what does not belong to us, and usurping authority over our brethren. 1
A couple of years later another staunch clerical supporter of Federalist policies, the Reverend John Thornton Kirkland, minister of the New South Church in Boston, came somewhat closer to the main point. The spirit of the times, he urged, had greatly changed, and that for the worse. Clergymen now were being severely censured for what only a few years earlier they had been warmly commended for as constituting a peculiar merit. The leaders of the American Revolution, for example, had praised the clergy for throwing the weight of their influence into the political scale, recognizing that there exists a moral and religious as well as a civil obligation on the part of ministers to warn the people of the dangers which threaten their liberty and happiness. But now, however, at a time when the dearest interests of religion and patriotism, of church and state, are fiercely assailed and imperiled, the clergy are met with calumny and insult when they venture to speak out. Only the debasement of morals and piety could explain so lamentable a transformation. 2
A growing sensitiveness to the objections of Republican partisans that they were stepping aside from the legitimate responsibilities of their calling and prostituting the func
- 1 A Sermon, delivered before the Convention of the Clergy of Massachusetts, in Boston, May 26, 1796. By Jeremy Belknap, minister of the church in Federal- Street, Boston. Boston, 1796, pp. 15 et seq. A similar note was struck by Tappan in the convention of the following year. Cf. Sermon, delivered before the Annual Convention of the Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts, in Boston, June i, 1797, Boston, 1797, p. 26.
- 2 A Sermon, delivered on the 9th of May, 1798. Being the day of a National Fast, Recommended by the President of the United States. By John Thornton Kirkland, minister of the New South Church, Boston. Boston, 1798, pp. 18 et seq.
