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From the colonial era to the early days of the American republic, election sermons were preached from the pulpit and circulated in print form as a way of encouraging godly government on the part of magistrates and the citizens who were expected to vote for them. They were especially prominent in New England, where Election Day was a commemorated as a holiday. One such election sermon has a memorable place in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.
As Election Day 2019 approaches in the United States, Log College Press is highlighting some noteworthy Presbyterian election sermons from the past, as well as some works by those who promoted Christian civil government or held to the doctrine of political dissent (ie., the necessity of not voting under the terms of a godless constitution, or not voting for any but Christian candidates).
We begin with an anonymous tract published in 1800: Serious Considerations on the Election of a President: Addressed to the Citizens of the United States. It was primarily the work of William Linn (1752-1808), who served as both the first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives and as President of Rutgers University, although he was assisted by John Mitchell Mason as well. The chief concern of this work was to warn of the danger of electing an unbeliever to the office of the Presidency, specifically, Thomas Jefferson. The election of 1800 was a complicated one (perhaps more so than the election of 2000), with candidates including Aaron Burr, Jr. (who became Vice-President), Charles C. Pinckney and John Adams (it was not widely known at the time that Adams was a Unitarian).
Mason followed this tract with another publication that bore his name and references the former: The Voice of Warning, to Christians, on the Ensuing Election of a President of the United States (1800), also concerned to warn Christians against voting for an “infidel” for President (Thomas Jefferson). This work appears at the end of Vol. 4 of Mason’s Works.
William Buell Sprague published The Claims of Past and Future Generations on Civil Rulers: A Sermon, Preached at the Annual Election (1825), a sermon preached on a May Election Day while he was in Massachusetts. The claims spoken of pertain to the obligations of magistrates both to God and to the citizens who have entrusted them with the authority they possess.
Three years later, Ezra Stiles Ely preached The Duty of Christian Freemen to Elect Christian Rulers (1828). Dr. Wayne Sparkman writes:
It was in 1827 on July 4 that Rev. Ely called for “Christian freemen to elect Christian rulers.” He went on to advocate for a “Christian party in politics,” to keep unorthodox liberals and deists out of office. The underlying concern of this Presbyterian pastor was against the secular policies and practices of President John Q. Adams. President Adams in turn simply denounced Rev. Ely as “the busybody Presbyterian clergyman.” So Pastor Ely called upon Presbyterian Andrew Jackson to run for that highest office. Mobilizing Christian workers, Andrew Jackson was elected in 1828. The good pastor told President-elect Jackson to avoid the judgement of the Lord’s wrath by not traveling on the Lord’s Day to Washington, which Jackson obeyed. However, their association did not long continue on a favourable basis, as the President grew wary of this outspoken Presbyterian minister.”
An argument that Christians ought for Biblical reasons only to vote for godly candidates under a godly constitution is found in RPCNA minister James Renwick Willson’s 1832 sermon Prince Messiah's Claims to Dominion Over All Governments; and the Disregard of His Authority by the United States, in the Federal Constitution. For his pains in preaching this sermon, the sermon itself was burned publicly by the New York Legislature in Albany, and he was hung in effigy.
In 1892, RPCNA minister Nathan Robinson Johnston’s letter to the editor of the Christian Instructor, titled “Political Dissent,” was also published by Political Dissenter. In it he articulates his reasons for abstaining from voting and his understanding of what it means to be a Christian citizen.
RPCNA minister Thomas Houston Acheson published a two-part tract on Why Covenanters Do Not Vote (1912). Here he gives six reasons on behalf of the historic RPCNA position in favor of political dissent, and twelve responses to objections against this position.
As many in America prepare to go to the polls, and some anticipate staying home for reasons of conscience or otherwise, it is worthwhile to prayerfully consider how Presbyterians in the past have approached the issue of elections. May these resources aid in that endeavor.
