Address, to the Calvinistic Society in Springfield

Newly sewn into an acid-free wrapper, 7 3/4 x 5 inches, 15 pages, light foxing. The Address was composed by a committee of the Third Congregational Society in Springfield, with B. Howard acting as chairman. This church was founded in 1819 as an Unitarian separation from the Old First Church.The Address is a complaint against the Calvinistic Society which had begun to distribute tracts every month to every household in town. The doctrines contained in them were contrary to the principles of the Unitarians, unwanted and unwelcome by their church members. The Address declares that their differences should be left unresolved until the Final Judgment, and not be the means of further separating the members of their two churches. It complains, among other complaints, that the Calvinistic Society does not even recognize them as fellow christians and rejects them from its communion. It includes a defense of some Unitarian beliefs, and a generous acceptance of the motives of the Calvinistic Society, but implores them to stop spreading anti-Unitarian tracts.…