CHAPTER XIX.--The Great Awakening.
The first decade succeeding the Revolution was marked by a seriousdemoralization which found expression in an increase of vice and crime;and as never a crime wave sweeps state or nation that great reformers donot arise to combat it, so now Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterianpreachers, enjoying at last a provident religious emancipation;preaching a gospel of law and retribution rather than of love, workedzealously and courageously combating the condition.
At the end of the second decade, they had not only checked thedemoralization, but brought about a widespread revival, historicallyknown as "The Great Awakening;" leaving in its wake a decidedly improvedmoral condition.
The converts at many of these meetings were smitten to the earth underparoxysms of religious fervor or excitement, locally known as "thejerks;" a name given by those criticising the demonstration.
Fully a half of the state was dominated by the spell of thisextraordinary religious revival, generally exhibited at union orundenominational religious meetings. It began at the Gasper RiverMeeting House in Logan county in 1799 at a protracted meeting held byCalvin Campbell and William McGee, two Presbyterian evangelists, whowere assisted by James McGee, a Methodist minister and brother ofWilliam McGee.
When it was reported that the converts were smitten to the earth underparoxysms of religions zeal, interest in the meeting grew rapidly. Thusadvertised great crowds attended and many who came to scoff remained topray. Every person physically able, living within a radius of fiftymiles came to the meeting; some on foot, some horseback and some in rudefarm wagons.
This vast crowd gathering in and around the church, slept in the fieldsand the forests. It was remarked that no one was stricken with sickness,and that no one seemed hungry; if they were the little they brought withthem supplied their wants.
Services began at noon and were continued far into the night. Eachlasted practically two hours, followed by a short intermission. Thepreachers alternated in their exhortations. As the meeting progressedthe crowd grew so great, that not all, even with this arrangement, hadan opportunity to attend one service daily.
It was suggested that a stand or pavilion be erected in an oak grovenear the church. This was done and there twice daily, at three in theafternoon and at seven at night, the Rev. Calvin Campbell, as John wasnow generally known throughout the state, preached to the multitude.Under the influence of his preaching many were awakened and converted.
At night great fires were built on either side of the pavilion and infront an area a hundred feet square was cleared and covered with straw,on which the congregation sat and listened in rapt attention to hispowerful exhortations.
What he said had a holy influence and burned its way into the hearts ofthe most hardened of his hearers. After he had been talking many beganto weep softly, then rose to their feet and with eyes and hands upraisedtowards heaven prayed in a low voice for forgiveness; the moreexcitable, or as some said, those who most needed pardon, walked downthe aisle, which was roped off through the center, to a small space justin front of the pavilion and were there taken with "the jerks."
A man known as Red Jenkins, one of the toughest and most notoriouscharacters in that section of the state, and who had been tried severaltimes for murder (the charge was killing and robbing travelers whostopped at his station), but had never been convicted--though each jury,had it been in their power, would have rendered the Scotch verdict--hadfor several years been badly crippled by rheumatism and hobbled aboutfrom settlement to settlement on crutches. On the first night of thepavilion meetings he staggered forward and was seized by violentparoxysms, at the end of which he lay as one dead.
Calvin Campbell came down from the platform, tossed Jenkins' crutchesinto the fire and lifting the man laid him on the floor of the pavilion.In a little while he arose, and walking down the aisle, resumed hisformer seat. When told about his crutches he replied: "I do not needthem now; my body was bent and shriveled to accommodate a crooked,shrunken soul."
Another night, just as the meeting was beginning, a young girl runningbehind the pavilion, fearful that some one would take her seat near hermother, was jostled and thrown into the edge of one of the fires. Herhomespun dress blazed up, and enveloped in the flames she ran to theedge of the pavilion, where she was caught by Calvin Campbell andwrapped in the folds of his great coat. He laid her as one dead on thefloor. The crowd began to gather around, but he said: "Take your seats,the girl is not dead, but has swooned. While she lies thus, we will askGod, who shields innocence from harm and who takes care of his lambs, tomake her whole."
While all stood in silent, prayerful reverence, he asked God to restorethe girl sound in body and cleansed of sin to her mother. All, even thewicked and curious, joined in this prayer.
When it was finished, without so much as looking towards the girl, hebegan the regular service with song; and as there were less than a dozenbooks among them, he read the lines aloud.
At its close the girl sat up, wrapped about in the great coat and smiledat her mother. Turning to her he said: "Little one, keep the coat aboutyou and go sit with your mother."
He preached that night upon the power and purpose of prayer and began bysaying: "Prayer is the only way in which a sinner can ask God for pardonand in which a saint can commune with his Saviour. It is man's way oftalking with God and God's way of hearing what men have to say. Prayeris the powder of the Christian soldier and by it victories are won forthe Cross. * * *" There were many conversions that night.
The meetings were continued until the end of the week. At the closingservices the audience asked that each year at the same place and seasonopen air union services be held. So in the summer of 1800, a great campmeeting was held and the pavilion was used as the rostrum. This was thefirst camp meeting ever held in Christendom and the practice wascontinued for many years at the Gasper River Meeting House and otherplaces in Kentucky.
The hallowing influence of "The Great Awakening" thus started, spread toother communities and eventually throughout the state and intonorthwestern Tennessee. Similar meetings were held by other preachers,at Masterson's Station in Fayette County, Clark's Station in Mercer,Ferguson and Chaplin chapels in Nelson, Level Woods (now Larue county),Brick Chapel in Shelby, Ebenezer in Clark, Grassy Lick in Montgomery,Muddy Creek and Foxtown in Madison, Mount Gerizim in Harrison, ThomasMeeting House in Washington (now Marion), Sandusky Station, now PleasantRun in Marion, and Cane Ridge in Bourbon county.
The first Gasper River camp meeting held in the summer of 1800 wasattended by a great multitude and proved a success. Baptist, Methodistand Presbyterian preachers were each given the opportunity to expoundtheir particular doctrine. There were many conversions and among themseveral who in later years became distinguished preachers.
In the early summer of 1801, Father Rice, James McCready and CalvinCampbell conducted a great camp meeting in the Cumberland country.Rumors of its success spread throughout Kentucky and many men rode wearymiles through lonely forest trails to attend.
Among those who came a great way, was Barton W. Stone. In 1796 he hadbeen licensed by the Orange Presbytery of North Carolina. Soonafterwards, emigrating to Kentucky he settled in Bourbon county andoccasionally preached for the Cane Ridge and Concord churches. He wasordained in 1798 by the Transylvania Presbytery and received a unanimouscall to become the pastor of these two churches.
Greatly impressed by the good work done at the camp meeting; filled withthe spirit which took possession of all, the refined as well as theuneducated, he returned to his congregations and relating hisexperiences, fired them with the zeal of the meeting which yet inspiredhim; and by his preaching produced upon them the same effect, even to"the jerks," or bodily demonstrations.
They decided to hold a camp meeting of their own; and did so from August6 to 13, 1801, near Cane Ridge church, in a grove seven miles east ofParis. It was attended by more than twenty-five thousand persons and itis yet historically known as "The Great Cane Ridge Camp Meeting."
Among the Presbyterian preachers heard at the camp meeting were FatherRice, Barton W. Stone, Robert Marshall, Joseph P. Howe, who led thesinging, and Calvin Campbell. Though the movement was instituted byStone, then a Presbyterian, it was for all purposes a union service andthe great crowd was addressed by Methodist and Baptist preachers asfrequently as by Presbyterian.
As evidencing the interest manifested, it is conservatively estimatedthat more than one-tenth of the total population of the state attendedthe meeting. The census of 1800 gave the population of Kentucky at220,955, and many estimated the crowd in attendance at exceeding 25,000.
The fifth day of the meeting was known as Roger Williams or Baptist dayand only Baptist preachers were heard. The crowd was so great that threedifferent congregations were addressed at a time. The principal sermonwas preached by John Gano.
The sixth day of the meeting was known as John Wesley or Methodist dayand only Methodist ministers spoke. The chief service was conducted byWilliam Burke.
Sunday, August 9, was known as John Calvin day; and John Calvin Campbellconducted the afternoon service. He was mentally and physically in hisprime; a man of great spirituality, great mental force, great voice anduntirable physically. To his preaching was attributed the beginning ofThe Great Awakening, now sweeping Kentucky and marvelous tales were toldof him and his work. As the crowd was very great, arrangements were madefor others to address overflow meetings, including Barton Stone andRobert Marshall, both of whom were very able preachers; but when itbecame evident that the crowd wished to hear Calvin Campbell and thatthe range of his voice was such that all might hear him if closelygrouped, the other meetings were dismissed and all gathered to hear him.It was said that more than eight thousand persons listened in markedattention to his sermon.
The scripture lesson was taken from the seventeenth chapter of Acts. Histext was "Paul in Athens" or "Worshipping Our Own Handiwork" and aportion of the sermon is preserved.
"Paul, driven from Thessalonica, departed for Corinth. On the way hestopped at Athens waiting for Timothy and Silas.
"Visit the grave of the great, the tomb of one of the Pharaohs, andthough you know the body is long since dust, you feel the spirit of areflective greatness. Thus Paul visiting Athens must have been impressedby the mother of art, eloquence and philosophy. Decadent Athens, herliberty gone, paying tribute to Caesar. Even a Caesar could not takeaway the heritage of the children of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle; thisher citizens alone could rob themselves of; and this they were doing byworshipping false gods, by following the precepts of an Epicureanphilosophy, and by vain, wordy babbling. They still thought Athens theabode of wisdom, and like children of the great, still thoughtthemselves the world's great thinkers and philosophers because theirfathers had been; when as Paul puts it, 'They spent their time innothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing;' piling wordson words, metaphysical and unfathomable; and knowing nothing of thebeginning of wisdom, which is to fear the Lord and depart from evil.
"Paul's biographer tells us that, 'His spirit was stirred when he sawthe city full of idols;' gods of gold and silver and stone, with even ashrine to THE UNKNOWN GOD.
"Though such sights would have stimulated our curiosity, Paul had seenenough. There was work to do; he could not remain silent; and spokefirst in the synagogues and the Agora, the market place. Then he wastaken to the Areopagus. North of the market place was the Areopagus orMars Hill, a spur of the Acropolis which towered three hundred feethigher and on which stood the citadel, the Parthenon and the Temple ofWinged Victory. Whether Paul spoke from the top of Mars Hill or theAthenian Council, which having in earlier days met on the Areopagus andfor that reason was so called, is immaterial. We know he spoke to anAthenian audience, who were curious to hear from a Jewish Socrates, anew man on a new subject, THE UNKNOWN GOD.
"From the summary of his discourse we know it was framed upon thatpedagogical dictum that one should proceed from the known to theunknown. That he talked first of their gods, of their poets, of theirbelief that there was an unknown god; then of a universal God, unknownto them, but known to him, of Christ, of the resurrection. He quotedfrom their poet Epimenides; and considering the subject, we have a rightto assume that he quoted from his own prophet, Isaiah. How a man takethan ash log, and with part thereof he roasteth flesh 'and is satisfied;yea he warmeth himself and saith, Aha I am warm, I have seen the fire;and the residue thereof he maketh a god, even a graven image; he fallethdown unto it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith,Deliver me, for thou art my god.'
"But man is wrong. God dwelleth not in temples made with hands. God isnot an image of gold or silver or stone; but himself made the earth andall things therein; and in him we live and move and have our being.
"When Paul talked to them, not of gods of appetite and ambition, whichsometimes rule in our hearts, or of hand made gods, such as decoratedthe streets of Athens and were enshrined in their temples, which evenwhile we worship have a habit of disintegrating to dust and ashes, butof the Divine Creator, the Universal God, the Bountiful Giver, theAlmighty Ruler, the Unseen Spirit, the Tender Father, the RighteousJudge, they called him a babbler; and when he spoke of the Eternal Sonof God and the resurrection, many of them mocked, some said we will hearyou again--and a few believed.
"Until he came to Athens, the opposition he had met was Jewish prejudiceand mob violence; it was a tangible thing; but at Athens he encounteredsomething harder to overcome, philosophy, conceit, contempt. Havingdelivered his message, discouraged, he departed in sorrow.
"We have heard many times the expression, 'When Greek meets Greek, thencomes the tug of war.' That day in the Areopagus Paul started a tug ofwar that shall continue long after we and what we know of the tangiblehandiwork of man is in dust and ashes; started it because his spirit wastroubled at beholding that the world's greatest city intellectually, wasgiven over to idol worship. His discourse on Mars Hill, or if you preferin the Athenian Council, started the conflict between pagan philosophiesand Christianity; and while Christianity prevailed, the converts frompaganism brought into it too much of the metaphysical, the doctrinal,and that simple faith become contaminated by what was borrowed fromthese philosophies.
"The Epicureans taught that pleasure is the only possible end ofrational action. They believed that everything started from an atom.That the gods were not interested in men and that there was no futurelife.
"The Stoics believed in the school of philosophy founded by Zeno. Thatman should submit to the inevitable; they were fatalists; did notbelieve in exhibiting joy or sorrow; lived lives of sternness andausterity and many believed in the immortality of the soul.
"Athens, a city posing as the most enlightened, where polemics andphilosophers gathered to discuss metaphysical questions, did not relishbeing told by a barbarian, a mere Jew, that all they believed in andargued about was false; and that he knew things unknown to them; of aGod concerning whom they had never heard. He discoursed of God, Christ,the resurrection, the unity of mankind, the sovereignty of God. He toldof God the Father, whose habitation was not made with hands; who hadmade of one blood all nations and had fixed the bounds of theirhabitation. A God easily found because always near; and through whom welive and move and have our being. This being true, how foolish toworship gods of our own make. Rather let us worship the God I worshipand whom I preach unto you; the God that made YOU. Then he spoke of thelove of God for man; how he gave his Son as a vicarious atonement; howthat Son living as a man among men, taught that a life of selfishpleasure, Epicureanism, was a sin; and that fatalism, Stoicism, wasremorse without faith or hope. Then how that Son, crucified for me
n thatthey might live, rose and returned from the land of silence, a messengerto those who loved and trusted him, that they might have a pledge ofglory and honor and immortality.
"But the 'superior persons' who in that day peopled Athens, were harderto win than the barbarians of Lycaonia, the land of the wolves, becausethey were men of intellectual sensitiveness and dead hearts; men who,though they do not know it, live in the dark and after death reachingout find nothing to lay hold on. Though as Paul says, God is not farfrom any one, He is farthest from them. God tempers the wind to theshorn lamb and those that hear best and are nearest are those who havefresh and simple hearts like children and heathen; for them the way ismade straight and plain.
"That day on Mars Hill, Paul preached but three things: 'Idolatry isfoolish--Given the new light you must repent--On an appointed day youwill be judged by Jesus, the righteous judge.'
"The application of the lesson I can put in a simple question: How manyof us today are as the Athenians, worshipping false gods and spendingour time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing?How many of us seeking new things are willing to trade the old lamp, thefaith of our fathers, for a new one; even though the old is infinitelygreater than Aladdin's, when the new will prove a will o' the wisp, adelusion and a snare.
"Suppose Paul should come to Lexington and spend a day or two lookingabout; would he say of the people of Lexington as of Athens: 'Stillspending your time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear somenew thing;' still seeking false gods. He might strengthen the charge:Still lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God; though the price ofthe Gospels is a farthing and all know of the mission of Christ and itsfulfillment.
"What he told to the Athenians was a new story; many mocked, some saidwe will hear you again--a few believed. But Athens was Athens after Paulleft. What Paul told to them is to us an old story. Do we love it? Do welove to tell it? We can hear it and mock and delay. We cannot tell itunless we believe.
"Listen to the word of God:
"'Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of thisworld? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For afterthat in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleasedGod by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For theJews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preachChrist crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeksfoolishness but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christthe power of God and the wisdom of God * * * but God hath chosen thefoolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen theweak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; * * *that no flesh should glory in his presence. * * * That according as itis written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.'"
The Rev. Calvin Campbell continued his preaching for more than an hourand it resulted in the conversion of some souls. Though many said hisviews were not wholly orthodox; all agreed that he preached theessentials of Christianity and was a faithful ambassador of his Lord.
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The effect of the "Great Awakening" was evidenced by the remarkablegrowth of the churches during and just succeeding it. The Baptists, thenas now the strongest religious denomination in the State, exhibited aphenomenal growth. The Elkhorn Association at its annual meeting in 1801reported 3,011 new members during the current year. The South KentuckyAssociation reported a practically similar growth; the Tate CreekAssociation 1,148 new members, the Salem Association more than 2,000 newmembers, and the Green River Association, organized in 1800 with 350members, increased to over one thousand in less than a year.
Although much criticism attaches to the physical demonstrations ascontrary to a sober Christian faith; there is no doubt but that thesemeetings were most potent in the development of a serious Kentuckyspirit. It is estimated that at least half the population of the statewas brought directly under their influence and their minds lifted frommaterial to spiritual things. Thousands were converted who otherwisewould never have attended a religious service. It would be a very narrowperson who would condemn the great good done because of the attendantphysical demonstrations.
Another result of these meetings was to revive the anti-slaverymovement, which had been put to sleep by the action of the FirstConstitutional Convention.
This movement assumed a tangible form, when in 1804 an organization ofBaptist ministers calling themselves "Friends of Humanity," but known toothers as "Emancipators," declared with the members of their churchesfor the abolition of slavery: "* * * that no fellowship should beextended to slaveholders, as slavery in every branch of it, both inprinciple and in practice, was a sinful and abominable system, fraughtwith peculiar evils and miseries, which every man ought to abandon andbear testimony against."
The Baptist Church, acting upon the matter, in assembly decided it was:"* * * improper for ministers, churches or associations to meddle withthe emancipation of slavery or any other political subject," and byresolution advised their ministers to have nothing to do with it intheir religious capacity.
This resolution was offensive to the Friends of Humanity and theywithdrew from the organization of the church. In 1807 they formed anassociation of their own, calling it "The Baptist Licking-LocustAssociation, Friends of Humanity." Strong at the time of organizationthey soon dwindled in numbers, and in a few years the name became a merememory.
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Though Presbyterian preachers instituted the series of meetings whichresulted in the "Great Awakening" and were active at all the campmeetings, their denomination profited less, numerically, than either theBaptist or the Methodist.
The reason was that several of their most influential preachers, BartonW. Stone, Robert Marshall, John Dunlavy, Richard McNemar and JohnThompson, began preaching certain schisms, contrary to Calvinism.
The orthodox of the church were not only worried but frightened by thegrowth of the schism of doctrine. For a long time they dared not opposeit, thinking that it would split the church. It was first officiallyconsidered by the Presbytery of Springfield, who placed Richard McNemarunder dealings.
When the Kentucky synod met in Lexington on September 6, 1803, withSamuel Shannon as moderator, he called the attention of the body to apetition signed by eighty Presbyterians and letters from Mr. WilliamLamme, charging that Revs. Richard McNemar and John Thompson, ofWashington Presbytery, were promulgating erroneous doctrines and thattheir Presbytery had refused to consider the petition implicating theirorthodoxy. The synod decided to enter upon an examination and trial ofthe two members.
When this vote was announced they with Barton W. Stone, Robert Marshalland John Dunlavy protested and withdrew.
Two days later those withdrawing announced they had formed anorganization of their own, which they called the Springfield Synod.Thereupon the Kentucky synod, over the protest of Calvin Campbell andseveral others, suspended them; leaving it to their respectivepresbyteries to restore them upon satisfactory proof of repentance.
The five suspended ministers were the founders of "The New LightChristians." Already having large churches, the most of theircongregations followed them and they immediately went to work andbecause of their popularity, zeal, force of character and the sympathyof many who believed them persecuted, their denomination spread rapidly.The organization continued to grow in strength until 1859, at which timethey had sixty conferences, fifteen hundred ministers and more than twohundred and fifty thousand communicants. The sect has disappeared fromKentucky.
McNemar and Dunlavy joined the Shakers in 1805. In 1807 Marshall andThompson, declaring their repentance were taken back into thepresbytery. Barton W. Stone repudiated infant baptism; declared that theordinance was for the remission of conscious sin and should beadministered to all believing penitents, even though they had beenbaptized in infancy.
At a great meeting at Concord church he selected Acts 2:38 for his textand convinced a great many who had been baptized in infancy that t
heymust be rebaptized. He afterwards said that he was never led into thefull spirit of the doctrine "until it was revised by Bro. AlexanderCampbell some years after." Stone is the author of the hymn once sopopular: "The Lord is the Fountain of Goodness and Love."
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While the churches of Kentucky were adjusting themselves to andassimilating the new growth brought about by The Great Awakening, theState politically was again disturbed by the old Mississippi navigationquestion and threatened with another Spanish conspiracy.
After the treaty of 1795, making the river free, the State had madegreat growth; but on December 16, 1802, trade was suspended by order ofMorales, the Spanish Intendant, who denied to Americans the right ofdeposit at New Orleans and refused to fix or grant another.
His proclamation excited the whole western country and was the firstintimation the people had that Spain on October 1, 1800, by secrettreaty at St. Ilfonso, had agreed to return Louisiana to France.
Governor Garrard received a copy of the proclamation by specialmessenger and submitted it to the Kentucky legislature which was insession at the time. On December 1, 1802, the Kentucky legislaturepassed a resolution calling upon the Federal Government to enforce thetreaty provisions of deposit, declaring:
"We rely with confidence on your wisdom and justice and pledge ourselvesto support at the expense of our lives and fortunes, such measures asthe honor and interest of the United States may require."
Then Kentucky, expecting immediate war with Spain, began organizingcompanies of volunteer militia and making preparations to invade NewOrleans.
On January 18, 1803, President Jefferson wrote Governor Garrardacknowledging the receipt of the resolution; declaring he was informedthat the action of the Spanish intendant was unauthorized by hisgovernment and--"In order however to provide against the hazards whichbeset our interests * * * I have determined with the approbation of theSenate to send John Monroe * * * with full powers to him and ourministers in France and Spain to enter with these governments into sucharrangements as may effectually secure our rights and interests in theMississippi."
The spirit of Kentucky after the receipt of this letter is indicated bya communication printed in the Kentucky Gazette of March 8, 1803.
"If the result of Mr. Monroe's mission should prove inauspicious oneopinion will pervade all America. We shall then possess but one mind andone arm. The patriotism of the country will banish all partydistinctions, and the breast of every citizen will burn withindignation. * * * Let us await with patience his return--with thatsilent expectation, which, prepared to meet with joy the news of a happyissue, is nevertheless, if disappointed, ready to inflict a blow thatwill let all Europe know that, though difficult to be aroused, Americaacts with vigor and effect."
The same paper of July 19, 1803, contained news from Paris, under thecaption, "Important if True--Paris, May 13, Louisiana is ceded to theUnited States on the most honorable terms; and indemnification will bemade for French spoliation."
This report proved correct. The great Territory of Louisiana had beenceded to the United States for eighty million francs.
On Tuesday, December 20, 1803, the United States took possession by hertwo commissioners, William C. Claiborne and General James Wilkinson.
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