Calvin Colton (1789–1857) was an important publicist for both evangelical revivalism and the Whig party in antebellum America. Contrary to the standard historical interpretations, however, Colton did not move smoothly from the one to the other but took up political advocacy only after denouncing Yankee revivalism and its attendant social advocacy as threats to Church and State alike. At the same time his turn to episcopacy went together with a pronounced anglophobia. An analysis of Colton's rhetoric and career path reveals a consistent pattern beneath his unexpected changes and some under-explored dimensions of American religion before the Civil War.