Theodore Frelinghuysen (March 28, 1787-April 12, 1862) was an American politician and educator. He served as New Jersey Attorney General; U.S. Senator, 1829-35; second President of the University of New York, 1839-50, Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, and seventh President of Rutgers College, 1850-61. In 1844, Theodore Frelinghuysen was the Vice-Presidential candidate with Presidential candidate Henry Clay on the Whig Party ticket.
After their narrow defeat, Theodore Frelinghuysen wrote to Henry Clay:
<Let us look away to the brighter and better prospects and surer hopes in the promise and consolations of the Gospel of our Saviour. I pray, my honored sir, that your heart may seek this blessed refuge, stable as the everlasting hills, and let this be the occasion to prompt an earnest, prayerful, and, the Lord grant it may be, a joyful search after the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.> 1787TF001
As Senator, Theodore Frelinghuysen led the opposition to the Indian Removal Act of 1830, giving a six-hour speech over three days warning of the policy's dire consequences:
<Let us beware how, by oppressive encroachments upon the sacred privileges of our Indian neighbors, we minister to the agonies of future remorse.> 1787TF003
Frelinghuysen was chided for mixing his evangelical Christianity with politics, and the Removal Act was passed.
Theodore Frelinghuysen was President of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (1841-1857), President of the American Bible Society (1846-1862), President of the American Tract Society (1842- 1846), Vice President of the American Sunday School Union (1826-1861), and Vice President of the American Colonization Society. Being referred to as the "Christian Statesman," he actively opposed slavery and drunkenness.
While serving as President of the American Bible Society, 1846-61, Theodore Frelinghuysen wrote:
<The Bible has done it sir! Seal up this one Volume and in a half century all these hopes would wither and these prospects perish forever. These sacred temples would crumble or become the receptacles of pollution and crime...The influence of this sacred Volume alone can achieve it. Let it find its way into every cottage until the whole mass of our population shall yield to its elevating power; and under the benignant smiles of Him who delights to bless the Word, our government, the last hope of liberty, will rest on foundations against which the winds and waves shall beat in vain.> 1787TF002
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American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1787TF001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Theodore Frelinghuysen, in a letter he wrote to Presidential Candidate Henry Clay after receiving news of his defeat. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 158.
1787TF002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Theodore Frelinghuysen, in a letter he wrote while President of the American Bible Society, 1846-1861. Stephen Abbott Northrop, D.D., A Cloud of Witnesses (Portland, Oregon: American Heritage Ministries, 1987; Mantle Ministries, 228 Still Ridge, Bulverde, Texas), p. 158.
1787TF003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Theodore Frelinghuysen. Anthony F.C. Wallace, The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians (New York: Hill and Wang, 1993), pp. 68-9, and Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indians, Volume I (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984), pp. 204-5.