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The Parvin-Brigham Mission to Spanish America, 1823–1826
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
Extract
Slowly during the years just preceding our War of 1812, and rapidly during the decade that followed the Peace of Ghent, the vast reaches of Latin America swam within the ken of the people of the United States. Of this “discovery” of our southern neighbors and of our relations with Latin America before 1830, we have learned much from a volume recently brought out by a distinguished historian of the United States, Professor Arthur P. Whitaker. Professor Whitaker's informing study was intended to be nothing less than a well-rounded history of the impact of Latin America upon the United States to 1830; and such it has proved to be—with one exception. Professor Whitaker completely overlooked the religious phase of the subject he otherwise treated so skillfully. Upon this neglected part of the history of our early relations with Latin America this paper will endeavor to throw some light.
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- Copyright © American Society of Church History 1945
References
1 Whitaker, Arthur P., The United States and the Independence of Latin, America, 1800–1880 (Baltimore, 1941).Google Scholar
2 On this subject see Oliphant, J. Orin, “The American Missionary Spirit, 1828–1835,” Church History, VII (06, 1938), 125–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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4 Typical of many expressions of Protestant opinion in the United States at that time is the following: “The revolution, in South America has already greatly weakened the power of the pope in that country, and from the following remarks of the Rev. Mr. Brigham, in the last number of the Missionary Herald, it seems probable that a blow will soon be given, which will sever the Western Continent forever from his dominion. Let our Bible and Tract Societies be well supported, and the emancipation of the southern republics will soon be completed. …” Editorial, “Popery in South America,” New York Observer, 11 11, 1826.Google Scholar
5 During the decade of the 1820's, Christians in the United States were much less interested in Brazil than in Spanish America. The probable reasons therefor may be stated as follows: (1) Brazil, unlike Spanish America, was not subjected to a long struggle for liberation, a struggle that could be likened to the war the English colonies fought for their liberation; and (2), from the standpoint of Christian patriots in the United States, Brazil did not actually become “emancipated”, for after its separation from Portugal a member of the House of Braganza still ruled as Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Brazil, therefore, though it was in the Americas, was very definitely not of the family of American republics. Consequently, in those years expressions of dislike of “despotic” Brazil appeared not infrequently in religious periodical publications in the United States; and the belief was voiced again and again that, even though Pedro I might not go the way of Iturbide in Mexico, nevertheless, in the words of Ashbel Green, “eventually and before long” there would be “no emperor on the American continent.” Christian Advocate, III (07, 1825), 336.Google Scholar Observe also the following expressions of opinion on this subject: “This enemy to civil liberty, Don Pedro I will, in all probability, also, be the last crowned head on our continent.” Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church, I (06, 1826), 72.Google Scholar “It is but a few days since the news arrived of a splendid victory gained by the patriots of the Banda Oriental over the arms of despotic Brazil.” Boston Recorder& Telegraph, 12 30, 1825.Google Scholar
6 The Reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society, from 1807 through the decade of the 1820's, contain much information on this subject. These Reports also, after 1808, contain much information on the activities of the earliest Bible societies in the United States.
7 Schermerhorn, John F. and Mills, Samuel J., A Correct View of that Part of the United States which Lies West of the Allegany Mountains, with Regard to Religion and Morals (Hartford, 1814)Google Scholar, and Mills, Samuel J. and Smith, Daniel, Report of a Missionary Tour through that Part of the United States which Lies West of the Allegany Mountains … (Andover, 1815).Google Scholar Some account of the observations of Schermerhorn and Mills may be found in the “Report of the Trustees” of the Massachusetts Missionary Society, Panoplist X (06, 1814), 281–285.Google Scholar On the Mills-Smith mission, see ibid., XI (May and June, 1815), 224–233, 273–284.
8 British and Foreign Bible Society, Tenth Report, 1814, in Reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society, III (London, 1815), appendix, p. 140.
9 On Mills's efforts in this cause, see, in general, Spring, Gardiner, Memoirs of the Rev. Samuel J. Mills … (New York, 1820).Google Scholar See also the sketch of Mills in the Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 15–16.Google Scholar
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23 Copious extracts from letters Brigham wrote to the American Bible Society between March 20, 1825, and March 17, 1826, are published in A. B. S., Tenth Report, 1826 (New York, 1826), 48–51.Google Scholar
24 From the text as published in Tenth Anniversary of the American Bible Society, No. 47 (08, 1826), 17.Google Scholar
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29 Rufus Anderson, the learned senior secretary of the American Board, bypassed this issue years later when he wrote as follows: “Perhaps the Board might properly have extended its missions into some of the more benighted parts of the Roman Catholic world. It did no more, however, than explore a considerable portion of South America in the years 1823–1826.” Ibid., 80.
30 A. B. C. F. M., Report, 1826 (Boston, 1826), 99–101.Google Scholar
31 See the brief sketch of Rodney in the Dictionary of American Biography, XVI, 82–83.Google Scholar
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35 “R. B.”, in the Christian Advocate, V (01, 1827), 39.Google Scholar
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37 A very brief history of this mission may be found in Green, Ashbel, Presbyterian Missions, 85–89.Google Scholar
38 Missionary Herald, XX (12, 1824), 377.Google Scholar
39 In the “Survey of Missionary Stations,” Missionary Herald, XXIII (01, 1827), 11Google Scholar, it is said of Brigham that a “particular account of his whole tour is preparing for publication in a separate volume.” If such a volume was ever published, the present writer has found no trace of it.
40 Brigham, Juan C.Morse, Y S. E., Nuevo Sistemade Geographia, Antigua y Moderna, con diez y ocho Laminas y cuatro Mapas (Nueva York, 1827).Google Scholar The sketch of Morse, S. E. in the Dictionary of American Biography, XIII, 251–252Google Scholar, makes no mention of Morse's having collaborated with Brigham in bringing but the above-mentioned volume.
41 A. B. S., Minutes of the Board of Managers [Ms.], III, 302.
42 See the remarks on Brigham in A. B. S., Forty-Seventh Annual Report (New York, 1863)Google Scholar, in Annual Reports of the American Bible Society …, III, 795–796.
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44 The favorable reports that came from Buenos Aires seemed to confirm favorable views of the situation in another part of South America. For example, a correspondent of the New York Religious Chronicle affirmed that “the way is almost as well prepared for the introduction of missionaries from North America to the Republic of Colombia, as from the Atlantic to the Western States.” Boston Recorder, 04 17, 1824.Google Scholar
45 Missionary Herald, XXIII (01, 1827), 17.Google Scholar
46 The effect produced on the churches in the eastern part of the United States by the Parvin-Brigham mission to Spanish America was not unlike that produced on these same churches by the earlier missions of Schermerhorn, Mills, and Smith to our own West and Southwest. See the references cited in Note 7, supra.
47 On the significance of anti-Catholic feeling in the home missionary movement in the United States, see Billington, Ray A., “Anti-Catholic Propaganda and the Home Missionary Movement, 1800–1860,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XXII (12, 1935), 361–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
48 Not all the publicity this mission received derived from communications of Parvin or Brigham to the American Board or to the American Bible Society. For example, a letter from Parvin to the Philadelphia Mite Society, dated at “Buenos Ayres, Sept. 3, 1824,” was published in the Philadelphia Christian Gazette and reprinted in part in the Boston Recorder of 04 2, 1825Google Scholar; and a letter from William Torrey to a minister in New Castle was reprinted from the Philadelphian in the New York Observer of 04 28, 1827.Google Scholar
49 Boston Recorder, 02Google Scholar 7, April 3, and September 18, 1824, April 2, 1825, March 10 and December 8, 1826, and September 28, 1827. In some of these issues the Recorder reprinted material that had appeared in the Philadelphia Christian Gazette, the New York Observer, or the New York Christian. Herald. See also references cited in Note 56, infra.
50 This magazine ran through twelve volumes, 1823–1834.
51 Christian Advocate, II (11, 1824), 522Google Scholar; IV (February, 1826), 94–95; VI (January and April, 1828), 41–42, 183–184.
52 See his article entitled “Southern America,” Christian Advocate, IV (12, 1826), 562–563.Google Scholar
53 See his monthly “View of Publick Affairs,” Christian Advocate, 1823–1834.Google Scholar
54 Christian Advocate, V (09, 1827), 474–475.Google Scholar
55 Green, Ashbel, Presbyterian Missions, 89.Google Scholar
56 For example, the Baptist Latter Day Luminary, VI (02, 1825), 53Google Scholar, contains an account of the Parvin-Brigham mission. Also, the American Baptist Magazine, VII (04, 1827), 109–116Google Scholar, reprinted from the Missionary Herald a considerable portion of Brigham's final report to the Prudential Committee of the American Board, and this same magazine had published earlier, V (April, 1825), 125, a brief notice of an edition of the Spanish Bible, recently printed for the American Bible Society. Furthermore, it should be remembered that the persons responsible for the affairs of one missionary society regularly read the publications of other missionary societies.
57 Latter Day Luminary, IV (06, 1823), 182–183Google Scholar, and V (June, 1824), 172–173; Baptist General Convention, Proceedings of the Fifth Triennial Meeting, 1826 (Boston, 1826), 23Google Scholar, and Proceedings of the Sixth Triennial Meeting, 1829 (Boston, 1829), 30.Google Scholar
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59 “Proceedings of General Conference [1828],” Methodist Magazine, XI (07, 1828), 272.Google Scholar
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65 Bible Society Record, LXXXIX (11, 1944).Google Scholar See inside back cover.