“No God West of Fort Scott”: The Emerging Moral Vision of Northern Baptist Witness in the Northwestern United States from 1845 to 1893

“No God West of Fort Scott” provides both narrative and analysis by illuminating the unexplored history of northern Baptist mission work in the northwestern United States during its earliest settlement period and examining their motivations within their ethical framework. The genesis of the 1840s in the American Northwest witnessed a burgeoning culture infamous for its lawlessness and immorality. In this same period, northern Baptists contended with challenges previously unknown to them. Through an investigation of primary source documents produced by northern Baptists in the United States, this dissertation addresses the following historical research question: How and why did northern Baptists in the United States respond to the emerging culture in the new northwestern United States between 1845 and 1893? This research primarily focuses on approximately fifty years, from the beginnings of mission efforts of the American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) including the initial establishment of Baptist churches in the Northwest to the end of the first term of Henry L. Morehouse, corresponding secretary of the ABHMS. Utilizing the ethical biography model, this dissertation analyzes the history of Baptist involvement in the Northwest. Examining the northern Baptist response within their cultural context over time will be done in like manner to Miller’s examination of Lincoln’s writings and actions within his cultural context. The dissertation also responds to historical reconstructions by several Southern Baptist historians about mission efforts in the Northwest by restoring a more balanced historical narrative highlighting the pioneering role of northern Baptists. As communities of faith and moral influence, northern Baptists in the United States developed a response to “the moral and spiritual destitution” in the Northwest which informed the establishment of the ABHMS. This response, a moral vision, was first articulated by John Mason Peck through his mission work. Peck’s vision was articulated and executed in ABHMS’ work as it advanced from the Old Northwest into the northwestern regions of the United States under the pivotal and formidable leadership of Henry Lyman Morehouse. Northern Baptists in the Northwest added significantly to the establishment and execution of the moral vision. However, that vision was challenged and ameliorated by the results of the Civil War and the inundation of immigrants into the West, causing ABHMS to readjust its priorities. Though northern Baptists experienced some success, their moral vision encountered setbacks and was impeded due to inadequate resources and an insufficient missionary force to carry out the vision, despite systematic efforts to engage northern Baptists in the East and West in this monumental undertaking. Northern Baptists had a deep concern not only for the spiritual well-being of people migrating into the harshness of the northwestern United States, but also for the moral character that these people were, or more to Baptists’ apprehension, were not developing as they faced challenging climatic vagaries, coercive economic conditions, and the relative geographic isolation. The absence of established social structures like those found in the eastern United States allowed the worst of human vices to become a flagrant and destructive part of these early communities. Northern Baptists feared this devolving situation would, in turn, corrode or even destroy the moral and spiritual character of the entire United States. This research is cognizant of the people who articulated northern Baptists’ moral vision and their initiatives that actualized the vision. Some leaders were found in the Northwest, and some were northern Baptists in the East; together they forged tools and approaches to address the spiritual and moral destitution that northern Baptists frequently spoke of in published and unpublished writings. By the 1890s, there was a discernable expansion of northern Baptists’ emerging moral vision for the Northwest.