The first decade succeeding the Revolution was marked by a serious
demoralization which found expression in an increase of vice and crime;
and as never a crime wave sweeps state or nation that great reformers do
not arise to combat it, so now Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian
preachers, enjoying at last a provident religious emancipation;
preaching a gospel of law and retribution rather than of love, worked
zealously and courageously combating the condition.
At the end of the second decade, they had not only checked the
demoralization, but brought about a widespread revival, historically
known as "The Great Awakening;" leaving in its wake a decidedly improved
moral condition.
The converts at many of these meetings were smitten to the earth under
paroxysms of religious fervor or excitement, locally known as "the
jerks;" a name given by those criticising the demonstration.
Fully a half of the state was dominated by the spell of this
extraordinary religious revival, generally exhibited at union or
undenominational religious meetings. It began at the Gasper River
Meeting House in Logan county in 1799 at a protracted meeting held by
Calvin Campbell and William McGee, two Presbyterian evangelists, who
were assisted by James McGee, a Methodist minister and brother of
William McGee.
When it was reported that the converts were smitten to the earth under
paroxysms of religions zeal, interest in the meeting grew rapidly. Thus
advertised great crowds attended and many who came to scoff remained to
pray. Every person physically able, living within a radius of fifty
miles came to the meeting; some on foot, some horseback and some in rude
farm wagons.
This vast crowd gathering in and around the church, slept in the fields
and the forests. It was remarked that no one was stricken with sickness,
and that no one seemed hungry; if they were the little they brought with
them supplied their wants.
Services began at noon and were continued far into the night. Each
lasted practically two hours, followed by a short intermission. The
preachers alternated in their exhortations. As the meeting progressed
the crowd grew so great, that not all, even with this arrangement, had
an opportunity to attend one service daily.
It was suggested that a stand or pavilion be erected in an oak grove
near the church. This was done and there twice daily, at three in the
afternoon and at seven at night, the Rev. Calvin Campbell, as John was
now generally known throughout the state, preached to the multitude.
Under the influence of his preaching many were awakened and converted.
At night great fires were built on either side of the pavilion and in
front an area a hundred feet square was cleared and covered with straw,
on which the congregation sat and listened in rapt attention to his
powerful exhortations.
What he said had a holy influence and burned its way into the hearts of
the most hardened of his hearers. After he had been talking many began
to weep softly, then rose to their feet and with eyes and hands upraised
towards heaven prayed in a low voice for forgiveness; the more
excitable, or as some said, those who most needed pardon, walked down
the aisle, which was roped off through the center, to a small space just
in front of the pavilion and were there taken with "the jerks."
A man known as Red Jenkins, one of the toughest and most notorious
characters in that section of the state, and who had been tried several
times for murder (the charge was killing and robbing travelers who
stopped at his station), but had never been convicted--though each jury,
had it been in their power, would have rendered the Scotch verdict--had
for several years been badly crippled by rheumatism and hobbled about
from settlement to settlement on crutches. On the first night of the
pavilion meetings he staggered forward and was seized by violent
paroxysms, at the end of which he lay as one dead.
Calvin Campbell came down from the platform, tossed Jenkins' crutches
into the fire and lifting the man laid him on the floor of the pavilion.
In a little while he arose, and walking down the aisle, resumed his
former seat. When told about his crutches he replied: "I do not need
them now; my body was bent and shriveled to accommodate a crooked,
shrunken soul."
Another night, just as the meeting was beginning, a young girl running
behind the pavilion, fearful that some one would take her seat near her
mother, was jostled and thrown into the edge of one of the fires. Her
homespun dress blazed up, and enveloped in the flames she ran to the
edge of the pavilion, where she was caught by Calvin Campbell and
wrapped in the folds of his great coat. He laid her as one dead on the
floor. The crowd began to gather around, but he said: "Take your seats,
the girl is not dead, but has swooned. While she lies thus, we will ask
God, who shields innocence from harm and who takes care of his lambs, to
make her whole."
While all stood in silent, prayerful reverence, he asked God to restore
the girl sound in body and cleansed of sin to her mother. All, even the
wicked and curious, joined in this prayer.
When it was finished, without so much as looking towards the girl, he
began the regular service with song; and as there were less than a dozen
books among them, he read the lines aloud.
At its close the girl sat up, wrapped about in the great coat and smiled
at her mother. Turning to her he said: "Little one, keep the coat about
you and go sit with your mother."
He preached that night upon the power and purpose of prayer and began by
saying: "Prayer is the only way in which a sinner can ask God for pardon
and in which a saint can commune with his Saviour. It is man's way of
talking with God and God's way of hearing what men have to say. Prayer
is the powder of the Christian soldier and by it victories are won for
the Cross. * * *" There were many conversions that night.
The meetings were continued until the end of the week. At the closing
services the audience asked that each year at the same place and season
open air union services be held. So in the summer of 1800, a great camp
meeting was held and the pavilion was used as the rostrum. This was the
first camp meeting ever held in Christendom and the practice was
continued for many years at the Gasper River Meeting House and other
places in Kentucky.
The hallowing influence of "The Great Awakening" thus started, spread to
other communities and eventually throughout the state and into
northwestern Tennessee. Similar meetings were held by other preachers,
at Masterson's Station in Fayette County, Clark's Station in Mercer,
Ferguson and Chaplin chapels in Nelson, Level Woods (now Larue county),
Brick Chapel in Shelby, Ebenezer in Clark, Grassy Lick in Montgomery,
Muddy Creek and Foxtown in Madison, Mount Gerizim in Harrison, Thomas
Meeting House in Washington (now Marion), Sandusky Station, now Pleasant
Run in Marion, and Cane Ridge in Bourbon county.
The first Gasper River camp meeting held in the summer of 1800 was
attended by a great multitude and proved a success. Baptist, Methodist
and Presbyterian preachers were each given the opportunity to expound
their particular doctrine. There were many conversions and among them
several who in later years became distinguished preachers.
In the early summer of 1801, Father Rice, James McCready and Calvin
Campbell conducted a great camp meeting in the Cumberland country.
Rumors of its success spread throughout Kentucky and many men rode weary
miles through lonely forest trails to attend.
Among those who came a great way, was Barton W. Stone. In 1796 he had
been licensed by the Orange Presbytery of North Carolina. Soon
afterwards, emigrating to Kentucky he settled in Bourbon county and
occasionally preached for the Cane Ridge and Concord churches. He was
ordained in 1798 by the Transylvania Presbytery and received a unanimous
call to become the pastor of these two churches.
Greatly impressed by the good work done at the camp meeting; filled with
the spirit which took possession of all, the refined as well as the
uneducated, he returned to his congregations and relating his
experiences, fired them with the zeal of the meeting which yet inspired
him; and by his preaching produced upon them the same effect, even to
"the jerks," or bodily demonstrations.
They decided to hold a camp meeting of their own; and did so from August
6 to 13, 1801, near Cane Ridge church, in a grove seven miles east of
Paris. It was attended by more than twenty-five thousand persons and it
is yet historically known as "The Great Cane Ridge Camp Meeting."
Some even attended from Cincinnati and points north. They came on foot,
on horseback and in all sorts of conveyances. Eleven hundred and
forty-three vehicles were counted at the meeting; five hundred candles
besides many lamps and fires were used for illumination; and more than
three thousand persons, mostly men, were said to have made confessions
and to have subsequently united with some church.
Among the Presbyterian preachers heard at the camp meeting were Father
Rice, Barton W. Stone, Robert Marshall, Joseph P. Howe, who led the
singing, and Calvin Campbell. Though the movement was instituted by
Stone, then a Presbyterian, it was for all purposes a union service and
the great crowd was addressed by Methodist and Baptist preachers as
frequently as by Presbyterian.
As evidencing the interest manifested, it is conservatively estimated
that more than one-tenth of the total population of the state attended
the meeting. The census of 1800 gave the population of Kentucky at
220,955, and many estimated the crowd in attendance at exceeding 25,000.
The fifth day of the meeting was known as Roger Williams or Baptist day
and only Baptist preachers were heard. The crowd was so great that three
different congregations were addressed at a time. The principal sermon
was preached by John Gano.
The sixth day of the meeting was known as John Wesley or Methodist day
and only Methodist ministers spoke. The chief service was conducted by
William Burke.
Sunday, August 9, was known as John Calvin day; and John Calvin Campbell
conducted the afternoon service. He was mentally and physically in his
prime; a man of great spirituality, great mental force, great voice and
untirable physically. To his preaching was attributed the beginning of
The Great Awakening, now sweeping Kentucky and marvelous tales were told
of him and his work. As the crowd was very great, arrangements were made
for others to address overflow meetings, including Barton Stone and
Robert Marshall, both of whom were very able preachers; but when it
became evident that the crowd wished to hear Calvin Campbell and that
the range of his voice was such that all might hear him if closely
grouped, the other meetings were dismissed and all gathered to hear him.
It was said that more than eight thousand persons listened in marked
attention to his sermon.
The scripture lesson was taken from the seventeenth chapter of Acts. His
text was "Paul in Athens" or "Worshipping Our Own Handiwork" and a
portion of the sermon is preserved.
"Paul, driven from Thessalonica, departed for Corinth. On the way he
stopped at Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas.
"Visit the grave of the great, the tomb of one of the Pharaohs, and
though you know the body is long since dust, you feel the spirit of a
reflective greatness. Thus Paul visiting Athens must have been impressed
by the mother of art, eloquence and philosophy. Decadent Athens, her
liberty gone, paying tribute to Caesar. Even a Caesar could not take
away the heritage of the children of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; this
her citizens alone could rob themselves of; and this they were doing by
worshipping false gods, by following the precepts of an Epicurean
philosophy, and by vain, wordy babbling. They still thought Athens the
abode of wisdom, and like children of the great, still thought
themselves the world's great thinkers and philosophers because their
fathers had been; when as Paul puts it, 'They spent their time in
nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing;' piling words
on words, metaphysical and unfathomable; and knowing nothing of the
beginning of wisdom, which is to fear the Lord and depart from evil.
"Paul's biographer tells us that, 'His spirit was stirred when he saw
the city full of idols;' gods of gold and silver and stone, with even a
shrine to THE UNKNOWN GOD.
"Though such sights would have stimulated our curiosity, Paul had seen
enough. There was work to do; he could not remain silent; and spoke
first in the synagogues and the Agora, the market place. Then he was
taken to the Areopagus. North of the market place was the Areopagus or
Mars Hill, a spur of the Acropolis which towered three hundred feet
higher and on which stood the citadel, the Parthenon and the Temple of
Winged Victory. Whether Paul spoke from the top of Mars Hill or the
Athenian Council, which having in earlier days met on the Areopagus and
for that reason was so called, is immaterial. We know he spoke to an
Athenian audience, who were curious to hear from a Jewish Socrates, a
new man on a new subject, THE UNKNOWN GOD.
"From the summary of his discourse we know it was framed upon that
pedagogical dictum that one should proceed from the known to the
unknown. That he talked first of their gods, of their poets, of their
belief that there was an unknown god; then of a universal God, unknown
to them, but known to him, of Christ, of the resurrection. He quoted
from their poet Epimenides; and considering the subject, we have a right
to assume that he quoted from his own prophet, Isaiah. How a man taketh
an ash log, and with part thereof he roasteth flesh 'and is satisfied;
yea he warmeth himself and saith, Aha I am warm, I have seen the fire;
and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even a graven image; he falleth
down unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith,
Deliver me, for thou art my god.'
"But man is wrong. God dwelleth not in temples made with hands. God is
not an image of gold or silver or stone; but himself made the earth and
all things therein; and in him we live and move and have our being.
"When Paul talked to them, not of gods of appetite and ambition, which
sometimes rule in our hearts, or of hand made gods, such as decorated
the streets of Athens and were enshrined in their temples, which even
while we worship have a habit of disintegrating to dust and ashes, but
of the Divine Creator, the Universal God, the Bountiful Giver, the
Almighty Ruler, the Unseen Spirit, the Tender Father, the Righteous
Judge, they called him a babbler; and when he spoke of the Eternal Son
of God and the resurrection, many of them mocked, some said we will hear
you again--and a few believed.
"Until he came to Athens, the opposition he had met was Jewish prejudice
and mob violence; it was a tangible thing; but at Athens he encountered
something harder to overcome, philosophy, conceit, contempt. Having
delivered his message, discouraged, he departed in sorrow.
"We have heard many times the expression, 'When Greek meets Greek, then
comes the tug of war.' That day in the Areopagus Paul started a tug of
war that shall continue long after we and what we know of the tangible
handiwork of man is in dust and ashes; started it because his spirit was
troubled at beholding that the world's greatest city intellectually, was
given over to idol worship. His discourse on Mars Hill, or if you prefer
in the Athenian Council, started the conflict between pagan philosophies
and Christianity; and while Christianity prevailed, the converts from
paganism brought into it too much of the metaphysical, the doctrinal,
and that simple faith become contaminated by what was borrowed from
these philosophies.
"The Epicureans taught that pleasure is the only possible end of
rational action. They believed that everything started from an atom.
That the gods were not interested in men and that there was no future
life.
"The Stoics believed in the school of philosophy founded by Zeno. That
man should submit to the inevitable; they were fatalists; did not
believe in exhibiting joy or sorrow; lived lives of sternness and
austerity and many believed in the immortality of the soul.
"Athens, a city posing as the most enlightened, where polemics and
philosophers gathered to discuss metaphysical questions, did not relish
being told by a barbarian, a mere Jew, that all they believed in and
argued about was false; and that he knew things unknown to them; of a
God concerning whom they had never heard. He discoursed of God, Christ,
the resurrection, the unity of mankind, the sovereignty of God. He told
of God the Father, whose habitation was not made with hands; who had
made of one blood all nations and had fixed the bounds of their
habitation. A God easily found because always near; and through whom we
live and move and have our being. This being true, how foolish to
worship gods of our own make. Rather let us worship the God I worship
and whom I preach unto you; the God that made YOU. Then he spoke of the
love of God for man; how he gave his Son as a vicarious atonement; how
that Son living as a man among men, taught that a life of selfish
pleasure, Epicureanism, was a sin; and that fatalism, Stoicism, was
remorse without faith or hope. Then how that Son, crucified for men that
they might live, rose and returned from the land of silence, a messenger
to those who loved and trusted him, that they might have a pledge of
glory and honor and immortality.
"But the 'superior persons' who in that day peopled Athens, were harder
to win than the barbarians of Lycaonia, the land of the wolves, because
they were men of intellectual sensitiveness and dead hearts; men who,
though they do not know it, live in the dark and after death reaching
out find nothing to lay hold on. Though as Paul says, God is not far
from any one, He is farthest from them. God tempers the wind to the
shorn lamb and those that hear best and are nearest are those who have
fresh and simple hearts like children and heathen; for them the way is
made straight and plain.
"That day on Mars Hill, Paul preached but three things: 'Idolatry is
foolish--Given the new light you must repent--On an appointed day you
will be judged by Jesus, the righteous judge.'
"The application of the lesson I can put in a simple question: How many
of us today are as the Athenians, worshipping false gods and spending
our time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing?
How many of us seeking new things are willing to trade the old lamp, the
faith of our fathers, for a new one; even though the old is infinitely
greater than Aladdin's, when the new will prove a will o' the wisp, a
delusion and a snare.
"Suppose Paul should come to Lexington and spend a day or two looking
about; would he say of the people of Lexington as of Athens: 'Still
spending your time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some
new thing;' still seeking false gods. He might strengthen the charge:
Still lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; though the price of
the Gospels is a farthing and all know of the mission of Christ and its
fulfillment.
"What he told to the Athenians was a new story; many mocked, some said
we will hear you again--a few believed. But Athens was Athens after Paul
left. What Paul told to them is to us an old story. Do we love it? Do we
love to tell it? We can hear it and mock and delay. We cannot tell it
unless we believe.
"Listen to the word of God:
"'Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after
that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the
Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach
Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks
foolishness but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God * * * but God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; * * *
that no flesh should glory in his presence. * * * That according as it
is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'"
The Rev. Calvin Campbell continued his preaching for more than an hour
and it resulted in the conversion of some souls. Though many said his
views were not wholly orthodox; all agreed that he preached the
essentials of Christianity and was a faithful ambassador of his Lord.
----
The effect of the "Great Awakening" was evidenced by the remarkable
growth of the churches during and just succeeding it. The Baptists, then
as now the strongest religious denomination in the State, exhibited a
phenomenal growth. The Elkhorn Association at its annual meeting in 1801
reported 3,011 new members during the current year. The South Kentucky
Association reported a practically similar growth; the Tate Creek
Association 1,148 new members, the Salem Association more than 2,000 new
members, and the Green River Association, organized in 1800 with 350
members, increased to over one thousand in less than a year.
Although much criticism attaches to the physical demonstrations as
contrary to a sober Christian faith; there is no doubt but that these
meetings were most potent in the development of a serious Kentucky
spirit. It is estimated that at least half the population of the state
was brought directly under their influence and their minds lifted from
material to spiritual things. Thousands were converted who otherwise
would never have attended a religious service. It would be a very narrow
person who would condemn the great good done because of the attendant
physical demonstrations.
Another result of these meetings was to revive the anti-slavery
movement, which had been put to sleep by the action of the First
Constitutional Convention.
This movement assumed a tangible form, when in 1804 an organization of
Baptist ministers calling themselves "Friends of Humanity," but known to
others as "Emancipators," declared with the members of their churches
for the abolition of slavery: "* * * that no fellowship should be
extended to slaveholders, as slavery in every branch of it, both in
principle and in practice, was a sinful and abominable system, fraught
with peculiar evils and miseries, which every man ought to abandon and
bear testimony against."
The Baptist Church, acting upon the matter, in assembly decided it was:
"* * * improper for ministers, churches or associations to meddle with
the emancipation of slavery or any other political subject," and by
resolution advised their ministers to have nothing to do with it in
their religious capacity.
This resolution was offensive to the Friends of Humanity and they
withdrew from the organization of the church. In 1807 they formed an
association of their own, calling it "The Baptist Licking-Locust
Association, Friends of Humanity." Strong at the time of organization
they soon dwindled in numbers, and in a few years the name became a mere
memory.
----
Though Presbyterian preachers instituted the series of meetings which
resulted in the "Great Awakening" and were active at all the camp
meetings, their denomination profited less, numerically, than either the
Baptist or the Methodist.
The reason was that several of their most influential preachers, Barton
W. Stone, Robert Marshall, John Dunlavy, Richard McNemar and John
Thompson, began preaching certain schisms, contrary to Calvinism.
The orthodox of the church were not only worried but frightened by the
growth of the schism of doctrine. For a long time they dared not oppose
it, thinking that it would split the church. It was first officially
considered by the Presbytery of Springfield, who placed Richard McNemar
under dealings.
When the Kentucky synod met in Lexington on September 6, 1803, with
Samuel Shannon as moderator, he called the attention of the body to a
petition signed by eighty Presbyterians and letters from Mr. William
Lamme, charging that Revs. Richard McNemar and John Thompson, of
Washington Presbytery, were promulgating erroneous doctrines and that
their Presbytery had refused to consider the petition implicating their
orthodoxy. The synod decided to enter upon an examination and trial of
the two members.
When this vote was announced they with Barton W. Stone, Robert Marshall
and John Dunlavy protested and withdrew.
Two days later those withdrawing announced they had formed an
organization of their own, which they called the Springfield Synod.
Thereupon the Kentucky synod, over the protest of Calvin Campbell and
several others, suspended them; leaving it to their respective
presbyteries to restore them upon satisfactory proof of repentance.
The five suspended ministers were the founders of "The New Light
Christians." Already having large churches, the most of their
congregations followed them and they immediately went to work and
because of their popularity, zeal, force of character and the sympathy
of many who believed them persecuted, their denomination spread rapidly.
The organization continued to grow in strength until 1859, at which time
they had sixty conferences, fifteen hundred ministers and more than two
hundred and fifty thousand communicants. The sect has disappeared from
Kentucky.
McNemar and Dunlavy joined the Shakers in 1805. In 1807 Marshall and
Thompson, declaring their repentance were taken back into the
presbytery. Barton W. Stone repudiated infant baptism; declared that the
ordinance was for the remission of conscious sin and should be
administered to all believing penitents, even though they had been
baptized in infancy.
At a great meeting at Concord church he selected Acts 2:38 for his text
and convinced a great many who had been baptized in infancy that they
must be rebaptized. He afterwards said that he was never led into the
full spirit of the doctrine "until it was revised by Bro. Alexander
Campbell some years after." Stone is the author of the hymn once so
popular: "The Lord is the Fountain of Goodness and Love."
----
While the churches of Kentucky were adjusting themselves to and
assimilating the new growth brought about by The Great Awakening, the
State politically was again disturbed by the old Mississippi navigation
question and threatened with another Spanish conspiracy.
After the treaty of 1795, making the river free, the State had made
great growth; but on December 16, 1802, trade was suspended by order of
Morales, the Spanish Intendant, who denied to Americans the right of
deposit at New Orleans and refused to fix or grant another.
His proclamation excited the whole western country and was the first
intimation the people had that Spain on October 1, 1800, by secret
treaty at St. Ilfonso, had agreed to return Louisiana to France.
Governor Garrard received a copy of the proclamation by special
messenger and submitted it to the Kentucky legislature which was in
session at the time. On December 1, 1802, the Kentucky legislature
passed a resolution calling upon the Federal Government to enforce the
treaty provisions of deposit, declaring:
"We rely with confidence on your wisdom and justice and pledge ourselves
to support at the expense of our lives and fortunes, such measures as
the honor and interest of the United States may require."
Then Kentucky, expecting immediate war with Spain, began organizing
companies of volunteer militia and making preparations to invade New
Orleans.
On January 18, 1803, President Jefferson wrote Governor Garrard
acknowledging the receipt of the resolution; declaring he was informed
that the action of the Spanish intendant was unauthorized by his
government and--"In order however to provide against the hazards which
beset our interests * * * I have determined with the approbation of the
Senate to send John Monroe * * * with full powers to him and our
ministers in France and Spain to enter with these governments into such
arrangements as may effectually secure our rights and interests in the
Mississippi."
The spirit of Kentucky after the receipt of this letter is indicated by
a communication printed in the Kentucky Gazette of March 8, 1803.
"If the result of Mr. Monroe's mission should prove inauspicious one
opinion will pervade all America. We shall then possess but one mind and
one arm. The patriotism of the country will banish all party
distinctions, and the breast of every citizen will burn with
indignation. * * * Let us await with patience his return--with that
silent expectation, which, prepared to meet with joy the news of a happy
issue, is nevertheless, if disappointed, ready to inflict a blow that
will let all Europe know that, though difficult to be aroused, America
acts with vigor and effect."
The same paper of July 19, 1803, contained news from Paris, under the
caption, "Important if True--Paris, May 13, Louisiana is ceded to the
United States on the most honorable terms; and indemnification will be
made for French spoliation."
This report proved correct. The great Territory of Louisiana had been
ceded to the United States for eighty million francs.
On Tuesday, December 20, 1803, the United States took possession by her
two commissioners, William C. Claiborne and General James Wilkinson.