(1780-1842)
[Illustration: WILLIAM E. CHANNING]
Dr. Channing, the recognized leader although not the originator of the
Unitarian movement in this country, was a man of singular spirituality,
sweetness of disposition, purity of life, and nobility of character. He
was thought by some to be austere and cold in temperament, and timid in
action; but this was rather a misconception of a life given to
conscientious study, and an effort to allow due weight to opposing
arguments. He was not liable to be swept from his moorings by momentary
enthusiasm. As a writer he was clear and direct, admirably perspicuous
in style, without great ornament, much addicted to short and simple
sentences, though singularly enough an admirer of those which were long
and involved. A critic in Fraser's Magazine wrote of him:--"Channing is
unquestionably the first writer of the age. From his writings may be
extracted some of the richest poetry and richest conceptions, clothed in
language--unfortunately for our literature--too little studied in the
day in which we live."
He was of "blue blood,"--the grandson of William Ellery, one of the
signers of the Declaration,--and was born at Newport, Rhode Island,
April 7th, 1780. He was graduated at Harvard College with high honors in
1798, and first thought of studying medicine, but was inclined to the
direction of the ministry. He became a private tutor in Richmond,
Virginia, where he learned to detest slavery. Here he laid the seeds of
subsequent physical troubles by imprudent indulgence in asceticism, in a
desire to avoid effeminacy. He entered upon the study of theology, which
he continued in Cambridge; he was ordained in 1803, and soon became
pastor of the Federal Street Church in Boston, in charge of which
society he passed his ministerial life. In the following year he was
associated with Buckminster and others in the liberal Congregational
movement, and this led him into a position of controversy with his
orthodox brethren,--one he cordially disliked. But he could not refrain
from preaching the doctrines of the dignity of human nature, the
supremacy of reason, and religious freedom, of whose truth he was
profoundly assured.
It has been truly said that Channing was too much a lover of free
thought, and too desirous to hold only what he thought to be true, to
allow himself to be bound by any party ties. "I wish," he himself said,
"to regard myself as belonging not to a sect but to the community of
free minds, of lovers of truth and followers of Christ, both on earth
and in heaven. I desire to escape the narrow walls of a particular
church, and to stand under the open sky in the broad light, looking far
and wide, seeing with my own eyes, hearing with my own ears, and
following Truth meekly but resolutely, however arduous or solitary be
the path in which she leads."
He was greatly interested in temperance, in the anti-slavery movement,
in the elevation of the laboring classes, and other social reforms; and
after 1824, when Dr. Gannett became associate pastor, he gave much time
to work in these directions. His death occurred at Bennington, Vermont,
April 2d, 1842. His literary achievements are mainly or wholly in the
line of his work,--sermons, addresses, and essays; but they were
prepared with scrupulous care, and have the quality naturally to be
expected from a man of broad and catholic spirit, wide interests, and
strong love of literature. His works, in six volumes, are issued by the
American Unitarian Association, which also publishes a 'Memorial' by his
nephew, William Henry Channing, in three volumes.