Then the Moderator was about to count the number of votes for Mr. Beals
way of Singing called 'by Rule' but it was offered whether it would not be
better to order the voters to pass out of the Meeting House door and there
be counted who did accordingly and their number was 44 or 45. Then the
Moderator proceeded and desired that those who were for singing in Public
the way that Mr. Beal taught would draw out of their seats and pass out of
the door and be counted. They replied they were ready to show their minds
in any proper way where they were if they might be directed thereto but
would not go out of the door to do the same and desired that they might be
led to a vote where they were and they were ready to show their minds which
the Moderator refused to do and thereupon declared that it was voted that
Deacon Marshalls way of singing called the 'Old Way' should be sung in
Publick for the future and ordered me to record the same as the vote of the
Said Society which I refused to do under the circumstances thereof and have
recorded the facts and proceedings."
Good old lining, droning Deacon Marshall! though you were dead and gone,
you and your years of psalm-singings were not forgotten. You lived, an
idealized memory of pure and pious harmony, in the hearts of your old
church friends. Warmly did they fight for your "way of singing;" with
most undeniable and open partiality, with most dubious ingenuousness and
rectitude, did your old neighbor, Captain Pelatiah Allyn, conduct that hot
July music-meeting, counting up boldly sixty-three votes in favor of your
way, when there were only forty-three voters on your side of the alley, and
crowding a final decision in your favor.
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