Abstract
On Sunday, July 24, 1775, the Reverend Jonathan Boucher entered his church, Queen Anne’s Anglican Church in St. George’s county, Maryland, mounted his pulpit, and placed a pair of pistols on the cushion. Then, in what has become known as his “Farewell Sermon,” he shouted down his detractors and preached a diatribe against participation in rebellion.
Sermonizing has become an indispensable and valuable part of our pattern of worship. It has been so from times that fostered our ancient heritage. It may change in style or mood or form. Speeches that are carefully conceived, developed and effectively presented are hardly outmoded, certainly not obsolete. Excising them will remove a central, most valuable function of the preacher. He is a leader of a social group and he leads and teaches in acts and words. He cannot comfortably break this mold. For it is not tradition that demands the worthwhile sermons. It is people.
—Arthur J. Bronstein (1964)1
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Professor Bronstein’s interest in preaching prompts the contribution of this essay to this volume.
The estimate is that of Calhoon (1973, p. ix).
An usher was an assistant teacher, a sort of tutor and minor functionary.
For Boucher’s (1925) own account of his relationship with Washington, see Reminiscences, pp. 48-50.
Professor Read also cited Boucher’s contribution to the area of linguistics in a lecture, “Milestones in the Branching of British and American English,” delivered at Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York on December 3,1973. See also Zimmer (1978, pp. 313-326).
Anne Y. Zimmer, in her exhaustive and excellent study, Jonathan Boucher, loyalist in exile, considers the textual authenticity of the sermon examined here. She finally concludes that “in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, the sermons must be presumed to be Boucher’s” (p. 370, footnote). She seems to doubt that the sermon was ever delivered and thinks that all the sermon texts in A View. were reconstructions (p. 338). She further says: “More importantly, the circumstances under which Boucher left Maryland were not conducive to delivering a farewell sermon. The decision to leave and the plans to implement it were quietly managed. No man of even ordinary prudence would have delivered a farewell sermon, and Boucher had uncommon good sense. All of the evidence suggests it is wise to treat Boucher’s book of sermons as part of his English experience” (p. 341). Her speculations are not of consequence here. Whether Boucher actually delivered the sermon does not negate an analysis of the rhetoric he exhibited. The record as it stands is at least one of his intended rhetoric. We may proceed with the assumption that he did say or would have said on the occasion in question what he afterward printed as his “Farewell Sermon.”.
Boucher uses the King James version of the Old Testament. The passage appears in Boucher (1797).
Calhoon (1973, p. 222) says that Boucher never sacrificed Samuel Clarke’s prominent conviction that religious conviction can never be instilled by coercion, fear, or manipulation.
These ideas concerning the perception of objects seem to reflect the influence of George Berkeley noted later in this essay.
From Boucher (1797), p. 309.
From Boucher (1797), pp. 507-508.
From Boucher (1797), p. 306.
From Boucher (1797), p. 535.
From Boucher (1797), p. 538.
From Boucher (1797), p. 543.
References
Boucher, J. Boucher’s glossary of archaic and provincial words. A supplement to the dictionaries of the English language, particularly those of Dr. Johnson and Dr. Webster. London: Black, Young and Young, 1833.
Boucher, J. Reminiscences of an American loyalist, 1738–1789. Ed. by Jonathan Bouchier. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925. Facsimile reprint: Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1967.
Boucher, J. A view of the causes and consequences of the American Revolution in thirteen discourses preached in North America between the years of 1763 and 1775, with an historical preface. New York: Russell and Russell, 1797 (reprinted facsimile edition, 1967).
Bronstein, A. J. In defense of sermons. From In honor of Walter H. Plaut, Rabbi (1919–1964). Great Neck, N.Y.: Temple Emanuel (used by permission), 1964.
Calhoon, R. M. The loyalists in revolutionary America, 1760–1781. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
Calhoon, R. M. Dictionary of national biography. London: Oxford University Press, 1968, p. 911.
Ford, W. C. (Ed.). Letters of Jonathan Boucher to George Washington, with other letters to Washington and letters of Washington to Boucher. Brooklyn, N.Y.: Historical Printing Club, D. Clapp and Son, 1899.
Holland, D. T. Preaching in American history. Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1969.
Hutchinson, W. 1793–1797. History of the county of Cumberland, and some places adjacent, from the earliest accounts to the present time: Comprehending the local history of the county, its antiquities, the origin, genealogy, and present state of the principal families with biographical notes, its mines, minerals and plants, with other curiosities, either of nature or of art (2 vols.). Carlisle, England: F. Jollie, 1793–1797.
Reprinted in 2 vols, as History of the county of Cumberland by E. P. Publishing, Ltd., in collaboration with the Cumbria County Library, 1974.
Oliver, R. T. History of public speaking in America. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1965.
Parrington, V. L. Main currents in American thought. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1930.
Read, A. W. Boucher’s linguistic pastoral of colonial Maryland. Dialect notes, 1933, 6, 353–360.
Simmer, A. Y. Jonathan Boucher, loyalist in exile. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1984 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilson, J.F. (1984). Jonathan Boucher’s Farewell Sermon. In: Raphael, L.J., Raphael, C.B., Valdovinos, M.R. (eds) Language and Cognition. Cognition and Language: A Series in Psycholinguistics. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0381-5_24
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-0381-5_24
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4899-0383-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4899-0381-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive