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Rich Laymen and Early Social Christianity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Clergymen led the movement within American Protestantism known as Social Christianity or the Social Gospel. A small minority, primarily in the larger cities, began the shift away from individualistic views of salvation and ethics in the 1870's and 80's. By 1910 they had grown sufficiently in numbers and influence to secure official endorsement by the major denominations of a broad construction of Christian responsibility for the welfare of society.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1967
References
1. May, Henry, Protestant Churches and Industrial America (New York, 1949), pp. 137–142, 144–146, 224–231.Google Scholar
2. A fair index to the very rich in the 1890's is provided by the lists of reputed millionaires compiled by the New York Tribune in 1892 and the New York World Almanac in 1902, conveniently available in Ratner, Sidney, New Light on the History of Great American Fortunes (New York, 1953)Google Scholar. These lists do not, however, comprehend the large number of comparatively rich families in metropolitan centers who moved in the highest social circles and who by virtue of their position frequently exercised major influence in local or national affairs. The closest approximation to an index of these families is the Social Register for New York City which represents less than 2% of the city's population in 1890. Not all of the families listed in the Register were rich in their own right, but those who were not were related to or moved socially with those who were.
3. For Social Christians who emphasize the tolerance or sympathy they encountered, see Gladden, Washington, Recollections (Boston, 1909), pp. 415–6Google Scholar and Abbott, Lyman, Reminiscences (Boston, 1915), p. 439Google Scholar. For some who saw themselves beset by hostility or opposition, see Rauschenbusch, Walter, Christianizing the Social Order (New York, 1912), p. 9Google Scholar and remarks by the Rev. Tomkins, Floyd in Hammer and Pen (05, 1900), pp. 133–134.Google Scholar
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7. The absence of predominantly middle class congregations was not due to any paucity of such parishes on Manhattan in any of the principal denominations. A majority of the city's fifty-odd Baptist churches fell in that category. In the Episcopal church the preportion of middle class parishes was somewhat less, about one-third being composed largely of workingmen and another fifth claiming too many of the very rich to be deemed middle class. Notably absent among Manhattan's pioneers in progressive Social Christianity were clergymen from parishes in Harlem, the fast- growing haven for native middle-class whites fleeing northward.
8. See the yearbooks of All Souls (Anthon Memorial) Episcopal church (R. Heber Newton), the Church of the Ascension (Percy S. Grant), and All Souls Unitarian church (Thomas Slicer). For St. George's church (W. S. Rainsford), see Rainsford, , The Story of a Varied Life (Garden City, 1922), p. 307Google Scholar, and New York World, Nov. 18, 1895. Indices used in determining the class composition of parishes in this study include reminiscences, contemporary observations, door-to-door canvasses of the Federation of Churches and Christian Workers in New York City, average per capita receipts of a parish over a twenty year period, and the wealth, occupation and social standing of trustees, vestrymen and other lay parish officers as revealed in biographical and other directories.
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14. Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, October 29, 1910, and Frank Tilford (of Park and Tilford), October 27, 1910, to Newton, Seventieth Birthday Book, Richard Heber Newton MSS (New York Public Library). See also the vestry list in the yearbooks and the contributions to the building fund in the 1890 edition.
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23. Quoted in New York World, July 18, 1887; see also September 20, 1887. For Huntington's prominence in the Anti-Poverty crusade, see New York Standard, July 2, 1887, and New York Times, July 18, 1887.
24. The press objected to his bitter denunciation of corporations like Carnegie's steel company and to his assertion that Jesus would have been an anarchist or a revolutionist in the 1890's. See the clippings in Huntington's, “Scrapbook,” pp. 85, 95Google Scholar, Huntington MSS and Scudder, Vida, Father Huntington (New York, 1940), p. 149.Google Scholar
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28. Both Grant and Rainsford had been guests at the Church of the Carpenter, led by the Christian Socialist W. D. P. Bliss, in Boston in the early 1890's. Rainsford urged Grant to come to New York City in 1893 and thereafter the two men became intimate friends and allies. See Rainsford to Grant, June 20, 1900, and Dec. 9, 1902, Percy S. Grant MSS (in the possession of Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Grant Stone of Pleasantville, New York, who kindly made it available to the author).
29. In the same period, Dr. Jane Robbins of the College Settlement enlisted Grant's help in securing a speaking engagement for the Russian anarchist, Prince Kropotkin. Robbins to Grant, Oct. 29, 1897, Grant MSS.
30. Henry E. Howland, clerk pro tern of Ascension vestry, to Grant, Nov. 5, 1897, Grant MSS.
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33. MS report on the Forum by Prof. Henry B. Mitchell, n.d., p. 2. The topics and speakers for the year 1910–1911 indicate that the Forum's purpose remained the same—for example, Mrs. Elizabeth Curley Flynn on “The Brooklyn Shoemakers' Strike,” Benjamin Marsh on “The Real Rulers of New York,” George G. Battle on “The Recent Attitude of the Courts in Labor Legislation and Labor Problems,” Mrs. Florence Kelley on “A Living Wage and How to Secure It,” and DrMoskowitz, Henry on “How an Industry Controls Its Own Sanitary Conditions,” Yearbook, 1911, pp. 66–67.Google Scholar
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35. “Minutes of St. Michael's Chapter of CAIL, 1893–1915” (National Council of the Protestant Episcopal Church, New York City), passim; Peters, , Annals, pp. 197–198.Google Scholar
36. “Minutes,” pp. 24–26, 28, 31, 32, 36, 42–43, 46–48. Perhaps the best evidence of the firm support Peters received from his laymen, and especially his vestry, appears in the successful fight he helped lead against the so-called “Amsterdam Grab” of the Metropolitan and the Third Avenue Street Railway companies between 1897 and 1899. Peters, , Annals, pp. 201–219.Google Scholar
37. Rauschenbusch, Walter, Christianizing the Social Order (New York, 1912), p. 9.Google Scholar
38. Baptist, Examiner, 07 27, 1893, and 05 31, 1894Google Scholar; see also undated Examiner article on the tenth anniversary of Rauschenbusch's pastorate in Vol. VI of the Scrapbooks, Dores R. Sharpe-Rauschenbusch MSS (American Baptist Historical Society, Rochester, New York) and Williams, Leighton, “A Sketch of the Origin of the Second German Baptist Church in New York,” Southern New York Baptist Association Meeting (New York, 1890), pp. 18–20.Google Scholar
39. Hudson, Wintrop S., “Walter Rauschenbusch and the New Evangelism” (Typescript, The American Baptist Historical Society), pp. 4–8Google Scholar; the friendship with Williams and their common strategy for promoting theological and social reform among Baptists are evident in Leighton Williams to Rauschenbusch, July 3, 1891, Apr. 15, 1893, July 6, 1897, and oct. 24, 1899, Rauschenbusch MSS.
40. Letters to Walter Rauschenbusch from Lucy M. Spelman, Apr. 6, 1889; Bessie Rockefeller Strong, May 6, 1889; John D. Rockefeller, Sr., May 20, November 26, and November 29, 1889, and March 3, 1890, Rauschenbusch MSS.
41. For a number of reprints see Vol. III of the Scrapbooks, Rauschenbusch MSS.
42. National Baptist, March 23, 1893, report by W. C. Bitting.
43. Baptist, Standard, 05 25, 1893Google Scholar, Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, December 5, 1893, and undated clippings from the Watchman, the Christian Inquirer, and the Examiner in the Scrapbook, Rauschenbusch MSS.
44. National Baptist, Feb. 22, 1894; Nashville Baptist and Reflector, Nov. 14, 1893; Examiner, Jan. 12, 1893.
45. Christian Inquirer, Jan. 7, 1892; Baptist Standard, Apr. 20, 1893; Baptist Union, Sep. 19, 1896; Examiner, July 8, 1897.
46. National Baptist, Jan. 26, 1893; New York Press, June 3, 1894; New York Journal, May 6, 1896.
47. See the membership lists in the proceedings of the Annual Session of the Baptist Congress or the Discussion of Current Questions (New York, 1890, 1892, 1893, 1895, and 1898)Google Scholar. Of the seventeen lay members of the New York City Baptist Social Union who were listed in Who's Who in New York for 1904, or King's, Handbook of Notable New Yorkers (1898)Google Scholar, seven were on the General Committee of the Baptist Congress.
48. Undated clipping from the Independent, Scrapbook, Rauschenbusch MSS.
49. Undated clipping from the Watchman, Scrapbook, Rauschenbusch MSS.
50. During the discussion of the ‘Pulpit in Relation to Social and Political Reform” in 1893, all five speakers insisted on the church's prophetic responsibility as social critic. Similarly, five out of six speakers on “The Relation of the State to SemiPublic Corporations” in 1895 endorsed government ownership of natural monopolies and corporations of an essentially public nature while the sixth speaker demanded drastic regulation of franchises. On the subject of ‘State Help versus Self-Help, or Paternalism in Government,” four out of five speakers in 1898 favored substantial government intervention in the economy either by regulation or by direct ownership. Baptist Congress (1893), pp. 101–128; (1895), pp. 108–133; (1898), pp. 108–132.
51. Letters to Rauschenbusch from Samuel Colgate, 1895, and Charles Holly, n.d.; see also E. Benjamin Andrews, Nov. 1894; and J. G. Schurman, Sept. 16, 1893; Rauschenbuseh MSS.
52. See the suggestive explanation of the success of Rauschenbusch's, Christianity and the Social Crisis in Robert Cross' introduction to the Torchbook edition (New York, 1964), xvil–xix.Google Scholar
53. Reported instances of eviction from a pastorate, like that of Gilbert de la Matyr, are rare; there are more cases, like those of Hugh O. Pentecost and Herbert Casson, of clergymen who resigned pulpits or left their denominations. It is difficult to determine how much their action owed to their own “come-outer” temperament and how much to pressure from their congregations and colleagues.
54. New York World, Nov. 18, 1895; New York Sun, Nov. 29, 1896; James L. Houghteling to H. C. Potter, Sept. 20, 1890, Potter MSS.
55. See Rainsford's, paean to “the joy of contest” and “discipline of one's will” in athletics in his Varied Life, pp. 114–115Google Scholar, and Roosevelt's praise of Rainsford in an introduction to Hodges, George, ed., The Administration of an Institutional Church (New York, 1904), p. xGoogle Scholar; on their friendship, see Varied Life, Chap. XXVII.
56. Frederick Lewis Allen follows Rainsford in seeing Morgan as a man whose conservatism on all social questions was balanced by a habit of trusting men who did things. Allen, , The Great Pierpont Morgan (New York, 1956), pp. 98–103.Google Scholar
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59. Man of Affairs, p. 284; for praise of his tact and sensitivity as pastor, see the letters to Grant from August Belmont, Christmas Day, n.d.; Frederic Cromwell, Dec. 14, 1905; Ormond G. Smith, January. 3, 1913, Grant MSS.
60. See his remarks to the Church Congress (1896), pp. 73–79; of his nine published works, four were poetry, one literary criticism, and one travel observations: D. A. B., VII, p. 490; Joseph H. Choate to Grant, Jan. 28, 1909, Grant MSS.
61. Mrs. Van Rensselaer to Grant, December 28, 1910, Grant MSS.
62. New York Recorder, June 5, 1890.
63. Churchman, July 7, 1888, p. 16; New York World, Apr. 23, 29, 1895.
64. See the Seventieth Birthday Book, Newton MSS (NYPL), passim, but especially letters from Mrs. Robert Abbe, Thomas B. clarke, F. Sedgwick Bangs, and Frederick Trevor Hill.
65. Stephen B. Elkins to R. H. Newton, February 24, 1885, Newton Miscellany (NYHS); see also Senator H. M. Blair to Newton, August 27, 1883, and Barker, George, p. 436. For an unflattering characterization of Elkins as speculator in land claims and Wall Street, see Josephson, Matthew, The Politicos, 1865–1896 (New York, 1938), p. 360.Google Scholar
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67. Karl August Rauschenbusch, a leader among German Baptists, founded and for thirty years thereafter headed the German Department at Rochester Theological Seminary. William R. Williams, pastor of Amity church for fifty years, was praised as one of the two most distinguished thinkers and scholars among American Baptists in the post-bellum era, Frances Wayland being the other. Richard Newton, Jay Cooke's pastor in Philadelphia, had been a leader of the Evangelical wing of the Episcopal church and his other son, William Wilberforce Newton, was influential in the Broad Church movement and the founding of the Episcopal Church Congress. Rainsford's father served one of the most prosperous evangelical Anglican parishes in London. Frederick Dan Huntington, originally a Unitarian and first Plummer Professor of Christian Morals at Harvard University, became the Episcopal Bishop of Central New York. Thomas McClure Peters was not unusually distinguished, but he had pioneered in work among the upper West Side's immigrant poor for nearly thirty years before his son succeeded him as rector of St. Michael's.
68. B. F. DeCosta published more than fifty titles on the discovery and exploration of America, edited the Magazine of American History, 1882–1883, and contributed to Justin Winsor‘s Narrative and Critical History. Percy Grant was chosen Phi Beta Kappa poet at Harvard for 1919. Prior to his ministry at St. Michael's John P. Peters had been professor of Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania and spent several years directing archaeological researches in Babylonia, subsequently publishing two volumes on Nippur.
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73. “1893 Church Club Dinner,” pp. 18–19.
74. Rainsford to Grant, April 1, and 16, 1893, Grant MSS.
75. Rainsford to Grant, April 1, and 11, 1893. When Grant, on Rainsford's advice, demanded the same conditions the latter had won at St. George's, Ascension's senior warden, millionaire Col Daniel F. Appleton replied that “the chances of accomplishing the Revolution” at Ascension were very favorable. He noted that nithough none of the parishioners consulted “said that he would prefer a Free Church … generally they added that they might, and probably would, like it, if you were there to infuse their spirit with your enthusiasm for the work.” Appleton to Grant, April 12, 14, and 24, 1893, Grant MSS.
76. Men of Affairs, p. 284; for the parish's activities and prosperity, see its yearbook.
77. Baptist Examiner, July 27, 1893.
78. Rainsford to Grant, April 11 and 5, 1893, Grant MSS.
79. Charles P. Howland to Grant, January 29, 1911; moral support from prominent laymen outside their parishes also encouraged the Social Christians. Millionaires George Foster Peabody and Seth Low, in particular, kept in close touch with the reform-minded among New York's Episcopal Clergy. See, for example, Peabody to Percy Grant, May 11, 1912, Grant MSS.
80. V. Everit Macy to J. G. P. Stokes, April 3, 1906, James Graham Phelps Stokes MSS (Columbia University).
81. Greene, Marguerite, The National Civic Federation and the American Labor Movement, 1900–1925 (Washington, 1956), pp. 60–64, 248.Google Scholar
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84. Typed draft letter to Leighton Williams, November, 1899, Rauschenbusch MSS.
85. Annual Report of the Social Reform Club of New York for 1898 (New York, 1899)Google Scholar. The proportion listed in the Social Register may be underestimated since the 1893 edition was used.
86. See Box 21, “The People's Institute,” Stokes MSS.
87. See the annual reports of the Consumer's League of New York in the 1890's, especially pp. 3–9 of the 1894 report and the lists of the Governing Board and Honorary Vice Presidents.
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