Back When Presbyterians Seemed to Run Everything

Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, was founded in December of 1769 (We will mention in passing that Samuel Miller was born that same year, less than two months earlier). Eleazar Wheelock served as the first president of the school and when he died in 1779, his son John Wheelock took up the mantle and served as the second president of Dartmouth. From there, the succeeding list of presidents came to be known as the “Wheelock Succession.”

Francis Brown was next called from his church in North Yarmouth, Maine, serving as the third president (1815-1820), during a particularly interesting crisis for the school. It was at this time that a legal challenge to the school arose, eventually coming before the Supreme Court. This was the famous Dartmouth College Case:

“The contest was a pivotal one for Dartmouth and for the newly independent nation. It tested the contract clause of the Constitution and arose from an 1816 controversy involving the legislature of the state of New Hampshire, which amended the 1769 charter granted to Eleazar Wheelock, making Dartmouth a public institution and changing its name to Dartmouth University. Under the leadership of President Brown, the Trustees resisted the effort and the case for Dartmouth was argued by Daniel Webster before the U.S. Supreme Court in 1818. Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the historic decision in favor of Dartmouth College, thereby paving the way for all American private institutions to conduct their affairs in accordance with their charters and without interference from the state.”

But the whole affair was taxing and Rev. Brown died at the young age of 35. His successor, the Rev. Daniel Dana, lasted just one year before he too was worn out and resigned the post. Bennet Tyler and Nathan Lord, the next two presidents, faired better. While Tyler served just four years, Nathan Lord’s term as president ran from 1828 to 1863. His term might have run longer, but as events unfolded in the 1860’s, the Trustees of Dartmouth were forced to finally deal with the fact that the school’s president was a strong pro-slavery advocate.

So it was that in 1863, the Rev. Asa Dodge Smith became the seventh president of Dartmouth College. Inaugurated in 1863, he served as president until his death on August 16, 1877, at the age of 73.

Asa Dodge Smith was born in Amherst, Massachusetts on September 21, 1804, the son of Dr. Roger and Sally (Hodge) Smith. He was himself a graduate of Dartmouth College (1830), and in the year or so following graduation he worked as the principal of an academy in Limerick, Maine. Preparing to enter the ministry, he studied at Andover Theological Seminary and graduated there in 1834. He was then ordained and installed as pastor of what was then the Brainerd Presbyterian church (later renamed as the 14th Street Presbyterian church) in New York City. Rev. Smith also served as a professor of pastoral theology at the Union Theological Seminary, NY, 1843-1844.

From here, the history states that,

“After the forced resignation of Nathan Lord in 1863 over his support for slavery, the Trustees wanted a more conservative president to take his place. As a preacher for 29 years at the 14th Street Presbyterian Church in New York City, Asa Dodge had developed a reputation as a religious man with abolitionist beliefs.

“Smith’s presidency was a period of great growth for the College, including the establishment of two new schools within Dartmouth. The New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, later moved to Durham, New Hampshire and renamed the University of New Hampshire, was originally founded in Hanover in 1866. One year later, the Thayer School of Engineering was founded. Over the course of his presidency, enrollment at the College was more than doubled, the number of scholarships increased from 42 to 103, and Dartmouth benefitted from several important bequests.”

Some of the honors conferred on the Rev. Asa Dodge Smith during his lifetime included the Doctor of Divinity degree, awarded by Williams College in 1849, and from the University of New York he received the Doctor of Letters degree in 1854. It was also during his tenure that the school celebrated its centennial anniversary, a momentous time nearly ruined by an unexpected thunderstorm. But ultimately the affair was not ruined for the participants, with attendees including Supreme Court Justice Salmon P. Chase, from the Class of 1826, and U.S. General William Tecumseh Sherman.

Words to Live By:
Perhaps covenant faithfulness is the lesson to take away from this account. A life lived apparently without amazing exploits or heart-rending stories, but lived faithfully before the Lord, using his God-given gifts and talents to the best of his ability, and all for the glory of God. So too most Christians live fairly average lives, undistinguished except for this one vital thing: Because of the finished cross-work of Jesus Christ, each one of His blood-bought children stands in a living, vital relationship with the God of creation, the Lord of all glory. On the surface, our lives may seem quite average, but the reality is far more exciting, far more glorious than even we can imagine.

Q. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.—1 Corinthians 10:31, ESV.

For Further Study:
To view the grave site of Rev. Smith, click here.

“I am an American to the Backbone.”

My time of late simply does not permit the writing of a proper biographical account of the remarkable life of James W.C. Pennington, who  was born in 1809 and who died in 1870, at the age of 63. To my knowledge, his exact birth and death dates are lost to us. But it was on this day, August 15th, in 1849, that he penned the Preface to his autobiography,“” THE FUGITIVE BLACKSMITH, an account of his time as a slave, his subsequent escape, and his eventual preparation for the Gospel ministry and his service as a pastor of several churches, among them the Shiloh Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York. It was during an earlier pastorate that Rev. Pennington wrote what is acknowledged as the first history of African Americans, THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE COLORED PEOPLE. (1841).

The following letter to his family, whom he had not seen in many years, is excerpted from the appendix to THE FUGITIVE BLACKSMITH (1849):—   

APPENDIX

These two letters are simply introduced to show what the state of my feelings was with reference to slavery at the time they were written. I had just heard several facts with regard to my parents, which had awakened my mind to great excitement.

To my Father, Mother, Brothers and Sisters.

[The following was written in 1844]:

DEARLY BELOVED IN BONDS,

About seventeen long years have now rolled away, since in the Providence of Almighty God, I left your embraces, and set out upon a daring adventure in search of freedom. Since that time, I have felt most severely the loss of the sun and moon and eleven stars from my social sky. Many, many a thick cloud of anguish has pressed my brow and sent deep down into my soul the bitter waters of sorrow in consequence. And you have doubtless had your troubles and anxious seasons also about your fugitive star.

I have learned that some of you have been sold, and again taken back by Colonel _____. How many of you are living and together, I cannot tell. My great grief is, lest you should have suffered this or some additional punishment on account of my Exodus.

I indulge the hope that it will afford you some consolation to know that your son and brother is yet alive. That God has dealt wonderfully and kindly with me in all my way. He has made me a Christian, and a Christian Minister, and thus I have drawn my support and comfort from that blessed Saviour, who came to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives; and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified.

If the course I took in leaving a condition which had become intolerable to me, has been made the occasion of making that condition worse to you in any way, I do most heartily regret such a change for the worse on your part. As I have no means, however, of knowing if such be the fact, so I have no means of making atonement, but by sincere prayer to Almighty God in your behalf, and also by taking this method of offering to you these consolations of the gospel to which I have just referred, and which I have found to be pre-eminently my own stay and support. My dear father and mother; I have very often wished, while administering the Holy Ordinance of Baptism to some scores of children brought forward by doting parents, that I could see you with yours among the number. And you, my brothers and sisters, while teaching hundreds of children and youths in schools over which I have been placed, what unspeakable delight I should have had in having you among the number; you may all judge of my feeling for these past years, when while preaching from Sabbath to Sabbath to congregations, I have not been so fortunate as even to see father, mother, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, or cousin in my congregations. While visiting the sick, going to the house of mourning, and burying the dead, I have been a constant mourner for you. My sorrow has been that I know you are not in possession of those hallowed means of grace. I am thankful to you for those mild and gentle traits of character which you took such care to enforce upon me in my youthful days. As an evidence that I prize both you and them, I may say that at the age of thirty-seven, I find them as valuable as any lessons I have learned, nor am I ashamed to let it be known to the world, that I am the son of a bond man and a bond woman.

Let me urge upon you the fundamental truths of the Gospel of the Son of God. Let repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ have their perfect work in you, I beseech you. Do not be prejudiced against the gospel because it may be seemingly twisted into a support of slavery. The gospel rightly understood, taught, received, felt and practised, is anti-slavery as it is anti-sin. Just so far and so fast as the true spirit of the gospel obtains in the land, and especially in the lives of the oppressed, will the spirit of slavery sicken and become powerless like the serpent with his head pressed beneath the fresh leaves of the prickly ash of the forest.

There is not a solitary decree of the immaculate God that has been concerned in the ordination of slavery, nor does any possible development of his holy will sanctify it.

He has permitted us to be enslaved according to the invention of wicked men, instigated by the devil, with intention to bring good out of the evil, but He does not, He cannot approve of it. He has no need to approve of it, even on account of the good which He will bring out of it, for He could have brought about that very good in some other way.

God is never straitened; He is never at a loss for means to work. Could He not have made this a great and wealthy nation without making its riches to consist in our blood, bones, and souls? And could He not also have given the gospel to us without making us slaves?

My friends, let us then, in our afflictions, embrace and hold fast the gospel. The gospel is the fulness of God. We have the glorious and total weight of God’s moral character in our side of the scale.

The wonderful purple stream which flowed for the healing of the nations, has a branch for us. Nay, is Christ divided? “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to (for) all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”–Titus ii: 11-14.

But you say you have not the privilege of hearing of this gospel of which I speak. I know it; and this is my great grief. But you shall have it; I will send it to you by my humble prayer; I can do it; I will beg our heavenly Father, and he will preach this gospel to you in his holy providence.

You, dear father and mother cannot have much longer to live in this troublesome and oppressive world; you cannot bear the yoke much longer. And as you approach another world, how desirable it is that you should have the prospect of a different destiny from what you have been called to endure in this world during a long life.

But it is the gospel that sets before you the hope of such a blessed rest as is spoken of in the word of God, Job iii. 17, 19. “There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest; there the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressors. The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.”

Father, I know thy eyes are dim with age and weary with weeping, but look, dear father, yet a little while toward that haven. Look unto Jesus, “the author and finisher of thy faith,” for the moment of thy happy deliverance is at hand.

Mother, dear mother, I know, I feel, mother, the pangs of thy bleeding heart, that thou hast endured, during so many years of vexation. Thy agonies are by a genuine son-like sympathy mine; I will, I must, I do share daily in those agonies of thine. But I sincerely hope that with me you bear your agonies to Christ who carries our sorrows.

O come then with me, my beloved family, of weary heart-broken and care-worn ones, to Jesus Christ, “casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.”–2 Peter v. 7.

With these words of earnest exhortation, joined with fervent prayer to God that He may smooth your rugged way, lighten your burden, and give a happy issue out of all your troubles, I must bid you adieu.

Your son and brother,

JAS. P.  Alias J. W. C. PENNINGTON.

For Further Study:
Pennington, James W.C., The Reasonableness of the Abolition of Slavery at the South : A Legitimate Inference from the success of British emancipation : an address, delivered at Hartford, Conn., on the first of August, 1856.
Webber, Christopher L., American to the Backbone: The Life of James W.C. Pennington, the Fugitive Slave Who Became One of the First Black Abolitionists. (New York: Pegasus Books, 2011).

“As government is the pillar of the earth, so religion is the pillar of government. Take away the fear of God’s government and judgment and human rule utterly falls, or corrupts into tyranny.”

Guest author Dr. David W. Hall, pastor of Midway Presbyterian Church, returns today with the next post in his series of Election Day Sermons. We’re running this series for the obvious reason that we’re in an election year, and one clear lesson from these sermons is that in an earlier day, pastors routinely applied Biblical truths to the political situation at hand.

“Government the Pillar of the Earth”
by Benjamin Colman (Aug 13, 1730)

Another echo of Calvin’s continuing influence can be seen in the works of Benjamin Colman (1673-1747). Colman was an esteemed preacher who was offered the presidency of Harvard in 1724. He declined, however, preferring to devote himself to pastoral ministry. But in a 1730 sermon, Colman preached that, “Civil government is of divine institution.” Moreover, he maintained that God “commissions and entrusts” certain rulers by his sovereign will. In other words, the providence of God was a continuing reality in earthly politics, as it “disposed persons and offices” at God’s beckon. Colman called on political officials to “consider their obligations to be pillars in the places wherein Providence hath set them.”

The sermon outline, drawn from1 Samuel 2:8, is:

DOCTRINE. The Great GOD has made the Governments and Rulers of the Earth its Pillars, and has set the World upon them.

I. The Governments and Rulers of the Earth are its Pillars.

II. These Pillars of the Earth are the LORD’s.

III. GOD hath set the World upon the Governments and Rulers, whom He has made the Pillars of it.

USE. I shall now make a few Reflections, by way of practical Inference and Improvement.

It was preached before the local magistrate in August 1730, long before the revolutionary fervor reached its zenith. As such, it is a calm discourse, perhaps closer in tenor to Reformation political tracts than to the fiery preaching of the 1770s. He began with the observation about Samuel, to wit: “Great things are here said of God and of His Government in the families and kingdoms of men, and such wise and just observations are made as are worthy of deep contemplation by the greatest and best of men.”

He preached:

“We see then that the natural Earth has no pillars in any proper sense; neither has the moral Earth (i. e., the inhabitants of it) any, but in a metaphorical sense: And so the princes and rulers of it are called its pillars because the affairs of the world lie upon their shoulders and turn upon their conduct and management, in a very great degree. And thus the text explains itself and is to be interpreted from the scope of our context, which speaks of “the bows of the mighty men” and of “the thrones of princes,” and then adds: “the pillars of the earth.” So that by pillars we are to understand Governors and Rulers among men, but not the persons that bear rule so much as the order itself—government and magistracy [judgeship]. For the persons may be weak and slender reeds, little able of themselves to bear up anything, and here and there they may fall, but the order stands and does indeed uphold the world.”

Faithful ministers are pillars for the church. Correspondingly, in the civil realm,

“The governments and rulers of the Earth are its pillars or ornaments, to adorn it. Pillars in a fine building are made as beautiful as may be; they are planned and polished, wrought and carved with much art and cost, painted and gilded for sight as well as use.” He continued: “So those in power and magistracy are to be supposed men adorned with superior gifts, powers, and beauties of mind: Men that adorn the world wherein they live and the offices which they sustain. And then their office adorns them, also, and sets them in conspicuous places, where what is great and good to them is seen of all. To be sure, government and magistracy adorn the world as well as preserve it. Magistrates uphold and adorn the world as pillars do a fabric, by employing their superior wisdom and knowledge, skill and prudence, discretion and judgment for the public good. These accomplishments are to be supposed in the civil order, and they render them the pillars of the Earth.”

Colman mentioned biblical characters like Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Jehoiada, Hezekiah, and Nehemiah, concluding that

“All that rule over men should be like to these, just men ruling in the fear of the Lord, and then they are to the world as the light and rain, without which the Earth must perish.” Colman defined a pillar in these words: “A pillar implies fortitude and patience, resolution, firmness, and strength of mind under weight and burden: Not to be soon shaken in mind, nor moved away from what is right and just, but giving our reason in the meekness of wisdom and hearing the reasons of others in the same spirit of meekness to form an impartial judgment and abide by it, but yet with submission to the public judgment and determination. The unstable are as water, and more fitly likened to the waves of the sea, than to a pillar on shore. And the irresolute, discouraged, and sinking mind is at best but a pillar built upon the sand which falls when the wind blows and the storm beats upon it, because of its weak foundation.”

God’s sovereignty also meant that these pillars belonged to the Lord:

“The Lord makes these pillars, forms [and] fashions them, polishes and adorns them. He gifts, qualifies, and furnishes all whom He calls out to public service.” “Thus,” he preached, “the Sovereign God forms the pillars of the Earth, prepares them, sets them up, ordains the places and times of their standing, takes them down and puts others in their room.” If governors are the pillars of the earth, as to one duty, Colman asked: “Are they the Lord’s? And has He set the world upon them? Let us then devoutly observe the governing Providence of God in the disposing of persons and offices, both with respect unto ourselves and others.” Moreover, he rightly assigned the places for the rulers and the ruled: “Let people reverence and honor their worthy rulers, and let the highest among men be very humble before God. They are pillars, but of the Earth. The Earth and its pillars are dissolving together. Government abides in a succession of men, while the Earth endures, but the persons, however good and great, must die like other men. We must not look too much at the loftiness of any, nor lean too much on any earthly pillar.”

Before his concluding application section, Colman summarized:

In a word, magistracy, like the other ordinances of Heaven, stands by the power and blessing of God, who effectually owns it and works by it, establishes the Earth and it abides. He has graven it deep in the hearts of men, even as the desire of happiness and self-preservation. He has as much ordained that while the earth remains civil order and government shall not cease, as He has sworn “that seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,” shall not. Both the one and the other equally continue to the world’s end absolutely necessary to the life, comfort, and welfare of mankind.”

Colman also acknowledged the devotion and virtue of the New England settlers before him. From their example, he drew this lesson:

“As government is the pillar of the earth, so religion is the pillar of government. Take away the fear of God’s government and judgment and human rule utterly falls, or corrupts into tyranny.”

Colman, like most Calvinists of his day, remained suspicious about ecclesiastical aspirations to political power, and he thought the Reformation had delivered Europe from such bondage. At one point, he alluded to the long shadow of Swiss churches, citing the Helvetic Confession and commending the Reformed churches for impeding such ecclesiastical abuse of power.¹

Nonetheless, the political themes of Geneva echoed in American sermons of the first half of the eighteenth century. A survey² of Connecticut sermons leading up to 1776 dealt with these topics near to the heart of any pious Genevan:

1. “Civil Rulers are God’s Ministers” (1712, John Woodward); also “Civil Rulers are the Ministers of God” (1749, Jonathan Todd)

2. “Practical Godliness, the Way to Prosperity” (1714, Samuel Whitman)

3. “God’s Providence” (1722, William Burnham)

4. “Obedience to the Divine Law” (1724, Samuel Woodbridge)

5. “Jesus Christ Doth Actually Reign” (1727, Timothy Woodbridge)

6. “The Legislature’s Right” (1746, Samuel Hall)

7. “Civil Government the Foundation of Social Happiness” (1750, Noah Hobart).

Until the end of the Revolutionary period, Connecticut legislatures were addressed with sermons on topics such as “Christ, the Foundation” (1767), “Civil Rulers an Ordinance of God” (1774), “Christian and Civil Liberty” (1776), and “The Importance of Religion” (1778). As late as 1809 the Connecticut legislature was enjoined to view “Prayer [as] Eminently the Duty of Rulers.”

From 1634, Massachusetts preserved a tradition of preaching to the legislatures until the nineteenth century (until 1884). Various preachers from the Mather family addressed the legislatures into the early eighteenth century. Moreover, Samuel Cheever preached “God’s Sovereign Government” (1712), John Hancock preached “Rulers Should be Benefactors” (1722), Jeremiah Wise preached “Rulers are Ministers of God” (1729), John Webb preached “The Government of Christ” (1738), and Nathanael Eells preached “Religion is the Life of God’s People” (1743). With additional charges to deem “God as the Strength of Rulers” (1741) and to view “Good Rulers the Fathers of their People” (1748), Bostonians became accustomed to hearing themes first proclaimed in Geneva repeated from the Old North Church pulpit. If the common man accepted these sermons on political topics as fitting and proper, so did sitting legislatures.

This sermon is available in printed form in the excellent anthology by Ellis Sandoz, Political Sermons of the American Founding Era (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1998) and online at: http://www.belcherfoundation.org/pillar.htm.

By Dr. David W. Hall, Pastor
Midway Presbyterian Church

For others like this order a copy of Twenty Messages to Consider Before Voting from Reformation Heritage Books.

Christ Himself Is Our Comfort.

A difficult lesson, and a deep theology here, from the diary of the Rev. J. J. Janeway, a prominent Philadelphia pastor in the early 19th-century. 

Sabbath, August 12, 1810. 

“I have been examining myself with respect to my growth in grace, and I find, that although I have reason to mourn, that with the privileges I enjoy I make so small improvement in the Divine life, yet I make some. Blessed be God for it! Oh, to make more rapid advances! On Friday evening I felt much assisted in conducting worship in Mr. Bradford’s family. This day I preached on the great duty of forgiving our enemies. Oh, for a heart truly to forgive mine!

“The Lord was pleased to assist me at His table. I felt some movements of the affections, though not much. I was, however, enabled to act faith in the sacrifice of Christ, so as to have communion with Him in His broken body and shed blood, receiving them as broken and shed for me. My mind was composed, so that I was able to meditate. My confession respected sins, which I have for some time been in the habit of confessing, and my petitions respected blessings, which have for some time formed the burden of my prayers. I hope I prayed in faith, pleading the fulness, the death of Christ, the promises, and oath, and covenant of God, and my future destination to perfect purity. My mind one day last week seemed turned toward the grave, and it seemed that it would be a sweet resting-place. My heart is dreadfully depraved. What envy! What selfishness! I have endeavoured to mourn over them, and nail them to the cross of my Saviour. I pray to be delivered from them. Victories over them, I have, I trust, gained by divine grace, and this is my encouragement to carry on the conflict. Happy period, when I shall be freed from them entirely, and from all other sin!”

The first breach in Dr. Janeway’s family occurred at this time. A child of uncommon loveliness and promise was removed by death. His father returned from church in time to see him expire. There was much of comfort in his departure, and his father was enabled to resign him with humble confidence, into the hands of a gracious God. The lessons of submission which he had enforced on others, he now learned, and all the recorded exercises of his heart were in accordance with the calm dignity of his piety. Gone, but not lost! In glory before the throne, and not amid the sins of earth. On the next Sabbath he endeavoured to improve it to his people’s good, and to profit himself by God’s dealings.

The year closed by asking himself the question, “What comfort do I derive from religion?” and his answer was, that he was not favoured with those lively consolations which are the lot of some of God’s dear people; yet he could share in various ways in its comforts. He blesses God for the steady hope that he enjoyed, and that uneasy doubts seldom disturbed his serene peace. While God’s grace was the cause of this, yet, as a means to this blessed end, he recognizes frequent self-examination, and searching into the nature and evidences of a gracious state. Casting himself, and all his cares and anxieties upon God, with all the unfeigned resignation of a child who trusted in its father, he prays—God’s will be done, and give me grace to acquiesce.

Excerpted from THE LIFE OF DR. J. J. JANEWAY, pp. 176-177.

Words to Live By: 
Dearly beloved, are you pressing to know the Lord Jesus Christ better, to love Him more? Are you seeking after Him with your whole heart? He is your Comfort. Bring all your cares and anxieties and cast yourself upon God, “with all the unfeigned resignation of a child” who trusts in the Father, praying, “God’s will be done, and give me Thy grace.”