The Biographical Dictionary of America/Bacon, Leonard

BACON, Leonard, theologian, was born in Detroit, Mich., Feb. 19, 1802, son of the Rev. David Bacon, a missionary among the Ojibbewa Indians. He was graduated at Yale in 1820; at Andover, 1823; was ordained at Windsor, Sept. 28, 1824; was pastor of the First church, New Haven, 1825-'66, and pastor emeritus 1866-’81; acting professor of Systematic theology, Yale divinity school, 1866-'71; lecturer on Congregationalism at Andover, 1866-’69. and on church polity and American church history at Yale 1871-'81. He upheld the practices of the early Puritan church, and was conservative on all questions relating to the church polity, giving, besides, earnest and attentive concern to all important questions of the day. After 1823 he was a pronounced abolitionist. He held decided opinions on the question of slavery, and his views, promulgated in a series of essays, collected and published in 1846, were referred to by Abraham Lincoln as being the source of his own clear and sober convictions on the subject. He was a stanch defender of the Union, and as stanch an opposer of those abolitionists who denounced it. He gave his influence to obtain the repeal of the "omnibus" clause in the Connecticut divorce law. He was editor of the Christian Spectator, published at New Haven from 1826 to 1838. In 1843 he established The New Englander Review, afterwards The New Englander and Yale Review, and was connected with it up to the time of his death. In 1848, in conjunction with Henry C. Bowen and Drs. Storrs, Leavitt and Thompson, he founded the Independent and performed a share of the editorial duties until 1863, when he resigned his active labors, but remained a contributor. In March, 1874, he was moderator of the council of Congregational churches which met at Brooklyn, N. Y., and assisted in preparing a rebuke addressed to Plymouth church for irregularly dropping Theodore Tilton from its membership, and in 1876 filled a like position in the advisory council convened at the request of the Plymouth church to consider matters in regard to the Beecher-Tilton scandal. Dr. Bacon was fond of historical study, particularly as pertaining to the Puritans. In addition to his manifold contributions to the contemporary press, he published many pamphlets and reviews, as well as several works on religious, biographical, historical and other subjects. He received from Hamilton college, in 1842, the degree S. T. D., and from Harvard, in 1870, that of LL.D. Among his published books are: "Select Practical Writings of Richard Baxter," with a life of the author (1831, 2d ed., 1836); "A Manual for Young Church Members" (1833); "Thirteen Historical Discourses on the Completion of Two Hundred Years from the Beginning of the First Church in New Haven" (1839); "Slavery Discussed in Occasional Essays from 1833 to 1846"; "Christian Self-Culture" (1863); "Historical Discourse at Worcester, Mass., Sept. 22, 1863"; "Four Commemorative Discourses" (1866); "The Genesis of the New England Churches" New York (1874); "Sketch of the Rev. David Bacon" (1876). He died at New Haven, Conn., Dec. 24, 1881.