James Freeman Clarke (April 4, 1810 – June 8, 1888) was an American
minister, theologian and author.
Biography
Born in
Hanover, New Hampshire
Hanover is a New England town, town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university ...
, on April 4, 1810, James Freeman Clarke was the son of Samuel Clarke and Rebecca Parker Hull, though he was raised by his grandfather
James Freeman, minister at
King's Chapel in Boston, Massachusetts.
[Benowitz, June Melby. ''Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017: vol. I, p. 110; ] He attended the
Boston Latin School
The Boston Latin School is a Magnet school, magnet Latin schools, Latin Grammar schools, grammar State school, state school in Boston, Massachusetts. It has been in continuous operation since it was established on April 23, 1635. It is the old ...
, and later graduated from
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...
in 1829, and
Harvard Divinity School
Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the religious studies, academic study of religion or for leadership role ...
in 1833.
[
Ordained into the Unitarian church he first became an active minister at ]Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...
, then a slave state, and soon threw himself into the national movement for the abolition of slavery
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world.
The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. T ...
. His theology was unusual for the conservative town and, reportedly, several women walked out of his first sermon. As he wrote to his friend Margaret Fuller, "I am a broken-winged hawk, seeking to fly at the sun, but fluttering in the dust."
In 1840, he returned to Boston where he and his friends established (1841) the Church of the Disciples which brought together a body of people to apply the Christian religion to social problems of the day. One of the features that distinguished his church was Clarke's belief that ordination could make no distinction between him and them. They also were called to be ministers of the highest religious life. Of this church he was the minister from 1841 until 1850 and again from 1854 until his death. He was also secretary of the Unitarian Association and, in 1867-1871, professor of natural religion and Christian doctrine at Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
.
Clarke contributed essays to ''The Christian Examiner'', ''The Christian Inquirer'', ''The Christian Register'', '' The Dial'', '' Harper's'', ''The Index'', and '' Atlantic Monthly''. In addition to sermons, speeches, hymnals, and liturgies, he published 28 books and over 120 pamphlets during his lifetime.
Clarke edited the ''Western Messenger'', a magazine intended to carry to readers in the Mississippi Valley
The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...
simple statements of liberal religion and what were then the most radical appeals to national duty and the abolition of slavery. Copies of this magazine are now valued by collectors for containing the earliest printed poems of Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of th ...
, a personal friend and a distant cousin. Clarke became a member of the Transcendental Club alongside Emerson and several others.
For the ''Western Messenger'', Clarke requested written contributions from Margaret Fuller. Clarke published Fuller's first literary review—criticisms of recent biographies on George Crabbe and Hannah More.
She later became the first full-time book reviewer in journalism working for Horace Greeley's '' New York Tribune''. After Fuller's death in 1850, Clarke worked with William Henry Channing and Emerson as editors of ''The Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli'', published in February 1852.[Von Mehren, Joan. ''Minerva and the Muse: A Life of Margaret Fuller''. Amherst: ]University of Massachusetts Press
The University of Massachusetts Press is a university press that is part of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The press was founded in 1963, publishing scholarly books and non-fiction. The press imprint is overseen by an interdisciplinar ...
, 1994: p. 343; The trio censored or reworded many of Fuller's letters; they believed the public interest in Fuller would be temporary and that she would not survive as a historical figure. Nevertheless, for a time, the book was the best-selling biography of the decade and went through thirteen editions before the end of the century.[
In 1855, Clarke purchased the former site of Brook Farm, intending to start a new ]Utopia
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
n community there. This never came to pass, instead the land was offered to President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
during the American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
; the Second Massachusetts Regiment used it for training and named it "Camp Andrew".
In November 1861, Clarke was in Washington, D.C., with Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe
Julia Ward Howe ( ; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the "Battle Hymn of the Republic" as new lyrics to an existing song, and the original 1870 pacifist Mothers' Day Proclamation. She w ...
. After hearing the song " John Brown's Body", he suggested that Mrs. Howe write new lyrics; the result was "Battle Hymn of the Republic
The "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is an American patriotic music, American patriotic song written by the abolitionist writer Julia Ward Howe during the American Civil War.
Howe adapted her song from the soldiers' song "John Brown's Body" in N ...
".
The people of Boston held a public celebration honoring Italian unification
The unification of Italy ( ), also known as the Risorgimento (; ), was the 19th century political and social movement that in 1861 ended in the annexation of various states of the Italian peninsula and its outlying isles to the Kingdom of ...
on February 23, 1871, featuring Edwin Percy Whipple as a speaker and a poem by Clarke titled "A Hymn for the Celebration of Italian Unity" based on the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". In 1874, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
A portrait of Clarke painted by Edwin Tryon Billings hangs in the Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse''), meaning all adult re ...
.
Beliefs
Clarke was an advocate of human rights. Being a Boston Latin School alumnus, he served on a committee of the Massachusetts Society for the University Education of Women which was greatly instrumental in establishing Girls' Latin School in 1878. Tempered and moderate in his views of life, he was a reformer and a conciliator and never carried a pistol as fellow preacher Theodore Parker did.
Clarke believed in recognizing women's right to vote. In a statement published posthumously, Clarke had written, "one of the most important of the reforms proposed at the present time is that which shall give suffrage to women. It is not merely a political question, but a social question, a moral question, and a religious question".[Benowitz, June Melby. ''Encyclopedia of American Women and Religion''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017: vol. I, p. 110−111. ]
He published few verses, but is regarded by some as a poet at heart. A diligent scholar, among the books by which he became well known is one called ''Ten Great Religions'' (2 vols, 1871–1883). Many of Clarke's earlier published writings addressed the immediate need of establishing a larger theory of religion than that espoused by people who were still under the influence of Calvinism
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Christian, Presbyteri ...
. He was also one of the first Americans to explore and write about Eastern religions.
Selected writings
*''Steps of Belief: Or, Rational Christianity Maintained Against Atheism, Free Religion, and Romanism'' (1870)
* '' Ten Great Religions '' (1871)
*"Common Sense in Religion" (1874)
*''Essentials and Non-Essentials in Religion: Six Lectures Delivered in the Music Hall, Boston'' (1878)
*"Self-Culture: Physical, Intellectual, Moral, and Spiritual" (1880)
*"Memorial and Biographical Sketches" (1880)
*''Every-Day Religion'' (1886)
*''Sermons on the Lord's Prayer'' (1888)
*"Autobiography, Diary and Correspondence" (1891)
References
External links
New York Times Obituary
*
*
*
;Papers
James Freeman Clarke Papers
at Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School
* Th
James Freeman Clarke Papers
relating to lectures and the Church of the Disciples, at Harvard Divinity School Library at Harvard Divinity School
James Freeman Clarke Correspondence
at Houghton Library, Harvard University
James Freeman Clarke Letters to
Margaret Fuller, at Houghton Library, Harvard University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, James Freeman
Harvard Divinity School alumni
19th-century American writers
American Christian religious leaders
American Unitarians
1810 births
1888 deaths
Members of the Transcendental Club
Abolitionists from Boston
Harvard College alumni
Boston Latin School alumni
Trustees of the Boston Public Library
Writers from Hanover, New Hampshire
Members of the American Philosophical Society