The following is a footnote on pages 154-55 of the History, Volume II.
A yearly meeting of their churches, begun at Warren, September 8, 1767, called The Warren Association. - B[ackus].This important movement in the history of New England Baptists, the founding of the Warren Association, merits a more extended notice. The leader in the movement was James Manning, pastor of the church in Warren and President of Rhode Island College [now Brown University]. Wishing "to unite all the churches of his faith and order in New England in an association similar to the one formed in Philadelphia," "he submitted his plan to the members of his own church, who cordially seconded his views, as appears from a formal vote on the subject, which we find recorded under date of August 28, 1766."
Other pastors entered into the project, and a conference was called, in which eleven churches were represented. The pastors and delegates of only four churches, Warren, Bellingham, Haverhill and Second Middlcborough, were ready for organization, the rest fearing lest the new body would conflict with church independence.
Isaac Backus, the first Clerk, commenced his Minutes as follows: -
"Whereas there hath of late been a great increase of Baptists in New England, which yet have not such an acquaintance with each other and orderly union together as ought to be, it has been thought by many that a general meeting or association might be a likely means to remove this evil, and to promote the general good of the churches. Therefore, a number of elders, being occasionally together last year, did appoint a meeting at Warren, in Rhode Island Colony, on September 8, 1767, and sent an invitation to others of their brethren to meet them there, to confer upon these affairs. Accordingly a considerable number of elders and brethren met at the time and place appointed; and Elder John Gano, from New York, opened the meeting with a suitable sermon from Acts, xv. 9."The Association soon proved an important agency in the struggle for religious freedom. In 1769 it adopted the following "plan to collect grievances.""Whereas complaints of oppressions, occasioned by a non-conformity to the religious establishment in New England, have been brought to this Association, and whereas the laws obtained for preventing and redressing such oppressions have, upon trial, been found insufficient (either through defect in the laws themselves, or iniquity in the execution thereof); and whereas humble remonstrances and petitions have not been duly regarded, but the same oppressive measures continued: This is to inform all the oppressed Baptists in New England that the Association of Warren, (in conjunction with the Western or Philadelphia Association) is determined to seek remedy for their brethren where a speedy and effectual one may be had. In order to pursue this resolution by petition and memorial, the following gentlemen are appointed to receive well attested grievances, to be by them transmitted to the Rev. Samuel Stillman of Boston; namely, Rev. Hezekiah Smith of Haverhill, Rev. Isaac Backus of Middleborough, Mr. Richard Montague of Sunderland, Rev. Joseph Meacham of Enfield, and Rev. Thomas Whitman of Groton in Connecticut." [Backus's Manuscript Minutes, copied and preserved by Rev. S. Hall.]In pursuance of this plan, the committee published the advertisement above referred to. It appeared in the Boston Evening Post of August 20, 1770, and was as follows: -"To the Baptists in the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, who are, or have been, oppressed in any way on a religious account. It would be needless to tell you that you have long felt the effects of the laws by which the religion of the government in which you live is established. Your purses have felt the burden of ministerial rates; and when these would not satisfy your enemies, your property hath been taken from you and sold for less than half its value. These things you cannot forget. You will therefore readily hear and attend, when you are desired to collect your cases of suffering, and have them well attested; such as, the taxes you have paid to build meeting-houses, to settle ministers and support them, with all the time, money and labor you have lost in waiting on courts, feeing lawyers, &c.; and bring or send such cases to the Baptist Association to be held at Bellingham; when measures will be resolutely adopted for obtaining redress from another quarter than that to which repeated application hath been made unsuccessfully. Nay, complaints, however just and grievous, have been treated with indifference, and scarcely, if at all, credited. We deem this our conduct perfectly justifiable; and hope you will pay a particular regard to this desire, and be exact in your accounts of your sufferings, and punctual in your attendance at the time and place above mentioned."Boston, July 31st, 1770." - ED. [The editor is David Weston.]
[From Isaac Backus, A History of New England Baptists, Volume 2, fn on pp. 154-55. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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