5274. MINISTERS (Religious), New England.—
The sway of the clergy in New
England is indeed formidable. No mind beyond
mediocrity dares there to develop itself. If it
does, they excite against it the public opinion
which they command, and by little, but incessant
and tearing persecutions, drive it from
among them. Their present emigrations to the
Western country are real flights from persecution,
religious and political, but the abandonment
of the country by those who wish to enjoy
freedom of opinion leaves the despotism over
the residue more intense, more oppressive.—
To Horatio Gates Spafford.
Ford ed., x, 13.
(M.
1816)
