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Webster Bible, 1833
Noah Webster, born in 1758, has often been called America's Schoolmaster because he authored a number of books widely used in the classrooms of his day, namely spelling books, grammars, and of course his famous dictionary published in 1828. Because in his day the Bible was often used as a text in schools, he felt the King James version did not always suit the needs of teachers and students because its grammar was not always correct, and it contained many word usages that were obsolete. So as an educator and not a theologian, he began a revision of the King James version of the Bible with the purpose to make that version more user-friendly and a model of correct English usage for schools and homes. The Webster Bible was first printed in 1833. Webster wrote in the preface, "I have not knowingly made any alteration in the passages of the present version, on which the different denominations rely for the support of their peculiar tenets."
American Tract Society, 1825
The American Tract Society was founded in 1825 "to promote the interests of vital godliness and sound morality by the circulation of religious tracts calculated to receive the approbation of all Evangelical Christians." Within a few years of its founding, the Society was producing millions of pieces of Gospel literature-tracts, booklets, books, magazines, and Bibles. But a distribution system was needed to get the literature to the people for whom it was intended. A system of traveling Christian literature salesmen [colporteurs] was enlisted by the Society, and they took the literature into the streets, homes, and churches of America. Thus an "army" of colporteurs traveled across the country in the 19th century selling and distributing the Society's literature, leading worship services, and counseling with those they met. During the Civil War, efforts were undertaken by the Society to provide the Union army with religious reading materials and Bibles. In fact, beginning in 1869 the Society presented Bibles to all the entering cadets at the West Point Military Academy, a practice which continues today.
