More Cheever info for the files. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 19 Sep 1999 16:02:38 PDT From: "Beth A. Salerno" <[log in to unmask]> Reply-To: H-NET List for History of the Early American Republic <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Reply: George B. Cheever's Fire and Hammer of God's Word Date: Friday, September 17, 1999 14:12:48 From: Hal Morris [log in to unmask] Cheever was, to use good old New Jersey expression, a real piece o' work. More seriously, I think "compulsive controversialist" is a good way to describe him. When he was settled in a church in Salem in 1832(?) he launched into a pamphlet and public letter war with the local Unitarians. Most of his causes were foolish and misguided He became a serious abolitionist at the last moment (though he'd spoken against slavery decades earlier, it just didn't preoccupy him the way saving the death penalty, bashing Unitarians and Catholics, stopping Sunday Mail delivery, and temperance did). He is not a hero, but is an interesting product, and maker, of his times. I too, recommend Robert M. York's _George B. Cheever, Religious and Social Reformer 1807-1890, otherwise known as University of Maine Bulletin Vol LVII, no 12, or University of Maine Studies, Second Series, No. 69 (April 1, 1955). Hal Morris: [log in to unmask] -- Editor of: * H-SHEAR Web pages: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~shear * Tales of the Early Republic: http://earlyrepublic.net Web Resources: Bibliography, Biographical Dict... (work in progress) * Jacksonian Miscellanies: free email weekly of source excerpts.