Reverend Edward Hamilton Sears was a more wholesome character who served as a minister in Wayland’s First Parish Church. Depressed by the Mexican War and the persistence of slavery he experienced an emotional breakdown. In 1849 he wrote “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.” The poem has a strong anti-war motivation with its hope for peace on earth.
Set to music, its first performance is uncertain. It may have been in Wayland or possibly in Quincy, at the “Church of the Presidents,” the resting place of Presidents John and John Quincy Adams and wives Abigail and Louisa Catherine Adams.