Book Review

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Book Review | The Journal of American History, 86.3 | The History Cooperative

New England's Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817. By John R. Fitzmier. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998. xiv, 261 pp. $39.95, isbn 0-253-33433-0.)

Timothy Dwight—grandson of Jonathan Edwards, Congregationalist minister, poet, and president of Yale College—created and espoused, John R. Fitzmier argues, a religious system of "Godly Federalism" at a time when America was moving in the direction of religious and political democracy. 1

Dwight was born in 1752 in Northampton, Massachusetts, heir to two of New England's most prominent families. He graduated from Yale before serving there as a college tutor. Overwork and an ascetic life-style, however, severely damaged his eyes, and Dwight suffered from functional blindness for the remainder of his life, a disability that colored his preaching, theology, and writing. Dwight studied theology under his uncle, Jonathan Edwards Jr., was licensed to preach, and obtained a chaplain's commission in the army in 1777. In 1783 Dwight was ordained to the pastorate of the church in Greenfield, Connecticut. He pursued his pastoral calling, wrote prolifically, and opened a popular academy. 2

In 1795 the Yale Corporation recognized Dwight's accomplishments and ability by electing him to the presidency of the college, a position he would hold until his death in 1817. As president, Dwight labored not only for the spiritual, financial, and academic health of the institution but for the continued influence of Congregational orthodoxy and Federalism. . . .

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