that he commonly and usually when in health worshipped with them. Of course the first parish was a territorial parish, limited by town boundaries. These "other" parishes were poll parishes, and might have members in several towns, and although not expressly debarred from voting in town meeting on ecclesiastical questions, they usually did refrain.
'The "spirit of '76" standing on the threshold of the new century, in the midst of a new nation, wrought out effects in new directions little dreamed of by the men who had refused to drink taxed tea. The "fighting parson," who had taught "that true democracy is the very essence of the religion of Jesus Christ," closed his earthly life in 1810. There was a chronic discontent throughout the State at the law which gave preference to societies of Congregationalists, and in Pittsfield many of the persons in that parish considered the law unjust, impolitic, at war with American institutions, and really injurious to the interests of true religion; so that when in 1820 the question of holding a Constitutional Convention to revise this among other matters, came up in town meeting, Pittsfield gave one hundred and sixteen "yeas," with no negatives.
Berkshire County voted two to one for the convention; Suffolk County, twenty-one to one. Boston, though like Pittsfield giving an affirmative vote that was overwhelming, did it for the opposite reason; Daniel Webster saying that it would only be necessary to change the Constitution for practical purposes, and that "in the practice of forty years, it had served to protect all the essential rights of the citizens." Not so thought Dr. H. H. Childs, of Pittsfield, to whose lot it fell to present the amendment prepared by his committee, which, among other things, declared that "no person shall by law be compelled to join, or support, nor be classed with, or associated to, any congregation or religious society whatever; that each and every society or denomination of Christians in this State shall have and enjoy the same rights and privileges . . . and that no subordination of one sect or denomination to another shall ever be established by law."
The amendment was voted down, 200 to 136. Still, the spirit of liberty and equality could not be laid. The Unitarian schism had rent many Congregational churches, and in 1834 an amendment was incorporated into the Constitution, by a vote of nearly ten to one, that "religious societies of this Commonwealth . . . shall have the right to elect their pastors, or religious teachers, to contract with them for their support," and "to raise money for erecting and repairing houses for public worship and all religious sects . . . shall be equally under the protection of the law." Thus, as the enthusiastic lover and historian of his town modestly says, "The public sentiment of the State as usual overtook that of Pittsfield." But the last vestige of the supervision of the Church by the State was not swept away till very lately. Judge James M. Barker says: "The power of parishes and religious societies to tax actual members was, however, expressly reaffirmed, and remained until the first day of 1888, when, under the operation of an act which declares that religious societies shall not assess taxes on the polls or estates of their members, it finally expired."
But while so progressive in theory, the people could not emancipate themselves from the tyranny of habit and social usages. Many new members had joined the church, and there was a pressure for more room; but they still continued to seat people through the agency of a committee, with no little resulting ill-feeling and jealousy. Many other towns had abolished the practice, and altered the square pews into slips. It was not till 1824 that the Congregationalists were called upon to see whether they would agree to make sale of the pews in their meeting-house as they then were, or alter them into slips. A committee was appointed to estimate the cost of such an alteration and to devise a plan for selling the slips, for the benefit of the society, and they were also asked to discover a mode of seating the meeting-house, other than the mode heretofore adopted. The committee pointed out that if slips were introduced they would afford room for at least one hundred and
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