JOURNEY TO WHITESTOWN.

LETTER I.

Journey to New-Lebanon-Shakers.

Dear Sir,

ON Tuesday, September 19, 1799, I set out in company with Mr. W. S. H- of Charleston, S. C. on a journey to the Western parts of the State of New-York; and rode the same day to Litchfield. The next day we proceeded, in company with the Rev. Mr. Backus, of Bethlem, to Sheffield. Thursday we reached Stockbridge. Here we continued until Friday morning; when Mr. Day, now Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in Yale College, and Mr. C, of South-Carolina, joined us from Barrington, where they had been detained by the rain of the preceding day. After breakfast the whole company rode to New-Lebanon to dinner. As we crossed the Taghkannuc Range, we were presented with a delightful prospect of the beautiful valley which wears that name. From this height the traveller casts his eye over a scoop, five or six miles in extent, having the fine figure of an obtuse arch inverted, filled with an uninterrupted succession of farms, highly cultivated, and covered with the most luxuriant vegetation. On these farms many good houses are erected, and every thing wears the appearance of cheerfulness and prosperity. In our way to the spring, to be mentioned hereafter, we passed a village of the Shakers, or Shaking Quakers. It consists of a small number of houses, moderately well-built, and kept, both within and without doors, in a manner very creditable to the occupants. Every thing about them was clean and tidy. Their church, a plain, but neat building, had a court-yard belonging to it, which was a remarkably "smooth shaven green." Two paths led to it from a neighbouring house, both paved with marble slabs. By these, I was inVOL. III.

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formed, the men enter one end of the church, and the women the other. Even their stables, the fences which surround their fields, and the road which passes through their village, are all uncommonly neat.

The history of these people has, in a summary manner, been published by themselves, in an octavo volume, entitled "The Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing;" the preface to which is subscribed by David Darrow, John Meacham, and Benjamin S. Youngs. It is supposed to have been written by a man, whose name is Wells; who is said to have been educated, to some extent, I know not how great, in learning and science. In the Introduction of this work we are informed, that "a few of the French prophets came over to England, about the year 1706. A few of the people" who became, it would seem, ultimately their followers, at Bolton, and Manchester, in England, united themselves "in a Society, under the special ministry of James and Jane Wardley." These persons were both tailors by occupation, and of the sect of Quakers; "but, receiving the spirit of the French prophets, their testimony, according to what they saw by vision and revelation from God, was, that the second appearing of Christ was at hand; and that the Church was rising in her full and transcendant glory, which would effect the final downfal of Antichrist." The meetings of these people were held alternately in Bolton and Manchester, and sometimes in Mayortown. The manner of public devotion, practised by them at these places, was the following: "Sometimes, after assembling together, and sitting a while in silent meditation, they were taken with a mighty trembling, under which they would express the indignation of God against all sin. At other times they were affected, under the power of God, with a mighty shaking; and were occasionally exercised in singing, shouting, or walking the floor, under the influence of spiritual signs, shoving each other about, or swiftly passing and repassing each other, like clouds agitated by a mighty wind. From these strange exercises the people received the name of Shakers.

"The work which God promised to accomplish in the latter day," they say, "was eminently marked out by the Prophets to be a work of shaking; and hence the name was very properly applied to the people, who were both the subjects and instruments of the work of God, in the latter day." In confirmation of this opinion they quote a number of texts, which have no application to the subject, except that they contain the word shake. If the first verse in the first book of Chronicles, had contained that word, it might have been alleged with exactly the same propriety. Among them is the passage, Haggai ii. 7. "I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall come;" a prediction, which they suppose, began to be fulfilled at this period. “The effects of Christ's first appearing," they observe, "were far from fulfilling the promises, contained in the passages alluded to, in their full extent. Neither was the appearing of Christ, in the form of a man, so properly "the Desire of all nations:" but his second appearing," they say, "was to be manifested in that particular object, woman, which is eminently the desire of all nations."

About the year 1770, we are informed, that "the present testimony of salvation and eternal life was fully opened, according to the special gift and revelation of God, through Anne Lee; that extraordinary woman, who, at that time, was received by their society, as their spiritual Mother." This woman was born at Manchester, in England. Her father, John Lee, was a blacksmith. Her husband, Abraham Stanley, was also a blacksmith. She was a cutter of hatter's fur.

About the year 1758 she joined herself to the society of Shakers; "and there, by her perfect obedience to all that she was taught, attained to the full knowledge and experience of those, who stood in the foremost light." Still, it seems, "finding in herself the seeds or remains of human depravity, and a lack of the divine nature, she was frequently in such extreme agony of soul, that, clinching her hands together, the blood would flow through the pores of her skin." At length, however, she received, by special and immediate revelation from God, the testimony of God against the whole corruption of man in all.

From "the light and power of God which attended her Ministry, she was received and acknowledged, as the first Mother or spiritual parent, in the line of the female; and the second heir in the Covenant of life, according to the present display of the Gospel." This has been her only title, among her followers to the present day.

To such as addressed her by the customary titles, used by the world, she would reply, "I am Anne, the Word." One would scarcely have imagined, that this blasphemous arrogation could have met with countenance from any inhabitant, however degraded, either of Great Britain or the United States. After having been imprisoned in England, and confined in a mad-house, she set sail for America, in the spring of 1774, with a number of her followers; particularly Abraham Stanley her husband, William Lee her brother, James Whitaker, and John Hocknell; and arrived at New-York the following August. During the voyage the ship sprang a leak. When the seamen were nearly wearied out, Mother and her companions put their hands to the pumps, and thus prevented the ship from sinking. From this circumstance plain intimations are given, that their working at the pumps was something supernatural. Mother remained in New-York, as we are informed, almost two years. She then went to Albany, and thence, in the following September, to Nisqueuna. In 1781 she began a progress through various parts of the country, particularly of New-England, which lasted, we are told, about two years and four months. The following year, "having finished the work which was given her to do, she was taken out of their sight,” i. e. the sight of the believers, "in the ordinary way of all living, at Water Vliet, on the eighth day of the ninth month." In honest English, she died.

Since the death of mother, the affairs of the Society have been under the management of several successive persons, on whom the leading gift, in the visible administration, has descended.

This woman has laboured under very serious imputations. In a book, published by a Mr. Rathbone, he mentions, that he had found her, and one of these elders, in very suspicious circumstan

ces.

She professed that she was inspired; that she carried on a continual intercourse with the invisible world, and talked familiarly with Angels. She predicted, in the boldest terms, that the world would be destroyed at a given time: if I remember right, the year 1783. During the interval between the prophecy and its expected fulfilment, she directed them to cease from their common occupations. The direction was implicitly obeyed. As the earth, however, presented no appearances of dissolution, and the skies, no signs of a conflagration, it was discovered, that the prophecy had been miscalculated; and her followers were ordered again to their employments. From that period they have been eminently industrious.

She also professed, that she was able to work miracles; and that she was endued with the power of speaking with tongues, in the manner recorded of the Apostles. Pretensions to miraculous powers, at this period, excite, not only in persons of intelligence, but in most men of sober thought, indignation or contempt. In ignorant persons, especially those, who have warm feelings and lively imaginations, they awaken wonder, alarm, and ultimately confidence. With the aid of a cunning, which levels its efforts directly at their degree of understanding; a ready, voluble eloquence; and a solemn air of mystery; such pretenders have usually made considerable impressions on persons of this character. Among those, who assembled to hear her teach, she persuaded a small number to admit her pretensions, the sanctity of her character, and the reality of her mission from God. To these people she appears to have taught a doubtful reverence for the bible, blended with a superiour veneration for her own dictates. Wherever it sanctioned, or was supposed to sanction, her own instructions, she seems to have appealed to it with readiness, as to conclusive authority. Such is evidently the conduct of her followers, but wherever it directly opposes their system, and conveys a meaning, which rejects every equivocal comment, they pass it by in silence. To enthusiasts of all countries, and nations, mystery has been the universal, as well as absolutely necessary, resort in every difficulty; and the trick, though almost endlessly exposed, is still played off with the same success.