God's Will Be Done
The Chicago Clergy Advance a Holy Cause

Sarah Abrahamson
St. Luke Lutheran School, Chicago

"The Union of our States, the hope of our fathers, and the heritage of the world is in imminent danger." With stirring words like these, the Chicago clergy undertook an often-forgotten task. They went beyond their calling as peacemakers and prepared people's minds and hearts for war. The clergy's sermons blended religion and patriotism to prepare Chicagoans to sacrifice everything for a holy cause: preserving the Union in the American Civil War.

The church's moral principles in the North often supported abolition. The proposed Kansas-Nebraska Act focused the churches' energy. Many Chicago churches actively and publicly denounced this legislation. The clergy were intent on stopping the spread of slavery and made it their righteous purpose to defeat the bill. Much of their otherwise-forgotten messages are recorded in various Chicago newspapers.

In March 1854 Chicago clergymen met to discuss their protest against the Kansas-Nebraska Act. They wanted to make an impact in Congress. They debated and adopted the same set of resolutions that New England Protestant churches had adopted and sent them to Washington. Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas sharply criticized clergymen for interfering

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in political matters. But these men of God defied their own senator and upheld their decision. The Chicago Tribune reported that as they announced their protest they wondered what Douglas's response would be. The Tribune praised them:

They must have felt that the case of their action was loud and imperative . . . They do this ... in their two fold character of citizens of this commonwealth and as servants of the most High God, bound by . . .their high and holy calling to stand as sentinels upon the watch towers of our civil as well as our religious liberties, and to sound the alarm whenever danger threatens them.

The clergy acted as watchmen for the people. The Tribune affirmed their actions saying anything less would be "doing less than their duty."

Reverend Clarkson urged his congregation at the St. James Episcopal Church to pray for the Union cause.

The clergy continued in this role until 1860 when their focus was changed by the events following the election of Abraham Lincoln. Abolition became secondary to the holy cause of preserving the Union. Clergymen did much to convince and reassure the people that the coming war was God's will and that their sacrifices would be righteous in the eyes of God. On December 20, 1860, South Carolina seceded from the Union. The next Sunday, Reverend W. N. Patton of Chicago's First Congregational Church preached patriotism, urging his congregation to pray for their leaders. The following Sunday his sermon, "The Suddenness of Revolutions," reassured his people that "God [would] advance his cause on earth" through the present struggle. He was the first of many to preach that God was on the North's side, and that they were instruments in carrying out God's will.

The danger to the Union was so great that President James Buchanan designated January 4, 1861, a day of National Fast for the Union. In Chicago "the post office was closed as also the federal courts . . . the streets were busy as usual . . . Still a very large number of our citizens . . . assembled in their several places of worship."

Services were held in many churches of various denominations. The clergy put the problem in God's hands and told the people to pray for a solution without bloodshed. Reverend Swazey of the Third Presbyterian Church reassured his people that "God's purposes to this nation and his chosen people would be accomplished." The Reverend Dr. Patterson of Second Presbyterian Church said: "God can make [the church] instrumental in saving us politically." The Reverend Dr. Clarkson of St. James Episcopal Church urged his people to "pray to avert civil war."

The persuasion continued. On January 25, 1861, Reverend Henry Cox addressed the Ladies' City Mission on the southern revolution: "No greater calamity could befall the people of this country than a dissolution of the Union. [the North must] Teach them [secessionists] respect. Prayer alone will not accomplish this. Faith and works must go together." The clergy continued to rally the people. They had been praying for peace. But when Fort Sumter was attacked on April 12, 1861, their cry for peace turned to a cry for war. Chicago's ministers had made preserving the Union a holy cause, and when Lincoln called for troops, they declared that fighting had God's blessing. Reverend W. N. Patton of the First Congregational Church preached that enlisting was God's will: "God's providence [is] bringing about great changes for the good and progress of humanity. The

Reverend W. N. Patton preached to members of the First Congregational Church that God supported the Union.

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present struggle is one in which every Christian may rise from his knees and shoulder his rifle."

The clergy not only moved men, but they inspired women also. On April 21, 1861, Reverend Dr. Clarkson of St. James Episcopal asked at a mass meeting at National Hall: "Could we not raise a corps of Florence Nightingales to nurse the sick and soothe the last moments of the dying soldier?" Twelve women volunteered. The Chicago Times reported that Clarkson wished he had a daughter to send.

At the same meeting, Reverend Collyer of Second Unitarian Church compared fighting to heaven. He considered it "as glorious to go into this war and follow the fortunes of the army as to try to get to heaven fighting in the cause he considered as holy as prayer."

The morale of the people was so high that within weeks large numbers of men enlisted. Illinois quickly met its quota, and many had to be turned away.

The full effect of stirring sermons cannot be measured. The clergy asked people to pray for peace, and prayer filled the churches. They preached for people to assist in war duties, and volunteer numbers soared. They supported President Lincoln's request, and the people responded. Religious Chicagoans trusted the clergy. And in a time of confusion, the clergy gave Chicagoans a clear and holy reason to rise from their knees and shoulder their rifles.— [From: Chicago Daily Democratic Press, Oct. 15, 1857; Daily Chicago Times, Mar. 28, 1854, Apr. 22, 1861; Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 20 and 29, 1854, Jan. 5, 12, 26 and Apr. 15, 1861; Linda Jeanne Evans, Abolitionism in the Illinois Churches, 1830-1865; Mabel Mcllvaine, Reminiscences of Chicago During the Civil War; Bessie Louis Pierce, A History of Chicago, Vol. I.]

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