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The American Tract Society, 1814-1860

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Elizabeth Twaddell
Elizabeth Twaddell
Affiliation:
Madison, Wisconsin
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Extract

In 1825, at the founding of the American Tract Society in New York, its leaders declared that with this event began “a new era in the history of the American churches.” Ten years earlier, American Protestants had formed the American Bible Society for the purpose of publishing and distributing the Bible “without note or comment.” Beyond this single endeavor, they felt, sectarian loyalties made common missionary effort impossible. But now, the co-operation in the new Tract Society “of various local institutions, and of Christians of different denominations” heralded an era of harmony among the churches, and of unity in the national body politic. More than this, churchmen and philanthropists believed that through the agency of the Tract Society, and of other benevolent organizations of national scope, the force of a united Protestantism would speedily evangelize America and the world.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , June 1946 , pp. 116 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1946

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References

1 American Tract Society, New York, The Address of the Executive Committee of the American Tract Society to the Christian Public: together with a brief account of the formation of the Society, its Constitution, and officers (New York, 1825), 7–11.Google Scholar

2 Hallock, William A., “Light and Love.” A Sketch of the Life and Labors of the Rev. Justin Edwards, D.D. (New York, 1855), 188–89.Google Scholar

3 The Beligious Intelligencer (New Haven, Conn.), X (1825–1826), 810.Google Scholar

4 American Tract Society, Boston, Constitution of the American Tract Society instituted at Boston in 1814 (5th ed., Andover, 1823), 2.Google Scholar The account of the New England Tract Society is taken from the Annual Reports of the Society, and two pamphlets: A Brief History of the Organization and Work of the American Tract Society instituted in Boston, 1814 (Boston 1855)Google Scholar; A Brief History of the American Tract Society, instituted at Boston, 1814, and its relations to the American Tract Society at New York, instituted 1825 (Boston, 1857).Google Scholar

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10 Private and Specied Statutes of Massachusetts, VI (1822–1830), 123, Chapter 49.Google Scholar

11 For his lifelong career in tract work, see Mrs. Knight, H. C., Memorial of the Rev. William A. Hallock, D.D., First Secretary of the American Tract Society (New York, n.d.).Google Scholar

12 Probably in 1812; although there was organized tract work in New York even earlier, cf. Brief History, 1857, 7.Google Scholar

13 Comparative statistics published in The Religious Intelligencer, IX (1824–1825), 522.Google Scholar

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20 Various accounts of the final steps in the organization of the national Society are in Records from the Life of S. V. S. Wilder, 237–41Google Scholar; Knight, , Hallock, 39Google Scholar; A. T. S., New York, Address of the Executive Committee, particularly 17–22Google Scholar; and Brief History, 1857, 26–36.Google Scholar

21 Article I, Constitution of the American Tract Society, Address of the Execvtive Committee, 23.

22 “Man's native sinfulness—the purity and obligation of the law of God—the true and proper divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ—the necessity and reality of his atonement and sacrifice—the efficiency of the Holy Spirit in the work of renovation—the free and full offers of the Gospel, and the duty of men to accept it— the necessity of personal holiness—as well as an everlasting state of rewards and punishments beyond the grave.” Address of the Executive Committee, 9.

23 This Methodist member was an Englishman, the Rev. John Summerfield; after his death in June, 1825, the Committee did not replace him. The Methodist Church consistently refused to-support or to allow its clergy to support the Tract Society, as it competed with their own denominational publishing concerns; cf., e.g., Nathan, Bangs, History of the Methodist Episcopal Church (New York, 1860), IV, 7–8, 38, 85–87.Google Scholar

24 Articles IV, V, VI, Constitution of the A. T. S., Address of the Executive Committee, 24.

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28 The general expansion at this time of the benevolent societies' missionary activity is discussed by Oliphant, J. Orin, “The American Missionary Spirit, 1828–35,” Church History, VII (1938), 125–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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40 Knight, , Hallock, 70.Google Scholar

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58 American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society, Thirteenth Annual Report, 1853, 126. This became the Western Tract and Book Society. The Rev. John Rankin, the Society's first president, gives an account of its founding and early work in his “Autobiography” (Rankin-Parker Mss. owned by the Duke University Library, Durham, N. C.), 94, ff.Google Scholar

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