History of Stockbridge, (Windsor County) Vermont United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Stockbridge, (Windsor County) Vermont, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Orestes Augustus Brownson, theologist, was born at Stockbridge, Vt., Sept. 16, 1803. His father died when he was a mere child and he was taken in charge by relatives living in Royalton, and brought up in a simple, precise and puritanic way until he was fourteen. He then found work at Saratoga, N. Y., and earned enough to take a course of study in the academy at Ballston. When nearly nineteen years old he joined the Presbyterian church, and three years later entered the Universalist ministry, and preached in New York and Vermont. He became editorially connected with the Christian Advocate and was later the editor of the Philanthropist. He was encouraged in matters of social reform by Robert Owen, and made energetic efforts to establish such an organization of the humbler classes as to make them an effective element in political life. But the times were not ripe and the movement failed. About this time he became interested in the religious views of Dr. Channing, and in 1832 became pastor of a Unitarian congregation. He organized the Society for Christian Union and Progress in 1836, and served in Boston as pastor until 1843, when he abandoned preaching, and gave himself to secular interests. He took the stump as a speaker in the interests of the Democratic party, opposing the Whigs with much vehemence and popular eloquence; helped to organize the Loco-foco party in New York, and supported Van Buren for the presidency. He was too independent to suit party leaders, and when a new constitution was proposed in Massachusetts he sided with the Whigs. He published, in 1836, "New Views of Christian Society and the Church," and in 1836-37 published articles in the Christian Examiner, which gave him renown as a philosopher. He started the Boston Quarterly Review in 1838, and was for five years his own editor and almost the only contributor. He advocated no special system either of philosophy or religion, but invited investigation, stimulated thought in others, and suggested searching changes in politics and reform. In 1643 the periodical was absorbed by the Democratic Review of New York, and Dr. Brownson continued a contributor. In 1840 he published, Charles Elwood, or the Infidel Converted, a novel, purporting to be the biography of a soul struggling out of bondage into freedom, from darkness to light. It was popular; awakened discussion, and had ready sale; but, regardless of his interests, he refused to have a second edition issued in the United States, as his own views were undergoing vital change, so radical and extreme, that he found contentment of thought and peace of mind in the Roman Catholic church, into which communion he entered in 1844. The philosophy of his faith seemed to lie in the close distinction he made between immediate perception or intuition and reflex knowledge. His intimate study of the French philosophy of Leroux and Gioberti and Cousin was manifest in his writings, and in several instances brought him into conflict with the authorities of the church to which he had given his allegiance. Articles published in Brownson's Quarterly Review were subject to stringent criticism, and were finally referred to Rome. Nothing was found really deserving of censure, but Dr. Brownson was asked to be more cautious in his treatment of certain themes. The controversy, added to domestic troubles, was so trying to him, that his health gave way, and in 1864 he discontinued his Review. When the syllabus of 1865 was published he defended it in the Catholic journals, and was charged with inconsistency in the emphasis of what he deemed truth and of the faith he professed, so far as Roman Catholic doctrines were concerned; and while he was held to be liberal in one direction, he was regarded as too severe and conservative in another. He was honored with an invitation to a professorship in Dublin university, which he valued much although he declined it. When he was seventy-two years old he left the east and settled in Detroit, where his son was living, and he there busied himself in re-writing portions of the works already published. Among them were: Essays and Reviews (1852); The Spirit Rapper, an Autobiography (1854); The Convert or Leaves from my Experience (1857); The American Republic, its Constitution, Tendencies and Destiny, (1865); Conversation on Liberalism and the Church (1870). He died in Detroit, Mich., April 17, 1876.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Stockbridge, (Windsor County) Vermont

Biographies: