Political Sermons of the American Founding Era

JOSEPH SEWALL (1688-1769). A Harvard graduate of 1707, Sewall spent a long and generally serene ministry at Old South Church in Boston, where he preached beyond his eightieth year. He was a strong Calvinist, yet he became a friend of George Whitefield, who preached in Sewall’s pulpit during several visits to Boston. He was offered the presidency of Harvard in 1724, but he declined it after a peevi...

BENJAMIN COLMAN ( 1673-1747 ). One of the prominent clergymen of his day, Colman became in 1699 the first pastor of Boston's Brattle Street Church, where he found himself at odds with Increase and Cotton Mather because of his views that deviated from strict Congregationalism. His B.A. and A.M. degrees were from Harvard, and he was awarded an S.T.D. by the University of Glasgow. In 1724 he declined...

During the founding era of the United States, particularly from the 1730s through the 1800s but peaking around the American Revolution (1760s–1780s), political sermons formed a vital part of public discourse, especially in New England. Ministers, often from Congregational and Presbyterian traditions, delivered these addresses on occasions like election days, thanksgivings, fasts, or significant ev...