Sold – Ralph Waldo Emerson Prepares to Deliver His Peace Address in Concord

Dr. William Ellery Channing was an active Unitarian minister, the leading preacher of that church in the U.S., whose productive years predated and anticipated many of the ideas adopted by Emerson. In fact, Channing was Emerson’s bishop before he split with the church.  What we now know as Transcendentalism first arose among liberal New England Congregationalists who rejected the traditional Puritan concept of inescapable sin and depravity.  They emphasized unity rather than the “Trinity” (hence the term “Unitarian”). Channing’s sermon “Unitarian Christianity” helped give the movement its name. In 1815, Channing formed, in his study, the Massachusetts Peace Society.

On September 8, 1836, the day before Ralph Waldo Emerson’s publication of “Nature,” he and like minded friends met at Willard’s Hotel in Cambridge to plan a periodic gathering of people who were disenchanted with the current climate in America and sought something more. This was the Transcendental Club, and it would meet for nearly a decade.  Among the attendees were William Ellery Channing and Bronson Alcott.

In March 1838, The American Peace Society sponsored a series of lectures, and on the 12th of the month, Emerson gave the keynote lecture, “The Peace Principle.” It was later published in his collected works under the name “War.”  In it, suprisingly, he begins by noting the uses of war, but swiftly moves to an overall condemnation of contemporary conflict, and the prediction of a “congress of nations” as a forum for dispute resolution. “If peace is to be maintained, it must be by brave men who have come up to the same height as the hero…who have gone one step beyond the hero and will not seek another man’s life.” In attendance was Alcott, who noted with approval the speech in his journal as “Emerson’s lecture on peace.”

Whether Channing first heard of the lecture at one of these meetings or from another person in the peace group is unclear. Most likely, Alcott, present at the March 12 gathering, recommended it to Channing, who borrowed it from Emerson. Then Emerson was invited by his fellows in Concord and East Lexington to deliver the same address on April 5.  There appears to have been just one working copy, which Emerson required to deliver his address.

Autograph letter signed, Boston, likely between March 12 and April 5, 1838, addressed in Emerson’s hand to Channing. “May I ask that my Lecture on Peace may be returned to the bearer if it is not in use.  An unexpected request has been made to me to read it to some neighbors of mine.  With great respect, your friend and servant, R.W. Emerson.”