Sunday, November 30, 2014

Structural Musings

In the context of the question of where to best put the battle between cessationists and continuationists in the explication of 19th century reactions to the gifts of the spirit in line with the New Testament interpretation, arose the question of whether the division into chapters is really working the way I need it to right now.

  1. Background (60 pages)
    1. Methodology (5-10 pages)
    2. Everyday Life in 19th Century America (10-15 pages)
    3. Joseph Smiths Socio-Economic Baseline (25 pages)
    4. Ready for the Book of Mormon (15 pages)
  2. Socio-Economic Case Studies (200 pages) 
    1. Funding the Book of Mormon (20 pages)
    2. Raiding the Campbellites (20 pages)
    3. Law of Consecration 1 (20 pages)
    4. United Firm (20 pages)
    5. Kirtland Banking Society (20 pages)
    6. Law of Consecration 2 (20 pages)
    7. Nauvoo (60 pages)
      1. Settling Nauvoo (10-15 pages)
      2. Making Nauvoo Work (25-30 pages)
      3. Loose Ends (20 pages) 
        1. British Influence
        2. Economic Bipolarism & Infighting
        3. The Need for St Louis
        4. Brigham Young: Isolationism Revisited
    8. Summary: The Evolution of JS Socio-Economic Policy  (20 pages)
  3. Models and Narratives (60 pages)
    1. Braudel's Mediterranean Models (20 pages)
    2. Evaluating the Model Shift (20 pages)
    3. Salvation History in the Age of Micro History (20 pages)
  4. Appendices
    1. Stephen Mack bankruptcy proceedings
    2. ...
[= 320 pages, ~81,000 words]

Friday, November 28, 2014

On the gift of speaking in tongues.

Middleton in his A free inquiry into the miraculous powers makes it clear that the gift of tongues, while most famous from the apostles' Pentecostal action, ceased almost immediately, as gifts became suspect for the establishing church, and then were en bloc rejected by the Protestant Reformation.

Middleton is willing to make this the decisive gift, the one that people need to show or shut up about.

Middleton then goes on (p.123) and sees the loss of moral superiority and spiritual quality when the Church becomes part of the Roman Empire, but that's of course the Protestant strategy of dating the split, when the true light was lost, providing the target to which the Reformation can aim back.

The problem with the "popish legends", as Middleton called St Augustin's narration of miracles (p.140), was that they were on the verge of crossing over into reliques on the one hand (Middleton mentions St Steven) and had all the odium of this quintessential anti-Protestant issue as well.

Of course, the sources, e.g. Chrysostomos, were just as disappointed in some sense that the miracles had ceased, and were blaming lack of faith as the reasons---thence the claim about St Paul's handkerchief (p.131).

In general the Protestant criticism was, specifically mentioning Cardinal Robert Bellarmine (who was notorious to English Protestants due to his involvement in the Oath of Allegiance debate of James I), that once Christianity had become state religion, the Church would no longer pray for but curse the princes that were in her way (p.157).

Thus, Middleton can write (p.162), in good Protestant stance (though he is paraphrasing the Church fathers' position at that point):
The History of Gospel, I hope may be true, though the History of the Church be fabulous.
The miracles are unhelpful because they take away from the the calm of the Christianity.
[The, RCK] ... sole tendency [of miracles, RCK] is to recommend, as a perfect pattern of the Christian life, the most extravagant enthusiasm and contemptible superstition, that any age or history perhaps has ever produced. (p.173)
The story of the tongues cut out by the Arian princes from the confessors who can then still speak is scientifically relativized by the description of two cases where people, who were born without tongue or lost it due to small-pox induced ulcers, were yet able to speak (p.184f).

Yet the humble testimony of this single Physician, grounded on real experiment, will overturn at once all his pompous list of dignified authorities, and convince every man of judgement, that this pretended miracle, like all other fictions, which have been imposed upon the world, under that character, owed it’s [sic!] whole credit to our ignorance of the powers of nature. (p.185)

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Lavoisier and Sage on Potash Production

This is reading notes from the accessible potash document I described in this post.

Sage et al (p.1) note that potash smells acidic and like urine. It usually is dark brown in coloration (p.2), when it is in its coarse state. When fired in the reverberatory furnace, it turns slate blue or white and is now called potash (p.2). When potash is calcined well [i.e. turns into pearl ash, RCK], it becomes porous and light, like pumice (p.3).

The most common method for potash production is to burn wood (p.5) and put the ashes into a copper vessel, adding water and boiling the mixture. One lets the lye settle, decants it into a separate boiler, then lets the remaining water evaporate until the potash is dry.

In places of charcoal production, stovepipes can be used to gather up the humidity distilled out of the charring wood pile into basins, which are then evaporated using boilers (p.6). If the salts sticks too strongly to the pans, scissors and mallets are used to detach it (p.7).  All woods produce some salts, but some more than others. Older ashes produce more, provided they are kept wet, and the best come from hardwoods (p.7). In the summer, they use cold water; in the winter, they mix hot and cold water half-and-half. Water that is too hot spoils the process, as the grease cannot separate from the salts. Stagnant waters give twice the potassium than clear waters.

One places wooden troughs of oak or pine a finger and a half apart, with a false bottom, where one places a bed of straw, and masses the ashes on top of that, so that the water cannot drain too quickly (p.8). One replaces the straw every six weeks in winter, and in the summer only every two months. Once the liquid stops fuming, one has to stir it with a stick, let the fire go out and cut the salt out with sticks.

The best method is the Swedish method, where one cuts the wood into pieces and piles it up.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

L'art de fabriquer le salin et la potasse

I am still trying to figure out the relationship between

L'art de fabriquer le salin et la potasse ; suivi des Expériences sur les moyens de multiplier la fabrication de la potasse ([Reprod.]) / par le citoyen Pertuis, & par le citoyen B. G. Sage... (Bavarian library copy) and the Lavoisier article from 1779 with the same title (catalog entry). Earlier I confused the Lavoisier book with this article on just Salpeter production, which Lavoisier also wrote when a regisseur at the poudre commission.

At first I thought that Pertuis and Sage were regisseurs with Lavoisier, but that seems unlikely based on this essay. At the same time, the name and the structure look so similar, that one suspects it might be a reprint, cleansed for the Republic (as the labels citoyen make one suspect).

One thing is certain: Lavoisier was executed in 1794.

Prof Marco Beretta of the University of Bologna, in a private communication, pointed out [typos rectified, RCK], that L'art de fabriquer le salin et la potasse was
... originally published anonymously upon a report made by Tillet, Cadet, Sage and Lavoisier. The report was probably written and conducted by Lavoisier. In the second ed. the experiments by Pertuis were added and for [from?] the index it seems that a few experiments by Sage were also added to the original ones. Thus, although Sage and Pertuis claim to be the author of the whole work[, this] was misleading to say the least, [but] their additions, apparently not particularly significant, justified the appearance of their names on the frontispiece.
However, an analytical comparison of the two editions remains a desideratum.

Monday, November 24, 2014

What historiography does

Historiography as a science makes narratives impossible. This is its primary and main functions. Most of the narratives are too simplistic to be satisfactory; but some are too complicated as well.

Historiography achieved this aim in two ways: in the process of accumulating data, it provides minimal inclusion requirements for all proposed narratives. The path may wind in a number of ways but ihas to traverse these loci. Having to include these in their belly makes simplistic stories pop like an over inflated balloon or complex stories hang themselves in their own skein.

Furthermore, in re-emplotting new stories, it breaks facile binary disjunctions. The nice thing about binary disjunctions is the hard either-or which can prove the one by the proof of the negation if the other. Re-emplotments add terms to the disjuncts, other ways the stories might have gone, requiring proof by cases to settle the matter.

The fundamental problem of historiography is that historical knowledge is non-monotonic. Any new factoid could change everything. The best bet for the science then is to have a small number of maximally distinct narratives. 

The process of factoid generation and re-emplotment serves to maintain the set as small yet distinct.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

The naval War of 1812 by Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919

I was pointed to The naval War of 1812 : Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919  as a potential source for my transportation research with the use of Morris, Charles R. (2012-10-23). The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution. PublicAffairs. Kindle Edition.

Morris writes:
Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote a small masterpiece on the naval war, was no fan of [US commanding officer] Chauncey, but he mocked [British commanding officer, RCK] Yeo’s battle report for failing to admit that his fleet “ran away.” (Kindle Locations 459-460)



Friday, November 21, 2014

Potash and Pioneering in the US of A

In his 1951 article Origin and Occurrence of Commercial Potash Deposits in the Proceeding of the Academy of Science of Oklahoma, Volume 32, Section D, p.123-125, Robert Fite gives a one paragraph summary of potash production before 1850 in the US of A (1851 was the year the Germans discovered natural or geological potash in Strassfurt).
Potash has been an important item of commerce for centuries. Until recently, its use was restricted to the manufacture of soap, glass, and black gunpowder. The salt was obtained by leaching ashes of wood and other vegetative wastes tn large iron pots-hence, the name "potash," It became the principal product of the chemical Industries in America before 1850 as a byproduct of clearing the virgin forest lands for agriculture. The total annual supply for these chemical uses, however, never amounted to more than a few thousand tons for the entire world. (p.123)
As far as the production is concerned, the American Academy of Sciences ran a short article in 1793 that may be relevant to this, Aaron Dexter, Observations on the Manufacture of Pot Ash [sic!],  in: Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 2, No. 1 (1793), pp. 165-170.

First of all, the book repeats the information given by Mark L. Staker in his Whitney in Ohio article for BYU Studies 42.1 (2003), pp.75ff. So this makes it likely that when Staker speaks about "manuals", he had something this information in mind.

Dexter argues that quality of the potash needs to be improved (p.165) and that this low quality is not the fault of either the equipment or the impurities (p.166), but rather of the technique.

Too often, not all of the salts are extracted from the ashes.
For this purpose, rain or river water ought always to be preferred. The ashes should be saturated, and remain with about an inch of water over the top of them for twelve hours at least. (p.166)
By straining the leach out of the tub, either with a small hole or a false bottom, so that none of the ashes can escape, water can be continuously replenished. The lies needs to be boiled
... until they are so reduced in strength, as they will no longer pay the expense of boiling. The ashes however, still to be preserved; and fresh water applied as before. And when drawn off, they may be used with profit on fresh ashes, as long as there remain in the lies any salts, which may be discovered by the taste. (p.166-167)
Next, Dexter recommends double-filtering the lie, as it exits the tub and as it enters the receiver. Then it needs to sit for 24 hours. When transferred into the kettle, the sediment needs to be left behind in the receiver (p.167).
Every precaution should be taken to let nothing fall into the lies previous to, and whilst boiling. Therefore, that injurious practice of laying wood on the kettles for drying must be avoided. (p.167)
[[RCK: it is hard to believe that putting wood on the kettles did dry them instead of steaming them.]]

The first drawn lie should be boiled down to half; later lies even more so. At that point, lime can be added, though mixing the lie into the ashes is fine too.

The lie should now cool off to the point that it is body temperature ("to the state of blood heat" (p.167)), and again there will be sedimentation,  a "chalky earth", which needs to be detained. Once the earthy matters and the common salt (p.168) have been removed, using the same process as salpeter production uses for the common salt, the lie is ready to be fluxed. This involves boiling the lie down completely (p.168). Then the fire is increased to "for the purpose of destroying the inflammable substance" (p.169). Dexter provides a sliver-based test for evaluating the quality of the potash, which is re-dissolved in water and then a silver coin turned dark or black with it if the "inflammable substance" has not been removed. If the potash contains the "inflammable substance", then either re-dissolving in pure water and re-fluxing is required; or the potash is turned into "pearl ashes ... by calcination" (p.169).

Dexter knows that the process is discouragingly long, believes that the cleaned lie not only fluxes faster, but that the superior quality of the potash with fetch a better price (pp.169-170).

Dexter closes with the observation (p.170), that the importance of the subject matter, since potash production is even discussed by legislatures, and the need to be comprehensible to the business people and workers who produce the chemical, have led him to write the article in the straight-forward language chosen. (As an example, on (p.169), Dexter uses the term "oily substance" as an analogon for his "inflammable substance", because that is the term the workers use.)

Thursday, November 20, 2014

19th and 20th Century Potash in the United States

Inspired by Mark L. Staker's article on Newel K. Whitney ("Thou art the man", BYU Studies 42.1 (2003), pp.75ff0, which talks about the ashery in Kirtland, I was trying to find some of the "ashery manuals" that Staker talks about, but could only find a 1917  JSTOR article on the relative contribution of wood and plant material to the overall The Production of Potash in the United States.
I also found a comparable one for Canada, equally from 1917. One suspects that the preparations or munition supplies for WW1 are implicated here. For a worldwide view with Western focus in 1922, see Potash.

A somewhat similar article for the 1880s is on Potash in the Far West, but that already includes Utah of course.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Landed fortunes in colonial times

In Vol I of History of the great American fortunes, p.15, Gustavus Myers argues that the focus of the Dutch West Indies Company to forbid many types of goods that it itself was interested in---such as pelts---or that it supplied---such as woolens and cottons---together with the British focus on controlling manufacturing in the 18th century caused pressure in the direction of establishing one's wealth in land, since that was the uncontested good.

The industrial history of the United States by Comen

In The industrial history of the United States from 1905, Katharine Coman reconstructs the start to the war of 1812 in the lack of guaranteed neutrality of American shipping and the impressment of sailors into the British Navy (p.172). America had found itself pushed into the second best spot in international shipping after the French navy had been worsted at Trafalgar and the European continental countries found themselves confined to their harbors with the Union Jack reigning at sea.

In 1806 the British were blockading the European coast "from Brest to the Elbe", and relying on the articles from 1793 to confiscate any goods going to France. Napoleon and the British Empire had claimed the right to claim any ships, cargo and crews that were assisting the other side (p.173). The protesting ports of Salem, Boston, New York, Baltimore and Philadelphia received no assistance from Virginia planter and president Jefferson, who was above all else interested in avoiding war. The Embargo Act therefore required all American ships to trade along the coast exclusively, with bonds at twice the value of the cargo to ensure compliance.

Though some people complied with the rules by selling the ships or simply not returning to harbor in the US (p.174), the impact for the economy was disastrous.
Prices of foreign commodities doubled ; prices of domestic goods fell below the cost of production. The $50,000,000 of capital invested in shipping brought in no revenue. Thirty thousand out of forty thousand American sailors were suddenly thrown out of employment. Farmers unable to dispose of their produce offered their lands for sale. Lumbermen and fishermen were reduced to beggary. The mercantile classes suffered no less. In New York the Embargo caused one hundred and twenty bankruptcies and threw twelve hundred unfortunates into the debtors' prison. (p.174)
In 1809, the US Government reversed course (p.175) with the nonintercourse with Great Britain, and now the US could pick up the neutral shipping.
The war tariff of July 1, 1812, doubled and trebled the duties on imported commodities. Imports and exports rapidly declined. Their combined value in 1814 was but $20,000,000, one seventh of the foreign trade of 1810. Our shipowners faced ruin. (p.175)
Anyone who owned a ship took out a privateering contract and made for the seas to capture British ships, with the full approval of the government.
Sixty-five vessels were commissioned as privateers in the first three weeks of the war, one hundred and fifty in the first two months. During the summer of 1812 one hundred prizes were taken, and but fifty vessels were lost to the enemy, only thirteen of these being privateers. During the three years of war the five hundred and fifteen privateers commissioned by the United States captured over thirteen hundred British vessels, most of them 'merchantmen carrying valuable cargoes. Congress allowed a rebate of one third the import duty on captured goods and offered twenty-five dollars for each prisoner taken. (p.176)
Though in the immediate aftermath, trade blossomed, by 1821, it had collapsed again, and the key reason---beyond the panic of 1819 and the tariff of 1816---was the reciprocity of free trade offered by the US to the rival shipping nations (p.177).
The real gainers from the reciprocity policy were not the shipowners but the farmers and planters, whose surplus products were sent to foreign markets at declining freight rates. (p.178)
Then Comen turns to the development of manufacturing.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, in spite of the encouragement, legislative and otherwise, that had been given to manufactures, the United States was still in the main an agricultural nation. We were producing more both of food products and raw materials than were consumed in the country, and we could not provide manufactured commodities sufficient to supply the home market. (p.180)
Shipping, farmers and consumers were happy to trade raw products for manufactured goods imported, only the manufacturers were unhappy (p.180). From the Embargo in 1808 to the end of the War in 1815, the manufacturing of cotton enjoyed a virtual monopoly within the US. This caused a boom in the cotton manufacturing that had previously only progressed gradually. The boom was amplified by the redirection of capital; shipping monies moved into manufacturing instead.
Slater's success at Pawtucket had demonstrated the possibilities of this new textile industry, and men trained under his eye went out to set up rival establishments. The mills at Slatersville, Rhode Island, Pomfret, Connecticut, and Union Village, New York, were direct offshoots from the "Old Mill." For the first ten years development was slow. (p.180)
[Slater had grown up in Belper, England, where he had apprenticed at a frame using the Arkwright spinning method for leveraging water power, invented in the 1760s. This knowledge he brought to Rhode Island, even though departure for weaving apprentices was supposed to be illegal, where he collaborated with American artisans like David Wilkinson to reconstruct an Arkwright like frame. RCK]
In 1807 there were fifteen cotton mills running 8000 spindles and producing 300,000 pounds of cotton yarn annually. In 1811 there were eighty-seven mills operating 80,000 spindles, producing 2,880,000 pounds of yarn per year and employing 4000 men, || women, and children. In 1815, 500,000 spindles gave employment to 76,000 persons, with a payroll of $15,000,000 per year. Rhode Island was the center of this flourishing industry. Within thirty miles of Providence were one hundred and thirty mills running 130,000 spindles and employing 26,000 operatives. (pp.180f)
However, the cotton was still weaved by hand on looms, until C. Lowell succeeded in 1814 in establishing the first power loom in the USA in Waltham, MA (p.181). The innovation spread, and the work had been simplified to the point that women and children could do it (70%-85% of the employees), which significantly lowered cost.

Establishing the woolen manufacturing required weaning oneself from the sheep imports from Spain, Portugal, Saxony, Russia, South America and Syria (p.182). Merino sheep seemed to be the solution and caught on first; they were able to handle the continental climate. Woll was fetching 75c in 1811 and $2-3 in 1813 (pp.182f). Rowland Hazard succeeded in putting together the first woolen factory, were carding, spinning and weaving was all accomplished by water power, in 1828 (p.183).

The US Iron manufacturing was favored because of the availability of anthracite or stone coal (p.183), which was brought to Philadelphia via the Delaware River as early as 1804 (p.183).
In 1805 there were five furnaces and six forges in Fayette County [in Pennsylvania, RCK]. Three rolling and slitting mills and a steel furnace were successfully established by 1811. The iron deposits of the river valleys to the north were being developed in the same period. Pittsburg was the natural center for this rising industry because of her unexcelled advantages in the way of water transportation. (p.183)

Getting a grip on Economic History on the Internet Archive

Ernest Ludlow Bogart did not only write a general Economic History of the United States (accessible here, here and here), but also a Financial History of the State of Ohio. Bogart also published readings in economic history (here and here).

Then there is Thurman William Van Metre, who also wrote an economic history (herehere, here and here). Or Edward Mead Earle, who wrote an Outline of Economic Development of the United States.
Sidney Reeve Armor also wrote a modern Economic History (scan 2).

Peter Termin worked on the Bank War of the 1830s. Katharine Comen wrote an economic history of the land beyond the Mississippi (Vol I, Vol 2) also hereherehere and here.

Then there are selections of readings on economic history for specific time periods.
An early theoretician of the economy in the US was Daniel Raymond, about whom  Charles Patrick Neill wrote a book.

A History of Domestic and Foreign Commerce by Emory Richard Johnson sounds good too, as does Hans Keiler's book on Shipping.

Then there is an Industrial History by Katharine Comen (as a school book). As well as a multi-volume Documentary History of American Industrial Society (vol 1, vol 2, vol 3, vol 4, vol 5, vol 6, vol 7, vol 8, vol 9, vol 10), edited by John Rogers Commons. Commons collaborated with Ulrich Bonnell Phillips on Plantation and Frontier Documents (1649-1863).
Lewis Austin wrote on the American Proletariat. Edith Abbott offers some insights on women's role in this story of industrialization. 

Marion Mills Miller wrote a multi volume history (over 14) that shows the connection between political and economic debate, entitled American debate; a history of political and economic controversy in the United States, with critical digests of leading debates (Volume 1: here and here; Volume 2: here and here), and who knows which volumes here and here. These it makes more sense to search for the one needed ....

Robert Marion La Follette also wrote a multi-volume history on the Making of the United States of America, only some volumes are available: vol 3 (industry and finance), vol 6 (mining and metallurgy), vol 7 (inventions), vol 10 (public welfare).

On a more political level is Charles Austin Beard's oeuvre, for example on the economic underpinnings of Jeffersonian Democracy. Gustavus Meyer has a multi-volume history on the Great American Fortunes (vol I (scan 2), vol 2 (scan 2), vol 3 (scan 2)).

Albert Bushnell Hart comments on the socio-economic forces in American History. Seymour Dunbar has his multi-volume history of the impact of Travel on all aspects of American History, including the socio-economic (Vol I, Vol II, Vol III, Vol IV). The US department of transportation issued a book on the history of American Highways.

Lydia Rebecca Blaich does a tri-nation comparative economic geography of the US (with Germany and England) (Scan 2, Scan 3, Scan 4).

Last but not least, the cool Graphic History of the United States by Louis Morton Hackrich.

Monday, November 17, 2014

Nauvoo Neighbor and more newspapers

The Signature Books online Library has just added a whole slew of newspapers to their online offering:

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Walter Scott on Experimental Religion

In The Christian Baptist, IV.7 1827-2-5 309f, Walter Scott (under the alias of Philip) started a discussion of what he called experimental Religion (309:1), which refers to "those personal proofs and evidences of our individual adoption into the family of God, which are to be found in the character of every genuine christian" (309:1), which he finds predominantly expressed in the letter of John (presumably 1 Joh 3:1f), Peter and Jude. In this context, Scott validates that describing people as the sons and daughters of God is a legitimate view of the Campbellite position.
... the scriptures inform us that, 1st, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is begotten by God. 2d, Whosoever loves, has been begotten by God. 3d, That whosoever has the hope of the gospel in him, is an heir of God; and, finally, that all christians know that they have been begotten by God by the spirit which he has given them. Thus the faith, love, and hope of the gospel, with the gift of the Holy Spirit, are all proofs our individual personal adoption. (309:2)
This,  Mormonism appears like a literal version of Campbellism at times.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Campbell's mini autobiography as of 1825

In his reply to Rev Greatrake, Campbell gives a mini autobiography of his coming to the US and getting involved in Baptist church activities in his editorial in the The Christian Baptist (CB II.2 92:1ff). This autobiography, especially given its precise dates, needs to be aligned with our narrative.

Campbells Essays on the Ancient Order of Things (Part 1)

Alexander Campbell wrote a series of essays having to do with the Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things, by which he means the apostolic Church or the New Testament religion, in his The Christian Baptist.

The series of the A Restoration of the Ancient Order of Things essays starts with (CB Vol II.7 1825-02-07 127:2). Here. in essay number one, Campbell argues against reformations, which are still human things, and for restorations, which bring back the divine.
Just in so far as the ancient order of things, or the religion of the New Testament, is restored, just so far has the Millennium commenced, and so far have its blessings been enjoyed. For to the end of time, we shall have no other revelation of the Spirit, no other New Testament, no other Saviour, and no other religion than we now have, when we understand, believe and practice the doctrine of Christ delivered to us by his apostles. (CB Vol II.7 1825-02-07 128:2)
The second essay starts at CB Vol II.8 1825-4-7 133:1 pointing to the impossibility of improving upon the religion inaugurated by Jesus Christ, given his maximal foresight and philanthropy (133:2). Campbell then begins to describe that creeds and "compilations of doctrine in abstract terms" did not exist back then, and thus need to be discarded (133:2).
  1. If the creeds or doctrinal compilations would best the NT, then men would either be wiser than God or more benevolent. Campbell then underscores his point by sampling the Westminster Creed (134:1). 
  2. The creeds cannot contribute to the unity, since the Church was united before them and has not been since (134:1). Inferences upon inspired words never become inspired words themselves (134:2). And Campbell believes that the Christian unity is the precondition to the conversion of the pagans in large numbers (135:2). 

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Joseph Smith Fielding on Evolution

A thought to ponder

But the strong restorationist impulse in Mormon thought made the present only a copy of the past and had the effect of shortening the historical perspective that supported evolutionary thought. If present and past could be brought together in this way, the possibility of the kind of elaborate systems of social and cosmic evolution as that envisioned by Spencer would certainly be questioned. Furthermore Mormon anthropomorphism made God the prototype of man. Adam was literally his offspring. T o think of a being made in the literal image of God as only the result of descent from other forms of life was a difficult move indeed.
(Journal of Mormon History, 1978 (vol 5) (p.38) 

Polygamy and Fertility?

In the recently published statement of the LDS church on polygamy, it is suggested that Joseph Smith Jr's thinking on polygamy began concurrently with his Bible revision project, specifically the Old Testament, after the arrival in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1831.

It is noteworthy that up to that point in their marriage, and especially in Kirtland, all of the children that Emma Smith bore died at birth.
  • Alvin Smith (b. and d. June 15, 1828)
  • twins Thaddeus and Louisa (b. and d. April 30, 1831)
The first child to be born of Emma Smith and live to full age was not born until 1832. The remaining children of Emma and Joseph are:
  • Joseph Smith III (November 6, 1832-December 10, 1914)
  • Frederick Granger Williams Smith (June 29, 1836–April 13, 1862)
  • Alexander Hale Smith (June 2, 1838-August 12, 1909)
  • Don Carlos Smith (b. 1840, died at fourteen months) 
and 
  • David Hyrum Smith (November 17, 1844–August 29, 1904). 
Now, when people (such as Daniel Bachman) speak of the spring of 1831, they are talking about the revelations in Doctrines and Covenants and not about living celestial marriage. 

Joseph Smith Jr did not try anything in the direction of polygamy until 1835, with Fanny Alger. By then, Joseph Smith III had been born and was almost three years old.


When Campbell's Delusions were published

Oh my Goodness, I had no idea that Alexander Campbell published his Delusions an analysis of the Book of Mormon already on February 7th, 1831, two days before Joseph Smith Jr received the first part of his revelation on the Law of Consecration (D&C 42). And Rigdon only converted in November of 1830. That's a three month turn-around time!

One thing that this implies is that Campbell in the Delusions, when speaking of common stock [via the Munster incident, RCK] (p.6), cannot criticize the Smith version of the common stock system of D&C 42---similarly to how his father, in his exchange with Rigdon, cannot have (Hayden 1875, p.217) [= (Howe 1834, pp.116-123), since that dates from February 4th, 1831, cannot have meant the Smith version (Howe 1834, p.121)---but must be targeting the Rigdon version that Campbell had only heard about at the Austintown Mahoning Society Meeting that summer (Hayden 1875, p.299).

Campbell and Rigdon in Richardson 1870

Richardson (2:43) points out that in the aftermath of the Walker debate, the "undenominational independence of belief" [that stemmed from Alexander Campbell's anti-creedal attitude, RCK] was a big problem for the Baptists.

Bentley and Thomas Campbell had once met on the way from Philadelphia without proper introduction (2:43) around 1809.

Bentley had organized Baptist ``ministers' meetings'' in the Western Reserve, from which on August 30, 1820, the Mahoning Baptist Association was born (2:44). In 1821, Bentley read the Walker Debate, and decided to visit Campbell as soon as possible. When he and Sidney Rigdon, then the great orator within the Mahoning Association, were on the road on association business, they took a day's ride detour to stop over in Kentucky and converse with Campbell, thus becoming part of the reformation project (2:44; Hayden 1875, p.19). In turn, Alexander Campbell began to attend the association meetings, starting with the summer of 1821 (2:47).

Sidney Rigdon and Adamson Bentley of Warren Ohio were brothers-in-law, being both married to daughters of Mr. Brooks, of Warren (2:47).

(2:47) believes that Alexander Campbell's continued influence with the Redstone Association and preaching in Baptist churches helped Sidney Rigdon to receive a call from the Pittsburg Baptist church in 1822. At the same time (2:48), Campbell wanted Rigdon and Walter Scott, who was a New Testament lecturer at Mr Forrester's church,  to join forces. Campbell wanted the congregations to merge as well, but the communities resisted this idea.

By late 1822, weakened from the labors of the Buffalo Seminary, Alexander Campbell closed the school and switched to a mode of supporting the Reformation that took a cue from the success of the publication of the Walker debate (2:48). After consultation with his father, Thomas Campbell, and Walter Scott, Alexander Campbell issued a prospect for The Christian Baptist in the spring of 1823 (2:49f). Campbell built his own printing office on his farm ``near the creek-fording, at the foot of the cemetery hill'', purchased type and press, hired skilled laborers and published some 46,000 volumes of his own writing over the next seven years (2:50f).

In May 1823, a Presbyterian minister and former lawyer, Mr [William L., RCK] McCalla, from Augusta, Kentucky, began to correspond with Campbell regarding a new debate on infant baptism (2:51). They settled on Washington, Kentucky and October 14th, 1823, as place and time for their debate. Campbell humorously reminded McCalla that even the Archangel Michael had not railed against the Devil when they both contested the body of Moses (cf. Jude 1:9).

In October 1823, with the Ohio too low for steamboat navigation, ALexander Campbell travelled by horseback to Kentucky to debate Mr McCalla (2:70). He was accompanied "by the pastor of the Baptist church in Pittsburg, Sidney Rigdon, who wished to be present at the discussion".

After the debate, which did not go well for McCalla, who could not refrain from demonizing Campbell (2:86) and did not give reply to his arguments (2:80), Campbell was glad that he had participated.
And we are fully persuaded that a week's debating is worth a year's preaching, such as w generally have, for the purpose of disseminating truth and putting error out of countenance. (2:90). 
However, Campbell was unhappy about being misread as supporting the Baptists, rather than baptism. As he mentioned to a group of Baptists in the evening, after a heavy day of debating McCalla:
For let me tell you that I have almost as much against you Baptists as I have against the Presbyterians. They err in one thing and you in another; and probably you are each nearly equidistant from original apostolic Christianity. (2:88)
Upon arriving home, Campbell began immediate work on the publication of the McCalla debate, using not only his own notes, but also those kept by Sidney Rigdon for the occasion (2:95).

[[RCK: McCalla published his own response, in 1828 in Philadelphia, where he had moved; cf. William Latta McCalla, A Discussion of Christian Baptism, Philadelphia 1828, Volume I & Volume 2. For a more general appreciation of Alexander Campbell's debates, cf. Jesse James Haley, Debates that made History: The Story of Alexander Campbell's debates ...,  St Louis, 1920, one volume.]]

After the Redstone Association meeting of 1823, Walter Scott and Sidney Rigdon collaborated more closely with regards to their congregations, and a union was established in 1824 (2:99). Campbell's congregation at Wellsburg, Virginia, was received into the Mahoning Association that same year, sending Campbell as their messenger to the meeting at Hubbard, Trumbull county (2:100). The questions submitted showed an increase of interest in the primitive Church.

In 1825, Alexander Campbell published his Essay on the Ancient Order of Things in the Christian Baptist, vol 3, Nr.9, p.360 (2:127), arguing for the appropriateness of reimbursing the bishop for their work.
The abuses of the principle have led many to oppose even the principle itself. (2:128)
 Sidney Rigdon at the same time returned to Ohio, while Walter Scott was still teaching school and getting married, but in 1826 he moved to Steubenville, where he started an academy (2:128). At a meeting in Warren, Ohio, where an even more aggressive push for the primitive church was urged (2:129), Campbell considered the need for an evangelist (2:130), as he wrote in the Christian Baptist, Vol 4, p.37.

In the fall of 1826, Alexander Campbell attended the Mahoning Association meeting at Canfield (2:163), and when he preached, Sidney Rigdon and Thomas Campbell were invited to a seat, as was Walter Scott, who was visiting the Western Reserve for the first time (2:164).

In the fall of 1827, the Mahoning Association met in New Lisbon (2:173). Campbell met with Walter Scott in Steubenville, who was working on a prospectus for a monthly paper to be called Millennial Herald (2:173)., but Campbell talked him into coming to the meeting. There, Walter Scott and Sidney Rigdon were asked to sit in the association (2:173), and in the evening (2:174) Sidney Rigdon delivered a discourse on John 8. Walter Scott was elected evangelist (2:174) and an initial collection of funds taken up, netting $11.75 (175). [The Christian Baptist was $1 per issue. RCK]

During the fall months of 1827, Margaret Campbell knew that she was succumbing to her sickness and entreated her husband to marry her friend Miss Bakewell after her departure (2:176).

Bibliographic Record

Dr Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, 2 volumes, Philadelphia (J.B. Lippincott & Co) (Volume I 1868, Volume II 1870).

How Campbell's Mother in Law had a run-in with the Indians

Richardson (1868), p.358 cites the kidnapping in 1789 of Mrs Brown by Indians from Doddbridges' Notes on the Settlement and Indian Wars of the ... (pp.226ff) [in the 1912 edition]. Mrs Brown was the stepmother of Alexander Campbell's first wife, Margaret, whom Alexander first met in 1810. Thus, only some 20 years before Campbell lived in the Western part of Virginia, the place had still been wild frontier and a locale for bad interactions between the white newcomers and the indigenous population.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Criddle on similarities Mormonism and Campbellites

In trying to establish that Sidney Rigdon was the author of the Book of Mormon (Sidney Rigdon: Creating the Book of Mormon), Criddle would be much supported by showing that the Book of Mormon held theories that only a Campbellite could hold.

As part and parcel of this view, Criddle argues
Walter Scott took Campbell's idea of a restoration a step further, even calling for a "new Bible." Hayden described Scott's preaching in the winter of 1827-1828 this way: "He contended ably for the restoration of the true, original apostolic order which would restore to the church the ancient gospel as preached by the apostles. The interest became an excitement; ...the air was thick with rumors of a 'new religion,' a 'new Bible.'" [not an entirely different Bible, but rather, Alexander Campbell's 1820's edition of the New Testament].
First, let's look at the quote from Hayden (1875) in context (p.120).
He contended ably for the restoration of the true, original apostolic order which would restore to the church the ancient gospel as preached by the apostles. The interest became an excitement. All tongues were set loose in investigation, in defense, or in op- position ; which foreshadowed good results. Nothing so disastrous to the sailor as a dead calm. Let the vessel heave under a tempest, rather. The Bibles were looked up, the dust brushed off, and the people began to read. " I don't believe the preacher [i.e. Walter Scott, RCK] read that Scripture right." "My Bible does not read that way," says another. The book is opened, and lo ! there stand the very words ! In the first gospel sermon, too — the model sermon — as what "began at Jerusalem" was to be " preached to the ends of the earth." The air was thick with rumors of a "new religion," a "new Bible," and all sorts of injurious, and even slanderous imputations — so new had become the things which are as old as the days of the apostles. (Hayden 1875, p.120)
So Criddle makes a mistake in attribution. Walter Scott, though he supported the Campbell effort for a better bible, no doubt, was not here arguing for a new Bible.  Hayden indicates this to us by writing "The book is opened, and lo ! there stand the very words !" This is not a difference between the Campbell translation and the KJV that Hayden is focusing on.

Rather, people who were surprised to read their Bible afresh were insinuating that Scott was using a different translation; that what Scott was preaching them was not their old religion from their old Bible, but a new religion from a changed Bible. This is why Hayden uses "all sorts of injurious, and even slanderous imputations" --- that's not a compliment!

In fact, for someone who is trying to perform a Restoration, the ultimate insult is that it is "new". It would never be something that Walter Scott were actively calling for.

Hayden is trying to make an argument of estrangement, so the rumors must be false for that argument to work.

Sorry, Criddle.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Writing Plan

Under the assumption, that a dissertation page, double spaced, has about 250 words, and I can write about 3 pages a day (= 750 words), then I should be able to write 4,500 words (or 18 pages) a week (leaving one day for family, R&R, and slop).

If I can sustain this rate, then I should have the following weekly milestones [p = pages, w = words, w## = week, current date highlighted]:

  • October 2014
    • 22nd (w01):   0 p /      0 w /   0.0%
    • 29th (w02):  18 p /  4,500 w /   5.6%
  • November 2014
    •  5th (w03):  36 p /  9,000 w /  11.1%
    • 12th (w04):  54 p / 13,500 w /  16.7%
    • 19th (w05):  72 p / 18,000 w /  22.2%
    • 26th (w06):  90 p / 22,500 w /  27.8%
  • December 2014
    •  3rd (w07): 108 p / 27,000 w /  33.3%
    • 10th (w08): 126 p / 31,500 w /  38.9%
    • 17th (w09): 144 p / 36,000 w /  44.4%
    • 24th (w10): 162 p / 40,500 w /  50.0%
    • 31st (w11): 180 p / 45,000 w /  55.6%
  • January 2015
    •  7th (w12): 198 p / 49,500 w /  61.1%
    • 14th (w13): 216 p / 54,000 w /  66.7%
    • 21th (w14): 234 p / 58,500 w /  72.2%
    • 28th (w15): 252 p / 63,000 w /  77.8%
  • February 2015
    •  4th (w16): 270 p / 67,500 w /  83.3%
    • 11th (w17): 288 p / 72,000 w /  88.9%
    • 18th (w18): 306 p / 76,500 w /  94.4%
    • 25th (w19): 324 p / 81,000 w / 100.0%
This suggests that I should be able to turn in a first draft of about 325 pages of contents on Monday, March 3rd, 2015. I did tests with double spacing in LaTeX and checked my word count (using TeXcount), and as of today, November 12th, 2014, I am on target at 16.7% completed.

Anti-Owenist Warren's From the March of Mind

New Harmony, Indiana, resident Josiah Warren participated in Robert Owen's New Harmony and concluded in his essay From the March of Mind that individuality had been overly suppressed. He developed a utilitarian philosophical stance that in the end lead Warren into utopian anarchism. The essay is transcribed from the Harmony Gazette, which is available online here.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Examples of historical investigation and inferences

An interpretation of the passage in Sojourner Truth, when she hangs her basket from a tree because of the snakes, might be a good example to discuss and analyze historical understanding in terms of the knowledge acquisition. How does the partial understanding drive the questions we ask and the exploration of the sources?

Historical inference itself is then reasoning over such knowledge, to the best explanation, where the fitness function is biased toward the use of local sources over universals. This is true because the temporal delineation between the applicability of the long timed entities is an argument from ignorance: it did not change because we know of no such change.

However that bias function or scoring function is complex, because there are issues such as degree of agency. Taking the example of Sidney Rigdon: In his appreciation for revelation and visions he seems truncated if these are mapped onto manic depression or the horseback riding accident---a Robert Owen explanation rather than a Alexander Campbell explanation. In Rigdon's self-estimation as the key contribution to the merging of the Baptist churches in Pittsburgh in 1824, his agency is oversold, by himself, neglecting at minimum the influences of the Christian Baptist or Walter Scott. Thus, the scoring function needs to balance external vs internal motivations and possibilities. People are inspired, but not dominated or determined---that is a difficult heuristic. 

The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio - BYU Studies

Just a reading note:

The Early Baptist Career of Sidney Rigdon in Warren, Ohio - BYU Studies


Sunday, November 9, 2014

Joseph Welles White's 1947 thesis on Sidney Rigdon

As always, Uncle Dale sniffed out Joseph Welles White's 1947 thesis on The Influence of Sidney Rigdon upon the Theology of Mormonism for us. Dale had only transcripted some of the contents, mostly to respect the possibility of later publication by the heirs of White. Eventually, the digitization process at USC, where White wrote his thesis, overtook those good intentions and made the whole thesis available as scanned PDF pages.

White makes interesting points
  • White wonders (p.26) to what extent Rigdon was influenced by a community of Shakers in Warren County by his interest in "communism, divine healings, speaking in tongues, visions, revelations, and sundry other items" (ibid).
  • White observed that Rigdon "intimated that the doctrines popular with the Baptists were not altogether in harmony with the scriptures" (p.26), but mistakenly contextualizes that with the charismata, not with the general notion of the Campbellites that Baptists were as bad as Presbyterians, as Campbell put it at the McCalla debate evening discussion (Richardson 1870, 2:88).
  • White's chronology suggests (pp.26f) that Rigdon took the job in 1822, was tried and withdrew in 1824, worked [as a tanner RCK] till 1826,  and then somehow found time to collaborate with Scott before going to Ohio to be a Campbellite preacher no later than 1827, when Scott was at Steubenville.
  • White cites (Gates 1904, p.93) in support of the fact how strongly Scott and Rigdon had permeated the Western Reserve (see also the influence of Scott's phase plan on Whitney's wife). 
  • The Pittsburg Baptist church to accept the "ancient order of things" was a fusion of the congregations presided over by Scott and Rigdon. (p.27)
  • For his depiction of the Austintown show-down (p.30), White uses Fawn Brodie's assessment of Rigdon (p.94 of 1946 edition) as "most fanatical and literal-minded of the Disciples of Christ" and Hayden's version (Hayden 1875, p.299). 
  • White (p.31) observes that "Rigdon did set up a small communistic colony in Kirtland", which supplied "the few converts that Rigdon drew from the Disciples to the Mormons" [which is an inaccurate depiction, RCK].
  • White (p.31, Fn 27) simplifies the matters when he focuses on Hayden's first-hand knowledge; the chapter is subtly dependent on Eber D. Howe's writings, even if Howe is not explicitly quoted. Thus, the phrase "At this, Rigdon seemed much displeased." (Hayden 1875, p.211) is actually a verbatim quote of a sentence start in (Howe 1834, p.103), down to the italics.
(to be continued)

White also brings good literature.
  • Catherine Cleveland, The Great Revival in the West: 1797-1805, Chicago (University of Chicago Press) 1916; (here), Private Edition (here) [seem to be page identical, RCK]
  • Erret GatesThe Early Relation and Separation of Baptists and Disciples, Chicago 1904 (various scans: onetwothree and four).
  • Eva L. Pancoast, Mormons in Kirtland, unpublished M.A. Thesis, Western Reserve University, 1929 (partial transcript at Uncle Dale's)
  • William Warren Sweet, Religion on the American Frontier: 1783-1850: A Collection of Source Materials: New York (Cooper Square Publishers)
  • --, Circuit-rider days along the Ohio:  being the journals of the Ohio Conference from its organization in 1812 to 1826, New York -- Cincinnati, 1923 (here). 


Richardson's Memoirs of Alexander Campbell (Part I)

Robert Richardson proposes (p.4f) to reconstruct Campbell's relationship with the Secession movement and other denominations not as a pre-description of the context, but at the moment of the contact with Campbell. For the Secession movement, Richardson made use of the biographies of Robert and James Alexander Haldane, as well as the Church history by John McKerrow's History of the Secession Church (Vol I, 1839; ...).

Alexander was born in Ireland (p.19),  his father Thomas of West-Scottish extraction (p.21), his mother of French Huguenot (p.21). Though Episcopalian in upbringing, Thomas felt the Scottish church lacking in vitality, and prefered the Secession Church as well as the Covenanters (p.22). Thomas was very worried about his salvation, asking his friends for comfort, until he had a conversion experience while walking alone in the fields which left him with a feeling of consecration to the divine plan (p.23). Thomas' father Archibald preferred the Church of England, wanting to "serve God according to act of Parliament" (p.24) and did not support his son entering the Secession Church (p.24); but through the patronage of his friend Mr John Kinley (p.25), Thomas was permitted to study at Edinburgh, where he studied divinity and medicine. Richardson comments,
… it being regarded proper for ministers to have, in additional to a knowledge of their particular profession, such an acquaintance with medicine as would enable them to render necessary aid to their poorer parishioners who might not have the services of a regular medical attendant. (p.25)
(For the lecture plan of divinity at the time, including examinations in Greek and Latin proficiency, plus a short biography of Dr Bruce, the divinity school headmaster, see (p.26).) After meeting his future wife, Thomas took a position at Rich-Hill, near Lough Neagh (p.30), and this is where Alexander spent his early childhood (p.31).
The waters of the lough [i.e. Lough Neagh, RCK] are celebrated for their power of petrifying wood and other organic substances placed in its waters or buried near its shores. (p.30 Fn *)
Boarding with a Mr Gillis to attend the elementary school in Market Hill, and staying with his uncles in Newry, where they were running an academy, Alexander was nevertheless mostly interested in sports and averse to confinement (p.31), making it difficult for his father to teach him. Attempts to add French to his schedule at age nine, for example, failed (p.31); and so he ended up working with the farm hands instead, which he enjoyed very much (p.32). It was only when fully grown, that Alexander developed his taste for reading and began studying with the determination to become one of the best scholars in the kingdom. Richardson praised Thomas' parenting wisdom for taking this route (p.33).  Alexander was a fast memorizer--60 lines of blank verse in 52 minutes--and became proficient in the poets and philosophy, esp. John Locke (p.33). Richardson stressed that this did not eliminate the love for the outdoors and physical activity, which expressed itself especially in fishing and hunting (p.34); cf. Footnote * for the anecdote on attempting to produce his own gun powder.

Following the instructions of the synod (p.35), Thomas read and sung and prayed twice a day with his family, and taught them catechism once a week, encouraged twice daily secret prayer, and an observance of the sabbath. The children would learn age appropriate amounts of Bible verses by heart and recite them at evening prayer (p.35). After attending church, the children were not only expected to remember the text, but also the discourse, down to the leading points of argument (p.36). Alexander himself noted that his mother was an especially outstanding specimen of the female sex (p.37) [apparently even surpassing Alexander's own wife, RCK], and that he owed it to his parents that he knew Ecclesiastes & Proverbs, as well as the Psalms (which he attributed to Solomon and David, respectively), by heart already as a child (p.37).

Alexander also observed his father's reverence for the Bible, noting as a child already that only the Bible and the concordance would be on his father's writing desk; all other books would remain on the shelves (p.39). Thomas Campbell was also a good example as a preacher (p.40). In the political turmoils of Ireland, between Orangemen and United Irishmen, Thomas Campbell steered clear of all of them (p.41), especially condemning secret associations (p.42), a stance that Alexander inherited (p.45). Thomas' handling of the situation brought him the offer of tutoring children of the nobility, but Thomas preferred the relative poverty of his ministerial position (p.43).

With the increasing family, Thomas Campbell was hard pressed to feed the mouths with his income as a minister (p.46) [see Footnote * for details on reimbursement funds for ministries in Ireland, RCK]. Thus Thomas opened an academy, with Alexander, then 17, as the assistant, to teach his own children and those of the parish, at the town of Rich-Hill, requisitioning a two-story house on the main square (p.47). The academy quickly attracted students (p.47). netting £200 per annum (p.48) while being regarded as a key contribution to the neighborhood. The father had already previously noted (p.47) "evidences of increasing seriousness" (p.47), which now that Alexander was teaching (p.48) found expression in being “much more thoughtful upon religious subjects” and in having “a deeper religious feeling” (p.48).

As his convictions deepened, he underwent much conflict of mind, and experienced great concerns in regard to his own salvation, so that he lost for a time his usual vivacity, and sought, in lonely walk in fields and by prayer in secluded spots, to obtain such evidences of Divine acceptance as his pious acquaintances were accustomed to consider requisite; …. (p.48)
Richardson then cites a longer statement by Alexander, admitting that it hailed from a later point in time ("he himself gave, many years afterward, the following account" (p.49).
“From the time that I could read the Scriptures, I became convinced that Jesus was the Son of God. I was also fully persuaded that I was a sinner, and must obtain pardon through the merits of Christ or be lost for ever. This caused me great distress of soul, and I had much exercise of mind under the awakenings of a guilty conscience. Finally, after many struggling, I was enabled to put my trust in the Saviour, and to feel my reliance on him as the only Saviour of sinners. From the moment I was able to feel this reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ, I obtained and enjoyed peace of mind. It never entered into my head to investigate the subject of baptism or the doctrines of the creed.” (p.49)
In preparation for the ministry, a choice that was at this point mainly his father's and not yet Alexander's own, Alexander studied ecclesiastical history and marveled at the divisions inside the faith (p.49).

While thus engaged [i.e. his studies of ecclesiastical history, RCK], he was filled with wonder at the strange fortunes of Christianity, and at the numerous divisions or parties in religious society. (p.49)
Richardson then enumerates the stances that Alexander developed with respect to the different religious parties available at the time in Northern Ireland.
He found the Catholics, numerous in his own country, for the most part an ignorant, priest-ridden, superstitious people, crushed, as it were, to the earth, as well by their own voluntary submission to an unrestricted spiritual despotism, as by the pressure of the social and political burdens resting on them, … (p.49) 
The young student, in contemplating the whole system of Romanism and its superstitions, its ceremonies, its spirit and its practical effects, conceived for it the utmost abhorrence—a feeling which remainder with him through life. (p.50) 
On the other hand, the lordly and aristocratic Episcopalians, who looked down upon the dissenters, and seemed, with some exceptions, to have but little piety, and to be fond of enjoying the pleasures, fashions and follies of the world, were, notwithstanding their Protestantism, scarcely less disliked as a religious party. (p.50) 
It was, however, when he came to consider the history of the Presbyterian Church, with its numerous divisions, in one of which he was himself a member, that he was enabled to form a clearer conception of the power and prevalence of that party spirit which it became afterward the labor of his life to oppose and overthrow. (p.50)
Richardson then reviews the Scottish history of the Reformation to put some of the stances into context (p.50f). With the "Claim of Right" of 1690, the Scottish Presbyterians managed to secure their stance and abolish all Prelacy, but with devastating moral effect.

When Presbyterianism had thus attained the supremacy it so long had sought, it began, in a short time, to furnish a fresh illustration of the fact that all established national religions, whether Greek or Mohammedan, Papal or Protestant, have in them the essence of Popery—the principle of absolutism. (p.51)
Richardsons then runs through the various schisms of the Scottish Presbyterians (pp.51-56), before concluding,

Schooled amidst such schisms in his own denomination, and harassed by the triviality of the differences by which they were maintained, it is natural to suppose that one of so catholic a spirit as Thomas Campbell conceived the greatest antipathy to party spirit in all its workings and manifestations, and that his son Alexander fully sympathized with him in these feelings. (p.56)
Richardson now turns to the American context, comparing the Puritans and the Methodists to buds in the animal kingdom, who remain connected to their parents long after they have begun separating---the parents here being the Church of England (p.59). Following the principle of "occasional hearing", Thomas Campbell sometimes on Sunday evening visited the local Independents (p.60). Richardson discusses how these various splinters related to each other and attempted to influence each other.

Roger Williams, for instance, the founder of the Baptists in America, held that it was wrong for professors of religion to hold worship with the unconverted, or to sit at the communion table with those who did not perfectly agree with them in religious sentiments. (p.61)
Though the Independents had been run out of England by religious persecution, they turned the tables and became repressive once they arrived in America.
It is a singular fact that these exiles [i.e. Plymouth Brethren, RCK] had no sooner obtained possession of power than they began to exercise the very same system of persecution of which they themselves had been victims. || They whipped, branded, banished or executed Quakers and others who refused to conform to their views, thus affording another proof that a state or national religion is necessarily Popish in its spirit, for at that time, in these Puritan colonies, the Church was essentially the State. (pp.62-63)
Thus, those with other opinions such as Roger Williams, had to go elsewhere; Williams established Rhode Island as his colony, founding the first Baptist church there. As Richardson notes:
In 1162 he [i.e. Roger Williams, RCK] obtained a second charter from Charles the Second, in which it was declared that “religion should be wholly and for ever free from all jurisdiction of the civil power”; so that to Roger Williams belongs the high honor of having founded the first political State in Christendom that embraced, in its constitutional provisions, the principle of universal toleration—a noble grant, the germ of civil liberty in the United States. (p.63 Fn *)
Thus, as Richardson points out (p.63 Fn *), when Locke published his celebrated Letters on Toleration in 1693, such toleration was already established law in Rhode Island.

Richardson then observes that the three categories of Christian denominations---the Episcopal (which includes Roman Catholicism, or the Romish, as Richardson calls them), the Presbyterian and the Congregational (which includes the Baptists)---differ in their view of authority of interpreting the scriptures (p.64). Only the Congregational allow the individual members to interpret the scriptures for themselves (p.65).
With the Independents, however, the right of every member to judge for himself as to the meaning of Scripture is the great distinguishing feature, and the basis not only of their congregational form of government, and their entire repudiation of the authority claimed by Presbyteries, Synods, Assemblies, Conventions or other church-courts, but also the reason of that tolerant spirit they so strikingly manifested when attained to political power in England. (p.65)
Already under the Protectorate of Cromwell, the Independents via their role in the Army were able to put their toleration into effect.
Opposed as well to Presbytery as to Prelacy and Popery, and regarding each congregation as independent and supreme in its jurisdiction, their [i.e. the Independents] views naturally made them republican in civil affairs, while their principle that every one should enjoy the right of private judgement in religion, released them from that spiritual despotism which all the other systems labored to establish. (p.66)
For, to take the Presbyterian system as an example, their idea of a complete church is not by any means that of a single congregation, but of a number of congregations, with Sessions, Presbyteries and Synods sufficient to constitute a General Assembly. (p.66)
And Richardson illustrates the submission of the individual member under that hierarchy by remind the reader of the way in which Andrew Melville addressed King James I, namely not as a king or a lord, but rather as a member subjugated under these ecclesiastical jurisdictions of "Christ's kingdom", as the Presbyterians referred to the kirk (p.67 Fn *). When faced with a raging chancellor and king, the same individual kept his cool.
Mr Andrew, never a whit dashed, said in plain terms that they were too bold, in a constitute Christian kirk, to pass by the pastors, prophets and doctors, and to take upon them to judge the doctrine and to control the ambassadors and messengers of a greater than was here. (p.68 Fn *, continued)
Richardson then relates that Alexander Campbell observed the power and conservative stance of the Presbyterians at first hand, by the way they rejected his father's proposal to celebrate the Lord's supper more often than twice a year (p.69).  While the discussions between the Independents and various other groups continued in Campbell's hometown, concerning issues such as whether to celebrate the washing of feet or the frequency of the celebration of the Last Supper (p.71), that collaborator of Wesley, Whitefield, preached the Gospel of Christ without getting into any distracting disputes, e.g. about church governance (p.72). When Mr Whitefield was granted access to the pulpits of several ministers of the Church of Scotland, a veritable revival broke out (p.72).
Great excitement and extraordinary manifestations of swoonings [sic!], convulsions and cataleptic seizures attended Mr. || Whitefield’s labors, especially at Cambuslang, near Glasgow, where at one time the assemblage was estimated to consist of at least thirty thousand persons. (pp.72-73) 
These singular cases had previously occurred under Mr Weasley’s preaching; and have several times since been noted, as in the revivals under the preachings of Jonathan Edwards in New England, and of James McGready, B.W. Stone and some other Presbyterian preachers in Kentucky, in 1801. (p.73)
By the turn of the century, though, the English north had become equally "Burnt Over" as New York State would 20 years afterwards.
The intense religious interest awakened in Great Britain and Ireland by Wesley, Whitefield and their coadjutors, had, toward the close of the century, given place to a great degree of indifference and worldly conformity. The diffusion of infidel principles from France, political commotions [i.e. French Revolution, RCK] and a variety of circumstances connected with the American and French wars, seem to have been chiefly instrumental in inducing a change which was deeply lamented by the pious and earnest men in the different religious communities. (p.73)
In collaboration with the Haldanes of Scotland, an Evangelical Society was organized, a “considerable missionary society” (p.73), with members of the Episcopal Church in England, and Thomas Campbell sympathized with them, joined and assisted the society. 
In this species of mission there was something very pleasing, and certainly the position of such laborers was highly favorable to a fair and effective presentation of the general truths of the gospel. (p.74) 
Thus Richardson raises the important point that the plurality of issues was just as unsettling as the call to repentance itself.  
It was, however, impossible to them, consistently with the nature of their mission and their views of religion, to recommend any very definite or particular course to anxious inquirers. (p.74) 
The nature of faith; how Christ could be put on by faith; how the sinner could obtain an assurance of justification, — these were questions of the highest practical importance, to which different parties gave conflicting answers, and which, with matters of ecclesiastical organization, constituted the burden of polemical discussions and the ground of party differences. (p.74) 
Richardson insists that the Evangelical Society was successful in their effort
... to break down the prejudices of religious society and to depreciate the value of those speculative theological dogmas and go || those sectarian distinctions by which pious believers were separated and alienated from each other. (pp.74-75) 
Having thus outlined the upbringing of Alexander Campbell, Richardson concludes:
The effect of the whole [of observing the described fights between the groups and denominations, RCK] was to increase his reverence for the Scriptures as the only infallible guide in religion, to weaken the force of educational prejudices, and to deepen his conviction that the existence of sects and parties was one of the greatest hindrances to the success of the gospel. (p.75)
Alexander Campbell during this time of his youth worked basically non-stop, going to bed late at night and rising at 4am to study his books. There was almost no hope of attending university (p.76), given the six siblings, and in addition to the teaching position at his father's academy, Alexander began to provide private tutoring to the daughters of the Honorable William Richardson, the lord of the manor, in whose garden Alexander's sisters like to take their evening walks (p.77).

A few years later, the strenuous duties of his office as minister and headmaster had so weakened the health of Thomas Campbell (p.78), that the doctor prescribed an extended sea voyage (p.79). Under Alexander's entreaties, this turned into a scouting trip for moving the family to the New World, as so many of their friends were then emigrating. Thus, in early April of 1807 Thomas Campbell travelled to the New World with "the ship Brutus, Captain Craig, master, bound for Philadelphia" (p.81). Richardson contextualizes this health remedy turned into emigration.

Bibliographic Record

Dr Robert Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, 2 volumes, Philadelphia (J.B. Lippincott & Co) (Volume I 1868, Volume II 1870).

Saturday, November 8, 2014

1843 claim to another Book of Mormon

The Quincy Whig was probably jesting when they reported, under the heading "Material for another Book of Mormon" in 1843 that in the neighboring village of Kinderhook, in Pike County, a man had found six brass plates fixed together with wiring. The Nauvoo Times & Seasons carried the article, Vol IV, No 12, Wednesday May 1 1843, here p.187.

Since the finder, a Robert Wiley, was known to be a respectable merchant, the editors used the opportunity to show that treasure digging was not a disreputable activity that only Joseph Smith Jr pursued (p.186).

Whether Joseph Smith Jr ever got a chance to try his chops on the hieroglyphs as the editor hoped is unclear.

Updated March 2015: In January 1844, the Nauvoo Neighbor was selling facsimile [their word!] of the plates found at Kinderhook; cf. Nauvoo Neighbor, January 3, 1844, page 3, column 4.

Friday, November 7, 2014

note renewal in 19th century Missouri

In Mormonism unveiled; or, The life and confession... (p.89) John D. Lee reminds us that notes can be renewed when they are lost through fire provided the business partners place sufficient trust in each other.

Wrestling Rigdon on a Sunday

The anecdote of the wrestling match to warm up the Host of Israel in John D. Lee's Mormonism unveiled; or, The life and confession... (pp.77ff) where JS rips up Rigdon's coat who is trying to stop the affront to the Sabbath is indicative of both the leadership qualities of JS and the complexity of the relationship between JS and SR.

Mormon 9:33 and Reformed Egyptian

In Mormon 9:33 it says
v34: But the Lord knoweth the things which we have written, and also that none other people knoweth our language; and because that none other people knoweth our language, therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof.
And as Joseph Smith Jr expanded the point in his note to the Times & Season (Vol IV, Nr.13, May 15, 1843, p.194) on the meaning of the word Mormon.
Here then the subject is put to silence, for "none other people knoweth our language", therefore the Lord and not man had to interpret, after the people were all dead.
However, the certainty of that translation was marred by an article in the same publication (p.190), an exposition on the influence of the principles of truth, where the writers admitted that the orthographic and grammatical correctness of the revelation was dependent on the vessel of transmission.
But a ridiculous notion is frequently expressed, that the dictates of the spirit, through whatsoever channel they may flow, must necessarily be correctly constructed and perfectly grammatical.
Acts 4:13 allows them to point out that lack of rhetorical training of Peter and John was obvious and commented upon, in spite of the power of their argument.
Here the argument takes the anti-learning turn that was prevalent in the Western Reserve and other frontier areas as a rejection of the types of learning the Eastern and European universities could provide, as (White 1947) points out.
But the truth is, ..., every instrument which the Lord employs will be at any rate gifted with simplicity and sincerity, and whatever the Lord shall be pleased to give unto his people, by them shall be given naturally and without hypocrisy. (p.190)
And almost in order to level the playing field for the wise and the less so, they note that
... the learned and the unlearned are strangely overcome (p.191)
by the principle of truth, and the "superior minds" still become "subject to the principles of truth", even if per se the gospel has nothing that "attracts the self-opinionated and the proud".

James Kennedy's Early days of Mormonism (1888)

James Kennedy's Early days of Mormonism : Palmyra, Kirtland from 1888 tries to be an unbiased history of the Mormons, focusing especially, in the face of the Utah question, on the beginnings. But already a few pages in Smith Jr has been declared a fraud and a planless one at that.

Nevertheless, Kennedy has, so far, some nice characterizations, including the following:
The early years of the nineteenth century were filled with doctrinal jousts, in which denomination set itself against denomination, and creed made war upon creed. The religious crusades of new and aggressive churches were || waged upon the older organizations with unusual fury, and with that relentless purpose that is possible only to ignorance well armed with zeal. There had been no period yet seen in America, and there has been none since, in which fanaticism and spiritual fervor took so close a hold upon the life and thought of the people. (pp.2f)
(to be continued)

John D Lee's Mormonism unveiled

John D. Lee's autobiography Mormonism unveiled; or, The life and confession... is a fascinating read of a boy grown up on the Ohio frontier that voluntarily joins the Mormons in Missouri, eventually gaining notoriety as a member of the Danites and finally as a convicted and executed participant in the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

I was brought to this post via a misleading footnote (Fn 102 on page 41) in Eva L. Pancoast 1929 thesis Mormons in Kirtland.

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Troubles finding the Millennial Harbinger

Archive.org only has the Volume 3 (1832) of the Millennial Harbinger of Alexander Campbell. Thereafter, it is mostly volumes from the new series, dated from the late 1830s and so on. This is unfortunate.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Interactions between Alexander Campbell and Sidney Rigdon (Part 2)

(continued from Part 1)

Chapter 11: Churches in Mantua, Hiram and Garrettsville (pp.237-266)

After establishing itself in January of 1827 (p.237), the Church in Mantua grew to just about thirty members by its first year (p.238) and had Sidney Rigdon as its occasional minister. February 1828 Walter Scott visited and converted many in Nelson, Hiram and Mantua. In May, Thomas Campbell visited, which not only stabilized the community but brought Symonds Ryder into the fold.

In April 1829, the church in Hiram formed, and a group from Mantua went to Shalersville. By 1830, led by ministers with youth but little experience (p.239), and assisted by a seasoned Baptist, Oliver Snow, who found much fault with the young men, the young community in Mantua, was sorely tried by the incursion of the Mormons. Atwater, with whom Hayden corresponded here in 1873, felt that Sidney Rigdon's popularity helped the Mormons. Atwater also believed that Sidney Rigdon knew ahead of time that the book of Mormon was coming (p.239), having talked at Atwater's fathers' house about the Indian mounds and other American antiquities (p.239), and was looking forward to a book to be published on these accounts (p.240). Under the influence of Rigdon Oliver Snow, Symonds Ryder, Ezra Booth, and others joined the new dispensation, with Eliza Snow leading the way.

Then Symonds Ryder returned to the disciples, "and exposed Mormonism in its true light",  working with the community to restore it. Marcus Bosworth continued to preach for Mantua. From 1840-1841 (p.241), A.S. Hayden worked in Mantua. Hayden then sketches Atwater's life (p.242), who had prepared for the ministry in the academy at Warren (p.242) and then married into the Judge Clapp family (p.243). When his first wife died, he married the daughter of Marcus Bosworth (p.244). 

Symond Ryder was the key elder for the church at Hiram (p.244), drawing upon the funeral oration of him preached by President B.A. Hinsdale of Hiram College (p.244) on August 3rd, 1870. A Mayflower descendant from Vermont (p.246). After serving his apprenticeship he went west, "missing" the British burning of Buffalo on December 28, 1813, arriving in Hiram, a Vermont colony, on January 6, 1814. Here he bought land and developed his property. In the Winter of 1814/5, Symond returned to Vermont to bring his family. In terms of his religion, he had brought the "severe puritanical sort" of "teachings and impressions of religion" "which prevailed in New England during the last [i.e. 18th, RCK] century" (p.247). When the Church of Bethesda, in Nelson, an 1808 member of the Mahoning Association, evicted over a dozen members on heresy, these remnants organized under Darwin Atwater and "adopted the advanced views of Campbell and Scott".

In 1828, Marcus Bosworth preached in Hiram, and Symonds Ryder was pleased with the sermon (p.248). After poring all week over the NT to understand Bosworth's discourse, Ryder managed to catch Thomas Campbell in Mantua (p.248) and was converted (p.249) (p.238). Ryder was first overseer of the Hiram Nelson church until 1835. Ryder was content as a disciple in all things save one.
He [i.e. Symond Ryder, RCK] read in the New Testament of the gift of the Holy Spirit; and, in his mind, it was in some way associated with the laying on of hands, and with some special spiritual illumination. These words, "the signs shall follow them that believe." seemed to him not yet to have been comprehended or realized. (p.249)
Then, in late 1830, Sidney Rigdon joined the Mormon movement in northern Ohio. Ezra Booth, a Methodist preacher of Mantua (p.250) and his wife, joined after an interview with Joseph Smith Jr in Kirtland, where Mr and Mrs Johnson were present and where Joseph Smith Jr healed her rheumatic lame arm, so that "on her return home the next day she was able to do her washing without difficulty or pain" (p.250). President Hinsdale emphasized the cognitive relief that the supposed resolution of the twin problem of the lost tribes and the origins of the red men gave (p.251) to "students of sacred and profane history".

When Ezra Booth addressed the Hiram community after a Ryder sermon (p.251), Ryder himself became unsure, eventually converting when an earthquake hit Peking, as predicted by a young Mormon girl.
Shortly after this, he openly professed his adhesion to the Mormon faith; but he and Ezra Booth, who were most intimate friends, promised that they would faithfully aid each other in discerning the truth or the falsity of the new doctrine. (p.251)
Famously, Ryder was turned off by a commission to be an elder in the Mormon church that misspelled his name (p.252).
His commission came, and he found his name misspelled. Was the Holy Spirit so fallible as to fail even in orthography? (p.252)
Since Ezra Booth had been similarly buffeted by the journey to Missouri to help set up Zion [cf. (Howe 1834, Chapter XV, pp.175ff), which letters were partially addressed to Edward Partridge, another friend, RCK], they both left the Mormons in September of 1831, and focused on stemming the tide, a difficult task, given the "large number of the citizens of Hiram [htat] had given in their adhesion to the doctrines of Smith and Rigdon" (p.252).

Hinsdale then reminds the listeners that Mormonism of 1870 in Utah was quite a separate matter from Mormonism in 1831, and correctly points to the intellectual climate of that age.
... it was a formative period in religious history; new ideas were fermenting in the minds of men; and, considering the facts before stated, it is not inexplicable that so strong a nature [as Symonds Ryder, RCK] should have given way to the fanaticism. (p.252)
Hinsdale then points out the succession problem the church of Hiram had faced (p.254) when Ryder could no longer be there: "no suitable provision was made for a new and different age" (p.254).

Hinsdale then speculates that, given the size and constitution of Symonds Ryder, it was the size of the pioneer tasks that he undertook that robbed him of the few years.
He was one of the most laborious men of that generation which bore off upon its broad shoulders, as Sampson did the gates of Gaza, the heavy forest which covered this land---the generation which performed the most wonderful work of the kind that history has witnessed; for in no age, and in no country, has the face of nature been so suddenly transformed as in the Northern States of the American Union. (p.255)
After the conclusion of the funerary oration reprint, A.S. Hayden returns as the host of the reader. It turns out that A.S. Hayden was co-elder with Ryder for the Eclectic Institute in Hiram (p.259), an institution that had been dear to Hayden's brother William as well--cf. pp.260ff.

Chapter 13: Great Meeting in Austintown 1830 (pp.295-310)

Hayden finally turns to the Great Meeting in Austintown of 1830 (p.295), which axed the association in place of an annual meeting (p.296). It was only on recollection that the loss of the evangelical preachers, which had been tied to the association but could not be to a meeting, was observed (p.297), and eloquently expressed in the Millennial Harbinger of 1849 by Alexander Campbell (p.297), who cautioned against reformation and annihilation as synonymous terms (p.298). 

Hayden now comes to the showdown between Rigdon and Campbell. Rigdon argued that the model of the church at Jerusalem of a community of goods required those who wished to imitate the apostles of the New Testament to imitate that example as well (pp.298f). Campbell "saw at once the confusion and ruin that would result from such doctrines", and rejoined, to which Rigdon replied however in zeal (p.299). Campbell then destroyed the argument in three points by observing that the early Church had ended the community system after Ananias and Sapphira, as the passages in the Pauline letters show, thus indicating that the "community system" in Acts was "formed not to make property, but to consume it, under the special circumstances attending that case" (p.299). 
This put an end to it. Rigdon finding himself foiled in his cherished purpose of ingrafting on the reformation his new community scheme, went away from the meeting at its close, chafed and chagrined, and never met with the Disciples in a general meeting afterward. (p.299)
Venting to Brother Austin afterwards in Warren, Rigdon observed
I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or Scott, and yet they get all the honor of it. (p.299)
Hayden then turns to the community of Farmington, which was inspired by the great reformatory movement in Kirtland under Bentley and Rigdon in 1828 (p,306).

The Church in Shalersville received discourses preached in 1828 by Thomas Campbell and Sidney Rigdon (p.334). Ebenezer Williams, former Universalist, had preached there as well, as recounted previously (pp.155-157). Shalersville is a good example of a community that needed no full time minister.
... the church, like most of the congregations, had learned to "edify one another in love." This reliance on the talent of the church quickens the zeal and develops the abilities of the members; and if it is not depended on to the exclusion of preaching, it is a direct and powerful means of imparting strength and permanency to the churches. (p.336)

Chapter 15: Awakening in Perry (pp.346ff)

In August of 1829, Sidney Rigdon organized the church in Perry (p.346). The precipitating event had been the exclusion of David Parmly from the Baptist fellowship for communing with "Campbellites" (p.347). The new church mopped up those Baptists "who saw too clearly the spirit of the inquisition" (p.347).

Painesville [home of Eber D. Howe, RCK] received impulses from Mentor in 1828 (p.349), and had Clapp, Collins, William Hayden and Moss preaching there.

Chapter 16: Gospel in Ravenna, Aurora, etc (pp.369ff)

The church in Ravenna had been started by Marcus Bosworth and expanded by Ebenezer Williams (p.369). William Hayden sustained them through 1830 (p.370). In the summer, Walter Scott preached there, comparing the creed to a small coin that, if held close enough to the eye, can block out the sun (p.370). In 1831, Campbell came to Western Reserve, to help check Mormonism, and preached at Ravenna against it (p.371). 

A.G. Riddle, in his romance The Portrait: A Romance of the Cuyahoga Valley, contrasted Campbell and Rigdon, in allusion to a 1831 meeting in a grove in Aurora, Ohio (p.377).
At a glance he [i.e. Alexander Campbell, RCK] took the measure and level of the average mind before him---a Scotchman's estimate of the Yankee---and began at that level; and as he rose from it, he took the assembled host with him. In nothing was he like Rigdon; calm, clear, strong, logical, yet perfectly sim- || ple. Men felt themselves lifted and carried, and wondered at the ease and apparent want of effort with which it was done. (pp.377f)

Chapter 20: Euclid (pp.408ff)

In 1820, a Baptist Church had been established in Euclid, and Luther Dille was its deacon (p.408). His wife was a Disciple from Mentor and frustrated by her inability to commune with her husband. Requesting Sidney Rigdon's support during a visit to Mentor (p.409), Rigdon came to Euclid in the fall of 1829, and converted a rump church. Then Rigdon asked Luther to be the caretaker of the young converts, and Luther converted as well (p.409). Later (p.410) the church was visited by Thomas Campbell and J.J. Moss. 
Rigdon's fall staggered many, but Mormonism never made a convert in Euclid. This is much owing to the presence of Moss. (p.410) 

Chapter 24: Abbreviated Account (pp.465ff)

Rigdon, together with Clapp, founded the church in Birmingham, Erie County, in 1829 (p.465). During the same tour, the church of Elyria, in Lorain County, was established by Rigdon and Clapp (p.467).

Other Interests

Chapter 23: Lessons (pp.454ff)

Lesson II (p.455) The evangelical work cannot be the only one (p.455); "thoughtful men predicted" "the absence of a system for holding and training the converts" (p.456). As a result of this discrepancy between the evangelical and the pastoral, both members and congregations fell away (p.457). 
If the due adjustment of these two agencies had been suitably disposed at the beginning, it would have resulted in far greater strength and prosperity. (p.457)
Lesson III (p.457) recognized that it "was a mistake to start so many churches. This error was a result of the exuberance of evangelical zeal already noticed" (p.457).
Is it surprising that intelligent, discerning citizens, casting about for a "home", turn from a people where they see evidences of looseness in plan, and weakness in system, and yield themselves up in membership to organized bodies who conduct their enterprises systematically and successfully? (p.458)
Lesson IV (p.459) bemoans the lack of records that were kept, especially after 1828, when both the authority and the restriction of freedom to maintain even member lists was missing (p.459). And Hayden blames scriptural over-interpretation for it.
So, as the Scriptures gave no instructions about church records the whole matter was ruled out of order, and out of the church. (p.459)
What would we not give now for a continuance of the records of the Mahoning Association, which met two years under that name after the records ceased? Why were there no records of our yearly meetings? What rich and abundant materials for future history and instruction? (p.459)
Oh that Scott had kept a diary! that our earlier men had written as well as talk! (p.460)  
 [[RCK this really underscores the insights of Joseph Smith Jr, especially given the fact that the Millennium was considered to be coming.]]

Lesson V (p.461) says that it is not optional for the associations to combine their efforts to advance the gospel. Because the delegates had selected the evangelists, the "churches felt bound by the action of their delegates" (p.461). The field of labor had been determined, the compensation arranged. Consequently, the churches provided material support (p.462).
Bro. Campbell was the prime mover and the active leader in this scheme of associational effort to bring an evangelist into the field. (p.462)
The replacement of the association system by the annual meeting system wreaked havoc on the evangelist work, for the meetings were no substitute (p.462). Retroactively re-instituting cooperation was blasted by the suspicion of priest craft or sectarianism (p.462). Substituting for this cooperation was in fact one of the tasks of the Eclectic Institute, in whose formation Hayden was crucially involved.

Lesson VI (p.464) is that all the success that was achieved stems from preaching the word.
We must "preach the word," not something about the gospel, but the gospel itself. (p.464)

Bibliographic Record

A.S. Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve, Ohio, Cincinnati (Chase & Hall) 1875 (Internet Archive copy here).