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CONTENTS
189 Stated Clerks and Social Policy: American Presbyterians
and Transforming American Culture.
Smylie
lames +I.
199 A New Lool( at Presbyterian Origins in New York City
Joyce D. Coodfricnd
209
"Above All Other3" Jonathan Edwards and the Gospel
M~ntstry
Hclcn t'etfer Westra
221
john Francis Cook, Antebellum Black presbyterian.
Willard B. Catewood, Jr.
231
Presbyterians and the Golden Kule: TheChristian Socialism of I.E. Scott.
Douglas Firth Anderson
244
Reviews
Journal of
Presbyterian
istory
VOLUME 67-NUMBER
FALL 1989
3
Catcwood
Beale, David 0.In Pursuit of the Purity:
American rmdamentalim Since 1850.
Wallace, Dewey D., lr. The Spirituality 01
the Later English Purita,,~.
Hall, loseph H. Presbyterian Conflict and
Resolution on the Missouri Frontier.
EDITOR
JAMES H. SMYLIE
Lane
Hardman, Kicth I., Charles Grandson
Finney, 1 7 9 2 - 1 8 7 5 : Revivaliit and
Reformer.
Brown
VanBuren, Ernestine. The Marquerite Mizell
Story: An Ordinary Woman on Whom the
Lord Laid Hi~sHand.
Kerr
Dillard, Annie. An American Childhood.
Farrim
Kellersiwger, E.R., M.D. Dr. Not Afraid.
Neelv
Heuser, Frederick I.,lr. A Guide To Foreign
Missionary Manuscripts in the Pre~shyterian
Historical Society.
ASSOCIATE EDITORS
R. DOUGLAS BRACKENRIDGE
FLORENCE FLEMING CORLEY
GFKALD W. CILLETTE
Boren7alr. Timollw, Dwielrl.
" To Live Arl~irril
Liver: l'hc Primitivist Dimension i n
Puritsniro?.
Townsend, Lucy Forsyth. Thr Rest Helpers
of One Another: Anna Peck Sill and the
Struggle lor Women's Education.
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
IOHN C. PETERS
Bartlett
McCoy, Marjorie Casebier with McCoy
Charles 5. Frederick Ruechner: Novelist and
Thrologim nf the Lait and Found.
Anderson
Warner K. Stephen. New Wine in Old
Wineskinr: Evangelicals and Liberals in a
S o d l Town Church.
First Presbyterian Church
Springfield, Illinois
by Douglas Firth Anderson
Known as the church of governors and judges, First Church occupied i t s present building in 1872. The building, erected by theThird Presbyterian Church in 1866, is noted for
its chancel windows honoring Lincoln and others. The Reverend John M. Ellis of the
United Domestic Missionary Society of New York organized the congregation in 1828.
Mary Todd was a member, Lincoln kept a pew and their children were baptized in the
1843 church at Third and Washington. The Lincoln pew is on display in the present
building.
Entry No. 150
American PresbyterianIReformed Historical Sites Registry
THE FIRST ISSUE OF THE SAN FRANCISCO WEEKLY SOCIALIST appeared 13
July 1895. Its purpose was "to present
frankly, clearly, and squarely the character, interests, and aim of Socialism." The
"fundamental ethics" of socialism, it was
claimed, were summed up by the periodical's masthead motto, "Thou Shalt Love
Thy Neighbor a s ~ h ~ s e l f . E.J.
" ' Dupuy was
the paper's manager; he was also the pastor of the French Presbyterian Church,
San Franci~co.~
Editor J.E. Scott, however,
was the Socialist's founder and editorial
voice. At the time, the fifty-eight year old
Scott was serving as the stated clerk of the
Presbytery of San Francisco. The previous
fall, he had delivered a sermon on socialism to the presbytery at the close of his
term as moderator. When Congregationalist George D. Herron (1862-1925), a professor at Iowa College, came to the San
Francisco Bay Area i n the spring of I895 to
lecture on the "organized social wrong" of
"our economic system," Scott joined others in defending him from the accusations
of heresy and anarchism raised by C.O.
Brown, pastor of First Congregational
Church, San ~ r a n c i s c o Scott
.~
alluded to
the recent Herron-Brown controversy as
he playfully confided in the readers of the
Socialist: "It possibly may be a mild shock
to the minds and mis-understandings of
some good friends . . . that we two, staid,
orthodox, careful and conservative Presbyterian ministers, in our right minds, not
J-
cp k
- '
wearing our hair long, nor parted in the
middle, never having been accused of being cranks, crooks nor heretics, should
embark i n the advocacy of what our
Brother Brown is pleased to call a menace
to 'our institutions'" The real menace,
Scott averred, was from those supporting
Brown's "stand as to the economic and
industrial, and political remedy for the
dangers that are gathering about us."4 -J.E. Scott (1836-1917) has been a neglected figure in the history of American
social Christianity. Social Christianity, an
impulse defined by historian Charles H.
Lippy as "bringing the ethical principles of
Christianity to bear on the social conditions of the day," did not originate in the
latter nineteenth century, b u t i t did
re-emerge then with a new breadth and
insistency, particularly among AngloAmerican Protestant denomination^.^
Whether in conservative, progressive, or
radical form, resurgent social Christianity
was a major source of the "progressive"
ethos in the early twentieth-century U.S.6
A few historians of aspects of the turn-ofthe-century reformist ferment have noted
J.E. Scott's Christian socialism.' He has
not been examined carefully, however, in
light of his religious and regional contexts
or the extent of his journalism. Thefollowing essay analyzes Scott's significance as a
Presbyterian and Californian exponent of
Christian socialism.
The biographical details on Scott are, to
Dr. Anderson is Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern College, Orange City, IA.
A r n e k w W5bWr;an$, 67.1 Fall IPP9,
1
American Presbyterians
/
/
date, meagre. Joseph Edwin Scott was
born in Enosbury, Vermont, on 28 September 1836. After completing a B.A.. at
38'
[ Y ~ ~ ' Hamilton College, New York, he married
1'
Anna Higgins and taught at an academy in
Delaware. In 1862 he was ordained a Presbyterian minister, subsequently serving in
New Jersey. He completed work at Auburn Theological Seminary in 1867 and
earned an M.A. from Hamilton College in
1869. Following a brief pastorate in lndiana, the Scotts spent from 1871 to 1881
serving in the Kurdistan region of Turkey
under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). Returning home because of health and because of dissention on the mission field,
Scott's first wife apparently died, for he
remarried in 1884. His second wife, Catherine Victoria Cochrane, M.D., and their
three children moved to the town of
Menlo Park, California, not far south of
San Francisco. Scott served as pastor of
Menlo Park Presbyterian Church from
1884 through 1891. Then transfering to the
Presbytery of San Francisco, Scott took
charge of a fledgling congregation in San
Francisco for a couple of years. The work,
though, was dissolved in the spring of
1893. Catherine V.C. Scott's medical practice provided income, and J.E. Scott did
not take up another charge. He served as
moderator of the presbytery for six
months in 1894 and as stated clerk from
1895 until 1897. From then until his death
on 9 November 1917, age eighty-one, he
remained on the presbytery rolls, a resident of San Francisco.'
In the decades surrounding 1900, the
corporatizing society of the U.S. increasingly forced itself on the attention of
Anglo-Protestants.' J.E. Scott's Christian
socialist journalism was part of a diverse
response of Presbyterians to "the social
problem." Although subject to challenge,
historian Henry May has suggested a useful typology of conservative, progressive,
and radical social Christianity for the era.''
r ~ e ~ r e s e n t a t i vofe Presbyterian conservative social Christianity were figures such
)2(
L
The Christian Socialism of 1.F. Scott
as J. Wilbur Chapman, A.T. Pierson, and
Mark A. Matthews." Conservatives were
not complacent about the social situation
as seen in labor unrest and urban slums,
but they were wary of relinquishing economic laissez-faire. Generally, they were
concerned to support moral reform and
moral community through voluntary social charity. Charles Stelzle, Woodrow
Wilson, and William Jennings Bryan embodied more "progressive" social Christianity on the part of many Presbyterians."
Progressive Presbyterians were open, to
greater or lesser degrees, to modifying
laissez-faire. They were social evangelists
attempting to articulate and "convert" the
churches and the general citizenry to applying biblically-derived themes such as
service, "brotherhood," and the kingdom
of God to the social order. In general, they
supported not only the moralism and social charity of the conservatives, but also
social settlements, labor unions, and the
application of professional expertise to
ameliorating the social environment. Finally, there were a few who went beyond
the progressivestance to propose an alternative social order. J.E. Scott stands out as
a Presbyterian representative of radical s?
cia1 Christianity, particularly when compared to the younger and more ambiguous figure of Norman M. Thomas, who did
n o t attempt t o maintain links t o the
churches once he left the Presbyterian
ministry for the Socialist party?
Scott's intellectual journey to Christian
socialism is not clear, due to the scanty
evidence. Nevertheless, his religious
background and eventual California context are suggestive. As a Presbyterian,
Scott was an inheritor of the paradoxical
social impulse at the heart of the Reformed theological tradition: all of creation is radically affected by alienation
from God, yet the sovereign God revealed
in Jesus Christ is to be glorified in all of
life.14 In the context of the nineteenthcentury U.S., the Reformed tradition
within most Presbyterian churches flowed
in two distinct yet interrelated streams.
I
The Old School stream was characterized
by a relative emphasis upon strict confessionalism and church order. The New
School stream considered evangelical experience and transdenominational cooperation as important, or more so, than
confessionalism and church order.15 In
the Old School perspective, more static
interpretations of the fallenness of creation and God's sovereign rule readily, although not necessarily, enhanced a social
stance of preserving the current order as
divinely-sanctioned and of deprecating
most social engagement. The less doctrinaire and more experiential impulses
within the New School perspective more
readily supported a world-transformative
understanding of creation's fallenness
and God's sovereignty.
The diffusion within Presbyterianism of
such views as "the spirituality of the
churchf'-a dualism of church-and-gospel-as-spiritual and society-as-material,
and dispensational premillennialism-an
eschatological perspective which entailed
the inevitable degeneration of this age
prior to the return of Christ, tended to
compound the socially conservative potential of the Presbyterian tradition,
whether Old or New School. Standard accounts of turn-of-the-century social Christianity in the nation have taken the conservative stream of Presbyterian social
perspective, which was largely but not exclusively identified with the Old School
tradition, and suggested it as representative of Presbyterianism as a whole.16 As
the work of more recent historians has implied, however, the socially conservative
reputation of Presbyterians is overdrawn." The theological paradox of creation's fallenness and God's rule is also
potentially reformist and even radical in
social perspective. In Presbyterianism, the
New School tradition especially, although
not exclusively, could be source of social
transformation, particularly as such tendencies were given added impetus in the
nineteenth century through conventional
Anglo-American Protestant views that as-
sumed human perfectibility and the rational and moral freedom to alter the social environment."
J.E. Scott was clearly within the New
School stream of Presbyterianism. Born in
New England, he attended New School
Auburn Theological Seminary prior to the
1869 reunion of New School and Old
School. He later recalled with pride his
college associations with Willis J. Beecher,
Professor of Old Testament at Auburn
(1871-1908), and a tolerant traditionalist in
matters of biblical criticism. Scott carried
on the New School interdenominational
tradition with his mission service under
the by then predominantly Congregationalist ABCFM. His letters to the ABCFM's
Boston offices reflect the ethos of genteel
e~an~elicalism.~~
The socialist vision of a cooperative , 1
commonwealth could appeal to someone
of Scott's tradition and generation because of European and American modifio,,j,ications of socialism which madethe dominant U.S. version of it very compatible
with Anglo-Protestant moral idealism. Socialism was a nineteenth-century import
to the United States from Europe. Karl
Marx was only one exponent, and not the
'A
first, of an economic and political ideology that advocated a social order where
the structures of public life were cooperatively owned and operated and the fruits
of human labor equitably distributed.
Q,,
Many socialist proposals and movements (A. .u
\ a VdV'
and parties implicitly drew on Christian or 11
quasi-religious values, and groups surrounding figures such as Philippe Buchez
and F.D. Maurice represented a stream of
socialism based on avowedly Christian ass u m p t i o n ~In
. ~nineteenth-century
~
America, where a native-born middle class imbued with democratic ideology and an
evangelical religious ethos prevailed
throughout so much of the nation's society and culture, the dominant socialist impulse was decidedly non-Marxian and
Anglo-Protestant in character. The American socialism that emerged in the 1890s
was indebted primarily to Henry George, lK::3"
I
(2,''
5''
j'Z
The Christian Socialism of I.E. Scott
American Presbyterians
whose Progress and Poverty (1879) gave a
quasi-scientific and religious critique of
private ownership of land and proposed
redistribution of wealth through a single
2 taxon land, and to Edward Bellamy, whose
utopian novel Looking Backward (1888)
portrayed a future where a benign and efficient cooperative commonwealth had
gradually emerged as Americans saw the
social and cultural benefits of eliminating
economic competition. Combined with
j3i+, the socioreligious writings of Leo Tolstoy,
$& ',;John Ruskin, and Giuseppe Mazzini, the
influence of George and Bellamy fed a diffuse middle-class American socialism in
the 1890s. These "knights of the Golden
Rule," as historian Peter J. Frederick has
aptly termed the more religious of them,
were generally hostile to dialectical materialism and the class-struggle thesis,
tended toward nonpartisan politics, and
optimistically looked for the gradual and
democratic evolution of national society
into a socialist commonwealth.''
J.E. Scott's earliest public articulation of
Christian socialism was his sermon as
moderator of the Presbytery of San Frand cisco, delivered on 24 September 1894,
1(6i!if,and
printed in pamphlet form the follow* ing year as Socialism: What is it?" His sermon text was a variant of the Golden Rule:
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"
(Mt. 22:39). Socialism, Scott began, was a
"much abused word." It did not mean anarchy, equal division of wealth, or all
things in common. It meant "'applied
/shristianity'" in the social realm. Citing,
among others, Karl Marx, F.D. Maurice,
the Fabian Society, and Edward Bellamy,
Scott argued that the two essential elements of socialism were cooperation and
"just apportionment of the fruits of toil
and the common bounties of nature."23
Scott then launched into a criticism
of American society Competition, he
averred, was "the basal principle of society as it now exists." As such, "A more
irrational, baneful, destructive, debasing
and sinful system could never be concocted by all the powers of darkness com-
Cr~''l
fiJ
Yl,.:g
\
@'
1
bo
bined." He argued that material good had
come with competition despite its "wickedness"-"God causes even the wrath of
men to praise him." Scott was of the same
generation as Washington Gladden, Lyman
Abbott, and Frances Willard-major leaders in late nineteenth-century social Christianity whose reformist critique of the developing industrial order of the U S . was
grounded not only in religious conviction
but also pre-industrial social experience.
It seems significant that Scott turned for
illustration of the rightness of cooperation
and the iniquity of competition to the "old
New England farm." A New Englander
himself, he may have been drawing, at
least in part, on personal memories. The
New England farm family he argued, was
in effect "a miniature cooperative state."
The "varied industries of the home and
farm" encompassed "what to-day constitutes a dozen distinct branches of labor."
All worked together, for the welfare of all.
What destroyed this "Socialistic community," Scott believed, was "the spirit of private enterprise." "One of the boys is
stronger, shrewder, more unscrupulous
than the rest," and thus takes "the lion's
share of the profits," engenders "strife
and bitterness," and forces "the old people" out of the home to become charity
cases. Competition as a social principle
was sinful because it admitted "no sense /
of brotherhood or kinship." Scott argued
that competition precluded obeying l
Christ's command: "how can one love his
neighbor as himself, when he must fight j
w i t h t h a t n e i g h b o r f o r bread and
b~tter?"'~
Turning to address the interests of the
church, Scott urged Christians to consider
not only the truth of socialism but also its
efficacy for mission. The problem of "how
to reach the masses" could be addressed
in part by socialism. "Is it a wonder," he
pointed out, "that men who work and
men who can find no work, the ragged
and wretched and hungry multitudes turn
away from the church where members call
Christ their Savior, but do not believe in
the practicality of the Golden Rule in the
world's business and social life?" Because
of the economic depression of 1893-1896,
Scott and his audience were vividly aware
of unemployment and bitter labor strikes.
Christianity was more than economics,
Scott readily admitted, but it included
economics; "if men see christianity a failure on the economic side, can they fail to
lose confidence in it on all sides?" As a
church member himself, Scott desired to
win over his audience. His criticismsof the
church were judiciously pointed. "There
are multitudes of unselfish[,l faithful[,]
loyal christian souls in the church," he believed.
They longand pray for the coming of the kingdom of God's righteousness on earth; and they
wonder why it comes so slowly. They want to
see souls converted, but they forget that the
ears are deaf to other sounds when the stomach is empty. They forget or perchance do not
know that against the wheels of the chariot-car
of Christ's kingdom the heavy brakes of antagonistic, social and economic environments
are set.
Scott alluded to the wider re-emergence
of social Christianity when he pointed his
audience to the new consciousness of "organic unity" and social injustice. He eloquently undercut "our brethren who tell
us the business of the Church is to save
souls and not to meddle with social questions" by noting that "they do not follow
their own rule." "Do they not build church
edifices and make them attractive? Do
they not try to have good music and to
make the social atmosphere of the church
inviting? Do they not try to banish saloons
and slums? Are not these 'social questions'? Are they not attempts to make the
environment harmonize with and help on
towards the end sought, as Christ did
when he drove out the money changers?"
Scott closed his address with a challenge
"every christian to give Christian socialism "a sympathetic hearing" and "careful study.'' "Christianity has hitherto been
applied to individuals," he said, "but it is
adapted to a kingdom, and a kingdom
means organized society and a state.""
c0
($
There is no direct evidence of the
presbytery's response to Scott's address.
However, the fact that several months
later he was elected stated clerk suggests
that his basing his socialism on the Golden
Rule, his sidestepping of specifics for
moving toward a cooperative commonwealth of "distributive justice," his appeal
to the social situation of the times, and his
loyalty to the church forestalled any controversy. Further, when heand E.J.Dupuy
launched the Socialist in the summer of
1895, there was apparently no furor over
the stated clerk's political journalism.
The lack of Presbyterian controversy
over Scott's socialism probably had something to do with the California context as
well. California had become part of the
nation by imperialist conquest, and its
subsequent society and culture had been
decisively shaped by the Gold Rush of
1848-1849: In the realms of collectiveexperience, mythic memory, and social aspirations, California was linked, as historian
Kevin Starr has convincingly argued, "with
an intensified pursuit of human happin e ~ s . " ' San
~ Francisco and the Bay Area
became the metropolitan center for the
state and the entire Pacific Coast virtually
overnight, an "instant city" that from 1848
to 1856 grew from some 1,000 people to
some 50,000. Culturally pluralist from its
1848 beginnings, San Francisco had a population in 1870 in which one out of every
three people had been born in Ireland,
Germany, China, or Italy, and between
1870 and 1930, over half of the city's population was of foreign parentage. This pluralism, fed by ongoing migration and immigration, added to the geographical and
psychic remoteness of California, and
compounded by the Gold Rush legacy of
aspirations for easy money, made for a relatively fluid and rootless regional society.
Few cultural traditions from areas to the
East could serve as effective custodians of
the community as a whole.z7
Prior to 1900, California was not a major
manufacturing state, yet it underwent major adjustments in the direction of social
American Presbyterians
corporatization. California's geographic remoteness made sea and land transportation pivotal in its economy. The Southern
Pacific Railroad came to epitomize in the
popular experience monopolistic control
of transportation and land and political influence contrary to the public's interests.
Mining and agriculture also were significantly corporatized in California well before the turn of the century. Further, in
the regionally dominant metropolitan
center of San Francisco, the relative scarcity of labor made skilled workers in the
building and transportation trades a poL t e n t i a l l y formidable political force.28
In such a social and cultural context,
reformist ideas compatable with socialism
gained increasing appeal among sectors
of California's m i d d l i n g and upper
/ -classes. California was alluring with prom1 ise in the pursuitof happiness, butdreams
dashed were as plentiful as dreams engenV
dered, and in the experience of many, little seemed to stand between the autonomous individual and self-interested corporate structures. Henry George had developed his single tax ideas while struggling to make a living in San Francisco.
Wealthy lawyer Burnette G. Haskell discovered the laboring classes of San Francisco and attempted to help them in the
1880s with an eclectic blend of Marxian
and anarchist rhetoric, union organization, and utopian communalism. 'When
Bellamy's Looking Backward spawned a
movement of Nationalist Clubs in 18891890, the greatest number of clubs appeared in California. Bellamy's "Nationalism," though short-lived, was significant
in Californiaas a link between middleclass reformism and socialist ideas. Nationalism took its name from its goal of
national ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods. To
reach the distant goal of a cooperative
commonwealth, Nationalists favored immediate measures such as public ownership of utilities, woman's suffrage, the
elimination of private banks, and an eight
hour work day. Burnette Haskell was a
7
prominent leader in the San Francisco
clubs, as was Job Harriman, another lawyer, who had at one time studied for the
Disciples of Christ ministry. In southern
California, which was beginning to boom
with Anglo settlers from the greater
Northeast and northern Midwest regions,
Nationalists put forward wealthy H. Gaylord Wilshire in 1890 as a candidate for I
Congress.2g
- ra
Nationalism rapidly declined after 1890, ,<)F?,
in large part because many members
turned to Populism and socialism. Bur-('/'
nette Haskell, for example, joined the
Populist movement. Antimonopolism
gained in political potency in the 1890s,
and Populists won some significant contests in California elections of 1892, 1894,
and 1896. Socialism was also burgeoning.
Job Harriman and his San Francisco Nationalist Club joined the Socialist Labor
Party; later, Harriman would barely miss
election as Mayor of Los Angeles as the
Socialist party candidate in 1911 and 1913,
and in 1914 he would found a socialist agricultural colony, Llano del Rio, in southern
California. In the East Bay, the young Jack
London of Oakland joined the Alameda
County Socialist Labor Local in 1896, a year
after its organization. Former Nationalist
Gaylord Wilshire made real estate investments in Los Angeles with his brother that
included the development of Wilshire
Boulevard, but politically he turned to socialism. He founded Wilshire's Magazine
as a journalistic platform, and he ran as a
Socialist congressional candidate from the
Los Angeles area in 1900.30
Given the growing public sentiment
against the Southern Pacific Railroad, the
comparatively weak traditional party system in California, and the emergent middle-class reformism and radicalism represented by Nationalism, Populism, and
Socialism, i t is n o t s u r p r i s i n g t h a t
reformist and radical sentiment should
begin to gain a hearing within the AngloProtestant community of California in the
1890s. When and how J.E. Scott was converted to socialism is open to speculation.
The Christian Socialism of I.E. Scott
No. 34.
COMMONWEALTH LIBRARY.
Aug. 24. 1895.
SOCIALISM:
IS I T RIGHT, OR IS IT WRONG?
Lecture delivered b y Rev. J. E. Scott before the American sect i o n of socialist labor party, a t Metropolitan Temple (the
largest b a l l in San Francisco), June 30, 1895.
It is certain, however, that he was in California during the years of Nationalist and
Populist flowering, and hisviews were undoubtedly shaped by this ferment.
The Bay Area speaking appearance of
Christian socialist George D. Herron in
1895 was the occasion for Scott to begin
the Socialist. He felt the times were right.
"There is call for a paper of the kind this
proposes to be, because of the large number of Socialists on this coast. The woods
are full of them. Multitudes are Socialists
without knowing it. Every man that really
wants what is right for himself and his
neighbor alike, is very near the kingdom
of Socialism." Initially, his optimism
seemed justified. In the third issue of his
periodical, he exulted that "Presbyterian
Elders and Congregational Deacons send
in their half dollars," as well as "ministers
of various denominations." The following
week he claimed, "Few clergymen of
standing in the city are unrepresented on
o u r r o l l of names." His enthusiasm
dampened a bit in the fall when financial
stringency forced reducing the pages in
each issue by half, but his basic optimism
remained intacL3'
Scott had defended G.D. Herron from
the attacks of C.O. Brown in the Arena. In
the Socialist, he welcomed Herron's paid
subscription and sharply harried Brown as
"the real subverter of social order and not
Dr. H e r r ~ n . Scott,
" ~ ~ however, was less a
representative of Herron's brand of Christian socialism, which had an antichurch
edge mingled with its revivalist passion,
than he was of the Fabian Christian social-
ism represented by W.D.P. Bliss (18561926). Bliss was a generation younger than
Scott, but like the older Presbyterian, he
had a New England background. Born of
Congregationalist missionary parents in
Turkey, Bliss attended Amherst College
and Hartford Seminary. He converted to
the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1885 in
the conviction that it represented the
original catholic unity of the church, and
soon thereafter he began his lifelong efforts to unify social Christianity under
broadly-defined Christian socialism. In
1887 and 1891 he helped found two Episcopalian groups, first the Church Association for the Advancement of the Interests
of Labor, and then the Christian Social
Union. He was a charter member of the
Boston Nationalist Club in 1888. In 1889 he
organized the Society of Christian Socialists and founded and edited its journal,
the Dawn, and in 1895 he began the
American Fabian League and its periodical, the American Fabian. In this indefatigable organizing and publicizing, Bliss'
goal was to persuade Christians in particular that a gradualist, nonpartisan approach
to a cooperative commonwealth was the
truest way t o apply Jesus' social
teachings.33
J.E. Scott clearly represented such a
gradualist, ecumenical socialism that was
open to all of social Christianity. In the
first issue of the Socialist, Scott announced, "we shall try to recognize the
value of every reform idea that makes for
strict and impartial justice and right
among men and women." The platform of
7
,
@'
American Presbyterians
ering at Louisville PresbyterianTheological Seminary
on 4 June 1988. From that occasion came the suggestion for this article.
Socialist (13July1895j, 1, in the Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley (BAN).
Presbytery of San Francisco, Minutes, 1890-1899,
pp. 341, 343, in San Francisco Theological Seminary
%chives, San Anselmo.
Ibid., pp. 284, 297, 330, 397; "Prof. George D.
Herron: the Man and His Work in California," Arena
14 (18951, 114ff.; Robert M. Crunden, "George D.
Herron in the 1890s: a New Frame of Reference for
the Study of the Progressive Era," Annals o f Iowa 3d
'
E
P
., A.-7 (1477\
.-.-,, Qdff
.. ...
~
\
' Socialist (13 July 1895), 1.
'Charles H. Lippy, "Social Christianity," in Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience: Studies of Traditions and Movements, eds. Charles H.
L i o w and Peter W. Williams (New York: Charles
SLAbner's, 1988), 2: 918.
'See, for example, Henry F. May, Protestant
Churches and lndustrial America (New York: Harper
& Row, 1967, original ed. 19491, and Robert M.
Crunden, Ministers of Reform: the Progressive's
Achievement in American Civilization, 1889-1920
(New York: Basic, 1982).
C. Howard Hopkins, The Rise o f the Social Gosp e l in American p;otestantism, 1865-1915 (New Haven: Yale University, 1940), pp. 172f.; May, Protestant Churches and lndustrial America, p. 193;
Howard H. Quint, The Forging of American Socialism: Origins of the Modern Movement (Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1964, original ed. 1953), pp. 241n.
248f., 250 f , 256f., 259.
Auburn Theolo~icalSeminary, Auburn, New
York, General~iogra~hical
Catalogue ofAuburn TheologicalSeminary, 1818-1918, p. 156; American Board
of Commissioners for Foreign Missions Papers, Unit
5, the Near East, Eastern Turkey Mission, 1872-1880,
Letters R-W, letters nos. 41-78, microfilm reel 684
(ABCFM Papers); Menlo Park Presbyterian Church,
Menlo Park, California, History o f the Menlo Park
Presbyterian Church F h e Church of the Pioneersl:
Centennial Year, 7873.1973, pp. 6f.; Presbyteyof San
Francisco, Minutes, 1890-1899, pp. 103,178,239,284,
297. 330. 397: San Francisco Bulletin (9 November
191>), 19.
On the social and cultural changes of the late
nineteenth- and early twentieth-century U.S., see
Robert H. Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920
(New York: Hill and Wang, 1967) and Alan Trachtenberg, The Incorporation o f America: Culture and
Society in the CildedAge (New York: Hill and Wang,
1982).
'O Mav. Protestant Churches and lndustrial America, pp. i k 3 , 170f, 235.
Aaron lgnatius Abell, The Urban Impact on
American Protestantism, 1865-1900 Hamden: Archon,
1962, original ed. 1943), pp. 1SSf.; Dale E. Soden, "In
Quest of a 'City on a Hill': Seattle Minister Mark
Matthews and the Moral Leadership of the Middle
Class," in Religion andsociety in the American West:
Historical Essays, eds. Carl Guarneri and David
Alvarer (Lanham: University Press of America, 19871,
pp. 355-73.
"George H. Nash, Ill, "Charles Stelzle: Social
Gospel Pioneer," Journal of Presbyterian History 50
"
(1972). 206-28; John M. Mulder, Woodrow Wilson:
the Years of Preparation (Princeton: Princeton University, 19781, pp. 229-77; Arthur S. Link, "Woodrow
Wilson: Presbyterian in Government," in Calvinism
and the Political Order, ed. George L. Hunt (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1965), pp. 157-74; Willard H.
Smith, "William Jennings Bryan and the Social Gospel," Journal of American History 53 (19661, 41-60.
"James C. Duram, "In Defense of Conscience:
NormanThomas as an Exponent of Christian Pacifism
During World War I," lournal o f Presbyterian History
52 (1974), 19-32.
Ronald H. Stone, "Introduction to Reformed
Faith and Politics," and Donald W. Shriver, lr., "A
Political Lifestyle and Agenda for Presbyterians in the
Nineteen-Eighties," in Reformed Faith and Politics,
ed. Ronald H. Stone (Washington, D.C.: University
Press of America, 19831, pp. 5f., 16f., 182f.
'"Lefferts A. Loetscher, The Broadening Church: a
Study of Theological Issues in the Presbyterian
Church Since 1869 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1954), pp. 1-8, 18, 27: George M. Masden,
The Evangelical Mind and the New School Presbyterian Experience: a Case Study o f Thought and Theology in Nineteenth-Century America (New Haven:
Yale University, 1970), pp. 230-49.
Hopkins, The Rise o f the Social Gospel, p. 280;
May, Protestant Churches and lndustrial America,
pp. 192f.
Louis Weeks, "Faith and Political Action in
American Presbyterianism, 1776-1918," in Reformed
Faith and Politics, pp. 101-19; Gary Scott Smith, The
Seeds of Secularization: Calvinism, Culture, andPluralism in America, 1870-1915(Grand Rapids: Christian
University, 19851, pp. 126-56; 1. Wayne Flynt, "Feeding the Hungry and Ministering to the Broken
Hearted': the Presbyterian Church in the United
States and the Social Gospel, 1900-1920," in Religion
in the South, ed. Charles Reagan Wilson (Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi, 19851, pp. 83-137.
'"D.H. Meyer, The Instructed Conscience: the
Shaping of the American National Ethic (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1972); Robert T.
Handy, A Christian America: Protestant Hopes and
HistoricalRealities2d ed. (New York: Oxford University, 1984).
Loetscher, The Broadening Church, p. 75; Socialist (17 August 1895), 2; ABCFM Papers.
20 Andre Bieler, "Gradual Awareness of Social,
Economic Problems (1750-1900)," in Separation Without Hope? Essays o n the Relation between the
Church and the Poor During the lndustrial Revolution and the Western Colonial Expansion, ed. Julio
De Santa Ana (Maryknoll: Orbis, 19781, pp. 23ff.;
Peter &A. Jones, The Christian Socialist Revival, 18771914: Religion, Class, and Social Conscience in LateVictorian England (Princeton: Princeton University,
1968).
Carl I.Guarneri, "The Associationists: Forging a
Christian Socialism in Antebellum America," Church
History 52 (19831, 36-49; James Dombrowski, The
Early Days of Christian Socialism in America (New
York: Columbia University, 1936); Quint, The ForgingofAmerican Socialism; Peter I.Frederick, Knights
o f the Golden Rule: The InteNectual as Christian Social Reformer in the 1890s (Lexington: University
"
''
"
''
''
The Christian Socialism o f I.E. Scott
Press of Kentucky, 1976).
22
Presbytery of San Francisco, Minutes, 18901899, p. 297; J.E. Scott, Socialism: What is it? Is i t
Christian? Should the Church take any interest in it?
(San Francisco: n.p., 18951, 22 pp., in BAN.
Scott, Socialism: What is it?, pp. 1-9.
Ibid., pp. 12-14.
Ibid.,
15-20.
Kevin Starr, Americans and the California Dream,
1850-1975(New Yark: Oxford Universitv. 19731. o. 68.
Roger W. Lotchin, San Francisco, ld4i-1856:
From Hamlet to City (New York: Oxford University,
19741, p. 30; William lssel and Robert W. Cherny, San
Francisco, 1865-1932: Politics, Power, and Urban Development (Berkeley: University of California, 1986),
pp. 14, 55f.; Moses Rischin, "Immigration, Migration, and Minorities in California: a Reassessment,"
Pacific Historical Review 41 (19721, 71-90.
Gerald D. Nash, "Stages of California's Economic Growth, 1870-1970: and Interpretation," California Historical Quarterly 51 (1972), 317ff.; Michael
Karin, "The Great Exception Revisited: Organized
Labor and Politics in San Francisco and Los Angeles,
1870-1940," PacificHistoricalReview55 (1986), 375-87.
29 Ralph Edward Shaffer, "Radicalism in California,
1869-1929" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1962), pp. 74-112; Royce D. Delmatier,
Clarence i.
Mclntosh, and Earl G. Waters, The Rumble o f California Politics, 1848-1970 (New York: John
Wiley, 1970), pp. 100ff.; Robert V. Hine, California's
Utopian Colonies (New York: W.W. Norton, 1973,
ori inal ed. 1953). pp. 78-100, 114.
Delmatier et al., The Rumble o f California Politics, pp. 102-24; Shaffer, "Radicalism in California,"
pp. 101,105,113-50; Hine, California's Utopian Colonies. OD. 115-31: Kevin Starr. lnventine the Dream:
''
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"
bp.
1, 1; (27 July 1895), 1; (3
1; (9 November
18%). 1.
Ibid., (3 August 18951, 1; (20 July 18951, 2.
Richard B. Dressner, "William Dwight Porter
Bliss's Christian Socialism." Church Histow47 (19781.
84:
66-82; Frederick, Knights b f the Golden Rile,
98; Quint, The Forging of American Socialism,
pp. 109-26.
"
"
pp.
w
'
"Socialist (13 July 18951, 1; (20July18951, 6ff.; (15
Au ust 18961, 3ff.
Ibid., (30 November 1895). 1; (25 luly 1896), 2;
(28 December 18951, 2.
36 Ibid., (28December18951,2; (22 February 18961,
1; (20July1895),5; (27July1895),7; (11April1896),1;
1896), 1; (25 April 18961, 2.
(4
Social Economist (17April18971,4, as quoted in
Quint, the Forging of American Socialism, p. 251.
Only two issues of the Social Economist are bound
with the Bancroft Library's holdings of the Socialist.
Socialist (18 January 18961, 1.
Social Economist (21August 1897), 1,3; (11 September 18971, 1,4ff; Quint, The Forging ofAmerican
Socialism, pp. 256-63.
40 P d ~ iandSocia1
t
Problems 1 (March 18981.1. in
the DO; Library, University of California, ~erkel&.
Ibid., 5-20, and the issues of July 1898, December 1899, and January, February, March, June, August, October, and November 1900.
Ibid., 2 (December 1899), 6; 1 (May 18981, 2,44;
1 (July 18981, 15; 2 (September 1900), 7; 2 (August
19001, 4ff.
a Ibid., 2 (May 19001, 4; 1 (May 18981, 6.
" Robert T. Handy, "Christianity and Socialism in
America, 1900.1920,'' Church History21 (1952),39-54;
Dressner, "Bliss's Christian Socialism," pp. 78-82;
William McGuire King, "The Emergence of Social
Gospel Radicalism: the Methodist Case," Church
History 50 (19811, 436-49.
On William Rader, I.Stitt Wilson, and other figures of Anglo-Protestant social Christianity in the Bay
Area during the Progressive era, see Douglas Firth
Anderson, "The Keverend J. Stitt Wilson and Christian Socialism in Berkeley," in Religion andSocietyin
the American West, pp. 375-400 and idem, "Through
Fire and Fair by the Golden Gate: Progressive Era
Protestantism and Regional Culture" (Ph.D. dissertation, Graduate Theological Union, 1988), Chapters
IV, V, and VIII.
46 May, Protestant Churches and lndustrial America, pp. l3ff., 1 8 f , 44f., 136-ff., 230; Bruce Morgan,
"Stephen Colwell (1800-1871): Social Prophet before
the Social Gospel," in Sons o f the Prophets: Leaders
in Protestantism from Princeton Seminary, ed. Hugh
T. Kerr (Princeton: Princeton University, 19631, pp.
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177.47
INCIDENTAL ADDENDA OCCASIONALLY OFFERED
FOR GENERAL INTELLIGENCE
Item 55th. "Out of the mouth of babes . . ."Wesley Grove, filled with huge white oak
and chestnut trees was the center of Orange County, NY, Methodism in the closing years
of the 19th century. O n a warm Sunday evening i n August six t o eight thousand people
would arrive by wagon and train t o set u p their tents. Famous preachers and evangelists
preached from the wooden platform i n a natural amphitheater. Corinne Slaughter
Ackerly almost ninety years later remembered going there with her Presbyterian parents.
One of the preachers invited his listeners to come forward to profess faith. Little Corinne,
only four years old, stood u p and shouted, "I'm a Presbyterian."
1150th Anniversary Book, Town of Harnptonburgh, New York, (1980), p. 40.1
Robert Blade