# Leonard Bacon

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{{Short description|American Congregational preacher and writer (1802–1881)}}
{{Other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Leonard Bacon
| image         = Leonard Bacon portrait.jpg
| alt           = <!-- descriptive text for use by the blind and visually impaired's speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software  -->
| caption       = 
| birth_name    = 
| birth_date    = {{Birth date |1802|02|19}} 
| birth_place   = [Detroit, Michigan](/source/Detroit)
| death_date    = {{Death date and age|1881|12|24|1802|02|19}}
| death_place   = New Haven, Connecticut
| resting_place = [Grove Street Cemetery](/source/Grove_Street_Cemetery)
| nationality   = 
| other_names   = 
| education     = [Yale College](/source/Yale_College)<br />[Andover Theological Seminary](/source/Andover_Theological_Seminary)
| occupation    = Clergyman, Professor
| years_active  = 
| known_for     = 
| notable_works = 
| children = [Leonard Woolsey Bacon](/source/Leonard_Woolsey_Bacon)<br />[Edward Woolsey Bacon](/source/Edward_Woolsey_Bacon)<br />[George B. Bacon](/source/George_B._Bacon)<br />[Thomas Rutherford Bacon](/source/Thomas_Rutherford_Bacon)<br />Francis Bacon<ref name=AMB>{{Cite AMB1920|wstitle=Bacon, Francis}}</ref>
| signature     = Signature of Leonard Bacon (1802–1881).png
}}
Reverend '''Leonard Bacon''' (February 19, 1802 – December 24, 1881) was an American [Congregational](/source/Congregationalism_in_the_United_States) preacher and writer. He held the pulpit of the First Church New Haven and was later professor of church history and polity at [Yale College](/source/Yale_College).

==Biography==
thumb|Leonard Bacon, D. D.
Leonard Bacon was born in [Detroit, Michigan](/source/Detroit). He was the son of [David Bacon](/source/David_Bacon_(missionary)) (1771–1817), a missionary among the Indians in Michigan and founder of the town of [Tallmadge, Ohio](/source/Tallmadge%2C_Ohio).{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}} There his sister [Delia Bacon](/source/Delia_Bacon), later a major Shakespeare scholar, was born in 1811.<ref name="Schiff">{{cite magazine |last=Schiff |first=Judith Ann |title=A genius, but mad |magazine=Yale Alumni Magazine |date=November 2015 |url=https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/4189/delia-bacon |access-date=19 December 2015}}</ref>

Leonard Bacon prepared for college at grammar school in [Hartford, Connecticut](/source/Hartford%2C_Connecticut). He graduated from [Yale College](/source/Yale_University) in 1820, where he was a member of [Brothers in Unity](/source/Brothers_in_Unity), and from the [Andover Theological Seminary](/source/Andover_Theological_Seminary) in 1823. From 1825 until his death he was pastor of the First Church (Congregational) in [New Haven, Connecticut](/source/New_Haven%2C_Connecticut), occupying a pulpit which was one of the most conspicuous in New England, and which had been rendered famous by his predecessors, [Moses Stuart](/source/Moses_Stuart) and [Nathaniel W. Taylor](/source/Nathaniel_W._Taylor). In 1866, however, though never dismissed by a council from his connection with that church, he gave up the active pastorate;{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}} still, in 1868 he was president of the [American Congregational Union](/source/American_Congregational_Union).<ref>{{Cite journal
  | title = American Congregational Union
  | journal = [The Congregational Quarterly](/source/The_Congregational_Quarterly)
  | volume = 10
  | pages = 299–309
  | date = July 1868
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=s-nNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA299
  | access-date = 2009-12-05| last1 = Clark
 | first1 = Joseph Sylvester
 | last2 = Dexter
 | first2 = Henry Martyn
 | last3 = Quint
 | first3 = Alonzo Hall
 | last4 = Langworthy
 | first4 = Isaac Pendleton
 | last5 = Cushing
 | first5 = Christopher
 | last6 = Burnham
 | first6 = Samuel
 }}</ref>

From 1826 to 1838, he was an editor of the ''[Christian Spectator](/source/Christian_Spectator)'' (New Haven). In 1843 he was one of the founders of the ''New Englander'' (later the ''[Yale Review](/source/Yale_Review)''), and in 1848, with [Richard Salter Storrs](/source/Richard_Salter_Storrs), [Joshua Leavitt](/source/Joshua_Leavitt), [Joseph Parrish Thompson](/source/Joseph_Parrish_Thompson), and [Henry C. Bowen](/source/Henry_C._Bowen), he founded ['' The Independent''](/source/The_Independent_(New_York)), a magazine designed primarily to combat [slavery](/source/slavery) extension; he was an editor of the ''Independent'' until 1863. From 1866 until his death he taught at Yale: first, until 1871, as acting professor of didactic theology in the Theological Department; and from 1871 as lecturer on church polity and American church history.{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}} He traveled to the Middle East (then "Greater Syria") in the middle 1800s to visit holy sites, and gave lectures on his experiences, at least one of which was published in the New York Times.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1852/03/20/87830998.pdf|title=Newspaper clipping
|website=nytimes.com|access-date=28 April 2024}}</ref>

As a part of the 1872 [Iwakura Mission](/source/Iwakura_Mission) Bacon was given guardianship of [Yamakawa Sutematsu](/source/%C5%8Cyama_Sutematsu), a Japanese girl sent to the United States to be educated. She became particularly close with the youngest daughter in the household, [Alice Mabel Bacon](/source/Alice_Mabel_Bacon), and would become the first Japanese woman to receive a college degree.

Bacon was buried at [Grove Street Cemetery](/source/Grove_Street_Cemetery), as was his sister [Delia Bacon](/source/Delia_Bacon). Four of his six sons became Congregational pastors:<ref>{{Cite book
  | title = Memorial biographies of New England historic genealogical society, 1853–1855, Volume 8
  | publisher = [New England Historic Genealogical Society](/source/New_England_Historic_Genealogical_Society)
  | year = 1907
  | page = 83
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pJl4AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA83}}</ref> [Edward Woolsey Bacon](/source/Edward_Woolsey_Bacon) (in [New London, Connecticut](/source/New_London%2C_Connecticut)<ref>{{cite book|last=National Council of the Congregational Churches of the United States, Publishing Committee|title=The Congregational year-book|publisher=Congregational Pub. Society|year=1880|volume=2|pages=62|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1AERAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA62|access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref>), [Leonard Woolsey Bacon](/source/Leonard_Woolsey_Bacon),<ref>{{cite book|last=General Council of the Congregational and Christian Churches of the United States, Executive Committee|title=The Year book of the Congregational Christian churches of the United States of America|year=1908|pages=12|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GhlKAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12|access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref> [George B. Bacon](/source/George_B._Bacon) (in [Orange, New Jersey](/source/Orange%2C_New_Jersey)<ref name="new englander1">{{Cite journal
  | title = Rev. of Leonard Woolsey Bacon, ''Church Papers''
  | journal = [New Englander and Yale Review](/source/New_Englander_and_Yale_Review)
  | volume = 37
  | issue = 142
  | pages = 133–35
  | date = January 1878
  | url = https://digital.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=nwng;cc=nwng;rgn=full%20text;idno=nwng0037-1;didno=nwng0037-1;view=image;seq=149;node=nwng0037-1%3A1;page=root;size=s;frm=frameset;
  | access-date = 2009-12-04}}</ref>), and [Thomas Rutherford Bacon](/source/Thomas_Rutherford_Bacon) (in [New Haven, Connecticut](/source/New_Haven%2C_Connecticut)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A03E4DA1238E033A25757C2A9659C94659FD7CF|title=Bacon's Unexpected Resignation.a New-haven Congregational Church Losing its Pastor on Account of the Dissatisfaction of a Few Members|date=24 March 1884|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|pages=1|access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E2D91139E533A25754C0A96F9C94649FD7CF|title=Some Hit and Miss Chat; Stray Bits of Gossip from an Observer's Note Book. A Dream's Strange Sequel--one of Leonard Bacon's Sons--Clevelands of the Last Century|date=7 September 1885|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|pages=2|access-date=2 March 2010}}</ref>).

==Convictions and influence==
In his own theological views, Bacon was broad-minded and an advocate of liberal orthodoxy. In all matters concerning the welfare of his community or the nation, moreover, he took a deep and constant interest, and was particularly identified with the [temperance](/source/Temperance_movement) and [anti-slavery](/source/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States) movements, his services to the latter constituting perhaps the most important work of his life. In this, as in most other controversies, he took a moderate course, condemning the apologists and defenders of slavery on the one hand and the [Garrisonian](/source/William_Lloyd_Garrison) extremists on the other. His ''Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 1846'' (1846) exercised considerable influence upon [Abraham Lincoln](/source/Abraham_Lincoln), and in this book appears the sentence, which, as rephrased by Lincoln, was widely quoted: "If that form of government, that system of social order is not wrong &mdash; if those laws of the Southern States, by virtue of which slavery exists there, and is what it is, are not wrong &mdash; nothing is wrong."{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}}

He was early attracted to the study of the ecclesiastical history of [New England](/source/New_England) and was frequently called upon to deliver commemorative addresses, some of which were published in book and pamphlet form. Of these, his ''Thirteen Historical Discourses'' (1839), dealing with the history of New Haven, and his ''Four Commemorative Discourses'' (1866) may be especially mentioned. The most important of his historical works, however, is his ''Genesis of the New England Churches'' (1874). He published ''A Manual for Young Church Members'' (1833); edited, with a biography, the ''Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter'' (1831); and was the author of a number of [hymn](/source/hymn)s, the best-known of which is the one beginning, "O God, beneath Thy guiding hand Our exiled fathers crossed the sea."{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}}

Gradually, after taking up his pastorate, he gained greater and greater influence in his denomination, until he came to be regarded as perhaps the most prominent Congregationalist of his time, and was sometimes popularly referred to as "The Congregational Pope of New England." In all the heated theological controversies of the day, particularly the long and bitter one concerning the views put forward by Dr [Horace Bushnell](/source/Horace_Bushnell), he was conspicuous, using his influence to bring about harmony, and in the councils of the Congregational churches, over two of which, the [Brooklyn](/source/Brooklyn) councils of 1874 and 1876. he presided as moderator, he manifested great ability both as a debater and as a parliamentarian.{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}}

His congregation published a commemorative volume in his honor, ''Leonard Bacon, Pastor of the First Church in New Haven'' (New Haven, 1882), and his biography is also found in Williston Walker's ''Ten New England Leaders'' (New York, 1901).{{sfn|Walker|1911|p=152}}

==References==
{{reflist}}
* {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Bacon, Leonard |volume= 1 |page=178 |short=}}
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Bacon, Leonard|volume=3|pages=152-153|first=Williston|last=Walker|author-link=Williston Walker}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{Find a Grave|132674616}}
* [https://archive.org/details/genesisofnewengl00baco/ The Genesis of the New England Churches]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bacon, Leonard}}
Category:1802 births
Category:1881 deaths
Category:Writers from Detroit
Category:19th-century American Congregationalist ministers
Category:Burials at Grove Street Cemetery
Category:St. George's School (Rhode Island) alumni
Category:Yale Divinity School faculty
Category:Yale College alumni

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Leonard Bacon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bacon) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Bacon?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.