Naturally trouble immediaitely began and misunder-
standings came from this austerity of Mr. Clap, the
result of his Puritan training. In April, 1728, an ecclesias-
tical council was convened, which decided unfavorably in
regard to Mr. Clap's actions. As he refused to recognize the
167
authority of the council, about one-half of the congregation
withdrew, and April 11, 1728, organized the Second Congre-
gational Church of Newport, selecting as its pastor the Rev.
John Adams. *
This Second Church obtained the use of the Tanner
Street building, and Mr. Clap and his adherents met for
worship in the parsonage on the northeast corner of Church
and Division Streets. In 1735 the Second Church erected a
commodious meeting house on Clarke Street, which was the
building in which Ezra Stiles preached during all of his
ministry in Newport, and which is now, after many alter-
ations, occupied by the Second Baptist congregation. Later,
the f'irst Church, under Mr. Clap's pastorate, built, in 1729,
the church on Mill Street above Spring, which has lately
been used by an auctioneer.
We may look forward a little in the history of Congre-
gationalism to express our gratification that these two
churches eventually became one again, on the 4th of June,
18.33, under the title of the United Congregational Church of
Newport, which it still bears.
For over twenty years the life of Dr. Stiles was closely
associated with all the activities and interests, intellectual
and religious, of the city of Newport. It is impossible to
speak of him simply as a preacher or pastor and not do
justice also to the influence which he exerted upon the
history of the town, and to the importance which the coming
into this city and reinaining here of such an active, intel-
lectual mind was to the life of the community.
His work here can be judged both from his own
record of daily performance of duty, and perhaps with more
fairness from expressed opinions of others. His un-
usually extensive knowledge, and eager thirst to
increase it, made him a marked man not only among the
thoughtful of his own city, but wherever learning was appre-
ciated in this country or other lands.
In a letter to the Rev. Dr. Welles, he expresses his
feeling with reference to the work he had to do.
* "I am stationed," he writes,'" in a very diffi-
cult part of the Lord's vineyard, though I thank
*Holmes, p. 118
168
God with great tranquility and happiness in my
flock. A prince has not anything to bestow
which I should esteem of equal value with the
prayers of my breth»en."
In his work as a pastor, he was one of the first, if not
the first, to inaugurate what are now known as prayer meet-
ings. In 1770, he having, as he himself informs us,
* "Long had in contemplation to set up a
monthly meeting of the church by themselves
to pray and sing together, and to adapt a dis-
course to believers advancing and improving in *
the religious life."
On January 14, 1770, he proposed the design. On the
evening of the next day, the church met at his house, and
attended the religious service. This elementary prayer
meeting was regularly maintained until the dispersion of
his church in 1775; and in a sermon preached after his
death by the Rev. Mr. Patten, his successor, it is stated that
"The memory of those meetings is still imprinted on the
hearts of a number who were interested in those pleasing
seasons of Christian communication."
From the numerous references in his Diary, and in the
enumeration of his pastoral calls, we may well perceive
that he made himself a familiar figure in all the households
of his church.
t "As a pastor, he went regularly in and
out among his people. The ease with ^hich he
adapted himself to persons in different situa-
tions and of various characters and ages quali-
fied him very much to promote the interests of
religion in his visits. To the children and youth
he was affectionately and assiduously atten-
tive. His memory will doubtless be extensively
preserved in the world, and it will long live in
this place. Scarcely a family nor an individual
♦Holmes, p. 142
tPatten Funeral Sermon
169
here but has reason from some office of good
will to remember him. Not a tree nor a brook
nor a scene around us but has engaged his ob-
servation."
As a preacher, he seems to have been of uncommon
power. The Rev. Dr. Trumbull says of him,
* "His early discourses were philosophical
and moral, and at first he was not so much
admired as a preacher as he was as a friend, a
gentleman and scholar. But gradually becom-
ing less a Newtonian and more a Christian, he
became a serious, zealous and powerful preach-
er of the truthes (sic) of the Gospel. . . He who
is convinced that the religion of the Gospel is
true, and who has experimentally found it to
be the power of God to his own salvation, will
explain its doctrines and inculcate its precepts
with an energy, not easily imitated and never
equaled, by one who has no such conviction of
the truth, and who is a stranger to its sancti-
fying influence Furnished with a
rich treasure of learning, he made it auxiliary,
as the subject required, to the elucidation of
religious truth, but never displayed it in the
pulpit with ostentation. Instead of aiming at
excellence of speech or of philosophical discus-
sion of religious subjects, he was a plain, prac-
tical, pungent preacher of the Gospel of the
grace of God." .... and Dr. Holmes adds
t "Extensive as was his Catholicism, his
discourses never countenanced prevailing
errors, nor sanctioned the opinion that religious
sentiments are indifferent. Averse to disputa-
tion and scholastic subtleties in divinity, instead
of discussing theological subjects controver-
sially, he chose the easier inethod of refuting
*Holmes, p. 237
tHolmes, p. 237
170
error by maintaining truth Hence
his sermons were instructive and pathetic.
While to the learned they were acceptable and
improving, to the ignorant they were intelligible
and practically useful. Such was the attention
of the lower classes of the communi/ty to his
discourses, and such the success of his labors
among them that he judged his talents better
adapted to promote their improvement than
that of the wise and great. He delighted, there-
fore, in preaching the Gospel to the poor."
His relation to the intellectual life of the community is
noted in various addresses and Diaries. He himself declares
that one of the things which induced him to come here was
the existence of the Redwood Library, one of the very few
then in the country, and notable among them for its carefully
selected books. Upon his being called to Newport, he was
made an honorary member of the Library. But evidently
his spirit was moved at the indifference with which the
Library was treated at that time, and he soon became its
librarian: for years occupying that position, spendng all
his spare moments among its treasures, and as he himself
informs us, frequently for days at a time being the only
visitor to the building.
His relation with the beginnings of Brown University is
most interesting. His correspondence shows that as early as
1761 he was endeavoring to bring about the foundation of a
college in Rhode Island. His hope was that the two bodies.
Baptists and Congregation alists, should unite in such an
effort. But soon he sadly writes: —
* "The Baptists desert their junction with
the Congregationalists, and engross all the
power in the proposed Rhode Island College to
themselves, after they had agreed tto share the
balances with us."
Tn regard to the charter which was published in Ihe
Providence Gazette for April 28, 1761, he writes,
"In a Diary belonging to Mrs. Kate Garnett Wells, Sept. 20, 1763.
171
"This charter was drafted by Mr. William
Ellery, Jr., and myself before the Baptists
deserted the Congregationalists."
September 7, 1769, speaking of the Commencement of
the college at Warren, the college which later became Brown
University, he sends this letter "To the Chancellor, Presi-
dent, Fellows and Trustees of the College of Rhode Island.
Gentlemen: You will please to accept my respectful ac-
knowledgments for the honor you have done me in electing
me one of the Fellows of the College. I was too sincere a
friend to literature not to have taken part in the institution
at first upon my nomination in the charter, had I not been
prevented by reasons which a subsequent immediate election
could not remove; which reasons are still of so much weight
with me that I beg leave to decline the ottice to which you
have invited me."
January 3, 1770, he says, "Dr. Eyres visited me this
morning, to discourse about the place of the Baptist College.
He tells me that Providence has subscribed 3,090 pounds, of
which about 2,200 truly is conditional that the college edifice
be erected there .... Dr. Eyres said that the Newport
subscription was about nine thousand dollars, but said they
did not choose to mention the amount exactly, nor how much
conditionally.
"The case is this, Mr. Redwood and some others have
said they would give largely, in case it was here, but that
Providence by artifice and strategem would in event get it
there, and yet would not subscribe, but will undoubtedly
give liberally. So there is a real uncertainty."
"May 3, 1770. The Baptist College was last week, or
week before, voted to be removed to Providence."
With his fellow-ministers of Newport he seems to have
sustained always the pleasantest relations. Even though he
may have differed from them in his opinions, he never
opposed them in his feelings, and always looked for the good
rather than the evil, rejoiced in points of agreement, and
made as little as possible of those of disagreement between
himself and others.
An instance of this is very notable in what he himself
172
says of his relation to Mr. Samuel Hopkins, whose coming to
the city caused a number of their fellow-ministers in the
Congregational Church considerable anxiety, as witness
this letter !o l^r. Stiles from Rev. Charles Chauncey.
* "'Uos+on, November 14, 1769. I am sorry
with my whole soul that Mr. Hopkins is like to
settle at Newport. He is a troublesome, con-
ceited, obstinate man. He preached away
almost his whole congregation at Barrington,
and was the occasion of setting up the Church
of England there. He will preach away all his
congregation at Newport or make them tenfold
worse than they are at present. I wish his in-
stallment could be prevented."
But Dr. Stiles, recognizing what he believed to be the
true Christian spirit of Dr. Hopkins, welcomed him cordially
as a brother minister, preached the sermon at his installa-
tion; and during all the time that they were together in the
city, continued on terms of the greatest friendship and sym-
pathy, although they could easily have found occasions for
difference had they so desired.
One of the most interesting of his ministerial relations
was that with the Jewish Rabbi. With his thirst for
learning, Dr. Stiles instinctively selected that one among his
fellow-ministers who could be of the most use in increasing
his knowledge. He attended the services of the Synagogue,
and soon entered upon a friendly acquaintance. He became
the pupil of the Rabbi in the study of Hebrew, and of the
history of the Jews.
Nor did he confine his Jewish studies to his relation with
this resident of Newport, but corresponded in Hebrew with
learned Jews in different parts of the world, in 1773 forming
an acquaintance with Haijin Isaac Carigal, a learned Rabbi,
a native of Hebron in the Holy Land. A long correspon-
dence was carried on between them.
In 1772 we find him writing a letter in Latin to the Rev.
Dr. Busch, a Moravian minister in Astrakhan, near the
'Itinerary, p. 450
173
Caspian Sea, the object of the letter being to make inquiries
concerning the ten tribes of Jews who he was convinced by
the prophets would yet be restored to the Holy Land. He
believed that they must be somewhere existing distinctly
ainong some nations of the earth.
* "Modern voyages and travels," he ob-
serves, "have laid open almost all countries
and their inhabitants except the interior and
most remote regions of Asia, which lay between
the River Volga and the Simensian Empire, or
from the Caspian Sea toward the east, and from
India toward the north." That tract he most ardently
wished might be thoroughly explored, in which he judged
these tribes had hitherto remained concealed, and would
hereafter be found; and in connection therewith he goes
into a long history of the Jewish people and of the lost
tribes, covering ten quarto pages, and adds,
"St. Thomas found a Hebrew damsel singing Hebrew
psalms at the court of an Indian prince at Cranganor, near
Cochin."
Not only did he attend the services in the Synagogue, but
the Rabbi came upon at least one occasion to hear a sermon
from Dr. Stiles on "The dispensations of God toward his
chosen people, and the glory of the Messiah's Kingdom." It
was the first sermon which the Jew had ever heard from a
Christian preacher.
In December 2, 1763, in his Diary he writes,
"In the afternoon was the dedication of the new Syna-
gogue in this town. It began by a handsome procession, in
which were carried the Books of the Law, to be deposited in
the ark. Several portions of Scripture and of their service,
with a prayer for the Royal family were read and finely sung
by the priest and people. There were present many gentle-
men and ladies. The order and decorum, the harmony and
solemnity of the music, together with a handsome assembly
of people, in an edifice the most perfect of the temple kind,
perhaps, in America, and splendidly illuminated, could not
*Holmes, p. 158
174
but raise in the mind a faint idea of the majesty and
grandeur of the ancient Jewisli worship mentioned in
Scripture. Dr. Isaac de Abraliam Touro performed the
service."
With his tendency to magnify points of agreement and
to minimize points of disagreement between the different
Cliristian bodies, we may well understand that he would fre-
quently exert himself to bring about a better understanding.
* "It has been a principle wdth me for
thirty-five years past to walk and live in a
decent, civil and respectful communication with
all, although in some of our sentiments, in
philosophy, religion and politics of diametri-
cally opposite opinion; hence I can freely live
and converse in civil friendship with Jews,
Romanists, and all the sects of Protestants, and
even with Deists. I am all along blamed by
bigots for this liberality, though I think none
impeach me of hypocrisy. I have my own
judgment and do not conceal it."
He was always much interested in any possible union of
different branches of the church. In 1759, M^hen a young
man, he brought the idea prominently forward in a letter.
The next year he delivered before the Convention of Con-
gregational Ministers of Rhode Island a discourse on Chris-
tian Union, in closing which he presents a fascinating pic-
ture of the condition when all the churches of New England
shall be united into one.
This discourse, which was printed and becaine famous,
roused considerable enthusiasm in the minds of a number
of the Congregationalists of New England, but, alas, it was
on too high a plane to suit most, and to a great degree
failed of its object.
It was but a few years after his settlement in Newport
that the question of the relation of the colonies to the
mother country became acute, and no one took a more keen
♦Holmes, p. 274
1T5
interest in the question, or more freely uttered his opinion
than did Dr. Stiles.
Some quotations from his Diary and letters may well be
made. His first criticisms upon the British policy that I have
come across were written in the year 1759, in a letter to the
Rev. Dr. Gumming of Edinburgh.
* "For us in New England," he writes, "to
be harassed with even the most moderate
Episcopacy, at least to have it imposed upon
us, whose fathers fled hither for exilement, is
perfectly cruel Free inquiry has made
such progress as must inevitably pull down all
ecclesiastical polities not founded in the sacred
Scriptures. ... It would be more agreeable
to this country if Presbyterians and Dissenters
were not precluded from olfices and employ-
ments in the gift of the Crown or the provincial
governors."
In 1760, in a sermon preached on a day of Thanksgiving
in consequence of the surrender of Montreal, he said,
t "It is probable that in time there will be
formed a provincial confederacy and a common
council, standing on free provincial suffrage,
and this may in time terminate in an imperial
diet, where the imperial dominion will subsist
as it ought, in election."
This is probably one of the earliest public statements of
opinion regarding freedom in this country.
Liberty Day was celebrated in Newport March 18, 1769,
the anniversary of the King's signing the repeal of the Stamp
Act. Of this anniversary celebration. Dr. Stiles writes,
$ "At dawn of day colors or a large flag
was hoisted and displayed on the top of the tree
♦Holmes, p. 76
tidem, p. 100
jThis and the following quotations are from the Diary
176
of liberty, and another on the mast of Uberty at
the Point at the same time. My bell began and
continued ringing till sunrise. About nine
o'clock A.M. the bell of the First Congregational
Church began to ring, and rang an hour or two.
The Episcopal Church bell struck a few strokes
and then stopped, the Episcopalians being
averse to the celebration."
An interesting event occurred in the year 1770. It was
customary for the clergymen of the Church of England to
preach a sermon on the 30th of January in commemoration
of the martyrdom, as they called it, of Charles I. The
return of this day awakened Dr. Stiles' indignation at the
operations of the arbitrary king of England, and occasioned
remarks worthy of an enlightened and ardent friend of
liberty.
"This day," he writes, "if observed at all,
should be celebrated as an anniversary of
Thanksgiving, or memorial that one nation on
earth had so much fortitude and public justice
as to make a royal tyrant bow to the sovereignty
of the people, to institute a judicial trial of a
monarch, and sentence him to the punishment
of the execution which he merited."
In regard to this sermon, his father-in-law, John Hub-
bard, of New Haven, wrote to him on the 15th of March,
"We have a story here that you disobliged
the Episcopalians of Newport by a thirtieth of
January sermon, and that you are like to be
trounced for it, as their phrase is, I hope the
matter is much magnified. Please to let me
know the event." .
He again, however, on the 25th of July, writes,
"I thank you for your sermon, and am
better acquainted with King Charles than ever I
177
was before, and were I to take my idea of a
martyr from him, should have as mean an
opinion of him as I have of some of the clergy."
Upon the death of George II and the accession of George
III in 1772, he had still more to say concerning the relation
of New England to the Crown, and in a letter to a Mrs. Mc-
Cauley in England, he writes,
* "Every step she (England) has taken for
some years past, at least the general system of
colony administration, has had as direct a ten-
dency to accelerate events which she should
keep at a distance as if projected from the
deep laid policy of the Conclave. It is most
firmly believed here that Providence intends a
glorious empire in America."
And when one year later, 1773, the people of Rhode
Island burned the "Gaspee", Dr. Stiles writes that he is "glad
to find that the sons of liberty in other colonies felt the attack
upon us, which is equally a stroke at universal American
liberty. I have perfect confidence that the future millions
of America will emancipate themselves from foreign oppres-
sion."
"June 30, 1774. Day of public fasting and
prayer through the Colony of Rhode Island, by
order of Assembly, on account of the threat-
ening aspect of public affairs, the acts of Par-
liament respecting America, and particularly
on account of blocking up the port of Boston.
I preached P. M. from Esther 4:3, 'There was
great fasting and weeping and mourning, and
many lay in sackcloth and in ashes,' to a very
crowded assembly of all denominations. The
day was kept in town very universally, not
above half a dozen shops open in all the town.
Mr. Bissett, the Church of England clergyman,
took his text 'Fast not as the hypocrites,' and
preached a high Tory sermon, inveighing by
allusions against Boston and New England as a
turbulent ungoverned people. The other con-
*Holmes, p. 163
178
gregations in town were heartily in the cause
of Uberty. The Baptists seem to have little
interest in the fast."
In 1774, November 5th, he records the parading the
streets and burning in efhgy of Lord North, Governor Hutch-
inson and General Gage. Again in November 30th of that
year, in speaking of the attempt of the French to dissuade
from war, he adds,
"Great efforts are made by the ministry and
their connections in America to detach the
Baptists and Quakers throughout America from
the Continental Union, and also the body of
Episcopalians interspersed through the prov-
inces north of Maryland, and with too
much success. A languor prevails through these
bodies. The defence and conservation of the
public liberty stands on the union of the south-
ern Episcopalians and the grand universal body
of Congregationals and Presbyterians through-
out the Continent. Perhaps the Baptists may
open their eyes, but there is no hope of the
Quakers."
April 25, 1775, he notes,
"Governor Ward yesterday wrote a letter
to Messrs. Malbone, received today, advising the
merchants to get their vessels to sea or out of
New England with all speed, and recommend-
ing to the people of Newport to remo-ve them-
selves and effects speedily, as there was certain
danger of immediate seizure. This has thrown
the town into great consternation and panic,
and many are all day putting up their effects
and preparing for removal. To lieighten the
terror, the men of war give out that if Newport
takes part with Providence and New England,
they will lay the town in ashes."
"October 8, 1775. Lord's Day. Preached
on Lamentations 1:4,5. 'The ways of Zion do
179
mourn.' This is a most sorrowful Sabbath. In
the afternoon there were about sixty-six persons
below, and thirty-five in the galleries. My usual
congregation three or four hundred. We had
a mournful meeting. This morning we heard
that Capt. Wallace with his fleet fired on the
town of Bristol last night. An inhuman wretch.
"October 91h. This day I removed one
load of my books and furniture. The carting of
goods and removing of people continued all
day yesterday, and yet continues. The infernal
Wallace, with three men of war and other
vessels, a fleet of perhaps eight sail, is firing
away to the northward, and spreading, or
aiming to spread, terror through the bay. It
is judged that two-thirds of the inhabitants of
this town are removed up the island.
"10th and 11th. Spirit of removal nearly
ceasing, though some continue still removing.
These removals continued for several days. By
the nineteenth, three-quarters of the property
and inhabitants had removed, most of the shops
shut up, many houses shut, many more with
only one or two persons to keep them; for the
fortnight past as much as forty or fifty teams
being daily employed, besides horse carts and
boats.
"23rd October. This afternoon the rem-
nant of my society met and judged it expedient
to discontinue the public worship in my meet-
ing house for the winter, considering the pres-
ent evacuated and distressed and tumultuous
state of the town. They all recommended and
consented to my removal to Bristol for present
safety.
"November 2nd. Sent off a second load
of goods, being part of my library and furni-
ture.
"December 11, 1776. The English oflicers
are taking up houses for barracks, and among
180
others have taken my house and meeting house
which last it is said they intend to make an
assembly room for balls, etc., after taking down
the pews.
"December 26, 1776. I reviewed the town
of Newport from memory and found the num-
ber of names of men with families now remain-
ing in the whole town but 260. This confirms
my judgment that two-thirds evacuated last
year, in 1775. In the spring enumeration was
made, 9200 souls in town. At six to a family,
this would be fifteen hundred families, but truly
there were eighteen hundred; now but 260. "
After the departure of the British he returned for a visit.
1780, May 21. Lord's Day. I preached to
my dear flock in the rooms of my meeting
house. Psalm 36.7 'How excellent is thy mercy,
oh Lord, etc' We had sixty-six benches, con-
taining five or six persons each, making a
congregation of three hundred and fifty persons,
about two-thirds of which were my flock. I
judge two-thirds of my congregation are return-
ing to Newport. The enemy had run up a
chimney in the middle of the meeting house,
and demolished all the pews and seats below
and in the galleries, but they left the pulpit
standing, though they destroyed the pulpit in
the Presbyterian meeting house and in two Bap-
tist meetings. My little zealous flock took down
the chimney and cleared the meeting house, and
then procured some benches and tables made
for the King's troops' entertainments, and left
behind, so that we attended Divine service very
conveniently, though with a pleasure inter-
mixed with tender grief.
"May 28. I preached and baptized William
Ellery Channing, son of Hon. William Chan-
ning, Esq., Attorney General of Rhode Island.
181
31 May. I took a melancholy farewell, and
left Newport on return for New Haven. About
three hundred dwelling houses I judge have
been destroyed in Newport. The town is in
ruins. I rode over the Island, and found the
the beautiful rows of trees which lined the road,
with sundry coppices, groves and orchards cut
down and laid waste, but the natural beauties
of the place still remain, and I doubt not the
place will be rebuilt, and exceed its former
splendor."
And this is his Valedictory to Newport.
"February 1, 1781. Very lamentable is the
state of religion in Newport, and particularly
that they will not attend public worship. One
occasion of this negligence is Brother Hopkins'
new divinity. He has preached his own congre-
gation almost away, or into an indifference.
He has fifty or sixty families or more of his own
congregation in town, and might easily com-
mand a good assembly, if his preaching were as
acceptable as his moral character."
The pastorate of Dr. Stiles in Newport had thus ended
in 1777, when the English took possession of the city. But
he was not to be left without a place of labor, for immedi-
ately a church in Providence sent him a most flattering call
to become its pastor, also a church in Taunton, and a little
later a prominent church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
The latter he finally accepted as a temporary labor.
But very soon another and far more important position
was offered to him. The first intimation came in a letter
from the Rev. Dr. Dana, of Wallingford, written on the 25th
of August, 1777.
* "Reverend and Dear Sir : There is reason
to believe that you may soon be invited to the
presidency of Yale College. I must entreat you
not to engage at Porstmouth for any length of
time; Providence is about to call you to a
higher trust."
♦Diary, Sept. 17, 1777
182
Another letter from Mr. Whittlesey, Secretary of t\c
Corporation of the College, September 13th, says,
"I take the earliest opportunity to inform
you that the corporation of our Almse Matris
this week made choice of you president of the
College."
In regard to this Dr. Stiles writes, September 19, 1777.
"My election to the presidency of Yale Col-
lege is an unexpected and wonderful ordering
of Divine Providence; not but that it has been
talked of for years past, but I knew such reasons
in the breasts of the Fellows, and I thought
such were the sentiments of the assembly and
the plurality of the pastors regarding my ideas
in ecclesiastical polities and doctrinal systems
of Divinity as that it was impossible I should
be elected."
After several letters and visits from interested persons,
he writes the corporation of the College on the 2nd of
October,
"I have thought it prudent and expedient to
make a journey into Connecticut, and refer the
matter to further consideration when I have
had an interview with the corporation at their
meeting next month."
That interview seems to have been satisfactory, and
although he delayed his answer still again for a short time,
he finally in August, 1778, wrote to the corporation accepting
the presidency:* in the meantime having written to his
Newport congregation and to many of his fellow-ministers
for their opinion.
The answer from the Newport congregation was a letter
written January 30, 1778, by Mr. Benjamin Ellery, brother of
William Ellery, the Signer.
"Your little flock, deprived of part of their
property, and scattered about the country, will
*Diary, February 12, 1778
183
not probably all of them ever collect again, and
should the major part return to Newport, their
circumstances will be so reduced that however
willing they may be, it will not be in their power
to afford you such a living as you deserve. I
think, therefore, it will be best for you to accept
the invitation to the presidency of Yale College,
and if I could conceive the prayers of such a
worm of the dust as I am to the Deity would be
of any service to you, I would add them for your
health, happiness and prosperity."
And the ministers to whom he referred the question had
unanimously expressed their opinion that he should accept
the position.
From 1778 to 1795 he held the office of president of Yale
College, and there is need to say nothing here regarding
the success of his administration. When he entered upon
his labors the College was greatly reduced, in fact almost to
the vanishing point, on account of the Revolution, but when
he left it, it was a flourishing and influential institution.
The extent and variety of his scholarship is evidenced
from the fact that at dift'erent times when it became neces-
sary, he filled the chairs of the professor in Mathematics, of
Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, of Mental and Moral
Philosophy, and of Ecclesiastical History; all, we are told,
in a most satisfactory manner.
It may interest us to read in his Diary of March 15, 1781,
"I received of Mr. Cook five hundred dollars
in silver and gold, on account of rents of Dean
Berkeley's Farm at Rhode Island, given to the
College."
An opinion concerning him which is not without
interest, however absurd, is expressed in the following
extract of a letter from a foreigner in New Haven to his
friend in New York, published in the New York Morning
Post August 9, 1787.
184
' "On Thursday last the remains of Rev.
Chauncey Whittlesey were interred. I attended
this funeral, and at the brick meeting house, the
place of interment, 'a fulsome farrago of non-
sense, called here a funeral sermon, was
preached forth by one of the crop-earred breth-
ren, generally designated among the devout by
the name of Pious Ezra. This curious eulogium
consisted of the most perfect adulation to the
deceased, bordering even on impiety, the whole
well larded with texts of Scripture, which were
haled in by the head and shoulders at every
other sentence, whether applicable or not. The
sermon was upon the Parable of the Talents."
On the 8th of May, 1795, Dr. Stiles was seized with a
bilious fever, and at four in the afternoon on the 12th, as his
hopes of this world lessened and those of Heaven bright-
ened, he took an affecting leave of his family, and expired at
half after eight in the evening, in the sixty-ninth year of his
age.
The funeral was held in the brick meeting house, which
was crowded with the ofTicers of the University, clergymen
and other distinguished neighbors. Dr. Dana preached the
sermon on the text "In my Father's house are many man-
sions," in which he declares,
"The Ministry lament one who was their
brightest ornament, the Church lament the
truest friend of their religious order, the State
and Nation lament the friend of their rights, the
friends of Science and Liberty, of candor, of
their country, and mankind, lament the loss to
the world."
In a newspaper obituary published at that time, it is
written,
"Of such an assemblage of varied excel-
lence in a single person, the world has afforded
bu. few examples."
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