Unitarianism in America: A History of its Origin and Development

by George Willis Cooke

The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the participation of all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[[13]]

At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in Springfield, Mass., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev. Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.

The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.

Influence of the Civil War.

During the period of the civil war, Unitarian activities were largely turned in new directions. Unitarians bore their full share in the councils of the nation, in the halls of legislation, on the fields of battle, in the care of the sick and wounded, and in the final efforts that brought about emancipation and peace. At least fifty Unitarian ministers entered the army as chaplains, privates, officers, and members of the Sanitary Commission.[[14]]

The Unitarian Association also directed its attention to such work as it could accomplish in behalf of the soldiers in the field and in hospitals. Books were distributed, tracts published, and hymn-books prepared to meet their needs. Rev. John F.W. Ware developed a special gift for writing army tracts, of which he wrote about a dozen, which were published by the Association. As the war went on, the Association largely increased its activities in the army; and, when the end came, it had as many as seventy workers in the field, distributing its publications, aiding the Sanitary Commission, or acting as nurses and voluntary chaplains in the hospitals. The end of the war served rather to increase than to contract its labors, aid being largely needed for several months in returning the soldiers to their homes and in caring for those who were left in hospitals.

Early in the summer of 1863 Rev. William G. Scandlin was sent to the Army of the Potomac as the agent of the Association. Taken prisoner in July, he spent several months in Libby prison, where he was kindly treated and exercised a beneficent influence. He was followed in this work by Rev. William M. Mellen, who established a library of 3,000 volumes at the convalescent camp, Alexandria, and also distributed a large amount of reading matter in the army. Rev. Charles Lowe served for several months as chaplain in the camp of drafted men on Long Island, his salary being paid by the Association. In November, 1864, he made a tour of inspection, as the agent of the Association, to the hospitals of Philadelphia, Baltimore Annapolis, Washington, Alexandria, Fortress Monroe, City Point, and the Army of the Potomac, in order to arrange for the proper distribution of reading matter and for such other hospital service as could be rendered. More than 3,000 volumes of the publications of the Association were distributed to the soldiers and in the hospitals, largely by Rev. J.G. Forman, of St. Louis, and Rev. John H. Heywood, of Louisville. Among those who acted as agents of the Association in furnishing reading to the army and hospitals were Rev. Calvin Stebbins, Rev. Frederick W. Holland, Rev. Benjamin H. Bailey, Rev. Artemas B. Muzzey, Rev. Newton M. Mann, and Mr. Henry G. Denny. Rev. Samuel Abbot Smith worked zealously at Norfolk at the hospitals and in preaching to the soldiers, until disease and death brought his labors to a close. What this kind of work was, and what it accomplished, was described by Louisa Alcott in her Hospital Sketches, and by William Howell Reed in his Hospital Life in the Army of the Potomac.

The Sanitary Commission.

The Sanitary Commission has been described by its historian as "one of the most shining monuments of our civilization," and as an expression of organized sympathy that "must always and everywhere call forth the homage and admiration of mankind." The organizer and leader of this great philanthropic movement for relieving human suffering was Dr. Henry W. Bellows, the minister of All Souls' Church in New York, the first Unitarian church organized in that city. The Commission was first suggested by Dr. Bellows, and he was its efficient leader from the first to the last. He was unanimously selected as its president, when the government had been persuaded, largely through his influence, to establish it as an addition to its medical and hospital service. The historian of the Commission has justly said that he "possessed many remarkable qualifications for so responsible, a position. Perhaps no man in the country exerted a wider or more powerful influence over those who were earnestly seeking the best means of defending our threatened nationality, and certainly never was a moral power of this kind founded upon juster and truer grounds. This influence was not confined to his home, the city of New York, although there it was incontestably very great, but it extended over many other portions of the country, and particularly throughout New England, where circumstances had made his name and his reputation for zeal and ability familiar to those most likely to aid in the furtherance of the new scheme. This power was due, partly of course to the very eminent position which he occupied as a clergyman, partly to the persistent efforts and enlightened zeal with which he advocated all wise measures of social reform, perhaps to his widely extended reputation as an orator, but primarily, and above all, to the rare combination of wide comprehensive views of great questions of public policy with extraordinary practical sagacity, which enabled him so to organize popular intelligence and sympathy that the best practical results were attained while the life-giving principle was preserved. He had the credit of not being what so many of his profession are, an idéologue; he had the clearest perception of what could and what could not be done, and he never hesitated to regard actual experience as the best practical test of the value of his plans and theories. These qualities, so precious and so exceptional in their nature, appeared conspicuously in the efforts made by him to secure the appointment of the Commission by the Government, and it will be found that every page of its history bears the strong impress of his peculiar and characteristic views."[[15]]