anti-slavery movement are given, it is at once seen how important was the
influence of the denomination. Early in the century Rev. Noah Worcester
uttered his word of protest against slavery. Rev. Charles Follen joined the
Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society in the second year of its existence, and
no nobler champion of liberty ever lived. If Dr. Channing was slow in
applying his Christian ideal of liberty to slavery, there can be no
question that his influence was powerful on the right side, and all the
more so because of his gentle and ethical interpretation of individual and
national duty. His various publications on the subject, his identification
of himself with the abolitionists by joining their ranks in the
Massachusetts State House in 1836, his speech in Faneuil Hall in protest
against the killing of Lovejoy in Alton during the same year, exerted a
great influence in behalf of abolition throughout the North. It is only
necessary to mention John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, William H. Furness,
William H. Channing, William Goodell, Theodore D. Weld, Ichabod Codding,
Caleb Stetson, and M.D. Conway in order to recognize their uncompromising
fidelity to the cause of freedom. Only less devoted were such men as
Charles Lowell, Nahor A. Staples, Sylvester Judd, Nathaniel Hall, Thomas T.
Stone, O.B. Frothingham, Abiel A. Livermore, Samuel Johnson, Samuel
Longfellow, Thomas J. Mumford, and many others.
Samuel J. May and his cousin, Samuel May, were both employed by the
Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society. From 1847 until 1865 the latter was the
general agent of that organization; and his assistant was another Unitarian
minister, Robert F. Walcutt. James Freeman Clarke, though settled at
Louisville from 1833 to 1840, was opposed to slavery; and in the pages of
The Western Messenger, of which he was publisher and editor, he took every
occasion to press home the claims of emancipation. John G. Palfrey
emancipated the slaves that came into his possession from his father's
estate, insisting on receiving them for that purpose, though the
opportunity was given him to accept other property in their stead. In
accordance with this action was his attitude toward slavery in the pulpit
and on the platform, as well as when he was a member of the lower house of
Congress.
Of Unitarian laymen who were loyal to the ideal of freedom, the list may
properly open with the name of Josiah Quincy, afterwards mayor of Boston
and president of Harvard College, who began as early as 1804 his opposition
to slavery, and carried it faithfully into his work as a member of the
national House of Representatives soon after. The fidelity of John Quincy
Adams to freedom during many years is known to every one, and his service
in the national House has given him a foremost place in the company of the
anti-slavery leaders. Not less loyal was the service of Charles Sumner,
Horace Mann, John P. Hale, George W. Julian, John A. Andrew, Samuel G.
Howe, Henry I. Bowditch, William I. Bowditch, Thomas W. Higginson, George
F. Hoar, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George S. Boutwell, and Henry B. Anthony. Of the
poets the anti-slavery reform had the support of Longfellow, Lowell,
Bryant, and Emerson. The Unitarian women were also zealous for freedom. The
loyalty of Lydia Maria Child is well known, as are the sacrifices she made
in publishing her early anti-slavery books. Lucretia Mott, of the Unitarian
branch of the Friends, was a devoted supporter of the anti-slavery cause.
Mrs. Maria W. Chapman was one of the most faithful supporters of Garrison,
doing more than any one else to give financial aid to the anti-slavery
reform movement in its earlier years. With these women deserve to be
mentioned Eliza Lee Follen, Angelina Grimké Weld, Lucy Stone, and many
more.
A considerable group of persons who had been trained in evangelical
churches became essentially Unitarians as a result of the anti-slavery
agitation. Of these may be mentioned William Lloyd Garrison, Gerrit Smith,
Beriah Green, Joshua R. Giddings, Myron Holley, Theodore D. Weld, and
Francis W. Bird. Of the first four of these men, George W. Julian has said:
"They were theologically reconstructed through their unselfish devotion to
humanity and the recreancy of the churches to which they had been attached.
They were less orthodox, but more Christian. Their faith in the fatherhood
of God and the brotherhood of man became a living principle, and compelled
to reject all dogmas which stood in its way."[41]
[Sidenote: The Enfranchisement of Women.]
It is not surprising that the first great advocate of "the rights of women"
in this country should have been the Unitarian, Margaret Fuller. She did no
more than apply what she had been taught in religion to problems of
personal duty, professional activity, and political obligations. With her
freedom of faith and liberty of thought meant also freedom to devote her
life to such tasks as she could best perform for the good of others. It was
inevitable that other Unitarian women should follow her example, and that
many women, trained in other faiths, having come to accept the doctrine of
universal political rights, should seek in Unitarianism the religion
consonant with their individuality of purpose and their sense of human
freedom.
Among the leaders of the movement for the enfranchisement of women have
been such Unitarians as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy
Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Mary A. Livermore, Maria Weston Chapman, Caroline
H. Dall, and Louisa M. Alcott. The first pronounced woman suffrage paper in
the country was The Una, begun at Providence in 1853, with Mrs. Caroline H.
Dall as the assistant editor. Among other Unitarian contributors were
William H. Charming, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Thomas W. Higginson, Ednah D.
Cheney, Amory D. Mayo, Elizabeth Oakes Smith, Lucy Stone, and Mrs. E.C.
Stanton. The next important paper was The Revolution, begun at New York in
1868, with Susan B. Anthony as publisher and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and
Parker Pillsbury as editors. Then came The Woman's Journal, begun at Boston
in 1870, with Mary A. Livermore, Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, T.W.
Higginson, and Henry B. Blackwell, all Unitarians, as the editors.
The first national woman's suffrage meeting was held in Worcester, October
28 and 24, 1850; and among those who took part in it by letter or personal
presence were Emerson, Alcott, Higginson, Pillsbury, Samuel J. May, William
H. Channing, William H. Burleigh, Elizabeth C. Stanton, Catherine M.
Sedgwick, Caroline Kirkland, and Lucy Stone. In April, 1853, when the
Constitution of Massachusetts was to receive revision, a petition was
presented, asking that suffrage should be granted to women. Of twenty-seven
persons signing it, more than half were Unitarians, including Abby May
Alcott, Lucy Stone, T.W. Higginson, Anna Q.T. Parsons, Theodore Parker,
William I. Bowditch, Samuel E. Sewall, Ellis Gray Loring, Charles K.
Whipple, and Thomas T. Stone. Among other Unitarians who have taken an
active part in promoting this cause have been Lucretia Mott, Mary Grew,
Caroline M. Severance, Celia C. Burleigh, Angelina Grimké Weld, and Maria
Giddings Julian. Of men there have been Dr. William F. Channing, James F.
Clarke, George F. Hoar, George W. Curtis, John S. Dwight, John T. Sargent,
Samuel Johnson, Samuel Longfellow, Octavius B. Frothingham, Adin Ballou,
George W. Julian, Frank B. Sanborn, and James T. Fields.
Unitarians have been amongst the first to recognize women in education,
literature, the professions, and in the management of church and
denominational interests. At the convention held in New York in 1865, which
organized the National Conference, no women appeared as delegates; and the
same was true at the second session, held at Syracuse in 1866. At that
session Rev. Thomas J. Mumford moved "that our churches shall be left to
their own wishes and discretion with reference to the sex of the delegates
chosen to represent them in the conference"; and this resolution was
adopted. At the third meeting, held at New York in 1868, thirty-seven women
appeared as delegates, including Julia Ward Howe and Caroline H. Dall. The
lay delegates to the session held at Washington in 1899 numbered four
hundred and two; and, of these, two hundred and twenty seven were women.
At the annual meeting of the Unitarian Association in 1870, Rev. John T.
Sargent brought forward the subject of the representation of women on its
board of directors. Dr. James F. Clarke made a motion looking to that
result, which was largely discussed, much opposition being manifested. It
was urged by many that women were unfit to serve in a position demanding so
much business capacity, that they would displace capable men, and that it
was improper for them to assume so public a duty. Charles Lowe, James F.
Clarke, John T. Sargent, and others strongly championed the proposition,
with the result that Miss Lucretia Crocker was elected a member of the
board.[42]
The first woman ordained to the Unitarian ministry was Mrs. Celia C.
Burleigh, who was settled over the parish in Brooklyn, Conn., October 5,
1871. The sermon was preached by Rev. John W. Chadwick, and the address to
the people was given by Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. A letter was read from Henry
Ward Beecher, in which he said to Mrs. Burleigh: "I do cordially believe
that you ought to preach. I think you had a _call_ in your very nature."
Mrs. Burleigh continued at Brooklyn for less than three years, ill-health
compelling her to resign.
The second woman to enter the Unitarian ministry was Miss Mary H. Graves,
who was ordained at Mansfield, Mass., December 14, 1871. She was subjected
to a thorough examination; and the committee reported "that her words have
commanded our thorough respect by their freedom and clearness, and won our
full sympathy and approval by their earnest, discreet, and beautiful
spirit." Mrs. Eliza Tupper Wilkes was ordained by the Universalists at
Rochester, Minn., May 2, 1871, though she had preached for two or three
years previously; and she subsequently identified herself with the
Unitarians. Mrs. Antoinette Brown Blackwell was ordained in Central New
York, in 1853, by the Orthodox Congregationalists; but somewhat later she
became a Unitarian.
The first woman to receive ordination who has continued without
interruption her ministerial duties was Miss Mary A. Safford, ordained in
1880. She has held every official position in connection with the Iowa
Unitarian Association, and she has also been an officer of the Western
Conference and a director of the American Unitarian Association.
Several women have also frequently appeared in Unitarian pulpits who have
not received ordination or devoted themselves to the ministry as a
profession. Among these are Mrs. Caroline H. Dall, Mrs. Julia Ward Howe,
and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore. In 1875 Mrs. Howe was active in organizing the
Women's Ministerial Conference, which met in the Church of the Disciples,
and brought together women ministers of several denominations. Of this
conference Mrs. Howe was for many years the president.
In most Unitarian churches there is no longer any question as to the right
of women to take any place they are individually fitted to occupy. On
denominational committees and boards, women sit with entire success, their
fitness for the duties required being called in question by no one. In
those conferences where women have for a number of years been actively
engaged in the work of the ministry they are received on a basis of perfect
equality with men, and the sex question no longer presents itself in regard
to official positions or any other ministerial duty.
[Sidenote: Civil Service Reform.]
The first advocate of the reform of the civil service was Charles Sumner,
who as early as December, 1847, anticipated its methods in a series of
articles contributed to a newspaper.[43] He was the first to bring this
reform before Congress, which he did April 30, 1864, when he introduced a
bill to provide a system of competitive examinations for admission to and
promotion in the civil service, which made merit and fitness the conditions
of employment by the government, and provided against removal without
cause. This bill was drawn by Sumner without consultation with any other
person, but the time had not yet arrived when it could be successfully
advocated.
The next person to advocate the reform of the civil service in Congress was
Thomas A. Jenckes, of Rhode Island, who in 1867 brought the merit system
forward in the form of a report from the joint committee on retrenchment,
which reported on the condition of the civil service, and accompanied its
report with a bill "to regulate the civil service and to promote its
efficiency." The next year Mr. Jenckes made a second report, but it was not
until 1871 that action on the subject was secured.[44] George W. Curtis
says that at first he "pressed it upon an utterly listless Congress, and
his proposition was regarded as the harmless hobby of an amiable man, from
which a little knowledge of practical politics would soon dismount
him."[45] Most members of Congress thought the reform a mere vagary, and
that it was brought forward at a most inopportune time.[46] Mr. Jenckes
was the pioneer of the reform, according to Curtis, who says that he
"powerfully and vigorously and alone opened the debate in Congress."[47]
He drew the amendment to the appropriation bill in 1871 that became the
law, and under which the first civil service commission was appointed. "By
his experience, thorough knowledge, fertility of resource and suggestion
and great legal ability, he continued to serve with as much efficiency as
modesty the cause to which he was devoted."[48]
One of the first persons to give attention to this subject was Dorman B.
Eaton, an active member of All Souls' Church in New York, who was for
several years chairman of the committee on political reform of the Union
League Club of New York. In 1866, and again in 1870 and 1875, he travelled
in Europe to secure information in regard to methods of civil service. The
results of these investigations were presented in his work on Civil Service
in Great Britain, a report made at the request of President Hayes. In 1873
he was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission by President
Grant; in 1883 he was the chairman of the committee appointed by President
Arthur; and in 1885 he was reappointed by President Cleveland. The bill of
January, 1883, which firmly established civil service by act of Congress,
was drawn by him. He was a devoted worker for good government in all its
phases; and the results of his studies of the subject may be found in his
books on The Independent Movement in New York and The Government of
Municipalities. He was described by George William Curtis as "one of the
most conspicuous, intelligent, and earnest friends of reform."[49]
The most conspicuous advocate of the merit system was Mr. George William
Curtis, another New York Unitarian, who was the chairman of the Civil
Service Commission of 1871. In 1880 he became the president of the New York
Civil Service Reform Association, a position he held until his death. The
National Civil Service Reform League was organized at Newport in August,
1881; and he was the president from that time as long as he lived. His
annual addresses before the league show his devoted interest in its aims,
as well as his eloquence, intellectual power, and political integrity.[50]
In an address before the Unitarian National Conference, in 1878, Mr. Curtis
gave a noble exposition and vindication of the reform which he labored
zealously for twelve years to advance.[51]
It has been justly said of Mr. Curtis that "far above the pleasures of life
he placed its duties; and no man could have set himself more sternly to the
serious work of citizenship. The national struggle over slavery, and the
re-establishment of the Union on permanent foundations enlisted his whole
nature. In the same spirit, he devoted his later years to the overthrow of
the spoils system. He did this under no delusion as to the magnitude of the
undertaking. Probably no one else comprehended it so well. He had studied
the problem profoundly, and had solved every difficulty, and could answer
every cavil to his own satisfaction." There can be no question that "his
name imparted a strength to the movement no other would have given." Nor
can there be much question that "among public men there was none who so won
the confidence of sincere and earnest men and women by his own personality.
The powers of such a character, with all his gifts and accomplishments, was
what Mr. Curtis brought to the civil service reform."[52]
[1] American Unitarian Biography, edited by William Ware; Memoir of
Worcester, by Henry Ware, Jr., I. 45, 46.
[2] Solemn Review, edition of 1836 by American Peace Society, 7.
[3] It had been preceded by societies in Ohio and New York, results of
the influence of the Solemn Review.
[4] Unitarian Biography, I. 49.
[5] Memoir, II. 284; one-volume edition, 111.
[6] Ibid., III. 111; one-volume edition, 284.
[7] Memoir, 139.
[8] Christian Examiner, May, 1850, XLVIII. 378.
[9] Ibid., November, 1861, LXXI. 313.
[10] Life, 83.
[11] Ibid., 115.
[12] Cyclopedia of American Biography, V. 746.
[13] Memoir, II. 348.
[14] Memoir.
[15] Ibid., 351.
[16] Ibid., IV. 572.
[17] Reminiscences, 328.
[18] Memoir, III. 36; one-volume edition, 477.
[19] Memoir, III. 31; one-volume edition, 474, 475.
[20] Works, II. 301.
[21] When will the Day come? and other tracts of the Massachusetts
Temperance Society, 135.
[22] Of the twenty-seven annual addresses given before this society from
1814 to 1840, at least sixteen were by Unitarians; and among these
were John T. Kirkland, Abiel Abbot, William E. Channing, Edward
Everett, the younger Henry Ware, Gamaliel Bradford, Charles Sprague,
James Walker, Alexander H. Everett, William Sullivan, and Samuel K.
Lothrop. The first four presidents of this society--Samuel Dexter,
Nathan Dane, Isaac Parker, and Stephen Fairbanks--were Unitarians. Of
the same faith were also a large proportion of the vice-presidents
and other officers. Many of the tracts published by the society were
written by Unitarians.
[23] Unitarians of every calling have been the advocates of temperance.
Among those who have been loyal to it in word and action may be named
John Adams, Jeremy Belknap, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Lowell, Ezra
S. Gannett, John Pierpont, Samuel J. May, Amos Lawrence, Horace Mann,
William H. and George S. Burleigh, Governor Pitman, William G. Eliot,
Rufus P. Stebbins, and William B. Spooner. "Many of the leading men
and women who were eminent as lawyers, judges, legislators, scholars,
also prominent in the business walks of life, and in social position,
gave this cause the force of their example, and the inspiration of
their minds. By their contributions of money, by their personal
efforts, by their public speeches and writings, and by their practice
of total abstinence, they rendered very valuable service."
[24] Twelfth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, 1897.
[25] Theodore Clapp, of New Orleans, may be an exception, though he is
claimed by the Universalists. See S.J. May's Recollections of the
Anti-slavery Conflict, 335.
[26] Autobiography and Letters, 117, 127, 129. The criticism of Dr. Dewey
may be found in S.J. May's Recollections, 367.
[27] Memoir, 139, 284, 296. See S.J. May, Recollections, 341, 367, for an
anti-slavery indictment of Dr. Gannett.
[28] Memoir, chapter on Slavery.
[29] Recollections of the Anti-slavery Conflict, chapter on the
Unitarians, 335.
[30] See Lydia Maria Child's account of conversations with Channing on
this subject, in her Letters from New York.
[31] Recollections and Impressions, 47, 183.
[32] The Story of his Life as Told by his Children.
[33] Recollections, 335.
[34] S.J. May, Recollections, 19; Life of A.B. Alcott, 220; Life of
Garrison, I. 212.
[35] Life of Garrison, I. 223.
[36] The more prominent names are herewith given as they were printed in
The Christian Register: Joseph Allen, J.H. Allen, S.G. Bulfinch, C.F.
Barnard, Charles Briggs, W.G. Babcock, C.T. Brooks, Warren Burton,
C.H. Brigham, Edgar Buckingham, William H. Channing, James F. Clarke,
S.B. Cruft, A.H. Conant, C.H.A. Dall, R. Ellis, Converse Francis,
James Flint, William H. Furness, N.S. Folsom, Frederick A. Farley,
Frederick T. Gray, Henry Giles, F.D. Huntington, E.B. Hall, N. Hall,
F.H. Hedge, F. Hinckley, G.W. Hosmer, F.W. Holland, Thomas Hill,
Sylvester Judd, James Kendall, William H. Knapp, A.A. Livermore, S.J.
May, Samuel May, M.I. Mott, A.B. Muzzey, J.F. Moors, Henry A. Miles,
William Newell, J. Osgood, S. Osgood, Andrew P. Peabody, John
Parkman, John Pierpont, Theodore Parker, Cyrus Pierce, J.H. Perkins,
Cazneau Palfey, O.W.B. Peabody, Samuel Ripley, Chandler Robbins,
Caleb Stetson, Oliver Stearns, Rufus P. Stebbins, Edmund Q. Sewall,
Charles Sewall, John T. Sargent, George F. Simmons, William Silsbee,
William P. Tilden, J.W. Thompson, John Weiss, Robert T. Waterston,
William Ware, J.F.W. Ware, E.B. Willson, Frederick A. Whitney, Jason
Whitman.
[37] Printed in The Christian Register, October 4, 1845.
[38] Quarterly Journal, III. 567.
[39] Ibid., 572.
[40] Unity, Sept. 4, 1886, Mrs. S.C.Ll. Jones, Historic Unitarianism in
the West.
[41] Life of Joshua R. Giddings, 399.
[42] Memoir of Charles Lowe, 486. In 1901 four of the eighteen directors
of the American Unitarian Association were women.
[43] Life, III. 149.
[44] Life of Charles Sumner, IV. 191; Works, VII. 452.
[45] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 30.
[46] Ibid., 173.
[47] Ibid., 180.
[48] Ibid., 223.
[49] G.W. Curtis, Orations and Addresses, II. 458.
[50] See Curtis's Orations and Addresses, II.; also, his Reports as civil
service commissioner, and various addresses before the Social Science
Association.
[51] Edward Cary, Life of Curtis, American Men of Letters, 294.
[52] George William Curtis and Civil Service Reform, by Sherman S. Rogers,
in Atlantic Monthly, January, 1893, LXXI. 15.
XVII.
UNITARIAN MEN AND WOMEN.
Many of the most influential Americans have been in practical accord with
Unitarianism, while not actually connected with Unitarian churches. They
have accepted its principles of individual freedom, the rational
interpretation of religion, and the necessity of bringing religious beliefs
into harmony with modern science and philosophy. Among these may be
properly included such men as Benjamin Franklin, John Marshall, Gerrit
Smith, John G. Whittier, William Lloyd Garrison, Andrew D. White, and
Abraham Lincoln. Whittier was a Friend, and White an Episcopalian; but the
religion of both is acceptable to all Unitarians. Marshall was undoubtedly
a Unitarian in his intellectual convictions, and he sometimes attended the
Unitarian church in Washington; but his church affiliations were with the
Episcopalians. John C. Calhoun was all his life a member of an Episcopal
church and a communicant in it; but he frequently attended the Unitarian
church in Washington, and intellectually he discarded the doctrines taught
in the creeds of his church.
Lincoln belonged to no church, and had no interest in the forms and
disputes that constitute so large a part of outward religion; but he was
one of those men whose great deeds rest on a basis of simple but
profoundest religious conviction. The most explicit statement he ever made
of his faith was in these words: "I have never united myself to any church,
because I have found difficulty in giving my assent, without mental
reservation, to the long, complicated statements of Christian doctrine
which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of faith. When
any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification of
membership, the Saviour's condensed statement of both law and gospel, 'Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join
with all my heart and all my soul."[1] This declaration brings Lincoln
into fullest harmony with the position of the Unitarian churches.
[Sidenote: Eminent Statesmen.]