The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-09
Auctioneer Clemence
Picks Out an An.
cient Sermon.
DELIVERED TO A CRIMINAL.
Preached in Old South
Church by Rev. Thad-
deus Maccarty.

Henry M. Clemence, the auctioneer,
in the course of his business dealings
with men throughout Worcester coun-
ty, comes into possession of many pc
culiar prints, but he possesses none
that he prizes more than a copy of a
sermon delivered by Rev. Thaddeus
Maccarty, the revolutionary pastor Of
the Old South Church, to a negro about
to be hanged for heinous crime. In
the ante-revolutionary days it was the
practice to bring doomed criminal
into church and have the preacher give
him a spiritual send-off. This sermon
was delivered in the year 1868, long be-
fore the Bostonese took it into their
heads to sever diplomatic relations be-
tween the American colonies and their
uncle George, the English king.
This particular colored man, it seems
from the sermon, had attempted rape,
was apprehended, tried and sentenced
to be hanged by the neck In those
Gays there was no such thing as high
priced attorneys carrying a case of
TINS KIND from one court to the other
on appeal, with the chance Of defeat
ing justice by securing the acquittal of
the prisoner When he was sentenced
10 pc hanged he got all that was COM
ing to him in short order. AS a rule.
the execution took place within a short
time OF the passing of the sentence 1t
was so in this particular case. History
Goes not give the full name of the col
orea man who was preached to with a
rope around his neck and a grave dug
within sight, but in the sermon he is
referred to as Arthur, or more spe-
clncally, and with view to giving Ar
thur tip that there was no slip of the
moose likely in his case, THE Dying
Arthur"
The Rev. Thaddeus was a. great paint-
er with words, and to the unfortunate
Arthur is pictured the neither world
with old-fashioned colors. To read the
sermon even at this day, one with a
powerful imagination can almost sniff
the birthstone and can realize how Ar
thur must have felt as he sat there
with the whole Of Worcester county &C.
cupying the pews Arthur probably
wasn't tickled to any extent.
He was informed that a cot bet made
of birthstone, with a mattress lined
with live Goals that never burned out,
was awaiting him in the event of his
dying impenitent.s According to refer
ences in the sermon to the people, there
must have been a .large number pres
emit In fact in those days, when prize
nights, horse races and even the smok-
ing of tobacco Were held to be sinful.
seeing a murderer off on his last jour
ney was about the only sporting event
of the times, and the people fiocked out
In large numbers to see the trap sprung
and the victim drop.
This sermon was printed by Knee
land & Adams of Boston, and the exact
date of its delivery was Oct. 20, 1853.
The pastor of the Old South Church
was evidently an expert at this sort of
preaching for he was in great demand.
and there are the bodies of murderers
buried in the Green hin district. one of
them a woman, to whom he preached
IN the open air in Worcester, toward
the close of the last century.
Gradually as time went on this mode
of preaching came to be considered
more in the nature of a torture than a
comfort to the criminals, and was dis
continued
There is a tablet to the memory of
Rev. Thaddeus Maecarty in the new
Old South Church now presided over
by Rev. DR. A. a. Conrad, and he is
remembered for having stood beside
Isaiah Thomas, the editor of The Spy,
when he read the declaration of indie
pendence in Worcester, 10 days after it
was promulgated at Philadelphia The
spot where 1t was read from the porch
of the Old South Church is now marked
at the new city han, that occupies the
place where this historic edifice stood.