ABSTRACT
Thomas Barnard was a fourth generation of clergymen in Salem, Massachusetts, and preacher at its North Church from 1772 until his death. Barnard perhaps helped prevent the outbreak of war in February 1775 at the North Bridge in Salem, when he stood between local militia men and British troops under orders of General Thomas Gage to proceed to Salem and confiscate artillery that was hidden there. 'Accosting the British officer, who stood baffled and exasperated before the raised draw, remonstrated with him so successfully that the threat of firing on the people across the river was abandoned'. Barnard was of a generation of American preachers of the late eighteenth century who expressed a view of the cyclical nature of history, as opposed to a view of history as the unfolding revelation of divine purpose. Americans could sustain their precociousness through isolation from Europeans' wars and vigilance about the development of domestic political institutions.
