History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

irM.l DISMISSAL OF REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS. 231
He Writes to Mr. The individual referred to in the above ex-
Edwards, tract, was Major Joseph Hawley, who
doubtless contributed more than any of his
contemporaries towards the dismissal of Mr. Edwards. In
a short time Major Hawley began to realize the injustice of
his course, and on the ll^'' of August, 1754, opened a correspondence
with that gentleman, requesting him to give
his judgment concerning the conduct of the writer in that
affair. To this letter, which has not been preserved, in the
following" November, Mr. Edwards made an elaborate
reply. In it he reviewed to some extent the entire controversy
as well as the part taken in it by his correspondent.
He dwells especially upon the uncharitable and unchristian
spirit evinced by the people and their leaders, the continued
perversion and misrepresentations of his views, the want
of deference towards him whom most of them "esteemed
to be the chief instrument in the Hand of God of the
eternal salvation of their souls," and the manifest determination
from the beginning of the controversy that he
should be dismissed. He says : —
"The People most manifestly continued in a constant flame of high
Resentment & vehement opposition for more than two years together
& this spirit instead of subsiding grew higher and higher, till they had
obtained their end in my expulsion ; nor did it cease then, but still
they manifested their Jealousy of me, as if I was personally doing the
part of an Enemy to 'em so long as I had a living in the Town, yea till
they saw the Town well cleared of all my Family. So deep were their
Prejudices when their Heat was manifested that nothing would quiet
'em till they could see the Town clear of Root & Branch, name & Rem-
nant." With reference to Mr. Hawley's own course, he says in the
same letter — : " And therefore, sir, I think you made yourself greatly
guilty in the sight of God, in the Part you acted in this afifair, becom-
ing, especially toward the latter Part of it, very much the Leader in
it : &
much from your own forwardness, putting yourself forward as
it were as tho' fond of meddling & Helping, which were the less becoming
considering yom- youth and considering your Relation to me.
Your forwardness especially appeared on this occasion, that after you
were chosen as one of the committee to plead their cause before a council,
you came to me and desired me to stay the ch. on purpose that you
might have opportunity to excuse yourself from the Business :
;
which
was accordingly done, and you did excuse yourself and was excused,
but when the matter came to be pleaded before the council j-ou (I
think very inconsistently) thrust yourself forward and pleaded the
caiise with Earnestness, notwithstanding 'tis manifest that what you