The Herald of Freedom

The Herald of Freedom arose from Connecticut's political tumult caused by the shifting of the state's power structure from colonial church-state elites to a Jacksonian populace.

Reflecting on this refusal to print his letters, Barnum wrote in his autobiography, "I accordingly purchased a press and types, and on October 19, 1831, I issued the first number of my own paper, The Herald of Freedom.

take a decided and impartial stand in support of sound, rational, and Biblical Religion, in opposition to Bigotry, Superstition, Fanaticism, and Hypocrisy.

It noted that the Herald of Freedom, “if its prospectus is to be believed,” intended to “put down” the “Christian party in politics” or any who advocated a union of “Church and State.” The American Mercury shared that Barnum directed his wrath to all who may embrace “Superstition and Bigotry, Ignorance and Error, Hypocrisy and Fanaticism.” The review saved its most scathing remarks for Barnum's character.

“We know nothing regarding his origin, nor shall we take the trouble to enquire.” The American Mercury advised Barnum that he avail himself of the Bethel school system and take lessons “in the science of manners.” The review concluded with an observation that "Subsidiary to the great object, the Herald of Freedom will support the cause of ‘Jackson and Reform.’”[4][5] President Andrew Jackson would be up for re-election the following year.

Dr. Ezra Stiles Ely was a noted Presbyterian minister, the editor of the religious newspaper The Philadelphian, and an advocate for the preservation of the church-state structure so opposed by Barnum.

It contained a mix of news, paid advertisements, contributed and reprinted articles, letters, court notices, and the editor’s commentary.

Senex also reported this same clergyman took his female converts “one at a time” to a secluded fishing spot “on an unfrequented road.”[8] These embarrassing and titillating articles were designed to undermine cleric authority.

One such article, written by Thomas Cooper, M.D., President of South Carolina College, appeared on the front page of the Herald.

Entitled “Appendix on the Clergy,” Cooper leveled a pointed charge against the “Presbyterians of these States, the Congregationalist, the Seceders” and “in some places, the Baptists, dragging after them the timid Episcopalians” for their attempts to create “an alliance between church and state.”[9] Barnum and Cooper shared a common interest in attacking Presbyterians for their resistance to a separation of church and state.

But lacking that experience which induces caution, and without the dread of consequences, I frequently laid myself open to the charge of libel and three times in three years I was prosecuted.

[13][14] Taylor’s leadership at the Connecticut Repository created its own backlash, with the Hartford Times observing it was “a most illiberal, jesuitical, and unfair paper.”[15] Barnum’s accusation that his uncle favored the union of church and state may not have been defamatory.

We were tried before the Superior Court in this town on Thursday last, for an alleged libel against one Seth Seelye, a Presbyterian fanatic in Bethel, in which he was charged with inhumanly cheating a poor, lame, and destitute orphan boy out of $17.

Lingering in the Connecticut legal system were provisions, colloquially referred to as “blue laws,” that enabled a civil libel case to be adjudicated in criminal court.

Just four years earlier, in 1828, while on the Connecticut Supreme Court bench, Daggett declared, ironically in a case involving usury, that testimony from a Universalist was inadmissible (Atwood v. Welton).

He argued that if any person believed their “own happiness secure at death, regardless of his conduct in this life, he ought not to be sworn.”[19] Barnum was fined $100.00 and sentenced to sixty days imprisonment.

In agreement with Barnum, Andrews ceased publication in Hartford and published the joint Herald of Freedom and Gospel Witness in Bethel.

In those letters, Andrews’s father attempted, unsuccessfully, to dissuade his son from leaving the Presbyterian faith of his youth and converting to Universalism.

[22] The combined Herald of Freedom and Gospel Witness continued to print articles critical of what it deemed the church-state elite.