The May Meetings--Dr. Bushnell's Striking Sermon--Two Anti-Slavery
Meetings--A Black Demosthenes--Foreign Evangelical Society--A New Thing
in the New World--The Home-Missionary Society--Progress and Prospects
of the West--Church of Rome--Departure from New York--What the Author
thinks of the Americans.
The American May Meetings held in New York do not last a month as in
England,--a week suffices. That week is the second in the month. On the
Sabbath preceding, sermons on behalf of many of the societies are
preached in various churches. On the morning of the Sabbath in question
we went to the Tabernacle, not knowing whom we should hear. To our
surprise and pleasure, my friend Dr. Baird was the preacher. His text
was, "Let thy kingdom come;" and the object for which he had to plead
was the Foreign Evangelical Society, of which he was the Secretary. His
sermon was exceedingly simple, and the delivery quite in an off-hand
conversational style. There was no reading.
In the evening we heard Dr. Bushnell preach, on behalf of the American
Home-Missionary Society, at the "Church of the Pilgrims" in Brooklyn.
This is a fine costly building, named in honour of the Pilgrim Fathers,
and having a fragment of the Plymouth Rock imbedded in the wall. The
sermon was a very ingenious one on Judges xvii. 13: "Then said Micah,
Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my
priest." The preacher observed that Micah lived in the time of the
Judges--what might be called the "emigrant age" of Israel,--that he was
introduced on the stage of history as a thief,--that he afterwards
became in his own way a saint, and must have a priest. First, he
consecrates his own son; but his son not being a Levite, it was
difficult for so pious a man to be satisfied. Fortunately a young
Levite--a strolling mendicant probably--comes that way; and he promptly
engages the youth to remain and act the _padre_ for him, saying, "Dwell
with me, and be a _father_ unto me." Having thus got up a religion, the
thief is content, and his mental troubles are quieted. Becoming a
Romanist before Rome is founded, he says, "Now know I that the Lord
will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest." Religion to him
consisted in a fine silver apparatus of gods, and a priest in regular
succession. In this story of Micah it was seen that _emigration, or a
new settlement of the social state, involves a tendency to social
decline_. "Our first danger," said the preacher, "is barbarism
--Romanism next."
The tendency to barbarism was illustrated by historic references. The
emigration headed by Abraham soon developed a mass of barbarism,--Lot
giving rise to the Moabites and the Ammonites; meanwhile, Abraham
throwing off upon the world in his son Ishmael another stock of
barbarians--the Arabs,--a name which according to some signifies
_Westerners_. One generation later, and another ferocious race springs
from the family of Isaac--the descendants of Esau, or the Edomites.
Then coming down to the time of the Judges we find that violence
prevailed, that the roads were destroyed, and that the arts had
perished: there was not even a smith left in the land; and they were
obliged to go down to the Philistines to get an axe or a mattock
sharpened. Then the preacher came to the great American question
itself. It was often supposed that in New England there had always been
an upward tendency. It was not so. It had been downward until the
"great revival" about the year 1740. The dangers to which society in
the South and "Far West" is now exposed were powerfully described. The
remedies were then pointed out.
"First of all, we must not despair." "And what next? We must get rid,
if possible, of slavery." "'We must have peace.'". Also "Railways and
telegraphs." "Education, too, we must favour and promote." "Above all,
provide a talented and educated body of Christian teachers, and keep
them pressing into the wilderness as far as emigration itself can go."
The conclusion of this great sermon was so remarkable that I cannot but
give it in the Doctor's own words.
"And now, Jehovah God, thou who, by long ages of watch and discipline,
didst make of thy servant Abraham a people, be thou the God also of
this great nation. Remember still its holy beginnings, and for the
fathers' sakes still cherish and sanctify it. Fill it with thy Light
and thy Potent Influence, till the glory of thy Son breaks out on the
Western sea as now upon the Eastern, and these uttermost parts, given
to Christ for his possession, become the bounds of a new Christian
empire, whose name the believing and the good of all people shall hail
as a name of hope and blessing."
On the Tuesday I attended two Anti-slavery Meetings in the Tabernacle.
The one in the morning was that of Mr. Garrison's party. The chief
speakers were Messrs. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Frederick
Douglass. This party think that the constitution of the United States
is so thoroughly pro-slavery that nothing can be done without breaking
it up. Another party, at the head of which is Lewis Tappan, think that
there are elements in the constitution which may be made to tell
powerfully against slavery, and ultimately to effect its overthrow.
Both parties mean well; but they unhappily cherish towards each other
great bitterness of feeling. Mr. Tappan's party held their meeting in
the afternoon. Among the speakers was the Rev. Mr. Patton from
Hartford, son of Dr. Patton, who made a very effective speeches. The
Rev. Samuel Ward also, a black man of great muscular power, and amazing
command of language and of himself, astonished and delighted me. I
could not but exclaim, "There speaks a black Demosthenes!" This man,
strange to say, is the pastor of a Congregational church of white
people in the State of New York. As a public speaker he seemed superior
to Frederick Douglass. It was pleasing at those anti-slavery meetings
to see how completely intermingled were the whites and the coloured.
I had been invited in the evening to speak at the public meeting of the
Foreign Evangelical Society, and to take tea at Dr. Baird's house.
While I was there, Dr. Anderson, one of the Secretaries of the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and Mr. Merwin, called to
invite me to address the public meeting of that society on the Friday.
I promised to do so, if I should not previously have left for the West
Indies. The public meeting of Dr. Baird's society was held in the Dutch
Reformed Church, Dr. Hutton's, a magnificent Gothic building. Dr. De
Witt took the chair. The attendance was large and respectable. Dr.
Baird, as Secretary, having recently returned from Europe, where he had
conversed on the subject of his mission with fourteen crowned heads,
read a most interesting report. The writer had then to address the
meeting. After him three other gentlemen spoke. There was no
collection! Strange to say, that, with all their revivals, our friends
in America seem to be morbidly afraid of doing anything under the
influence of excitement. Hence the addresses on occasions like this are
generally stiff and studied, half-an-hour orations. This feeling
prevents their turning the voluntary principle, in the support of their
religious societies, to so good an account as they otherwise might. At
the close of this meeting, there seemed to be a fine state of feeling
for making a collection; and yet no collection was made. This society
is one of great value and importance. It is designed to tell in the
promotion of evangelical truth on the Catholic countries of Europe and
South America. In those countries, it employs a hundred colporteurs in
the sale and distribution of religious publications.
The next morning I addressed a breakfast meeting of about 400 people,
in a room connected with the Tabernacle. This was a new thing in the
New World. It was, moreover, an anti-slavery breakfast, under the
presidency of Lewis Tappan. It was charming to see the whites and the
coloured so intermingled at this social repast, and that in the very
heart of the great metropolis of America.
At 10 the same morning a meeting of the American Tract Society was held
at the Tabernacle. I had been engaged to speak on that occasion, but
was obliged to go and see about the vessel that was to take us away.
In the evening I was pressed, at half an hour's notice, to speak at the
meeting of the American Home-Missionary Society. The Rev. H.W. Beecher
of Indianapolis, one of the sons of Dr. Beecher, made a powerful speech
on the claims of the West and South-west. In my own address I
complimented the Directors on the ground they had recently taken in
reference to slavery, and proceeded to say that there was an important
sense in which that society should be an anti-slavery society. This
elicited the cheers of the few, which were immediately drowned in the
hisses of the many. The interruption was but momentary, and I
proceeded. The next morning one of the Secretaries endeavoured to
persuade me that the hisses were not at myself, but at those who
interrupted me with their cheers. I told him his explanation was
ingenious and kind; nevertheless I thought I might justly claim the
honour of having been hissed for uttering an anti-slavery sentiment at
the Tabernacle in New York!
This society has an herculean task to perform; and, in consideration of
it, our American friends might well be excused for some years, were it
possible, from all foreign operations.
"Westward the star of empire moves."
Ohio welcomed its first permanent settlers in 1788, and now it is
occupied by nearly 2,000,000 of people. Michigan obtained its first
immigrants but fourteen or fifteen years ago, and now has a population
of 300,000. Indiana, admitted into the Union in 1816, has since then
received a population of more than half a million, and now numbers
nearly a million of inhabitants. Illinois became a State in 1818. From
that date its population trebled every ten years till the last census
of 1840, and since then has risen from 476,000 to about 900,000.
Missouri, which in 1810 had only 20,800 people, has now 600,000, having
increased 50 per cent. in six years. Iowa was scarcely heard of a dozen
years ago. It is now a State, and about 150,000 people call its land
their home. Wisconsin was organized but twelve years ago, and has now a
population of not less than 200,000. One portion of its territory, 33
miles by 30, which ten years before was an unbroken wilderness,
numbered even in 1846 87,000 inhabitants; and the emigration to the
"Far West" is now greater than ever. A giant is therefore growing up
there, who will soon be able and disposed to rule the destinies of the
United States. The Church of Rome is straining every nerve to have that
giant in her own keeping, and already shouts the song of triumph. Says
one of her sanguine sons, "The Church is now firmly established in this
country, and persecution will but cause it to thrive. Our countrymen
may grieve that it is so; but it is useless for them to kick against
the decrees of the Almighty God. They have an open field and fair play
for Protestantism. Here she has had free scope, has reigned without a
rival, and proved what she could do, and that her best is evil; for the
very good she boasts is not hers. A new day is dawning on this chosen
land, and the Church is about to assume her rightful position and
influence. Ours shall yet become consecrated ground. _Our hills and
valleys shall yet echo to the convent-bell._ The cross shall be planted
throughout the length and breadth of our land; and our happy sons and
daughters shall drive away fear, shall drive away evil from our borders
with the echoes of their matin and vesper hymns. No matter who writes,
who declaims, who intrigues, who is alarmed, or what leagues are
formed, THIS IS TO BE A CATHOLIC COUNTRY; and from Maine to Georgia,
from the broad Atlantic to broader Pacific, the 'clean sacrifice' is to
be offered daily for quick and dead." The triumph may be premature; but
it conveys a timely warning.
The next day the Anniversary of the Bible Society was held. The Hon.
Theodore Frelinghuysen presided. At that meeting I had been requested,
to speak, but could not. Indeed, we were detained all day on board a
vessel by which we expected every hour to sail for Jamaica; though,
after all, we had to wait until the following day. On that day, the
14th of May, just at the time the Board of Missions were holding their
public meeting, we sailed, and bade adieu to New York and all the
delightful engagements of that memorable week.
But, say you, Tell us in a few words what you think of America upon the
whole? I will try to do so. There is a class of things I greatly
admire; and there is a class of things I greatly detest. Among the
former I may mention--