principles. This short speech proved very effective. After the vote had been taken, it was found that Brooke County had favored rejection by à vote of 370 to 0. Brooke was the only county in the state where rejection was unanimous, but other counties came near this, as Logan, where the vote was 255 to 2, and Ohio, 643 to 3 against ratification. The state-wide vote, however, stood 26,055 to 15,563 in favor of the constitution."

As indicated earlier, Campbell avoided politics as much as possible, although he did hold the office of postmaster for some time; hence, if possible, his motives in serving in the constitutional convention should be ascertained. On reaching home, February 1, 1830, after having been absent since September 22, 1829, he found many letters awaiting him, one being from William Tener of Londonderry. In answer to this, he gave the motives which had influ

Perhaps it will not be entirely out of place to observe in a foot note that Gordon's plan of compromise allowed conservatives to retain control. Efforts in the convention to extend the franchise to all tax payers had been defeated 44 to 48. Suffrage was extended somewhat, nevertheless, by taking in lease holders and house-keepers, but the number of men of legal age remaining disqualified was over 30,000. Doddridge's motion to elect the governor by a popular vote was a tie, and was decided in the negative. By the constitution, central executive authority, somewhat increased, was vested in a governor elected for three years by joint ballot of the Assembly. The executive council was retained, though reduced in membership.

The differences between the East and the West were not settled by this constitution. They were merely transferred from the counties of northern Piedmont and the Shenandoah Valley to the trans-Allegheny. Thereafter, sectionalism, according to Ambler, was a contest between the districts now known as Virginia and West Virginia (see his Sectionalism, 137-174, for a good account of the whole struggle).

enced him to become a candidate for the convention. He wrote:

"But you may ask, What business had I in such matters! I will tell you. I have no taste or longings for political matters or honors, but as this was one of the most grave and solemn of all political matters, and not like the ordinary affairs of legislation, and therefore not incompatible with the most perfect gravity and self-respect, I consented to be elected, and especially because I was desirous of laying a foundation for the abolition of slavery (in which, however, I was not successful), and of gaining an influence in public estimation to give currency to my writings, and to put down some calumnies afar off that I was not in good standing in my own State.'' 70

In this latter object, that of gaining higher influence in the public estimation, Campbell was certainly successful. While at Richmond, in private conversation and in the social circle, he pressed the views of the "Reformation." Every Lord's Day he spoke to large audiences on the primitive Gospel, and many of the convention members attended. Upon these he made a very favorable impression. On the way home, Ex-President Madison spent the first night with a relative, Edmund Pendleton, of Louisa. The latter was slightly inclined to the principles of the "Restoration;" hence he inquired Madison's opinion of Campbell. After speaking in high terms of the ability shown in the convention, the former president added: "But it is as a theologian that Mr. Campbell must be known. It was

70 Richardson, R. Memoirs of Alexander Oampbell, II., 819, 820.

my pleasure to hear him very often as a preacher of the gospel, and I regard him as the ablest and most original expounder of the Scriptures I have ever heard.'' 72

After Campbell returned from the convention he visited Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and took up his editorial work with renewed zeal. The Millennial Harbinger," the first number of which came out January 1, 1830, was devoted to the plea for the restoration of primitive Christianity. This plea, however, stirred the Baptists to intense opposition. Antagonism had been growing from the time of the Sermon on the Law, 1816, and especially from the period when Walter Scott began to preach the Gospel steps plea, 1827. Exclusions and divisions were not infrequent in the late twenties. In the spring of 1830, the Third Baptist Church of Philadelphia excluded a number, who at once formed an inde pendent church and adopted the ancient order of things as taught by the Campbells and Scott. In Kentucky and in certain parts of Virginia, however, where the principles of the "Reformation" had been most widely scattered, the greatest troubles took place. No one will contend that the Reformers were blameless. Some excited prejudice unnecessarily by crying out against church covenants, creeds, etc., "to the legitimate use of which Mr. Campbell never had objected. Ignorant

978

71 Richardson, R. Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, II., 813.

73 Successor to the Christian Baptist.

73 Richardson, R. Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, II., 822.

persons gave just offence by bigoted and crude assertions, and not a few had the conceit of superior knowledge and an overbearing disposition. On the whole, nevertheless, the Reformers were forbearing and endured with some patience the misrepresentation of their opponents.

Since the conditions seethed thus, only a slight impulse was necessary to start a flame. It came from an unexpected quarter. Two or three fragments of churches on the Western Reserve, as at Youngstown, Palmyra, and Salem, which had refused to enter the "Reformation," had joined a small association on Beaver Creek. Aided by a Mr. Winter and one or two other ministers intensely opposed to Campbell, they persuaded the association to publish a circular anathematizing the Mahoning Association and Mr. Campbell as "disbelieving and denying many of the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures."" These charges, as given by Gates,

follow:

"1. They, the Reformers, maintain that there is no promise of salvation, without baptism.

"2. That baptism should be administered to all who say they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, without examination on any other point.

"3. That there is no direct operation of the Holy Spirit on the mind prior to baptism.

"4. That baptism procures the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

74 Richardson, R. Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, II., 822.

"5. That the Scriptures are the only evidence of interest in Christ.

"6. That obedience places it in God's power to elect to salvation.

"7. That no creed is necessary for the church but the Scriptures as they stand, And

"8. That all baptized persons have the right to administer the ordinance of baptism.

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This circular letter immediately gained great popularity, and was widely copied by Baptist papers and associations. Thus, Dover, Virginia, decreed non-fellowship with the Reformers and Dover Association followed, December, 1830." Franklin Association, Kentucky, and Appomattox Association, Virginia, denounced Campbell's writings and all persons holding the views expressed in the Beaver circular." Partly because of these attacks, Mahoning and Stillwater Associations, Ohio, dissolved as associations and resolved to meet as annual meetings without any authority. The Reformers now began to organize churches distinct from the Baptists, and this step marks the existence of the Disciples of Christ as a separate church." Campbell, unable to allay the storm, described the Beaver anathema as "a tissue of falsehoods," and attacked, possibly with justice, the character of Winter, one of its chief promoters. He showed his

Early Relation and Separation of Baptists and Disciples, 92. 76 Millennial Harbinger, II., 409.

Richardson, R. Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, II., 323. 78 Millennial Harbinger, II., 409, also Newman, A. H. A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States, 494.