The Anti-Slavery Meeting of 1842

Below are multiple versions of the story that unfolded in the spring of 1842 in Washington.  Although it is interesting to read different versions of the same tale, it can cause confusion about the actual facts.

The following is a selection from The Liberator newspaper dated September 16, 1842.  It was a reprint of an excerpt of a letter to E.T. Harker from George M. Harker, dated May 20, 1842.

There have been great times in the town of Washington.  A notice had been given for an anti-slavery meeting to be held at that place, and in view of that event, Mr. Chase (our presiding elder) preached against it, and went so far as to say that slavery in these United States was right, and tried to prove it from the Bible.  Well, what next?  It was the cause of a great mob-raising.  And one of the lawyers of that place said that "they would not take harsh means to keep the despicable abolitionists from holding their meetings, but if the boys should do it, they could not help it."

The mob held a meeting in the Methodist church, and had the preacher (Chase) in for President, and such a clapping of hands and stamping of feet was, perhaps, never before witnessed in a church of God

Look at it and mark the facts.  The friends of the injured black man came to hold a meeting; and had obtained the use of the Presbyterian church from the friends of liberty.  But previously the mob broke into it, and with the ministries of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the meek and lowly, for their leaders, passed certain resolutions, and delegated a committee to wait on the friends of liberty, and request them to leave town, which they forthwith proceeded to do, by barely a request.  The committee returned to headqurtrers to get advice what to do.  To whom, do you ask, did they go?  To Chase, Maffitt, and the Campbellite preacher, the antagonist of Chase; and the same day Herod and Pilate were made friends, and after consulting with them, they came to the friends of liberty again, and told them to clear out "in as peaceable manner as possible;" the friends turned to leave town, and the whole multitude followed them with guns, pistols, stones, and bricks.  Mr. Chase thinking it be a suitable opportunity to clear his skirts of the worst kind of guilt, told the mob "they had done right" by driving the friends of liberty from the town, "and it was their duty now to leave them."

God have mercy on him, is my prayer.  He had said before that, if these abolitionists should attempt to hold a meeting, he should regard the case "as an ox that was wont to push with his horns."

O horrible!  Horrible!  Only think of mobs with Methodist preachers at their head.  When will mobocracy cease "in the land of the free, and the home of the brave?"  I pray it will soon.  This has made me the friend of the slave indeed.  God speed the work of liberty throughout the world!

Reverend Mifflin Harker would leave the post of his Methodist Episcopal church in Troy, Ohio because of its stance on slavery, writing as a portion of his farewell letter in the August 3, 1843 issue of the Western Citizen:

S.W.D. Chase, Presiding Elder of the Bloomington District, delivered three discourses, one of which he delivered at Washington, Tazewell County in which sermon he attempted to maintain that slavery was the fulfillment of prophecy, the penalty of God's law, and the decree of heaven!  It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to say to you that none of those individuals above referred to, have ever been censured for their conduct by the proper authorities of the church!  And who I now ask, can be found, that will dare deny, that from all these facts, the M.E. church is a slaveholding and slavery-defending church!...It is evident from what has been stated above, that the M.E. church has not done the will of God in respect to this great evil; and I therefore cannot longer acknowledge her paternal authority.

The slavery issue led to a division in the M.E. church that would last until 1939, when the sides reunited into the Methodist Church.

A second account of the Washington incident is printed in both the Liberator and the Western Citizen, this one written by William T. Allan, one of the "Lane Seminary Boys" and an anti-slavery activist. 

Mr. Editor: Lynch law reigns in Washington.  I do not speak now of our national Capital, but of Washington, Tazewell County, Illinois.  In February last, the Tazewell County Anti-Slavery Society appointed a quarterly meeting, to be held in Washington on the 7th of May.  It was the first appointment that had been made there.  The society had avoided the place, because it was well known that there was strong opposition there.  But, on this occasion, an invitation was given by prominent members of the Pesbyterian Church of that place, to hold a meeting in their house.  The church is composed of abolitionists, with one or two exceptions, and they wished to have the matter tested, whether they were freemen or slaves.  The trustees, who have the legal right to control the house, gave their cordial consent to the use of the house, with one exception.  Under these circumstances, the society did not feel at liberty to decline the invitation.  Some time after the appointment was published, a meeting of opposers was held at Washington, for the purpose of consultation in regard to what should be done - i.e. to deliberate whether their fellow citizens should enjoy one of their inalienable rights, the right of free discussion.  At the meeting, a Methodist minister presided - inflammatory speeches were made, and resolutions passed.  Such was the ruling spirit in the meeting, that respectable citizens, who were not abolitionists, but in favor of free discussion, were hissed down, and not allowed to speak.  The conclusion was, that the anti-slavery meeting must not be held; and if evil results should take place, they must be charged to the rashness of the abolitionists!  What was all this but denying the right of their fellow-citizens in the first palce, insulting them, and insulting common sense and decency, bu charging upon them the evils of a lynch club.  About this time, Mr. Chase, a presiding elder in the Methodist Church, preached a sermon in Washington three hours long, in which he attempted to justify slavery from the Bible, or, in other words, tried to show that God is the author of man-stealing, and that the Christian religion is the chief supporter of "a complicated sum of villany, the vilest that ever saw the sun."  His appeals were to the prejudices and passions of an audience already embittered.  He denounced the abolitionists in unmeasured terms - "did not know but a thorough-going abolition discourse would occasion a mob almost anywhere, that the abolitionists themselves were mobocratic, and if they should be treated as the 'ox which was wont to push' he did not care."

Two or three days before the time of the anti-slavery meeting, another meeting was held in Washington, to take further measures to crush liberty of speech.  They there resolved, that if the abolitionists persisted in holding a meeting, after being requested to desist, "such measures should be pursued as a majority of all present should deem most advisable to prevent the meeting."

What was this but leaving the abolitionists and their rights at the mercy of the mob?  Well, when the day arrived, we found the town swarming with men, many of them armed with clubs, some few with muskets, and some provided with iron balls.  These were the men to decide "what measures were most advisable to prevent the meeting."

Their first lawful and highly patriotic act was to break open the meeting-house, and take forcible possession.  Their second, was a committee of house-breakers to wait on the abolitionists, requesting them to retire.  Their third, was to repulse them from the door with threats and curses, together with the exhibition of clubs, and savage ferocity.  Having settled the question that there was no liberty in Washington, the abolitionists peacably retired.  They were plundered of their rights, and their property too (the meeting house) by a band of open, noonday robbers, amongst whom were the two ministers spoken of above.

The unwanted and ferocious heat exhibted by the mob could only have been produced by the influence of corrupt priests, men who have "stolen the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in."

Mr. Chase urged the mob in a public speech to watch the abolitionists closely, and not permit them even to go through the formality of an adjournment.  There is no language that can express the moral turpitude of such men.  They profess to be ambassadors from Heaven, and lay heavy burdens on men's shoulders - for a pretence make long prayers, and plead for the devouring of widows and orphns - make great effort to gain protelytes, and when made, are nearly as much the children of hell as themselves - hypocrites of thin disguise, full indeed of dead men's bones and all uncleanliness within, but hardly beautiful without.  They are the most efficient agents of the prince of darkness.  Besides the ministers, there were other professors of religion engaged in the transactions detailed above.  And have the free states nothing to do with slavery, when church and state are united to strike dumb the liberty of speech, to cleave down our rights by violence at noonday?  Is it nothing to us that our fellow citizens are under the influence of pro-slavery and mobocratic divines? Shall the man-stealing system, concocted in hell, and supported by the devil, send out its emissaries to poison the community with its baleful influence, and crush the inalienable rights of the people, without a strenuous counteracting influence?  Can we, ought we to sit still, and thus suffer all that is lovely, and honest, and just to be trampled underfoot?  The question now is not merely whether the slaves of the south shall be free, but whether any of the people shall enjoy their rights unmolested.  It is whether the slave power shall triumph over truth and liberty throughout the United States.

That same community, in and about Washington, a curse to the County and the State, several years ago were guilty of the ineffable meanness of stoning inoffensive men and women who had met together to pray for the slave.  Rev. Mr. Barnes, of the Presbyterian church, and his wife, seemed to be the chief objects of mobocratic fury at that time.  Mrs. Barnes was seriously injured.  Wonder if the Rev. Messrs. Chase and Moffat would pray for their fellows, while throwing stones that they might have good success in bruising the men and women who had been asking for the deliverance of the oppressed!

In view of the facts like these, what shall we say of the republicanism of Illinois?  What shall we think of the religion of many of our churches?  Is not every christian, and every man, loudly called on to exert himself to the utmost, to rescue our State from the reign of hypocrisy, mobocracy, and slavery?

Another writing comes from Roswell Grosvenor from the October 14, 1842 issue of the Western Citizen:

Dear Brother: After the great proselyting efforts of the Methodists last spring, to get up what they called a revival in our county, some of our friends in the vicinity of Washington thought it a favorable time to present to the new converts, and others, the claims of mercy and justice in the cause of our poor persecuted colored brethren.

It was desirable that the Bible testimony against slavery should be known to them, from whom it had been withheld by their time-serving preachers.  Accordingly, we met on the 6th of May last to hear addresses from Brothers Allan, Dickey, and others; but were prevented from hearing the subject discussed by Elders Chase and Moffit, supported by an armed force - the particulars of which have already been published in the Western Citizen by Brother W.T. Allan.

An entry from the John Roberts diary describes the incident this way:

May 20, 1842: “Mr. M took possession of the Presbyterian Church. Speeches by Elihu Chase and Moffat, Darius, Burton, etc. with swearing ruffians with clubs at the door to keep out all the abolitionists. We left Washington and went to Pleasant Grove. Had a discourse with Mr. Lovejoy and Dicky – 15 or 20 joined the society.”

The History of Tazewell County from 1879 provides this description:

In those exciting days of the U.G.R.R. old Father Dickey and Owen Lovejoy, strong anti-slavery men, made an appointment to speak at Washington. On the notice of the meeting being announced the pro-slavery men took forcible and armed possession of the church to be occupied by these speakers, and determined, at all hazards, to prevent the meeting from being held there. A prominent man of conservative views on the slavery question advised the anti-slavery men not to attempt to hold the meeting as they were determined to do, as the mob, he said, were frenzied with liquor, and he feared the consequences. So they concluded to go to Pleasant Grove [Baptist] church, Groveland, where they addressed one of the most enthusiastic anti-slavery meetings ever held in this part of the State. Owen Lovejoy was the orator of the day. The mob were determined to follow and break up that meeting also, but were deterred by being told that as the anti-slavery men were on their own ground they would fight, and doubtless blood would be shed.

Interestingly, Squire Chace was not a Southerner, yet according to most of the sources above he was the Methodist minister at the time and the apparent ringleader of the anti-abolition uprising in Washington in the spring of 1842.  Below is what we know about Rev. Chace, most taken from a November 18, 1858 article in the Washington Investigator: 

Squire W. D. Chace was born in Galway, Saratoga Co., N. Y., in the year 1803.  His father, George Chace, was a native of Mass., and emigrated to the state of New York, in the year 1800.  While S. W. D. Chace … was quite young, his parents removed from Galway to Fall River, Mass.  After residing at the latter place for some years, he, with his mother and a brother and sister (his father having in the meantime died), again removed to White Creek, Washington County, N. Y.

At the latter place his time was divided between the work in his brother-in-law’s shop, (his brother-in-law being a blacksmith) and the schoolroom.  The opportunities afforded here for an education were not very extensive; it is believed that he enjoyed the advantages of a brief attendance at an academy.

Having a fondness for literary pursuits, and an ardent taste for reading, he finally applied his mind to the study of law.  His progress in this occupation was, of course, very slow, as his leisure hours only were all that he could spare from the labors of the shop, being, during this time, engaged in learning the art of blacksmithing.  In 1822 his attention was directed toward the subject of religion.  He finally became so much interested as to abandon his studies, and devote his thoughts and time to the eternal interests of his soul.  He was at this time in his twentieth year.  After his conversion he united himself with the Methodist Church of White Creek, and was a very active member.  At an early period of his connection with the church, he felt that the labors of preaching the Gospel to the sinful world was one clearly marked out in the history of his experience.  He therefore studied to that end, frequently interesting his brethren by his exhortations and prayers.

At the age of twenty-two he was married to Miss Sarah Gardner, whose counsel and sympathy he enjoyed up to his last moments on earth.  About two years after this period, he joined the Genesee Conference and devoted his entire time and talents to the work of the ministry.

He left the Genesee Conference in New York about the year 1835, and took a transfer to the Illinois Conference, in the state of Illinois.  His first permanent settlement was made about three miles northeast of Pekin, in Tazewell county, though he stopped for a short time, on his first arrival, some four miles south of Washington.  He remained here some two years before joining the conference in this state; yet more or less engaged in preaching at various points in the county.  His first ministerial work, in connection with the Illinois Conference, was bestowed at Bloomington, McLean County.  His connection with this conference continued up to the time when the Methodist Church was divided into Church South and Church North.  For several years preceding this event, he held the office of Presiding Elder.  Mr. Chace’s views being more in harmony with the southern portion of the church, and deeming that more good could be accomplished by laboring where he would be in concord with his brethren, removed to the south and located in New Orleans.  During his stay in the latter city he gave some attention to the study of medicine, and on his return to Washington, after a two years’ residence in New Orleans, engaged in that art.  His stay in Washington at the time was about a year; when he again removed to Arkansas.  During his residence in Arkansas he still practiced medicine, and preached occasionally.

In the Autumn of 1855 he returned to Washington, where he remained until his death.  After his return to the latter place he connected himself with the church there, but after a while his peculiar views became obnoxious to some of his brethren and induced him to dissolve his connection with the church, though his family has continued their connection with the same under his approval and recommendation.

For the last two years Mr. Chace had devoted his time to the practices of law and medicine.  In the practice of law, the brilliancy of his talent and his earnest, sanguine nature, devoted entirely to the interest of his client, exhibited the character of the man.  For thirty-five years he had occupied a prominent position in society; and if his ardent and impulsive nature laid hold of subjects in conflict with the times and places in which he lived, those who knew him well doubted not the goodness of his heart.  It may be said of him that, whatever his hands found to do was done with the might and energy of his whole soul.

His children consisted of three sons and six daughters.  Out of this number, four daughters survived, the others having preceded their father in his exit to the tomb.

S. W. D. Chace died Oct. 24, 1858, at 55 years of age.  “His last moments were characterized by a firm reliance upon those Christian precepts which had sustained him through life, and even at the verge of the tomb shed a halo of hope around his pathway to that better land.”  He is buried in Glendale Cemetery with a son.