The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut by M. Louise Greene, Ph. D.

M >> M. Louise Greene, Ph. D. >> The Development of Religious Liberty in Connecticut

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Many Federalists of Judge Swift's type sympathized with Leland's bold
arraignment of the Establishment, if not with his view of the
unconstitutionality of the charter government. These men repudiated
the new certificate law.

The authorities felt that they had gone too far, and in October, 1791,
after an existence of only six months, they repealed the certificate
law by one hundred and five yeas to fifty-seven nays. The new law
that was substituted permitted each dissenter to write his own
certificate, release, or "sign-off," as the papers were colloquially
called, and required him to file it with the clerk of the Established
Society wherein he dwelt. [186] This favor was not so great a
privilege as it seemed. It bore hard upon the dissenters in two
ways. It created "Neuters," people who wished to be relieved from the
ecclesiastical taxes, but who were too indifferent to the principles
and welfare of the churches to which they allied themselves to
faithfully support them. For their churches to complain of such
persons to the authorities would only give the latter reasons for
enforcing the laws for the support of the Establishment. Then again,
the new certificate law did not relieve the dissenters who lived too
far from their churches to ordinarily attend them from petty fines and
from court wrangles as to the justice of them, for with the judges lay
the determination of what the words "far" and "near" and "ordinarily
do attend" in the laws meant. [b] The important question of how many
absences from church would prevent a man from claiming that he was a
regular attendant was thus left in the hands of judges, who were for
the most part prejudiced or partial. Many amusing and exasperating
legal quibbles occurred in the courts between judges, who were
determined to sentence for neglect of public worship, and defendants,
who were equally positive of their rights. Many dissenters attempted
later to ridicule the law out of existence by substituting for the
formal--

I certify that I differ in sentiment from the worship and ministry
in the ecclesiastical society of ---- in the town of ----
constituted bylaw within certain local bounds, and have chosen to
join myself to the (Insert here the name of society you have
joined) in the town of ----.

Dated at ---- this ---- day of ---- A. D.

declarations, undignified in wording and sometimes written in doggerel
rhyme. While granting the new certificate law, the Assembly were
careful to pass a minor ecclesiastical statute enforcing a fine of
from six to twelve shillings upon all who should neglect to observe
all public fasts and thanksgivings. [187] This law at times proved
unsatisfactory to the Episcopalians, for the Congregational fasts and
feasts were appointed by the authorities, who naturally did not
consider the Churchman's feeling when called upon to celebrate a feast
or thanksgiving during an Episcopalian season of fasting, or to
observe a public fast, to go in sackcloth, upon an anniversary that
should be marked by joy and praise.

In 1792, the year following the attempt to remodel the certificate
laws, certain legislative measures with reference to Yale College fed
the discontent among the dissenting sects. For some years there had
been an increasing dissatisfaction with the management of the
college. It culminated in 1792 in the reorganization of the governing
board, to which were added eight civilians, including the governor,
lieutenant-governor, and the six senior councilors or state
senators. At the same time, and in consideration of the admission of
laymen to the board, $40,000 was given to the college. [c] This money
was a part of the taxes which had been collected to meet the expenses
of the Revolutionary war, and which were in the state treasury when
the United States government offered to refund the state for such
expense. It was granted to the college on condition that she should
invest it in the new United States bonds, and that half the profits of
the investment should be at the disposal of the state. This
arrangement relieved the crippled finances of the college and
gratified many of its friends. But there were many who regarded the
measure as out-and-out favoritism to a Congregational college, and who
put no faith in the proposed half-sharing of profits. They maintained
that eventually the college would get the whole benefit of the money
that had been collected for other purposes, and from many persons who
could derive no benefit from such a disposal of it. These prophets
were not far wrong, for after Yale had paid into the state treasury a
little more than $13,000 she was relieved from further payments by a
repeal, in 1796, of the conditional clause of the grant.

This favoritism to Yale was not the only legislation to anger the
dissenters, and especially the Baptists. Another measure, mooted at
the same time as the certificate acts and the special grant to the
college, was accepted as a further mark of the government's
determination to ignore the rights of dissenters. In 1785-86 the
Assembly had granted lands for the support of the Gospel ministry, for
schools, and to the first minister to settle in each township of the
Western Reserve. This act, as has been shown, was considered to unduly
favor the Presbyterians. But little had come of this legislation
beyond the survey of the land and the opening of a land office there
for its sale. Five years later, in 1791, even though no part of the
tract had been sold, the Assembly introduced a new bill appropriating
the anticipated proceeds from the sale of the land to the several
ecclesiastical societies as a fund with which to pay their ministers
so as to enable them to do away with the tax for salaries. But the
excitement roused by the first certificate law--of 1791--was so great
that it was deemed prudent to continue this Western Land bill over to
the next session of the legislature, and there it was lost. The
session of May, 1792, contented itself with only such legislation in
regard to the Western Reserve as that by which it granted the "Fire
Lands," so called, a grant of 500,000 acres as indemnity to the
citizens of New London, Groton, Fairfield, Norwalk, and Danbury, for
the destruction of their property in the burning of their towns by
British troops.

As the lands of the Western Reserve did not sell well, [d] the
Assembly, in 1793, appointed a committee to dispose of the tract to
the highest bidder if the amount offered should be duly guaranteed
with interest; principal and interest payable to the state within four
or six years, whether paid in lump sum on demand, or by installments.
The sale was widely advertised both within and without the state. It
was now calculated that the amount realized from the sale of the lands
would be a sum yielding an annual interest of $60,000, or an average
of $600 to a town, beside a bonus to Yale of $8000. Therefore, the
Assembly, in October, 1793, voted that--

moneys arising from the sale of the territory belonging to the
State, lying west of the state of Pennsylvania, be, and the same
is hereby established a perpetual fund, the interest whereof is
granted, and shall be appropriated to the use and benefit of the
several ecclesiastical societies, churches, congregations of all
_denominations_ in this State, to be by them applied to the
support of their respective ministers or preachers of the Gospel,
and schools of education, under such rules and regulations as
shall be adopted by this or some future session of the General
Assembly. [188]

An earlier bill had been proposed, discussed, and tabled. This act was
originally a resolution framed by a large committee whose members
represented both the friends and opponents of the proposal for the
immediate sale of the lands. When the vote passed, it was by
eighty-three yeas to seventy nays in the House and by a large and
favorable majority in the Council.

One fault that the dissenters found with the law was that, under the
rules and regulations adopted by the Assembly, they believed that the
alternative which the law allowed of voting the money to the
ministerial fund, or to the school, would work to their
disadvantage. Where there were few dissenters, the Presbyterian vote
would carry the money over to the minister's use, and where there were
many, the same vote would be sufficient, if thrown, as it probably
would be, to direct the money to the school appropriation. It would
follow that the dissenters might never have the use of the money for
the support of their own worship.

The Baptists voiced the general opposition among the dissenters,--an
opposition so strong that it appealed to some of the conservatives as
sufficient reason in itself to condemn the law. "A Friend to Society"
wrote to the "Hartford Courant" that--

if a religion whose principles are universal love and harmony is
to be supported and promoted by a means which will blow up the
sparks of faction and party strife into a violent flame, it is a
new way of promoting religion. Much better would it be for the
State of Connecticut that their Western Lands should be sunk by an
earthquake and form part of the adjoining lake than that they
should be transplanted hither for a bone of contention.

Apart from sectarian interests, the law met with hostility. There were
those who thought that the money ought to be applied at once to the
remaining indebtedness of the state, rather than for it to wait for
another installment on the Revolutionary debt that was still due from
the national government. There were more who thought that the money
ought to go for the expenses of government, or for direct advantages,
such as the repair of bridges and highways. But the expenses of
government were light, [e] and, as a rule, the people were willing to
keep the highways in repair. There was still another party who
contended that the money should go for schools, both because they were
needed in larger numbers, and because they ought to be able to pay
larger salaries and not ones so small as to tempt only the farmer lad,
or the ambitious student, to keep a country school for a few months in
winter, or a somewhat similarly equipped woman to teach in summer. And
there was yet another party who were convinced that the money should
go to the support of the ministry, for they believed that morality
could be taught only by religion, and that the people were losing
interest in the latter because of the inferiority of the preachers
whom the small salaries and insecure support kept in the field. [189]

While this discussion of certificate laws, of grants to Yale, and of
grants of land and money to the ecclesiastical societies had been
constantly before the public, there had also been present a minor
grievance due to the Assembly's interest in the missionary work that
the General Association had extended to include parts of Vermont,
western New York, Pennsylvania, and the outlying settlements in
Ohio. In the western field the missionaries sent by Connecticut
frequently met those sent out by the Presbyterian General
Assembly. Drawn together by their interests in these missions in 1794,
the practice was begun of having three delegates from the General
Association meet with the Presbyterian General Assembly in their
annual convention, and three delegates from the General Assembly take
their seats in the yearly convocation of the General Association of
Connecticut. So long as the Connecticut churches were strongly
Presbyterian in sentiment, there was no clashing of interests among
the workers in the mission field. Naturally, Connecticut wanted to do
her full share of missionary work; and feeling the need of more money
for the purpose, the General Association, in 1792, appealed to the
legislature for permission to take up an annual collection for three
years. The Association hesitated to take up such a collection in all
the churches, dissenting or Established, without such permission. The
Baptists expressed their indignation at the wording of Governor
Huntington's proclamation, "that there be a contribution taken up in
every congregation for the support of the Presbyterian Missions in the
western territory." More than that, they refused to contribute, on the
ground that if the collection had been "recommended" they would gladly
have helped a Christian cause, but that it was inexpedient to yield to
a demand that all societies should contribute to the support of
missions that were entirely under the control of one religious
body. Furthermore, with reference to the appropriation of money from
the Western Lands, they would join with other dissenters in opposing
it, on the ground that, in order to obtain their share of the money,
they would have to admit their inferiority through the showing of the
compulsory certificates. Moreover, even the scant favor secured
through these was in danger from the continual favoritism of the
legislature, with its treasury open at all times to its Congregational
college, and with its enactments in favor of the Established Churches.

At the May session of the Assembly, 1794, the Baptists from all over
the state thronged the steps of the capitol at Hartford, angered
almost to the point of precipitating civil war. There John Leland
addressed them, urging the necessity of government; the power of
constitutional reform; arguing for rights of conscience, citing both
European and colonial history to prove their reasonableness and their
value to the body politic; and setting forth Connecticut's departure
from the glorious freedom mapped out by her founders. He declared to
that great and angry crowd:--

Government is a necessary evil and so a chosen good. Its business
is to preserve the life, liberty and property of the many units
that form the body politic.... When a constitution of government
is formed, it should be simple and explicit; the powers that are
vested in, and work to be performed by each department should be
defined with the utmost perspicuity; and this constitution should
be attended to as scrupulously by men in office as the Bible
should be by all religionists.... Let the people first be
convinced of the deficiency of the constitution, and remove the
defects thereof, and then, those in office can change the
administration upon constitutional grounds.

* * * * *

[The right to worship] God according to the dictates of
conscience, without being prohibited, directed or controlled
therein by human law, either in _time, place or manner_,
cannot be surrendered up to the general government for an
equivalent. [190]

Had not Governor Haynes said to Roger Williams, "The Most High God
hath provided and cut out this part of the world for a refuge and
receptacle for all sorts of consciences?" How had not Connecticut
fallen? How passed her ancient glory, how ignored her charter's
rights? How firm a grip upon her had that incubus of her own raising,
the pernicious union of Church and State? Break that, as elsewhere it
had been broken, and then as freemen demand a constitution
guaranteeing both civil and religious liberty.

The result of the widespread hostility was the attempt at the May
session of 1794 to repeal the offensive law. The Lower House did
repeal it, after a lively debate, by a vote of 109 yeas to 58 nays,
but the Council, or Upper House, where the conservatives were
intrenched, refused to pass the bill. However, they were induced to
pass a resolution suspending the sale of the lands. The debate in the
House was published verbatim in the "Hartford Gazette" of May 19,
1794, and was copied by the papers throughout the state. In the
following October a bill was passed by the Council, but continued over
by the House and ordered to be printed in all the papers, that the
people might have opportunity to consider it before it should come up
to be passed upon by their representatives in the May session of
1795. [191] The terms of the bill were that the principal sum of money
received from the sale of the Western Lands should be apportioned
among the several school societies according to the list of polls and
rateable estates, and that the interest arising from the money so
divided should be appropriated to the support of schools that were
kept according to the law, or to the support of the public worship of
God and the Christian ministry, "as the majority of the legal voters
should annually determine." [192]

The proposed law was subjected to public scrutiny of all sorts. It was
agitated in town meetings, and the discussions for and against it were
noticed in the newspapers, where much space was given to its
consideration. Ministers made it the subject of their
sermons. Dr. Dwight discoursed upon the subject in his Thanksgiving
sermon. [193] When the proposed bill came up before the legislature,
it encountered considerable opposition, but after some modifications
it became a law. As in school societies the dissenters had an equal
vote, and in all town affairs were worth conciliating, there was more
justice in the new law than in the old, where the ecclesiastical
society was made the unit of division. From 1717 to 1793 the towns,
parishes, and occasionally the ecclesiastical societies had charge of
the schools. [194] But in 1794 school districts were authorized and
the change to them begun. Such districts could, upon the vote of two
thirds of all the qualified voters, locate schools, lay taxes to build
and repair them, and appoint a collector to gather such rates. The act
of May, 1795, appropriating the money from the Western Lands to the
schools, provided also that the school districts should be erected
into school societies to whom the money should be distributed, and by
whom the interest thereon should be expended; and that it should go
"to no other Use or Purpose whatsoever; except in the Case and under
the circumstances hereafter mentioned." The circumstances here
referred to were in cases where two thirds of the legal voters in a
school society meeting, legally warned, voted to use the interest
money for the support of the ministry in that Society, and appealed to
the General Assembly for permission to so use the money. Upon such an
expression of the wish of voters, the General Assembly was empowered
to answer in the affirmative. The act also repealed that of 1793. The
legislature appointed another commission for the sale of the
lands. They were sold in the following October for $1,200,000. By this
legislation was laid the foundation of Connecticut's School Fund. The
Connecticut Land Company, which had made the purchase, petitioned the
legislature in 1797 that Connecticut should surrender her jurisdiction
over the lands to the United States. The state complied. In 1798 the
organization of the new school societies was perfected, and the
control of the schools passed entirely into their hands until the
district system of 1856 was adopted.

The Western Land bills had resulted in the establishment of a public
school fund and in its just distribution, without reference to
sectarianism, among the people. All the agitation attending both the
certificate acts and Western Land bills had demonstrated the intense
opposition of the dissenting minority, and that they were beginning to
look to the increase of their numbers and the power of the ballot as
the only means of changing the vexatious laws under which they were
treated as inferiors. To the Congregationalists, strong both as the
Established Church and as members of the Federal party, which counted
many adherents among all the dissenting sects, the possibility that
any voting strength could be brought against them, adequate to oppose
their party measures, seemed improbable. Such a possibility must be
very remote. Yet within twenty years, they were to see the downfall of
the Federal party, of the Established Church, and of Connecticut's
charter government.

FOOTNOTES:

[a] The vote of the Assembly was: "That the ancient form of civil
government, containing the charter from Charles the Second, King of
England, and adopted by the people of this State, shall be and remain
the Civil Constitution of the State under the sole authority of the
people thereof, independent of any King, or ftince whatever. And that
this Republic is and shall forever be and remain a free, sovereign,
and independent State, by the name of the State of
Connecticut."--Revision of Acts and Laws, Ed. 1784, p. 1.

[b] "Courts and juries had usually been composed of what was
considered the standing church, and they had frequently practiced such
quibbles and finesse with respect to the forms of certificates and the
nature of dissenting congregations as to defeat the benevolent
intentions of the law."--Swift's _System of Laws_, pp. 146, 147.

[c] Yale received in all $40,629.80. In 1871, six alumni replaced the
six senior councilors.

[d] So far the highest bid for the tract of land had been $350,000.

[e] The annual expenses were estimated to be approximately $90,000. In
_Advice to Connecticut Folks_, 1786, occurs the following
estimate:--

===================================================================
Necessary Unneces'y
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Governor's salary, L300 L300
Lieutenant-Governor's, 100 100
Upper House attendance and travel
60 days at L10 per day, 600 600
Lower House attendance and travel
170 members at 6s. a day, 60 days, 3,060 1,530 L1,530
Five Judges of the Superior Court at
24s. a day, suppose 150 days, 900 900
Forty Judges of Inferior Court at
9s. a day, suppose 40 days, 720 720
Six thousand actions in the year, the
legal expenses of each, suppose L3, 18,000 1,000 17,000
Gratuities to 120 lawyers, suppose
L50 each, 6,000 1,000 5,000
Two hundred clergymen at L100 each, 20,000 20,000
Five hundred schools at L20 a year, 10,000 10,000
Support of poor, 10,000 10,000
Bridges and other town expenses, 10,000 10,000
Contingencies and articles not
enumerated, 10,000 10,000
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total, L89,680 L66,150 L23,530

As a glimpse at society, it may be added that the _Advice_ itself
is an energetic and statistical condemnation of the prevalent use of
"Rum," estimated at L90,000 or "ninety-nine hundredths unnecessary
expense" in living. "Deny it if you can, good folks. Now say not a
word about taxes, Judges, lawyers, courts and women's extravagances.
Your government, your courts, your lawyers, your clergymen, your
schools and your poor, do not all cost you so much as one paltry
article which does you little or no good but is as destructive of your
lives as fire and brimstone."--Noah Webster's _Collection of
Essays,_ pp. 137-139.

The evil was beginning to be recognized in all its danger. Here and
there voluntary temperance clubs were beginning to be formed among the
better classes, but it was a time when hardly a contract was closed
without a stipulation of a certain quantity of rum for each workman.

CHAPTER XIV

POLITICAL PARTIES IN CONNECTICUT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY

As well dam up the waters of the Nile with Bullrushes as to fetter
the steps of Freedom.--L. M. Child.

Leland's attack upon the constitution of Connecticut during the
excitement over the Western Land bills called for new tactics on the
part of the dissenters. Thus far, in all their antagonism to the union
of Church and State, there had been on their part practically no
attack upon the constitution itself. Yet even as early as 1786 the
Anti-Federalists had proclaimed that the state of Connecticut was
without a constitution; that the charter government fell with the
Declaration of Independence; and that its adoption by the legislature
as a state constitution was an unwarranted excess of authority. The
Anti-Federalists maintained also that many of the charter provisions
were either outgrown or unsuited to the needs of the state. But the
majority of the dissenters, like the Constitutional Reform party of
recent date, preferred redress for their grievances through
legislation rather than through the uprooting of an ancient and
cherished constitution. Accordingly, it was not until the elections of
1804-6 that this question of a new constitution could reasonably be
made a campaign issue. But from 1793 the dissenters began to lean
towards affiliation with the Democratic-Republican [a] party, the
successors to the Anti-Federal; yet it was not until toward the close
of the War of 1812 that the Republican party made large gains in
Connecticut and the dissenters began to feel sure that the dawn of
religious liberty was at hand. But before that time the Republicans
made three distinct though abortive attempts to secure the electoral
power.

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