THE NEW ENGLAND MIND AT
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

A STUDY OF THE DIARY 0F
WILLIAM BENTIEY, 1784-1819

Thesis Im the Dogma of M A
MICHIGAN STATE COLLEGE
James Cook

1949

 

THESIS

This is to certilg that the

thesis entitled

presented In]
has been accepted towards fulfillment
of the requirements for
_._;._degree in
Majnr meessur
Date 1

0-159

 

 

THE NEW ENGLAND MIND AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

A Study of the Big £Willie£ Bentley,

1784- 1819

James Cook
—-'-

A.THESIS
Suhmitted to the Graduate School cf'lichigan State
College of Agriculture and Applied Science in
partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of English
1949

' Introduction
Chapter I
Chapter'II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter‘VI
Conclusion

Bibliography

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Bentley the Man

The Decline of New England Calvinism
Bentley and the New Theology
Bentley, Political Historian
Bentley, Social Historian

Bentley, Literary Historian

6‘ £36,“!
pig “Kw’x’i— ‘

Page

ll
16
35
63
81
94

99

1.

Introduction

Some introduction is needed to the Pig which forms the core
of this study. In its published form, the work fills four volumes
with a total of 2,077 pages. As a diary, it is, of course, prim-
arily the personal record of the mature years of William Bentley,

D. D., who was the pastor of East Church, Salem, Massachusetts,
from 1783 to 1819, the year of his death. During that period of
approxinately thirty-five years, Bentley faithfully covered those
pages with what he once called, ”q unavoidable Share in the busi-
ness of life."

If his _D_i_a_ry had recorded nothing more than that it would be of
interest, for the pastor's share was taken from the center, and it in.
eluded some part of every significant area of human activity. But
Bentley never intended to confine his RSI-.991 to the pastoral duties
of a New England clergyman, for at the beginning of the year 1790
he resolved: “This year every day to be noticed, either for natural,
political, civil, noral, or religious occurrences, so." This is the
spirit which raised his 2331 from the insignificance of an ephemeral
journal to the stature of a contemporary history.

This study then is devoted to the historical theory that the
nest successml method of recovering the true spirit of a period of
the past is to become thoroughly acquainted with a key man who lived
through those years. The breadth of Bentley's influential life and
the scope of his voluminous 23331 combine to make him an excellent
choice for such a study. Hy central purpose has been to use Bentley,
through the stadium of his 1131. u a ccmnentator on his times. It was
necessary, in order that his comments might be meaningful, to recon-
struct the general background of the period, but, wherever possible,
Bentley has been allowed to speak for himself. It is only he who can
reunite great names with their personalities, who can return great e-

vents to the contemporary significance. It is only he who can restore

11.

his New England to life in all its complexity, and therefore, it is
upon the value of his remarks that the worth of this study must

I'OBte

Chapter 1
Bentley the [an

In an address on the Rev. Willi- Bentley, larguerite Dalryqle
told how on one Sunday during the War of 1812, a ruler spreadin the
church service that the frigate Constitution was in larblehead harbor,
endangered by two British cruisers. When Bentley heard it he cried,

this is a tine for action, not words, let us go to do

what we “I“ to save the Constitution, and any God be with

us, he. ‘

Perhaps no better illustration could be found of the nanner in
which the Rev. Bentley happily oubined his interest in the world to
one with his participation in the world of which he was a part.

Born at Boston, June 22, 1759, he was the son of Joshua and Bliss-
beth Bentley, and he loohed back upon an ancestry of military non,
for he wrote to President ladison in 181d:

W ancestor ease to heriea in 1711. He was a young of-
ficer under the Duke of harlbcrough in Blenders, a was
sent by Queen Anne to Osneda. He was lost by the pilots
on htieosta. His only child, my Grandfather, intended
for the navy, fought umier General Pepgerell in Canada in
1746. W father was with Wolfe in 75 in the year of Iy
birth, a is now living at 90 years. ‘

the boy was nsned Willie: in honor of his maternal grandfather,
Willi- Paine, a nan of one loans in Boston. Ir. Paine was greatly
attracted to his nenesah, "in feet, so much so that he alncst one be-
tween Willien and his parents. In recording his grndfathor'e doth,
Bentley says: . g

It was by his generosity, I was educated at Cubridge, &

he cartinued through life an uneeasing benefastor. lg
ny gratitude be as cnceasing as his goodness. °

 

1. 1, 21:. All references in this fern will be to volune' and page of
the 9321 of Willi- Bentley, 2:2: (Salon, 1906-1914), 4 Vols.

2. IV, see.
a. I. u

u
.I '
"
' I
i
n
It
.
e
..
w"
.I '
e
..' " .
\l.-_ . ‘
e. .
I ' ‘ '
..
'0
-.—- c ..o— .a-.
l
.
a

. . .. :_ _ a r _
. I. .1 o ' .-
I
. . . . s ‘ . 1. -. ' .v _
. 'v‘ r _ . , -
, . v v - , A .
3‘ In e, ' I ' 'I- ‘ ‘ , ' 5’ ' '
-, D e' , '
c Q
. . . J . . ht . ‘ , ‘.
.
I ‘ .
I {“
. ’r.‘ h
C -' i ‘
‘ e ' - _ I T Q l
I . I e
_ .. -. - « D Q . . .
‘3‘ . I . ‘ 1 . . a ‘ .‘0 ~
w . .' _ . , " ‘ . e
‘ ' ' :1. l -' .-s _a t . ,
o .
. I . .. - .. - .
. t I . . .
u ' - e U ‘
v . ' ,
' s I ‘é '
3.4 I ' ’s ‘ L ‘.'e o e
e ‘ w ‘ ' ' - ' '
. z . v s I e .
. ' .
. . . A I 4 .
.- . O. ‘ . u
- . . _p
. ., I .
. e a 1 V ‘
. ' , . ‘ e ' t ’
s . 'I .‘ . .I II
A o ’ '
,, .. , - I
| .
- . w .
’
0 go - e ‘ ' ‘ st ' ’0
Q .. . o , . . \.l
J . . .
n l ' e . 5e
‘ ‘ I ' . Kl ‘
:0n . . . 'I) ' ' '
a ‘ ‘ .
. _.. a
U c
s 4 ,, .. , I _I
‘ o ‘ - .. .4 \'
A e. I. c . . . ‘ _ .
g . ' g f . ,' .' .. . ' I .
. '. r. .
' . .. , .7 i
. a 1 " H a -
Q . .
. ‘ . b .
. , e
.~ — ' . - , U ‘
. e A ‘
. v < I It s. or
. e 1 ‘ A ‘ 4 e
’I .
-. fin-“ ‘- .... 0‘ 0 at. O. 0‘ sea .- - -"~'I- "~~. . ‘r.-vl . ha.“ I--. e n - ‘ ’ A .
’ . w . ‘ a
. o
. , s
' - a e I - . .
_ . a . - g ' . .
- I ' . ‘
. ’ U . .- I - . 1. ‘ .
— o . - ' ' - e- - - . e.-
. \
e ' ‘ ' .

 

that Willian Bentley never forgot the benefits of his favored
pounce 1. testified by an entry in nu. gig, nede we . few years
before his death:

By an education in the f-ily of q “Ii-and] Pfether]

Paine I had advantages I should never have obtained at

hone. It is true q father with a better than canon

education distinguished hineelf by an uncomon neglect of

education in his children, 5 sons of then were obliged to
get instinction after they had reached a period far above

infancy. °

Willian entered Harvard College in 1773, at the age of fourteen,
and 'wae early distinguished for his natural talents, and for his un-
canon acquisitions in classical no mm literature."5° a. grad- '
noted with honors four years lder, and was i-ediately eqlcyed in
the LatinGra-ar school inBoetn, where he—had been fitted for col-
lege. In 1779, he was preceptor of the lorth Omar School, but sea
was appointed as Latin and Greek tutor at Barvard. he remained there
until 1788, when he beg- preaching as a eudidate fl the last Church,
Salon. Although the senior pastor, the Rev. J.» Dina, looked upon
Bentley with disfavcr, the young preacher with liberal ideas was liked
by the society, for they invited bin to be a colleague pastor, and he
was subsequently ordained. In 1788, Rev. Dinan passed w, Id
Bentley was left alone in the service of last Church for the rest of
his life.

h interesting revelatin of Bentley's persaal life is provided
by his low Year resolutions which are suewhat reninisoent of the self-
immenentnethodspraotioedbyJenathanldwards endlendeninPrmk-
line

 

4. IV, 295.

5. Joe 2. Bushnghan, MM gf__ lewspggr Literature (Boston,
1850 , II, “I

_. _ 3‘ .. ‘ v 1 - I . ' .
r! . ‘ - n . . I l ' . ‘ ' '.' r " '>
1" . - . . . ‘ n . . x , ,
.
I ' i
e -- r
. r -- ' I
.. " '- - , - : ' . w . - ,
I . v '- . ._ 4 . I
. . ,
. _ , - . e l ‘
. a a
‘ e
. . ‘ ‘ . ‘
,‘ .‘ . . . ,
. .
I e
' ‘ ‘ . Oe| '
. , _ ‘ . . ._ ~ . .
, ‘ ’ .
.. . . ' p .
. ' x — . . ~ s e
l: - - .
‘ I a 1 - ' e .. '
O \ s
. .,.
. . J t
'1 ' ‘ . 5 ..' .(A . :A
. . ..
I e ‘ .
. .
- "- r” ' . { o - 0_‘ I t 'f‘ 'e , .1.
* " . . ‘ I . -~ ‘ ' ‘.. Al 0‘ . ' 0' . .
e- . _
. ' 0 ‘ -. ‘ O . ' ‘ _ a e 'e . ~ ‘ . . . .-
a- . ‘ a . ‘ ‘
I I e l
I ‘ .- e . : - -. -r 1'. ... . . ‘ ' .
.- ‘ e ‘ a . t ,n . . h _ . .
. a , ..' es
, a g . . . . ' . .v
. - . 3 .. _ . - g , _ . . I _ . r . . , -. . .. .
a . . . . ‘ ,
. ‘ - A ‘ '. . .1.”~ ‘. , ‘ _ .
‘ .-' . . - . ‘ - 4 .
h l l . I I '
, - .. . . , ~.-.-, .... y. .+ , . . f , .. 1' '
' ‘ . O; .1 ' . . . . . . . . . ,. , ,
' . ' ' u .~ - r ~ 1.. ‘
. . A - __ . , . ~ ., 3' .h e. , r .., ‘ . . z, p
I ‘. . _ . ‘ . ,o, ‘ \z . . . j 'w u.‘ .r" ' ,

 

, ' ' ... A . - ' C, ,— - t ..‘ , ,. w. _
‘_’ . ‘ v ‘ .1 - a . I, '
It - ' .. O - -_ a. l- ~ .. a x . ,
. . _ - _ .h , p. '
, . - . . - 4 er . ' ' I -
' I, ,. , I — ‘ '. " ‘ l ‘ .. ‘1 e ‘- — Lei . ' ‘ ‘
I . '
. r -‘ , ~ ‘ 1‘ z u" , l. ‘ ' " J I» . ',
r - - ~ 3 ' ' s . -
L e . . n . ’l ’ ‘ I -
V . , , .. I
. . - . .' 'y e v f ' ‘ A ‘ ' ’ ‘I
. ' I . n ’
o . ' e_ " . . ‘
. . - . - ' t
.7 V. - q" C . 'e - .. ' l " I
. A . .4 ' ' " '
. .
' .
I ' °
0 u _ ‘ e. e ‘ ' b.’ l . l' ' ' ’ ' ' ' ~-' ‘ . . ' .. ‘
w . ‘ ' J ' 3. .. .I . -e ‘ ~ . , - . «e . ' " ---. .e.-
(l e g. s r
d . _ . ‘ . . . s~ ..
. . I -. , . .. r , .
_ _ . . J . . . _ . 3 t. , ' .
. I ' ‘ 9 ' .
' 7‘ ' u , v 0 - g 'l_~ . . -. e e e'
‘. . , _ ' - . | ‘ 4 I . ‘ I, 59‘ .. . r! _ _
.
~ 1' a -, ___- ._ N‘ . .". .5 . . , ‘ ‘___.‘ . .. ' . - r._ .. . . - ., . - g g a. A . . ..-... -1- -a 7.. -e-eoe .0- - ~- - .»Q can...
0 ‘ P
. u -
, . e . .' . - . 1 n a! g .
. 1 ' 1 f . v n « » V

. .l
v
D
..
.
. . '
. ' ..
- u
I 2

 

1789. Ohthenextyeerthehlhm “minor-tent
duties respecting w more, enquiries, .1: Studies the .
four following of the greet eonsequenoe a i-eediwte use to
no. First, to be nore guerded in wy omerswtiau' seoondly,
to rel-ether that non on love their vioes, a: will consider
reproofs ss injuries . 0: therefore be wetehful...thirdly, to
sttend psrtioulerly to the ohereoter of Clergynenz fouzthly,
to roaster ehdrity begins st home, a ley up in Store. '

Agein in 1790:

Purposes for the ensuing yeer in w profession. to expound

Ct the Leoture of the Scriptures. i'o owteohise the chil-

dren onoe e. month efter the Communion fron April to lowenber;

to preserve the expositions in s sepsrste Volune. to re-

vive w knowledge of the Hebrew d: Orientel Lsngusges. Grit-

ioelly exsnine the Greek Intelsat, ho. to go over egein

the prinoipel Latin a Greek elusies. In norelity, to obey

th. “p.107. '

[is nation of study ad language here gin but on indioetion of
his intelleotusl sotivity in this respeot. Judge Waters testifies
thst Bentley not only reed with feoility more than twenty different
lengusges. but slso wrote end spoke nost of the popular lengulgee of
lurope. So reoognised was he es s linguist, thet the oredeutiels of
the funisisn Albee-odor were sent fro. Washington to be trenslsted by
him Although his theology would hswe horrified the old Puriten di-
vines, pleas of study suoh as these would have not with full approval:

a be end of April e plan for extezwling bowledge of ate

a soieneee two hours every dq for c sssie Studiesoo-hd

two parts of days for Philosoplv be. °
A few loathe lder he hdd settled on this swbitiols sehednle:

loudey ease pert for Greek, 5 rhesdq for frenoh, & led-

nesdey for Latin, a: handy for Spaish er Itelin d

Pridey for “em. dntoh, Solaronien In their verious die-

leots, a: Seturdey a: Sunday for Philol in relation to

the Versieug, & rats of the Hebrew a sh Seared
Seriptures. °

e. I. 134.
7. 1. zzs.
o. I. so.
9. I. 43.

s
.
.4
.
s
O
t
e
‘s
w
,‘s
.
v‘.

‘.-'

’wa

 

‘1'- .

- so

 

, .
Q
.
o
u
. 0
I
. s
w . x
‘ .
.
p
I
.
w . ‘-
3 ' ‘
.
.
O ‘ .
J I
e "‘
,
n ..
h L
<.
v
u. "
.
‘ . .
l ' '
D . '
.Y ‘ I
.C. .
. s
' .
.
. .‘r .' h I
. .

.C‘. v - -

u.“

.
1
.
.
.
_,.
D
.
,
O. ""
.~ .
'5
. I
,.
..
\
«"
\"

- V. .e-

 

4.

Hum- 3mm wos ”.4 m- oonfining his man. and inter-
sets to oqthing resenbling nnrrow theology, is olonrly shown in his
gentle oritioisn of s christnns oornon delivered by his olose friend
end nosoointo, Jones Prom:

End he dropped tho spiritunl d typionl pnrt oltogether

ad sdduoed Virgil's poem in fnvour of the united consent

in the norsls of the gospel or hsd he sdduoed even Ploto'o

disoription of n Just non, he might not hove rendered the

discourse loss volunblo to q taste.“-

Despite his soholnrohip he found tins to be n belovod psotor so
well es en ortrenoly notivo one. His populsrity with the ohildron of
the oongrogstion is proved by ontoohi-olssseo moring noro then
one hundred. m anturdoy. he would often tnke grows of then on
hikes nlong the seashore. looturing on the notturol revolution of God
so rovonled in shells. plate. .3 fish. In one entry of the m,
he sponh of delivering lootures on Geogrsphy end the English long-
uogo. His privnto interests hsd no bounds. Ho plqed on inportont
pert in the fornstion of on. Inst m1. lnrine 8ooioty. In Ootober.
1799. he wrote:

It is proposed by the low Inrino Society. onllod the Best

Indie lurino Sooioty, to note n Csbinet.1'hio sooiety

hos been lntely thought of. cnpt. Gibsut first nentionod

the plsn to no this su-er a: desired no to give one plnn

of srtiolos, or n sootoh...0n 8sturdoy lost. Cnpt. Gibsnt

brought no the utiolos I: begged s revision of then. I

gsvo hin ny idons.
this sooiety wso for-ed in lovsnbor, 1799, with fifty-three nenboro,
fifty of then onptsino in the Indies.

Dr. Bentley‘s intinsoy with the nsny ship-nostors of his perish
who soiled fron the gront port of Solon, gnve hin on nosing knowledge
of ovexy pnrt of the world. olthongh he hinsolf never left low hg-

lond. a. noted no n solf-sppointed look-out fron s vsntoge point known

10. 11. m.
11. II, 321.

as ”Bentley's look.” there, fren a tower built for hin by one of his
parishioners, Capt. George Crowninshield, ”he used to sea the horison
for the inconing sail. ad the nnent his spygless nade surecof the
long united ship. he would raise a panat on the flagstaff of the
tower. that all night know the gled tidings. Sonatines he would clinb
the lookout with a heavy stop. to hoist on. signal at half-nest when
sons nariner brought news of disaster."12°

rho ship-asters nust have delighted in bringing curiosities to
their pastor. for along their presents ad exhibits were found. the
inege of a Chinese ladarin. gold bones fron Inlay, stone tables and

knivos fron up... teeth of on. Agouti fron the spun-h lain, . horn of
the Unieorn Rhinoceros fron Africa, eyes of a South Sea squid, ooins '

frm the world over. ad countless strange plants and insects. Using
these gifts ad whatever studies he could nabs in the vicinity, Bentley
fornsd a large private cabinet of latural History, "until the estab-
lishnsnt of the Bela been. in which he took an active part, induced
hin to deposit no oolleotion where it would be nore useful."13°

n. was very active in Free-nary. and his 9191 atests to the
fast that he held high office in that organisation. He was interested
in the buildings of Salon, noting their construction ad repair. the
93:51 contains descriptias with specifications of the bridges at lose:
ad Charleston, and if a factory was erected that the pastor could
visit. a notation of the building and the neohinory it housed was sure
to turn up in his records. rawhing of Bentley's devotion to the
ships of Bela has been nontionod. ad suffice it to say that he s-
and recorded the launching of every vessel in Salon during his ndnistry.

H

12. Frances Finer, Puritan 0131 (low York, 1988) .3202.
13. Bankinghan. 9.: cit. '11. 344.

 

a

s
\ ‘

. n
U. I
. V
. I.
'.

I ‘l
. s
'-

\

a

h
.
0.,
.

. .
n.
o .
I a
.
o s
Q
n
. .
.
_.
_.
-
a. '

I ‘
s
u
w
.-
. ..
- l
.
.

‘ e
O. ‘
O
.
C .
.'
v
.
I ~
9
no
' Q
‘ ' ~f
' v
’. .
‘ l
" - ..
I
.. . . ‘
. r
e v‘ ‘
.. ’- h
V I I
.
s.) ‘3
l
. - \ of
s 1
..
'l 0.
. V l'
. f
’. l
.
.‘| .
’ O
t ‘ '
.
~A' AI
’ c
..

’ l

’7

e
. .
O ' '
O
‘ a 0
. .I .
. ..
‘
I . ‘ , |~
. , , v
-4
.
C
r
. -
I I
e r~ . ,
r b
s a a
... .
c . ‘ ~
o
'| ' u .I . »,e ,
- ‘ . - l .
I s
.y. .
..‘ ‘ . ’
. I.
. d
. _ e
I ‘ '
.
A n . . | l
‘ .e
. i
‘fe ‘ 0 ¢
. .n _
. ,,
~.
I‘ I
l . ‘
i
i.. .
I - ' ,‘ I
.
. , _
s - ’ .
u 1 .
K
a .e.
".
a , I .
e
. 0A \ _
. .
- '-- . .
.
.e

o
~e
,. ‘
‘ I
.
,

new. Bentley'o pom woo oloo very ootivo throughout the yooro or
n1. niniotryo In addition to the tour volmo 313, out! o notobcok
courtoining oritioion of now publicotiono. ho loft 3.500 oorlcnoo In
1794, whon 'illioo Corletcn boson publiohin; tho Solon Ooootto,
Bentley woo induced to contribute oui-wookly onuorioo of foreign
ond donootic nowo. For-o long period during which Corloton mfforod
oovore illnooo. Bentley. oo on oct of friondohip, longed the pqor
olono.

While ongogod in thio took,» boson o ocrroopcndonco with Pro-
tooocr noun; or mm which woo to loot tho litotino o: tho '
Ger-on. .ltolin; woo proporin; o hiotcry' ond googropw of the United
Btotoo, ond oonght notoriolo {rm Bontloyo thio noy hm boon the
native for the nowo morioo. for tho pootor woo novor poid ow woco
for thio took which he continued to perforn for noorly o quortor of
o conturyo Ir. Booking!“- writoo:

rho voriooo nowopoporo. roooiood in onhonco for corlotcn'o

popor, Ir. Bentley woo occuotcnod to pock in tho nootoot

unnor. ond oond to Profoooor Ebolin‘, with on indox to

ouch poporo ond orticloo oo ho doonod noot iqcrtont. In

return for ouch booko oo Ir. Bentley oont to hin. tho Pro-

foooor oont Gornon publicfiiono, but no cooh tronooctimo
ovor pooood botwoon thon. °

In hio indototigohlo otto-pto to get notoriol for lbolin‘, Bentley

evidently ottoqtod to onliot Jotforoon in tho couoo, tor the om-proo-
idoxrt wrote to Bentley GI Deon-tor 28, 18153

Door Bir.--At tho doto of your lottor of Octch 30th. I
hod Juot loft homo on o journoy tron which I on recently
roturnod. I hod nony yooro ogo undorotood thot Profoooor
lbolin‘ woo ongoged in o geographicol work which would
culprohond tho United Stotoo, ond indeed I oxpootod it
woo finished ond pnbliohod. I on glod to loom that hio
condor ond diocrininotioo hovo been outfioiont to word
hin ogoinot truoting tho libol or Dr. Icroo on this
atoto. I wioh it woro in y power to give hi- tho oid
you ooh, but it io not...1 -

 

14. “14.. II, 542.

15. thonoo Jotforoon, Writ o, ed. A. A. Lipocoub ond A. B. Borsh
('“MOI, 190‘). . 8.

.o m
.

v . ‘ .
. _
o
' . ‘ I I '
. 'Vio- lo . '1‘
. . . .
- w ‘ -
t u.
. 4 ,5 ' ' ' ‘ r .‘ .
o ‘ h
o I ‘ . .
\ V " '
’ "o -
,' ' r. , - ~ ' . ‘ A I
I t. .' ‘ L .( ' - ~
I
.
I - ' ’ I .
.- o ' '
C
O I '
‘ I ~ ’. o ’ . k
A . ’ . o . \
. I
C . _ ' o . ' .
. oe .
.
l u l . I I‘
I i _, . .,
. . ' ‘ . '
o
. . v.
M. .7 . _ L . . .
I - n
.
‘ . - I 1
o l.
f . . v
t ‘1 o . . ‘ ' .‘ .
O ' . .
r h. " ' —o o w 'I . I.
. ‘ t ' ‘ ‘ | I
1 . .
v ' ' ‘ I '
o t b I t
.
I ' . . . '
- ~ ‘ I I . V
U or
o. o 7 . ' '.‘ H u y
w ' ’ ‘ -
. I . ' I ‘ .
. . . f ' ' ~
. v ‘ .' ' i " .
, .
o ‘ - . h‘ '
o 3 . .. z '- ‘ W
. .
' ..
o, ' I
. .
V. ' ‘I. '
o ‘ ~
, . ox ‘ '( Q' ’ ‘ .L ‘ ‘
. ‘. - -; ‘J. - ' " ' ‘ 4 ‘
o ' ' '
. ' _‘ an '1 ‘ ‘
I , ‘
i ' ' ‘ .
. ‘ ‘ ' ‘ ‘ l n .5;
_ I .
. O
.
‘ .
.. ‘l :“ '
. -
‘I v . V "I
. . l
3 ' I ‘
. . r "
. ‘ ..
‘ v , ‘ . . .
' 7'
b ... . , .
- _ C
D
' .
. . .‘
. . . . ‘ , ' n - ,
‘- fl ‘ , - F O .
o o 1 ’
' - C r. ' '
. .. -
o o ’ Q
. o

 

 

7.

After receiving fine ncwo in 1817 of “ounce deoth, Bentley re-
numbered his oo "a offeoticnnte, invorioble o provident frieng" whom
he hod never eeon. By o otrago twiot of fote, oil of Bentloy'o nut-
eriol returned to borico. for in a 1818 entry he noteos

Pr. Forror told no thot Iorool Ihcrndike, Iorohat of

mm mm: 3313 125mm: “W

lpeouloting on thio whole incident. Pracoo Iinwor ouggeote thot
”it io prohoblo thot through hio [nont1oy'o'] oeol for knowledge ond
hie love of boob, cor-on culture entered low lnglond."17°

In oddition to the olreody nontionod lottoro to ad fro. Iodioon
ad Jefferocn, Bentley woo oloo o correepondent of John Mao ad o
friend of John Quincy. In the light of on thio tro-ondouo ootivity,
one reodo with undorotording odniroticn:

Proochod two old Scroono, with oo greot oppreheneiae of

guilt '6 oo moh confineion oo the' I hod otclen frao q

noighbouro. It io the falt in thio cooo thot by o wic-

lotion we got hordcncd. Goo forgive no.18-

l‘wico in hie lifetime. Bentley woo offered noticnol recognition of
hie obilitiee, ad he refined both tho offieoo tendered hin. the firot

cone in 1804: when he woo offered the ehoploincy of the United atotoo
Houee,of Reprooentotiveo. He eoyo in the £13 thot upon o ncant'o
reflection, ”I found comiiace iaroeticotle I: wrote a aower oc-
oordingly."19o the oooond oae two yooro loter when he woo tenierod
o pooition pruioing "unrivaled honoure' in the intended Uniworeity
of Virginie. Judge Iotere ooye Jefferocn offered Bentley the preci-
dacy. tut whotmr the pooitia, Bentley wrote o letter tinged with
action, eorrying hie romeiotion of honoro which he cold in o for-er

pod“ of hid lifo would hove bod oll tho wished of hie heorto Al-

 

1c. IV. 528.
17. Iinwor. m cit. p. 201
n. I. "O

19. III. 122.

oo
‘o

though he woo taptod to foreoko o eituotion which he felt hod no pro-
fit ad little eucooeo fro. the groot progrooo of faaicion, yet he
felt holding hi: etrongly the twenty-two yooro during which the little
oociety hed dieohorgod oll their ohligotione to hin. ad aidet per-
eooutiono in church end etote, hod forgotten oll potty aimitiee to
rondor hin hoppyozo'

In the loot yeore of hie life, the pootor woo indeed in o eituaion
of ”no profit” for he recorde, “two yooro cf Solory ore otill due 1.
theport ofeottlonont duo inooeyeor fronqordinotia, noting a
oggrogao ou- of two thcuoad dollore."31° In Deeonbor, o nonth
loter, he writoe thot eeverol eote ofanifioenoe hovo olone prooerved
hin fru i-odioto ouffering end thot, olthough hie future proepeoto
met raoin unknown, hie feoro ore greater then hie hopefo. fie hoe hod
to pq the performer of the church meio he loved oo well' out of hie
ill-poid eolory.

the inductice of hie oituaicn wellod up within the old pootor
ad forced o rore lacnt fra hie pen: 'i'hceo ore ill rowerdo for
thirty-four yeoro lobour with no other conoolaion thou it night to
woroo.‘32° Pinolly. o yoor loter. ofter he ha offered to eettle for
holf hio'duo, the omittee circulated o voluntory oubocription popor
I'f'or the purpooe of m good o port of the deficiency a. rendering
hin oonfortotlo in hie avonoed ego.“ the euhooriptien aountod to
obove $915.00. oni the nae with aount fer oooh eubooriber apeor in
the m. Such treotnont could hove ohottered few illuoicne for Rev.
Bentley. who in o previouo encounter with the leoe pleoeout eide of

20o III. a“.
21. 1'. ‘8‘.
22. IV, 490.

 

e. o
. . I
I
o
.
o ‘
.
n 'o-
v . . -
I v
o
I. b
,
.
4
- . ..
.
I
.
b ' l
e

. n
I
‘,- , .- e
'~o~.
A. r“;
. .
o
I' ‘ .
.3. ha

 

to

.o: - .
:' e‘}
I
o
‘ e
. o
. _ .
o
I.
t‘ ‘ .
. .
. A
O A
s"
.‘ ‘
I‘ I
Q. '

‘h.’

..

 

o
o
.
‘o
.
. ev
h
‘i
‘b
o
o
rt

.
.
t
O
1“
N
e o
,
I
v
.
e
.v
v .
o
.."
t.
.
K' .
v,-
..
e.
e e
‘.
' \
~ 0
,1

 

..
\l
'.
o
‘l
o~.
g a
do
,I
l
n
K
e_‘v
'.
e
.."t'

on..-

 

hunen noture hod written: 'lhot o terrible diotroee to w feelinge
thio would hove been when I knew leoe of non.‘z3' .

do to Rev. Datloy'o phyeicol oppoorace oni hobito. Buckinghon
giveo the only deecription of voluea

In etoturo, Ir. Bentley woo below the niddlo eioea he woo

even ehort, ad oppeored the noro eo, becouoe he woo ol-

wqe fot. it the ego of fifty—two, he weighed two hundred

end fourteen pcundo. though hordly obove five feet in

height. In hie pereonol hobit, he would hove done credit

to the boot nodern tooohore of phyeiology. Pereonol

cleonlineeo woo o virtue with him, ad no dq pooeed

without moh exorcieo in wolhng, which he believed to

be the boot eneroioe for o echolor. All hie writing woo

done while he woo in o otonding poeture.24- -

In oddition, he woo to-peroto, retired ad rooo eorly, end followed o
eilple ad uniforn diet, for he hod been odnoniohed yeore before hie
dooth, of on unfovoroble hoort condition. 7

Although lev. Bentley never ecught dietinctien or fovor for hin- .
eelf, there we one honor which he wontod ad felt he deeerved, naely,
tho degree of Doctor rooo Horvord. Ihon tho .ochool withhold tho
honor beyond hie potienco, he revoked the bequoet node to her of hie
huge privoto librory ad ocllocticne. no gove hie thoolcgicol boob
end clooeiool booke to Allegholw college, end the colloctiono to the
horica Antiquoria Society. Pioolly, in 1819, overconing cone ob-
Joctiono concerning hie heterodoq, the Univoroity conferred upon hi-
the degree of Doctor of Divinity.

Dr. I. Bowditch of the Univeroity, told hin to 'proporo to die,
for Degroeo ore molly forerunnore oo they ore given the Aged when
their coureo ie finiched.‘ Alnoet eoootly'fcur nonthe loter, Dr.
Bentley node a entry in the gig on Doc-her 29, 1819, which that

evening ouddonly beoone the doto of hie deoth. the erotion ot hie

 

28. IV. 256.
24. fluennghon. gp_._ cit. II. 847.

 

e.

.

u.

‘- .

,‘

 

10.

fnnerelwee given by e young acquaintance of Dr. Bentley, ldwerd
lverett. who hed neigned hie Uniterien ninietry to beccne Profeeeor
of Greek et Horned, end who wee yeore ltter to proceed Lincoln ee
loin oretcr ot the dediottion of the cenetery et Gettyeburg.

11.

choptor II
the Decline of low Inglad Oelvinien

In the oorly port of hie life, Bentley ie eeid to hove been de-
finitely o Gelviniet, ad while et nervord woe ec octive in private re-
ligicue neetingo thet the fellow-etudente regerded hin oe being religioue
over-och. Yet, econ otter hie eettlaent. ”he renoaoed Oelvinien; ad
both he ad hie college oloeaeto, Jaeo free-a, of Boeton, becoa
evened chum-.325-

How did it o... ehcnt thet 1. the l780'o . young hueahtieette
ninieter, born aly thirty-one yeore ofter the deoth of Cotton [other
end but one yeor efter the poeeing of Jonetha ldwerde, educeted et
Honord College. ordoinod in e Congregationel church in Solon. would.
or for thet letter, could, be e Dniteria? Ihot hod hoppened to the
low m1... theology? A. a W to .6 looet nanny hum: thoee
queetione, the eucceeding hietoricol eketeh preeente cone of the grod-
uol but eignifioont ehengoe in theologicel enphoeie which took ‘ploce
in low Inglad in the eighteenth century.

Ae thet century begun. low lnglad 0.1m... woe ‘ouffering .
porolyoio oe o roeult of the doctrine of inobility, thot ie; the be-
11.: thot non 1. m1. even to repent by hinoelf but not ownit the
doliveronco of God. fhie view of the conplete ecvereignty of God woe
procticel to the only etruggling puritae who were euro they were of
the elect. they were aything but feteliete, ad eonehcw the nore
rigoroue their hordohipe becae, the noro they were etimleted into
oetivity. The Indiae dieooverod how fiercely the eorly eettlero could
fight for e predoetined victory. However. when the etinuli were re-
ncvod ad loter gonoroticne grew up in the poooe ad freedon of low Ing-
lad, end they in. told of their inobility before God, they 1......

 

as. ennui l. lliot, «1.. Heroldo o _._ 1.11.. 1.1 (Dceton, 1910),

I. 160. "" """""'"""’

' 12o

epirituelly peeeivo end epethetic. 1e frat Hugh Footer eeye, "It hoe
never been e. good wey to induce non to repent to tell then that they
emot.'2¢- fhue it wee, thet the theology iteolf wrought epiritunl
perelyeio doepite the encouregonent of the Rolf-Fey Covenat. thio
Ocvonent ellowod perente who were beptieod ad profeeeod nabere to
hove their children beptieod. During hie ninietry, Bentley' e church
ruled:

111 up“... porecxne eholl obtein Beption to.- their chil-

dren, ofter being propoundod to the Accenbly for their

concert, without owning e covenant or neking ay pro-

feoeion. beeide thet which they virtuolly neke by reg-

uler epplicertion for ouch Beptien, e by enewe ouch

raionel queetione co the linieter ney propoee.2 0

the church now beeao not norely a eeeocietion of regenoreto
nowhere, but eleo o echocl to trein up-Anen in religion. the Rolf-Hey
covenat increeeed interoet in beptien, but the Lord'e Supper con-
tinued in neglect. Ihie led to e laneee which odnittod pereone to
the Conunion without poreonel confeeoion of foith. In 170?, in e
diecouree entitled the Inmueeblaeee 3_f_ Neglecting the Iorehip _e__f_
22d; M 3 Pretence 3; m _i_n_ _e_n_ Unconverted Condition, Rev.
Solo-on Stodderd of lorthapton. leeeechueette. openly propoeed to
odopt thio la prectice ee the reguler ettitude {of the churchee. He
equotod the co-Inion with the on tutu-ht Punt». end .. ouch,
woe to be kept by ell people regerdloee of their epirituel etoto. It
woe to eerve ee e noene of groco in the direction of convereion.
Going etill further. be euggeoted thnt oven ee chrict cent out Judee
to‘preech, ec the ninietry cen be eerved by madly non. fhie obviouely
repreeente e. ccqlete deporture fro- the treditionol Congregationel

flue

 

26. Frenk H. Footer. _A_ Genetic Hietm 35 the go; M fhoolgg
(Chicegc. 1901), p.

27. I. 20.

 

 

N I.»

‘ae

13.

that Stodderd'e poeition could be for a inotent neinteined in-
pliee thet there wee Itch telk on theee eubjocto in the churchoe. end
probebly the etert of a unconverted ninietry. Aninienien wee elec
noting edvacee in low Englend thought , for Jonetha Bdwerde devoted
the principel work of hie life. the Preoda _c_{ _t.h__o_ Eh to fight it.
me, then, wee the 'lowoet point of roligioue decline roochod in low .
hglad, whether it be ceneidorod fron e procticel or e doctrine]. point
of viow."23‘

Such no the epirituel hoelth of low Bnglad when Jonatha ldwerde
becae full peeter of the church at lcrthapton, loeeochueette. in
1729, upon the death of hie grendfothor, Solomon Stoddard. the theo-
crecy of the firot eettlere wee being puehed ferthor ad ferthor into
the background by politicel ad eccnonic forcee which neither dieputod
nor dioeerded celvinietic theology-mm, rather, oiny ignored it.

low Englad wee. becaing involved in the we of the Old

World. etriving for coaerciel eucceee, capeting for pro-

fite. teeting power end contain righte, reedy to defend

then legelly or otherwieo. The epirit of Europea nation-

elien. capitolien, end reticnelien, with ite epperetue of

59:23.31;marzanmm'mrzsr-

ldwordo naeged to oepereto Celvinien nononterily frcn the ecciel
end econceic theoriee in which it bod becone entagled, ad by which
it wee being etrengled. hie inepired piety enepped e port of low Ing-
lend out of ite epirituel lethergy for noerly e century. the greet
figure of ldwerde drew pupile for the ninietry, ad it wee by thio
noae thet he geined two edherente-nco-lebororo during hie lifetine.
end efter hie deah eucceeecre ad loedere in hie. eohocl. they were

Joeeph Bellow ad 8.on Hopkine. i'hoee an end eubeoquent low England

28. footer, 32: cit., p. 43.
29. Joeeph neroutunien. 2.1.231 voreue lorelien (low York. 1932), p. :11.

14.
theologiane were aich influenced by one principle of ldwarde which
hoe been celled hie theory of virtue. thio principle wee hie regard
to.- 'Juetico h. virtuoue only when 3mm by baevolence.'3°° 1m.-
vclonco woe to work ae a gradual ecftener to bring the adaatine
Calvinill into .y-pathy with eighteenth century religioue thought.

the conetrnotive contributiono of Joeoph Bellow (1719—1790) to
low Inglad theology were contained in two worke. the one wee en-
titled try; Religion Delineated, in which he taught tha (1) na hae
the ability to repent end it io the proaohor'e tech to urge bin to do
ec i-odietely; and that (2) God ie no longer the ein-cffended party
denading Juetice, but rather ie the noral governor of the world.

 

the other work wee entitled 113311on of G_o_d_ in _t_l_i_e_ Penieeia _c_f_
3.59;! ad oe the title would indicate wee a attapt by Belle-y to ac-
cept the than“. of the laid-eighteenth century lew Inglader. ad
ehcw thot ein. ao e pert of the divine pla. node thio a better world
then one without ein. In juetifying God'e weye, he tried to chew that
divine government. far from boing objectionable. ie ultinately con-
ducive to the welfare of thoee governed, even by the then current
etadarde of juetice.n‘ .

Idwerde' other cc-leborer wee Saniel napkino (1721-1803), who
gathered hie theology into the firet low hglend eyeten entitled m
_o_f_ Doctrinee (1793). Bentley rofere to hin ae the “Celebrated Smel
Bcphine, whooo Byeten of Divinity ie the baeie of th.’ popular theo-
logy of low luglad."”' ‘

Carrying on in the benevolent tradition. napkin. taught (1) that
love ie God'e chief attribute, (2) that if he ie heppieet in the enor-

 

30. Footer, m cit.. p. 91.
31. Beroutunia. g; cit., p. 34.
320 "g 302.

‘v.

 

0'4

. .
w
. .
K
h
(i I
u .
.l.. .r
.
e
a e
O
a
e
.
f i
.,. ..
. n
I ~
. .
I
.
...
I. .
. .
IL _
epl
.
u. ._
u
.
. 7
.
V.
I
it
h
I
C

r.‘

15.

ciee, co-aicotion, ad exhibition of bio goodneee, then the good of
hie creatunoe nuet be hie concern and deeire. (8) that there ie no
nore dietinotion between original and actual ein becaueo there ie no
ein but actual ein, (o) that Chriet'e eufferinge were a examle of
the public Juetice of God rather than a atononent, ad (6) that nan'e
depravity ie norel, hie underetonling ad will were not loet at the
Fell, and that he otill hoe the hill ability to chooee between the
altemetivee of life and death.

thio opened tho w to . live ovongolien, for Hcpkine diotih-
guiehed charply between regeneration ad convereion: the fornor ie
the work of cod and rendere non willing: the latter ie the work of na
hineelf in perforning holy exercieoe. In thio way hunan efficiency woe
recognieed and effective revival preaching becae poeeible in low
mum.

thio woe the roeult of the conflict to detemine whore right ie,
whether it ie in the will of God, or in the nature of thinge. If the
fornorfftruo, then when God :i_l_l_e_ eone to eolvaticn ad othere. to da-
neticn. it ie right, beeouee that ie what right ie. If’the latter ie
true, then God ie bound to act for the welfare of being, for not even
the eovoreignty of God can Juetify action above reoeon. In the nid-
eighteenth century, the low hglader evidently decided that right
io inthonature ofthinge, oeconbeehownbyeei-eryoftho re-
ligioue thought which we have eeen hin eubetitute for Puritan Calvin-
in. la hoe becao not only able to repent but able to work out hie
own eelvation without chriot'o otcnaat, for Chriet woe norely a
exenple of the norol life on which good non will nodel their behavior:
God octe neither out of juetieo nor vengeaee, but out of benevolence
and ie careful not to do violence to the welfare, righto. or reoeon
of Hie creaturoe. there hoe been a trenendoue ohift fron the Word-
ien theeie that the end of all oreatia ie the glory of God to the
eighteenth century theeie that tho end of .11 creation 1. tho hoppi-

neee of non.

.
‘1
.
I
.
.
O
,\
, \
'.
‘ i
.
.
, ..
A .
., r“
Y,.‘
| I
i
.
t
V
45'
..
,.
v

"e

W fie.-

 

.
.
L
.
t
e
e
' e

16.

chapter III
Bentley ad the low theology

Great though theeo changoc in Calvinien were. they were not able
to check the inperccptible growth of Unitariaian. that novenent which
woe ultinately to deliver "the nighticct blow ogoinet New Englad Gon-
grcgationalicn which it ever received."33° the hietory of Unitar-
ionicn gcee back to the beginning of Protcetatien in Englad, noro
cpecificelly, to the Arniniaicn which aroec oe a reaction to the '
high calvinicn of the co-onwoelth. Arniniaien pacccd into Latitu-
dineriaien ad evolved into Arianien ad Uniteriaien. the gradual
ehift to Unitariaien within the low England Congregational ehurohcc
went on quite peacefully throughout the eighteenth century. Al-
though the yeore between Jonathan loyhew (1741) ad nary here (1805)
havebeendenminatedthc ”Period cfPrctect", itwae inthonain a
eilont protect. Sahel A. lliot doccribee the period thio wqe

Jonathan layhew woe indeed a thorough-going heretic. a

nodern-nindcd na, a oggroecive Unitarian, but of nay

cf hie categorariee it woe characterietic that they

protected ageinet a herd ad cruel theology nore by what

they fitted to preach then by what they pcaitivcly of-

fimcd. they einply ceaecd to talk about the dognae

that no longer enpreeeod the truth ae they had cone to

rebel! it. what they believed they preached, and
they did not believe they let alone.“0

nether factor which allowed new Congregaional churchee to be-
cone Unitaria without changing noticeably or violently. woe the gen-
eral wording of their covonate. In nay caeec the nenbcre ncrely
covenatodtc walktcgcthor intheweyc chcd oe hcchoce to reveal
hineelf to than. thuo it ie conceivable that the ehift to Unitaria-
ia woe node in acne low Inglad pariehoe without their being really
were of it. that there woe real internal etrifc and contentia in

one of the churchee. however, ie not to be doubted. Bentley rcecrde

330- ’OItOr. 2:- .1to, Pa 1900
84. Eliot. 32: cit., I . Introduction, n.p.

17.

congregatione being cplit into thirdc over the ordination of a parti-
cular non. ad mob ecccecion with accuponying trouble over which
divicion had clain to the church building ad property.

Certainly aong the chief influencee in thio liberal direction
were the college at Coltridge and the political agitation of the tine.
' In the eighteenth century Harvard College woe looked upon oe‘ a ”out
of sedition" by both political ad theological concervativee, ad
new of the early liberal religioue thinhore were Harvard graduatoe.
Both Bentley ad Joeepb Prieetley received the degree of Doctor of
Divinity frcn Harvard Univereity. do for the political factor, it
ie oaoy to imagine the friction which would arioo between a religioue
philooopby that held non to be totally depraved ad a political philo—
ecphy that recognised theeo oac wichcd nen ac the coureo of good
governncnt. In chooeing between the two, the people of low England
ncrely altered their theology to fit their politiee.

Undoubtedly. any theological cignificaoe attributed to Rev.
Iillion Bentley met center upon hie role oe a leader in the Unitar-
ioh nevenent in ite infiltration into orthodox low England Congre-
gaticnelien. when young Bentley, in hie niddle twentiee, began work
oe a colleague paetor at loet Church, Salon, in 1783, hie liberalicn
ran headlong into the iron conecrvatien cf-hev. Jaee Dina. the
rceulting collieion providce a perfect illuctration of the pulpit
warfare that often rent nary a low Inglond congregation aeundcr. hev.
Dinan woe 'a non of grave ad ae-inepiring nion, e etcrn Puritan of
the old eohool who greatly dieapproved of the liberalicn of Dr. Bentley.
ad he nay well have dieapproved of the circulation of booke anong the
people whon he cerved for over fifty yeore."35. Alnoet i-cdiately on

 

85. Jcnoe D. Phillipe, Salon in _;__the_ Eighteenth Century (Bootu. 1931),
Po 2.5o

 

18.

uneven quarrel began. with the proprietore of the church taking the
part of the Jaior pector. for nearly two yeore Dina neglected to
invite hie young colleague to participate in the eocronento of boptien
and cunnion. the trouble between the two non eeeno to have been
doctrinal. the proprietore acid oncng other thingo that Dina had
olnoct dieeolvcd the pariah by continuing to preach contrary to their
general wiah for neny yeore.

Pinon regach Dentlcy'e ninietry oe one of “new doctrinec, a.
fatal innovaticne.". the nator woo concluded by the propriotorc'
aching Dina to rooign all public oervice in the church. to which
the old paetcr agreed. In on addreee given in 1868 at tho 160th
annivereary cf the loot Church, Judge Jcocph G. Iatero contracted the
two ninietero in ouch a way ac to give a clear picture of the die-
favor with which Puritan Calvinion woe being regarded in lentley'c
days

For nearly a half century, he [Dina had excreioed an al-

noct dcepotic away over thio people, training then to walk

in the waye of a theology which adnitted no progreee cave

in the iron ruto which a arbitrary prioethood had laid

down ac the euro and only way to the heavenly hingda.

How could he beer. with equainity, ea a rival for the

favor of bio people, thio youthful oonpctitor. frooh and

Jubilat oo he then woe--full of the epirit of progreea--

alive to every good worhuhio liberal nind richly otored

with every variety of learning , open to and ready to re-

ceive any ouggcetion of reoeon that night aid hin in in-

terpreting the ecripturoo-oan acknowledged chapion for

for the right of private judgncnt, in all nattero of

faith...how could ‘clenate oo divorce and heterogeneouc

ever be expected to oar-minor“. ‘

If it woe change ad progreeo the oociety eought. Bentley woo
the non to ootiofy then. A m the firet Sunday after hie ordinatia he
preached a the practical teat found in hcto 10:29: "I oak therefore

for what intent ye have cent for not" Inetead of following the text

“a I. to

 

19.

in reading the ocripture leooon, it woe hie naner to anounce the
chapter ad then paraphraeo it by ueing hie own thoughtc ad the ca-
ncntarioe. at tinca people accueed hin of eubetituting hie own Bible
for the accepted ccripturee. Hie cernon euchcto, far'frm being
other-worldly, were alwayc tied up with, or centered upon, the cur-
rent cvente of the day. the Bay State Pealn Beck had already been
replaced by latto' collection, ad about five yeore after he becae
paotor, Bentley replaced Iatto' with a coqilatia cf nore nodern
hyao which he had node hineelf. the third year after hie ordination,
the young ninioter diccontimed the old Puritan practice of the week-
day lecture:

Prcpcced on all returne .of the (lo-union, to have a ehort
diocourcc after the diotribution of the line, ac a cub-
atitute to any lecture in the week tine. the rcooono of-
fered were , that a preacher without a faily could not
attend to than in the ueual forne, a becauee people could
not leave their bueineao on ouch occoeione. Another reo-
eon night be added thd: the lecturco are a rolick of cupcr-
etition and their vieiblc abuoe ie ccnetantly before our

”03e87’
0f coureo, the beat direct ineight into the kind of preaching

theeo puritan deeoendante watod to hear lice in the poroonal creed of
Bentley. Althoudi ouch credel otatoncnte are rare in liberal divinoo,
there are a few entriee in the 2.1.9.5! which bear upon thio inportont
latter:

April 22 [1735) . 1 have adopted nay cpinicne abhorrent of
w early prejudicee, a an etill ready to receive truth upon
proper evidence fron whatever quarter it nq cone. I think

. nore honor done to God in rejecting Itianity itoolf in obed-
ience to q convictiono tha in any fervor, which ie pre-
tended, towardo it, h I hope that, no poverty which I can
dread, or hope I can entertain, will weahcn ny reoolutiono
to act upon ny convictionc. the only evidence I wioh to
have of q integrity io a good life, as ac to faith, hie
can't be wrong whoce life ie in the right. You are acquainted
with q avowed diebcliof of the trinity, or of any being,
who governa, or influencee Irina offaire but God the Fathom".

 

87. I. “a
a. I. “O

o
A ' .
.
_ .
.
. . .
.
‘, . - I”
A. l '

. ‘ '

‘ ‘ '

> ., 1...
l ' . a,

.
‘ le- .
a . . -
. .1
I C
.‘ .1 .
. . .. M-
1 ' l ‘ ‘

c
on ‘4' .I ' ‘ ‘-
' ., .- ’

. a l ‘ I ’ '
_ e
. ' 7 ~ - - ~
. . . '(.~"| ' ' '
“o D
' .
. ..._ .
C
1 ' ‘ I | '
. _ . J
.
9 ' J, o . r . -‘ ’ '1. '
’ - a .
.
. 'I , ‘ I
- L
w I . 1 '
. .' ‘ .' IA
, , e
o . .
' .
‘ ‘ I‘
_ up .' , ' p. ‘ . _ . I
I C 'e
' . y le' . o ‘ ' ' .K
. . :- ’ . ‘ h {I
. ‘5' .
o r
I K h ' I 1
i

I O
- .
..
.
. .
a
.
I
. .-
. .
I- .
o I
lg.
.- .
_ .
a1 ‘
.
Io. .
I
.
. .
.

I‘

A year later he wrote to e llr. Iaeon who woe entering the nini-
ctry:

do to the intination you leave with no reepeoting q pro-
feeoion, I hardly know what to write to you. I ehould
never advice you to enter the ninietry, unleoe you had
rationally exanined Chrictianity. m after ouch earnin-
ation I ehould not reocuaond preaching, unleeo you woe a
firn believer. By a firn believer, I intend, not one, who
givce an oaoy credit to nyeteriec, or renounceo hie under-
atonding on on point of faith, but a non, who, upon the
full conviction of a future norel retribution co the grca
point of Chrietia faith, preochee with eobcr regard to
the virtucue happinceo of nonnnd.39' 4 .

By l792, lav. Bentley had becono nore vehencnt. In concntiu
upon a Quaker preacher he oayeo

The language of ouch people in very dioguotful to no,

while I vaerete their piety, o rejoice that am light

whatever ie cppoaed to Calvinien. Such publicat tend

to choke the aboninable doctrine of the trinity. °

Be aleo rocorde how one Bondy he took the liberty in the neat
exceptional nancr to deliver hie oentincnte ageinet total depravity.
Later in life, he woe equally confined in hie rebellion ageinet the
legalien of the ocneorvative religioue clenont. Rev. Sandal Ior-
ceeter, a defender of orthodoxy, had rcfueod to pray with a fanily
whoce father had co-itted euicide, partly becauoe euicide woe con-
trary to religioue law. In a outburet of anger at Ioroeeter and
ad hie euppcrtcre Bentley writooo

the foolherdy wretch hoe hie Dr. honey .1: hie Agente to

Juetify bin in wounding the feelinge of e diotreeeed,

oppreooed d agonioing fanily. Io thio Chriotianity? Io

it Orthcdcm How debaced met the character of reli-

gioue Society be which odnito a coriouo divieion a odiouo

controveroy upon ouch a point ae thio? Are we behind our

neighbouret‘h

In hie creed, than, he hoe rejected the trinity, total depravity,

ad legalien, while placing the enphaoio on reoeon ad the good life.

39. I. 1210

‘0. I. 86".
d1. 1', 134.

21.

Iron these credal etatenente ie ehown the fact that by the tine the
linee of the Unitarian controverey were drawn by Channing, Bentley wae
found holding the peeition he had naintained for nore than a quarter
of a century“.

In 1785, the original wiecopal Church of Iaeeaehueette, King'e
Chapel in Boeton, bee-e Unitarian mder ite paetor, Janee Preenan.
the liturgy wee nodified eo ae not to offend Unitariane. lhen Free-an,
in 1786, profeeeing Unitariniien, ecught ordination fru Biehop Sea-
bury in connectieut, he wae refueed with the reeult that hie own
church ordained hin congregaumally the next year. thio ie quite
certainly the incident deecribed in an entry Bentley nade in 1802.

Be relatee how after the retreat of Britieh- troope fron Bcetcn, Xing'e
chapel becane vacant, both ite ninietere having died in hgland. A
Dr. Cooper, evidently a nan of awe influence, ecught _a ninieter who
would be acceptable to the Congregationaliete, and who would break
with the Bpieeopal cmrch and ite influence. loet ef the oandiddsee
feared that if. the liturg were changed, an ordination would be im-
poeeible. rm. em Bentley, ‘

the worthy Ir. Preenan appeared. Be net every difficulty,

reforned the liturgy, accepted an ordination frcn the

authority of the nenbere of hie own Oo-union, deepieing

it: Ezi‘rtiéf £21121: "t $2313: 3&2: it.“

tabliebeent with great“ growing reputation.“-

rreenan and Bentley had been college claeenatee, ad the latter
once wrote that he placed the "higheet value upon thia nu ae a gen-
tlenen a a Scholar, ae nan of religion, with a pure life, of good
opinione without obetinaey, 4!. ae the noet liberal and Judicioue

preacher of hie tinee."“° Preenan wrote Bentley about the ordination,

 

“e '11”. OBe Cite. Fe 278
‘3. II, 418.
“C III, 36.

22.

and the latter dutifully ineerted the ordination addreee ad eervioe
in the Diary.“- Preenm accepted the ordination and believed it to

be valid and apoetclic. thie rather high-hauled affair did not pace
without bringing proteetatione frcn the lpicccpal clergy. Bentley re-
corded cone of the official proteete and a few extractc frcn th- will
not only reveal am: «we... but will alco imply the etrength that
Unitaricnien met have had in thie congregation in order to withetand
then:

Boeton, lov’ 18, 1781. lhereae certain pereone, calling
thencelvec a najority of the Proprietore of the Stone King'c
Chapel in Bcctcn, have of late declared that the pewe of a
nunber of the original proprietore are forfeit on account
of their abcence, a have cold eaid pewe to pereone, who
never were of tin lpiccopel Church, a who hold tenetc dia-
netrioally oppocite to eaid Church, a: eaid new proprietore
have introduced a liturgy different fru my now need in
the Bpieocpal churchee in the United 8t¢ec, & articlec of
faith which in our opinion are unecriptural, a heretical,
a: have thereby deprived nany of the proprietore of eaid
houeo of their property,...'e therefore the eubecribere
...do hereby enter our ncct .eolenn d: cerioue dieeent a
protect againct all cuch prooeedinge, a: particularly a-
gainct the cettlenent, a pretenied ordination of the eaid
Janee Preenni declaring our utter abhorrence cf neaeuree
co contrary to the doctrine, diccipline, a worehip of an

icoopal church, a: which will include in then a total

ienaticn of the property of eaid houee fr. the uce in-
tended by the original dmerc, or “adore.“-

Haudbille appeared in Salcn, containing an excmioaticn of the
Rev. Juee Preenan from the Protectant Bpiceopal Church. Bentley, of
oource, cided with French, ad regarded hin ac one of thoee leadere
of the clergy who are found ed; the forefront in every religioue refcrn-
aticn.

- In'January, 1788, another nore vehenent protect appeared. the
undereigned Proteetant lpiccopal ninietere declared,

the prooeedingc of eaid congregation ueually neeting at the
Me chapel, in Boeta, to be irregular, unecnetituticnal,

 

‘5. I. 81.
“O I. a3e

J, .
c .
. . .
‘ l
I
a
. , . . . . ,
I . .~ ' . , A a ,
‘ .
t a . .
.
. I
‘ l
., ‘ ‘ -. . I
I ' I
Y
I
‘ h 1 .
. c . ‘ .
5 . ,e ,
, - —" d I I
.
‘ .
l ' ‘ . ‘ . . ..c
K
. .
o - .
o t . .
I ,
' t
_ .
’ . a . n
. ‘
.y’. a .
; I
r
a ‘
o
I .-
D ' '
I ' ' \ .e. v
1 . ,
.
‘ v ,e ‘ ‘ c. D .
. n
r .- v
d. -
. , .
‘ ' ' . . '.l.
' .
, .
l ‘ . ' v
J. I
V I I‘ ' . . " 4
. e
‘ l
. . . ~
. .

I
4 , - .
t . ' , a
o A . ‘ . . -’ (
e l . C I
1 1' I . I ‘
n
. ‘ , ,
.. ‘ . ‘
, ' . _
‘ e
. a I
p r
V
I , ' . _' .
‘ r

a
.
. .
.
e
‘ ,
e
4
l
.
O...
.
‘-
-ev
9
.
.
.
_.
e
p

I
.
.
A
t
.
. .
.b ,
.
e
n
a
O
.
LO
‘ .
n
, c
,

n ".
I
K
_ f .
"
.
.-
h
I
D
. h
e
~ "' ,‘u
, -. ..
\‘
. .
_ .
. . ‘
' v
.e .
. t.
.
l
..
... q
‘ O
. .
..
.
I
t \
a I
.
., A
x. v
-,
O I
. .
U

. p,
a . \
r - .
I '~
.

23.

di-etrieally cppcaite to every principal adopted in w
Bpieccpal church: eubvercive of all order a regularity, a:
pregnant with coneequencec fatal to the interact of re-
11am."-

In epite of ouch protecte, Juec Pro-an and hie congregation rc-
nained intact, and he continued preaching hie own dootrinee. their
nature nay be judged by a Chrietnae cernon en the lagnifieat which
Bentley heard, and in which Preenan "ebeerved that the nae Savior
wac not Qpropriate In congratulated all nan d: aninale upon the hopee
of exictence preeent a well ac future.“ the it happened that
Unitarianien wac eetabliehed in Boeton in the late eighteenth century,
thth ”not yet in an of the Original Congregatiual churchee, at
leaet profeecedlyJB- thie unprofeeced etatue of Unitarianien re-
nained until after IBM, for in that year Bentley wrote that although
it eeened agreed that nany incline to that doctrine, Preenan'c Chapel
at Boeton wae etill the only cocioty which had been forned on Unit-
arian principlec.

By 1805, the extent of the pregreee of the liberal novenent be-
gan to nabe iteelf evident, for in that year Henry Ware, a Unitarian,
becaue Hollie Prefeeccr of Divinity at Harvard, the chief poeition of
theological influence in laecachucette. . the beginning of the Unit-
arian controverey ie ucually fined at thie appointnent. Bentley hae
two entriee concerning thie event; both enpreee hie e-plete Qprc-
val of the appeintnent:

february, 1.15 When the Profeecor Iare noninated by the

Corporation wac reported to the Overeeere of the Univer-

city, after cone ailence, Borce dared to object in the

ncct open nanner. And hie plea wae that the Profeeeor-

elect wac not a trinitarian, co the foundation required.
the vote obtained in defiance of all the influence of

 

‘1. I, 81.
d8. teeter, m cit., p. 278.

-9

a
. ‘ .
\
.
a
-’, l
‘-
1 r -
no) . n .‘
.
e . ‘cl
. 2
c
O
c

J . .
, 1' ' ?? “.-
.‘v', " "
. . ‘ ' "

I. . I
‘ a. ' ‘
9 . .1 e
z. '
. " ‘) ‘ a
- . 9. as- - a
. O .

24.

thie weak and troubleecno non. do that Bevd. Henry
Iare ic our Profocecr of Divinity. thie ie a great
point gained for the beat hopee of our college at
Cnbridge in the view of the ctrength of religioue
pardon“.

Ania.
Dr. lorce...hae taken up the College n Cabridge a
hac publiehod a Panphle of 28 pagee with hie nae
entitled "the true reaccne on which the election of a
Hollie Profeeoor of Divinity in Harvard College wae
oppoced at the Board of Overeeerc, 14 fob. 1806.” the
principal argunont ic that hr. Rollie wac a Calviniot,
provided for a Calvinict, a hie bounty ic violated in
the Choice of Ir. Ware...But if reaccn be allied to
bligiu hr. Hare nay be ac loud a friend to the Church
on any of hie predeoeeeore....the Profeeecrehip nay get
new reputation fron the loot appointnont. It met'bo
nortifying to loree, Peareon, a non of their etanp,

that they can rule at Cubridge no longer. A few yeare
nore a the Univereity not have beccno ccnteqtiblefioo

rm. avowed liberalicn a Harvard reeulted in on. founding of
Phillipe Acadeqv at mdovor in 1808, ac a cuitable place for the
preparation of orthodox ninietere. Butley sq. than: on. theolo-
gioal «11.5. no firet oonteqlated by ‘Bdwardiete and Bopkineiane,
but they norged their contributiaie with Abbot and Phillipe. Both
Dr. Pearoon and Dr. Korea, the non Bentley detected, were on the
Board of tructeec. Bentley propheciec that "the want of harnony
between the theological intereete at Canbridgo a hdover, it ie on-
pocted will oceacien cone coriouo coaraecnonte to the new inetit-
ouch-"510 m. M to ctay the advance of liberalicn appeare
to have been ineffectual, for by 1810 Bentley telle of attending an
ordination at lcrth indover which wee fron ite oircunetancee an in-
terecting event. Although the icadeq or theological School wae op-
peced to the inetitutien at Canbridge, the Profoeecr of Divinity of

 

._.,__

“0 111. 1‘1.
50. III, 149.
‘10 III . 3“.

, ..I
.
.. i ‘
C.
O
I‘ -
. .
.
_ _. (.. 1 '-
.‘
.
. .
'X
.
‘- .i
\
U
.
.
.
i
. ..
,e
- n
!
0
I
.i .
._

..l
O
l.

l

a

o . I
‘,

..

 

.
O
-
l
O n
. I'-
‘ c
I
I
.
.d
-
' .
e .-
.
. 1

: ,..;t.‘.
'o ._ r -
’7‘ . .
. ,7"
0., At a,
Lyn , 3'
'0,' e. ’
gm
C. I ' l
.
: . a"
-o- .
.v‘ if
v '- - f

It..-

I
‘.
1
I
."A
.- ‘

'e
.
V .
§ .
-. ’
.
v
. I
.
.._..

e
'\
-.‘.
. e
C
O

25.

Canbridge had full authority in the eolcnniticc, and the Council
and the candidate were of the cane intent.5z°

Although Bentley telle of ‘Iillian Bllcry Channing being involved
in a trinitarian controverey ac early ac 1815, it wae not until four
yearc later that thie chanpion of Unitarianicn preached hie fanouc
eerncn at Baltinore. the oceacien wae the ordination of a profeeeed
Unitarian clergy-an. Be cqhaoiecd the validity of hnan reaccn ad
nan'c reepcneibility for a right uee of it. He held that reaccn wae
above revelatia, and that God would not reveal hineelf in truthc
which were unreaconablc. He then attacked the doctrine of the trin-
ity en the grcunic am it deetroyc the unity of God and 1. ilpoceible
to etate in ccriptural language. the doctrine of the trinity nabc
Cod three different boingc, ac dcec the divinity of Chriet nake hin
two, one divine, the other hung. llfheec doctrinec are neither clear
nor renewable. the orthodox God and Chriet are unintelligible, hence
unbelievable. Bic objection to orthodoxy than, wae baeed on hie view
that hunan reaccn ic valid. Be pictured God ae being firet of all
benevolent, and hie juctice not be in beeping with hie chief attri-
butc. Application of thie principle led Chuning to reject total de—
pravity becauee under plain norality, creating nan with anind eon-
pletely diepoeed toward evil would abeolve him fru guilt. _

leece Stuart of mover Beninary attenpted to anewcr Chuning,
but could not do co effectively, eepeeially en the point of the unity
of Chriet. the roeult who that the Unitarian cacrificed the divin-
ity of Chriet to naintain hie unity, and their opponente cacrificed
1n. unity in all but wordc to naintain hie dual naturc.53- Stuart,
however, wac n enpcrt at enogecic, and ectabliehed the dual nature

 

52. 111. w.
53. Doctor, _gp_._ cit., p. 299.

26.

of Chrict from coriptural teetinow to the extent that he caved the
divinity of Chrict for later ohurohee. the trinity, however, loet
ite place ac the great fund-ental doctrine cinply beocncc ncn could
not underctand it. thie ic plain enough in Bentley'c 9.131: for al-
though 1. the Convention Sex-non of 1aoc, total depravity and the
trinity were warnly aecerted to be gospel dootrinec, he caye little
hope ie left for a refornation in theeo mirth“. 3y 1814, writing
of a nee who hae been preaching on the ”Scheme of Bonehip', Bentley
referc to the doctrine c. having been r‘aiced fron the'deed.55'
Allied with Unitarianicn in itc battle with orthodoxy, wae
Univerealicn, a for: of liberalicn of lecc ultimm inportance, but
me which denandc at leact a brief coneideration. Univercalicn wae
introduced into incrica in 1710, when John mrrq fro- Lcndon, “think-
ing to bury hie ruined life in the herlom wilderneec, dieoovcred
that cone pcrconc in new lnglmd were ready for the gocpel of uni-
vereal calvatiai which he wae under equleion to preaohJ“. Be
cpread the dootrinec of Janee Belly of London whcce beliefe were ex-
pounded in a work entitled 93.121 or g treatice 3f the coneggpinitz
. gig Affinity between Chriet 331 hi: Church. It Unitarian felt that

 

 

nan wae too good to be duned, Univerealiete thought God wae too
good to c.- . m.57o f X

It ie not difficult to inagine the attitude of the orthodox to-
ward Univereclien if we ooncider the viewe ite adherentc held on the
great dootrinec of election and Judgncnt. lax-ray taught thus the
elect were elected to a knowledge of truth in thie life, and that they
enter paradice i-ediatcly upon death. the rect depart into darhnecc,
not of puniehnent, but of unbelief or ignorance. Bone gain enlighten-

k

54. III, 230.
56. IV, 269.

55. J. [rout and D. 3. ton, the eqletion of Independence, (lew
IO, 0 19“). pe 167e F

 

27.

nent in thie period and reach paradiee, the rect await the finel
judgnent where the cheep are divided fron the goatc. the cheep are
interpreted to be univereal hung nature, the gate the fallen angelc,
ad it ic this latter group only which ic cent into everlacting fire.
In 1779, Hurray organieod the firet Univerealict church in Glou-
ceeter, laecachucettc. Bentley epeake of another Icrray who wae a
'Precbyterian. He wac known popularly ac "Donation" mrrcy to die-
tinguiehohin fr- "Salvatin' Hurray, hie Univerealict contcnporary.
Of "Salvatiai' Iarrey, Bentley cayec

0n thnredq evening of the 29th we were entertained fron

the pulp t of the Firet Church by the celebrated Ir.

I. [urray the Univercalict. Bic introduction to that

church we dare not rooo-end, however he wac liberal in

hie new vent wetioienc, out of which he foiled a re-

ligiouc eyeten...rendered plactio by a cuffering God o

happy to nankind fron an indiccrininating calvation. 0

In 1784, Rev. Charlec Chaney of the Pirct Church of Boeton,
iccued Salvation M _l_en_, the firet narked evidence tha Univereal-
icn wee finding a place in the congregational clergy. the the-c ef
thie work wae that although cone 3n night pace through ncny ctatee
cf exictcnoe, the ultinate roeult would be heaven for all. Bentley
recordc Chaunoy'e death in 1787, lietc hie principel werke, and
charactericec hin by caying that ”upon the whole he wae the loot
ueeful nan of hie age, a: perhape the greatect divine of I. Englud.'59'

. the hat great Univerealict of the period wac Hocea Balleu,

preacher and uthcr. It wac he who effected Univercnlicn'c trancfer
true the trinitarim to . Unitarian baeie.‘°° It 1. intereeting to
note that according to Bentley'c record, thie chift in the doctrine

eecurred in Balleu perconally ac well, for in 1500 Bentley wrote:

 

“O I. 8‘.
“O I, 58.
50. ’OItCI', 9-.- Oite. p. 317c

28.

In the abcencc of Ir. turner...hac queared ac a
Preacher one Hocea Ballcu of Bernard, who ic ninicter
to the united cooietiec in that neighbourhood....He
hae taken a different ground fron the Rellyitee 8
therefore 31‘ not quite co moh favour....He ic no
Ufllfiklfl‘lflle °

However, in 1815, Bentley cayc:

Be,[Ballcv§, hac appeared largely fron the precc,‘§d
loet nuch of Calvinicn, am ic not a trinitarian. 0

Ballou taught that God did not hate nan after the Fall, and
that eternity after death ic univercal holinecc and happinecc be-
once the effcotc of cin are linited to the ctate in which they are
euitted. He argued that calvation nuct be univercal, fcr'God
wouldn't give an a longing for i-ortality if it wac not to be cat—
icfied. Ian cane fron God, did met eventually return to hie couroe
of enanation.

the low England theologienc feared and fought Univerealicn be-
cauce ncn lihc Chaunoy approved of it while retaining their churchec
and their reputatione of orthodoxy. After Univercalicn beeane Unit-
..1... however, it loct loet of ite dictinguiching charactericticc,
and the trinitarianc caw that in attacking the nore fornidable Unitar-
ianicn, they were ctrihing blowe at Univercalicn ac well. the re-
cult wac that Univercalicn becue all but obliterated ac a ceparate
novcnent.

thue it hcpened that Galvinicn loet ite place ac the predoninant
religion of Iew Ragland. Incffencive dootrinec and practioec often
continued under the label, but in their conpronicec with liberalicn
were hardly nere th. Calvinict in acne. Unitarianicn hd won ite
battle with orthodony, but only to watch the ricing power of the
lethodietc and Baptictc who were conquering the Feet and the natim.

n__

61. III, 392.
.20 IV, 8310

29.

In addition to tracing the great religioue controverciee at the
turn of the eighteenth century, Bentley'c 9.192 ic of real interect
in ite revelation of ace of the incidental perccnalitiec and eventc
of religioue eignific-Ice, ac ceen through the eyec of a participant.
Bentley know noct of the early Unitarian leadere, and alwaye kept
hie fingerc «1 the pulee of low Ingland religioue thought and action.

a: June 28, 1786, Bentley nade a cinple entry: ”hr. Haclitt
preached in the nornin.”53° thie preacher wae Iillicn Eaclitt,
father of the Inglich eccayiet, who had left the Precbytericn nin-
ietry to becone a Unitarian. bong hie chargec in England wee no
at Iaidctone, where he frequently net Dr. Franklin. theeo neetingc
perhapc influenced hill in hie ceiling to Ancrica in 1783.

Bentley reocrde hie appearance in incrioa in 1784, and callc
him a nan of good natural abilitiec, but of enceccive ceal. He avi-
dently plumed into heriecn religioue affairc, for he began pub-
liching attache on the trinity and wac cencured for hereey in new
plaoee. He had cue trouble with Dr. lathcniel Whitaker, the nan
who introduced Precbyterian dootrinec into Salon, andwho wae .4-
vicing certain perconc not to reccucnd Haclitt. haclitt attached
Ihitaker for having called Joceph Priectley an "infmuc fellow“ Juet
bccmce Prieetley "doec not, like you, believe exactly an hie mrce
hae taught, or ae the ‘Iectnineter divinee 5.11"“ 150 yeare ago.”“0
In additi- to ucing a eharp pen, the hglichnni, while at Phila-
delphia, ”delivered a oeuree of lecturec in the college on the evi-
dencec of Ohrictiniity. he ie eaid to have founded the firet Unitar-
ian church in Boeton, Iaecachucette."5' the caverity of Heelitt'e

 

cc. I, 21.
c4. 1, 35.
c5. 22, m, 317.

tenpcr prevented hie cuccecc in the parichec, and Bentley notec thd
he cailed for England again in October, 1788.

mother greet figure in early liberal theology wee Dr. Joceph
Prlectlcy. He wae reared a Calviniet, but becane a Socinian while
at the Acadeq at Daventry which ceenc to have been to the eighteenth
century non-confcrnictc, what I-anuel College had been to the eeven-
teenth century puritan diceenterc. Pricctley entered the ninietry
an did conciderable publiching, often coneicting of attache on
trcditional Chrictian dootrinec cuch ac the trinity. By 1785, Bent-
ley wee dietributing Prieetley'c eateohicn which had been publiched
in extractc for that purpcce. three yearc later, in giving hie good
friend th. B. Hodgec inctructionc for celeoting a library while
abroad, Bentley wrote: ‘

In religion, Priectley'c encller tractc, ac all you nay

went 'to know of the cinple dootrinec of Chricti unity.

Your own good heart will cupply the rulec for practice.

Priectley on enquiry will reccneend the liberty of

thinking.for yourcelf.65° '

After hie hue, chapel, coientific apparatuc, and bocke were dec-
troyed in 1791 by ncbc becauce of hie cynpathy with the French level-
ution, Priectley noved to herica in 1794. In Philadelphia, he do-
livered diceourcec on the lvidenoec of Divine Revelation to audiencec
which included ncct cf the ncnberc of Congrecc and the executive of-
ficerc of the governnnt. the roeult of thie vicit wae the fornation
of the firet Unitarian Society of Philadelphia."° time it ea...
about that the diecoverer of oxygen ic .alec rencnbered ac having a
large part in the ectablichnent of Unitarianien in both England and

herioa.

66. I, 111.
67c ‘11“. 2-: Cite. 1, 65a

o
O
.
n
.
.
I. ‘
I .
.-
p
.e

.
w 7 ‘ I
.
. .
.0
. ‘
‘1 1 “
. ’ i .
. . ' h '
0' '
I .‘ '
O - - ‘ .
\' ‘ ' '
I . I
0; a. ' . '
.
. v I '
1 I . 't" ‘ . I
' .
.. . ' . .‘ . ‘
‘ ' , c \ “
-.
. a ' “' ‘
. v - .
1
C ‘ |
J 1 . ‘ ' I'M
. l ‘
.' l . ‘
C
.4 'v" I
I ' '
Q
I
C u . I -
I ~ ‘
‘r l .
'-IQ' ‘ ' '
. ."' fl“ ,‘ . x . ‘\
. . J, c ~ ' I
. : . . '
v . '
.c ' .
‘. ... ‘l ., ' ‘ .
’ I
7' ’ .
I 6 \ y i. I I '~ ‘
' ' . . I O
. s v‘ a v ' ' " 'L "
‘v . b ' ’
I. ' ‘ 1 ‘ '
cl .
I ' II
1 ' '
. 1 . cl '
4 I \ I
D . ‘
. I ’ n _ O '
b < “
‘ ‘4 'v
, ..
O
4-... . . . . . . . e - —‘"- ‘-
.
C ‘ .
o' - '

31.

there are referencec in the PM to new ninor evente which
are neverthelecc of interect in attempting to get a conplete picture
of the religioue life of eighteenth. century lew England. Ilenticn ic
node of the changing of the Church of England liturg which the
lpiccopalin Church had to bring in harnony with the goverment of
the new republic:

In the recponeec Save the Church ic cubctituted in the

place of Save the Iing....the prqcrc for the governnent

are by the alteration of nanec, in the Litany inctead of

King a: Council, governor, and council, a. inctead of

1mm... the judgec, a cubordinatc nagietratec, co. 3.

Iith the rejection of Puritan theology, it wac only natural that
there would be a rejection of the Priner which taught original cin
along with the first letter of the alphabet. Bentley rccordc the
gradual chifting toward cccularication in education:

[1782] Ice delivered to no A Priner engaged by 200 copiee

for the uce of w parich...'!5c object in thie publication

wae not to countenance a work of thie kind, in which the

particular prejudioec of a religioue party, or my relig-

ioue ccntincntc are inculcated, but ac an internediate

ctep to the utter abolition of cuch workc, d to introduce

regular gran-ere into our Sohoolc, cc. cc.59°
there 6.. acre of . leg .1. ceoularication in highcr education for in
1802 Bentley wrote of 1.51103. ctudy at Harvard:

In directing the ctudiec of the ctudentc, Hebrew wae re-

eon-ended ac leadi to all divine knowledge, but french

to every evil, lo rench Inctruetor ic now cnoourcged

etc-bridge. 0-

the failure of the new Conetituticn to require religioue tectc
for office holderc ouced cone omccrn in Iaccachucettc, for the fact
wac dicoucced in the Convention cpeech in 1788. the epeaker pointed
out that it wae foolich to think that an athcict would coneider an

oath to the Chrictian God ac binding on hin. He concluded that the

 

68. I, a.
69. I. 71.
70. II, 446.

. I
. I . .
.
. i . 1 .
\,‘ .u
. ' ‘ r. .
. k" '
.0! .
‘ a
l
.'\ I a. ‘
I
' w
. ; ‘ c'i
Dee. ' A
I. ‘ ' -. - ' l
\ “ ~ . ‘
,.
. '. - .
.
c . . ’ I.
. I
. . ‘-’ ' . 1 . .
. 0 ‘ ‘. ‘ . r.- _.
‘ w
o. . . .l
. , . ‘
r. ‘ . I. v"
. ., . .
h " . I.
I I
c ' ._ ‘ \ " ,rf ‘ .- ‘ ...-
~~ , I. A _ ,
- I
o
‘ ‘ i a. .
. t '
' v e.
o a .
. . .
O. , ' , f .. .h .'
. , S. ;
., . . I
. ' I
I . ‘
.
.. I. . c . .
“
i . H
.7 r .' ‘ . I“
. . I
_ "
O 1 ‘ ' r
I ' 0‘ <
. . ..
I v . cl
‘G
. I I '
I 1
‘ e , k . ,° .
O 4
' , .c. _ ‘
.3 , ‘
.. |
'c I .
' V ‘7 I . '
. . I
' u
. a
. E e
O . .
.
. .
O ' g .. .

32.

only evidence of the cinocrity of a nan'c religioue ccnvictionc wae
the extent to which he 1.4 the good 11:..71-

‘lhile Bentley wae noting theeo and many other changcc going on
about hin of which he approved, he did not fail to obeerve with emc-
thing like the fearc which hie liberalicn had cauced, the graing
power of the Icthodietc, ad ecpecially, the Baptictc. thie rice in
influence, he attributed partley to the religioue-political linec
which had been draan.

\

[180$] Contrary to on. predictionc of nany who wiched to
enIict religioue ucng political prejudicec, never hac
there been greater religioue convulcion in the public
nind cince the revolution. the lethodicte by their nan-
ner of cupplying preacherc have had great advantegee in
our new cettlenente. the reaction hac been great, a. the
newc of cuccecc hac been very influential on our oldeet
cettlcnente. the active part the regular clergy have
taken with the cppoeition of the prcccnt edninictration
Jeffcrcon hae thrown all the diecontentcd into the
cect of the Bapticte, who have been by law cxeqtcd
frcn taxec. the introduction of laynent, ac they are
called, or zealoue pcreonc without a public or regular
education, hac mch contributed to influe coal 8: every-
where we find convulcignc, ceparationc, coal a epirit-
ual gifte celebrated. '

the conecrvative Congregational clergy cecnc to have been aligned
with the Pederalictc, whereac the Baptiete tended to repreccnt the
Republion or Denccratio policicc. In 1802, Bentley wrote:

the Beptictc by attaching thancelvec to the precent
adninictration have gained gre¢ cuccecc in the United
Statce a greater in how England than an cect cince the
ccttlenent, even beyond conparicon. thie ceene to be a
warning to the Churchcc of the other dencninationc.

the late addreee of the Danbury Accociation of Baptict
Churchec to Precident Jefferecn with hic cncwer of the
precent nonth are before the public. the precident ic
in full ccncent with than upon the uce of civil power
in the Church. the Baptictc are in their conctitucnciec
ncre republican than the ictc tho' hardly nuch
nore join their profeccion. '

Bentley'c characterication and attitude toward thie Baptict novencnt

71. I, 88.

72. III, 65.
73. II. ”9.

33.

ie intereeting, and at tinee anueing. An 1804 entry reade:

Leet Sundq Dr. Bitten carrying a corpulent woman in-
to the water, wee thrown down by her 4: wee obliged to
receive help from the Byetandere. Several incidente
have tended to nake thie node ridiculoue. the eonverte
are fru a particular claee of people.7*o

A year later he cc-ente with acne appreheneion ae follower

It ie eaid that the clergy of the town are about to

print a refutation of the Deptiete ae the Baptiste con-

eider ae free plunder all the nenbere of their Churchee

e rebaptixe all who have been eprinkled at any age or

baptieed in am fcrn in infancy....l cannot think our

Clergy equal to the controverey.75° ,

.Perhape the thing which Bentley wee neat dieturbed about wee
their lack of learning ad the advent of an unleamedclergy. He
felt that a nan without education, intellect, nannere, and eeneibil-
ity would not bleee aw cane, and lanente the fact that low England
wee being flooded with ignorant itinerant preacherc.

1806] the ewarne cf itinerante are euch ae were never

fore eeen in our country a: they are very troubleeo-e

fron their ignorance a: intolermce. We have no cure

for then but the pen, which ought freely to laeh eueh

unprincipled fellowe. It ie not ageinet their opin-

ione we act but their licentioue invectivee. We can-

not let the ineecte bite «I: be “ill, we met etrihe

then, at but brueh then off. 0

there wee no nere dietincticn between clergy and lay-en in
acne areae of fanatieien. A prine oxenple wee the public baptien of
a nan and wife by one tayler, a technic, eepeeiallyextraerdinery to
bentley becauee taylcr wee a boy in the neighborhood, and did not have
the advantage of a etrenger in concealing hie early habite end ignor-
ance. Bentley netee the increaeingnunber cf Conregeticnal ehurchee
without ninietere, while the 'enthueiaen" eecte were mltiplying, and
eayea

Ia object not to opinione but to the want of talente.
Ia lenent the eucceee of the fanatical, not of the regu-

 

74. III, 85.

75. 111, 151.
7e. :11. 212.

I '1‘
Infinite 1&1. .1 It

r.

I\

 

a...-..

lar clergy. to the nen whoee indferetione have expoeed

ue to the neat illiterate fanatice, brought in by the

folly of thoee who have practiced the acne arte for the

cane popularity....0pon the whole the literature 0; re-

putation of the Clergy hae declined a: we have not non

to etand aeWinthie generationaethe laet did in

their tinee. ‘

theeo worde are not in the epirit ef the liberal theologian,
looking forward to the great age of enlightened religion which would
inevitably follow the externinaticn of dark Galvinien. It ie the
epirit of one who locke beak regretfully, and eeee that in letting
acne cf the old ideae go, perhapc all have gone. tron the inteneity
of dcgnatic Calvinien, lew England had paeeed into nild and fluid
Unitarienien. But the line could not be held there. A people taught
they could do without the triune God, econ learned by theneelvee that
they could do without 1n. Unitarim God. the evolution wee compute
when in the let year of hie life, Bentley wrote of the oongregdzicn
cf lorth Church, Selene "the people are well infomed generally in

all thinge better than in religion."

 

77. IV, 458.

35.

Chapter IV
Bentley, Political Hietorian

Iillian Bentley'e 93.21 begine with the year 1784 and continuee
through the year 1819. thue, he lived ad wrote through the yeare in
which herica evolved fro. a wobbly aeeortnent of independent coloniee
under the Articlee of Confederation, to an ever expanding young repub-
lie with a growing coneoioueneee of being a United Statee. thie evol-
utionary period, at tinee pleaent, nore often painful and blundering,
takee on new intereet when the Diary eervee ae a omentary.

the yeare i-ediately following the peace with England in 1783
were filled with econolic and political confueion. the financially
aberraeeed'gcveruent wae unable to diecharge the war debt, even to
the revolutionary any. do a reeult of an unfavorable balance of trade,
too Inch epecie wee being drawn out of hearica. Congress attempted to
cetablieh a eyeten cf coinage in 1786, but lack of bullion reetrioted
adequate ieeue. Continental and etate noney at varying degreee of
worth drove the enall anount of epeeie renaining in the country out of
circulation, thue reieing pricee. taxee were high, unenploynent general,
the jaile were filled with debtor prieonere, and from the naee of citi-
'eene the cry went up for a new ieeue of paper noney.

In 1788 ”cam ctate legielaturee were carried by the paper-noney
forcee."73' they paeeed neaeuree allowing debrtore to diecharge their
cbligat‘ione in alnoet worthleee currency. In the important etatee cf
Iaeeachueette ad How Baapehire, however, no relief wee given by the
concervative legielaturee. the preeeure in theeo two ctatee nounted un-
til the eituatien bee-e a etruggle between debtore on the one hand and
ereditore and the courte on the other. Certainly, nixed with the real
injuetiee cf the eituation, wae an undercurrent of individualien and

k — ——

73. A. levine ad a. s. cm... _1_ Short Hietofl 35 33; 1mm Stetee
(low York, 19w). 1). 119.

#

rebellioueeeee, eenewhat reniniecent of the epirit of the. Boeton tea

Party.” the neat eericue ineurrection in Iaeeachueette wee that led

by eveteree ef Bunker Hill, Daniel Shaye. Bentley'e account of the

dieorder inlaeeaehueette, written in a teree, ecnpaot etyle, conveye

the teneeeeu of thoee troubleeone nonthee

hug. 30. Ineurgente appear in arne at Northanpton....0ourt

of can Pleae etOpped by Ineurgente at lorthanpton, Aug.
29. Alec at iorceeter, Sept. 5....

c. of cannon Pleae etopped at Great Barrington, Berkehire,
Sept. 12c

the Cenventicn in low Beqehire ooneieting of SO towne out

ef 200, have the one effect ae in the Bay.

Sept. 20. the ineurgente eurrounded the General Court a
Preeident Sullivan, ieeued hie nilitary

b.“ t0 “a
crdere, a eeaeonably cruehed the rebellion.... 0

the Supreme Court wae protected at Springfield by am ageinet the.

ineurgente. In October a union of the General Court paeeed the Riot

Act, mjlot of Indemity, and n.p.-nee the m... ccrpue mu Jan-

uary, 1181. the next nonth a party of horeenen went into the interior
Me of liddleeen, e111 apprehended eeveral dietinguiehed riotere. at
thie tine the whole county wee in oonfueion. the county of Brietol

had caught the infection, "d: nothing ehort of ecnpleat .arelv wee be-

fore ue.‘
Door 5. the Ineurgente in arne nede a fornidable appear-
ance in loreeeter Oo-ended by one Shaye, 0. one

“.0101“
Shqe the ceteneible head of the ineur-

1787. Jan! 10.
gente had taken poeeeeeicn of the State Barraohe at

htlmd.
Jan? 12. Procl-ation calling on the people to oppoee force
by force. In arny at Icreeeter under the «mend of
General 1.3ch on Jan! :2 to protect the Court of
Seeeione. 1- ‘
a: J unenry 26, General Sheppard fired on the ineurgente at Spring-
£1.14, killing four nan. three deye later, Lincoln joined Sheppard
there and after dieporeing the rebele, pronieed a pardon to all privatee

who would 1v down their arne and tab the oath of allegiance. Finally,

v—f

19. Albert 3. Hart, ed., Cemcnwealth Bietog _o__f_ Iaeeaelmeette (low
York, 1929), III, 6067

 

80. I. “O
81. ‘ I, 55.

 

.-
.
n:- ’
e
.e .
. In
. ~ .
,1
‘oo
‘O
‘I
.'_
.
e'l I

v
“
..
v1
e_' v
‘. .
a
e If.‘
'v I
a
I‘ .
‘_
.. O
. .
l 1'
.
,,
LY"
.g!
pg .a
' d
. .
. ‘
.e
I
f I i

r-
.
.
I
.
.
.
.
. "a
.
e'.

37.

on February 4,

the Imurgente diaperee fron Peterehan, to which place Gen.
Lincoln narched frcn Hadley SO nilee, in an open country in
extreae cold. the Court declared a Rebellion to exiet d: on
the 9 of rob! a Proclamation ie ieeued to apprehend, Daniel
Shaye of Polhan, Luke Day of fleet Springfield, Adagqghecler
for

of Hubbardeton, a. lli Pareone of Adana, offering 1

the firet, a 10022 for each of the othere. the neaeuroe of

the Court are unainoue. they approve of Sheppard'e con-

duot. no a neat eudden turn in given to public affaire.°2°

than, with a few of hie non, eecaped to Verncnt, and gcvernnental

authority wee quickly reetcred. that the leader nq well have had a

pereonel active in the rebellion in inplied by a 1792 entry, wherein
Bentley nenticne that "D. Shaye the noted head of the Ineurgente, ie

now in lcrceeter Jail for debt. a'charity ie eclicited for 1.1.183. n.
evidently had been deprived of hie citinonehip, for the next year Bent-

 

ley eaye that he wee petitioning that thie privilege be reetcred to
bin. ‘
It wee inevitable that dieturbacee euoh ae Shaye' Rebellion

ehould can a reaction in the direction of a etronger central govern-

nent, particularly in the thinking of non with a etake in oociety.

Property and wealth could never be eecure and etable ae long an the

lower conic-1e claeeee could regard araed ineurrection ae a plaueible

eeoape fron their problene. thie ccneervative reaction, oonbined with

varioue interetate omercial problene ad the nay cbvicue inadequaciee

of the Articlee of Confederation, culninated in what beoae a convention
which wrote a new federal .eonetitution. Perhepe becauee of the ceten-
eibly unimpreeeive tank of the original convention], or perhapc becauee
at the sec racy which guarded ite real bueineee, Bentley'e firet nation

or it in in October, 1787, when n. writeee

the roeult of the Federal Convention appeared aong ue thie
It exoitee great epeculaticn, a I hope in epite of

“.k.
prejudiced nan, who influence, that it nay go down. Sac

l7

2. Ibid.

 

 

e I .
I e
a O
. r
a .
we. . I
w.
e e
I
. t .
. I v e I
. I .
I . . a I . . I C O
o, .
O p . \ . r I .
. . OI I s. In I ’
o. l
I e
. . .
. . I e e
o I I a J .I I
_ I? I. 1 I
d I e O I I I
I e
o I . . . . I. ' I; e
e .. v, . . I
e e .
. I . I .
. . f
I v .
. II .
C I I
. . I a. I
I . I I
OI .. I .
L e I l I
. e u
a. . I
q
I
w . .I
I I
e . _ . .I
.n l u
. . 7,5

l .
. e
. O I
. . .
. o e .
A e I
.
. . _
O I e e
e . a a
o I
I .
D
( .
. . e . . I
,
. t . .
0e
. . , . I _. .
. 1
.
l O n 1 . I I
e . .
.. e . . .
1 Q
, .
n w . t
a I
I :
. . . I
. I
.
. O
. e e
. . . . .
'
. . I
e . _ e
. . I
I a g .
. w
. . . .
. ., e
_ . I .
I . .
. I
n I
. a. .
O
.
U
I

111- I...I,II,.J

38.

conplaint ie nedc that the advantage in unduely thrown

in favor of the rcpreccntaticn fron.the eouthern ctatee,

do. Mca‘.

thie evident dieaproval of the Conetituticn wee by no neae un—
ueual ac ic denonetrated by the real etrugglc for ite ratification.
Early in Dcccnbcr, 1787, nonbcrc were chcecn to the llaeeachuectte con-
vention on ratification, and 'onfilednceday the 8th rob! 1788, the 222:,
oral Conetitutionnwee accepted in the leecachueotte Convention, ycee,
187; naye, 178.”35' laecachueettc I... the eixth ctate to ratify, and
not until the end of June wee the ninth acceptance eecured.

on Monday, 23, we had newc that the m...“ constitution

wee accpted in low Hapehire Erune 21 by a najority.

teen, 57. Kaye, 48. ladority, 11. he Belle rang in

town, a there wee proocccion at noon, of which the chil-

dren of the eohccle nadc the principal part.86o

Although thie ninth ratification of the Conetitution wee eufficient
for ite ectabliehnent, "between the ctatee cc ratifying the cane,"
the government did not declare the Conetitution to be in.cffect until
the firet lcdnceday in larch, 1789.

In.l789, Bentley devoted two pagce to a.conplctc deccription cf
Preeidcnt‘leehington!e vieit to Salon. the dcccription ic intereeting
for two rceccne. Pirct, it conveyc the dignified, fornality ad aloof-
ncce that were characterictic of the firet Prceidcnt. Second, it aug-
gccte the unainoue approval of the na, the abecnec of party which
typified the firet part of hie ednfluietretion. Following a.proccccion
and the reading of a cpeech to hin,

the General then.reed an.lnewer, & the Crowd dieporecd after

eeveral ncet loud Buccae, with the fullect cxpreeeione of

the higheet eatiefection....ln.thc Evening he received the

principal gcntlenen cf the town. the Clergy were firet tn-

trcduced, took bath, but did not cit down. After Seven the
General attended the hecnbly, a. tarricd e111 aftcr nin..87o

 

84. I, 78.
85. I, 88.
88. I, 101.
87. I, 181.

 

 

 

c a
n I
.e e '
I .._
. ..
. .'
. '
.. O
. .

39.

Perhepa the ncct aignificent thing about the laahingtcn adninic-
treticn waa the financial progra of high-powered Alexander Hailtcn.
lention of only two of hie neaaurca are found in the p_i_e_.1:y_._ After
'battling hie Funding 3111 through Congreaa, the young Secretary turned
to hie next propoaal, the aceuation by the national govern-ant cf the
ctate dcbta. Aa he had aticipated, there wee a cplit over the nea-
aurea. Inaaachuaetta and other ctatee with 1.:3. dcbta, the capital-
iata, ad the large citica favored it. Georgia, Maryland, and Virginia,
and the agricultural claaace generally in cppoeition were lincdup a
the oppcaitc aide. Reflecting the fcelinga of Iaaaachuactte, Bentley
noted in larch, 1790, 'Gencral anxiety to know whether the whole Cov-
crnnent concur in aeeuning the State dcbta.” About a week later:

 

the Aaeuntion of the State Debta ha been negative in the
Bcuac of Repreacntativea by a anall nedcrity. thie ia a
aubjcct of mch epeculation. the Gaaettca however encour-
age the public that a future rceolution of the Ecuac nay
quiet all fem.“-

Of the fcca cf the Bill he cayae
the cppoeition on the part of the Southern Statea to the
aaaunption of the State Debta cecaaiona a great tenant,
and we are told that partiec in the Houae of lopreacnt-
ativee are ac high, ac they can be acng their Conatit-
ucntc. It ia pretended that the northern atatca having

urged the Slavery Bgll, laid the foundation of auch
bitter eninnaitica. 9-

It ia interacting to note in paaaing that the north-acuth alavc
ccntrcveray wee en iaauc already in the Pirat Congrcea. the Aaaunp-
tion Bill wee paeeed ultimately by name of typical Henilton atratcgy,
buying enough Virginia votea with a pro-ice that the capital be lo-
eatcd on the Potonac. Irho other neeaurc of Hailton'a prcgra which
the Pl!!! nenticna ia the unpopular hciac tan, a bill both to raiac
rcvemc and to dencnatrate the gcvernnent'a power to tax the individual
directly. In 1792, Bentley wrote.

 

88. I, 158.
89. 1’ 160.

Eleni. I a .n...

'7

40.

the excise on apiritcue Liquora ha been co heavy, that

ach fraud hen eneued, a: for the firet tine we ace the

Prcaident'a PROCIMIOI forbidding all auoh fraudulent

attenpta upon the rigour of Law.900

Another doneetic problen facing thie early adniniatraticn waa
India trouble. Bentley notec that the Ohio aettlencnta were frequently
under attack by the aavegca. theeo hardy eettlere cooking to better
their lot by "the prcnieed glory of lualcingm”, aucceaafully ccnbatcd
poverty, only to fall a "prey to the peracvcring cruelty of the Savagea.”
Bcntlcy'a ncntion that Haeaechuactte had contributed of her noon to
theeo acttlemonta ia indicative that New England wae already declining

in relative inportance. thouaanla of pe0ple were noving out each year,

 

i :ea‘aee

and when the ccnauc ahowed ncre women than non becauee so many of the I

"I? “i if. .-

latter had gone to cook their fortunea elaewhere, New Englad wae ex-
hibiting the phcncncna of an "cld ccuntry."91- there wee alao India
trouble “in the country back of our Southern Stetca.‘ thie aituaticn
waa due partly to the recentnent by the Indiana of the encroach-ante
of the whitca, but alao to the agitation of Spain. Ac poeaoaaor of
Louiaiena ad Florida, ehc controlled the ncuth of the Miceieaippi, and
an a buffer hept the entire ecuthwectcrn frontier in a atate of hoc-
tility. 1111. led Bentley to record in 1790', ”Great expectation of .
Spaiah War."9z' '

Fortunately, by Waahington'a aeccnd edniniatration, circunatanoea
had ac changed that the Spaieh gcvernnent was willing to negotiate,
and in 1795, the treaty of Sen Lorenao waa concluded.

Pcrhepa no other foreign affair at thie tine ahowcd the utter in-
ability of the United Statea governnent to protect ita citizena abroad
quite a clearly an the trouble with the Algeria piratca. thia pro-
blen which faced Iaahington wee that concerning the Day of Algiera and

 

”O I, 399.
91. [rout ad Pox, op. cit., p. 8.
92. I, 205.

41.

the Mediterranean trade. thie trade had been alncet deatroyed by the
Day, and ”by 1792 ncre tha a hundred Anerioena lay in bondage to the
Boy, with ccuntleaa European hoetagea, for each of whcn the unacrup-
uloua ruler need to denand raconc of fron $1,800 to 84,000."930 Bent-
ley apeeka of a letter frcn a prieoncr at Algicra who had been there
eight yeare, ad wee ccnplaining of being left no long in confinement.
the 11411 reveale the ahacful treatment of the prieoneras ”Our
friends in Algicra are treated. a Slavea, their heada ahorn, chained
together, drceaed in frocka and trowaere, a enploycd upon the public
worka."94° In 1795, a treat waa concluded with Algicra, which not only
provided that the United Statca ehould raaa hcr citizcna, but alao
required that ehe purcheee further innunity fron aciaurc by a annual

 

tribute of norc than $25,000. herioa had Juat begun to learn the hun- ...--- I

iliating vulnerability of a co-erciel nation without a navy.

Icemhile, the revolution in France had becone the center of at—
tention in Anerica. Early in 1792, Bentley rcpcrta one of the newe-
paperc ea taking a decided ctad ageinet the Jaecbina, ad openly ridi-
culing the oheractcra of their generals. thie wee hardly the typical
attitude of hericana, but certainly rcflecta that of the New Ingland
todcraliete. the execution of Louie XVI did great daage to the trench
cauac in Ancricae

the nelacholy newc of the beheading of the Roi do France ic

confirncd in the public opinion, a. the event ia regretted

neat ainccrely by all thinking people. the french looae

nieh of their influence upon the hearta cf the hericaa by

thie cvcnt.95°
A few wecka later:

the intonation frcn the dccrcca of France, a. the ncacegc of

the King of England aufficient to aatiafy ua that France haa
declared waa ageinet Englad a Holland. thie ia the topick

 

93. linear, g; cit., p. 183.
94. II, 84.
95. II, 15.

. ..
- .
a Iv .
.
: N
. . 1t
. u . a .
e . .
.
.
.‘
. . A . v 5 :1
.I it . I
u ; . I!
I I a
. a . I
. .
a . a I ...
.
.. I .
. . O a .
'
a . a.
. -
. .
i
, .
.
a e e
.
,I - , . .
o a
.
a
.i .x
I
I l- .
r
, .l.
. .
. .
r
a e .
. . .
. u .
. . . a
.
I C
. .
. ..
.
. 7 :
. 1.0
e u , .
'
. .
. . . .
.
e ..
r .
.
. I.

42.

of the day, a: there ie a great general anxiety to know what

part herice ie to take by the treaty with France. the con-

vereation will ahew which ie noet powerful, honour, or in-

tereet. 5° ,

moat imnediately, Bentley eaye, partiee began to appear for and
ageinet the French, and the old friende of England began to ehow their
heade. Preeident Waehington, aware of herica'e unfitnaee for war,
decided to ignore the French treaty, and proclaimed that America we
at peace with both England and France. Anarican neutrality wee to in-
volve her unpleeeantly with both of the belligerente. In June , 1793,
Bentley reoorde the "great appreheneione" in regard to the detention
of Anericen ehipe to eeeroh for trench goode. By July, the conduct of

mm towerde United sue» veaeele m b...- the 'eubject of e.-

 

bate in convereation e in the 9eeettea.‘ the old prejudioee ageinet
Ingland retained from the .Revolution, were arouead in acne ninda. the
public eaw a dark future for Englmd upm the defeat of the Duke of
York: "Ireland in Rebellion, Scotland reviving ite antient claine",
and eignificently, ”Canada united to the Statee of lorth America, am."
there wee no doubt acne wiehful thinking concerned in the latter apacu-
lation. By larch of 1794, anti-Britieh feeling wae running etill
higher:

(he of the Boeton India-en hee arrived at Portanouth, but

dare not eroee the beyfor the port of Boeton, on ee-

count of a Frigate fro: the Englieh in the Bay. the whole

Go-aerca of our country 'ie cacrificed, a all the flatteriae

we beetow upon the Rngliah are now converted into the moat

bitter invectivee.97-

Iowa etreaned in continually of eeiauree of hericen nanohantnen.
One captain returned froa -a three year voyage to India, having been
detained and enbargoed in different porte eeventean nonthe. With no
etable principlae of polity in the country, confidence in the govern-

lent daily dininiehed fron the want of energy everyehere perceived. On

 

96. 11, 15.
97. II, 84.

 

11E¢ vl‘PIl ‘
v I. ,i .
p,

re
.
o .
|
1
r I
O .
I
. .
e
.
e
.0.
e
C
O
c
.
. . a _
.0
.
.v
a ¢ a.

 

. .
l
. .
. . a
. .
e . n 0 e
. u .
. .
. ‘ e .
. .
A

..-
‘ ‘
e I. .I
. w
0
- . t
. e o I
.
.
1
v
. 0 AI
. .. ,
O . e
.
A . ..A _
.. H
y w
. n . ‘
.
a -
. u
'
w i
V.
a
. .
‘
,, e s
t

43.

March 30, cane newe of an awargo throughout the United Statee, for-

bidding ell veeeele to eail to foreign portec
31. Sue little diecontente reepecting an Englieh veecel
which aailed yesterday norning at the tine of laying the
anbargo. this day the return of nany of our Captaine a
friande frm the fleet Indiee after the condemation of
their Veaeele a: c oea. At prceent general eatisfaotion
with the Elbargo. reat uncertainty what neaeuree will
be pureusg, but leee hopee of peace, a: greater diapoeition
for Her. °

A few daye later cane,
lewe fron Congreee that they have formed eone epirited re-
eolvee reepeoting the English debte in our Country, a were
engaged in debatee upon the nanner of detaining then to
conpenaate the Sufferera for the late violent aeiauree.

It ie reported Vegan hee offered to go a take Quebeo
fron the Englieh. °

thie repeated deeire to lake Canada a part'of the United Statee
developed into one of the oaneae of the War of 1812.

the enbargo wee lifted May 26, end at that date the Continel
lieted the number of nerohant veeeelc lying in the port of Salon alone
ae being eixty—eix veeeele, eix ehipe, thirty-three brigantinee, twenty-
eix eohoonere, and one elocp of 8,270-tone.1°°° the loeeee in co-Ierce
continued to vex the people very much, but ae Bentley wrote, ”we have
no refuge. levy we have none. Arniee we cannot contend except a-
geinet Cmada. .Ie give the greatect aeeietanoe to France by our eup-
pliea.”1°1° In a deeperate atteqt to avert war, Waehington eent John
Jay, Federaliet Chief Juetioe of the Suprene Court, to England. JV one
back with an axtrenely huniliating treaty, that along other thinge,
failed to nention the vexing natter of the impraaanent of American eaa-
nan. Sonathing of the public reception thie doounent received ia re-
vealed in two 9.125! entrieec

 

98. II, 85.
99. II, 86.
100. II, 94.
101. II, 134.

 

 

 

44.

the public resentment is so great against the treaty,

that it is believed that Jay has been hung a: burnt in
'Effigie both in New York a: Philadelphia. the public in-
dignation is roused, an the papers begin to talk of lost
liberties. In Boston, such persons as assembled on the
subject of the treaty, voted their dislike in the most
pointed terns, d: their contempt of the whole. The Secrecy
under which this business has been covered has pared to
sxaeperate the public nind, upon the discovery. '

the secmd entry reveals not only the resentment of Philadelphia,
but also the powerful pro-British influence exerted by the Federalist
nsrchants of Salon:

News of the burning in Bffigie of Ir. Jay in the neighbour-

hood of Philadelphia. the belle tolled on the 4 of July

instead of ringing, a a nournful silence prevailed through

the City. In this town the non who hold securities under

the government are sufficiently influential against the

disquiete an angry eiqoreeeions of more dependent people.1°3°

In the midst of this unpleasantness cane the presidential elect-
ion of 1796. Washington, who had shared Republican inveotive with
Jay, felt he had had enough of public life, and refused to run again.
Cantankerous John Adan shouldered the party leadership, and with
the help of a powerful New England Federalist following, defeated
Jefferson, who bee-as vice-president.

Largely as a result of the keerican grievances against Britain,
the pro-French party‘seoured nomentery donination. But in 1792,
Bentley reported that the loss of several vessels belonging to Salen,
captured by the French in Spanish ports under unknown circumstances,
had given a serious alara to the nerchants. Showing his awareness
that his tanhee nerohant friends were cqlately notivated by business,
he suns up the position of herioa:

the true sense of the hericane will acre depend upon

the incidents of the season, than that of any people

on earth. Disaffeoted by the British, a affrarted by

the French, they will be deceived by the first thing
which looks like interest.104.

102. II p 1“.
10:. Ibid.
104. 11, 227.

 

 

 

.
h I
. . . u n
u I
t
I . n .
. a
.
.
t A
e .3 y .
_ .
. . . .
h . as
.) . l
r n I. .
. e
I ‘ e
.. .
.
. e .
I I
e I
.
I
. 1
, .
. v
.
r4 a
t
. a
s O I .
.
I 1
.
I !
I I'-
,. Q .
: . O
.
a O
.
v n
o
O I
.
e
' I
a

45.

the publishing'of the m affair was followed by . wave of
patriotisn in the United States. President Adans created a navy de-
perhsent, ordered twelve new vessels for the navy, and allowed the
nsrchant ships to era. ”the 311993 are withdrawing tron our country,”
wrote Rev. Bentley in 1798, end ”all intercourse with the £22.15 is
interdieted by a Law, pointing out the tines when such law shall have
effect.” By the next day, Ansricans had already tahsn actions

Reports thd: the Ganges, an herican Sloop of war, has

taken a French Privateer. It seane to be determined that

unless France decides the hex-icons will asks a war with-

out fumerenony. 5°

the chief significance of this undeclared naval war of 1798 was
that at last herica began to build war vessels. the gig speaks of
the launching of several of these, enong then the frigate, Essex, of
Salas. Iaanwhile, it had becone increasingly evident that France did
not desire a war, and the hostilities were concluded by a treaty in
1800. '

In 1801, England and France signed the preliminary articles of
peace, and the reception this news received in law England shows again
the devotion of this section to trade:

m evidence of the fact [or pun.) was official 4. m no

news of such inportanoe could be received by all parties

with greater silence, or nore nixed election. All rejoiced

3.22m: 2;“.3; smug”;1:;:t;:.:h:.:rzaz.°w

Before the news of peace in Europe reached Anerica, a great change
had cone over the Republic, a transfornation worked by the nagio of
the voting polls. In 1800, Anerioa, for the first tine under the new
Federal Constitution, had changed political parties. Already, in 1798,

Rev. Bentley noted that electioneering, with all its frauds, had be-

105. II, 271.
106. II. 403.

46.

gun to prevail in the nation, and the newspapers had bosons the vehi-
cles of the several name of inflaning the public nind. By the next
year, two parties and their leaders had bosons distinct, for he wrote
of a newspaper which had been,

inspected a regulated by the Federaliste, as they are called,

in opposition to the Jacobine, or friends of tho Constit-

ution, but not of the Adlinietration. the distinction fight

nore properly be of the Adanitee a: the Jeffersonians.1°7-

Jeffersonian denocraey was triumhant in 1800, and herica entered
upon a new phase. Bentley, consistent with his liberal thinking, was
of the Republican party and persisted as a wann supporter of Jefferson
and Madison.

(h December 23, 1799, the news had reached Salon of the death of
General Washington. Notice was taken of this great event "by the
telling of the Bells at Sunrise, by hoisting the flags half-nest, by
discharge of Cannon, a. by ceasing from Business.'1°3- For weeks the
nation was in nourning. Bentley was asked to deliver an oration,

a eulogy on Washington, on the day of nouming for the first President.
After recording that day's solemn progran, the pastor added in hunil-
ity, "A few hours of preparation met be an excuse for him who thinks
no hunan talents can do Justice to W.” the feelings of the nation
culminated on the comma birthday, when the ”Day of National Sorrow,
a: Public Grief" was observed.

New England was so solidly Federalist that Bentley indicates even
to his own surprise, the nild attitude shown towards Jefferson's first
adninistration by that section" on occasion. After a day of tribute to
Jefferson in 1803, ranarkable for its harnony, the pastor observed
that “when the prejudices of Essex are considered a the violence of

political party a the long continued opposition to all republican senti-

 

107. II, 319.
108. II. 3%.

47.

nents, this lust be deemed an uncommon event in the history of Essex.”109-
to RepublicanLBentley it was no'wonder that Jefferson had violent enp‘
emios among the New England aristocrats, for "the country was to be

a feast to this new nobility fron which they are excluded with dis-
grace.” But the Jeffersonian.political philosophy was beginning to
nuke inroads, even in.Salon, for after a great election struggle in
1804, Bentley reported that the result "discovers the change of influ-
anee a the Republican.ticket succeeded in.Salen.for the first time in
the choice of Governour a Senators."11°° this change was even nore
pronounced after Jefferson was returned for a second tern. 0n thanks-
giving Day, 1804, Rev. Bentley wrote;

iluoh has been said of this thanksgiving'but such a change

has been.nede in the tone of parties by the late election

that Massachusetts has quite a.different face. thanks-

givings were days of political intolerance. Ivory insult

was given in the none of God to the friends of the pre-

sent adninistration. the reserve, the fear, a even the

hypocrisy now visible are strange substitutes for past

insolonce. Party cannot be disconmended for firmness,

dignity, a generous pleas. It is to be dispised for inp

science in power & for cringing neanness out of it.111-

to Bentley, Jefferson'wee “the nan I esteon as the greatest nat-
ional benefactor."

One phase of oocnonic life under'Jefferson uponnwhich Bentley con»
nented was the great activity of the banks. the bank nania had be-
cne so pronounced, that an aseesblynan renarloed thu "they night on-
pect that every conpeny of boys, which had a stock in narbles, would
apply to be incorporated." the pastor felt that the banks had greatly
aided co—eroial and agricultural prosperity in the nation. In Salon
alone in 1804, there were two banks, two insurance conpanies, and
neay associations whose function it was to stinulate conneroe. the

evils which accoqanied such enterprise did not escape the careful diarist:

109. III, 14.
110. 111, so.
1110 III; 1240

 

I. IE... s

d? H.)

i .I. [lit ill

 

48.

there are several examples of counterfeiting the paper

noney of the Banks. As there are so nan Banks, a: so mch

of its money in circulation, should the ills be discred-

ih’ié.fi&§°232§’?§'§£fi"i Sniff???" ’h‘ Wm“ "

In his second administration, Jefferson, a philosOphic pacifist,
was to be hounded by ever-increasing noun. abroad. In. gig-z
points out that already in 1803, reports of a European war were the
topic of conversation, and that true to Yankee fora, 'neny in the Con-
neroial world wish it.” Peace could not last long between Great Brit-
ain and Napolem, and on Key 18, 1803, England declared war on Prensa.
Since England doninated the see, but could not attack Napoleon on
land, and France doninated Europe, but could not attack England ef-
fectively by sea, the war becane a colossal duel in which each nation
attempted to starve the other. to both belligerents this nosnt
blockading the cmercial supply lines, and since herican nsrchants
were doing their best to see that these lines should be oonposed of
herican ships, the burden of such warfare inevitably fell heaviest
upon this nation. to nan her navel blockade, England needed her see-
nan nore than ever. Free a conscription that placed than in the
dreadful living and working conditions of the royal navy, British
sailors deserted in droves to Ansrican vessels where pay and treatnent
were oonparatively decent. this meant that the iqressnent of her-
icn1 seansn would be practiced with renewed vigor. All of these pro-
blens involved the great port of Balen intimately, and hence found
their way into Bentley's M. A few nonths after the declaration
of war, the first nsntion appears of the capture of an Anericen ship.
the problen also involved British onereial regulations. England,
1805, tightened than in this nanners

Public nind nach agitated by the Consrcial news which

has arrived. the British have adopted a new Construction
of the right of neutral powers. the Delivery a clearance

 

112. 111, 20.

w‘|.v‘l Cub

.rr .ne

’1

49.

at neutral ports in their own bottas does not asks neu-

tral property. We have gone to foreign ports 8: have returned
to Aeerica a then after clearance at the Custon House have
gone for EurOpe a a narket. the English deny this right

at a tins when an innonse property is upon the Ocean a with-
out any notice have actually taken and condonned many ves-

sels in the exact state in which exists all our Comoros.
About the Inpressnent of our sesnsn little cerenony is
observed. at first sons prudent pretences were used.

low little regard is paid to any protections or situational-13°

A few days later he wrote:

the conversation of the day is upon the oppressions which
our Comoros suffer. the English blockade, capture a ad-
judicate at pleasure. the alarm is so great that vessels
fitted for sea still lay in port unable to proceed upon
such risks as now exist. the neat noisy are those who
wish a war to asks a change in our Governnent. the con—
plaints are general a: ednit nany reflections in the ninds
of those who apprehend any undue Mercantile or Co-asrcial
interest.114-

In Decenber, 1805, Congress was in session, waiting to receive the

President's address. the insolence displayed by England had aroused

public opinion to a point where Jefferson felt the turnoil called for

at least domestic action. on Decenber 10:

this day the President's llessage reached us from Washing-
ton. It is spirited d: agreablo to the feelings of the
Cusroial part of the Nation. the building of a Navy,

of Gun-boats, the discipline of the Hilitia, a such topics
were never nore weloone to the injured feelings of the
Citisens. Upon no political subject has general consent
been nore manifest. 15- ~

By 1808, the tension had become greater stills

We hear frcn New York that the British 8111 Leander wan-
tonly fired on a elocp 4: killed the late John Pearce]
the inhabitants took alarn at it. Seised one of the
Crew ashore, took their provisions from then a the City
was in uproar. the English Consul was obliged to leave
the City a: preparations were male for a nest solenn
procession which would give the last fury to the public
resentuents. the nerchants turn this event to their own
account to urge the defence of their harbour by proper
nilitery fortifications a naval force.115o

 

113.
114.
116.
116.

III, 190.
111, 192.
III, 204.
III, 225.

50.

the olinax of the attempts of the British to reclaim their non
fron Anerican ships cans in 1807, when occurred the Chesapeake-Leo-
pard affair:

We are again elarned by British egressions on our'Coast.
the Chesapeake Frigate of the U. S. A. of 38 guns, sailed
fron the Chesapeake on June 22, was stepped by an English
Frigate named the Leopard, on seve!;lmen demanded. Upon a
declaration that no such non were in the ship, the Leopard
discharged several broadsides into the Anerican Frigate,
killed 3 an, a wounded 18, a: the herican Frigate struck.
She was much danaged. After the men were taken the Pri-
gate was left to take her own course a the English Frigate
returned to her anchorage on the coast where she had laid
with two English two deckers'. What will be the conse-
quence of these frequent insults free the British time
will discover, the Anerican spirit is roused a ready for
vengeance. We have one nind on the subject.117°

Indeed, herioa had not been so unified since the outrages of
d
the Revolution. But Jefferson, still wishing to avoit war, nsrely
issued a proclanaticn, which probably satisfied Bentley more than the
average her-icon:

this dq was received the Excellent proclanat‘ ion of the

President refusing all intercourse with British Arnsd

Ships on our coasts, but with such fine statenonts of

the agreesions a with such clauses in favour of hunan-

ity as must give this State paper the highest value in

the history of such important transactions as have oc-

casioned it. We continue to have proofs of uncxnpled

firmness in all our great Cities 4: the hangers assonbled

far exceed those of any forner occasion. 1 ° ‘

11 any of 100,000 non was to be raised in the United States, of
which Salon's quote was 140. This detach-ant was nade up and also
the cadets and two light infantry ccapanies fru this city volunteered
in the cause of their country.

By the and of August, 1807, Bentley wrote: ”We feel an alnost
universal stagnation of business fron the late outrage in the Chesa-
peake." In the nidst of all the war hysteria, it is anasing to read

that ”nany papers in Boston begin to speak nore openly their attach-

117. III, ”4.
118. III, 307.

 

E .w‘a‘n. . . D14

 

51.

acute to Great Britain a all its neaeures. Nothing Anerican escapes

censure."119o On the surface of the thing, it scene surprising that

the very nerehants whose ships were being taken by the English,

should be pro-British, but the risk of seisure had forced freight rates

and prices so high, that herican nerchantnen braved capture and con-

tinued the trade, "since a fair profit could be realised if only one

vessel in three eluded the British and landed her cargo."120o thus

it won that Bentley wrote aocusingly: "Sc attached are our Seaports

to bargains that we should be hardley induced to believe that they

would think of considering public liberty the best bargain."121° Fin-

ally Mgland went all out inqan attemt to blockade Napoleon conpletoly:
to have acne alaning intelligence fr:- Eurcpe. the Ing-

lish have interdicted all Neutral cc-erce with France, its

Allies, a dependencies. ls are now prohibited frcn safe

concrce through the world. 220 .

Jefferson now felt that actim was necessary, and in Decenbor, 1807,
he sent his asbargo nessage to Congress. By keeping all United States
ships off the water, and stopping supplies he though indiepensible to
both nations, he hoped to force the belligeronts to ronove their dras-
tic neaeures. In his Decenber 31 entry, the diarist noted the efiargo
and added his defiance of the English ncnareh:

the Instructions respecting the Enbargo reached us this

day, a sad ending of the year....the King of England in

his note by his Ministers to the American Minister tells

us, that if our Governnsnt “by its conduct or assurances

will have given security to his Majesty” against innova-

tions of naritine law then a treaty, but if "such conduct"

does not please his Majesty a libs good boys we will not

study the lessm he gives us, than his boys shall whip us

whenever they can find us. Perhaps he m not find us

next year such hopeful scholars as he wishes.135-

According to Bentley, the embargo never received too nuch opposi-

._‘_ _—

119.1111. 314.
120. Asa E. Martin, History 33 the United States (Boston, 1948), I, 387.

 

121. III, 320.
122. III, 336.
128. III, 336.

I.

Q
I
. ‘1
’ s
v ' ' I w
- O
' a v1 . .
.
.
‘ a
In, ‘
I . 4 I
.
' o e
. O
O o
O
. . ‘
e
. -. '
I
' I
. r
I 6 1 ' ‘ I ‘.
. e
e
A
' C l r.
f I O
W 1.
I A n 1 .
' 1' .
1
. ' ' is .. .
s
. ‘..
l
v .
. I
,, . . _
C
.
O I
~ I
I I

 

 

C
I I . .
. O
'
I
..
.
' 4 /
’ l
. A
n
I I
x
1
w
‘ ‘
, .
.
h
. . ,
g V
I s 0 “ r
'
I’ f
‘ . .
I .
' ‘ I
Q ' l
I \ I I-
. I ‘ ' l '-
a . , .-
I l
.‘ s. n ._
C . '
. .
n _ .
' I
e . ‘
.
O . .
' . a 4’

52.

tion in Solon, but in Boston and other lusechueotts ports , it wee
fought fron the beginning. Alnost imediotoly "sprocoesicn of lurin-
ers a: persons without employment fron the Enbnrgo, peroded the streets
of Boston with s flng hslf nest, to excite elsrn, a: not without en-
couragement from our internel enenios."124o Willi- Grey of Solon.
whus the poster. describes os perhepe the wedthiost nerchsnt in tho
country. openly declered his gaprobetion of tho edninietrstion end the
enhnrgo. Fron tho town meeting st Boston, however, s request went to
the President to suspend the onbsrgo in whole or in port, end siniler
petitions were poseod in Bowburypcrt, Beverly ad Ienhnn. By the full
of 1808 , tho opposition hod gsined powerful support: ‘

Such hos been tho industry in low hglend to misrepresent

tho object a: nature of tho Enb o thst ell tho four low 3.

otntos have in their respective gielctures o noJority o-

gninst the nessures of tho Gonorsl Goumont. flow for the

disoffoction will sprood in the Southern States cannot be

conjectured, but such e.ro tho exertions a: such the success

with e. peeplo impstiont of everything which confronts .thoir

ruling passion, the love of goin, that the sons of unbition

a: the English Agents have every hope of ecconplishing their

designJ- 5-

‘rho nerchents persisted in violsting the onbnrgo, and openly con-
tested the Constitutionelity of the lsw. One of the leaders of the
opposition wss the rnhid Podorelist, finotlw Pictoring, n non who.
Bentley thoroughly despised end detestod. Pickering insisted thst
Anorieo. could hove hsd s tresty end that the euhergo was s needless
rssh set of the Jefferson edninietrtticn. By 1809, the enforcenent
officisl hed resigned st Boston, and st Beverly. o. lnrgo guerd wes out
to protect frm nrrest e. vessel loading ogninst tho 1...].26. Unet-
ploynont hen progressed sufficiently in Solon to require s “Soup house”
did other ohsritios. "The young semen, nstoe s coptnins ore the suf-

ferers,” wrote Bentley, “the poor sre fed to surfeiting a would be

12‘. III, 3370
1250 III. “So
126. III, 409.

st

53.

glad of an eternal onbargo on their labour if they could be better fed
for nothing.” Early in 1809, the opposition had grown too strmg to
resist, and the repeal of the enhargo was contemplated in Congress.

In the midst of all this clanor, J anos ladison was inaugurated as
the new President on March 4, 1809. Three days later news reached
Salon of the partial repeal of the onbargo, and shortly after Bentley
roportods

In the United States, the Merchants return to comerce with

great avidity a: without any question of consequences. Such

is the lamentable thirst of gain that we can hope for g?

honour, or right, or quiet in attempting to check it.1 °
Returning fron larblehed one evening, the pastor wrote:

The Collector assured no that a greater number of Vessels

had gone into the foreign trade than at any forner time.

25 had sailed for the West Indies a: as many for Europe.

50 Sail of Fishermen had gone on their fares. law were

preparing for sea a; the hopes of the people were abm-

ant y revived after the long a: distressing Margo. '

An interesting aftth of the abargo controversy was the uncov-
ering of a correspondence which involved ll'imothy Pickering, 8. Willinas,
fornsrly the hericsn consul, and Ir. Proble, fornerly consul at Cadiz.
During an intinasy with Willi-s, the English ninister Canning had sud-
donly changed his attitude toward herica's ninister to England, '11-
lian Pinkney. The reason for this beesne apparent when a letter of the
above correspondence was node public:

the letter as represented to Gen. Armstrong from S. Wil-

lians to Preble stated "that he was authorised by his re-

lation Iinothy Pickering to represent to Mr. Canning, that

it was the wish of the Eastern states to separate fro'n the

the Union, that they wished to be inforned how far they

night calculate on the aid a protection of Great swam

to enable then to effect an object so hasardous a: so in-

pcrtsnt.129-

lo wonder, said Bentley, that a toast at lewbury Port was to ”B.

 

127. III, 427.
128. 111, 443.
129. III. ‘49.

.1.

I .
s A.
A .
. a
a.
. I
. I
O
s
a
I
i I
o
O
.
o

 

 

 

 

53.

glad of an eternal ewargo on their labour if they could be better fed
for nothing.” Early in 1809, the opposition had grown too strong to
resist, and the repeal of the enbargo was contemplated in Congress.

In the midst of all this clanor, J amos Madison was inaugurated as
the new President on larch 4, 1809. Three days later news reached
Salon of the partial repeal of the embargo, and shortly after Bentley
reported:

In the United States, the Merchants return to commerce with
great avidity a: without any question of consequences. Such
is the lamentable thirst of gain that we can hope for a?
honour, or right, or quiet in attempting to check 1t.1 °

Returning fron Marblehead one evening, the pastor wrote:

The Collector assured no that a greater nunbor of Vessels
had gone into the foreign trade than at any forner time.
25 had sailed for the West Indies a as many for Europe.
50 Sail of Fishermen had gone on their fares. Iany were
preparing for sea a the hopes of the people were ohm-
ant y revived after the long a distressing marge. '

An interesting afternath of the charge controversy was the uncov-
ering of a correspondence which involved Timothy Pickering, 8. lillians,
fornerly the horican consul, and Mr. Proble, fornorly consul at Cadis.
During an intinacy with Willius, the English ninister Canning had sud-
donly changed his attitude toward herica's ninister to England, Wil-
liu Pinhney. the reason for this beesne apparent when a letter of the
above correspondence was node public:

the letter as represented to Gen. Armstrong from 8. Nil-

lians to Proble stated ”that he was authorised by his re-

lation Iinothy Pickering to represent to llr. Canning, that

it was the wish of the Eastern states to seporato fro'n the

the Union, that they wished to be informed how far they

night calculate .cn the as a protection of Great Britain

to enable then to effect an object so hasardous a: so in-

pcrtant.1z9-

lo wonder, said Bentley, that a toast at lewbury Port was to ”B.

 

127. III , 427.
1280 III, “30
129. III. ‘a.

Dalia-Iv

.fr

0 314... .14.,

54.

Arnold, A. Burr, 1. Pickering, these throel' And no wonder, says
the nodern reader, that the so-called United States was not taken sor-

iously as a nation by the powers of Europe.

t t t

The return of snorican nonchantnen to the European trade after
the enbargo was renoved could only nsan fresh trouble with England
and France. Desperately trying to avoid war, Congress in 1809 passed
a neasuro praising that if either of the belligerents would cease at-
tacking neutral ccnerce, non-intercourse would be continued against
the other. The shrewd Bapcleon announced in 1810 that he had aban-
donod his restrictions on trade, thus forcing the United States into
non-intercourse with Britain. Although the French Enperor had ncf
any thought of keeping his word, he knew the fatal strain his move
would put on Anerica's relations with England. that his calculations
were correct, is proved by such 1811 Dig: entries as this one:

things are hastenim to a rupture with England. Our Vessels

are condunod taken as coning fren France a. it is to be

feared all our Vessels at Sea will be soon in the sane con-

dition. This occasions no snall irritation in the public

nind, especially anong those who correspond with England

a hold property fra thahsountry. Sons talk loudly of

war 4. others against it. '

By the spring of 1812, Bentley observed that "the new orders for
the troops a the new loans look like serious intention in the Govern-
nent, which is dotornined to raider itself rospected.”131- i'his elo-
nont of deterninaticn in the governent nay well have been a reflection
of the character of the twelfth Congress, which had not in November,
1811. It was led by the young war hawks frcn the West and South, clay

Johnson, and Calhoun. These non represented additional desires for

 

I”. IV. 89.
131. n, 94..

.l/

re}!

55.

war. Many settlers in the North and West were after Canada in order
to end the Indian attacks which they believed were English incited.
Sons Southerners sought to conquer Florida fra Spain, one of Eng-
land's allies. The pressure beeane too great for President Median,
and despite the opposition fron lassachusetts and New York, two of
the largest and wealthiestgstatos in the Union, he sent his war nes-
sage to Congress on June 1, 1812. The inodiate reaction in the
counting houses of New England is clearly shown by this entry of June
22:

this day the off cial news of war with England reached us.
It is signed on June] 18 instant. Its effect has been
that the lerchants who have vessels at sea of both parties
are the nost displeased a: violent. So accustcned have
these non been to consider the extraordinary pains of
their trade to the distress of Europe, so nuch the L. of
their Governnont, a: so socustoned have they been to die-
tate to the Constitut Authorities. They threaten dis-
solution of the Union. 32'

Ir. Madison's war has long been looked upon as a blundering af-
fair, not only because it could have been avoided in 1812, but also
because of the wrtched state of Anericni preparedness. The truth
of this view is proved by the disnal failure of the land operations
of this nation. By the 4th of Septenber, 1812, the news of Bull's
surrender of Detroit had reached Salon:

lo have pleas in his favour fru the public but not his

official account of the surrender. It is said his non

were sick, ill provided, surrounded a such like things.

It is a nattor of great exultation to the public Bnony a

too nuch huniliation to our Covert-ants not to alarn even

the vilest opposers it finds at hone. 3°

Public indignation continued to rise against Hull, and finally
Bentley wrote, ”Gen. Hull's capitulatim horrid”, and that in hin her-
ica had suffered "a worse than Braddock or St. Clair defeat.” lblsn-
choly reports fron the Western arny continued to depress the nation

through 1818. Along with nany Ansricans, the pastor was completely in

 

132e 1'. 102a
1530 IV, 11‘.

“Ill-siesta. ..W‘ .4

 

56.

favor of dispossessing the English of Canada, but by the middle of
1813 the news forced hin to write that "there was great danger that
all our labour in that country had been lost.” In July, 1814, the
reports case that the British were in possession of the Eastern front-
iors, and Bentley considered his State invaded. A month 1a.:- "the
public nind was in distress frcn the loss of Washington:"

It was taken on the 26th with the loss of the public
stores, the navy yards, in the Capitol. We have not the
circunstaneos to dotornino the history of the event.
We are told the President a the Secretary of State were
anong the last to leave the City. It would have been
rash, we are told, for the forces assenbled to have re-
sistod any longer. Gen. Hill who ”along: the enemy is
in possession of the President's House. °

Historians have been less kind to the defenders of the capitol,
reporting that they gave way “after losing ton killed and forty
wounded and ran for Washington so rapidly that nany Britons suffered
sunstroks in trying to keep up.”135' lot until Jackson took lew 0r-
loans, was the nation able to rejoice in the glory of an arny triumph,
and ironically enough, this victory was achieved after the peace
treaty had been signed.

Inconplote contrast to the outcone of the land forces, was the
brilliant record node by the eighteen vessel United States Navy Ir-
gainst a sea power which boasted 230 ships-cf-the-line together with
800 frigates and lesser craft. The war was little noro than two nonths
old when Bentley could report:

this day is in free circulation the Hand Bill infoming us
of the success of the Constitution cmanded by Capt. Bull
in taking the Gucrrioro under Capt. Dacrea carrying 49
guns is having 302 men. As the G. was nuch disabled a: had
lost her nasts it was thought host to take her hands out
a burn her. Capt. Bull reached Boston yesterday. This
norning a Salute from the Ships in our Harbour published
the general joy. In the evening of this day Comodore
Rogers a his Squadron arrived. The Squadron included the
President, United States, as Congress, Frigates, Sloop of

 

154. IV, 279.

136. Bovine ani Col-sager, op. cit., p. 167.

57.

War Hornet, a Brig Argus. i'he Squadron had been off the

English Channel, along the Coast of France, Spain a Port-

usd & Within 30 ‘11.. of th. 300k 01' Lilbonoeoe'rhoy had

on board 120 prisoners. July 2 took an English Brig.

July 4 Another a burnt then. July 10, Brig Dolphin,

Letter of Marque l4 guns. July 24, ship John, 16 guns,

L. of Marque. Aug. 2 a Brig with 10 the D. specie.

Aug. 17 a Schooner. Aug. 24, recaptured the Polly of

Marblehead, spoke of nany Vessels. 36- ‘

Although these successful captains were able to win spectacular
individual sea fights, their snall numbers kept then fron exerting
.1011 influence on the war as a whole. By January, 1813, the Dig
speaks of a blockading English fleet off New York, and it was able to
turn ships attonpting to leave that harbor,'back into it again. Eng-
lish arned vessels booms a familiar sight in the bays along the
Aneriean connerce into shelter; Although the sea was blockaded, the
victories of Perry and MacDonough on Lakes Erie and Chanplain, kept
up the sagging Anerican spirits.

Even nore romantic and daring in acne ways than those of the
levy were the exploits of the Inerican privateers. these vessels,
often anall, but always very fast, had been used effectively through
the Revolution, and thus in the War of 1812 they were often co-andod
and sailed by experienced nan. When war broke out, available ships
in the harbors were fitted out innediately as privateers, and nor--
chantnen returning fron Europe, lucky enough to escape English sei-
sure, converted their ships as quickly as possible. The nonth after
hostilities began, Bentley wrote:

Several Privateers have sailed fron Salon 1: four fron

Marblohead. the spirit increases a a little success

would cover the Anorican seas with then. the best pro-

videg privateer sailed from Salon this evening with 70

non. 3 0

Soon the prises, as captured vessels were called, began to appear

in the harbors of New England, and in the fall of 1812, Bentley re-

 

1ss. Iv, 113.

131. IV. 10‘.

58.

ported: ”We have Just begun to take the rich prises.“ After the
British blockade was enforced on the herican coast, the swift priva-
teors eluded the hgliahnon, and raided coneroial trade routes fron
the China seas to the English channel itself, often cutting out ves-
sels fron convoys in full sight of their naval oscorts.133° Sons con-
ception of the anount of danage done by these connerce destroyers can
be gained frm a su-sarisod report on Salon alone, which is found in

the D131:

Bron this accurate docunsnt it appears that ”Eighteen
privateors belonging to Salon have sailed during the War,
carrying 115 guns. They have captured eighty seven prises ,
fifty eight of which have arrived, carrying 127 guns. 0f
the others several were destroyed or ransoned apthe others
recaptured, or given up to prisoners. Six of the priva-
teors have been captured, carrying only 11 guns. One has
been cast away, carrying one gun. Sons goods taken fron
prises have been brought in by the Privateers which are
not included in the above ostinato. Several privateors
which have sent prises into other ports are partly owned
in Salon so that the whole anount of captured property
owned in Salon, nay be safely estimated at considerably
over Half a Million of Dollars, a the loss to the British
by the above captures nore than twice that Anount.” ”The
Captures in these: 11 Ships, 1? Brigs, 27 Schooners,

1 barque, 2 Sloops.139°

This impressive report gains significance when it is added that it
was drawn up in January of 1813, when the war nay be considered as hav-
ing just get well under way. Estimates of the total number of prises
taken by Anerican privateors during the whole war run as high as
1800.140' Many of those were recaptured, however, for although the
speedy raiders could run the blockade outward bound, they discovered
it infinitely nore difficult to gain the harbor accaspmied by a prise.
One of the nest successful privateors was nerchant Crowninshiold's
fanod Anerica, which ran the entire war without being taken. On her
final cruise, she node fourteen captures without the loss of a nan,

 

I”. am, 22:- °1t.. III, ‘95.
139. IV, 1‘7.

140. Hart, op. cit., 111, 495.

 

 

59.

and brought in about $10,000 in goods.141'

Certainly one of the ugliest aspects of the War of 1812 was the
internal dissent evident in America throughout the conflict. Massa-
chusetts and New York had opposed it from the start, and it is inter-
esting to observe the general New England attitude during the war.
Hostilities had scarcely begun when Bentley reported that "the talk
now is of a northern armistice so that negotiation has begun anew. So
our Government is over-awed by the friends of Britain in our States."142°

A Bahsna paper openly told herica thet Britain planned to form a
neutrality with the Northern States, as a neasure preparatory to a
dismembernsnt of the union. According to the 93331, Boston was the
power behind the war opposition: ’

In the North, such is the influence of Boston, that all

low England is paralysed. Great efforts are nade to bring

Vermont into the vertex of our New England prejudices.

New Hampshire has been left in the elections 1 the sealots

for a war with France are triunphing as the friends of

our peace, A flat is more insolent, of Comoros, when

Cannerce is the only ground of the war with Britain.1‘3'

By 1813, the situation had becone worse: '

the opposition begin to speak ncre openly of a separation

of the state, as their activity in disseminating political

errour is worthy of a better cause. Not an engine do

they refuse to seek a egloy. Charity, religion, asso-

eiations of {very nsns, all enployed to do the work of

destruction. 44’

Indeed, religion had wholeheartedly given its sanction to the Fed-
eralist cause in the persons of the Oongregationalist clergy. These
sealots repeatedly published political sermons against the governnent
and the war. Recalling the growing power of the Baptists and Metho-
dists in the South and West, those areas which had done so nuch to give

the war impetus, it is easy to see that the conservative new hglsnd

 

141. Iv, 323.
142. IV, 110.
143. IV, 139.
144. IV, 165.

60.

churches were in danger of comitting denominational suicide. is a
clergynan, Rev. Bentley was keenly aware of this and warned that "the
other sects profit fraa this indiscretion d: threaten the exterpatiai
of the Gong. Churches 1: this ".1 continues."145'

Had the nenbers of the pro-British faction limited their aid to
the business of propagarsia, natters would have been quite bad enough.
But their devotion to England, and especially the English pound, led
then to assist the eneny in a nore practical way. Elaborate systus
of trade were worked out whereby herican vessels changed papers, or
received English licenses, which allowed then passage through the
blockade and then to the English markets. Such practices caused Bent-
ley to observe with his usual frankness: "We are already the greatest
adapts at smggling in the Universe.”145- Actually, snuggling is
probably a nisnonsr for this trade, for the licenses to pass the block-
ade, issued in great nunbers by the British Admiralty, were openly
bought and sold by brokers in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.
English imports were brought in by various means, and, nest disgusting
of all, there were Auricans willing to provide the supplies needed
by the blcckading vessels thencelves.1470

In Decemer, 1818, lladiscn attenpted to terninate this treason by
neens of an embargo, but as usual this was a vain attempt and the
trade continued. While the American Arm was often desperate for sup-
plies, ”the British any in Canada lived on beef and flour purchased
in law England aid northern New York."1430 When Bentley encountered
these outrages, the only explanation he could find was the greed motive

which he never ceased to condemn: ”two persons," he wrote in horror,

 

146. IV, 115.
148. IV, 220.
147. Hart, 2p; cit., III, 497.

148. Ibid., III, 476.

61.

"actually piloted the anew upon a plundering expedition into Ware-
han, who belonged to the port. This appears not to be policy but _
money. The mercenary spirit of mamv men I should not have believed,
had not the facts been forced upon me, a men in high condition a of
great pretentious."149‘ _

The opposition movement reached its peak in 1814, when a group
of New England Federalists, in response to a call issued by the Massa-
chusetts legislature, gathered for the Hartford Convention. Bentley
reported:

(hr legislature has received a report signed by Otis which

threatens to dissolve the Union. A N. E. Convention, a

remonstrance ag. the Administration, a reform of Constit-

ution, as the Consequence the Dissolution of the Union.

These Speculators will run all risks of their heads to

fill their purses. It is presumed that the G. will give

place to the Chairman of this Conittee at the next

e1ections.15°°

Modern historians differ over terming the Convention a secession
movement, but at best, it counseled strongly the right of the states
to nullify federal measures, while the country was in the midst of
a national emergency. Fortunately for New England and the nation,
the tidings of peace made the whole idea seem ridiculous, but the
Federalist party never lost the stigma of an attitude that would sac-
rifice the nation for the selfish ends of New England.

Bentley records peace rumors as early as April, 1814, and in the
following February, says that they were "caused with tales of peace
from the conquered parts of our State in Maine.” By that time the
treaty of Ghent had already been signed, but slow comminications
brought this news ani the victory of Jackson at New Orleans, toplew
England almost similtaneously. The entry for February 13, 1815, reads:

This day the news of Peace reached us. A flying post

brought it free New York, with all circumstances to con-

firm it the case could admit. The public joy was loud....
We had two illuminations upon the victory of Jackson in

 

149. IV, 263.
150e N, 292.

“

62.

the past week, but we still wait for the proclamation to
confirm all our joy, as Justify all the pride and display
of celebratiogi Every moment some new circumstance en-
riches hope.1 °

By the terms of the treaty, neither side appeared to gain or
lose, aid ironically enough, there was no mention made of impress-
ment, neutral rights, the right of, search, and blockades. This met
have rankled many a s'eaman's heart, for at the close of hostilities
it was learned that in some English prisons were more than 2,000
impressed men :who had refused duty aboard British ships.1530 The
Federalists were in an awkward position to celebrate the success of
the United States in at least holding her on in a war against England,
and Bentley noted with disgust 1:11.11- method of getting around it:

By the usual artifice the Celebration of peace is thrown

upon the birthday of Washington that the name of that

Here might be an apology for the festivity of the men in

opposition a: Wednesday as a day in Lent, is to be kept

31:.relégiguslzgmcisgn the English Church in Boston &

Thus ended what has been termed the ”second War for American Inde-
pendence." So unfortunate in many ways, it yet left America stronger
than it found her, and independent of all foreign entanglements. A1-
resdy in key of 1818, Bentley had cause to write: "The lesson of, our
dependence on the southern states was never better told than in the
wants we feel a from the high price of grain of every description."154°
This growing sense of mtual dependence, the patriotic pride in the
naval victeries, and even the reaction against the sectionalism of the
Hartford Convention, all strengthened the unity of the republic. When
lilliam Bentley closed his 9.5251 and his life in 1819, the national

firmness: of the llcnrce Doctrine lay Just ahead.

 

151. IV, 314.
152. IV, 320.
153. IV, 315.
154. IV, 168.

63.
Chapter V
Bentley, Social Historian

If the student of social development was limited to one adjective
in describing the period through which William Bentley lived, he might
well settle upon the word ”progressive”. His reasons for this choice
would probably include the fact of America's youth and comparative
freedom from tradition, and also the'natural reaction which always fol-
lows in the wake of a war. But certainly he would place at the head
of his list the fundamental shift in America from a society whose core
was theological to one whose center was humanistic. This meant less
concentration on the blessings of heaven, and more upon the sufferings
of earth; less dependence on the providence of God, and more upon the
initiative of man: less emphasis on the gold of heaven's streets, and
more upon the gold of Salem's counting houses. This world was impor-
tant, and the period might be termed the beginning in America of the
age of man, by man, and for man.

Undoubtedly the most important elment in Salem society was the
sea, and this is clearly reflected throughout the 911.11. 0n countless
pages are found entries such as this one of a single day:

nary Carrol,'dang: sick, 8: son at Sea. Hannah Collins,

delivery, husb. at sea. lary Parrot, death of lather a

Husband at Sea. Elis. Parsons, death of B. Clark a Bus-

band at Sea. larg: Clark, death of Son 1 Sons at 13%.

Iarg: Gordon, death of B. Clark a Brethren at Sea. '

Bot long after his arrival at East Church, the pastor made a
list of 'such llariners in the Society, as sail, lasters of Vessels."
.Be records the names of twenty-one captains, fifteen of whom were at
sea on that date. This list included only those captains who were in
present employ in that character.”153°

In 1737, the Grand Turk, belonging to one of 3.1.». wealthiest

 

merchants, returned from Canton, China, the first New England vessel

1550 I, 260
156. I. 270

64.

to make the voyage. Although she had been gone seventeen months and
nineteen days, the cargo in her hold doubled the substantial capital
she had carried out.157° Such was the beginning of the great orien-
tal trade of the Yankees. A few years later, Capt. Jonathan Carnes,
of Salem, discovered pepper growing wild on the coast of Sumatra.
Keeping his source of supply a secret as long as possible, he made a
fortune for his owners, and Salem ultimately became the center .of the
pepper trade. In 1803, after the trade was well-established, Bentley
transcribed one of Carnes' accounts, and found that from March 1 to
May 14 of thd year, American and English ships had loaded 7,240,000
pounds of pepper on the west coast of Sumatra.158' The seamen in the
last Society did not lack encouragement from their pastor for their
commercial exploits. Upon the sea-death of one individual, his friends
and companions asked that prayers and a discourse be given them on
the occasion:

According 1 exhibited the real advantages from the reput-

ation of the Conneroial character of nations as from the

qualifications of its mariners. The just tribute to the

attainments of our seamen in the theory a practice of
navigation. On the-relative safety of our navigation.

And then added what ambition of character should be in

these expectations dc counteract the evils which might

characterize the condition of mariners a then from the

dangers of life urged their calm reason unsullied repu-

tation & Just preparation, which would give them their

best hopes in the hour of alarm 41: suffering. 59-

Another great nautical center was Narblehead, with its great fish-
ing fleets. Bentley says that the fisheries were causing Marblehead
to exceed Salem in population. They were supplying the interior,
and great quantities of fish passed through Albany into the waster ter-
ritories. The sea helped mould the rugged New England character, and
Bentley admired the perseverance and daring of these men:

The many aged muscular men in Narblehead discovers the
true character of their employment. No men endure fati-

157. Ninwar, op. cit., p. 187.

168. III, “0
159. III, 334.

lira. Ill-Jilx14llt‘ \All . i

65.

gue longer, a have more presence of mind in danger, in

things they propose A: when underlggeir own commend. Such

are their habits in the fishery. ‘

Although the merchants and shippers were at the top of the social
scale during the years of the early federal government, mamfacturers
were slowly gaining momentum through the first two decades of the
nineteenth century. Hamiltm, of course, had come out strongly for
them in his ”Report on Nanufacturers" in 1791. But the fledgling
factories had to sumount the tremenfdous obstacles of low-priced im-
ports, an expensive labor market, and a minimum of mobile capital.161'
In 1813, Americans were still relying on Britain and home industry for
cloth:

British cloths of 6 I). 20/3,. are now sold at 141 15 u. not-

withstanding all our Manufacturers, partly from prejudice

a partly from the confidence which they have enjoyed long

a the reluctance of many to experiment upon new things at

great expense. I have never seen a loom in our part of

the town till the present manent. It has produced from

the labour of private families good cloathing of all

~ sorts, sheeting, a: blanhsting, a the clcathing which has

been done at home by the misting needle is worthy of

the best directed industry. 2°

The exorbitant prices of English goods during the War of 1812
caused American manufacturers to ”spring up abundantly". This was a
shearing sign to the practical pastor, for he felt that "a long war
will give them root 8: good come out of this necessary cvil.”153' The
British, unfortunately, were also aware of this, ad as soon as the
war was over they extended liberal credit, reduced prices radically,
and followed a deliberate plan of duming English goods on American
markets for the sole purpose of uprooting these new manufacturers.
This policy led to the tariff of 1816 which was little more than a
token of protectionism, and Bentley was not to live to see the first

distinctly protective measure forced through Congress as the tariff of

 

160. N, 409.
181. Irout mid Fox, op. cit., p. 67.
162. IV, 218.

D "I “file
.‘A I I - fiélln

66.

1824.

By 1818, New England was slipping behind New York as regards com-
mercial importance, for in that year a £1.25! entry reads:

The great activity of Ccuerce at New York has opened an

intercourse that before the last war was hardly more free

with Boston. A Voyage to New York was seldom known A:

almost always a detached thing. But now it is common

to have it included in the voyage, to make it the port

of sales a to have part of the respective firms resi-

dent in that flourishing a fast rising city.164°

. I O

Nith the developent of mmfacturing and internal camerce, one
. greater interest in trmspcrtation. The need for roads was serious,
and the method of supplying that need has caused this period to be
termed "The Turnpike Brawl“. The turnpikee were built under the
cabimed motivation of public good and private gain, and the first
eharter granted to a turnpike company was in 1792. In 1803, Bentley
passed over the new turnpike road from Lynn te Belem, finding only a
few places that were met safe. 'Pcsterity," he wrote, “will not ima-
gine the roughness of this spot in its original state, after such ex-
cellent roads are made through it.‘I A. year later he was even more im-
pressed:

Banks 1 Turnpikes have greatly aided the prosperity of

the Cmerce a agriculture of our Country. It is im-

possible to visit at the smallest distance a not see

the effect upon our roads, of the Tumpiking systeme.1“°

The roads demanded bridges, and me of the earliest was the wooden
one which replaced the ferry between Boston and Charlestown. The
diarist describes it carefully, .and the Charlestown Gasette placed its
total 1m at 1603 feet. The cersmenies .e its opening in 17:16 in-

cluded military organisations, aband, the governor, the state logisla-

 

1“. IV, 382.
186. trout ad Fox, 2; cit., p. 74.

o
i
a
‘0
r
.
e
o .
, u
e
t
I
a
. .
L
e
.s
s
.I .
s
e e
.
. i.
.
. a
I .
.
.
.. .
.1
\
. f»

67.

ture, the clergy, and merchants, which implies the importance of the
occasion im.the eyes.cf the entire State. A.shmilar stir‘was caused
by the opening of the Essex bridge in 1788. The nature of the con-
struction of the turnpike bridges mmy'be determined by this descrip-
tion of one on the Salem turnpike:

The fascines were laid upon the marsh 8c the soil. heaped

upon them till near the intended surface, then slabs of

pine covered the softer earth, a the gravel was laid on

the slabs, a the sides turfed at a convenient angle.“ .

One natural effect of these improvements was that travel‘beoams a
much more co-on thing. By 1814, the pastor wrote:

Several parishioners about to take the tour of the United

States. Travel was formerly very rare 1 a man who had

beeany land through our’States or any one of thamnwas

consulted as en.0rac1e. But now it is rare to find a

men who has not been at the springs or some place of re-

sort, a many have passed the whole length of our Atlmi-

tic scant. The difference since I first came to Salem

is as great as could be imagined in a comaercial people.

A.journey tc Boston'was more talked of'& prepared for

thirty years age, than one now to New York & Philadel-

phia. We were referred to men who were in the southern

trade for the knowledge of these cities. We find

persons who have visited them be every street.53°'

Another change wrought by the good roads was the transfer of
freight shipments from.the sea routes to land routes. In 1816, Bentley
observed that at meny sales of goods from.captured vessels, transpor-
tation of the dry goods by‘wegonnwas preferred to the passage coast-
wise. The large covered wagons began to appear in New England for the
first time. "This,” he writes, ”was a thing unknown unless in the
'wers, till we had a turnpike.'159° Excellent stage lines were organ-
ised and except for ruinous competition at times did very well, soon
promising passengers elegant carriages and no shifting of baggage.

Another great innovation in transportation met be considered, and

 

187. III, 31.
168. Iv. 257.
169. Iv, 3“. d

68.

that is, of course, the steamboat. Mention of this invention is first
made in the Big in 1816, when there was talk of one attempting an
Atlantic crossing. Rumor soon sprang up of a line between Salem

and Boston and Boston and Portland, and these reports had materialised
by August of 1818.

We now learn that a Massachusetts Steamboat Company act-

ually exists. The members are from all parts of the

State. The navigation from Boston to Portland is pro-

vided a such subordinate coastwise establishments will

be made as e erience shall hereafter determine to be

proi'itableJl -

Not until, the next year did one of these vessels actually arrive
at Salem. The disasters which often attended the early steamboats,
combined with the novelty, drew greet curious crowds, so that the
wharf had to be fenced off for protectien. Since the steamboats had
ruined three companies already, there was mich speculation as to its
profitableness. Interested men were discouraged by the enormous lex-
pense, great expenditures of fuel, and of the high wages demanded by
the engineer. On July 3, 1817, Bentley recorded:

The Steamboat returned. Passage 3 hours to Boston, dis-

tance bet. 20 a 21 miles. mother stem-beat has burst

the boiler between Newport 0. New London. It is said the

Fulton boats have not been injuried but the persons busy

to avoid the patent. Ours has been under frequent re-

‘- pairs, but rather less swift in its movements than was
expected. It was said would not return to Salem from

the strength of prejudice against it. Yet this dq re-

turned 6: notice has been given of the intended passage

'of next morning by the bell man. 71

The pastor, though nearly at his sixtieth year, was still a
friend of science and progress, and accordingly was found among the
ate-boat passengers. ”The Boat," he found, "answered every expect-
ation a when an aeoomcdation is given for landing at every tide, will

find this cruise a safe and pleasant one." A few months later, in what

 

‘

170. IV, 405.
171. fl. “2.

69.

was undoubtedly a dramatic triumph, the steamboat demonstrated a fur-
ther usefulness:

The Frigate Congress going from Norfolk this month was
becalmed. One of the steamboats took the Frigate in
tow a succeeded with case a considerable an unexpected
oelerity a left her at Anchor in the road off Sewell‘s
point. This will be a lesson of real use A: will lead

us to diversify the miiments till we get possession
of all the advantages. °

Despite such feats, Bentley noted in the same entry that the
stemabcat at Salem had proved an unsuccessful experiment, and had
sailed southward. He gives a bit later what was probably the reason
for its lack of success:

The certainty of reaching Boston in two hours at two

thirds of the distance by water, gives every advantage

to the Stage. We have 21 miles to the Town at then all

the inconviences of entering a: leaving the boat when

13 miles may carry us to the bridge fru the entrance

ofthe Turnpike ewe panbetakenupeput down atthe
places we may chuse.1 3° -

v ‘41
The steembceft‘: however, was not to be realised in Atlantic coastal
passage, but rather in the great water arteries of the Nest.

t t 0

One of the social problems which shows up in the Diary from time
to time is that of the Negro. Although the Nassachusetts Constitution
of 1780 had stopped slavery in that state by nobly declaring that all
men are bon free an! equal, less noble individuals continued to find
the slave trade a profitable one. When, in 1788, a vessel, left Salem,
presumably intended for that disgusting trade, Bentley wrote feelingly:

The omer cmfeeses he had no reluctance in selling am

part of the human race. The event in its probable conse-

qusnces gives great pain to thinking men, and in consider-

ation of the owner's easy circumstances, is supposed to

betray signs of the greatest moral depravity. It is dar-
ing presumption to dictate to divine wisdom, but when

 

172. IV, 491.
1730 N. “7.

70 .

God's judgements are abroad in the earth, sinners will

tremble. The positive 1.7 of the Col-onwealth is a-

£63121; fizziglzyfiirade, which it is hoped, will be ser-

Be it said to the credit of the citisens of Massachusetts that
public indignation continued to rise against violation of this law. In
1792, the diarist recorded a definite act of enforcement. When it was
learned that a slaver had entered the port of Salem, law officials _
went to arrest the captain. Finding him.et home they burst the door.
The violator jumped from the window, but was apprehended by a guard be-
low. He was conducted to "close prison, his prOperty attached, a that
of Capt. J. Waters to:- this infancus trafick.175‘

Although free, the Negro in Nassaohusetts was by no means treated
as an equal. From that time until this, the Negro's place in society
can be shown by his effect upon real estate. Nhen m attth was
made to move a Negro hut into a respectable section of Salem, even
Bentley was forced to admit that such buildings proved ”invariably an
injury to the neighborhood, depreciating property, dispersing all the
Tenants, a subjecting the persons near to every interruption.”175- On
one of his morning walks in 1816, the pastor observed approximately a
hundred huts and houses for blacks in the vicinity of a factory. hi
”African School” was kept in this quarter, and "it is properly our
black town, but too many marks of poverty in such a town not to indi-
cate more the poverty of education, than of means."177° Domestic
Negroes were not numerous in New England" because they were useful
only as they were bred in families or brought imadiately to them."

Bentley lived to see the beginnings of the national controversy
which began in 1818 when.the territorial legislature of Missouri p.-

titioned admission to the Union as a slave state. The pastor had his

 

174. I, 104.
175. 1, 554.

1760 II, -340

‘I '1" 1'1? one

71.

usual suspicions concerning the real motives of the anti-slavery sea-
lots. In 1819 , he recorded:

Town meeting upon the Missouri Slavery. The question
would be more interesting if it could be believed frm
the persons busy in it that they did intend only the
humanity professed in it. But they are the same men
who have jealousy of the slave states as receiving
public honours d: ipaoying a more refined as improved
state of society. °

Bentley quotes in this one entry the very prophetic words of the
Richmond Enquirer which road: "No are afraid it will lead to discord
between the free a: slave holding states.”

Q t t

Eluents in any society are the inevitableness of crime and the
necessity of punishment. New England society was no exception, and
mention of misdemeanors great and small found their way into the Dig.

Probably the most interesting mid fully treated case was this one which
began on August 4, 1806:

This day a most mlancholy event happened in Boston. Mr.
B [enj main] Austin, who is at the head of the Republicans,
a who has openly opposed the influence of the Lawyers in
this Comnonwealth, had a dispute with a young Lawyer Sel-
fridge on the subject of the settlement for the dinner on
4 July. In consequence the young lawyer published in the
gasette of this day that said Austin was unworthy of all
credit a: requested all printers to reprint the notifica-
tion. Upon a meeting between this Lawyer A: the Son of said
Austin, who was to graduate at Cambridge this month, said
L-yer took a pistol from his pocket at killed the son upon
the spot in Court street in Open day....The public mind is
‘much exasperated but no expectation of the 'punishmeni 8f
the offender exists. Thus Law a. justice remain, to. 7 °

The murderer asked the public not to prejudge his crime, while his
party went to work for him. Selfridge was not indicted until December,
and than only for manslaughter. He was at large to fix his own time
for his trial. Bentley cements bitterly that "a negro for murdering
a child finds .no difficulty in his way to the gallows.n The legal out-

178. IV, 884.

179. III, 242.

72.

some was that the act was neither'murder nor manslaughter, and young
Selfridge was put at run liberty.180- The political stench of this
case enraged the people of Boston, and both the mrderer and Chief
Justice Parsons of the Supreme Court were hung in effigie. None of
this public 15:17 altered the verdict, however, for Selfridge was free
enough upon meeting the murdered youth's father two years later to
give him a blow that laid him in the gutter. Bentley's stoic comment
on the whole affair: "So we go."

Of equal interest was the Concord jail which the pastor visited
in 1790, the year after it was built. There were rooms for "Robbers
without liberty of the yard, as less notorious offenders.". The prison
was constructed mostly of stone and still contained a dungeon. In one
of the rooms he found three Creoles with a distracted brother, who had
.11 been convicted of stealing, and had been whipped publicly.181°

Public conviction was still own, and Bentley gives a wonder-
fully vivid account of the public whipping given to two men and a
woman:

The prisoners were audacious beyond example. Upon mount-

ing the Gallows on which they were to sit, through into:-

ication one of then fell off, a. was carried away sense-

less. After insulting the Spectators, d.- the most profane

words a indecent behavior, the woman a: man were whipped,

but the ladder was filled with spectators, a the Sheriff

had not room to move his arm. The whipping produced a

few tears fru the Culprits, or rather the Gold. The

whole was a scene of unseasonable mirth which fools

below, a fools above made a mock at sin. 2°

An incident of public punishment which has beams more famous is
this one which occured in 1808:

This eveni we had a strange sight of Taring a Feather-

ing. One Capt. Bandung Irreson, a native of Lynn,

sailing from larblehead, upon his return from the banks
from a fishing voyage not far from Cape Cod espied a

 

180. III. 2690
181. 1, 170a
182. II, 75.

73.

Vessel on her beam ends. His men were ready to go to
succour the crew who were onthe side of the Vessel.

He forbid them a. came away a. left them. Many circum-
stances of inhumanity are told, but so far is certainly
known. The men upon their return reported his conduct
a entered on board different vessels a: have gone in
search of the sufferers. The enraged people of Marble-
head, impatient under the injury done to their town
which is distinguished by its generous aid of distress,
seized the man covered him with tar a feathers & brought
into southfields bfi were forbidden to bring him into
the town of Salem. 3°

This is, of course, the incident which was the source of John
Greenleaf lhittier's fnous poem, ”Skipper Ireson's Ride”. Unfor-
tunately, the whole affair was a miscarriage of justice, for it was
Capt. Ireson's men who refused to give aid, and who had falsely ae—
cused thetaptain in order to excape blame themselves.

Perhaps the most striking thing about what Bentley had to say con-

cerning crimin his day'was his very modern notion of the importance
of envirenment in the criminal act. These ideas are completely in
harmony with the gradual forsaking of the doctrine of depravity. The
source of evil was no longer sought within men, but rather in his ex—
ternal surroundings and circumstances. The pastor's attitude seems
clear enough as he recounts somewhat the case history of one of his
church singers. A person of admirable deportment, he yet was eaught
in the set of breaking into a shop from which he had formerly taken

several articles. In explaining this character default, Bentley sounds
remarkably like the twentieth century social workers

He was left an orphan in the charge of 'a pious G. Mother,
a: maiden aunt, but had been unfortunate in being an ap-
prentice to an indolent master. In very early life he
had contracted a fondness which ended in the courtship
of a young woman, whose domestic subjection was not
without great liberties, as to diversions, visits, a
self disposal, without any imputation of the low vices.
This attachment between parties, once in better circum-
stances, a: to compensate for the want of a present
prospect, urged the young man to make presents beyond
his abilities, a: produced the criminal act, which ex-
posed him to the Laws of his Country. 34°

 

183. III, 393.
184. 1’ 133.

74.

In reporting the third case of family mrder in one season,
the pastor said: ”These uncommon atrocities so often repeated a in
such detached situations met arise from combined natural a: moral
causes to be found in the health, opinions, as fears of life, in pri-
vate condition.'185' In these explanations, there is a marked ab-
sence of anything resembling providences, remarkable, or otherwise.
These peOple are not possessed by demons and devils, but by unfavor-
able environment and psychological maladjustment.

Salem seems to have been quite conscious of the need for charity,
possibly because the sea deprived so many wives of husbands and chil-
dren of fathers. In 1790, Bentley found upon examination, that
there were above seventy widows within the former limits of the East
Parish. But they were by no means the only objects of charity, for
the pastor found on one occasion, that in his absence, "the select-
men a Overseers have in this cold season made a full examination of
Grcgshops, Negrohouses, a: poor a suspicious houses, a: that all va-
grants, as well as unsupplied poor they inneadiately sent to the
Charity House."186° A year later the town of Salem voted to on-
large the Charity House, and exert themselves to prevent all street
begging. Something of the nature of this house can be pieced together
from various short mentions of it. Those who were able were given
work to do, and the facilities in 1817 included ”School rooms, the
Shoemaker's apartments, the Hospital, the dining rooms, cook rooms”,
and small gardens.

The pastor had some definite personal ideas on charity and respon-
sibility. His sentiments in this entry might be construed to imply
that the poor are the problem of the government and that some sort of

social security is a necessity:

 

185. III, 247.

186. I , 217.

75.

The State's poor not not belong to any part of the State,
a each Town, at least Seaport, met be cautious of poor
from near Towns, to avoid a burden that would unavoidably
fall upon them. A Society for relief of indigent resi-
dents ought to be formed. 87-

Bentley felt that Salem had struck the delicate balance between

a comlete lack of sympathy for the needy, and making charity a

pleasant havenfor the non-diligent members of society:

In Salem, Charity has less of a system a yet it is in
greater actions. Our poor know not upon whom they de-
pend. The proportion of associated charities is small.
It scarcely exceeds one thousand Dollars. The poor
depend on the sympathies a it is as much labour to beg
as to work. We have few beggars a: yet few who do not
supply sens wants a few who have all their wants sup-
plied from others. Our Charity house relieves only
the humblest class, most often the most vitious. And
this charity which obliges economy, temperance, some
severity a: many self denials does tend to corrupt man-

kindeghan any other kind of Charity. So it seems to
..e .

One element of early American society which alqu seemed apparent

to Bumpeans traveling in this country was the decorum of the sexes.

While taking tea at one of his friends, the pastor was informed that

"the

circles in which the young ladies drank tea, were not friendly to

the suitable decorum required of the sex, from the want of a guard up-

on their youthful spirits, a. that a wantcness had ensued, which was

discovered itself in the street by such language as curse you, b.1390

The singing school which Bentley conducted was accused of corrupting

morals, as the youth were taking ”unco-on liberties” in the streets

in the evening, and the school contributed to the evil by causing them

to be on the streets at night. That the young ladies were not satis-

fied

with being decorus, is indicated by this modern sounding trouble:

The Sportive females known as the Social group a the
Iusketo Fleet, terms applied by the gay youth of the
other sex, have been in form arraigned at the bar of
the public in the Centinel.

 

——

187.
188 .

189 .

II, 81.
1'. 371.
I, 118.

-t

(De

.Divorse was not unknown, and Bentley follows quite carefully
what met have been the sensational case of "West a: West". The wife
was the eldest daughter of B. 11. Derby, a powerful merchant, and she
had evidently married below her social class against the wishes of
her parents. Bentley says, ”Never could J ohnson's words better be
applied, when a man marries a fortune it is not all he marries."

The sensational aspect was provided by Mrs. West who "displayed in
open court, to prove the incontinency of Capt. W est , all the sweep-
ings of the Brothels of Boston, a: all the vile wretches of Salem,
Iarblehead, Cape Ann, doc. howl-90° The powerful Derby family got the
divorce granted, but West’s comparatively honorable conduct won him
the public favor. To Bentley, the divorce was of- interest because
I'it assembled all the companies of whores A: rogues which had estab-
lished themselves in all the great towns of Massaelmsetts."191‘

”Public manners," wrote Bentley, ”may be very nicely ascertained
by public entertainment." Considering the fact that the society of
Bentley's period was emerging from a rather comer puritan heritage,
it is interesting to note the variety of amzsements which were a part
of it. The diarist sunarises the childrens' games and their seasons
in this way:

The Snow a: ice determine the use of Skates a Sleds. The

contractions in the postures of playing at marbles ren-

ders this uncomfortable in the hot a dusty seasons. The

Top has no convenience in very dry weather. The exercise

of the Shuttlecock comes on, while the bathing time lasts.

The Bat a: Ball as the weather begins to cool, a the Kits

in the fine weather of our autumn afternoons before sun-

down, a: while tin enough remains after school exercises.

Bathing is as little used as in any part of the world

perhaps. The children after May are tolerated by their

parents by the old rule of once a day.192'

It is not strange that Rev. Bentley was loved by the children of

his congregation, for in his wisdem he wrote, "I confess still a plea-

 

190s III. 260.

1910 III. 262.
192. I, 254.

77.

sure in seeing the busy pleasures of children, 6: cannot think ”I“. 1'
so great difference in the great world a little one as I have been
taught to imagine.“ When a dancing master came to teach in Salem,

the pastor wrote that it was to be wished that this "valued aeeom-
plishment" be made a part in every education. This was hardly a
typical attitude as yet, for only the year before a dance had been
the occasion for some "low satyre spread in writing through the Town.”

From time to time, traveling performers passed through Salem,
Irish wire dancers, a balloon driver, and one day a magician:

Is have the tickets of Day Francis for his exhibit of

sleight of hand. His address is in the true stile of

the Imposture which he boasts beyond detection....He

affirms he has given great satisfaction to thousands

a. has such novelties as have never been attemted on

2‘2: £335.21“; Eiffiéni’ufififi «2‘2 22223???" ”1°“ ..,

Another perfomer who caused even greater curiosity was a travel-
ing elephant. Bentley, always interested in novel things, went to
the market place to see him. The crowd of spectators was so great,
he could only gain a general and superficial view of the beast. Even
so, he managed to make some typically careful observations. "He was
six feet four inches high,” he wrote. "Of large Volume, his skin
black, as tho' lately oiled. A short hair was on every part, butnot
sufficient for a covering. His tail hung one third of his! height, but
without any long hairs at the end of it.”194- The description cone
times, showing not only the live interest of the pastor, but also
ilplying the interest aroused by the first elephant to be seen in
America.

A ventriloquist enjoyed less success, perhaps because of the

characteristic thrift and sober-ness of the Yankees:

On his first night Tickets at a dollar was forbidding, a.
there was a select a small compaw. Tickets fell to 1-2

 

1930 IV, ‘02.
194. II, 235.

78.

on the next night a: there was a great concourse. The

next night not so many a greatly satiated. Last night

great additions were promised to the mascments, but

the whole has fallen from high applause to a general

indifference which does not promise common success.1950

A pastime which was looked upon with condemnation was billiards.
'lithin.a.year after billiard tables had been introduced into the pub-
lic houses, Bentley describes the consequences as having been "ser-
ious" to several families and young persons. The gentlemen of Salem
were determined to prevent the young men from.using the three tables
located there. Fear of their licenses stopped some of the public
houses, but "LL,” says Bentley, "is too unprinoipled to be res-
trained without some heavy threatenings.”195°

As is inevitable with a society which establishes rigourous rules
of ethical and moral conduct, inconsistencies appeared. The most
glaring one which the Diary reveals is the use of lotteries by toms
and institutions for raising money, as pure a form of gmablingas exists.
Be it said to Bentley's credit, his is not the tone of approval when
cmsidering the subject. In 1790!

The attention to Lotteries is so great that a Gasette extra-

ordinary was printed this day in this town to announce the

fertunate members in the first Class of Harblehead Lottery.

The effects are already visible. The poor are spending

their time .1: interest to purchase Tickets, as already the

number of Lottef&,s are sufficient with their schemes to

fill a Gasette. '

rive lotteries appeared at this time, all to be drawn within a
month; four classes at larblehead, one at Charlestown, one at Lan-
caster, one at lilliamston, and a State lottery.

The professed object at Charlestown is to repair the Streets

of a town, which was destroyed by the War. At Williamston

to provide a free School. At Lancaster to repair Bridges

swept away in a late freshet. At Marblehead to secure

their Cmseway leading to the Neck, a save the Harbour, a
of the State to pay the State Debts.193-

 

195. II, 409.
196. II. 78.

197. I, 157.
193. Ibid;

79.

A year later, what was called the "Semi-annual State lottery",
was drawn. It was the biggest thus far, 25,000 tickets at five
dollars each, and a highest prize of 810,000. By 1794, Harvard Col-
lege had esbraced this practice, for it was granted a lottery "for
the erecting of another Ball for the accomcdation of the students."199°
It occurred to some people that lotteries might also have an undesir-
able influence on youth as well as dancing and billiards, but these
were evidently a minority group.

A further insight into the social calendar of Salem in 1798, is
obtained fro. this entry:

Salem Gazette never had so many advertisements of the same
kind as at this day. The Theatre for this Evening at
lashington Hall. Ibrahim Adam Ben Ali, a Quack Doctor,
cures all....lr. .1. Hrs. Rosier's Concert on 1 June. I"
Solomon, an Actress, to teach Tambouring. Besides

these we have Hotels, French dancing Masters, French
Grams: llaster exclusively of Am. Dancing llaster, a

many private Schools. The Pig of Knowledge has left the
Town- 113. D0; went bOfOl‘. 1111.2000

Almost as if he sensed his time was growing short, Rev. Bentley
wrote a many of the state of Salem society the day before he died.
He wrote of prices, foreign couerce, and domestic economy, and of
expensive dinners in which the object was not hospitality, but emul-

ation:

As to our morals they are not yet essentially shanged.
We have more intemperence but it is less beastly. We
have few thefts, frauds from our own citizens. We have
had some shameful transgressions as at Essex Bank but
they were from persons high in reputation in Church a
State, induced by the parade of life, 8: having confi-
dence for years in which they were foning habits of
transgression. Our Church Estate the same. Moderation
in the old Churches 4!. Zeal in the new. Supplied from
very different Colleges 4. with different habits. Some
observe their Sundays, others are as frequent at public
devotions as in Catholic 4!: foreign countries, a the
opinion; have very little power compared with the cere-
MOIe 01'

 

199. II. 83.
200. II, 269.
201. xv, 636.

 

80.

Such than, was the society that William Bentley had known so

well. Of course, the picture is not a complete one. Much could be
added, and it still would not be so, because a society is a mass of

human beings, for each of when we have no complete picture. Yet it

must be admitted the Big! of this one man has preserved much of the
kind of world in which he and his neighbors lived.

81.

Chapter VI

Bentley, Literary Historian

Considered as a literary period, the years between 1784 and
1819 were remarkably unfruitful. Bentley seems to have lived during
the time just before Americans seriously applied themselves to the
task of creating a national literature. If the great men of the
colonial period were primarily interested in the serious business of
theology, the learned men who founded the American government were
most concerned with the serious business of political philosophy.
Thus it came about that the most significant p1... of writing in
America in Bentley's day was The Federalist. Meanwhile in England

 

and Europe, romanticism had begun to flower. America, busy with

her own pressing practical problems, with a geographical location
ideally suited for cultural lag, for the most part kept the classi-
cal tradition which her first settlers brought with them, and rarely
did a gleam of the new romanticism shine through the slowly cracking
tradition of Greek and Latin. This was, then, a formative period.
The seeds of political independence were wonderfully diverse, and one
of them, tended bysnglish influence and native ability, was to blos-
san into literary nationalism.

In dealing with the literary history of any nation, a consider-
ation of the educational practices may be regarded as an important
starting point. me of the foundations of herican democracy was
the faith in an enlightened citizenry, and Bentley wrote to a school-
master in 1786, that 'thc' I prefer a private to a public School a
would urge all who can afford the expense, that I feel weelf obli-
gated to declare that I am zealous to establish the liberal instit-
ution of a 33.23. M upon the best foundation in my Society, a do
really consider this institution as the most noble, which my spere of

82.

action presents to my patronage."2°2°

A year later, an opportunity to instruct a young man was ac-
corded the pastor, and it is revealing to read his course of private
instruction. Monday through Thursday was given over entirely to
Latin gramsar, prose, and poetry. Friday the boy was taught the
”Arts a Sciences of the Antients", but on Saturday things were o1:-
ferent. On that day was taken up the 'History of English Language.
Progress of Literature. The Granar. Rhetoric a Belles Lettres."2°3-
The dominant position of the classic languages in this program, was
by no means an exception. In 1793, Bentley attended a Dartmouth
College col-encement where the exercises followed this order:

Latin oration on the fine arts, with a salutcry address.

Then there was a syllogistic disputation on the use of

Luxury, urged by population, agriculture, arts as poli-

tical cultivation...The Forensic war upon the useful,

whether determined by intuition, experience, a reason

...;We then had a dialogue upon the benefit of conquests

to mankind. We then had the trial of Louis XVI. which

was a farce being destitute of all expression. A Greek

dialogue eggpluded the morning service, a we adjourned

to dinner. ‘

In 1810, the freshmen studies at Cambridge still included weeks
of Greek and Latin, sue Hebrew, and English on but one afternoon
a week. The gramnar schools were little better, for after visiting
one of them, the diarist snorted, "Is paid no attention to the Eng-
lish Scholars.” In spite of all the emphasis upon classical educap
tion. English scholars were persisting, ani Bentley himself put his
finger on the fate of the ancient languages when he said of the pupils
at a gramnar school: ”lost were mere English readers. The habits of
business are not favourable to Classic literature, but the circum-

stances may exist to increase the inattentions to such Instit11tions."2°5°

202. I, 81.
203. I, 150

20‘. II, 52.
205. III, 155.

83.

Nevertheless, the educators gave way to the modern onslaught very
slowly, and through most of Bentley's lifetime, the young graduates
found their college preparation suited them best for theology, law, or
politics. If a devotion to contemporary belles lettres had been de-
veloped by a student--perhaps by means of one of the literary clubs--
he found it expedient for many reasons, to brush it aside until some
leisure moments might allow‘ him the indulgence of such luxury.

Another factor in America's gradual literary development was the
scarcity of books. In a 1790 entry, Bentley wrote, "The reviewers of
English remark that there is not one regular Book store north of New
York, or South of Philadelphia a Baltimore.z°5° Indeed, most books
in America bore an English imprint, and the few herioan publishers
were usually their own printers, distributors, and retailers.2070 One
method of book distribution used was that of the literary fair of which
Bentley noted in 1805:

The fairs increase the circulation of Books a. if fewworks

35 i:§:§‘§i°h.“§2.§‘§§ilzsn§’fgofi3” '°"“ 1“ M... “y

The circulation of books to the public was still in its early
stages. Upon a visit to the Boston Library, the pastor remarked sadly
of this public facility that "they can never look neat because the
Books being read by persons of every description a in every manner mat
be soon sullied a injuried a. no covers can prevent this inconvenience ."
A step removed from the public library was the Athenaeum, which was or-
ganized in Salon in 1810. The pastor was approached on the idea, and
he suffered from his usual distrust of mercenary men:

Dr. Little 6.- Ir. Bowditch with me on the Subject of a Li-

brary Company. It is proposed to unite the Social with
the Philosophical Library a to give us for the Philoso-

 

206. I. 219.
207. J. A. [rout and D. R. Fox, $3331, p. 359.

208. III, 166.

84.

phical Library a consideration for our shares. I as-

quiesced but did not discover a wish to make the preprie-

tors of the Philosophical Library ample compensation.

There was too much of the Merchant to be seen in this

Literary enterprise.209'

Bentley's wary attitude toward public and group libraries pro-
bably reflects the fact that he was the possessor of a private library
of nearly seven hundred volumes. He still lived in an age when the
personal library was a matter for pride, and a Salem sea captain's
might contain "Voltaire, Rousseau, Condilla, be. a: some also of the
best English writers."

Developing much more rapidly than books and libraries in this
period, were the newspapers and periodicals. These were the literary
forms which were used by nearly all Americans, and so exerted a tre-
mendous influence on the nation. Already in 1796, Rev. Bentley had
noticed the abundance of llassachusetts journalistic activity:

The Mercury in Boston is to be printed daily, which will

be the first daily paper in the State, or that ever was

published in it. It is proposed to print two in a week

in Salem. There are printed in this State, which come

to our hands Semi-Weekly Gazettes from Boston, Continel,

Chronicle, Orrery, a: Hercury, besides Edes' weekly

paper. In the other parts of the state, there is one

in this Town, two in Hewbury P., one in Haverhill,

three in Haine, two at Portland, a one at Hallowell.

One at New Bedford. Inland papers, from Worcester,

Leominster, two fraa Springfield, one from Stockbridge,
Greenfield, Brookfield.2100

The party spirit which was aroused in connection with the Repub-
lican-Democratic victory of 1800, the new series of administration
papers which arose with the moving of the capital from Philadelphia
to Washington, the huge geographic addition of the Louisiana terri-
tory, all cabined to make expansion a chief characteristic of the
journalism of the early nineteenth century.2110 With expansion came
even greater influence, and thinking men realized the tremendous re-

 

209. III, 502.
210. II, 185.

211. Frank L. Hott, American Journalism (New York, 1941), p. 167.

85.

sponsibility which lay with the American press as the great molder of
public opinion. Bentley noted in 1800:

The publishing of another Gazette in Salem is a subject
of regret to many persons who, confined to system of
politics, consider the public safety allied to their own
opinions. The evils of inveotives are more serious when
the printers become competition a vex the town with their
own follies a the follies of their friends. The whole
business depends as it concerns the public upon the men
who are to conduct the Gazettes, whether they have a
reputation to give the public as securit; for their own
good behavior or are unprimcipled men.21 -

Again in 1816:

The great number of newspapers put in circulation every
incident which is raised in every local situations as
its appropriate contribution to the public entertain-
ment. So not a fire, an accident, a fear or a hope
but it flies quickly throughout the union. The public
mind is already unaccostomed to weigh these things a.
perhaps undervalue them.213-

This period in what Frank W. Mott calls ”The Dark Ages of Parti-
san J ournalism" exceeded all previous ones in attacks on personal
character. The Federalist press was extremely hard on Jefferson, but
the Republicans were not silent. An exmaple of the latter case was
the imdichaent for libel of William Carlton, editor of the Republi-
can Salem Rggister. The charge was made by the Pederalists, who had
not proved good losers, at the close of the bitter congressional osm-
paign of 1802.21" Bentley, who was Carlton's friend and often a co-
laborer in publishing the Register, was involved, and indulged in a
bit of inveotive himself against their omen enemy , Timothy Pickering:

The printer of the Register in this town was obliged to

appear in the Supreme Court to answer to a bill found a-

gainst him by the Grand Jury for uttering & publishing

falsehoods respecting that pest of Society, the Ex-Secre-

tary, the enemy of Washington, the enemy of Adam, .9: the

anew of talents, a of all men, who would not submit to

the tyranny of his own false ubition....Such is the vil-

lainy of that man who has pretended contempt of public

criminations to which he would not reply, as who has re-
turned to curse the neighbourhood, which has already been

 

212. II, 335.

215. IV, 310.
21‘. Ft“ LO “Ott, %- Gite. p. 172.

II

9

86.

abused by his controversies, a contraventions.215-

During the trial the pastor was held in contempt of court, and

Carlton was subsequently given a term in jail.

The early magazines were noted for the extremely brief existence
which most of them had. In 1789, Bentley entered:

The History of the periodical Publications called Ega-
zines in Massachusetts from Thoma's Preposals to renew
them in 1789. "The first publication of the kind was as
early as about the year l749.--That work, entitled the
American M asine, was continued three years. The next,
that Freoo ec , made its appearance in the year 1758,
entitled The New England Magazine. This was published
only thre'emmontES. In 1771 appeared the R al American
ligizine, which soon ceased."....After the Horatio?“
'ippem the "Boston M asine," 71. soon after another,
"The Gentleman—[@3373 6w}??? Country Magazine."

These soonm'e'd’. Th? pigse'fit—p'r'oposal's are or the
Massachusetts' Magazine. '

 

The situation had not inproved by 1603, for in that year the
diarist wrote critically:

Tho we have not one good Magazine in America yet many

publications appear under that name. That in Boston

called the Weekly, I find to be a Tea table business.

The Quarterly is not of great fame. The missionary

magazines appear feeble in the first numbers. New York

Medical Repository, 2 Literary review are the best per-

iodical publications I have ...n.217-

The periodicals had to await the rise of advertising, improve-
ments in printing, reproductions of illustrations, and improved methods
of distribution, before they could become the standard medium for con-
temporary literature.

Before turning to a consideration of the literary works which
Bentley mentions in his Diary, it might be well to mention the few
references which the pastor makes to the theatre of his day. In
1794 he wrote:

The Theatre opened for the first time is now the sub-
ject. The enlightened who have not detemined upon its
utter abolition have yet generally agreed that it is

 

216. 11, 457.
215. '1. 115.
217” 111, 55.

87.

too early introduced into our country. The success

upon the first night (last Monday) was not equal to

expectation, nor could it be. The brilliancy of the

novel scene, the interested representations of men who

have contended a yet are contending for the object with

passion, a: the eXpence with which it has been attended

cannot silence a complaint that the Actors are not of

the first abilities. The choice of pieces may be called

good but the loudest applmses did not attend Tragedy.213° .

A year later, the best judges were celebrating the excellence of
a Boston presentation of Richard Cumberland's The Jew (1794). Still,
the dramatists had to deal with many obstructions, not the least of
which was the opposition of the clergy in Boston. Their feelings
on the matter exhibited a childish aspect when the theatre in that
city was destroyed by fire:

The Clergy made the loss of the Theatre in Boston a sub-

Ject of congratulation. They forgot that it was the

loss of property but no change in the manners of the

people. Such were some of them. It was a subject of

gratitude even in their devotions.219°

* t O

Since Bentley lived through the last lean years of American lit-
erature, it is not surprising that the literary works nentioned in his
9.21 are for the nest part English, although an immediate exception
was the arrival in 1786, of his "Den Quickctte" from Spain. In that
sale year, the pastor received subscription papers fru a publisher
who was seeking to print "P. Sewall's Latin Translation of the first
Night of Young's Night Thoughts.'22°° Bentley had no literary nan in
his Society on when to depend for the encouragement of such a work,
but he agreed to receive a dozen copies if the publication was nsde.
That a printer should'even consider publishing this work in Latin
ilplies not only the popularity of this nee-puritan post, but else
the extensive knowledge of Latin current anong the reading class.

 

21a. 11, Bl.
219. II, 268.

220. I, 37.

88.

There is something very ironic about Americans taking a poetic work,
usually grouped with pro-romantic poetry, and desiring to print it in
a classical language.

In 1787, the pastor lists books presented in his parish:

To Betsey Cook, Paradise Lost. 24to. To Nancy Stone,

Gay's Fables, lZmo....To Alice Orne, Sterne's Serm.

7 vol. lZmo....To Nancy Stone, Dryden's Fables. lzmo.221'

At times, Rev. Bentley's taste in books got him into trouble.

When he lent a friend a work, ”Allen's _e_1:acles pf reason", the friend

 

gave it in turn to a Mr. Grafton, who reportedly had died a confirmed
infidel. The book was found in Grafton's chamber at his death by his
female relations, and conveyed by them to a Mr. Williams. At his

shop it was "examinsdo-reported to be mine from the initials ‘38.,
viewed as an uful curiosity by hundreds, connected with a report that
I encouraged infidelity in Grafton by W prayers with him in his dying
hour, 2. upon the whole a terrible opposition to me fixed in the minds
of the devout a ignorant multitude".222' The liberal pastor got into
similar trouble by landing a copy of Shaftesbury's Lharacteristicks

 

to m acquaintance who allowed it to fall into the hands of a cele-
brated declaimer against everything. Such, wrote Bentley, is "the
danger of Loan of Books, for whose sentiments, you wish not to be
accountable."

Despite the suspicions which such incidents may have aroused
about his literary judgment, the pastor of the East Society was con-
sulted by his friends in their choice of books. The recommendations
he made to Capt. Hodges are interesting, not only as showing the
breadth of his reading, but also as revealing the high place of neo-
classical poetry in this country. After some advice on religious pub-
lications Bentley continued:

 

221. I, 63.

222. I, 82.

89.

Busching. 6v. 4to, will be the best Geography for
EurOpe. Bolingbroke on History may be read with pro-
fit. His tracts upon Study a: Exile will not be im-
pertinant in your voiage an absence. Bolingbroke's
patriot King A: Hume's Essays will furnish political
r0f100t1MIeeeePOp° 4's 12 We '11; afford you 15110
best poetry of the English nation. 23°

Perhaps the best example in the Riga of Bentley's ability as a
literary critic is his reaction to Matthew Gregory Lewis's Gothic
novel, The 3935'. It is not at all done in the spirit of dogmatic
moral condemnation, but rather, in the literary terminology of con-
flict, character, action, unity, and plausibility. These coments
reveal, perhaps more clearly than his theology, how far this New Eng-
land clergyman was removed in 1799 from his puritan background:

Read the celebrated Novel by Lewis, called the Monk.
There is intoxicating pleasure soTEr Matilda
carries him into wedlock. There is too nuch of the
supernatural in the consequent scenes. Ambrosio's
struggle between nature A: education is well done.
Character is better than the narrative. Action is bet-
ter than the time. Unity is lost everywhere. We are
never prepared for what happens. The Devil does‘ all

at last. The poetry most absurdly introduced is al-
ways of the inferior kind. This work may render virtue
always suspected. But it is unnatural. Allowing only
that one man cannot have all the prOpensities which
are too inconsistent to live together. We may find
men from nature and habitz neither thieves, liars,
debauches, nor murderers. ‘

 

Bentley evidently read the first part of Thomas Paine's Ag: _o_f_
m as soon as it was published, for in 1794 he notes that it
will have strange effects upon mankind. Although this work was by
his own testimony, uncommonly popular, it did not appeal to the pastor
and he must have said as much from the pulpit:

Some insinuations against my opinions as pu‘glic dis-

courses concerning Paine's Age of Reason. I still

insisted Eggt it was in my opinion, ”a contemptible pub-
lication. '

 

Am-.-

223. I’ 111.
224. II, 311.
225. II, 1070

90.

By 1803, Paine had become a controversial figure in New England,
and Bentley records the sensation caused when the report was cir-

culating that he intended to visit that region:

The name is enough. Every person has ideas of him.
Some respect his genius a dread the man. Some rever-
ence his political, while they hate his religious
opinions. Some love the man, but not his private man-
ners. Indeed he had done nothing which has not ex-
tremes in it. He never appears but we love 8: hate him.
He is a; great a paradox as ever appeared in human
nature. 2 '

Additional insight into the contemporary stir caused by the tem-
pestucus figure of Paine is gained by this report a month later:

Mr. Paine so celebrated a so opposed, was in August
in Connecticut. Several of our friends found him
upon his Journey, 2: he spoke of visiting the whole of
New England. It is an uncormnon importance which the
opposition to this man has given him in our country.
Priests a Politicians rail at him, as everything he
writes is read with avidity by all parties. His works
are reprinted, a he is thought a dunce in politics
who has not read Paine, who night without persecution
be forgotten. He is a man of genius, but not of
morals.227°

However, when Paine died in 1809, Bentley made an accurate eval-
uation of the revolutionist which not only sounds remarkably modern,
but also shows the tolerance and insight of the pastor's mind:

We have the news of the Death of Thomas Paine, Esqr.
set. 73. The many attempts of this man to degrade
Christianity have given him an ill name among Christ-
ians who have entirely forgotten their great obligations
to him in the American Revolution. Posterity will do
justice to his talents, to his services, a to his char-
acter, should it be denied in the present Generation.
He had such ideas of the opposition of the religious
Orders to the progress of Civil A: political society that
he opposed everything which involved their existence.

It is said that he asked to be buried among the Friends
or Quakers with whom he had been educated, but from

the prejudices of the times they are said not to have
consented. Mr. Paine possessed all the vigour of in-
tellect with all the power of expression. No man had
greater ability in assisting the public mind whenever
he favoured its inclinations. When he dared openly to
insult it, it trasbled, it felt, it was silent, it was
shaken. He was indeed a wonderful man a he was the

 

 

226. 111, 37.
227. III, 42.

91.

first to see in what part every System was the most
vulnerable. Even in his attacks upon Christianity he

felt without knowing it, the greatest difficulties

which rational Christians have felt. Without their
prejudices he found what was simple, powerful, & dir-

act, a what might be renounced without injury to mort-
ality, to the reverence of God, a the peace of the mind.228'

More than 150 years after its publication in London, Rev. Bent-
ley had the sight of the "noted work of Ward of Ipswich", entitled
"The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam in herica". His tardy opinion of
it appeared in 1805:

Strength of expression if not always of Thought is to
a be foum. He is a violent opposer of Legal Toleration,
& a furious Republican. How he reconciled these things
we must ask the men of his own age 8: their many friends
in the pggsent generation. This work is entitled to
regard. '

The Dig contains interesting comment and opinion on other minor
figures in American letters. When Benjamin Franklin died in 1790,

Bentley felt "the Americans may well consider him the greatest man

 

their Country has produced." When one considers how alike the two
men were in many ways, it is not surprising that the pastor should
males Franklin his choice for the highest praise. Noah Webster, Bentley
referred to as "that literary Quack”, and when that ardent nationalist
desired to set forth the American language, he drew this rather humor-
ous cement from the diarist:

Mr. Webster threatens the world with a Dictionary, first

for Schools, then for counting Houses, .9 than for the

learn . He pretends great changes in the Language al-

ready. 50'

The death of Samel Adams in 1803 caused Bentley to write what is
perhaps the finest character sketch in the Diary. The pastor had
known the revelutionist personally, and undoubtedly shared many polit-
ical ideas with him. After noting the achievements of Adams, Bentley

continued:

228. 111, 441.

229. III, 192.
230. II, 340.

92.

He was not a man of ready powers, but he had an im-
penetrable secrecy, a a great pepular influence by

his inflexibility s undaunted courage. No man con-
tributed more towards our revolution, A: no man left
behind him less, distinctly to mark his resolutions,
his peculiar genius as his communications. He was
feared by his enemies , but too secret to be loved by
his friends. He did not put confidence in them, while
he was of importance to them. He was not known till
he acted a how far he was to act was unknown. He had
not entire confidence in Washington in the Army, a less
confidence in the government....He preserved the se-
verity of Cato in his manners, A: the dogmatism of a
priest in his religious observances, for theology was
not his study. Our New England Fathers was his theme,
a he had their deportment, habits, a: customs. Often
as I have oonversed with him, I saw always this part
of his character seal. He was a puritan in his manners
always. In Theory he was nothing, he was all in him-
self. He ceuld see far into men, but not into opinions.
He could be sure of himself on all occasions, a he did
more by what men thought of him, than what he discov-
ered to them. His religion a manner were from our an-
casters. His politics fraa two maxims, rulers should
have little, the peeple much. The rank of rulers is
from the good they do, a: the difference among the peo-
ple only fran personal virtue. Ho entailments, not
privileges. An open world for genius as industry. I
never ccnversed with him as a man of Letters, but al-
ways as 5 pan of whom I might say all his thoughts were
his own. 3 '

The one American attth at a literary masterpiece which the
m mentions is Joel Barlow's Columbiad. In 1809, Bentley wrote:

Had an opportunity to see the Chef d'oeuvre of the h.
Press, Barlow's Columbiad, which in point of execution
exceeds anything from the American press. It sells at
20 dollars. But I was informed that Mr. Barlow had
disposed of the greater part of the Impression among
his friends as a tribute of respect. The address to H.
Fulton is in the first degree of excellence. An ac-
count of the poem as a preface a the life of Columbus
as an introduction, are with the poem. I met pronounce
it an honour to our Country. The French Academicians
have given a very favourable character of it in conse-
quean pf a Copy they received fra the Author of the
Poem. 3 '

This ambitious epic poem, the subject of mach ridicule in later
periods, was published in 1807 as a revision and expansion of the

 

author's earlier work entitled The Vision 25 Columbus. It is net sur-
prising that Rev. Bentley was impressed with it, for even in England

 

281. 111, 49.
232. 111, 448.

93.

the work received respectful reviews. It is possible that the pastor
sincerely liked the poem, especially in view of his love for anything
classic. It is also very possible that Bentley more than approved
Barlow's desire for nationalism, not only in politics, but also in
literature. For such early literary figures as Barlow, an merican
literature could be only a vision, but in the closing years of William
Bentley's life, that vision was fast approaching reality. Freneau,
Irving, Bryant, and Cooper had begun to publish, and everywhere there
were stirrings of an American literary tradition.

94.

Conclusion

These have been the days of the years of William Bentley, and,
to a large extent, of the New England of which he was a part. To
generalise, it was a period of conflict between the old and the new,
the past and the present, the conservative and the liberal. New Eng-
land was to know this conflict more thoroughly than any other part of
America, for her roots were in the seventeenth century, and in the
long period of her colonial existence she had both stayed, and grown,
old and conservative. In the mind of many a son of Massachusetts,

the old ideas were still the best ones, but for men like William Bent-
ley, the time had come to move on. Yet this was not to be done easily
or all at once. Bentley himself was a product of New England, having
been reared and educated in her beliefs and institutions. New ideas
met usually live for a. time side by side with the old ones which
they are to replace. So it was in the life of Rev. Bentley, and so

it was in the life of New England.

As has been shown, Bentley was one of the first New England Con-
gregational clergyman to tamper successfully with the orthodox puritan
Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity, which he grew to regard as
abominable, was unacceptable tohis reason. He-did not believe in
the concept which viewed man as a totally depraved creature. The long
established practices regarding the administration of the sacruents
of baptism and the Lord's Supper, were often ignored by him. He liked
to read his own versions of the Scriptures and write his own hymn.

In all these ways, Bentley met be considered a“ liberal. 0n the other
hand, in his revision of the Godhead, he was not ready to go along with
the deists in making God merely the great mechanic of the universe.
This is clearly proved by his opinion that Paine's 51 2.1... 33.9.92. was a
contemptible publication. There was still something personal in the
pastor's conception of God, and he had not made a complete break with

95.

his religious past. Although Bentley refused to believe that man is
bom with an evil nature, he was by no means disposed to look upon him
as a fine trustworthy creature who was getting better every day in
every way. His personal experience with the heartache of the mini-
stry had taught him differently, and his observance of the selfish

and greedy Massachusetts merchants, especially their actions during

the War of 1812, had made him cement again and again upon the absence
of principles among men. While Bentley was rather lax in his own atti-
tude toward the sacranents, when he saw the often unlearned Baptist,
lethodist, and itinerant preachers administering them to the multitudes ,
he became completely pessimistic about the state of religion in America.
The enthusiasm of the many sects was labeled by him as fanaticism, and
so it would have been by the old school puritans. He could not have
been more insistent on the importance of a learned clergy had he been

a puritan divine. Thus it was that Bentley's liberalism was a quali-
fied one, remaining always within limits defined by himself.

The people who formed the New kgland congregations were hardly
more settled in their religious life. There was certainly a conflict
in the East Society, Salu, when the parishioners chose between young
Rev. Bentley and old Rev. Diman. There are many M entries which
describe the factionalism in Massachusetts congregations, not the least
of which was the violent disturbance over the ordination of Bentley's
friend, James Freeman, at King's Chapel, Boston. The difficult theo-

. logy of the orthodox churches had prepared the way for the preaching

of Unitarians, Universalists, Baptists, and lethcdists. Schismatio
churches and schools were founded in attempts to save the old doctrines,
or encourage the new. The very existence and popularity of many tran-
sient denominations and sects is sufficient evidence that thousands

were searching for new combinations of their old religious beliefs.

96.

In the matter of political allegiance, Bentley had no hesitation
or doubt within himself. He was uncomplaining during the administra-
tions of Washington and Adams, but when the great party split occurred
in the election of 1800 , the diarist was a firm supporter of Thomas
Jefferson. In his early adherence to the Republican party, the pastor
found himself opposed to at least the influential men of New England.
Regardless of this cppoeition, Bentley remained loyal to Jefferson
and Madison and railed at the merchants and businessmen who hurled
endless stream of inveotive at the two presidents.

New England, as a section, experienced bitterly fought local and
state elections between the old line Federalists and the new Jeffer-
sonian Republicans. In Massachusetts, the Pederalists were able to
maintain their party leadership in the presidential elections, but by
Jefferson's second administration had begun to lose control of the
state electorate. The New England Federalists fought desperately
against Madison's re-election, and their actions during the subsequent
War of 1812 fully revealed how little unity there was moon; the United
States. Not until the era of James Monroe did New England begin act-
ing as if she realised she were a part of a nation.

In the gradual emergence of New England from a puritan society,
Rev. Bentley was again in the ranks of those who were looking for
change and improvement. Although he regarded the thoroughly mercenary
merchants with m attitude of dismay, the pastor was always pleased
to see advancements in the business world. He himself never prospered
from the world's riches, but he was too much a part of his environment
not to rejoice with Salem when a ship loaded with oriental wealth en-
tered the harbor. This same attitude of encouragement evidenced itself
as he watched the turnpikes and banks strengthen the commercial well-
being of New England and the nation. The environmental interpretation

which Bentley gave to some of the misdemeanors he observed suggests the

9'7.

growing tendency to regard this formative factor as the origin of
man's evil actions. In the matter of charity, the pastor combined
the rugged individualism of his New England background with his own
belief in humanitarimism.

The commercial New Englanders were naturally in favor of any ad-
vances in transportation which'would mean greater profits. About
other social progress, they were not always as enthusiastic. The
older generation was much disturbed about the increasing lack of'deoorwm
among the youth of opposite sexes, and they opposed the coming of such
mesments as dancing, billiards, and the theatre. These remnants of
past prejudice existed alongside the dubious ethics of the slave trade,
open trading with the enemy during the‘War of 1812, and state author-
ised public lotteries. Such inconsistencies are inevitable in trans-
itional social periods in which men, because of their'natural aversion
to change, attempt to live simultaneously by the standards of the old
and new societies. '

In.the field of letters, Bentley'was again unable to entirely
outgrow his early training. He had been a thorough scholar of the
classical languages and literature. He viewed with dismay the steady
advances English was making in the curricula of the educational ins
stitutions. He frankly advised all who could afford the expense to at-
tend private rather than public schools.

Re enjoyed the performance of Addison's fists, emu impressed by
Barlow's Columbiad, and thought Pope's poetry to. be the greatest of
England. Balancing this oonservatiam'was his realisation of the need
for a free school system for those who could afford nothing better.

He read liberal religious books, and even enjoyed parts of Lewis's
notorious novel, The 1235, which modern critics condemn for its com-
plete lack of morality and taste. There is little doubt that the pastor
believed in a firm.educational foundation, but he also regarded edu-
cation as a eontinuing process which included the reading of books pre-

senting new ideas.

98.

As a section, New England generally agreed with Bentley's pre-
ference for private schools. Undoubtedly, the conservative clergy
and the lawyers also felt the necessity of classical education. How-
ever, the merchants and the rising manufacturers would find little
need for Greek and Latin in their commercial dealings, and as these
classes were to dominate society, the classics in general education
were doomed.

In the matter of what should be read, there was a difference of
opinion. When Bentley expressed from the pulpit that the 52 2f 32:
_s_o_n_ was a contemptible publication he had to defend this judgment to
some of his parishioners. Yet, when they found him lending out such

 

works as Shaftesbury's Characteristicks, and Allen's Oracles 35m,
he was looked upon as one who encouraged infidelity. This implies
again that his people were divided sharply on the question of prOper
books. The New England opposition to the novel and the dress, led by
the clergy, have long been recognised as retarding factors in the de-
velopment of these literary forms in America.

Summing up these diverse ideas on religion, politics, society, and
letters, it seems incredible that they all belonged to everyday life
in a single period of thirty-five years, in one section of the nation.
The total picture is an extremely confused one, but history, as it is
lived day by day, fails to fall into the neat patterns of the aca-
demic historian. In any attempt to recover the actual mind of the
people in a historical period, we must repeatedly turn to contemporary

commentaries such as the 2.122 of William Bentley.

 

99.

B IBLI OGRAHiY

Prim__a_.z:y_ Source

Dig £William Bentley, 2: _l_)__._, Salem: Essex Institute, 1905-1914.
4 Vols.

Secondary Sources

We”...

Buckingham, Joseph T., S ecimens _o_f_ News a or Literature, Boston:
Charles C. Little ames Brown, 0. EVols.

 

Dictionary o_f_ National Biogrgphy, London: 1885-1901. 64 Vols.

Eliot, Samuel A. (ed.)., Heralds of; a Liberal Faith, Boston: American
Unitarian Association, 191 . EVols.

 

Foster, Frank Hugh, A Genetic Histog g_f_ the New England Theolofl,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1907.

Haroutunian, Joseph, Piety versus Moralism, New- York: Henry Holt,
1932. , _ " """'

Hart, Albert B. (ed.), Commonwealth Histo of Massachusetts, New
York: States History 00., 1927- 0. mole.

 

Jefferson, Thomas, Writings (ed. A. A. Lipscomb and A. E. Bergh),
Washington: Jeffer’sb‘n' Memorial Association, 1903-1904. 20 Vols.

 

 

Kraut, John A. and Fox, Dixon R., The Completion of Independence,
New York: Macmillan, 1944. -

Mott, Frank Luther, American Journalism, New York: Macmillan, 1941.

 

Nevins, Allan and Cos-lager, Henry S., A Short Histon p_f_ the United
States, New York: Random House, 19 .

Phillips, J ames D., 'Salem _i_n_ the Eighteenth Centugg, Boston: Bough-
ton Mifflin, 1957.

Winwar, Frances, guritan City, New York: Robert M. McBride a 00.,
1938. _

 

2, ROOM !JS%hUMOn am:

t 3'79 39