HE debate with Robert Owen, of England, infidel philanthropist and colonizer, took place in Cincinnati, O., in 1830. He had paid a short visit to the Campbells at Bethany the previous Year and had learned to prize the manliness of both Alexander Campbell and his father. The latter went with his son to the city of the debate, and was present throughout the eight days of its progress, from April 13 to April 21. He remained in Cincinnati for several days after the departure of the principals, and baptized several converts. Dr. Richardson writes that Mr. Owen was greatly impressed with the "urbanity, kindness and many excellent qualities of the elder Campbell."

      Thomas Campbell was present in Kentucky at the Elkhorn Baptist Association meeting in 1830, when the churches at Versailles, Providence and South Elkhorn were excluded from fellowship in order to reach some prominent Baptists who were advocates of the primitive faith and order. In 1828, Thomas Campbell and Alexander had been present in the Stillwater Baptist Association in Ohio, when Cyrus McNeely was tried for having baptized a convert at the Cadiz Church over which he was presiding and before he had been ordained. The Campbells defended the course of the young baptizer as [155] perfectly scriptural. The complexion of the churches composing the Mahoning and Stillwater Associations had so altered in the preceding years that in 1830 they both ceased as Associations and resolved themselves into annual meetings that provided for the complete autonomy of the individual churches.

      The years 1825 to 1830 were those of the greatest defection from Baptist churches to the ranks of the "Reformers" (Early History of the Disciples, etc., p. 168). Some time during those years "Campbellites" arose as a rude term of reproach for those who sought to follow the New Testament only. Ohio and Kentucky were especial fields of labor for Thomas Campbell during the indicated years. An extract from a letter written to his wife on Aug. 30, 1830, reveals something of his travels, thoughts and outlook. He had been absent from home for six months in 1829 in the Western Reserve, and would complete another six months of absence in Kentucky before returning to his home. He noted that since his marriage he had been one-seventh of the time away from his home and family, and craved that his wife would forgive him that wrong.

"I have not enjoyed so even and so confirmed a state of health these many years. Notwithstanding the heat and drouth and dust, and my almost daily speaking, from two to three hours at a time, I have not had so much as a headache since I left home. . . . I can give you no adequate idea of the weight and heat of the work in Kentucky. The outrageous and malevolent opposition [156] is ripening the harvest for the reformers. A. Campbell, Campbellism, Campbellites and heretics are the chorus, the overword, the tocsin of alarm in the months of the opponents--in almost every sentence from the one end of Kentucky to the other; yea, in the opposition and in the papers from Georgia to Maine. You can not conceive what a terrible dust our humble name has kicked up. If it were not coupled with the pure cause of God--the ancient gospel of the Saviour, and the sacred order of things established by his holy apostles, I should tremble for the consequences! But alas! the enemies have blasphemed the blessed gospel by pasting our sinful names upon it, to bring it into disrepute" (Memoirs of Elder Thomas Campbell, pp. 151, 152).

The tone of this letter shows he had not swerved from the positions of the Declaration and Address taken more than twenty years before, and that he was ready to accept what came as long as he was loyal to the Lord.

      Three significant things happened in the religious world in 1830. The first was an unusual agitation of the subject of the millennium. Walter Scott had cast his annual report to the Mahoning Association in 1828 in millennial terminology. Two works on prophecy, one by Elias Smith and another by James Begg, had stirred Scott. Other preachers were catching up something of Scott's message and anticipation of the millennium. The second significant thing was the establishment of The Millennial Harbinger to take the place of The Christian Baptist. In that monthly it was intended [157] to treat a wider range of subjects,

"and to show 'the inadequacy of modern systems of education,' and the injustice yet remaining 'under even the best political governments' in regard to various matters, connected with the public welfare" (Richardson's Memoirs, Vol. II., p. 303).

Moreover, it gave place to the discussion of the millennium and the second coming. Alexander Campbell, under a pseudonym "The Reformed Clergyman," reviewed the articles, striving to correct the errors therein and to keep men from turning away from the practical work of the gospel. It is a tribute to the sanity of both the Campbells that neither one embraced the extravagant hopes of the times nor felt that any theory of the millennium was an essential part of the gospel. The third thing was the beginning of the Mormon delusion. Sidney Rigdon had become somewhat affected by Walter Scott's warm advocacy of the early onset of the millennium, and he became a tool for those who sought to impose on the world a new religion with a new revelation. It may be that Mr. Rigdon was smarting under the rejection of a proposed scheme of communism for the churches, and saw a way to honor through Mormonism. Joseph Smith had a revelation for Mr. Rigdon that characterized him as a John the Baptist. The Mormon message was launched in the heart of the Western Reserve of Ohio, and had its first hearing among Baptists and churches of Christ.

      The venerable Thomas Campbell, who already had a great many children of the faith in that [158] region, hearing of the defection of Sidney Rigdon and the progress that the delusion was making, left his Bethany home and came into the center of the new battle. He spent much time of the winter of 1830 and 1831 in Mentor and vicinity. His wise counsels and great weight of influence interposed an effectual barrier to Mormonism's encroachments. From Mentor, O., on Feb. 4, 1831, he addressed a letter to Mr. Rigdon from which we quote some sentences and paragraphs:

"It may seem strange, that instead of a confidential and friendly visit, after so long an absence, I should thus address, by letter, one whom for many years I have considered not only as a courteous and benevolent friend, but as a beloved brother and fellow-laborer in the gospel; but, alas! how changed and fallen! Nevertheless I should now have visited you, as formerly, could I conceive that my so doing would answer the important purpose, both to ourselves and to the public, to which we both stand pledged, from the conspicuous and important stations we occupy--you as the professed disciple and public teacher of the infernal Book of Mormon, and I as the professed disciple and public teacher of the supernal books of the Old and New Testaments of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which you now say is superseded by the Book of Mormon--is become a dead letter; so dead that the belief and obedience of it, without the reception of the latter, is no longer available for salvation. To the disproof of this assertion, I understand you to defy the world. . . . I, therefore, as in duty bound, accept the [159] challenge, and shall hold myself in readiness, if the Lord permit, to meet you publicly, in any place, either in Mentor or Kirkland, or in any of the adjoining towns that may appear most eligible for the accommodation of the public. The sooner the investigation takes place the better for all concerned.

      "The proposition that I have assumed, and which I mean to assume and defend against Mormonism and every other ism that has been assumed since the Christian era, is the all-sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, vulgarly called the Bible, to make every intelligent believer wise to salvation, thoroughly furnished for any good work. This proposition, clearly and fully established, as I believe it most certainly can be, we have no more need for Quakerism, Shakerism, Wilkinsonianism, Buchmanism, Mormonism, or any other ism, than we have for three eyes, three ears, three hands, or three feet, in order to see, hear, work or walk."

In the rest of the letter Mr. Campbell specifies special propositions to which he will address his argumentation, six of them dealing with the claims of Mormonism. Hayden states:

"Mr. Rigdon read a few lines of this communication and then hastily committed it to the flames" (History of the Disciples, pp. 217-220).

It was about a year later (March, 1832) that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon were taken from the headquarters of Mormonism and tarred and feathered. We may be sure that Thomas Campbell had no part in that questionable proceeding, for the [160] perpetrators were citizens of Shalersville, Garrettsville and Hiram, who had discovered the certainty of the fraud and resented the way in which they had been duped. [161]

[TCSCUA 155-161]