THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE GOES ON: DANIEL DODGE (1775-1851)

We find this statement from the Particular Baptist Press in a release for a new biography:

Pirate captive, itinerant minister, delegate to the newly formed Triennial Convention, hymnal author, inaugural president of the New Jersey Baptist State Convention, a participant in the Sabbath Day Mail Controversy, and co-participant in the founding of the American and Foreign Bible Society. So reads the resume of Daniel Dodge (1775-1851), a key Baptist figure in early nineteenth-century America. We invite you to read about the life and work of a tireless pastor and statesman whose ministry significantly contributed to the Baptist work of that era, and whose influence continued to be felt many years later through the activities of the institutions in which he served. --Jeffrey A. Waldrop

 Mr. Waldrop gives us a hagiography of Daniel Dodge.  But is the whole picture of the man?  Hardly.  

We read this account from a member of the Budd Street Baptist Church of Philadelphia in the February 15, 1839 issue of the Signs of the Times:

We have received further particulars of the division of this Church, the legerdemain practiced by the New School party, in electing Elder Daniel Dodge of New Jersey as their pastor in opposition to the voice of a majority of the Church, who voted for Elder Daniel Davis.  A copy of a letter from Elder Davis to a brother of the Alexandria Church has been put into our hands for publication, giving the particulars which will be inserted in our next number; for the present, we will only say that Budd Street Church has divided, those claiming to be of the primitive order, have withdrawn their membership from the others, and have taken a room where they meet, for public worship, and retain Elder Davis as their preacher.

In the March 1, 1839 issue Beebe publishes this letter from Elder Daniel Davis on January 28, 1839:

Dear Brother - No doubt you have thought me deficient in not addressing you with the ecclesiastic new of the city before this; but, as it is a maxim with me not to write until I have matter worthy communicating, and as the links in the chain of divine providence have for some time been descending to our view, I was not prepared to write until now.  Know then, that when the Budd Street Church elected me to preach for six months as supply, it was understood by the body that when that time expired they would go into an election for a pastor.  

During the time, my friends considered my election safe, and were asleep to the underworking of the anti-christian party; but they were suddenly awakened at their Church-meeting, two months past, by the party, who had secretly arranged their plan and came up with their whole strength, and took my friends on surprise, being but a few at the meeting, when the party moved and carried a nomination for the election of a pastor, and they nominated Daniel Dodge, and my friends nominated Daniel Davis.  The party then moved and carried for that election of a pastor, a week from that day,, and that his election is for twelve months, commencing at the expiration of the time for which the supply had been engaged.  

In all this arrangement my friends thought my election safe; not knowing the Pandora's Box of slander which they had prepared to open to defeat my election; but the second day before the election they opened the box, and the slander ran like electricity, giving a shock to the voters who were unacquainted with my standing, by the vociferous imperative, Go to Deacon Van Dike; he has received a letter proving this Davis to be a bad man! - Whereupon my friends called upon Van Dike to see this letter,  but they were confronted by the assertion that it was a letter of confidence, and therefore it could not be exhibited.  

Hearing this, I gave Deacon Van Dike to understand that he must make my friends acquainted with the letter, who no doubt, apprehending that a refusal the second time would be attended with serious consequences, read the letter to my friends, the purport of which was, I have violently entered a minister's pulpit in the town of Fredericksburg, Va. and, for so doing, was by a civil officer dragged out of the pulpit and conducted before the Mayor, and made to atone for the aggression.  This mine of slander had been sprung upon me only two days before the election.  I could not confront it until afterward.

You are to be informed that the Bud Street Church is chartered by an act of the legislature, which provides that all pew-renters, 21 years of age, shall be entitled to vote for a pastor and to bury their dead in the church ground.  Many of those never attend worship at Bud Street, but hold their seats for the advantage of burying their dead.  On the day of the election, the opposition party provided vehicles, drove Jehu like, from door to door, opening the box of slander as they went, and conducted the voters to the election to vote down the abominable agrarian, or trespasser upon another minister's field.

The result was that Dodge was elected by a majority of 38, of the whole number of votes, while Davis was elected by a majority of the Church, of 43; but by charter the vote was legal, and it became the duty of the trustees, being seven in number, (five of whom voted for Davis) to inform Dodge of his election, and who was furthermore informed, by a leading member of the Church, of all the circumstances he would not accept, and then there would be another election; but he accepted the call!!!  I had intended to have compelled Deacon Van Dike to make known the author of the slanderous note; but after the election one of the party informed me that Mr. Adams, a Baptist Minister in Baltimore was the author.

Whereupon I wrote to the Regular Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, stating the above history, and requested the Church to address the Budd Street Church, to the care of I.C. Dobleman, a member of the Church, and a trustee, giving information of the excommunication of George F. Adams and his party for bringing heresy into the Church; and also, giving information about my having been taken out of the pulpit in Fredericksburg, by the heretics, after their excommunication.  Accordingly, the address from the Church in Fredericksburg arrived in time to be presented at the Church meeting in Bud Street immediately subsequent to the election; and Brother Dobleman, to whose care it was directed, presented it, with remarking that it no doubt contained a vindication of Brother Davis, whose character had been slandered.

The leaders in opposition were hostile to the motion to receive the address; (but as. no persons can vote at Church meetings but the members of the Church) it carried by a strong majority, and the sons and daughters of Hagra had to hear a powerful and unanswerable vindication of my character, against their slander. - But you cannot conceive what congratulation and rejoicing there was with the sons of Ishmael at the election of Dodge; whereby the last Regular Baptist Church in this city, is now converted into a New School; but in the midst of their rejoicing God was at work to overturn their triumph. - Dodge having received a call, my friends had a meeting to consult what course to take, which resulted in a resolution of one hundred and sixteen members to subscribe their names to come out and set a separate interest; and they went up to the Church-meeting last Monday evening, appearing to the sons of Ishmael Terrible as an army with banners, presented their register, and called upon the Church to endorse it, which was done, and not a dog dared to bark at them!

This circumstance produced a panic, (not of that character which is a terrific sensibility without cause, but of that character which evinces a conviction of overthrow.)  All of these, together with the greater part of the non-professing pew renters who come to the place of worship, have given up their pews - the principal means whereby they pad the preacher, and the interest upon a debt, as I understand, of $5000, together with the preacher upon their backs, to whom we have heard they promised to pay $900 the ensuing year; and Behold! their house is left unto them desolate!  Nor does the panic stop here; yesterday we heard that sixteen others have resolved to follow us; and it is believed that at the next Church-meeting, at least 20 more will withdraw and follow us.  And, what is still more alarming is, that several members from other Churches, having letters, have resolved to be constituted with us.  And moreover, not a few in other Churches in the city rejoice with us and look to our conduct as a vindication of conscience against unrighteous oppression.

Thus God has turned his scale against antichrist under the garb of Baptists, in this great city, and we hope to rejoice in his death.  The sons and daughters of anti-christ had flattered themselves that the circumstance of the fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of the members free and pew-renters having been buried in the Church ground, were ties too strong to be broken by their pews, they would sacrifice the right to be buried with their fathers; but in this, they were mistaken.  They are strangers to that celestial principle which has ever been displayed under trying circumstances, in forsaking all carnal relatives when truth and duty to God require it, and to that noble daring spirit of the fathers of the revolution which lifted its frowning countenance and rebuked and scourged the insolence of a foreign tyrant, which still lives, and which blazoned on the sons and daughters of Columbia when they resigned their seats and rebuked the tyrants in Bud Street.

Last Lord's-day I preached my farewell sermons at Bud-Street; and in conclusion, stated their persecution, and named Deacon Van Dike as the ostensible man in circulating the slander; and finally read the document from Fredericksburg, while doing which Deacon Patterson and another member of the party got so warm that they stripped off their overcoats, stepped about and held some conversation, not distinctly heard by any but themselves, and after a little while took their seats!  This circumstance was remarkable, especially as the day was very cold.  Some conjectured that they intended to take me out of the pulpit, even without a warrant from the Mayor, for presuming to read before everybody my vindication against their slander!  Be the motive what it might, the maneuver troubled me no more that would the playing of a couple of mice upon the floor.

We have obtained a City Hall to worship in until we can arrange for a home.  I intend shortly to come and see you and yours.  Show this to the brethren, and present my regards to them. Juliet is far from being well, but when the day is favorable can go to church.  I sincerely hope that you and yours and the brethren are well; present my kind regards to them all.  I conclude with my regards to Sister Monroe and you.

Your unworthy Brother,
Daniel Davis