Joseph Parrish Thompson

Joseph Parrish Thompson (August 7, 1819 – September 20, 1879) was an abolitionist and Congregationalist minister. He was pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle Church in New York from 1845 to 1871, (also known as Broadway United Church of Christ and Second Free Presbyterian Church). His major life accomplishments include being a superintendent of the Underground Railroad, the founding of The Independent, an anti-slavery religious weekly started in 1848, contributing and managing The New Englander (later re-named the Yale Review), served as president of the American Union Commission, being a member of the committee to create the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, played a major role in the development of 20 Congregational churches in Manhattan and Brooklyn. and assisted the Treaty of Berlin with the religious liberty clause.

Contents

• American Union Commission Christian Union Commission
• Works
• Parents
• Spouses
• Issue
• Siblings
• Personal
• References

He graduated in 1838 from Yale, where he was a member of Skull & Bones, followed by theological studies at Andover and New Haven, and was ordained pastor of the Chapel Street church in New Haven in November 1840. During his years at New Haven, he was one of the originators of The New Englander, a Congregational quarterly review, later renamed the Yale Review. Thompson was pastor at the St. David AME Zion Church in Sag Harbor in 1839. The church was built by members of the First Presbyterian (Whalers) Church in Eastville. He worked with the Quaker community and others to help slaves escape. They were hidden beneath the pews via a trap door under the main sanctuary. St. David's became a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Harvard University conferred upon him the DD degree (divinitatis doctor, Doctor of Divinity) in 1856. He was the brother-in-law of Daniel Coit Gilman, having married, as his second wife, Gilman's sister Elizabeth. He devoted much of his time to Oriental studies, with the results of these labors appearing in Bibliotheca Sacra, the North American Review, and other journals.

During his time as pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle church, at one time the largest building in New York City. Dr. Thompson kept preaching the church's anti-slavery beliefs, supporting women's suffrage (voting) and promoting the abolition of alcoholic drinks. He frequently preached to a congregation of 2,500 parishioners. Black pastors were invited as guest preachers. William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth spoke at the church.[1] Rioters tried to burn the church and Dr. Thompson's home in 1863, but they were stopped by members of the congregation. A Confederate sympathizer attempted to shoot Dr. Thompson during a worship service because of his deep loyalty to the Union. During his time at the Broadway Tabernacle, he also played a major role in the development of 20 Congregational churches in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Dr. Thompson convened the first national meeting of Congregational churches in Albany in 1852. About 500 ministers and delegates from 17 different states attended this historical gathering. Thompson supported mission activities around the world. The church carried out educational and religious activities in poor neighborhoods of New York City, including Hell's Kitchen, where it established the Bethany Mission in 1868.

During 1848 until 1861 The Independent was edited by: Dr. Thompson, Richard Salter Storrs, and Leonard Bacon. The publication's goal was to promote Congregationalism and was also an important voice in support of abolitionism and women's suffrage. The Independent published Emily Dickinson's poems and helped her become more prominent.

Dr. Thompson often traveled to Washington, DC, where he spoke with President Abraham Lincoln about issues related to the Civil War. Thompson collaborated further with President Lincoln through his work as president of the Christian Union Commission (also known as the American Union Commission).

Doctor Thompson's address "Revolution Against Free Government, Not A Right, But A Crime" about the rights of man and the principles of free government, delivered before the Union League Club in 1884 is considered instrumental to the club's goal of supporting the Union and abolition. The Union Leagues were a group of men's clubs established during the American Civil War to promote loyalty to the Union, the Republican Party, and the policies of Abraham Lincoln. The founders aimed to win the political governing elite over to support of the Union and abolition. They also believed that a centralized government was essential to their prosperity.

At a time when the Union Army desperately needed regiments, Dr. Thompson united the parish to contribute $30,000 dollars for a new regiment.

After President Lincoln's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln gave Dr. Thompson one of the president's canes. He, in turn, left it to the New York Historical Society. This walking cane had been the property of Henry Clay of Kentucky. He had received it from Judge William H. Robinson of Missouri, Robinson had gifted it to Mr. Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky, and Mr. Clay had given it to President Lincoln. The president's widow gave it to Rev. Dr. Thompson, "as a friend who her husband greatly honored."

Reverend Thompson was one of the main speakers at the funeral honor ceremonies for president Abraham Lincoln held in New York city in Union Square.

The tremendous energy Dr. Thompson extended on behalf of the war effort, the abolition of slavery and his ministries at the Tabernacle, exhausted him, and he found it necessary to submit his resignation in late 1871. He moved to Germany in 1873. Dr. Thompson was nominated as a minister of the German government in Berlin. He declined this position, however.

In 1878, influenced by Dr. Thompson, the Berlin Congress inserted a religious liberty clause in the Treaty of Berlin, based on An Essay Toward Principles of International law to Govern the Intercourse of Christian with Non-Christian Peoples. This essay was presented at the Conference of the "Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations", at Bremen on September 1876.

He traveled abroad in 1852-1854, and from 1873 until his death in 1879 he lived in Berlin.