In the spring of 1867, a call for a public meeting was issued by
Octavius B. Frothingham, William J. Potter and Rowland Connor “to
consider the conditions, wants and progress of Free Religion in America.”
The response was so large as to surprise the committee, and Horticultural
Hall was completely filled on May 30. Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham
presided. The committee had invited as speakers the Rev. H. Blanchard
of Brooklyn from the Universalists, Lucretia Mott from the Society of
Friends, Robert Dale Owen from the Spiritualists, the Rev. John Weiss
from the Left Wing of the Unitarians, Oliver Johnson from the Progressive
Friends, Francis E. Abbot, editor of the _Index_; and also David A.
Wasson, Colonel T. W. Higginson and Mr. Emerson. The meeting was very
successful and the Free Religious Association was founded.
Mr. Emerson’s genial and affirmative attitude at this meeting was helpful
and important. He wished the new movement to be neither aggressive
towards the beliefs of others, nor merely a religion of works, purely
beneficently utilitarian. Doubtless there were many young and active
radicals strong for destructive criticism. Mr. Emerson wished to see that
in their zeal to destroy the dry husk of religion they should not bruise
the white flower within. His counsel to young men was, “Omit all negative
propositions. It will save ninety-nine one hundredths of your labor, and
increase the value of your work in the same measure.”
[217] _Page 479, note 1._ In the journal of 1837 he said, “Why rake
up old manuscripts to find therein a man’s soul? You do not look for
conversation in a corpse.” And elsewhere, “In religion the sentiment is
all, the ritual or ceremony indifferent.”