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The rise and fall of the Student Volunteer Movement

The Civil War Era (1794-1865)

In 1794, the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Ottoman empires were in decline. France was convulsing (with the Reign of Terror in 1793 ending with the empire of Napoleon in 1804). After France’s decline through revolution and war, the British empire became the most powerful force in the world.

The 19th century was a time of invention (including a smallpox vaccine 1796, the electric battery 1800, the coining of ‘biology’ 1802, discovery of morphine 1806, and the first glider 1809). The railroad was a major new transportation mechanism that would open up the American continent.

The world was urbanizing, population growth was taking off, and new lands (mostly Pacific islands) and old cities (like Pompeii) were being discovered. New artistic classics were being created (Sir Walter Scott, Jane Austen, the Grimm brothers, and Mary Shelley). Slavery was being reduced, and would eventually be banned by the British throughout their domains. Most of the Latin American colonies freed themselves.

Demography

In America, the population exploded. Up until the 1790s immigration averaged less than 10,000 people per year. European immigration was limited from 1790 to 1820 due to the wars. After 1820, immigration increased dramatically. The Louisiana Purchase added nearly 2 million people who occupied the nine new states and three new territories—most of them French speakers who remained culturally isolated. Over 2 million Irish came to America fleeing famine. Joining them were 1 million German immigrants as well as 750,000 from Canada and the United Kingdom. As a result, the foreign born population in America rose from 1.6% in 1830 to 9.7% by 1850, significantly altering the cultural landscape.

General cultural trends

America solidified during this time, and although there were many dark moments at the beginning of the period, the peaceful transfer of power from one president to another was achieved, validating the governmental system. Political parties were formed and events became politically charged, with mud-slinging in newspapers having no limits on libel.

During the administration of Washington, the French Revolt occurred. France sent ‘Citizen’ Genet to America to rouse support for France and spread the principles of the French Revolution. When Washington insisted on neutrality, Genet decided he had to foment insurrection in America and facilitated the launch of Jacobin clubs—pro-French democratic societies that were secret political clubs verging on vigilante groups seemingly bent on gaining French control over American politics. During the Whiskey Rebellion, mock guillotines were to be found and rebels shot up portraits of Washington.

People admired the French revolution because they believed in it, France was upholding the ideal of liberty which was prized so highly by Americans. When the Revolution became the Terror and thousands were executed, ‘French Fever’ in America hit its peak and began to rapidly reverse. While some (like Jefferson) still glorified the French Revolution, other voices (like Adams) were raised in alarm. The nation became violently anti-France particularly after the XYZ Affair (in which French officials tried to insist on a bribe in order for a treaty to be established) became public, and many Americans (particularly influential ones) itched openly for war.

The presidency of John Adams got caught in the midst of this trend. At that time, the President and Vice President could be from two separate parties (as was the case with Adams and Jefferson), and Vice-President Jefferson gave little to no support to Adams. Acts such as the Alien and Sedition act (which would have made it possible to expel all French-speakers, and which made a crime of printing provable lies in order to clamp down on newspaper-based slander), answered by the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions (which said states could nullify acts of Congress within their borders) set the stage for later battles over states’ rights. Although Adams managed to keep America out of war with France, the politicking cost him a second term.

The tie in the election of 1800 led to the Twelfth Amendment (1804) which separated voting for President and Vice-president. Party wrangling continued until the administration of James Monroe, when an ‘era of good feeling’ set in and party strife seemed to disappear—for a time.

The northern economy began industrializing, creating a surge toward urbanization and new social classes. This was particularly hard on rural dwellers who saw the value of their work decline. In the south, the emergence of “King Cotton” increased the migration west of slaveholders and over 835,000 slaves from the southeast to the southwest. In the rural areas, technological advances such as the wheat reapers and steel plows made increased agricultural possible.

The Panic of 1837, an economic crash, came about because of a wave of speculation and reckless expansion; there was a period of declining employment and rising prices. Annexations of several new territories (including Texas and the American Northwest) led to the idea of Manifest Destiny and a mad rush West, yet also complicated arguments about slavery. The California Gold Rush of 1849 resulted in significant immigration as well as further western migration—California gained statehood in 1850 with a population of 90,000.

Tensions between the North and South over the issue of slavery, states’ rights, and the fear of southern domination by an industrialized north grew toward the inevitable conclusion of conflict. Rhetorically violent arguments were held both in Congress and through the press. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was the sharp beginning of the Crisis.

This cultural scene is important because of its effect on the church. Through the period of the Revolutionary War and its aftermath, particularly during the era of ‘French Fever,’ morals and fidelity to the Gospel had significantly declined.

“Family worship was neglected, and little attention was paid to the training of youth… The Indian wars having terminated, an immense tide of immigration poured into the older settlements. The protracted wars with the Indians had exerted a demoralizing influence to a wide extent. The introduction and manufacture of alcoholic liquors… and their use in almost every family… was frightfully destructive.” (Christian 1922).

Even with the popular surge against the French and the general desire for war, much pro-French and pro-Enlightenment sentiment still remained. The publication of Thomas Paine’s Age of Reason had brought about a widespread atheism.

“It was the general opinion among intelligent Christians, toward the close of the century, a majority of the population were either avowedly infidels or skeptically inclined. There were but few men in the profession of law and physics who would avow their belief in Christianity. Amongst the less informed classes the ‘Age of Reason’ was a most popular book, and obtained extensive circulation, while Bibles were obtained with difficulty, and found a place only in religious families” (Peck 1852)

Colleges such as Yale were

in a most ungodly state. The college church was almost extinct. Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were plenty. Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms; intemperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were common. I hardly know how I escaped …. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to do, read Tom Paine and believed him; I read and fought him all the way. I never had any propensity to infidelity. But most of the class before me were infidels, and called each other Voltaire, D’Alembert, &c. (Christian 1922).

Meanwhile many of the new western territories became famous for “vicious practices”:

Logan county, when my father moved into it, was called “Rogues’ Harbor.” Here many refugees from all parts of the Union fled to escape punishment or justice; for although there was law, yet it could not be executed, and it was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters fled there, until they combined and actually formed a majority. Those who favored a better state of morals were called “Regulators.” But they encountered fierce opposition from the “Rogues,” and a battle was fought with guns, pistols, dirks, knives and clubs, in which the “Regulators” were defeated (Christian 1922).

In this degrading moral situation, the sparks of small revivals exploded into a Second Great Awakening (1797-1801). Emphasizing piety over theological education, it led to massive grass-roots church growth, while its stress on human will and the ability of people to change catalyzed numerous reform movements. Among others these included prison reform, temperance, women’s suffrage and the crusade to abolish slavery. Congregationalists set up home mission societies to evangelize the new Western states. New denominations were being created. Many new utopian and millennialist sects were being formed.

Along with the imperial expansion worldwide, Christians were spreading out too. The early part of the period saw numerous European (mostly English) missionary societies launched: London Missionary Society, Edinburgh Missionary Society, Scottish Missionary Society, Glasgow Missionary Society, Netherlands Missionary Society and the Church Missionary Society. At the same time, Bible societies like the British & Foreign Bible Society were being founded too. By 1800, Protestant missionaries worldwide numbered about 100.

It is no surprise that, in the midst of its expansionistic high, the throes of the Great Awakening, and inspired by European missionaries, Americans also began forming missionary societies to engage the world. The earliest were formed in 1802: the Massachusetts Baptist Mission Society (by Hezekiah Smith, 1737-1805) as well as the Bible Societies (Philadelphia Bible Society, Massachusetts Bible Society, New York Bible Society).

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© 2008 Momentum Magazine.
Related: The Mission Manual · Justin Long's Annotated Links and Notes