spoke in opposition to the proposition to form an association of liberal
Christians. These men were typical pastors and preachers, whose parishes
were limited only by the town in which they lived, and who preached the
gospel without sectarian prejudice or doctrinal qualifications. Dr. John
Pierce, of Brookline, thought the measure of the committee "very
dangerous," and likely to do much harm in many of the parishes by arousing
the sectarian spirit. He spoke three times in the course of the meeting,
opposing with his accustomed vehemence all attempt at organization. Dr.
Abiel Abbot, of Beverly, thought that presenting a distinct object for
opposition would arrest the progress of Unitarianism, for in his
neighborhood liberal Christianity owed everything to slow and silent
progress. Dr. John Allyn, of Duxbury, one of the most original and learned
ministers of his time in New England, was opposed to the use of any
sectarian name, especially that of Unitarian or Liberal. He was willing to
join in a general convention, and he desired to have a meeting of delegates
from all sects. He expressed the opinion of several leading men who were
present at this meeting, who favored an unsectarian organization, that
should include all men of liberal opinions, of whatever name or
denominational connection.
Those who were in favor of a Unitarian Association did not remain silent,
and they spoke with clearness and vigor in approval of the proposition of
the committee. Alden Bradford, who became the Secretary of State in
Massachusetts, and wrote several valuable biographical and historical
works, thought that Unitarians were too timid and did not wisely defend
their position. He was followed by Andrews Norton in a vigorous declaration
of the importance of the association, in the course of which he pointed out
how inadequately Unitarians had protected and fostered the institutions
under their care, and declared that closer union was necessary. Jared
Sparks also earnestly favored the project, and said that what was proposed
was not a plan of proselyting. It was his opinion that Unitarians ought to
come forward in support of their views of truth, and that an association
was necessary in order to promote sympathy among them throughout the
country. Colonel Joseph May, who had been for thirty years a warden of
King's Chapel, and a man held in high esteem in Boston, referred to the
work already accomplished by the zeal and effort of the few Unitarians who
had worked together to promote liberal interests. The most incisive word
spoken, however, came from John Pierpont, who was just coming into his fame
as an orator and a leader in reforms. "We have," he declared, "and we must
have, the name Unitarian. It is not for us to shrink from it. Organization
is necessary in order to maintain it, and organization there must be. The
general interests of Unitarians will be promoted by using the name, and
organizing in harmony with it."
In the long discussion at this meeting it appears that, of the ministers,
Channing, Norton, Bancroft, Ware, Pierpont, Sparks, Edes, Nichols, Parker,
Thayer, Willard, and Harding were in favor of organization; Pierce, Allyn,
Abbot, Freeman, and Bigelow, against it. Of the laymen, Charles Jackson and
George Bond were vigorously in opposition; and Judge Story, Judge White,
Judge Howe, of Northampton, Alden Bradford, Leverett Salstonstall, Stephen
Higginson, and Joseph May spoke in favor. The result of the meeting was the
appointment of a committee, consisting of Sullivan, Bradford, Ware,
Channing, Palfrey, Walker, Pierpont, and Higginson, which was empowered to
call together a larger meeting at some time during the session of the
General Court. But this committee seems never to have acted. At the end of
his report of this preliminary meeting James Walker wrote: "The meeting
proposed was never called. As there appeared to be so much difference of
opinion as to the expediency and nature of the measure proposed, it was
thought best to let it subside in silence."
The zeal of those favorable to organization, however, did not abate; and
the discussion went on throughout the winter. On May 25, 1825, at the
meeting of the Berry Street Conference of Ministers, Henry Ware, the
younger, who had been chairman of the first committee, renewed the effort,
and presented the following statement as a declaration of the purposes of
the proposed organization:--
It is proposed to form a new association, to be called The American
Unitarian Society. The chief and ultimate object will be the promotion
of pure and undefiled religion by disseminating the knowledge of it
where adequate means of religious instruction are not enjoyed. A
secondary good which will follow from it is the union of all Unitarian
Christians in this country, so that they would become mutually
acquainted, and the concentration of their efforts would increase their
efficiency. The society will embrace all Unitarian Christians in the
United States. Its operations would extend themselves through the whole
country. These operations would chiefly consist in the publication and
distribution of tracts, and the support of missionaries.
It was announced that in the afternoon a meeting would be held for the
further consideration of the subject. This meeting was held at four
o'clock, and Dr. Henry Ware acted as moderator. The opponents of
organization probably absented themselves, for action was promptly taken,
and it was "_Voted_, that it is expedient to form a new society to be
called the American Unitarian Association." All who were present expressed
themselves as in favor of this action. Rev. James Walker, Mr. Lewis Tappan,
and Rev. Ezra S. Gannett were appointed a committee to draft a form of
organization. On the next morning, Thursday, May 26, 1825, this committee
reported to a meeting, of which Dr. Nathaniel Thayer, of Lancaster, was
moderator; and, with one or two amendments, the constitution prepared by
the committee was adopted. This constitution, with slight modifications, is
still in force. The object of the Association was declared to be "to
diffuse the knowledge and promote the interests of pure Christianity." A
committee to nominate officers selected Dr. Channing for president; Joseph
Story, of Salem, Joseph Lyman, of Northampton, Stephen Longfellow, of
Portland, Charles H. Atherton, of Amherst, N.H., Henry Wheaton, of New
York, James Taylor, of Philadelphia, Henry Payson, of Baltimore, William
Cranch, of Alexandria, Martin L. Hurlbut, of Charleston, as
vice-presidents; Ezra S. Gannett, of Boston, for secretary; Lewis Tappan,
of Boston, for treasurer; and Andrews Norton, Jared Sparks, and James
Walker, for executive committee.
When Mr. Gannett wrote to his colleague, Dr. Channing, to notify him of his
election as president, there came a letter declining the proffered office.
"I was a little disappointed," Channing wrote, "at learning that the
Unitarian Association is to commence operations immediately. I conversed
with Mr. Norton on the subject before leaving Boston, and found him so
indisposed to engage in it that I imagined that it would be let alone for
the present. The office which in your kindness you have assigned to me I
must beg to decline. As you have made a beginning, I truly rejoice in your
success." Norton and Sparks also declined to serve as directors, ill-health
and previous engagements being assigned by them for their inability to act
with the other officers elected. The executive committee proceeded to fill
these vacancies by the election of Dr. Aaron Bancroft, of Worcester, as
president, and of the younger Henry Ware and Samuel Barrett to the
executive committee; and the board of directors thus constituted
administered the Association during its first year.
In the selection of Dr. Bancroft as the head of the new association a wise
choice was made, for he had the executive and organizing ability that was
eminently desirable at this juncture. He was an able preacher, and one of
the strongest thinkers in the Unitarian body. His biography of Washington
had made him widely known; and his volume of controversial sermons,
published in 1822, had received the enthusiastic praise of John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson. When he was settled, he was almost an outcast in
Worcester County because of his liberalism; but such were the strength of
his character and the power of his thought that gradually he secured a wide
hearing, and became the most popular preacher in Central Massachusetts.
After fifty years of his ministry he could count twenty-one vigorous
Unitarian societies about him, all of which had profited by his
influence.[8] Although he was seventy years of age at the time he
accepted the presidency of the Unitarian Association, he was in the full
enjoyment of his powers; and he filled the office for ten years, giving it
and the cause which the Association represented the impetus and weight of
his sound judgment and deserved reputation.
The executive work of the Association fell to the charge of the secretary,
Ezra S. Gannett, who had been one of the most enthusiastic advocates of the
new organization. Gannett was but twenty-four years old, and had been but
one year in the active ministry, as the colleague of Dr. Channing. He had
youth, zeal, and executive force. Writing of him after his death, Dr.
Bellows said: "He had rare administrative qualities and a statesmanlike
mind. He would have been a leader anywhere. He had the ambition, the
faculties, and the impulsive temperament of an actor in affairs. He had the
fervor, the concentration of will, the passionate enthusiasm of conviction,
the love of martyrdom, which make men great in action."[9] Throughout his
life Gannett labored assiduously for the Association, serving it in every
capacity refusing no drudgery, travelling over the country in its
interests, and giving himself, heart and soul, to the cause it represented.
The Unitarian cause never had a more devoted friend or one who made greater
sacrifices in its behalf. To him more than to any other man it owes its
organized life and its missionary serviceableness.
Lewis Tappan, the treasurer, was a successful young business man. His term
of service was brief; for two years after the organization of the
Association he removed to New York, where he had an honorable career as one
of the founders of the Journal of Commerce, and as the head of the first
mercantile agency established in the country. He was later one of the
anti-slavery leaders in New York, and an active and earnest member of
Plymouth Church in Brooklyn.[10]
The executive committee was composed of the three devoted young ministers
who had been foremost in organizing the Association. Barrett was thirty,
Ware and Walker were thirty-one years of age; and all three had been in
Harvard College and the Divinity School together. Samuel Barrett had just
been chosen minister of the newly formed Twelfth Congregational Church of
Boston, which he served throughout his life. He was identified with all
good causes in Eastern Massachusetts, a founder of the Benevolent
Fraternity, and an overseer of Harvard College. Henry Ware, the younger,
was, at the time of his election, the minister of the Second Church in
Boston. Five years later he became professor in the Harvard Divinity
School, and his memory is still cherished as the teacher and exemplar of a
generation of Unitarian ministers. James Walker was, in 1825, the minister
of the Harvard Church in Charlestown, and already gave evidence of the
sanity and catholicity of mind, the practical organizing power, the wide
philosophic culture, and the dignity of character which afterward
distinguished him as professor in Harvard College, and as its president.
Thus the organization started on its way, as the result of the determined
purpose of a small company of the younger ministers and laymen. It took a
name that separated it from all other religious organizations in this
country, so far as its members then knew. The Unitarian name had been first
definitely used in this country in 1815, to describe the liberal or
Catholic Christians. They at first scornfully rejected it, but many of them
had finally come to rejoice in its declaration of the simple unity of God.
As a matter of history, it may be said that the word "Unitarian" was used
in this doctrinal sense only; and it had none of the implications since
given it by philosophy and science. Those who used it meant thereby to say
that they accepted the doctrine of the absolute unity of God, and that the
position of Christ was a subordinate though a very exalted one. No one can
read their statements with historic apprehension, and arrive at any other
conclusion. Yet these persons had no wish to cut themselves off from
historic Christianity; rather was it their intent to restore it to its
primitive purity.
[Sidenote: Work of the First Year.]
If others were disinclined to action, the executive committee of the
Unitarian Association was determined that something should be done. At
their first, meeting, held in the secretary's study four days after their
election, there were present Norton, Walker, Tappan, and Gannett. They
commissioned Rev. Warren Burton to act as their agent in visiting
neighboring towns to solicit funds, and a week later they voted to employ
him as a general agent. The committee held six meetings during June; and at
one of these an address was adopted, defining the purposes and methods of
the Association. "They wish it to be understood," was their statement,
"that its efforts will be directed to the promotion of true religion
throughout our country; intending by this, not exclusively those views
which distinguish the friends of this Association from other disciples of
Christ; but those views in connection with the great doctrines and
principles in which all Christians coincide, and which constitute the
substance of our religion. We wish to diffuse the knowledge and influence
of the gospel of our Lord and Saviour. Great good is anticipated from the
co-operation of persons entertaining similar views, who are now strangers
to each other's religious sentiments. Interest will be awakened, confidence
inspired, efficiency produced by the concentration of labors. The spirit of
inquiry will be fostered, and individuals at a distance will know where to
apply for information and encouragement. Respectability and strength will
be given to the class among us whom our fellow Christians have excluded
from the control of their religious charities, and whom, by their exclusive
treatment, they have compelled in some measure to act as a party." The
objects of the Association were stated to be the collection of information
about Unitarianism in various parts of the country; the securing of union,
sympathy, and co-operation among liberal Christians; the publishing and
distribution of books inculcating correct views of religion; the employment
of missionaries, and the adoption of other measures that might promote the
general purposes held in view.
At the end of the year the Association held its first anniversary meeting
in Pantheon Hall, on the evening of June 30, 1826, when addresses were made
by Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Leverett Salstonstall, Rev. Ichabod Nichols, and
Rev. Henry Coleman. The executive committee presented its report, which
gave a detailed account of the operations during the year. They gave
special attention to their discovery of "a body of Christians in the
Western states who have for years been Unitarians, have encountered
persecution on account of their faith, and have lived in ignorance of
others east of the mountains who maintained many similar views of Christian
doctrine." With this group of churches, which would consent to no other
name than that of Christian, a correspondence had been opened; and, to
secure a larger acquaintance with them, Rev. Moses G. Thomas[11] had
visited several of the Western states. His tour carried him through
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and as far as St. Louis.
His account of his journey was published in connection with the second
report of the Association, and is full of interest. He did not preach, but
he carefully investigated the religious prospects of the states he
journeyed through; and he sought the acquaintance of the Christian churches
and ministers. He gave an enthusiastic account of his travels, and reported
that the west was a promising field for the planting of Unitarian churches.
He recommended Northumberland, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, Steubenville,
Marietta, Paris, Lexington, Louisville, St. Louis, St. Charles,
Indianapolis, and Cincinnati as promising places for the labors of
Unitarian missionaries,--places "which will properly appreciate their
talents and render them doubly useful in their day and generation."
During the first year of its existence the Unitarian Association endeavored
to unite with itself, or to secure the co-operation of, the Society for the
Promotion of Christian Knowledge, Piety, and Charity, the Evangelical
Missionary Society, and the Publishing Fund Society; but these
organizations were unwilling to come into close affiliation with it. The
Evangelical Missionary Society has continued its separate existence to the
present time, but the others were absorbed by the Unitarian Association
after many years. This is one indication of how difficult it was to secure
an active co-operation among Unitarians, and to bring them all into one
vigorous working body. In concluding their first report, the officers of
the Association alluded to the difficulties with which they had met the
reluctance of the liberal churches to come into close affiliation with each
other. "They have strenuously opposed the opinion," they said of the
leaders of the Association, "that the object of the founders was to build
up a party, to organize an opposition, to perpetuate pride and bigotry. Had
they believed that such was its purpose or such would be its effect, they
would have withdrawn themselves from any connection with so hateful a
thing. They thought otherwise, and experience has proved they did not judge
wrongly."
[Sidenote: Work of the First Quarter of a Century.]
Having thus organized itself and begun its work, the Association went
quietly on its way. At no time during the first quarter of a century of its
existence did it secure annual contributions from one-half the churches
calling themselves Unitarian, and it did well when even one-third of them
contributed to its treasury during any one year. The churches of Boston,
for the most part, held aloof from it, and gave it only a feeble support,
if any at all. They had so long accepted the spirit of congregational
exclusiveness, had so great a dread of interference on the part of
ecclesiastical organizations, and so keenly suspected every attempt at
co-operation on the part of the churches as likely to lead to restrictions
upon congregational independence, that it was nearly impossible to secure
their aid for any kind of common work. Very slowly the contributions
increased to the sum of $5,000 a year, and only once in the first quarter
of a century did the total receipts of a year reach $15,000. With so small
a treasury no great work could be undertaken; but the money given was
husbanded to the utmost, and the salaries paid to clerks and the general
secretary were kept to the lowest possible limit.
Dr. Bancroft was succeeded in the presidency of the Association, in 1836,
by Dr. Channing, who nominally held the position for one year; but at the
next annual meeting he declined to have his name presented as a
candidate.[12] The office was then filled by Dr. Ichabod Nichols, of
Portland, who served from 1837 to 1844. He was the minister of the First
Church in Portland from 1809 to 1855, and then retired to Cambridge, where
he wrote his Natural Theology and his Hours with the Evangelists. Joseph
Story, the great jurist, who had been vice-president of the Association
from 1826 to 1836, was elected president in 1844, and served for one year.
He was followed by Dr. Orville Dewey, who was president from 1845 to 1847.
He had been settled in New Bedford, and over the Church of the Messiah in
New York; and subsequently he had short pastorates in Albany, in
Washington, and over the New South Church in Boston. His lectures and his
sermons have made him widely known. In intellectual and emotional power he
was one of the greatest preachers the country has produced. Dr. Gannett
served as the president from 1847 to 1851, being succeeded by Dr. Samuel K.
Lothop, who continued to hold the office until 1856. Dr. Lothrop was first
settled in Dover, N.H., but became the minister of the Brattle Street
Church, Boston, in 1834, retaining that position until 1876.
The office of secretary was held by Rev. Ezra S, Gannett until 1831. He was
succeeded in that year by Rev. Alexander Young, who held the position for
two years. Dr. Young was the minister of the New South Church from 1825
until his death, in 1854. His Chronicles of the Pilgrim Fathers, and other
works, have given him a reputation as a historian. In 1829 the office of
foreign secretary was created; and it was held by the younger Henry Ware
from 1830 to 1834, when it ceased to exist. Rev. Samuel Barnett was
secretary in 1833 and 1834, and recording secretary until 1837. In 1834 the
office of general secretary was established, in order to secure the
services of an active missionary. Rev. Jason Whitman, who held this
position for one year, had been the minister in Saco; and he was afterward
settled in Portland and Lexington. Rev. Charles Briggs became the general
secretary in 1835, and continued in office until the end of 1847. He had
been settled in Lexington, but did not hold a pastorate subsequent to his
connection with the Association. In the mean time Rev. Samuel K. Lothrop
was the assistant or recording secretary from 1837 to 1847. In 1847 Rev.
William G. Eliot was elected the general secretary; but he did not serve,
owing to the claims of his parish in St. Louis. Rev. Frederick West
Holland, who had been settled in Rochester, was made the general secretary
in January, 1848; and he held the position until the annual meeting of
1860. Subsequently he was settled in East Cambridge, Neponset, North
Cambridge, Rochester, and Newburg.
It was Charles Briggs who first gave definite purpose to the missionary
work of the Association. The annual report of 1850 said of him that he "had
led the institution forward to high ground as a missionary body, by
unfailing patience prevailed over every discouragement, by inexhaustible
hope surmounted serious obstacles, by the most persuasive gentleness
conciliated opposition, and done perhaps as much as could be asked of sound
judgment, knowledge of mankind, and devotion to the cause, with the
drawback of a slender and failing frame." In 1845 Rev. George G. Channing
entered upon a service as the travelling agent of the Association, which he
continued for two years. His duties required him to take an active interest
in missionary enterprises, revive drooping churches, secure information as
to the founding of new churches, and to add to the income of the
Association. He was a brother of Dr. Channing, held one or two pastorates,
and was the founder and editor of The Christian World, which he published
in Boston as a weekly Unitarian paper from January, 1843, to the end of
1848.
At a meeting of the Unitarian Association held on June 3, 1847, the final
steps were taken that secured its incorporation under the laws of
Massachusetts. In the revised constitution the fifteen vice-presidents were
reduced to two, and the president and vice-presidents were made members of
the executive committee, and so brought into intimate connection with the
work of the Association. The directors and other officers were made an
executive committee, by which all affairs of moment must be considered; and
it was required to hold stated monthly meetings. These changes were
conducive to an enlarged interest in the work of the Association, and also
to the more thorough consideration of its activities on the part of a
considerable body of judicious and experienced officers. They were made in
recognition of the increasing missionary labors of the Association, and
enabled it thenceforth to hold and to manage legally the moneys that came
under its control.
[Sidenote: Publication of Tracts and Books.]