Pulpit Incendiaries in the American Colonies
Robert Cecil describes how the preacher’s influence in the years before the American Revolution was as great as that of the press, and in New England probably greater.
In countries with free institutions, popular revolutions do not occur unless deliberate efforts have first been made to transform the climate of political opinion. ‘The revolution,’ wrote John Adams, ‘was in the minds and hearts of the people...’ Much has been written about the influence of the press and pamphleteers on the minds of the American Colonists; less has been written about the political influence of the Churches.
The reason for this is not far to seek. In most countries the part played directly by religion in politics has long been on the decline and this is specially true of the Anglo-Saxon world. On the other hand, the period since the middle of the eighteenth century has been marked by an impressive growth in the power of the press, which in the present era has survived the introduction of the new mass media of communication.
Radio and television, because of their novelty, have struck our imagination much as the novelty of the press as a ‘political engine’ (to use John Adams’ expression) made a special impact on eighteenth-century minds. ‘Let me make the newspapers of a country,’ observed Jefferson, ‘and I do not care who makes its laws.’
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