When Jeremiah Evarts was eleven, his parents sent him off to school in Burlington, twelve miles south of their farm, on the shore of Lake Champlain. A frail child, he soon found himself attracted to the life of books and ideas rather than a life working the soil, and he quickly distanced himself from his family’s close attachment to the land. When Jeremiah turned seventeen, he travelled on horseback back to East Guilford to study with the Reverend John Elliott, and entered Yale the following fall of 1798.
Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan Edwards (and thus first cousin to Aaron Burr), was president of Yale at that time. As early as 1776 he had described Americans as having a unique national identity, a new people with common religion, manners, interests, and language. Appalled by the radicalism of the French revolution, Dwight vigorously challenged “infidelity” from the pulpit, led the Federalist Party in the political arena in Connecticut, and encouraged efforts to maintain the influence of religion in public life. One of his principal accomplishments, central to the “Second Great Awakening", was to help found the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).
The ABCFM sent missionaries to India, Ceylon, the Sandwich Islands, China, Singapore, Siam, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Persia, to the Zulus in Southern Africa, and to the Cherokees and Choctaws in Georgia and Tennessee. The ABCFM prohibited unmarried people from entering the mission field, but to help prospective missionaries, they maintained a list of “reasonably good-looking” young women who were pious, educated, fit and available for matrimony. Missionaries established schools and set up printing presses wherever they were stationed, as printing and literacy were crucial elements in the process of Bible translation and evangelism.
Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan Edwards (and thus first cousin to Aaron Burr), was president of Yale at that time. As early as 1776 he had described Americans as having a unique national identity, a new people with common religion, manners, interests, and language. Appalled by the radicalism of the French revolution, Dwight vigorously challenged “infidelity” from the pulpit, led the Federalist Party in the political arena in Connecticut, and encouraged efforts to maintain the influence of religion in public life. One of his principal accomplishments, central to the “Second Great Awakening", was to help found the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM).
The ABCFM sent missionaries to India, Ceylon, the Sandwich Islands, China, Singapore, Siam, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Syria, Persia, to the Zulus in Southern Africa, and to the Cherokees and Choctaws in Georgia and Tennessee. The ABCFM prohibited unmarried people from entering the mission field, but to help prospective missionaries, they maintained a list of “reasonably good-looking” young women who were pious, educated, fit and available for matrimony. Missionaries established schools and set up printing presses wherever they were stationed, as printing and literacy were crucial elements in the process of Bible translation and evangelism.
When Jeremiah Evarts arrived at Yale he was only a year off the farm. His classmates described him as spare, homespun, a bit stiff and awkward, but honest. He obviously made the most of New Haven, attending debates at the state’s general assembly and meeting and dining with representatives, the governor, and the lieutenant governor. While he avoided the more riotous behavior of many of the students, he did find time to play some football, and he wasn’t afraid of controversy. His junior year essay addressed the question: “Are the Abilities of Females Inferior to those of Males?” which is a question my father would have warned me to never, never, consider in public. He was elected president of the Brothers Society, chosen orator by the Moral Society, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He passed exams in Greek, Horace, Cicero, Algebra, Surveying, Trigonometry, and Navigation, but evidently the need to preserve republican virtue and the American future through religion and morality dominated his thoughts.
The election of Jefferson (and Burr) in the “revolution” of 1800 upended the Federalist view of the world. This upheaval undoubtedly contributed to Jeremiah’s conversion experience during the revival that swept through the college in 1802. For Jeremiah, conversion called him away from the family farm into a world where he would struggle every day to improve the moral life of his country, searching for the “Soul of America” through both his private and public life.
Like most young grads, after Jeremiah graduated from Yale in 1802 (which started the Evarts family affinity for Yale and
their aversion to “Hell and Harvard”) he cast about for various occupations. He taught school in Peacham, Vermont for a year. He knew he was not cut out to be a farmer or a merchant, so he decided to study law. He studied in New Haven, and in September 1804 married Mehitabel Sherman Barnes, the recently widowed daughter of Roger Sherman, the New Haven patriot who had signed not only the Declaration of Independence, but also the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.
The following spring Jeremiah received his law degree and delivered a commencement address on the vanity of pursuing fame. He soon began writing essays which were published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. He was admitted to the bar in 1806. Jeremiah thought he could be a successful lawyer “if only I could get the business”, but he was not terribly successful, perhaps because he could never get over his obligation to assist “unjust” clients. He soon considered moving to Massachusetts to either practice in a new setting, write, or sell books. In January of 1809, he was asked to become assistant editor of The Panoplist in Boston. This was his opportunity to move on.
The election of Jefferson (and Burr) in the “revolution” of 1800 upended the Federalist view of the world. This upheaval undoubtedly contributed to Jeremiah’s conversion experience during the revival that swept through the college in 1802. For Jeremiah, conversion called him away from the family farm into a world where he would struggle every day to improve the moral life of his country, searching for the “Soul of America” through both his private and public life.
Like most young grads, after Jeremiah graduated from Yale in 1802 (which started the Evarts family affinity for Yale and
their aversion to “Hell and Harvard”) he cast about for various occupations. He taught school in Peacham, Vermont for a year. He knew he was not cut out to be a farmer or a merchant, so he decided to study law. He studied in New Haven, and in September 1804 married Mehitabel Sherman Barnes, the recently widowed daughter of Roger Sherman, the New Haven patriot who had signed not only the Declaration of Independence, but also the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution.The following spring Jeremiah received his law degree and delivered a commencement address on the vanity of pursuing fame. He soon began writing essays which were published in the Connecticut Evangelical Magazine. He was admitted to the bar in 1806. Jeremiah thought he could be a successful lawyer “if only I could get the business”, but he was not terribly successful, perhaps because he could never get over his obligation to assist “unjust” clients. He soon considered moving to Massachusetts to either practice in a new setting, write, or sell books. In January of 1809, he was asked to become assistant editor of The Panoplist in Boston. This was his opportunity to move on.
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