1832 Letter from Thomas Reed Rawson, Then a Student at Auburn Theological Seminary, Discussing the “very peculiar” and “very sinister” Spiritual Condition of Upstate New York.
Auburn, New York: April 1832. Single four-page letter measuring 7 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches. Folded with very small tears at folds. Excellent to Near Fine. Item #List3436
A letter written from the Auburn Theological Seminary in 1832, from the soon-to-be Reverend Thomas Reed Rawson (1803-1877) to his soon-to-be wife Louisa W. Dawes (1810–1849). Dawes, who lived in Cummington, Massachusetts, was the older sister of Senator Henry Laurens Dawes, best known for the 1887 Dawes Act.
Rawson opens by commenting on the death of one of his students and his time spent in Oswego “visiting in the most fashionable families”; he felt this taught him a great deal about “human nature” which, in Oswego, is “peculiar”. He seems to have been particularly perplexed by the spiritual character he encountered in upstate New York, a locus of the Christian revival movement now called the Second Great Awakening:
“You know, I expected that the spirit of the west was a more active [...] spirit than what was seen in the N.E. states, & hoped by breathing this pure atmosphere to enjoy great spiritual health. How erroneous was the impression! How greatly have I been deceived! [...] I acted as though it was so – as though man was man only in certain latitudes. I acted as though face answered to face only when seen in the waters of N.E. & consequently, that the heart of a N.E. man had no analogy to what beats in the bosom of one born in a more western longitude.”
Not only is Rawson nonplussed by New Yorkers’ religious qualities, he is vehemently opposed to some of the new practices that arose from the religious revival there:
“The state of things here, I mean in all this country at the west, is very peculiar. You have heard of ‘Old & New Measures’ I suppose. For myself I cannot approve of the latter. I find not a spirit in me to Fellowship them. Have been exceedingly tried by them, as I have been in the midst of ‘new measures’ all winter. You can form but a faint idea of the excitement which is in this country in the religious community. In Oswego Co. the lay-men are going through the Co. holding meetings, once a month, in praying, exhorting, [dispensing] the duties of Clergymen &c. &c.; & it seems that the present state of things must result in a wide division in the churches. ‘A house divided against it[self] cannot stand.’ [...] As near as I can find out, very sinister is the spirit that knows the new measures to that wild-pine which ran so extensively in the time of Edwards[.] The effects of it are seen in your town, to this day.”
The “New Measures” were novel practices for American Christianity that came about during the Second Great Awakening, mainly due to Presbyterian minister Charles Finney. These include very lengthy meetings, public naming of sinners, and public confessions of sin, and were controversial with those who preferred a more orthodox and restrained service. Rawson accurately predicts that the new practices would lead to a schism; starting in 1837, the Old School-New School Controversy split the Presbyterian church along these lines. He later worries that such a division in the church would allow “Catholicism to take the advantage” and that “Satan is bringing this about as rapidly as possible”. The appeal of a strong, hierarchical Catholic church as opposed to a weak and divided Protestant one was a common worry among Protestants at the time.
Rawson traces the “sinister spirit” of the new measures back to “the time of Edwards”: Jonathan Edwards, a key figure in the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 40s. Given his reference to “your town”—Cummington, Massachusetts—Rawson is probably referring to the so-called “New England theology” that arose from the First Great Awakening. Among other things, New England theology proposed new views on man’s free will and responsibility; similar views would create controversy in Rawson’s time, as he explains:
“I see my own heart to be depraved, & wicked beyond all observation, but the fruits of the spirit I think I do love & hope they are sweeter & more sweet to my taste. I say taste, the New measure-men are not taste-men, but believe in the ‘motive scheme’ — By taste is meant the implantation of a new principle – love to God, & is affected by the Holy Spirit. The ‘motive scheme’ implies that the sinner turns himself about in [?] by motive merely.”
He is objecting to the idea that a sinner could redeem himself through an act of his own will—by his own ‘motives.’ Old School Presbyterianism holds a more orthodox Calvinist view, wherein the redemption of the sinner is not up to the sinner’s will at all. Rawson makes an interesting comparison between New School views on the matter and states’ rights in the context of the then-ongoing nullification crisis:
“The signs of the times declare most plainly, to him who has wiped up his eyes, that ‘the end has come upon the four corners of this earth’, i.e. the end of peaceful days for the present. Never was our Republic brought to a crisis like this. Nullification in the Political world is the same with Denunciation in the Religious world. This is my opinion; don’t know as have heard others say so.”
The nullification crisis arose when South Carolina declared that several import tariffs were unconstitutional and thus nullified them, under the states’ rights doctrine of state nullification. Rawson seems to be drawing a parallel between the revivalists’ idea of the role of one’s motives in salvation and states’ rights advocates’ idea of the relationship between the states’ wills and the federal government’s. Of course, the states’ rights issue would soon reach an apotheosis.
Rawson closes with some affectionate lines for Dawes and advice about her own teaching job; the crossed text updates her on the Christian conversions within his family. Overall the letter provides detailed insights into the views of a more conservative theology student on the Presbyterian controversy that was soon to come to a head.
Price: $250.00