In 1840 he preached a notable sermon on
" American Politics," in which he protested against



eO HORACE BUSHNELL

giving the suffrage to women on the ground that
it would destroy the peace and unity of domestic
life, — "the grand sacrament of creation." In
the discussion of this subject, as of all others, he
struck straight for the natural principle underlying
it, and found it in the family. He spoke also of
the spoils system in a way that classes him with the
civil service reformers of to-day.
In the same year he was asked to become the
president of Middlebury College, in Vermont. The
Coleridgian atmosphere of the institution was con-
genial to him, but after a journey thither and
mature deliberation, he declined the invitation.
The degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred
upon him about this time by Wesleyan University.
He cared little for the honor, but accepted it rather
than seem to reject the courtesy of a young and
neighboring college. He afterward received the
same degree from Harvard, and that of Doctor
of Laws from Yale. The years from this time to
1845 were crowded with various forms of work. He
seemed to celebrate the full development of his
powers by reaching out in all directions for com-
mensurate fields. His biographer says that " there
were years all through his life when a high tide
seemed to set into every mental inlet." It could
at no time be said of him that he neglected his
parish, but his conception of it was not territorial.
If he preached politics, his sermons became ethical
treatises on the nature and function of government.
