Ohio History Journal

ADDRESSES OF SUNDAY EVENING, APRIL

EIGHTH.

 

ADDRESS OF REV. A. L. CHAPIN, D.D.

MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS AND FELLOW CITIZENS :-My

connection with this celebration is so peculiar that I shall

crave a moment simply to explain it. This occasion has

been looked forward to by many of your people and not by

the people of Marietta or the people of Ohio alone.

Many months ago, Dr. Andrews, whom I chanced to

meet, spoke to me of the occasion to come in the course of

a couple of years. It has been my duty for some years to

be a student and a teacher of the Constitution of the

United States, and of the Ordinance of 1787. I told him

my interest in both these documents-which are essen-

tially the same-was such that I should be here if I could

be. So I am here on personal considerations, with a view

to learn what I can about that which is the fundamental

document of authority to our Government.

As you have just been told, the Council of Congregational

(Churches, which met a year ago last fall, have looked for-

ward to this occasion, and named five of their number

with a request that they would be here to represent their

interests, and to speak for them, if it might be, in regard

to the great principles which are here involved. I am

happy to say that one of my colleagues is here with me-

Dr. Sturtevant; the other three are not.

But a few days ago, I received from the Governor of our

State-Hon. Jeremiah Rusk-a commission requesting

me to come here to represent the State; the youngest sis-

ter of the States which have grown out of this ordinance

and its history.

I think I stand here in a peculiar position,--a commis-

sioner from one of the States and from the Church Coun-

cil; and in these capacities I wish to say a word or two.

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Address of Dr. A. L. Chapin.      127

First, with reference to that great fundamental document

of our nation, from which it derives all its authority,

which was meant to be, which has been, and which I

believe is destined to be the continued source of authority

and of life to the nation for a great while to come.

I have long been confident that the Ordinance of 1787

was essentially a part of the Constitution, necessary to it

-a true exponent of it, throwing light upon it, and giv-

ing force to it. What I have heard here respecting the

history of that document and all the contingent history

has convinced me more and more. I have been charmed

by what was here presented; and I want to say here, as I

mean to say everywhere, when I have a chance to say it,

to all those who are engaged in teaching the Constitution

of the United States, take the Ordinance of 1787, and with

it the Constitution, which is incomplete without it. The

ordinance throws light upon the Constitution, and shows

just those things which every youth needs to understand

in order to be a true-hearted citizen of the United States.

I carry that away with me as one of the things of this

meeting. I hope others will do the same thing, and feel

more than repaid for it.

Then, as representing the State of Wisconsin: Forty-

five years ago I landed at the port of Milwaukee. Mil-

waukee was advanced a little beyond what Marietta was a

hundred years ago; yet it is out of very small things we

are come. All these years I have watched the develop-

ment of city and State, and I am here to testify that Wis-

consin owes what she is to-day, and what she may hope to

become, to the fact that she was a member of this terri-

tory, which was covered by the Ordinance of 1787.

I have seen there the blessed result of having that ordi-

nance established-established and fixed beyond recall.

At the time when I landed in Wisconsin the chief settle-

ment of that State was on the west side of the State.

Perhaps it came up the Mississippi river from the Southern

States; in love with slavery they would have been glad to

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128   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

have introduced it into Wisconsin, but they could not do it.

There was a barrier that fixed it and settled forever the

freedom of that State in which we all rejoice. And so the

precious principles of the constitution as they come in that

ordinance, have guided the organization of the constitution

of our State, and the administration of our government

in various emergencies as they have come forward.

We have seen that Wisconsin was one of the five States

of the Northwest Territory, and that the Ordinance of 1787

belongs to it as much as it does to Ohio. Once or twice I

have found myself, while sitting here and listening with a

great deal of pleasure to all that was said about Marietta

and Ohio, beginning to be a little afraid that, in this assem-

bly and on this occasion, another part of the country that

had as much interest in this ordinance as you had here

might be unmentioned. I am glad of this opportunity

simply to say that Wisconsin rejoices with you in this day,

land in all it commemorates.

It has been a great pleasure to learn since I came here

that our excellent Governor himself was born in Ohio, not

very far from here. He is a man of whom we are proud

as a United States citizen. He has done honor to Ohio

and won great honor for our own State. You remember

how well he has stood for law and order against the recent

rising. Perhaps among all the Governors of the States,

he stood up as boldly in an emergency as man could, and

crushed the very inception of that anarchical movement.

He stands as a son of Ohio, and one who has received his

principles from this same ordinance - and Wisconsin will

stand with you for years and generations to come as a part

of this grand inheritance, and as a monument to its fathers

who framed that ordinance. These names that have been

mentioned here are our names, a monument of which we

are very proud, and to the results of whose labors we are

so largely indebted.

I did not wish to go away without saying so much for

myself and the people of Wisconsin with reference to our

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Address of Dr. A. L. Chapin.           129

 

interest in this occasion.  And then, with reference to my

relations to the Congregational churches-that, perhaps,

is a more fitting theme for this evening than the other

part. In this relation I feel a special interest. Their action

in sending delegates here was not taken in any denomina-

tional spirit; it was not taken with any thought of magni-

fying the Congregational church over other churches of

our land; but it was, on the part of this church, a definite

recognition of the fact, which nobody can deny, that the

great element of their righteousness, and of the brother-

hood with man, in the relation of all parts of humanity to

each other, was as a part of mankind; this one brother-

hood is such that these principles have come to be estab-

lished in the Congregational churches.

The Congregational church was the first to bring out

these principles on the shores of New England.   They

have spread all over the States, and they have carried

those principles. I do not know that they are any more

strongly adopted than by other denominations, but I may

say without boasting, that the Congregational church did

speak specifically light, and to an ordinance that was

peculiarly their own, they owe perhaps that great union

with fellow-creatures-the principles of evangelical faith,

that gospel truth which we heard this afternoon was the

foundation and spring of this life from the beginning;

which was its strength from the first, and which has fur-

nished this strength throughout all history.

They stand together, not as a particular denomination,

but they stand with open hearts and hands, representing a

determination to maintain those principles and to keep

alive the same state of results which was indicated in the

Ordinance of 1787.

It is the spirit of Puritanism, I mean pure and true Puri-

tanism. One said of the fathers who came here, that they

had advanced somewhat upon the old Puritanism of New

England in that they did not hang witches, nor persecute

heretics. That was never any part of Puritanism; it was

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130   Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

 

an encumbrance that could not be shaken off, it belonged

to the age in which it came over. It took them a little

while to get rid of these things.

The spirit of Puritanism is the spirit of the gospel of

Christ; it has the great truth of love to each other; it must

be forever imperishable and enduring.

The idea of full personal government, the idea of one

personal God, and of individual accountability to Him; to

Him as the God of the world, and no less the Father of

mankind; maintaining the simple government which has in

it a force of righteousness which cannot be changed, and

yet which is pervaded through and through with the life

of that Kingdom which shines out from Genesis to Revel-

ation as the peculiar characteristic of Him who ordained

the Kingdom and who is carrying it out; recognition

of what He has done to lift up men; restoring them

from the power of sin, by the gift of His own Son to be

their Saviour, and in the recognition of the truth taught by

that Saviour; this truth which teaches the accountability

of every man to God; out of which-and out of which

only-grows the thoroughly good conscience which is the

foundation of right in the character of any individual man;

which recognizes law as the basis of all right action-that

law of love which rises even before that sense of account-

ability, and is made to pervade the hearts of men until,

through this ascendency, the man himself becomes a law

unto himself; then he is divinely good, because he is self-

governed through the principle which Christ ordained to

possess the souls of men.

It is just these principles which are to be upheld if our

Union is to continue-if they are to be remembered else-

where in the world-through the spreading of these doc-

trines, not of any denomination, not of any dogma, but

the grand doctrine which underlies the whole; and I am

glad to believe that there is growing among those who

accept these principles-and thus accepting, try to live

up to them-that large liberty which will draw them

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Address of Dr. A. L. Chapin.            131

 

together and make them one in the propagation of these

principles. My hopes for the future are based upon this.

I believe the Congregational churches will certainly not

be behind others. We have, I think, great leaders in carry-

ing forth this work. And it is because I believe this, that

I am glad here to represent them in their high purpose

to be leaders, to put forth all their energies to bring out

these great measures and propagate these principles; and

to bring out all that is most important in our nation and

in the application of our government. I will add only

a word further. As I have listened, and have had things

I had heard before presented to me in a new light, I am

struck with the wonderful providence of God, which has

ordained the course of events, which has brought about

just this condition of things in which we do so much

rejoice.

I am exceedingly glad that it has been my privilege to

be here. I go away instructed. I go away confirmed in

all my love of the Constitution under which I live, in all

my purpose to do what I can for it while I live, that it may be

sustained and prospered. I go away with a heart raised

in devout thanksgiving to the God of the Nation. I go away

with a hope based upon His promise, based upon that which

we have experienced in the past-that in the future, in spite

of all the difficult problems which we have before us, in spite

of the threatening evils which prevail-this Union is not

to be governed by man's wisdom; but by God's guidance of

man, in the application of all these principles, put to greater

good, till it shall be indeed the Government of the earth,

delivered from all evil, gladdening all nations, and established

in the Kingdom of God, whose law is love, and which shall

stand forever.

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