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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The New England Federalists soon found seven great reasons for party
action. They were the uncertain success of the war by land; the great
commercial distress; [f] the possession by the enemy of a large part
of Maine; the publication of the terms upon which England would grant
peace; [g] the proposed legislation in the fall of 1814, providing for
the increase of the United States army by draft or conscription; the
proposed modified form of impressment of sailors; and the bill
allowing army officers to enlist minors and apprentices over eighteen
years of age, with or without consent of parents or guardians. [h]
These measures drove the New England Federalists, at the call of
Massachusetts, to the formation of the Hartford Convention. The
Connecticut legislature approved the sending of delegates by a vote of
153 to 36 opposed. Massachusetts and Rhode Island answered with like
enthusiasm. New Hampshire and Vermont hesitated, but the counties of
Cheshire and Grafton in the former state and of Windham in the latter
sent each a delegate to the convention. Rhode Island sent four
delegates and Massachusetts twelve, of whom George Cabot was elected
president of the convention. Connecticut furnished the secretary of
the convention, and later its historian in Theodore Dwight of
Hartford. She also sent seven other delegates, namely: Chauncey
Goodrich, mayor of Hartford, and from 1814 to 1815 governor of the
state; John Treadwell, ex-governor; James Hillhouse, who had served as
United States representative and senator; Zephaniah Swift, United
States representative and later chief judge of superior court of
Connecticut; Calvin Goddard, United States representative; Nathaniel
Smith, United States representative and later judge of the supreme
court; and Roger Minot Sherman, a distinguished lawyer and member of
the state legislature. All the delegates to the Hartford Convention
were men of high character, and most of them well-known leaders of the
Federal party. The convention lasted for three weeks, and, as its
sessions were conducted with the greatest secrecy, many prejudicial
rumors and surmises arose. The Massachusetts summons had bidden the
delegates convene for measures of safety "not repugnant to our
obligations as members of the Union," and the convention acknowledged
that it found the greatest difficulty in "devising means of defense
against dangers, and of relief from oppressions proceeding from the
act of their own Government without violating constitutional
principles or disappointing the hopes of a suffering and injured
people." The secrecy, the known antagonism to the Administration, the
knowledge of New England's early disbelief in the cohesive power of
the Union, and the convention's demands and resolutions, combined to
give a bad and traitorous reputation to the Hartford Convention that
has never been absolutely cleared away.

As early as 1796, over the signature "Pelham," there had appeared in
the "Hartford Courant" a series of articles written with great ability
and keen foresight as to the difficulties that would arise in making
any impartial legislation for a nation composed of parts having such
diverse economic systems as those of the North and the South. The
articles suggested the development of two nations instead of
one. During the War of 1812, various suggestions had been thrown out
by different newspapers enlarging upon the resources of New England
and hinting at a separate peace with England. There were not a few
who, upon learning of the resolutions of the convention, felt that
"Pelham" was a close adviser of its measures if not one of its
delegates. Public opinion was so wrought up by the assumed disloyalty
of the Hartford Convention that in 1815 it forced the publication of
the convention's brief and non-committal "Journal." From it little
more was learned than that the convention had resolved that the
different states should take measures to protect themselves against
draft by the national government, that New England should be allowed
to defend herself, and for that purpose should have returned to each
of her states a reasonable share of the national taxes to meet the
expense of their arming. In addition, each New England state should
set apart a certain portion of her militia under her governor to give
aid in cases of extremity should she be called upon by the governor of
another state. At the close of the convention, delegates were
appointed to proceed to Washington with these resolutions and also
with six proposed amendments [i] to the national constitution. These
demands and resolves were reinforced by the proposal that should the
Administration refuse to consider the propositions, another convention
should be held in the following summer to consider further action.
When the delegates arrived in Washington with the resolutions, of
which two state legislatures had meantime approved, the news of peace
had been declared. In the general jubilation they saw fit to leave
their message undelivered. For years the taint of rebellion clung to
the Hartford Convention, and forced its secretary, in 1833, to publish
his "History," a defense of its members and their measures. Even this
did not remove the stigma. The delegates had in their own communities
always retained their reputation for high personal character, but
politically they were irretrievably ruined by their participation in
the Hartford gathering. They had dealt their party in their states a
mortal blow, and the Hartford Convention has been well named "the
grave of the Federal party."

However much the members of the convention swathed their sentiments in
expressions of allegiance to the Union, at least until extreme
provocation should force a separation; or however much they declared
their conviction that peace, not war, should be the time chosen for
such a separation, and that, first of all, distinction should be
carefully made between a bad constitution and a bad government, and a
good constitution or government badly administered, there was no doubt
but that they proposed to push nullification to the point of active
resistance within what they considered their legal rights. They had
also proposed a set of amendments which they knew stood no chance of
meeting with approval from any number of the states. Moreover the
Hartford Convention, whatever its intentions, seriously alarmed and
embarrassed the Administration. Because of the consequences of their
policy, its members were culpable in the opinion of all who hold that,
in the distress of war, to hamper one's own government is to lend
assistance to the enemy. [j]

The war at first was not popular, but made friends for itself as it
progressed. Connecticut sailors were among the seamen that England had
impressed, and Connecticut captains had surrendered ships and rich
cargoes at the command of the mistress of the seas. But the naval
triumphs of the first year caught the popular fancy, for "not until
the Guerriere's colors were struck to the Constitution had a British
frigate been humiliated on the ocean." The victories on land were
about equally balanced. The disclosures of English perfidy in
attempting through her secret agents [k] to detach New England from
the Union before war should break out, and during the conflict, by
favoritism to Massachusetts, helped to increase the supporters of the
war policy. Further, the war brought out the latent powers of the
nation, both for defense and for prosperity. The gradual introduction
of machinery since 1800 had enlarged the small manufactories of
Connecticut, and begun the exchange of products between near
localities. But before the War of 1812 no manufacturing in Connecticut
had achieved a notable success. [l] There was invention and skill, [m]
and often profit, in the home market for the coarser products, but
there was a general tendency to prefer imported goods of finer make.
The war cut off such supplies, and the need created a paying demand
and developed an ability to supply it. The political party that
conducted the war to a successful finish developed the policy of
protection of infant industries, and the tariff of 1816 gave birth to
Connecticut as a manufacturing state. The repeal of the obnoxious war
measures, the speedy reduction of the national expenses, and the
promise of prosperity smoothed out lingering resentment. The Federal
party was virtually extinct outside of its last strongholds in New
England and Delaware. In the Era of Good Feeling following the war the
whole people composed one party, with principles neither those of the
original Federal party nor those of the original Republican party, but
a combination of both." [n]

In New England during the War of 1812, as in the Revolution, the
clergy had been the nucleus of the local dominant party, and with its
leaders had been bitter opponents of the "unrighteous war." [208]
Consequently the Congregational clergy shared in the popular
disapproval and condemnation that overtook the Federalists. In
Connecticut, for a time, the Standing Order by its affiliation with
the Federal party prolonged its control. of the state. But the tide
was turning. Dr. Lyman Beecher, Dr. Dwight's able lieutenant, made
vigorous and laudable efforts to uphold the Dwights, the Aaron and
Moses, as it were, of the waning political power. The "Home Missionary
Society," [o] Bible societies, the "Domestic Missionary Society for
the Building up of Waste Places," and the many branches of the
"Society for the Suppression of Vice and Promotion of Good Morals" [p]
did much good among those who welcomed them. Where their results were
simply those of a morality enforced by law, they caused still greater
dissatisfaction with the ruling party. [q] The union of the clergy and
lawyers was not as influential as had been anticipated in the early
days of 1812. Soon after the war the clergy adopted a less vigorous
policy, preferring an attitude of defense against calumny and a
withdrawal from politics. [r]

The elections showed the change in public opinion. At the April
election, 1814, the Federals reelected Governor Smith, while the
Republican candidate, Mr. Edward Boardman, received 1629 votes. The
following year, notwithstanding Governor Smith's reelection, Mr.
Boardman polled 4876 votes, and the Republicans made a gain of twenty
in the House of Representatives, while in the fall nominations for
Assistants, the highest Federal vote was 9008 and that of the
Republicans was 4268. [209]

In January, 1816, "a meeting of citizens from various parts of the
state" was held in New Haven to agree upon a nomination for governor
and lieutenant-governor, which would bind together the Republicans and
such of the Federalists as were opposed to the Standing Order. Oliver
Wolcott and Jonathan Ingersll were unanimously agreed upon. Oliver
Wolcott had been living out of the state for fourteen years, and for
most of that time had not been in politics. His Republican supporters
had had time to forget him as a staunch Federalist, and remembered him
only as a man of parts who had held the secretaryship of the treasury
under Washington and Adams, and who had "opposed the Hartford
Convention; like Washington was a friend to the _Union_, a foe to
rebellion; with mild means resisted bigotry, with a glowing heart
favored toleration." [210] As he had approved the policy of the
general government since the days of Madison, he was pronounced an
available candidate. A good Congregationalist, he would not offend the
Federalists, would be acceptable to the Republicans, and would stand
to the capitalists and farmers as favorable to a protective tariff and
to more equitable taxation within the state. The prestige given him by
the executive abilities of his father and grandfather in the
gubernatorial chair also counted in his favor. The candidate for
lieutenant-governor was Jonathan Ingersoll, a Federalist, an eminent
New Haven lawyer, a prominent Episcopalian, senior warden of Trinity
Church, and chairman of the Bishop's Fund. He had had political
training in the Council, 1792-1798, and had been judge of the Superior
Court, 1798-1801, and again from 1811 to 1816. His nomination was the
price of the Episcopal vote, for "it was deemed expedient by giving
the Episcopalians a fair opportunity to unite with the Republicans, to
attempt to affect such change in the Government as should afford some
prospect of satisfaction to their united demands." [s]

The "Connecticut Herald," indignant at the Assembly's conduct in the
Phoenix Bank affair, left the Federal party and independently
nominated Jonathan Ingersoll for lieutenant-governor instead of the
regular candidate of that party, Chauncey Goodrich. The "American
Mercury," the organ of the American Toleration party, the union of
Republicans, dissenters, and dissatisfied, in order "to produce that
concord and harmony among parties which have too long, and without any
real diversity of interests, been disturbed, and which every honest
man must earnestly desire to see restored," nominated for governor,
Oliver Wolcott; for lieutenant-governor, Jonathan Ingersoll. The
Federal candidate for the executive was Governor John Cotton Smith, up
for reelection. The Tolerationists failed by a few hundred votes to
seat their candidate for the executive, with the result that the
election of 1816 raised to office Governor Smith and
Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll. Governor Smith received 11,589 votes,
Mr. Wolcott 10,170, while Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll polled a
majority of 1453 over his opponent, Mr. Calvin Goddard. [t] It was the
first time that a dissenter had held so high an office. The
Federalists might have seized the opportunity to renew their former
friendship with the Episcopalians had it not been for their
stubbornness and for their old fear of Churchmen in political
office. At the October town meetings, the returns from ninety-three
towns gave a Federal vote of 7995 and a Republican of 6315 for
representatives, with a Federal majority of about thirty in the
House. [2ll]

The Federalists, realizing that the Episcopal vote was almost lost to
them, that their domestic policy was in disfavor, and that their
conduct during the war had damaged them and was leading to their
downfall in Connecticut even as in the nation, resolved upon a
desperate measure to conciliate a larger number of the dissenters.
This was the Act of October, 1816, for the Support of Literature and
Religion. Briefly, it divided the balance of the money which the
nation owed Connecticut for expenses during the war, namely $145,000,
among the various denominations. To the Congregationalists it gave in
round numbers, and including the grant to Yale, $68,000; to the
Episcopalians, $20,000; to Methodists, $12,000; and to Baptists,
$18,000; to Quakers, Sandemanians, etc., nothing. [u] The Quakers were
assumed to be satisfied with their recent exemptions from military
duty upon the payment of a small tax; Sandemanians and other
insignificant sects to be conciliated by the act of the preceding
April, which repealed, after a duration of nearly one hundred and
eighty years, the fine of fifty cents for absence from church on
Sunday. The people were at last free, not only to worship as they
chose, but when they chose, or to omit worship. They had yet to obtain
equal privileges for all denominations, and exemption from enforced
support of religion. The passage of the Act for the Support of
Literature and Religion raised, as the Congregationalists ought to
have known it would, a violent protest from every dissenter and from
every political come-outer. Some of the towns in town-meetings opposed
the bill as unnecessary for the support of schools and clergy; as
wasteful, when it would be wiser to create a state fund; and as unduly
favorable to Yale, where the policy was to create an intellectual
class and not to advance learning and literature among the
commonalty. At Andover, February 1, 1817, Episcopalians, Baptists, and
Methodists met together and denounced the act because they disapproved
of the union of Church and State which it encouraged; because of
Yale's tendency to bias religion; because they all approved of the
voluntary support of religion; and because they all scorned such a
political trick as the bill appeared to them, namely, an attempt to
win by their acceptance of the money their apparent approval of the
enforced support of religion. The Baptist societies in different
towns met to condemn the measure on the same grounds, and on the
additional ones that it was unfair to the Quakers, who had no paid
preachers; to the Universalists, because they were numerically still
too small to be of political importance; and indeed to many men,
since, as every man had contributed to the expense of the war, every
man ought to be rewarded proportionally. The Methodists agreed in all
these criticisms, and were no more backward in denouncing a measure
which forced on them money they did not seek, and for a purpose of
which they disapproved. The Methodist Society of Glastonbury were most
outspoken, declaring the law--

incompatible with sound policy and inconsistent with any former
act of the legislature of the state; the ultimate consequence of
which will prove a lasting curse to vital religion, which every
candid and reflecting mind may easily foresee; and we view it as a
very bold and desperate effort to effectuate a union between
Church and State.... We are induced to believe that Pilate and
Herod, and the chief Priests are still against us,... $12,000 to
the contrary notwithstanding. Resolved--

(1) We don't want such reparation for being characterized as an
illiterate set of enthusiasts devoid of character; our clergy a
set of worthless ramblers, unworthy the protection of our civil
laws.

(2) Pity and contempt for the Legislature should be expressed for
bribery.

(3) We believe the money, if received, would be a lasting curse.

(4) The measure was intended for politics, not religion, and was
a species of Tyranny.

(5) We should use our best endeavors to have the money used for
state expenses.

(6) Thanks should be sent to the members of the Legislature who
had opposed the measure.

All Methodists were further angered by the affront put upon them by
the General Assembly, which, in spite of their known determination not
to receive the money, appointed Methodist trustees, of whom a majority
were Federalists, to receive their share of the appropriation. The
trustees accepted the money, defending their action on the ground that
they believed that their claim would become void if they did not draw
the money, and it might then be put to a worse use. But the Methodist
societies did not uphold the trustees, and "regretted the committee
imposed on us by the Legislature of the state." The chairman of the
committee, the Rev. Augustus Bolles, refused to serve, and the
societies rejected the money. [v]

As a result of the unwelcome legislation, the Republicans received the
whole vote of the Methodists for the "Toleration and Reform Ticket" of
1817, which repeated the nominations of the preceding election. The
Episcopalians of course favored the reelection of Lieutenant-Governor
Ingersoll. One small provocation by the Congregationalists of the
First Church of New Haven--the attempt to place the odium of expulsion
upon a member who became an Episcopalian--did not tend to allay
feeling. The Toleration party were sure of the votes of the more
feeble dissenters, whose interests they promised to regard, as well as
of those of the Baptists and of such Federalists as disapproved of the
high-handed policy of the Standing Order. The Tolerationists were also
counting upon a steady increase of recruits from the Federal ranks as
soon as the appreciation of a recent attack by the legislature upon
the judiciary and its danger should become more and more
realized. Many such recruits, convinced of the necessity of
constitutional reform, had gathered at the general meeting of
Republicans held in New Haven in October, 1816, to make up the ticket
for the spring election of 1817. The campaign issue was "whether
freemen shall be tolerated in the free exercise of their religious and
political rights." It was met by the election of Governor Wolcott with
a majority of 600 votes over ex-Governor J. Cotton Smith, and by no
opposition to the reelection of Lieutenant-Governor Ingersoll. [w] At
the same election many minor Republican officials were seated, and the
House went Republican by an assured majority of nearly two to one, the
Senate remaining strongly Federal.

Governor Wolcott's inaugural placed before the Assembly the following
subjects for consideration: (1) A new system of taxation; for, as the
governor pointed out, the capitation tax was equivalent to about
one-sixteenth of the laboring man's income. (2) Judges of the Superior
Court should hold their office during good behavior instead of by
annual appointment by the legislature. (3) There should be a complete
separation of legislative and judicial powers of government. (4)
Rights of conscience and the voluntary support of religion, though if
necessary with "laws providing efficient remedies for enforcing the
voluntary contracts for their [ministers'] support," should be
considered; and (5) Freedom of suffrage. In concluding, the governor
urged that "whenever the public mind appears to be considerably
agitated on these subjects, prudence requires that the legislature
should revise its measures, and by reasonable explanation or
modifications of the law, restore public confidence and tranquillity."
[x]

To consider briefly these various points: Taxes upon mills, machinery,
and manufactures needed to be light in order to secure their continued
existence. The necessities of war-time had created a larger market for
their products, but one that could not be continued after the close of
the war allowed European products to enter free of duty. Nor could
the factories exist if burdened with heavy taxes before the new tariff
measures of 1816 had revived these depressed industries. In
agriculture, taxes upon horses, oxen, stock, dairy products, and
increased areas of tillage handicapped the farmer. Again, the tax upon
fire-places, rather than upon houses, weighed heavily upon the poor
and the moderately well-to-do, who built small and inexpensive houses
with say three fireplaces, while the rich owners of older and more
pretentious dwellings were often rated for fewer. [y] Money was
scarce, rich men rare. So also was great poverty. There was a scanty
living for the majority. Trades were few, wages low. A farm-hand
averaged three shillings a day, paid in provisions. Women of all work
drudged for two shillings and sixpence per week, while a farm overseer
received a salary of seventy dollars a year. The children of people in
average circumstances walked barefoot to church, carrying their shoes
and stockings, which they put on under the shelter of the big tree
nearest to the meeting-house. Their fathers made one Sunday suit last
for years. The wealthy had small incomes, though relatively great. It
was whispered that Pierpont Edwards, the rich and prosperous New Haven
lawyer, had an income from his law practice of two thousand dollars
per year.

Points (2) and (3) in the governor's address were prompted by the
widespread interest created by the action of the legislature in
October, 1815, when it had set aside the conviction, by a special
Superior Court at Middletown, of Peter Lung for murder, on the ground
that the court was irregularly and illegally convened. The chief judge
was Zephaniah Swift of Windham, author of the "System of Connecticut
Laws." [z] Judge Swift appealed to the public [aa] to vindicate his
judicial character from the censure implied by the Assembly's
action. An ardent Federalist, who in the early days of statehood could
see no need of a better constitution than he then insisted Connecticut
possessed through the adoption of her ancient charter, he had long
opposed the ecclesiastical establishment which that charter upheld. In
his defense of the constitution he had maintained that "it ought to be
deemed an inviolable maxim that _when proper courts of law are
constituted, the legislature are divested of all judicial
authority_." [2l2] But when the legislature claimed as
constitutional the right to call to account any court, magistrate, or
other officer for misdemeanor or mal-administration, [ab] Judge Swift
admitted the lack of "a written constitution." He further argued that
the one "made up of usages and customs, had always been understood to
contain certain fundamental axioms which were held sacred and
inviolable, and which were the basis on which rested the rights of the
people." Of these self-evident principles one was that the three
branches of government--the executive, legislative, and judicial--were
coordinate and independent, and that the powers of one should never be
exercised by the other. "It ought to be held as a fundamental axiom,"
the judge declared, "that _the Legislature should never encroach on
the jurisdiction of the Judiciary,_ nor assume the province of
interfering in private rights, nor of overhauling the decisions of the
courts of law." Otherwise, "the legislature would become one great
arbitration that would engulf all the courts of law, [ac] and
_sovereign discretion_ would be 'the only rule of decision,--a
state of things _equally favorable to lawyers and criminals."_
[213]

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