{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_55330/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_55330","id":"gutenberg_55330","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55330","summary":null,"tags":["Beecher, Henry Ward, 1813-1887","Category: Biographies","Category: History - American","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                          Transcriber\u2019s Note:\n\nThis version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.\nItalics are delimited with the \u2018_\u2019 character as _italic_.\n\nFootnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are\nreferenced, and have been numbered sequentially.\n\nIllustrations have been moved to fall on paragraph breaks.\n\nMinor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please\nsee the transcriber\u2019s note at the end of this text for details regarding\nthe handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.\n\n                               BIOGRAPHY\n                                   OF\n                        REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n[Illustration: Henry Ward Beecher]\n\n\n\n\n                              A BIOGRAPHY\n                                   OF\n                        REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\n                                   BY\n                WM. C. BEECHER AND REV. SAMUEL SCOVILLE,\n\n\n                              ASSISTED BY\n                        MRS. HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\n                             --------------\n\n\n                               NEW YORK:\n                     CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY.\n\n                                  ---\n\n                                 1888.\n\n\n                             COPYRIGHTED BY\n                     CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY,\n\n                                  1888\n                        (_All rights reserved._)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n                      JENKINS & McCOWAN, PRINTERS,\n                   224, 226 and 228 Centre St, N. Y.\n\n\n                        =To Our Mother=,\n\n        WHOSE FAITHFUL LOVE AND PATIENT SELF-DEVOTION COMFORTED\n\n                  AND STRENGTHENED OUR BELOVED FATHER\n\n                DURING TROUBLES, BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED\n\n                           HIM IN PROSPERITY,\n\n                 A TRUE COMPANION AND DEVOTED HELPMEET,\n\n                  WE DEDICATE THIS STORY OF HIS LIFE.\n\n\n\n\n                               CONTENTS.\n\n                                -------\n\n\n                              CHAPTER I.\n\n                                                                PAGE\n\n   Ancestry\u2014Beecher\u2014Ward\u2014Foote\u2014The Anvil\u2014The                   17-29\n     Oak\u2014Courtship and Marriage of Lyman Beecher and\n     Roxana Foote\u2014Home at East Hampton, Long\n     Island\u2014Removal to Litchfield, Connecticut\n\n                              CHAPTER II.\n\n   Litchfield\u2014Situation\u2014Natural Features\u2014Early                 30-45\n     Settlers\u2014Social and Moral\n     Advantages\u2014Patriotism\u2014North Street described\u2014The\n     Beecher Home\u2014Birth of Henry Ward\u2014The Times at Home\n     and Abroad\u2014His Birth-Mark\n\n                             CHAPTER III.\n\n   Early Glimpses\u2014Recollections of the Mother\u2014Going to         46-71\n     School at Ma\u2019am Kilbourne\u2019s\u2014His First\n     Letter\u2014District School\u2014The Coming of the New\n     Mother\u2014His First Ride on Horseback\u2014A Merry\n     Household\u2014Fishing Excursions\u2014Minister\u2019s\n     Wood-Spell\u2014Saturday Night\u2014Going to Meeting\u2014The\n     Puritan Sabbath\u2014The Cold of Litchfield\n     Hill\u2014Rats\u2014Work\u2014The Catechism\u2014Formative\n     Influences\u2014Summing Up\n\n                              CHAPTER IV.\n\n   Boyhood\u2014Sent to School at Bethlehem\u2014The Widow               72-81\n     Ingersoll\u2019s\u2014Failure\u2014A Champion\u2014Sent to Catharine\n     Beecher\u2019s School in Hartford\u2014Humorous\n     Incidents\u2014Religious Experience\n\n                              CHAPTER V.\n\n   Boston\u2014Home Atmosphere\u2014Various Experiences\u2014Ethics           82-92\n     rubbed in by a Six-pound Shot\u2014Discontent\u2014Makes up\n     his Mind to go to Sea\u2014To Study Navigation\u2014Picture of\n     his Life in Boston\n\n                              CHAPTER VI.\n\n   School-Life at Mount                                       93-108\n     Pleasant\u2014Mathematics\u2014Elocution\u2014Testimony of\n     Classmates\u2014Religious Experiences\u2014Troubles\u2014A Romantic\n     Friendship\u2014Another Kind\u2014Letter of Reminiscence\u2014A\n     Royal School-Boy\n\n                             CHAPTER VII.\n\n   Amherst College\u2014Private Journal\u2014Testimony of              109-135\n     Classmates\u2014Tutor\u2019s Delight\u2014Begins his Anti-Slavery\n     Career\u2014Spiritual Darkness\u2014Engagement\u2014Letters of his\n     Mother\u2014Experiences in Teaching School\u2014First\n     Sermons\u2014Lecturing\u2014His Reading\u2014The Record\n\n                             CHAPTER VIII.\n\n   Lane Seminary\u2014Dr. Beecher Called\u2014Home at Walnut           136-156\n     Hills\u2014Amusing Incidents\u2014Family Meeting\u2014Death of Mrs.\n     Beecher\u2014Extracts from Journal\u2014First Mention of\n     Preaching in the West\u2014Experience in Ecclesiastical\n     Matters\u2014Despondency\u2014Meeting of Synod\u2014Influences of\n     the Times\u2014Revulsion\u2014A Rift along the Horizon\u2014\u201cFull\n     iolly Knight\u201d\n\n                              CHAPTER IX.\n\n   Call to Preach\u2014License\u2014Examination by Miami               157-180\n     Presbytery\u2014Refusal to Subscribe to Old\n     School\u2014Ordination by Oxford Presbytery\u2014Visit\n     East\u2014Marriage\u2014Housekeeping\n\n                              CHAPTER X.\n\n   The New Field\u2014Growth of Influence\u2014Social Life\u2014The         181-209\n     Secret of Effective Preaching\u2014Editorial\n     Labors\u2014Lectures to Young Men\u2014Call to\n     Brooklyn\u2014Departure\n\n                              CHAPTER XI.\n\n   Invitation to come East\u2014Call to Plymouth                  210-224\n     Church\u2014Friendly Misgivings\u2014Plainly Outlining his\n     Views\u2014Early Success\u2014Plymouth Burned\u2014Preaching in the\n     Tabernacle\n\n                             CHAPTER XII.\n\n   Plymouth Church\u2014The New Building\u2014Sabbath                  225-232\n     Service\u2014Prayer-Meeting\u2014Weekly Lecture\u2014Socials\u2014Church\n     Polity\u2014The Pastor\u2019s Policy\n\n                             CHAPTER XIII.\n\n   Beginning of the Great Battle\u2014Five Great                  233-270\n     Eras\u2014Compromise Measures of 1850\u2014\u201cShall We\n     Compromise\u201d\u2014The Fugitive Slave Law denounced\u2014Right\n     of Free Speech defended\u2014Commercial Liberty\u2014Fighting\n     Caste\u2014Liberty of the Pulpit defended\u2014Quickness of\n     Retort\u2014Sentiment of the Times\u2014Reaction\u2014Visit of\n     Kossuth\u2014Election of 1852\u2014The Parker\n     Controversy\u2014Degraded into Liberty\u2014John\n     Mitchel\u2014Garrison\u2014Close of this Era\n\n                             CHAPTER XIV.\n\n   The Battle renewed\u2014Repeal of the Missouri Compromise      271-291\n     proposed\u2014The Struggle in Congress\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s\n     Appeals\u2014The Battle lost in Congress is transferred\n     to the Territories\u2014Forces engaged\u2014Kansas War\u2014Dred\n     Scott Decision\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Defence of\n     Kansas\u2014\u201cBeecher\u2019s Bibles\u201d\u2014Charles Sumner attacked in\n     the Senate\u2014The Fremont Campaign\u2014The Dog Noble\n\n                              CHAPTER XV.\n\n   Remarkable Experiences\u2014The Edmonson Sisters\u2014Pinky and     292-308\n     her Freedom-Ring\u2014Slave Auction in Plymouth\n     Church\u2014John Brown\u2014The Wrong and Right Way\u2014Election\n     of Abraham Lincoln\u2014Secession\u2014Buchanan\u2019s Fast\n\n                             CHAPTER XVI.\n\n   War Begun\u2014Firing upon Fort Sumter\u2014\u201cThe American Eagle     309-338\n     as you want it\u201d\u2014Death of Col. Ellsworth\u2014Equips his\n     Sons\u2014Personal Feeling yields to Patriotism\u2014His House\n     a Store-house of Military Supplies\u2014Sends a Regiment\n     as his Substitute\u2014Our National Flag\u2014The Camp, its\n     Dangers and Duties\u2014Bull Run\u2014Becomes Editor of the\n     _Independent_\u2014Salutatory\u2014The _Trent_ Affair\u2014Fight,\n     Tax\u2014Soldiers or Ferrets\u2014Characteristics as an\n     Editor\u2014One Nation, one Constitution, one Starry\n     Banner\u2014McClellan Safe, and Richmond too\u2014Mildly\n     carrying on War\u2014The Root of the Matter\u2014The only\n     Ground\u2014A Queer Pulpit\u2014President\u2019s Proclamation of\n     Emancipation\u2014Let come what will\u2014Close of the Third\n     Era\n\n                             CHAPTER XVII.\n\n   First Voyage to England\u2014Extracts from Diary\u2014Warwick       339-349\n     Castle\u2014Stratford-on-Avon\u2014The Skylark\u2014Oxford\u2014Bodleian\n     Library\u2014London\u2014Old-time Sadness\u2014Paris\u2014Catch-Words\n     from Diary\u2014Effect of Picture-Gallery\u2014The Louvre\u2014His\n     Return\n\n                            CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n   Church and Steamboat\u2014Jenny Lind\u2014Hospitality\u2014Colonel       350-395\n     Pertzel\u2014The Family\u2014Twins\u2014Medicine\u2014Giving Counsel\u2014For\n     the Sailor\u2014An Absurd Story\n     contradicted\u2014Salisbury\u2014Trouting\u2014Death of Alfred and\n     Arthur\u2014Letters to his Daughter at\n     School\u2014Lenox\u2014Equivocal Honors declined\u2014The\n     Pulpit\u2014\u201cPlymouth Collection\u201d\u2014\u201cShining Shore\u201c\u2014A\n     Church Liturgy\u2014Courting with his Father\u2019s old\n     Love-letters\u20141857 a Year of Trial\u2014Matteawan\u2014Visit to\n     Litchfield\u20141858 a Year of Harvest\u2014Revival\n     Meetings\u2014Hospitality of Plymouth Church\u2014Courtesy to\n     Errorists\u2014New Organ\u2014Peekskill\u2014Letters to his\n     Daughter abroad\u2014Marriage of his\n     Daughter\u2014Lecturing\u2014Title of D. D. declined\u2014Flowers\n     in Church\u2014Christian Liberty in the use of the\n     Beautiful\u2014His two Lines of Labor\n\n                             CHAPTER XIX.\n\n   Visit to England in 1863\u2014The Need of Rest\u2014Condition of    396-407\n     Affairs at Home\u2014Arrival at Liverpool\u2014Refusal to\n     Speak\u2014Visit to the Continent\u2014Reception by the King\n     of Belgium\u2014Civil War discussed\u2014News of\n     Victories\u2014Return to England\n\n                              CHAPTER XX.\n\n       Facing the Mob in Manchester\u2014Glasgow\u2014Edinburgh\u2014Desperate\n   Attempts to break Mr. Beecher down at                     408-442\n     Liverpool\u2014Victory in London\n\n                             CHAPTER XXI.\n\n   Close of the War\u2014Distrust of the                          443-456\n     Administration\u2014Kindlier Feelings after Mr. Beecher\u2019s\n     Return from England\u2014Growing Confidence\u2014Intimacy with\n     Secretary Stanton\u2014Fort Sumter\u2014Lee\u2019s\n     Surrender\u2014Lincoln\u2019s Death\n\n                             CHAPTER XXII.\n\n   Reconstruction\u2014Mr. Beecher favors speedy                  457-478\n     Readmission\u2014Soldiers\u2019 and Sailors\u2019 Convention at\n     Cleveland\u2014The \u201cCleveland Letters\u201d cause great\n     Excitement\n\n                            CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n   The \u201cSilver Wedding\u201d of Plymouth Church\u2014Children\u2019s        479-487\n     Day\u2014Services in the Church\u2014Reunion of old\n     Members\u2014Historical Reminiscences\u2014Dr. Storrs\u2019s\n     Tribute\n\n                             CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n   The Conspiracy\u2014Relations with Mr. Bowen\u2014Disputes and      488-522\n     Arbitration\u2014Theodore Tilton\u2019s Early Promise and\n     Intimacy with Mr. Beecher\u2014Bowen\u2019s Ill-Will and\n     Tilton\u2019s Malice\u2014Tilton discharged from _Independent_\n     and Brooklyn _Union_\u2014Tripartite Agreement\u2014Moulton\n     and Tilton Conspire to Blackmail Mr. Beecher\u2014Tilton\n     consults Dr. Storrs\n\n                             CHAPTER XXV.\n\n   After-Effects\u2014Charges against Tilton\u2014Advisory             523-536\n     Council\u2014Investigating Committee called by Mr.\n     Beecher\u2014Its Report\u2014Dropping Mr. Moulton\u2014Council\n     called by Plymouth Church\n\n                             CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n   After-Effects of the Conspiracy\u2014Calling Council of        537-563\n     1876\u2014Principle of Selection\u2014Mr. Beecher cautions his\n     Church\u2014Bowen Reappears; Proposes a Secret\n     Tribunal\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Reply\u2014Bowen Dropped by\n     Plymouth Church\u2014Deliverance of Council sustaining\n     Plymouth\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Persecutors Denounced\u2014Special\n     Tribunal\n\n                            CHAPTER XXVII.\n\n   Rest and renewed Activity\u2014Lecturing Tours\u2014Resignation     564-570\n     from the Congregational Association\u2014Boston\n     Criticisms\n\n                            CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n   Attacking Corrupt Judges\u2014Interest in Political            571-587\n     Questions\u2014Advocating Arthur\u2019s Renomination\u2014Opposing\n     Blaine\u2014Supporting Cleveland\u2014Campaign of 1884\u2014After\n     the Battle\n\n                             CHAPTER XXIX.\n\n   A Preacher\u2014His Place\u2014His Training\u2014His Estimate of the     588-613\n     Work\u2014Defects\u2014Effectual Call\u2014Upon Drawing an\n     Audience\u2014His Theory\u2014Preparation\u2014Results\u2014A\n     Theologian\u2014His\n     Orthodoxy\u2014Evolution\u2014Ordinances\u2014Christian\n     Unity\u2014Sectarianism\u2014Peacemaker\n\n                             CHAPTER XXX.\n\n   Love of the Country\u2014Communion with Nature\u2014Farming at      614-638\n     Salisbury\u2014Lenox\u2014Matteawan\u2014The Peekskill Farm\n\n                             CHAPTER XXXI.\n\n   Home Life\u2014Love of Children\u2014His Method of Training and     639-664\n     Education\u2014Formation of Library and Art\n     Collection\u2014Personal Traits\n\n                            CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n   1886\u2014England Revisited\u2014Speaking in the City               665-683\n     Temple\u2014Westminster Abbey\u2014Lecturing through Great\n     Britain\u2014Addressing the Theological Students at City\n     Temple\u2014\u201cLife of Christ\u201d\u2014Sickness\u2014Rest\n\n   Appendix                                                      687\n\n\n\n\n                             ILLUSTRATIONS.\n\n\n                                                                   PAGE\n\n   1. Anvil and Oak Stump                                            18\n\n   2. Foote Coat-of-Arms                                             21\n\n   3. Church in which Lyman Beecher preached, in                     28\n        East Hampton, L. I.\n\n   4. Beecher Residence at Litchfield                                39\n\n   5. Room in which Mr. Beecher was born                             43\n\n   6. Elms and Well which mark the Site of the                       45\n        \u201cBeecher House\u201d in Litchfield\n\n   7. Facsimile of the first Letter of Mr. Beecher                   50\n\n   8. Ingersoll House                                                73\n\n   9. Stairs in Catharine Beecher\u2019s House in                        111\n        Hartford\n\n  10. Mr. Beecher at the time of his Marriage                       168\n\n  11. Mrs. Beecher at the time of her Marriage                      169\n\n  12. Church at Indianapolis                            Facing page 182\n\n  13. Mr. Beecher\u2019s House at Indianapolis               \u201d     \u201d     202\n\n  14. Mr. Beecher and his Father at time of Call to     \u201d     \u201d     210\n        Brooklyn,\n\n  15. Pinky\u2019s Freedom-Ring                                          295\n\n  16. Mr. Beecher in 1850                                           367\n\n  17. Mr. Beecher at the Close of the War                           445\n\n  18. Mr. Beecher and his Sister, Mrs. H. E. B.                     525\n        Stowe\n\n  19. Cottage at Peekskill                                          619\n\n  20. Old Apple-Tree                                                621\n\n  21. Mr. Beecher on his Farm                                       625\n\n  22. House at Peekskill                                            631\n\n  23. Hall in New House at Peekskill                                633\n\n  24. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher at the time of Visit to                  667\n        England in 1886\n\n  25. Lying in State in Plymouth Church                             679\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE.\n\n\nA few months prior to his death our father undertook the preparation of\nhis Autobiography. This was earnestly encouraged by his family, who\nshared with the public the desire that he should tell the tale of his\nlife in his own words, giving those pictures of his inner self, the\nimpressions made on him by his varying experiences, that he alone could\ngive, and which, to a large extent, he alone knew. Confiding and\nfree-spoken as he was in his joys, in his griefs he withdrew within\nhimself, bearing in patient silence a load of sorrow unknown even to\nthose nearest to him. But it was not to be. He had only jotted down a\nrough outline of his plan, and written a part of an intermediate\nchapter, when he laid down his pen for a little rest, never to be\nresumed again.\n\nIn his contract with our publishers but a single volume of not less than\nsix hundred pages was contemplated. Unconscious of its magnitude, we\nundertook to complete the contract. Accepting the limitations of a\nsingle volume, we began to collect the necessary material, and, when too\nlate to change the form of the work, discovered that two volumes would\nhardly contain the history as it opened up to us, so closely interwoven\nhas his life been with the nation\u2019s history, and so full of important\nincidents. In the work of condensation, to bring our story within the\nspace prescribed, we found it necessary to omit many of his letters,\nhoping that in the not far-distant future we might publish a\nsupplemental volume containing all of his important correspondence.\n\nThe book before us we have sought, as far as possible, to make\nautobiographic, telling the tale in our father\u2019s words; happily the many\nletters furnished us by friends, or retained in the family, his public\nwritings and utterances, supplemented by the many personal reminiscences\nwhich he gave us at various times, has enabled us to do so to a large\nextent.\n\nWe are fully conscious of the imperfect manner in which we have woven\nthese quotations into our story; the ordinary writer who attempts to\nconnect with his words those glowing sentences white-hot with his fiery\nindignation against slavery, or his eloquent appeal to the English\npublic for fair-dealing, or the brilliant play of wit and fancy in his\nmore humorous utterances, can hope, at the most, to give but a\nrespectable background that may aid by contrast.\n\nWe have sought to make this book a truthful history from the beginnings\nof his life, through boyhood, manhood, and ripened age, to the end,\nomitting no important period, though passing innumerable incidents.\n\nA man loving peace, he reached peace only through war. From his early\nmanhood he was called to meet in deadly combat the great sins of the\nnation. Through his life, at different times, he met and overcame bitter\nand deadly assaults made upon him.\n\nIn our narration of these events we have had no revenge to gratify nor\ntheory to maintain. We have tried to give only facts, omitting\ndeductions or conclusions, leaving each reader to draw his own\ninferences. If parts of our narrative bear hardly on any, it is only the\npressure of the facts which cannot be suppressed in any fearless,\ntruthful portrayal of our father\u2019s life. We do not make them; we merely\nstate them.\n\nWe would acknowledge our indebtedness to the many friends who have\nkindly furnished letters and reminiscences, but especially to our\nmother, whose memory, running back along the paths they travelled for so\nmany years together, has given to us much that never would otherwise\nhave been known.\n\nIf our readers get from a perusal of these pages a tithe of the comfort\nand inspiration which we have obtained from their preparation, we shall\nfeel that our work has not been in vain.\n\nIf they can see something of the fearlessness for right, the patience\nunder unjust suffering, the inextinguishable love for fellow-men, and\nthe abiding faith in God, that has been revealed by a study of his life\neven to us, who knew him best, we shall be satisfied.\n\n                                                    W. C. BEECHER,\n                                                    SAMUEL SCOVILLE.\n\nBROOKLYN, March 12, 1888.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER I.\n\nAncestry\u2014Beecher\u2014Ward\u2014Foote\u2014The Anvil\u2014The Oak\u2014Courtship and Marriage of\n    Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote\u2014Home at East Hampton, Long\n    Island\u2014Removal to Litchfield, Connecticut.\n\n\nHenry Ward Beecher used to say that the first thing for a man to do, if\nhe would succeed in life, is to \u201cchoose a good father and mother to be\nborn of.\u201d He himself was eminently wise, or fortunate, as the case may\nbe, in this matter.\n\n\u201cMy earthly life,\u201d he says, \u201cwas given me by two of the best folks that\never lived on earth.\u201d His father, Lyman Beecher, was one of the leading\npreachers, reformers, and controversialists of his day. Sturdy in body\nand mind, full of sensibility, aflame with enthusiasm, devoted to the\nhighest aims and utterly unselfish in life, a Christian in whom deep\nspirituality and strong common sense were happily blended, he was just\nthe man to transmit excellent qualities to his children; a father to be\nenjoyed while living, and to be remembered with love and reverence after\nhis death.\n\nOf him his son says: \u201cWhile he was eloquent and among the foremost\nspeakers of his day, I remember particularly that I never heard from him\na word of uncharitableness, nor saw a symptom of envy or jealousy, or\naught else but the most enthusiastic love of men, and of young men and\nyoung ministers; and knowing him in the household, I have yet to know\nanother person that was so devoid of the inferior feelings and so\neminent in the topmost feelings of human nature.\u201d\n\nLyman\u2019s father\u2019s name was David, a well-read, clear-headed man, with\ndecided opinions upon the questions of the day; one with whom Roger\nSherman delighted, upon his return from Congress, to talk over the\nbusiness of the session and discuss public affairs. He kept college\nstudents as boarders, that he might enjoy their conversation, and made\nhimself proficient in many of their studies. Of him his son said: \u201cIf he\nhad received a regular education he would have been equal to anybody.\u201d\nHe was both blacksmith and farmer, and had the reputation of \u201craising\nthe nicest rye and making the best hoes in New England.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Anvil and Oak Stump.]\n\nLyman Beecher\u2019s mother was a Lyman, a woman \u201cof a joyous, sparkling,\nhopeful temperament.\u201d Her grandfather was a Scotchman, thus giving a\nlittle Gaelic blood to the veins of her descendants. In his\nautobiography Lyman Beecher says: \u201cShe died of consumption two days\nafter I was born. I was a seven-months child, and when the woman that\nattended on her saw what a puny thing I was, and that the mother could\nnot live, she thought it useless to attempt to keep me alive. I was\nactually wrapped up and laid aside. But after a while one of the women\nthought she would look and see if I were living, and, finding I was,\nconcluded to wash and dress me, saying: \u2018It\u2019s a pity he hadn\u2019t died with\nhis mother.\u2019 So you see it was but by a hair\u2019s-breadth I got a foothold\nin this world.\u201d He was taken in charge by \u201cAunt Benton\u201d and brought up\non his uncle Lot Benton\u2019s farm in North Guilford, where farm-work and\nfarm-fare made him strong.\n\nTheir intention was to make a farmer of him; but the intolerable\nslowness of an ox-team, in ploughing fifteen acres of summer fallow\nthree times over in a single season, so disgusted the lad that he became\nrestless. His uncle saw it, and upon consultation with the father they\ndecided to send him to school to prepare for Yale College, which was\naccordingly done. He often said, \u201cOxen sent me to college.\u201d\n\nDavid\u2019s father\u2019s name was Nathaniel. He was also a blacksmith, and the\nanvil of both father and son stood upon the stump of that old oak under\nwhich John Davenport preached his first sermon to the New Haven Colony.\nHe married a Sperry, \u201ca pious woman,\u201d whose mother was a Roberts from\nForlallt, Cardiganshire, Wales. From her, his great great-grandmother,\ncame the fervid Welsh blood with which Henry Ward was always so well\npleased.\n\nJoseph was the father of Nathaniel. His father\u2019s name was John, of whom\ntradition says that he was one of those who in the fall of 1637\naccompanied Samuel Eaton in his explorations for a suitable location for\nthe colony of John Davenport, that had just come over and was then\nstaying at Boston; and that he was one of the very few men who lived\nthrough the winter in the poor hut that had been built at \u201cQuinnipiack,\u201d\nNew Haven, that they might pre-empt the territory and be in readiness to\nwelcome the colony in the following spring.\n\nHe was the only son of Hannah Beecher, whose husband, born in Kent,\nEngland, died just before the colony sailed. She was about to abandon\nthe enterprise, but, being a midwife and likely to be of service to the\nyouthful colony, they promised her her husband\u2019s share in the town plot\nif she would come. They kept their word, and it was in her lot that the\nhistoric oak just mentioned stood.\n\nHer business seems not to have been remarkably lucrative, for at her\ndeath her estate inventoried only \u00a355 5s. 6d.\n\nOne earlier mention of the family was found by Mr. Beecher in the\nBritish Museum during his visit to England in 1863, and copied in his\ndiary:\n\n\u201cVisitation of Kent, 16,279 Brit. Museum.\n\n\u201cHenry Beecher, alderman and sheriff of London 1570, ob\u2019t 1571.\u201d\n\nApparently of more than the average intellectual ability of their class,\nthere was one feature in which the men whom we have described markedly\nexcelled\u2014namely, in their physical strength. The standard of measurement\nwas peculiar to those early times, and may not be as well understood by\nus; yet it even now conveys the idea of great stalwartness. David, it\nwas said, could lift a barrel of cider and carry it into the cellar;\nNathaniel, his father, was not quite as strong, yet he could throw a\nbarrel of cider into a cart; while Joseph exceeded them all, for he\ncould lift the barrel and drink out of the bung-hole. Of Henry, the\nsheriff, no description has been found.\n\nThere was one especial feature of degeneracy in these modern days,\ncompared with the good old times of the fathers, over which Henry Ward,\nwhen Mrs. Beecher was just within earshot, moaned and groaned. His\ngrandfather, he said, had five wives, his father had three, but such was\nthe meagreness of these penurious times in which he lived, and the\npersistence of the Bullard blood, that he saw no chance for himself to\nhave more than one. But afterwards, lest she should feel hurt at his\nraillery, he writes her with many expressions of affection, in a letter\ndated March 31, 1872: \u201cIt has always been a shadow over the future to\nfear that I should walk alone the few remaining years of my life, for\nalone I shall be if you go from me. In jest we have often spoken of\nother connections. But such a thing is the remotest of possibilities.\nShould you go no one would ever take your place.\u201d\n\nSuch was the ancestry selected on the father\u2019s side. Six generations,\nwithout question, are known to us, reaching from the hills of\nLitchfield, in Connecticut, to the chalk-cliffs of Kent, England. For\nthat distance we can trace the family stream up to its sources in the\ngreat body of the English common people, in that county most\ncharacteristic of England, where the Roman had first struggled with the\nBriton, where the \u201cfree-necked men,\u201d under Hengist and Horsa, had first\nmade a lodgment on English soil, and near which was Hastings and the\nfields of the Norman conquest, and where, perhaps more than in any other\ncounty, mingled those different strains of blood, Briton, Roman, Saxon,\nNorthmen, Scots, and Picts, out of which has come England\u2019s strength and\nEngland\u2019s greatness. We find all of them of the yeomanry, all of them\nhonest, useful, God-fearing men, fit to be the progenitors of one who\ndelighted in nothing more than in his common experiences with common\npeople, and valued nothing more highly than their confidence and\nfriendship.\n\nNor would it be difficult to find in the sturdy independence and quaint\nhumor of these men of the anvil and the plough, the origin of much of\nthat robust and humorous manliness which made Henry Ward Beecher so\nconspicuous in his day and generation.\n\nHis power to strike heavy blows and to hit the nail on the head was\npartly inherited, and that anvil-ring of the fathers has been often\nheard in these latter days under his sledge-hammer strokes. If the iron\nwere not hot, he heated it by striking, and sparks flew, and men\u2019s\nhearts and minds were moulded and welded before he was done.\n\n[Illustration: Foote Coat-of-Arms]\n\nMore than this, there appears in him something of the love of the\n\u201cshield-game\u201d and the \u201csword-play\u201d of those earlier generations that\nwere \u201cat heart fighters,\u201d and something also of the sadness and heroism\nwhich led them to say, \u201cEach man of us shall abide the end of his\nlife-work; let him that may, work his doomed deeds ere death come.\u201d\n\nOn the mother\u2019s side the selection was somewhat different. While we find\nno more sterling qualities, there is in this line a higher social\nposition, more culture, a broader training in public affairs, both civil\nand military, and what with some may appear of still greater importance,\na coat-of-arms given as a special mark of royal gratitude.\n\nRoxana Foote had gentle blood in her veins. She could trace her\ngenealogy on the father\u2019s side back through Nathaniel Foote, who came\ninto Connecticut with Hooker\u2019s company in 1636, to James Foote, an\nofficer in the English army, who aided King Charles to conceal himself\nin the \u201cRoyal Oak\u201d and was knighted for his loyalty. As the old primer\nhas it:\n\n                  \u201cIt was the tree, the old oak-tree,\n                   Which saved his royal majesty.\u201d\n\nThe tree stood in a field of clover, and the Foote coat-of-arms still\nbears an oak for its crest and a clover-leaf in its quarterings, with\nthe motto \u201cLoyalty and Truth.\u201d\n\nHer mother, Roxana Ward Foote, was descended from Andrew Ward, who came\nover with Sir Richard Saltonstall and settled in Watertown, Mass., in\n1630.\n\nHe afterwards moved to Wethersfield, and was a member of the first\nGeneral Court, or Legislature, held at Hartford in 1636. Later he moved\nto Stamford, and represented that colony in the higher branch of the\nGeneral Court at New Haven.\n\nFrom him descended Colonel Andrew Ward, who took part in the old French\nand Indian war and aided in the capture of Louisburg in 1745. Of him it\nis told that, being a stanch cold-water man, he took money in lieu of\nhis daily rations of grog. With this he bought six silver spoons, on\nwhich he had engraved the name \u201cLouisburg.\u201d Some of these spoons are\nstill preserved in the family, witnesses to the virtue and valor of one\nof its honored ancestors.\n\nHis son was General Andrew Ward, of Revolutionary fame, who, at the\nclose of the war, went back to his native town, Guilford, and took up\nhis residence upon a farm of about two hundred acres, called Nutplains.\nFor many years he represented the town in the State Legislature, being\nnominated, it is said, year after year by some one of the town worthies\nin this primitive manner: \u201cThe meeting is now open, and you will proceed\nto vote for General Ward and Deacon Burgess for representatives.\u201d\n\nWhen his daughter, an only child, who had married Eli Foote, was left a\nwidow, he took her with her ten children to his home at Nutplains, and\ncared for them as if they were his own. Being a great reader, and always\nbringing home with him from the Legislature his saddle-bags full of\nbooks, which were read aloud and discussed in the family, this home\nbecame a school that afforded superior advantages for gaining\nacquaintance with literature, for acquiring such knowledge of science as\nwas accessible at that time, and for exciting thought and interest. In\nthat school Roxana, the second-born of the family, is represented to\nhave been easily first both in intellect and goodness.\n\nTaking her part in the labor of the household at a time when it was\nexpected that the woman portion would not only care for the house,\nprepare the food, and make the clothes for all the family, but also\nweave and spin the materials as well, she yet managed to acquire an\neducation of which graduates of our modern schools and colleges might\nwell be proud. \u201cShe studied while she spun flax, tying her books to the\ndistaff.\u201d She not only became well read in literature and history, and\nacquainted with the progress of science, then just beginning to attract\nthe attention of scholars, but learned to write and speak the French\nlanguage fluently. She gave enough attention to music to be able to\naccompany her voice on the guitar, and was sufficiently skilled in the\nuse of pencil and brush to paint some very creditable portraits upon\nivory, several of which are still in the family. She was an adept in the\nmysteries of the needle, \u201cin fine embroidery with every variety of lace\nand cobweb stitch,\u201d and was gifted with great skill and celerity in all\nmanner of handicraft, so that in after-years \u201cneither mantua-maker,\ntailoress, or milliner ever drew on the family treasury.\u201d\n\nBelonging to a family distinguished in both branches of her ancestry,\nand residing, while her father lived, in the centre of the village of\nGuilford, which could boast that more than four-fifths of its original\npopulation belonged to families with coats-of-arms in Great Britain, and\nafterwards taken to the home of her grandfather, General Ward, who was\nthe foremost man of the town and one of the leading men in the State,\nand who kept open house to all strangers, she enjoyed the best social\nadvantages which the times afforded.\n\nTall and beautiful in form and feature, with a winning and yet\ncommanding presence, \u201cshe was so sensitive and of so great natural\ntimidity that she never spoke in company or before strangers without\nblushing, and was absolutely unable in after-life to conform to the\nstandard of what was expected of a pastor\u2019s wife and lead the devotions\nin the weekly female prayer-meeting.\u201d\n\nShe was early confirmed in the Episcopal Church; her parents, although\nboth from strictly Puritan families, having joined that denomination\nupon their marriage. They had held through all the Revolutionary\nstruggle to their loyalty to King George, and this had subjected them to\nthe determined opposition of their neighbors, and stamped the family,\nperhaps, with something of that independence of character which\nopposition to a prevailing popular sentiment is adapted to give, and\nwhich is so marked a feature in her descendants.\n\nConverted when she was but five years old, and scarcely remembering the\ntime when she did not go with her joys and sorrows to God in prayer, and\nnext to the oldest in a family of ten children, her mother a widow, and\nall dependent upon the grandfather, she early learned that patience,\nself-control, efficiency, and unselfishness that characterized her\nthrough life and left in her old home at Nutplains, as Mrs. Stowe tells\nus, traditions like these: \u201cYour mother never spoke an angry word in her\nlife.\u201d \u201cYour mother never told a lie.\u201d And from the husband such a\ntestimony as this: \u201cShe experienced resignation, if any one ever did. I\nnever saw the like, so entire, without reservation or shadow of turning.\nIn no exigency was she taken by surprise. She was just there, quiet as\nan angel from above. I never heard a murmur; and if ever there was a\nperfect mind as respects submission, it was hers. I never witnessed a\nmovement of the least degree of selfishness; and if there ever was any\nsuch thing in the world as disinterestedness, she had it.\u201d\n\nNo one reading her history will think that Henry Ward exaggerated when,\nspeaking of her and her influence upon him, he said: \u201cThere are few born\ninto this world that are her equals. She was a woman of extraordinary\ngraces and gifts; a woman not demonstrative, with a profound\nphilosophical nature, of a wonderful depth of affection, and with a\nserenity that was simply charming. From her I received my love of the\nbeautiful, my poetic temperament; from her also I received simplicity\nand childlike faith in God.\u201d\n\nAnd again: \u201cMy communion with nature arose from the mother in me.\nBecause my mother was an inspired woman, who saw God in nature as really\nas in the Book, and she bestowed that temperament upon me, and I came\ngradually to feel that, aside from God as revealed in the past, there\nwas a God with an everlasting present around about me.\u201d\n\nWith these elements of a more personal nature also appear certain family\ntraits. As we saw how, from the father\u2019s side, the old anvil was\nconstantly making itself heard in the strong, sturdy qualities of the\nBeecher stock, so shall we see features from the ancestry on the\nmother\u2019s side coming to him almost unchanged. The loyalty represented by\nthe oak-tree, and the virtue displayed at Louisburg, will constantly\nshow themselves. Who that has seen him standing, now for the black man\nin the face of the adverse popular sentiment of his time in obedience to\nhis own convictions of right, now governing his political actions by the\nsame authority, and anon following his religious convictions wherever\nthey led him, can have failed to see, in him, the oak-tree standing in\nthe clover-field with the motto written upon its shield, in letters of\nlight, \u201c_Loyalty and Truth_\u201d? In his constant advocacy of reform, in his\nearly and strenuous opposition to intemperance, appears \u201cLouisburg\u201d\nagain, written this time, not upon silver, but upon life and\ncharacter\u2014the Ward and the Foote families showing in him the\ncharacteristics they had won.\n\nMore than this, probably no lines could better illustrate the New\nEngland race-elements, the union of its democracy and its gentry, the\nsturdy independence of its homes and its native ability in war and\npeace, its intellectual and its spiritual independence, its quaint humor\nand its shrewd common sense, than those that united in him from both the\nparental roots.\n\nHe was a natural product of the New England stock, tempered and\nsweetened by the broader traditions of the more aristocratic blood of\nthe Cavalier, of New England institutions and New England character. And\nsince New England, thus enriched, illustrates the whole land, and by\nreason of the diffusion of her blood has made her characteristics\nnational, he was a typical American, standing with unusual ability and\nconscientiousness where every true American feels that he ought to\nstand\u2014for right and liberty. This, we doubt not, was in part the ground\nof his national popularity and influence; he was felt to be so\nthoroughly American. He represented us as do our national colors and our\nbattle-flags, and we were proud of him, grew enthusiastic over him, and\nmen that never saw him loved him. And since these characteristics are\nbut the product of English institutions and the putting forth of\nAnglo-Saxon tendencies which were always advancing, always protesting\nagainst some old abuse, and always seeking the recognition of some\nright\u2014now at Runnymede among the barons, and now at Westminster among\nthe Commons; now taking up the question of negro-slavery, and now the\nIrish question; always hopeful, expectant, progressive\u2014and America is\nbut, as he claimed, \u201cthe better England transplanted,\u201d and he but \u201can\nEnglishman from a broader England,\u201d a continental instead of an insular\none, he was hailed by all the English-speaking people as belonging to\nthem as do King Alfred and Shakspere.\n\nAs we go on we shall find many other influences at work\u2014influences of\nnature, of books, of college and profession; but thus early we can see\nthat, more than of any and all the rest, Henry Ward Beecher was the\nproduct of New England parentage, full-veined with English traditions\nand race characteristics.\n\nThe courtship of Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote took place in 1798. It\nwas marked by the interpenetration of religious sentiment and earthly\nlove, and was a true preparation for home-making, and of such a home as\nshould help to form the remarkable personality of H. W. Beecher.\n\nThe letters that passed between them during this year give evidence of\nthe strong love of those who, while having still upon them the dew of\ntheir youth, have each found in the other the chosen mate\u2014a love than\nwhich earth has no more influential nor beautiful thing to give. They\nalso show us the two akin in intellectual powers and pursuits, and\nequally enjoying the treasures which the world of letters opened to\nthem. But most prominent of all matters referred to in these letters are\nreligious questions and personal religious experiences. They revolve\naround \u201cthe evidences\u201d and similar subjects with an absorption of\ninterest that must seem almost incomprehensible to modern lovers. In the\nperfect and unrestrained communion of heart with heart these two speak\nof the sweet and wonderful experiences that they have enjoyed from the\npresence of the Lord, share their common hopes and anticipations of the\ncoming glory of the Redeemer\u2019s kingdom, and strive to help one another\nto a better understanding of the best things of God. Such thoughts and\nefforts as these undoubtedly went far toward laying the foundation of\nthat \u201cintimacy that existed throughout the whole range of their being,\u201d\nand for that deep and unswerving regard and confidence which each\ncherished for the other until death. She rested upon him, and he always\nlooked upon her as intellectually and morally the stronger and better\nportion of himself. The very differences in their nature and education\ncontributed to this large and beautiful unity and confidence. While\nresembling each other in many things, in others they were the\ncomplements of each other. He was quick and impulsive, she, perfectly\nserene and self-poised. He was logical, she was intuitive as well. He\nwas of the Independents, she was an Episcopalian. From such a union, so\nsincere and broad, we may expect a happy home.\n\nJudging from these letters, we should say also that whenever these two\nshall build their home they will build it strong and high. Not only will\nlove be there, with all its attractions, and intellect with its stimulus\nand power, but the grand things of heaven will be builded into it. And\nwherever it shall be established, whether by the sea-shore at East\nHampton or among the hills of Litchfield, it will have a broad horizon;\nit will look out upon something wider and deeper than the sea and higher\nthan the mountains. The high things of God will always be kept in view;\nHis broad, deep, measureless purposes will be held within the range of\nits contemplation, and His presence will be felt in shaping its policy\nand in giving vitality to its atmosphere.\n\nFrom such a home we shall expect children that shall have power in the\nworld.\n\nThey were married at Nutplains, September 19, 1799.\n\n\u201cRoxana\u2019s friends were all present and all my folks from New Haven.\u201d ...\n\u201cNobody ever married more heart and hand than we.\u201d Then came the packing\nup; \u201cthe candle-stand, bureau, clothing, bedding, linen, and stuffs\ngenerally,\u201d and the going over by sloop to Long Island.\n\nTheir life in East Hampton, Long Island, was that of two who believed,\nwithout one shadow of doubt, in their call of God, and who took up their\nwork, not only with the firm grasp of duty, but with the enthusiasm of\ndevout, self-sacrificing love. Their faith was tested by his\nlong-continued sickness, by the death of one of their children, and by\nthe numerous discouragements of a country minister; but it stood the\ntest, deepening and brightening under trial.\n\nIt was a barren place to which they had come, but Lyman Beecher brought\nsuch vigorous faith and added to it such enthusiastic labors, now in the\nhome church, now in the school-houses of the surrounding districts, and\nnow among the Indians at Montauk Point, that he made the whole district\nfruitful. The field was a narrow one, but by the interest awakened by\nhis sermons, especially the one upon duelling called forth by the death\nof Alexander Hamilton from the pistol of Aaron Burr, he broadened it\nuntil his parish stretched across the Atlantic.\n\n[Illustration: Church in which Rev. Lyman Beecher preached, in East\nHampton, L. I.]\n\nThe wants of a young family made some effort necessary to eke out the\nmeagre salary of four hundred dollars, and a school for girls was\ndecided upon, to be kept by Mrs. Beecher. It was successful in every\nrespect but financially, and moderately so in that; but it did not bring\nthe relief that was sought, and there came a necessity to change for a\nfield where sufficient salary could be had to support the family without\nthe harassments of other and unpastoral labors.\n\nA marked providence, as it seemed to Mr. Beecher, opened the way to his\npreaching on trial in Litchfield, Connecticut. He made a good\nimpression; the people were unanimous and eager in their call; the\nPresbytery gave its consent; and now, without a doubt that it is\naccording to the will of God, the decision is made, and the home which\nhad first been planted within the sound of the ocean surf at East\nHampton, Long Island, in 1799, was transplanted to the quiet inland\nvillage of Litchfield in 1810.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER II.\n\nLitchfield\u2014Situation\u2014Natural Features\u2014Early Settlers\u2014Social and Moral\n    Advantages\u2014Patriotism\u2014North Street Described\u2014The Beecher Home\u2014Birth\n    of Henry Ward\u2014The Times at Home and Abroad\u2014His Birth-Mark.\n\n\nAs Henry Ward was perfectly satisfied with the parents that bore him, so\nhe was with the place in which he was born. \u201cSurely old Litchfield,\u201d he\nsays, \u201cwas a blessed place for one\u2019s birth and childhood. Although there\nwere no mountains, there were hills, the oldest-born of mountains, high,\nround, and innumerable. Great trees there were, full of confidences with\nthe wind that chastised them in winter and kissed and caressed them all\nthe summer.\u201d\n\nThe hills referred to were \u201cProspect\u201d and \u201cMount Tom\u201d on the west,\n\u201cChestnut Hill\u201d on the east, and others like them but unnamed\u2014the \u201chigh,\nround, and innumerable\u201d ones of which he speaks, and which together\nformed, with their sloping sides and valleys between, that broad and\nirregular plateau of elevated land, extending for miles on either side,\nin the midst of which the village of Litchfield is situated. A country\nof hills, with that wide and picturesque horizon which only such a\nlandscape can furnish, where the irregular outline appears as walls and\nwatch-towers for the protection of the home territory, with here and\nthere an open door, through which the imagination of youth or the feet\nof maturer years may pass out into the great world of sunshine or of\ncloud beyond.\n\nLitchfield Hill itself, on which the village stands, is more than a\nthousand feet above sea-level, \u201chigh and broad-backed,\u201d and belongs,\nwith all its fellows, to the Green Mountain range, which, beginning near\nthe Gulf of St. Lawrence, sweeps in an irregular curve to the seaboard\nat Long Island Sound, the back-bone of this great New England peninsula.\n\nHigh enough to be breezy and healthy, but not so high as to be\nunfertile, and sloping to the south, it afforded then, as now, all the\ninducements for residence which sun, soil, pure air, and a beautiful\nlandscape could furnish.\n\nLakes, without which no landscape is perfect, were added: Little Pond to\nthe southwest, and Big Bantam Lake beyond, were the ones that were\nvisible from the village, out of a large number that can be found in the\ntownship; but the Sawmill Pond, where Henry Ward caught his first fish,\nwith an alder-stick for a pole and a bent pin for a hook\u2014caught it so\nthoroughly that it was dashed in pieces upon the rocks behind him\u2014has\ndisappeared with the tearing away of the dam that held it.\n\nBrooks ran down between the hills and sang their way through the\nmeadows, each one offering some new feature to the landscape, and each a\nfield of new discovery for inquisitive youth.\n\nWoods, made up of every variety of tree and shrub native to our\nlatitude, where nuts grew and all kinds of small game abounded, where\ncrows and now and then a hen-hawk built their nests, were in easy reach\nupon the slopes of the hills both to the west and east. Ledges of rock\nto the north were the lair of wildcats, a vermin so numerous\nseventy-five years ago as to be a serious pest to the farmers; and stone\nwalls, where woodchucks retreated from the clover-fields and thought\nthemselves safe, were the usual division-fences for the fields.\n\nThere were other things that were equally pleasing to a boy\u2019s fancy, and\nperhaps equally influential in his education. The lakes, streams, and\nforests of the town had been the favorite fishing and hunting ground of\nthe Indians; arrow-heads were occasionally picked up on the lake shore\nor turned up by the ploughshare upon the hillside; and, best of all,\nMount Tom was one of the series of stations where blazed the\nsignal-fires which the Indians of this region built to warn their\nbrethren of the whole territory between the Housatonic and Naugatuck\nrivers of the approach of their enemies, the fierce Mohawks.\n\nLitchfield, in short, was the paradise of a birth-place for any boy. It\nwas paradise, school-house, gymnasium, church, and cathedral to Henry\nWard Beecher. In it he experienced his sweetest pleasures, learned his\nbest lessons, gained control of his powers, and offered his first\nworship. He breathed its pure air, climbed its rocks, wandered in its\nwoods, wrestled with its winter storms, and in this way laid the\nfoundation for that superb health for which he was remarkable through\nlife.\n\nWith the hunger and inquisitiveness of a growing boy, he searched\nnature\u2019s storehouse of fruits and nuts, which opens with the wintergreen\nplums and squaw-berries of the melting snow-time of spring, and\ncontinues, a house of plenty for all that know her secrets\u2014partridges,\nsquirrels, and boys\u2014until the snow covers the ground in December, and so\ngained that habit of investigation into the things of nature, and of\nclose observation, that distinguished him ever after.\n\nHe lay on the ground and looked up into the blue sky and the moving\ntree-tops for hours together, and listened to the voices of spring-time\nand eventide, and in this way, as he tells us, received the first\ndistinct religious impressions that he remembered. His nature, which\nseemed closed almost to the verge of stupidity to the rules of syntax\nand the answers in the Westminster Catechism, was wide open and\nreceptive to all the processes and influences of nature around him. He\ndrank them in, and they became not only a vast storehouse of facts and\nimages to which he resorted in after-life for illustrations, but, even\nmore than that, a very part of himself. The tree that so often appeared\nin his sermons was made from those up whose trunks he had climbed, in\nwhose shade he had lain, and to the whisperings of whose leaves he had\nlistened in boyhood. The spring which so often served in illustrating\nspiritual truths was but the description of those that burst out from\nthe foot of Chestnut or of Prospect Hill, and the flowers so frequently\nreferred to in the pulpit or in private conversation were such as he had\ngrown familiar with by the roadside, in the meadows or the forests of\nhis country home. The moving of the great cloud-shadows across the\nfields of Litchfield, the blue of its skies, the reddening of its\nmornings and the gold of its sunsets, the flash of its sunlight upon the\nlake, its wealth of apple-blossoms, the exquisite beauty of its violets\nhidden away in fence-corners, the grace of its elm-branches, the\nruggedness of its oaks, the strength of its rocks, the soft catkins of\nits willows, its meadow flower-garden of clover, daisy, and buttercup,\nthe gorgeousness of its forests in autumn, the gurgle of its brooks, the\nsong of its birds, the plaintive voices of its twilight, the gentle\nbreathings of its August winds and the fierce rattle of its December\nstorms, were all absorbed by his receptive nature and continually\nreappeared in his writings and talk of after-years. They added the grace\nand beauty native to them to all that he wrote or spoke, and were in\npart the secret of that charm in his words which attached and interested\nall alike. They did more than this: they prepared him to be an\ninterpreter of nature to others, and, when he had become equally well\nequipped with a rich spiritual experience, they fitted him, as we shall\nsee farther on, to be the reconciler of a spiritual faith and a material\nscience.\n\nIt was not an unimportant thing, but one of God\u2019s beautiful provisions,\nthat Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, where there is more of\nnature to the square foot, as we believe, than in any other place on the\nglobe; to learn his first lessons in the beautiful school of her\nflowers, birds, brooks, meadows, pasture lands, hill-tops, and forests.\n\n\u201cDear old Litchfield! I love thee still, even if thou didst me the\ndespite of pushing me into life upon thy high and windy hilltop! Where\ndid the spring ever break forth more joyously and sing at escaping from\nwinter, as the children of Israel did when that woman\u2019s-rights Miriam\nchanted her song of victory? Where did the torrid summer ever find a\nlovelier place in which to cool its beams? What trees ever murmured more\ngently to soft winds, or roared more lion-like when storms were abroad?\n\n\u201cIt was there that we learned to fish, to ride a horse alone, to do the\nbarn chores, to cut and split wood, to listen at evening to the croaking\nfrogs and whistling tree-toads, to go to meeting and go to sleep, to\ntear holes in new clothes; there we learned to hoe, to mow away hay, to\nweed onions, to stir up ministers\u2019 horses with an unusual speed when\nridden to water; there we went a-wandering up and down forest-edges, and\nalong the crooked brooks in flower-pied meadows, dreaming about things\nnot to be found in any catechism.\u201d\n\nEqually marked was Litchfield at that day for its social and moral as\nfor its natural advantages. Its early settlers, mostly from the\nexcellent stock from which the colonies of Hartford and Windsor were\nformed, were men of broad and liberal mould, and began their work upon\nthis hilltop in a characteristic fashion. They laid out their streets\nand staked off the village common with such generous breadth that they\nremain the delight of residents and the admiration of strangers to this\nday. They made such liberal provision for education and religion that\nthe settlement soon became noted for the excellency of its schools and\nthe commanding influence of its pulpit.[1]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n  Out of sixty-four allotments into which the town was divided, one was\n  to be given to the first minister, to be his and descend to his heirs\n  for ever; a second was to be reserved for the use of the minister\n  during his ministry, and a third was reserved for the benefit of a\n  school. While as yet three houses, one in the centre of the present\n  village, and one on either side a mile distant, were picketed and\n  garrisoned for protection against the Indians, and while there were\n  but sixty adult male inhabitants, they built their first church\n  edifice, with a Sabbath-Day House for the better accommodation of the\n  people.\n\n-----\n\nThe law-school of Judges Reeve and Gould, and the young ladies\u2019 school\nof the Misses Pierce, made it an educational centre scarcely second in\nthe breadth of its influence to any in the land, and attracted a class\nof residents of high social position.\n\nIts courts gathered from time to time some of the leading members of the\nbar from the whole country, not for a few hours, as now with our\nrailroad facilities, but for days and weeks together. All these things\nhelped to create a very high order of public spirit\u2014that force which,\noften wholly unregarded, is yet so powerful in moulding the character\nand giving direction to the life.\n\nOne other element in this communal influence must not be omitted\u2014its\nintense patriotism. From the beginning to the close of the Revolutionary\nstruggle the records of the county of Litchfield are stamped with the\nevidence of the most enthusiastic loyalty to the cause of the struggling\ncolonies. At the time of the Boston Port Bill, Litchfield had forwarded\na liberal contribution for the aid of the poor of that city. When the\nequestrian statue of King George, of gilded lead, was missing from the\nBowling Green in New York, it was shortly found in the dwelling-house of\nOliver Wolcott in this village, was melted down by his daughters and\ntheir friends, and furnished forty thousand bullets, which were sent to\nour soldiers in the field, to be afterwards forwarded by them, from the\nmuzzles of their muskets, to the king\u2019s Hessians, with the hissing\ncompliments of the American colonies.\n\nNo town excelled her in the proportionate number or quality of the men\nshe sent into the field (at one time every able-bodied man in the town\nbeing, it is said, at the front), nor in the suffering and loss which\nthey endured. Thirty out of a company of thirty-six who surrendered at\nFort Washington, New York, \u201cdied miserable deaths from cold, hunger,\nthirst, suffocation, disease, and the vilest cruelties from those to\nwhom they had surrendered on a solemn promise of honorable treatment.\u201d\nThis had made Ethan Allen, a native of this village, and, as is well\nknown, a professed infidel, grind his teeth and exclaim: \u201cMy faith in my\ncreed is shaken; there ought to be a hell for such infernal scoundrels\nas that Lowrie,\u201d the officer in charge of the prisoners. Nor were these\ndays so remote that their influence was unfelt. In 1810 the spirit of\n\u201976 was not seriously diminished, and many of the principal actors in\nthe stirring scenes of the Revolutionary struggle were still alive.\nColonel Tallmadge, one of the most dashing and able cavalry officers of\nthe army, Governor Oliver Wolcott, Jr., a member of Washington\u2019s\ncabinet, and many other soldiers of the Revolution and actors of less\nnote, were residents of the village at the time of the coming here of\nLyman Beecher. When we note the burning patriotism which was always so\nmarked a characteristic of Henry Ward, we must remember that he drank it\nin in his youth from its primitive sources among the old soldiers of\nLitchfield.\n\nWe give his description of the village as it appeared to him in his\nchildhood, although a part of it is out of chronological order. It is\nfound in an article entitled \u201cLitchfield Revisited,\u201d written in 1856:\n\n\u201cThe morning after our arrival in Litchfield we sallied forth alone. The\nday was high and wide, full of stillness, and serenely radiant. As we\ncarried our present life up the North Street we met at every step our\nboyhood life coming down. There were the old trees, but looking not so\nlarge as to our young eyes. The stately road had, however, been bereaved\nof the buttonball trees, which had been crippled by disease. But the old\nelms retained a habit peculiar to Litchfield. There seemed to be a\ncurrent of wind which at times passes high up in the air over the town,\nand which moves the tops of the trees, while on the ground there is no\nmovement of wind. How vividly did that sound from above bring back early\ndays, when for hours we lay upon the windless grass and watched the top\nleaves flutter, and marked how still were the under leaves of the same\ntree!\n\n\u201cOne by one came the old houses. On the corner stood and stands the\njail\u2014awful building to young sinners! We never passed its grated windows\nwithout a salutary chill. The old store, and same old name, Buell, on\nit; the bank, and its long, lean legs spindling up to hold the shelf up\nunder the roof! The Colonel Tallmadge house, that used to seem so grand\nthat it was cold, but whose cherry-trees in the front yard seemed warm\nenough and attractive to our longing lips and watery mouths. How well do\nwe remember the stately gait of the venerable colonel of Revolutionary\nmemory! We don\u2019t recollect that he ever spoke to us or greeted us; not\nbecause he was austere or unkind, but from a kind of military reserve.\nWe thought him good and polite, but should as soon have thought of\nclimbing the church-steeple as of speaking to one living so high and\nvenerable above all boys!\n\n\u201cThen came Judge Gould\u2019s! Did we not remember that and the faces that\nused to illuminate it? The polished and polite judge, the sons and\ndaughters, the little office in the yard, the successive classes of law\nstudents that received that teaching which has since so often honored\nboth bar and bench. Here, too, we stopped to retrace the very place\nwhere, being set on by a fiery young Southern blood, without any cause\nthat we knew of then or can remember now, we undertook to whip one of\nJudge Gould\u2019s sons, and did not do it. We were never satisfied with the\nresult, and think if the thing could be reviewed now it might turn out\ndifferently.\n\n\u201cThere, too, stood Dr. Catlin\u2019s house, looking as if the rubs of time\nhad polished it instead of injuring. Next there seemed to our puzzled\nmemory a vacancy. Ought there not to be about there a Holmes house, to\nwhich we used to go and get baskets of Virgaloo pears, and were inwardly\nfilled, as a satisfying method of keeping us honest toward the pears in\nthe basket?\n\n\u201cBut Dr. Sheldon\u2019s house is all right. Dear old Dr. Sheldon! We began to\nget well as soon as he came into the house; or, if the evil spirit\ndelayed a little, \u2018Cream-o\u2019-tartar with hot water poured upon it and\nsweetened\u2019 finished the work. He had learned, long before the days of\nhom\u0153opathy, that a doctor\u2019s chief business is to keep parents from\ngiving their children medicine, so that nature may have a fair chance at\nthe disease without having its attention divided or diverted.\n\n\u201cBut now we stop before Miss Pierce\u2019s\u2014a name known in thousands of\nfamilies, where gray-headed mothers remember the soft and gentle days of\nLitchfield schooling. The fine residence is well preserved, and time has\nbeen gentle within likewise. But the school-house is gone, and she that\nfor so many years kept it busy is gone, and the throng that have crossed\nits threshold brood the whole globe with offices of maternal love. The\nLitchfield Law School in the days of Judge Tapping Reeve and Judge\nGould, and Miss Pierce\u2019s Female School, were in their day two very\nmemorable institutions, and, though since supplied by others upon a\nlarger scale, there are few that will have performed so much, if we take\ninto account the earliness of the times and the fact that they were\npioneers and parents of those that have supplanted them. But they are\ngone, the buildings moved off, and the ground smoothed and soft to the\nfoot with green grass. No more shall the setting sun see Litchfield\nstreets thronged with young gentlemen and ladies, and filling the golden\nair with laughter or low converse which, unlaughing then, made life\nmusical for ever after!\n\n\u201cBut where is the Brace house? An old red house\u2014red once, but picked by\nthe winds and washed by rains till the color was neutral, thanks to the\nelements. The old elm-trees guard the spot, a brotherhood as noble as\nthese eyes have ever seen, lifted high up, and in the part nearest\nheaven locking their arms together and casting back upon their separate\ntrunks an undivided shade. So are many, separate in root and trunk,\nunited far up by their heaven-touching thoughts and affections.\n\n\u201cMrs. Lord\u2019s house is the only one now before we reach our own native\nspot. This, too, holds its own and is fertile in memories. Across the\nway lived Sheriff Landon, famous for dry wit and strong politics.\n\n\u201cBut south of him lived the greatest man in town, Mr. Parker, who owned\nthe stages; and the wittiest man in town, with us boys, was Hiram\nBarnes, that drove stage for him! To be sure, neither of them was\neminent for learning or civil influence, but, in that temple which boys\u2019\nimaginations make, a stage proprietor and a stage-driver stand forth as\ngrand as Minerva in the Parthenon!\n\n\u201cBut there are houses on the other side. The eastern side of Litchfield\nNorth Street, like the eastern side of Broadway, was never so acceptable\nto fashion, albeit some memorable names lived there. It was our good\nfortune to be born on the west side of the street. We know not what\nblessings must have descended upon us from having been born on the\nfashionable side; one shudders to think how near he escaped being born\non the other, the east side of the street.\u201d\n\nInto this village Lyman Beecher brought his family in 1810. The dwelling\nhad been described by himself: \u201cThe house I shall purchase is in a\nbeautiful situation, is convenient, has a large kitchen, a well-room, a\nwood-house, besides two barns and a shop on the premises, and one and a\nhalf acres of land; price, about $1,350; and there is a good young\norchard near for sale, so that we can keep a horse and one or two cows\nand have apples of our own from the money we shall reserve after paying\nour debts.\u201d A row of quince-trees \u201cwhose early blossoms were so tender\nand whose switches were so tough\u2014ah! those trees used to come home very\nnear to me!\u201d was on the north side of the house.[2]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n  This house, enlarged by the addition which Mr. Beecher found it\n  necessary to make, still remains substantially as it was seventy years\n  ago, although not upon the old lot. It is now a part of Dr. Buel\u2019s\n  hospital for the insane, about a quarter of a mile above the original\n  site.\n\n-----\n\nThe home circle was large and varied. There were at this time the\nparents and six children, \u201cSister Roxana and her little group of\ncountless numbers.\u201d \u201cAunt Mary Hubbard,\u201d the mother\u2019s favorite sister,\n\u201cspent much of her time with us, and some of mother\u2019s favorite pupils\nfrom East Hampton, who had come to attend Miss Pierce\u2019s school, sought a\nhome in our family. Betsy Burr, an orphan cousin, lived with us like an\nadopted daughter, while the kitchen department was under the care of the\ngood and affectionate Zillah and Rachel, who came with us and completed\nthe home circle.\u201d\n\nThe circle was still farther enlarged by the coming of Grandma Beecher\nand Aunt Esther, who, it will be remembered, was Lyman Beecher\u2019s\nhalf-sister\u2014\u201ca woman,\u201d as Henry Ward once said, \u201cso good and modest that\nshe will spend ages in heaven wondering how it ever happened that she\never got there, and that all the angels will be wondering why she was\nnot there from all eternity.\u201d \u201cThey occupied half of the next house to\nours on the way to Prospect Hill, making a place of daily resort for\nsome of the family.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Beecher Residence at Litchfield.]\n\n\u201cUncle Samuel Foote,\u201d the mother\u2019s sea-captain brother, \u201ccame among us,\non his return from each voyage, as a sort of brilliant genius of another\nsphere, bringing gifts and wonders that seemed to wake new faculties in\nall. Whenever he came to Litchfield he brought a stock of new books,\nwhich he and Aunt Mary read aloud.\u201d\n\nIt will be seen that, without referring to other inmates of the family,\nsuch as boarders and visitors, who afforded a great variety, some\namusing and others instructive, the things which Henry Ward said were\n\u201cthe great treasures of a dwelling\u2014the child\u2019s cradle, the grandmother\u2019s\nchair, the hearth and the old-fashioned fireplace, the table and the\nwindow\u201d\u2014were all there, and a great many things beside.\n\nThere were trials, almost hardships we should call them, as appears from\na letter of Mrs. Beecher\u2019s dated January 13, 1811, but none of them\nsufficient to bring discouragement or destroy her interest in scientific\nsubjects: \u201c... Would now write you a long letter, if it were not for\nseveral vexing circumstances, such as the weather extremely cold, storm\nviolent, and no wood cut; Mr. Beecher gone, and Sabbath day, with\ncompany\u2014a clergyman, a stranger; Catharine sick; George almost so;\nRachel\u2019s finger cut off, and she crying and groaning with the pain. Mr.\nBeecher is gone to preach in New Hartford, and did not provide us wood\nenough to last, seeing the weather has grown so exceedingly cold.... As\nfor reading, I average perhaps one page a week besides what I do on\nSundays. I expect to be obliged to be contented (if I can) with the\nstock of knowledge I already possess, except what I can glean from the\nconversation of others.... Mary has, I suppose, told you of the\ndiscovery that the fixed alkalies are metallic oxides. I first saw the\nnotice in the _Christian Observer_. I have since seen it in an\n_Edinburgh Review_. The former mentioned that the metals have been\nobtained by means of the galvanic battery; the latter mentions another\nand, they say, a better mode. I think this is all the knowledge I have\nobtained in the whole circle of arts and sciences of late; if you have\nbeen more fortunate, pray let me reap the benefit.\u201d\n\nLooking at both its sunshine and its shadows, this Litchfield parsonage\noffers an illustration of an ideal New England home. The household was\nlarge, large enough to contain in itself a great variety of resources,\nand able in that roomy house to offer a broad hospitality to all comers.\nDemocratic in the best sense of the word, servants being considered and\ntreated as constituent members; wide awake, reading all the new books,\ndiscussing all the vital questions of the day, arguing all the knotty\npoints of theology; industrious and frugal; allied to the best life of\nthe place and the times, with a broad outlook that took within its\nhorizon all the interests of country and humanity, of the kingdom of God\nat home and abroad, social, political, and spiritual, it was good soil,\nand a good exposure for planting a tree whose branches should spread\nabroad throughout the land and the whole earth.\n\nInto this family was born a son, June 24, 1813\u2014\u201cthe fourth, fifth,\nsixth, or seventh child, somewhere thereabouts,\u201d as he himself says in a\nspeech before the London Congregational Board, with that forgetfulness\nof numbers which was always characteristic of him. In fact, the ninth\nchild, the eighth living at the time. It was in one of his favorite\nmonths, that of June, \u201cwhich bursts out from the gates of heaven with\nall that is youngest, and clothed with that which is the most tender and\nbeautiful,\u201d that he began his career.\n\nThe grandmother, Roxana Foote, being with her daughter at the time, and\nremembering her own two favorite sons, who died in youth, named the\nnew-born infant after his uncles, Henry and Ward.\n\nThey were stirring times, those of the early summer of 1813. The second\nwar of our national independence was then in progress, and tidings had\njust reached the village that Fort Brown had been captured by the United\nStates forces. Lyman Beecher says of those times:\n\n\u201cOur dangers in the war of 1812 were very great, so great that human\nskill and power were felt to be in vain. Thick clouds begirt the\nhorizon, the storm roared louder and louder; it was dark as midnight,\nevery pilot trembled, and from most all hope that we should be saved was\ntaken away; and when from impenetrable darkness the sun burst suddenly\nupon us and peace came, we said: \u2018Our soul is escaped as a bird from the\nsnare of the fowler. The snare is broken and we are escaped.\u2019\u201d\n\nAcross the water Napoleon was rallying from the disaster of his Russian\ncampaign, and making the Continent again resound with the roar of his\ncannon. Not only did these events stir mind and heart of all alike, but\nthe increased taxation and the high prices that resulted from a world at\nwar were severely felt in the parsonage. Mrs. Lyman Beecher wrote: \u201cWe\nfeel the war somewhat more than we should one between the Turks and Crim\nTartars, inasmuch as, for the most part, every article is double or\ntreble the former price, and some things even more than that.\u201d\n\nThese were also the days of the inauguration of some of those great\nmoral movements that are even now in progress in this State and in the\nland. It was but the year before that the General Association of\nConnecticut, under the leadership of Lyman Beecher, had taken decided\naction upon the temperance question. In speaking of it he says:\n\n\u201cI was not headstrong then, but I was heart-strong\u2014oh! very, very! From\nthat time on the movement went on, not only in Connecticut but marching\nthrough New England and marching through the world. Glory to God! Oh!\nhow it wakes my old heart up to think of it!\u201d\n\nMorals in general at this time were at a low ebb, and he secured the\norganization of a \u201cGeneral Society for the Suppression of Vice and the\nPromotion of Good Morals in the State.\u201d\n\nHis sermon upon the \u201cBuilding of Waste Places\u201d resulted in the\ninstitution of a \u201cDomestic Missionary Society\u201d for the work of home\nevangelization in Connecticut, and he had already secured a Foreign\nMissionary Society for Litchfield, which was one of the most efficient\nauxiliaries of the American Board, then but recently established. The\nconflict concerning the Standing Order which in 1818 resulted in the\nwithdrawal of State aid from the Congregational churches, and which Dr.\nBeecher feared as likely to open the flood-gates of ruin upon the State,\nand by reason of which he says, \u201cI suffered what no tongue can tell, for\nthe best thing that ever happened to the State of Connecticut,\u201d was just\nbeginning.\n\nIn all the movements of this progressive period stands this village\nparsonage, like an outpost of an advancing army, held almost within the\nenemy\u2019s lines.\n\nAdded to these public labors and troubles a very heavy family sorrow was\nlaid upon them during this year. The mother, for months before the birth\nof her ninth child, saw her favorite sister, Mary Hubbard, slowly\nwasting away with consumption, and had need to call up all her resources\nof faith and resignation to meet this complication of trials that was\nupon them.\n\n[Illustration: Room in which Mr. Beecher was born.]\n\nSo this child was nourished, even before birth, in the sweet spirit of a\nmost godly soul, deepened and chastened by both private griefs and\npublic sorrows, and was ushered into the world at an era of most\nimportant events, into the very midst of multiplied labors and stirring,\nprogressive movements. All these formed, as it were, an atmosphere of\ninfluence as imperceptible to the eye as common air, but as powerful in\nmoulding character in its formative periods as are the natural forces in\nshaping the mountains or growing the forests. By virtue of that law by\nwhich the offspring are affected by those things which most interest the\nparents, we may safely say that Henry Ward Beecher was in part a product\nof the times that preceded, attended, and followed his birth, and was\nstamped by their strong and peculiar characteristics. He carried war in\nhim as a birth-mark, but with him it was war against wickedness and\nwrong.\n\nThe springs of consolation, which flowed from him in after-years for the\nrelief of troubled souls the world over, were such as his mother\nresorted to in days of trial, and were opened to him in her bosom; and\nhe was continually pressing forward through life to some new measure of\nreform, to some new step of attainment, by virtue of that reforming,\nprogressive age that so early became a very part of his nature.\n\n[Illustration: The Elms and Well which Mark the Site of \u201cThe Beecher\nHouse\u201d in Litchfield.]\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER III.\n                               CHILDHOOD.\n\nEarly Glimpses\u2014Recollections of the Mother\u2014Going to School at Ma\u2019am\n    Kilbourne\u2019s\u2014His First Letter\u2014District School\u2014The Coming of the New\n    Mother\u2014His First Ride on Horseback\u2014A Merry Household\u2014Fishing\n    Excursions\u2014Minister\u2019s Wood-Spell\u2014Saturday Night\u2014Going to Meeting\u2014The\n    Puritan Sabbath\u2014The Cold of Litchfield Hill\u2014Rats\u2014Work\u2014The\n    Catechism\u2014Formative Influences\u2014Summing Up.\n\n\nWe of course see but little of him in these early years.\n\n\u201cThe younger members of the Beecher family came into existence in a\ngreat, bustling household of older people, all going their several ways\nand having their own grown-up interests to carry.\n\n\u201cThe child growing up in this busy, active circle had constantly\nimpressed upon it a sense of personal insignificance as a child, and the\nabsolute need of the virtue of passive obedience and non-resistance as\nregards all grown-up people. To be statedly washed and dressed and\ncatechised, got to school at regular hours in the morning and to bed\ninflexibly at the earliest possible hour at night, comprised about all\nthe attention that children could receive in those days.\u201d\n\nHere and there a glimpse is given, just enough to tell us the direction\nthe stream is taking. The first is found in a letter of the mother to\nher sister, Harriet Foote, written when he was a little more than a year\nold:\n\n\u201c_July 12, 1814._\u2014... I arrived Saturday at sunset, and found all well,\nand boy (Henry Ward) in merry trim, glad at heart to be safe on terra\nfirma after all his jolts and tossings.\u201d\n\nAgain in November of the same year:\n\n\u201cI write sitting upon my feet with my paper on the seat of a chair,\nwhile Henry is hanging round my neck and climbing on my back.\u201d\n\nHe himself gives an experience of a little later period:\n\n\u201cI remember very well when I was but two years old (strange as it may\nseem; sometimes I think I spent all my remembering power on that early\nperiod!) finding myself in the east entry of my father\u2019s great house,\nalone, coming down-stairs, or trying to. The sudden sense which I had of\nbeing alone frightened me, and I gave one shriek; and then the echo of\nmy voice scared me worse, and I gave another shriek that was more\nemphatic; and I remember seeing the light stream in from the\ndining-room, and being taken up by loving hands. The face I do not\nrecall, the form I do not recall; but I remember the warm pressure. It\nwas my mother, who died when I was three years old. She took me to her\nbosom. I recollect sitting by the side of some one who made me feel very\nhappy; and I recollect seeing my father\u2019s swart face on the other side\nof the table.\n\n\u201cNow I could not paint my mother\u2019s face; but I know how her bosom felt.\nI know how her arms felt. I have a filial sense, a child\u2019s\ninterpretation, of motherhood. It was only an emotion or instinct in me,\nbut it was blessed.\u201d\n\nThis incident of the mother is supplemented by two of the sister\nHarriet, in which the little boy Henry had a part:\n\n\u201cIn my own early childhood,\u201d she says, \u201conly two incidents of my mother\ntwinkle like rays through the darkness. One was of our all running and\ndancing out before her from the nursery to the sitting-room one Sabbath\nmorning, and her pleasant voice saying after us, \u2018Remember the Sabbath\nday to keep it holy.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnother remembrance is this: \u201cMother was an enthusiastic horticulturist\nin all the small ways that limited means allowed. Her brother John, in\nNew York, had just sent her a small parcel of tulip bulbs. I remember\nrummaging these out of an obscure corner of the nursery one day when she\nwas out, and being strongly seized with the idea that they were good to\neat, and using all the little English I possessed to persuade my\nbrothers that these were onions such as grown people ate, and would be\nvery nice for us. So we fell to and devoured the whole; and I recollect\nbeing somewhat disappointed in the odd, sweetish taste, and thinking\nthat onions were not as nice as I had supposed. Then mother\u2019s serene\nface appeared at the nursery door, and we all ran toward her and with\none voice began to tell our discovery and achievement. We had found this\nbag of onions and had eaten them all up. Also I remember that there was\nnot even a momentary expression of impatience, but that she sat down and\nsaid: \u2018My dear children, what you have done makes mamma very sorry.\nThose were not onion-roots, but roots of beautiful flowers; and if you\nhad let them alone ma would have had next summer in the garden great,\nbeautiful red and yellow flowers such as you never saw.\u2019 I remember how\ndrooping and dispirited we all grew at this picture, and how sadly we\nregarded the empty bag.\u201d\n\nWhen the mother grew sick and the children were admitted to her bedside\nonce a day, Henry was among the number, although no memory of the fact\nlingered with him in after-years.\n\nMrs. Stowe writes of this event:\n\n\u201cI have a vision of a very fair face with a bright red spot on each\ncheek, and a quiet smile as she offered me a spoonful of her gruel; of\nour dreaming one night, we little ones, that mamma had got well, and\nwaking in loud transports of joy, and being hushed down by some one\ncoming into the room. Our dream was indeed a true one. She was for ever\nwell; but they told us she was dead, and took us in to see what seemed\nso cold and so unlike anything we had ever seen or known of her.\u201d\n\nMrs. Reeve, one of the most intimate friends of the family, writes of\nthe last day of her life:\n\n\u201cShe told her husband that her views and anticipations of heaven had\nbeen so great that she could hardly sustain it, and if they had been\nincreased she should have been overwhelmed, and that her Saviour had\nconstantly blessed her; that she had peace without one cloud, and that\nshe had never during her sickness prayed for her life. She dedicated her\nsons to God for missionaries, and said that her greatest desire was that\nher children might be trained up for God, and she trusted God would, in\nhis own time, provide another companion for him that would more than\nfill her place.\n\n\u201cShe spoke of the advancement of Christ\u2019s kingdom with joy, and of the\nglorious day that was ushering in.\n\n\u201cShe attempted to speak to her children, but she was extremely\nexhausted, and their cries and sobs were such that she could say but\nlittle. She told them that God could do more for them than she had done\nor could do, and that they must trust him.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher then made a prayer, in which he gave her back to God and\ndedicated all that they held in common to him. She then fell into a\nsweet sleep from which she awoke in heaven. It is a most moving scene to\nsee eight little children weeping around the bed of a dying mother; but\nstill it was very cheering to see how God could take away the sting of\ndeath and give such a victory over the grave.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher\u2019s remembrance of this event was simply of a feeling of fear\nand pain at the weeping of the children around him, and of interest in\nthe baby, Charles, in his little white dress, as he was lifted up in the\narms of one of the attendants.\n\nOf the funeral we read from Mrs. Stowe\u2019s pen:\n\n\u201cHenry was too little to go; I remember his golden curls and little\nblack frock, as he frolicked like a kitten in the sun in ignorant joy.\n\n\u201cI remember the mourning dresses, the tears of the older children, the\nwalking to the burial-ground and somebody\u2019s speaking at the grave, and\nthe audible sobbing of the family; and then all was closed, and we\nlittle ones, to whom it was so confused, asked the question where she\nwas gone and would she never come back? They told us at one time that\nshe had been laid in the ground, at another that she had gone to heaven.\nWhereupon Henry, putting the two things together, resolved to dig\nthrough the ground and go to find her; for being discovered under sister\nCatherine\u2019s window one morning digging with great zeal and earnestness,\nshe called to him to know what he was doing, and, lifting his curly\nhead, with great simplicity he answered: \u2018Why, I am going to heaven to\nfind ma!\u2019\u201d\n\nWe next hear of him in a letter written by his sister, February 1, 1817:\n\n\u201c... Henry is a very good boy, and we think him a remarkably interesting\nchild, and he grows dearer to us every day. He is very affectionate, and\nseems to love his father with all his heart. His constant prattle is a\ngreat amusement to us all. He often speaks of his sister Harriet, and\nwishes spring would come, so that she might come home and go to school\nwith him.\u201d\n\nThis was in the winter when he was past three years old.\n\nPerhaps the prattle of this one will be instructive as well as amusing\nsome day. Who knows?\n\nAt last spring comes, and with it his sister Harriet from her long visit\nat Nutplains, and an important era in his life opens. He begins to go to\nschool, with her as his companion and guardian.\n\nHe is just four years old that summer, the usual age for school\nbeginnings in rural New England. They went to Ma\u2019am Kilbourne\u2019s on West\nStreet, and there he clambered up the first rounds of the ladder of\nbook-learning and took his first lessons. These consisted in repeating\nhis letters twice a day, such as he could remember, and having the\nothers pointed out to him from Webster\u2019s spelling-book, as he stood, a\nchubby, bare-footed, round, rosy-faced boy, in front of the dreaded\nschoolma\u2019am, who had been made sharp and angular by her years of labor\nin sharpening the intellectual faculties of generations of children.\n\nIn due time Charles is large enough to join the older brother and\nsister, and tells us:\n\n\u201cI remember all three of us coming out of our yard and stringing along,\nholding each other by the hand and saying every morning, \u2018What if a\ngreat big dog should come out at us?\u2019 and Henry, as the larger brother\nand protector of the group, answering, \u2018I would take an axe and chop his\nhead off.\u2019\u201d\n\nAs yet he wears his hair in long golden curls, the badge of a continued\ninfantile state; but some of the girls at school improvising a pair of\nshears from the pieces of tin thrown out from a shop near by, and\ncutting off some of the coveted locks, it is thought best at home to cut\nthem all off; and now, with trousers, and suspenders, and jacket, and\nshort hair, and bare feet, he emerges from the half-infantile, girlish\nstate and becomes a full-fledged boy, much to his own satisfaction: \u201che\nconsidered that his manhood had now commenced.\u201d\n\nThat the instruction of his teacher is not all thrown away is evident by\nthe letter which he wrote at this time, when he was five years old, of\nwhich a facsimile is given. Its merits of directness and originality, at\nleast in the matter of spelling, will be readily recognized:\n\n[Illustration:\n\n  DER SISTER\n  WE AR AL WEL\n  MA HAZ A BABY\n  THE OLD SOW HAZ SIX PIGS\n]\n\nOne incident of about these times, which is related by his brother, is\nludicrously prophetic:\n\n\u201cI remember Henry\u2019s coming in and taking his turn\u201d (reading to Aunt\nEsther). \u201cOnce the piece was about wild beasts, and it said \u2018two\nmonstrous lions came out.\u2019 I can see Henry\u2019s red face and declamatory\nair as he read it \u2018two monstrofalous great lions came out.\u2019\u201d\n\nFrom Widow Kilbourne\u2019s he graduated into the district school, which was\na few rods north of the parsonage, and was attended by all the children\nof quite a large farming district. Like the other children, he carried\nsewing and knitting, and the sister tells us that \u201cthis bashful,\ndazed-looking boy pattered bare-foot to and from the little unpainted\nschool-house, with a brown towel or a blue checked apron to hem during\nthe intervals between his spelling and reading lessons.\u201d\n\nHis eagerness for sister Harriet to return, that he may begin school,\nhas long since subsided, and given place to an unusual dislike for his\nwhole district-school experience, as appears from reminiscences which he\nwrote in after-years:\n\n\u201cIt was our misfortune, in boyhood, to go to a district school. It was a\nlittle, square pine building, blazing in the sun, upon the highway,\nwithout a tree for shade or sight near it; without bush, yard, fence, or\ncircumstance to take off its bare, cold, hard, hateful look. Before the\ndoor, in winter, was the pile of wood for fuel, and in summer there were\nall the chips of the winter\u2019s wood. In winter we were squeezed into the\nrecess of the farthest corner, among little boys, who seemed to be sent\nto school merely to fill up the chinks between the bigger boys.\nCertainly we were never sent for any such absurd purpose as an\neducation. There were the great scholars\u2014the school in winter was for\n_them_, not for us pickaninnies. We were read and spelt twice a day,\nunless something happened to prevent, which _did_ happen about every\nother day. For the rest of the time we were busy in keeping still. And a\ntime we always had of it! Our shoes always would be scraping on the\nfloor or knocking the shins of urchins who were also being \u2018educated.\u2019\nAll of our little legs together (poor, tired, nervous, restless legs\nwith nothing to do!) would fill up the corner with such a noise that,\nevery ten or fifteen minutes, the master would bring down his two-foot\nhickory ferule on the desk with a clap that sent shivers through our\nhearts to think how that would have felt if it had fallen somewhere\nelse; and then, with a look that swept us all into utter extremity of\nstillness, he would cry, \u2018Silence in that corner!\u2019 It would last for a\nfew minutes; but little boys\u2019 memories are not capacious. Moreover, some\nof the boys had mischief, and some had mirthfulness, and some had both\ntogether. The consequence was that just when we were the most afraid to\nlaugh we saw the most comical things. Temptations which we could have\nvanquished with a smile out in the free air were irresistible in our\nlittle corner, where a laugh and a spank were very apt to woo each\nother. So we would hold on and fill up; and others would hold on and\nfill up too; till by and by the weakest would let go a mere whiffet of a\nlaugh, and then down went all the precautions, and one went off, and\nanother, and another, touching the others off like a pack of\nfire-crackers! It was in vain to deny it. But as the process of snapping\nour heads and pulling our ears went on with primitive sobriety, we each\nin turn, with tearful eyes and blubbering lips, declared \u2018we didn\u2019t mean\nto,\u2019 and that was true; and that \u2018we wouldn\u2019t do so any more,\u2019 and that\nwas a lie, however unintentional, for we never failed to do just so\nagain, and that about once an hour all day long.\n\n\u201cBesides this our principal business was to shake and shiver at the\nbeginning of the school for very cold; and to sweat and stew for the\nrest of the time before the fervid glances of a great box iron stove,\nred-hot. There was one great event of horror and two of pleasure: the\nfirst was the act of _going to school_, comprehending the leaving off\nplay, the face-washing and clothes-inspecting, the temporary play-spell\nbefore the master came, the outcry, \u2018There he is! the master is coming!\u2019\nthe hurly-burly rush, and the noisy clattering to our seats. The other\ntwo events of pleasure were the play-spell and the dismissal. O dear!\ncan there be anything worse for a lively, mercurial, mirthful, active\nlittle boy than going to a winter district school? Yes\u2014going to a summer\ndistrict school! There is no comparison. The one is the Miltonic depth,\nbelow the deepest depth.\n\n\u201cA woman kept the school, sharp, precise, unsympathetic, keen, and\nuntiring. Of all ingenious ways of fretting little boys doubtless her\nways were the most expert. Not a tree to shelter the house; the sun beat\ndown on the shingles and clapboards till the pine knots shed pitchy\ntears, and the air was redolent of hot pine-wood smell. The benches were\nslabs with legs in them. The desks were slabs at an angle, cut, hacked,\nscratched; each year\u2019s edition of jack-knife literature overlaying its\npredecessor, until it then wore cuttings and carvings two or three\ninches deep. But if _we_ cut a morsel, or stuck in pins, or pinched off\nsplinters, the little sharp-eyed mistress was on hand, and one look of\nher eye was worse than a sliver in our foot, and one nip of her fingers\nwas equal to a jab of a pin; for we had tried both.\n\n\u201cWe envied the flies\u2014merry fellows! bouncing about, tasting that\napple-skin, patting away at that crumb of bread; now out the window,\nthen in again; on your nose, on your neighbor\u2019s cheek, off to the very\nschoolma\u2019am\u2019s lips; dodging her slap, and then letting off a real round\nand round buzz, up, down, this way, that way, and every way. Oh! we\nenvied the flies more than anything, except the birds. The windows were\nso high that we could not see the grassy meadows; but we could see the\ntops of distant trees, and the far, deep, bounteous blue sky. There flew\nthe robins; there went the blue-birds: and there went we. We followed\nthat old polyglot, the skunk-blackbird, and heard him describe the way\nthey talked at the winding up of the Tower of Babel. We thanked every\nmeadow-lark that sung on, rejoicing as it flew. Now and then a\n\u2018chipping-bird\u2019 would flutter on the very window-sill, turn its little\nhead sidewise, and peer in on the medley of boys and girls. Long before\nwe knew that it was in Scripture we sighed: Oh! that we had the wings of\na bird; we would fly away and be out of this hateful school. As for\nlearning, the sum of all that we ever got at a district school would not\ncover the first ten letters of the alphabet. One good, kind,\nstory-telling, Bible-rehearsing aunt at home, with apples and\nginger-bread premiums, is worth all the schoolma\u2019ams that ever stood by\nto see poor little fellows roast in those boy-traps called district\nschools.\n\n\u201cI have not a single pleasant recollection in connection with my\nschool-boy days. The woods were full of temptations, the trees called\nme, the birds wanted me, the brooks sung entreaties. It seemed cruel to\nbe shut up. The brooks, birds, flowers, sunshine, and breezes were free;\nwhy not I?\u201d\n\nIn the autumn of 1817, when Henry Ward was a few months past four years\nof age, Dr. Lyman Beecher married Miss Harriet Porter, of Portland,\nMaine, and brought his bride at once to Litchfield.\n\nThe advent of the new mother is thus described by Mrs. Stowe:\n\n\u201cI was about six years old and slept in the nursery with my two younger\nbrothers, Henry and Charles. We heard father\u2019s voice in the entry, and\nstarted up in our little beds, crying out as he entered our room, \u2018Why,\nhere\u2019s pa!\u2019 A cheerful voice called out from behind him, \u2018And here\u2019s\nma.\u2019\n\n\u201cA beautiful lady, very fair, with bright blue eyes and soft auburn hair\nbound round with a black velvet bandeau, came into the room smiling,\neager and happy-looking, and, coming up to our beds, kissed us and told\nus that she loved little children and that she would be our mother.\nNever did stepmother make a prettier or sweeter impression. The next\nmorning I remember we looked at her with awe. She seemed to us so fair,\nso delicate, so elegant that we were almost afraid to go near her. We\nmust have been rough, red-cheeked, hearty country children, honest,\nobedient, and bashful. She was peculiarly dainty and neat in all her\nways and arrangements; and I remember I used to feel breezy and rough\nand rude in her presence. We felt a little in awe of her, as if she were\na strange princess rather than our own mamma; but her voice was very\nsweet, her ways of moving and speaking very graceful, and she took us up\nin her lap and let us play with her beautiful hands, which seemed\nwonderful things made of pearl and ornamented with strange rings.\u201d\n\nIn a letter written to her sister Mrs. Beecher gives her impressions of\nthe group. She says: \u201cWe surprised them here almost as much as Mr.\nBeecher did us. They did not expect us till the following evening, but\nit was a joyful surprise to them. I never saw so many rosy cheeks and\nlaughing eyes. The little ones were all joy and gladness. They began\nall, the first thing, to tell their dreams, for it seems they have\ndreamed of nothing else but father\u2019s coming home; and some dreamed he\ncame without me, and some that he brought two mothers. They all became\nimmediately very free and social, except the youngest (Charles), and he\nis quite shy; calls me \u2018lady,\u2019 and sometimes \u2018dear lady,\u2019 but he loves\naunt much the best. I have never seen a finer family of children, or a\nmore agreeable. I am delighted with the great familiarity and great\nrespect subsisting between parent and children. It is a house of great\ncheerfulness and comfort, and I am beginning to feel at home. Harriet\nand Henry are very desirous for me to send their love.\u201d\n\nLater she writes of them:\n\n\u201cI perceive them to be of agreeable habits, and some of them of uncommon\nintellect.... Harriet and Henry come next, and they are always\nhand-in-hand. They are as lovely children as I ever saw, amiable,\naffectionate, and very bright.... Our dwelling is pleasantly situated.\nThe garden yields plenty of vegetables for the year, plenty of cherries,\nand the orchard furnishes cider and apples enough. A barrel of\napple-sauce is made in the fall, which the children use instead of\nbutter.... The boys are up before it is quite day, and make fires, and\nwe are all down and have prayers before sunrise. Our domestic worship is\nvery delightful. We sing a good deal and have reading aloud as much as\nwe can.\u201d\n\nThe following silhouette, although following the last by quite an\ninterval of time\u2014it is in 1819\u2014is our next family picture in order:\n\n\u201cPapa is well and is still writing that piece with a hard name, I can\u2019t\nremember what. Mamma is well, and don\u2019t laugh any more than she used to.\nCatherine goes on just as she always did, making fun for everybody.\nGeorge is as usual. Harriet makes just as many wry faces, is just as\nodd, and loves to be laughed at just as much as ever. Henry does not\nimprove much in talking, but speaks very thick. Charles is the most\nmischievous little fellow I ever knew. He seems to do it for the very\nlove of it; is punished and punished again, but it has no effect. He is\nthe same honest little boy, and I love him dearly.\u201d\n\nIt must have been about this time that Henry had the experience which he\nthus describes:\n\n\u201cWhen I was a lad I was ambitious to ride, but never was permitted to\nride except behind an elder brother; but one fair morning, as the horse\nwas brought out to be watered, I bestrode him and took the reins in my\nhand. He made for the brook with considerable celerity; but though he\nwas nimble I was willing, and I succeeded in holding on and getting back\nwithout any accident. So elated was I with my first attempt at\nhorseback-riding that I felt that I was the horseman of the\nneighborhood. The next morning I repeated the ride, but with a\nvariation; for, being unaccustomed to some of the phases of\nhorseback-riding, I was not prepared for what occurred. The horse did\nnot perform just as I wanted him to, so I laid the whip on him, and he\ndarted forward, and when he reached the edge of the brook he suddenly\nstopped and I went on!\u201d\n\nThey are a merry lot of children, getting up little impromptu concerts,\ncharades, and games of all kinds, at one time going so far as to\ndramatize a favorite story. They \u201ccurtain off the end of the parlor,\u201d\nand \u201ccomplete the entertainment amid thunders of applause.\u201d\n\nAnimal life is regarded, and the absent members of the family are kept\nduly informed of the well-being of their favorites:\n\n\u201cOld Puss is very well and sends her respects to you. And Mr. Black Trip\nhas come out of the barn to live, and says if you ever come into the\nkitchen he will jump up and lick your hands and pull your frock, just as\nhe serves the rest of us. Henry and Charles love to play with him very\nmuch.\u201d\n\nLittle events in the family are noted and immortalized in verse, of\nwhich the following letter is a sample:\n\n\u201c... Apropos, last week was interred Tom, Junior, with funeral honors,\nby the side of old Tom of happy memory. What a fatal mortality there is\namong the cats of the parsonage! Our Harriet is chief mourner always at\ntheir funerals. She asked for what she called an _epethet_ for the\ngrave-stone of Tom, Junior, which I gave as follows:\n\n                         \u201c\u2018Here died our Kit,\n                         Who had a fit\n                           And acted queer.\n                         Shot with a gun,\n                         Her race is run,\n                           And she lies here.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen Henry was eight years old we read of the three in this wise:\n\n\u201cHarriet reads everything she can lay her hands on, and sews and knits\ndiligently. Henry and Charles go to school. Henry is as sprightly and\nactive, and Charles as honest and clumsy, as ever.\u201d\n\nLater in the year he can be had if really wanted:\n\n\u201cWe have four boarders besides our own sick folk, so that if you are\nlonesome for want of children we could easily spare Henry or Harriet.\u201d\n\nWhether the hint was taken, and the boy who was sometimes too \u201csprightly\nand active\u201d and this girl who \u201creads everything she can lay her hands\non\u201d were wanted and sent, is not told. The next year perhaps they would\nnot care to spare him. \u201cI had the alders down at the bottom of the east\nlot cut up, broke it up, and planted to corn and potatoes. Henry and\nCharles began to help hoe a little.\u201d Any one who has had experience in\nsuch matters knows that hoeing potatoes in a newly-ploughed field just\ncleared of alders is no fun. At this time Henry was nine years old.\n\nIt has been said by one whose hatred of orthodox religion is only\nequalled by the beauty of the language with which he is able to clothe\nhis misconceptions, that \u201cHenry Ward Beecher was born in a Puritan\npenitentiary, of which his father was one of the wardens; a prison with\nvery narrow and closely-grated windows.\u201d But Mrs. Stowe wrote years ago:\n\u201cOne of my most vivid impressions of the family, as it was in my\nchildish days, was of a great household inspired by a spirit of\ncheerfulness and hilarity, and of my father, although pressed and driven\nwith business, always lending an attentive ear to anything in the way of\nlife and social fellowship.\u201d\n\nThe brother Charles, who was an almost inseparable companion for Henry\nin those days, says in a letter recently received: \u201cThe parental\nauthority was pronounced but not very strict. That is, there was never\nany thought in the mind of the children of disobedience, but resort to\ncorporal punishment was rare.\n\n\u201cNor was brother Henry made to work very hard, nor was father very\nstrait-laced or stern. Nor were we often _switched_, tho\u2019 I dare say we\ndeserved it. I only remember once distinctly, when Henry performed the\ngymnastics and I furnished the music (out in the barn). Fortunately for\nme, the switch was mostly used up on him as the elder\u2014a birthright I did\nnot envy\u2014and I howled in sympathy, with a few cuts for _Da Capo_.\n\n\u201cThe fact is, father was very fond of all his children and frolicked and\nromped with them. All the work there was to do (chores we called it) was\nto take care of a horse and cow, and in spring make garden, and, after\nwood-spell, carry in and pile up wood. I remember that we were told if\nwe made the garden so and so, or did this or that, we should go fishing;\nand we used to go, the whole family of us, to Little Pond or Great Pond,\nand catch \u2018Perchy, roachy, bullhead,\u2019 as we sang it. One afternoon at\nLittle Pond, where father had taken Henry and me in the chaise\n(\u2018one-hoss\u2019), we were catching roach when the church-bell rang, and\nfather remembered that it was Preparatory Lecture, and the way we\nscurried in the old vehicle may be imagined.\u201d\n\nMrs. Stowe writes: \u201cI remember when the wood was all in and piled and\nthe chips swept up, then father tackled the horse into the cart and\nproclaimed a grand fishing party down to Little Pond; and how we all\nfloated among the lily-pads in our boat, christened \u2018The Yellow Perch,\u2019\nand every one of us caught a string of fish, which we displayed in\ntriumph on our return.\u201d\n\nThe father was very wise in directing the homely labors of the\nhousehold, so that they became occasions of mental stimulus.\n\n\u201cI have the image of my father still, as he sat working the\napple-peeler. \u2018Come, George,\u2019 he said, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you what we\u2019ll do to\nmake the evening go off. You and I\u2019ll take turns and see who\u2019ll tell the\nmost out of Scott\u2019s novels\u2019 (for those were the days when the \u2018Tales of\nmy Landlord\u2019 and \u2018Ivanhoe\u2019 had just appeared); and so they took them\nnovel by novel, reciting scenes and incidents, which kept the eyes of\nall the children wide open and made the work go on without flagging.\n\n\u201cOccasionally he would raise a point of theology on some incident\nnarrated, and ask the opinion of one of his boys and run a sort of tilt\nwith him, taking up the wrong side of the question for the sake of\nseeing how the youngster could practise his logic. If the party on the\nother side did not make a fair hit at him, however, he would stop and\nexplain to him what he ought to have said: \u2018The argument lies so, my\nson; do that and you\u2019ll trip me up.\u2019 Much of his teaching to his\nchildren was in this informal way.\u201d\n\nA kindly country life surrounded the minister\u2019s family, that could not\nfail of stamping the impress of its plain sincerity upon all who were\nbrought in contact with it. Once a year this came to its climax in the\nwinter\u2019s wood-spell, when all the farmers upon a given day added their\ncontribution to the minister\u2019s wood-pile\u2014a festival of kindness and good\ncheer.\n\n\u201cThe kind farmers wanted to see all the children, and we were busy as\nbees in waiting upon them. The boys heated the flip-irons and passed\naround the cider and flip, while Aunt Esther and the daughters were as\nbusy in serving the doughnuts, cake, and cheese.\u201d\n\nAnother influence we must not forget, and that was, being let alone. \u201cI\nthink,\u201d he says, \u201cthat I was about as well brought up as most children,\nbecause I was let alone. My father was so busy and my mother had so many\nother children to look after that, except here and there, I hardly came\nunder the parental hand at all. I was brought up in a New England\nvillage, and I knew where the sweet-flag was, where the hickory-trees\nwere, where the chestnut-trees were, where the sassafras-trees were,\nwhere the squirrels were, where all things were that boys enterprise\nafter, therefore I had a world of things to do, and so I did not come\nmuch in contact with family government.\u201d \u201cNobody,\u201d so says his sister,\n\u201cthought much of his future, further than to see that he was safe and\nhealthy, or even troubled themselves to inquire what might be going on\nin his life.\u201d\n\nSome of the reminiscences of this period now given in his own words are\ninteresting, not only from the wide field which they cover, but from the\nrevelation they make of the susceptibility of his nature to outside\ninfluences. Of \u201cgoing to meeting\u201d he discourses in this wise:\n\n\u201cThe coming on of Saturday night was always a serious business with the\nyoungsters. We had no stores of religious experience on which it is\npresumed the old folks meditated, and the prospect of a whole day\nwithout anything in it to interest us was not a little gloomy. On no\nnight of the week did the frogs croak so dismally, or the tree toads\nwhistle in a mood so melancholy, as on Saturday night.\n\n\u201cBut those blazing summer mornings! What a wealth of light spread over\nthat blessed old hill-top! What a wondrous silence dwelt in the great\nround heavens above our head! The birds sang on. The crows in the\ndistance called out to each other in hoarse discourse. The trees stood\nin calm beauty\u2014the great elm-trees, tall, pliant, graceful, the\nperfection of strength and beauty. All this we saw and heard while\nbuttoning up our Sunday clothes by the side of the open window. For the\ncow and horse had been foddered, and the pigs fed, and all the barn\nchores done up, and a bountiful breakfast eaten, and our face and hands\nwashed, and every article of apparel, from shoe to hat, had changed from\na secular to a sacred use. Not the every-day hat, soft, shapeless,\nuniversal instrument, used as a liquid or solid measure; used now for\nthe head, and now for a football; used for a net to catch butterflies or\nto throw at wasps\u2014no, not this bag, pocket, hat, pouch, and magazine,\nbut the Sunday hat, round, stiff, hard, and respectable.\n\n\u201cAlthough the new hat was always disagreeable to our head, yet we had a\nwonderful reverence for it, and spent no inconsiderable portion of our\ntime in church in getting it dirty and then brushing it clean.\n\n\u201cOur jacket, too, was new. Only a handkerchief was then in the pocket;\nno knife, no marbles, no strings, no stones, no fishhooks or dried\nangle-worms. No; a boy\u2019s Sunday pocket of the olden time was purged of\nall temptation. In meeting-time we often put our little hands down into\nour Sunday pocket with a melancholy wish, \u2018Oh! if I only had my other\nclothes on!\u2019\n\n\u201cAs soon as we were dressed and mustered in the sitting-room an\ninspection was had. The collar was pulled up a little, the hair had a\nfresh lick from the brush, the mouth must be wiped with a wet towel, the\nshoestring tied, and, after being turned round and round, we were\nstarted off.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, Henry, be a good boy.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, ma\u2019am.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018You must not laugh, or tease Harriet.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018No, ma\u2019am.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t stop on the road\u2014go right in when you get to church.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, ma\u2019am.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery word was sincerely promised, and efficaciously broken within ten\nminutes.\n\n\u201cOh! how high the trees seemed! Oh! how bright the heavens were! Oh! how\nhard it was not to play with Chester Covington\u2019s dog, that came running\nto us with bark and frolic, and seemed perplexed at our sturdy\npropriety.\n\n\u201cThe old musical bell up in the open belfry was busy a-tolling. It was\nthe only thing that was allowed to work on Sunday\u2014the bell and the\nminister. That bell-rope was always an object of desire and curiosity to\nour young days. It ran up into such dark and mysterious spaces. What\nthere was up in those pokerish heights in the belfry tower we did not\nknow, but something that made our flesh creep. Once we ventured to pull\nthat rope. It was a bold and venturesome thing, we knew. But a sorcery\nwas on us. It came gently and easily to the hand. We pulled again.\n\u2018Dong! dong!\u2019 went the bell. The old sexton put his head out of the door\nwhen, on that particular morning, service had begun, and said, in a very\nsolemn and low tone, \u2018Boy! boy! you little devil you!\u2019 and much more, I\npresume, but I did not wait for it, but cut round to the other door and\nsat all church-time trembling and wondering whether he would \u2018tell my\npa\u2019; and if he did, what _he_ would say, and more especially what he\nwould _do_. I called up the probable interview. I had numerous\nprecedents on which to found a possible experience, and afflicted our\nlittle soul all meeting-time with needless punishment by the\nimagination.\n\n\u201cBut ordinarily we escaped into the minister\u2019s pew without special\ntemptations. Imagine a boy of eight years old, round as an apple, hearty\nand healthy, an hour and a half in church with nothing to do! We looked\nat the galleries full of boys and girls, and wished we might go into the\ngalleries. We looked at the ceiling, traced all the cracks back and\nforth. We looked at the dear old aunties all round the church, fanning\nthemselves with one hand and eating fennel-seed or a bit of dried\norange-peel out of the other. We gazed out of the window high above our\nheads into the clouds, and wished we could only climb up and see the\ntrees and horses and dogs that abounded around the church on Sunday.\n\n\u201cGradually these died out and we dropped asleep. Blessed liberty! the\nchild\u2019s gospel! All trouble fled away. For a half-hour paradise was\ngained. But then an unusual thump on the pulpit Bible, and the ring and\nroar of a voice under full excitement, that went on swelling like a\ntrumpet, and that no one, not the most listless, could hear without\ncatching its excitement, waked us, blushing and confused that we had\nbeen asleep in church! Even on the serene and marble face of mother the\nfaint suggestion of a smile came, as we clutched our hat, supposing\nmeeting to be over, and then sheepishly dropped it and sank back in\ndismay. But even Sunday cannot hold out for ever, and meetings have to\nlet out sometime! So, at length, a universal stir and bustle announced\nthat it was time to go. Up we bolted! Down we sat as quick as if a\nmillion pins were sticking in our foot! The right leg was asleep!\nLimping forth into the open air, relief came to our heart. The being out\nof doors had always an inexpressible charm, and never so much as on\nSunday. Away went the wagons. Away went the people. The whole Green\nswarmed with folks. The long village streets were full of company. In\nten minutes all were gone, and the street was given up again to the\nbirds!\n\n\u201cLittle good did preaching do me until after I was fifteen years\nold\u2014little good immediately. Yet the whole Sunday, the peculiar\ninfluence which it exerted on the household, the general sense of awe\nwhich it inspired, the very rigor of its difference from other days, and\nthe suspended animation of its sermon time, served to produce upon the\nyoung mind a profound impression. A day that stood out from all others\nin a hard and gaunt way might, perhaps, be justly criticised. But it\nleft its mark. It did its work upon the imagination, if not upon the\nreason. It had power in it; and in estimating moral excellence power is\nan element of the utmost importance. Will our smooth, cosey, feeble\nmodern Sundays have such a grip on the moral nature? They are far\npleasanter. Are they as efficacious? Will they educate the moral nature\nas much?\u201d\n\nThe cold of Litchfield Hill and the exposure of his old home were always\nremembered.\n\n\u201cYou may think you know something about winter; but if you never spent a\nwinter on old Litchfield Hill, where I was brought up, you do not know\nmuch about it. It was before the days of stoves. There were what we\ncalled \u2018box-stoves,\u2019 but they were a very small power for generating\nheat. The idea of a furnace was not born. It was not even within the\nreach of a prophet to predict it.\n\n\u201cMy father\u2019s house was a great barn of a structure, with rooms scattered\nabout here and there. Mine was the west and north room\u2014on the corner; so\nthat I had the full benefit, without any subtraction or discount, of\neverything that was going on out of doors; for double windows were not\nknown, and the carpenters did not care about making a tight fit.\nTherefore the wind found no trouble in coming in, and on many and many a\nmorning the snow had blown from the window to my bed and across the foot\nof it; and if anything inspires alacrity of step on a winter morning\nwhen the feet are bare, it is a drift of snow. Walking on it is like\nwalking on wasps.\n\n\u201cTo go back to the frigid houses of New England in winter, without\nfurnaces or hard coal, or air-tight stoves or steam, would make our\ndainty skin tingle. What a pother is made to ascertain the exact\nposition of the North Pole, the very centre and navel of cold! Why, I\ncould have pointed to the exact spot sixty years ago. It was on the\nnorthwest angle of my father\u2019s house in Litchfield, Connecticut, in the\nroom where I slept.\u201d\n\nNot only did the severity of the elements affect him, but their uproar\nas well, especially in the night-time.\n\n\u201cThe war of winter winds to our young ears was terrible as the thunder\nof waves or the noise of battle. All night long the cold, shelterless\ntrees moaned. Their strong crying penetrated our sleep and shaped our\ndreams. At every waking the air was full of mighty winds. The house\ncreaked and strained, and at some more furious gust shuddered and\ntrembled all over. Then the windows rattled, the cracks and crevices\nwhistled each its own distinctive note, and the chimneys, like diapasons\nof an organ, had their deep and hollow rumble.\u201d\n\nAnd now comes an influence that we should have passed by, if he himself\nhad not given it place and elaborate notice:\n\n\u201cNext to the winds our night experiences in early boyhood were much\naffected by rats. The old house seemed to have been a favorite of this\ncurious vermin. There is something in the short, hot glitter of a rat\u2019s\neye that has never ceased to affect us unpleasantly. We could not help\nimagining them to be the mere receptacles of mischievous spirits, and\ntheir keen eyes had always a kind of mocking expression, as if they\nsaid, \u2018You think we are rats, but if we get hold of you you will know\nthat we are a good deal more than that.\u2019 We never could estimate how\nmany populated our old house. The walls seemed like city thoroughfares,\nand the ceiling like a Forum or Roman theatre. We used to lie in bed and\nmarvel at what was going on. Sometimes there would be a great stillness,\nas if they had all gone to meeting. Then again they would troop about\nwith such a swell of liberty and gladness that it was quite plain that\nthe meeting was out. But nothing ever scared and amused us so much as\ntheir way of going up and down the partitions. At first up would come\none, then another, and finally quite a bevy, squeaking and frolicking,\nas if they were school-boys going up-stairs, nipping each other and\ncutting up all manner of pranks. Then came a stillness. Next a\npremonitory rat would rush down, evidently full of news, and immediately\ndown would pour after him a stream of rats, rushing like mad, and\napparently tumbling heels over head. By and by some old sawyer would\ncommence where he left off the night before, cutting the same partition.\nTo this must be added nibblings, rat-nestled paper, an occasional race\nof rats across the bed, the manipulation of corn in the garret, the\nforay with cats and kittens, the rat engines\u2014\u2018steel traps,\u2019 \u2018box-traps,\u2019\n\u2018figure-four\u2019s,\u2019 and all manner of devices, in spite of which the rats\nheld their own, and, if allowed suffrage, would have outvoted the whole\nfamily, dog and cats to boot, four to one.\u201d\n\nHe was early taught to work and endure what now might be called\nhardships.\n\n\u201cIt was my duty, after I got to be about eight years old, to go\ndown-stairs and build a fire. Ours was a house in which, when the\nweather was cold, if water was left in any vessel it would freeze and\nsplit the vessel asunder; and of course crockery had no chance. Our well\nused to choke up with ice so that we had to cut it out in order to get\nthe bucket down; and sometimes, when the cistern was frozen up so that\nwe could not get water from it, I have gone, on washing-days, two miles,\nand dipped water from a brook into barrels, and brought it home.\nTherefore you see that, however dainty I may be nowadays, I started on a\nvery different pattern.\u201d\n\nBut he came in after-years to be glad of this experience:\n\n\u201cI am thankful that I learned to hem towels\u2014as I did. I know how to knit\nsuspenders and mittens. I know a good deal about working in wood\u2014sawing,\nchopping, splitting, planing, and things of that sort. I was brought up\nto put my hand to anything; so that when I went West, and was travelling\non the prairies and my horse lost a shoe, and I came to a cross-road\nwhere there was an abandoned blacksmith\u2019s shop, I could go in and start\nthe fire, and fix the old shoe and put it on again. What man has done\nman can do; and it is a good thing to bring up boys so that they shall\nthink they can do anything. I could do anything.\u201d\n\nThe greatest trial of those days was the catechism. Sunday lessons were\nconsidered by the mother as inflexible duty, and the catechism was the\n_sine qua non_. \u201cThe other children memorized readily and were brilliant\nreciters, but Henry, blushing, stammering, confused, and hopelessly\nmiserable, stuck fast on some sand-bank of what is required or forbidden\nby this or that commandment, his mouth choking up with the long words\nwhich he hopelessly miscalled, was sure to be accused of idleness or\ninattention, and to be solemnly talked to, which made him look more\nstolid and miserable than ever, but appeared to have no effect in\nquickening his dormant faculties.\u201d\n\nSuch were the influences that were exerted upon Henry Ward Beecher\nduring these early and formative years. Various as they were, they\npreserved a general character of healthful simplicity; and numerous as\nthey appear, they can yet be readily generalized. The first were those\nthat were addressed to conscience, and that went to make this the\nstrong, influential factor which it became in all well-trained New\nEngland youth of that period, and in none more markedly than in him. The\nstepmother led in this work. She was the conscience of the family,\ntraining to the strict observance of duty with a thoroughness which the\nfather, with his more impulsive nature, could never have equalled,\nalthough he was in sympathy with the process. Home duties carefully\nexacted, regular attendance upon school, the strict keeping the Sabbath,\neven the hated lesson in the catechism, were some of the instruments\nemployed. Open to criticism, they may be, in method and extent, yet they\ndid their work, and strong conscientiousness was developed that made him\ntremble at the thought of wrong-doing, and kept him so free from\nviciousness that he was able to say: \u201cI never was sullied in act, nor in\nthought, nor in feeling when I was young. I grew up as pure as a woman.\u201d\n\nAnd although in after-years he gave more stress to heart than\nconscience, and preached the Gospel rather than the law, it was but the\ncarrying out the natural process of soil-making and forest culture: the\ngranite ridges of conscience formed the foundation, clothed and hidden\nby the growth, but not destroyed.\n\nWith all her admirable qualities his step-mother failed to satisfy his\nlonging for affection.\n\n\u201cIt pleased God to give me a second mother, a very eminent Christian\nwoman. Now, my nature was enthusiastic and outgushing; I was like the\nconvolvulus\u2014I wanted to be running on somebody all the time. But my\nsecond mother was stately and not easy to approach. She was a beautiful\nperson, serene and ladylike. She never lacked self-possession in speech,\ngesture, or posture. She was polished; but to my young thoughts she was\ncold. As I look back I do not recollect ever to have had from her one\nbreath of summer. Although I was longing to love somebody, she did not\ncall forth my affection; and my father was too busy to be loved.\nTherefore I had to expend my love on Aunt Chandler, a kind soul that was\nconnected with our family, and the black woman that cooked, who were\nvery kind to me. My mother that brought me up I never thought of loving.\nIt never occurred to me. I was afraid of her. I revered her, but I was\nnot attracted to her. I felt that she was ready to die, and that I was\nnot. I knew that at about twilight she prayed; and I had a great\nshrinking from going past her door at that time. I had not the slightest\ndoubt that she had set her affection on things above, and not on things\nbeneath. I had the strongest conviction of her saintliness. It stamped\nitself upon my youth.\u201d\n\nAnother division of influences comes under the head of spiritual:\n\n\u201cI can look back upon my own early life, and see how one and another\ntook me, and how one prepared me for another. I can see how the largest\nnatures did not always get access to me. It was late in life before my\nfather influenced me very much. I think it was a humble woman who was in\nour family that first gained any considerable control over me. I feel\nthe effect of her influence to this day.\n\n\u201cI next came under the influence of a very humble serving-man. He opened\nup new directions to me and gave me new impulses. He was a colored man;\nand I am not ashamed to say that my whole life, my whole career\nrespecting the colored race in the conflict which was so long carried on\nin this country, was largely influenced by the effect produced on my\nmind, when I was between eight and ten years of age, by a poor old\ncolored man who worked on my father\u2019s farm, named Charles Smith. He did\nnot set out to influence me; he did not know that he did it; I did not\nknow it until a great while afterwards; but he gave me impulses, and\nimpulses which were in the right direction; for he was a godly and\nhymn-singing man, who made wine fresh every night from the cluster. He\nused to lie upon his humble bed (I slept in the same room with him) and\nread his Testament, unconscious, apparently, that I was in the room; and\nhe would laugh and talk about what he read, and chuckle over it with\nthat peculiarly unctuous throat-tone which belongs to his race. I never\nhad heard the Bible really read before; but there, in my presence, he\nread it, and talked about it to himself and to God. He turned the New\nTestament into living forms right before me. It was a revelation and an\nimpulse to me.\n\n\u201cHe talked to me about my soul more than any member of my father\u2019s\nfamily. These things impressed me with the conviction that he was a\nChristian; and I never saw anything in him that led me to think\notherwise. The feeling that I was sinful, that I needed to be born\nagain, that there was such a thing as a regenerate life produced by the\nSpirit of God in the soul\u2014these feelings came to me by observing the\nactual example of persons that I lived with more than from all other\nsources put together.\u201d\n\nBut above all others for diffusive and permanent impression affecting\nhis whole nature, bringing him into sympathy with God in all his works\nas in all his words, and increasing to the day of his death, was the\ninfluence of his own mother.\n\n\u201cThe memory of my mother as one sainted has exerted a singular influence\non me. After I came to be about fourteen or fifteen years of age I began\nto be distinctly conscious that there was a silent, secret, and, if you\nplease to call it so, romantic influence which was affecting me. It grew\nand it grows, so that in some parts of my nature I think I have more\ncommunion with my mother, whom I never saw except as a child three years\nold, than with any living being. I am conscious that all my life long\nthere has been a moral power in my memory of her. It is evident to me\nthat while in education and in other material respects her death was a\ndeprivation, it was also an inspiration, a communion\u2014one of those\ninvisible blessings which faith comprehends, but which we are not apt to\nweigh and to estimate.\n\n\u201cDo you know,\u201d he says, \u201cwhy so often I speak what must seem to some of\nyou rhapsody of woman? It is because I had a mother, and if I were to\nlive a thousand years I could not express what seems to me to be the\nleast that I owe to her. Three years old was I when singing she left me\nand sung on to heaven, where she sings evermore. I have only such a\nremembrance of her as you have of the clouds of ten years ago\u2014faint,\nevanescent; and yet, caught by imagination, and fed by that which I have\nheard of her and by what my father\u2019s thought and feeling of her were, it\nhas come to be so much to me that no devout Catholic ever saw so much in\nthe Virgin Mary as I have seen in my mother, who has been a presence to\nme ever since I can remember; and I can never say enough for woman for\nmy sisters\u2019 sake, for the sake of them that have gathered in the days of\nmy infancy around about me, in return for what they have interpreted to\nme of the beauty of holiness, of the fulness of love, and of the\nheavenliness of those elements from which we are to interpret heaven\nitself.\u201d\n\nIn those influences that went to move the intellect, to awaken interest\nand thought, while the family life and the school and nature were all\ndoing something, the dear old Aunt Esther with her Bible-readings and\nher innumerable stories and incidents of animal life stood pre-eminent\nand unapproachable at this period. It was but a few years before his\ndeath that he spoke of her early influence upon him, and read to us the\nstory of Joseph as she used to read it to him, with the tears rolling\ndown his cheeks. He told us that he had never yet been able to read that\nstory or hear it read without crying.\n\nBut in those practical influences that had to do with life, that gave\nhim the impression that things could be done and must be done, that gave\nhim inspiration to labor, his father took the lead.\n\n\u201cWhat I was going to speak of was the effect upon my young mind of\nobserving my father\u2019s conduct under trying circumstances. I never once\nsaw him flinch before the cold, or look as though anything was hard, or\nas if there was a reason for not pitching in and holding on when things\nwere difficult. I have seen the time when we had to cut a\ntwenty-five-foot tunnel outward from the kitchen-door, carrying the snow\nthrough the house; and such tunnels would sometimes remain a month\nbefore they would break down. I have seen the children around the house\ncrying with cold, and slapping their hands, and stamping their feet,\nwhen father had to go and dig wood out of the snow-bank, and cut and\nsplit it; and his alacrity and vigor infused themselves into the\nchildren. I recollect particularly that if, on such nights as this, when\nto the high wind severe cold and thick darkness were added, my father\nhad appointments, he always fulfilled them. It was customary to have\npreaching-places all around the neighborhood, here, there, and\neverywhere; and I never knew him to think of shrinking from an\nappointment, or holding himself back for a moment, on account of the\nweather. There never was a snow so deep, or a wind so high, or a rain so\ndriving, or a night so black that the thought seemed to enter his head\nthat he must give up a meeting. I have many times seen him, on cold,\nbitter nights, take out his old silk handkerchief and put it on, and go\nforth into the storm without seeming to dread it; and often, as I have\nremembered it, I have wished I could put on his spirit in the same way.\nHe did it as a matter of course. And such was the effect of his example\non his children that there was not one of them that would not be ashamed\nto show the \u2018white feather\u2019 in the presence of external difficulties.\n\n\u201cWhen I was a boy I learned some hymns, and committed to memory an\nindefinite number of texts, and waded a certain distance into the\ncatechism, never getting through it; and I forgot them again very\nquickly. But I do not think all of them put together exerted any\nmaterial influence upon me one way or the other\u2014they did not remain in\nmy mind to be understood when I was older; but a great many things which\nmy father did, but which neither he nor anybody else spoke of, have had\na strong influence on my whole life. For instance, his defying the\nelements, making himself master in every condition and under all\ncircumstances, and exhibiting an indomitable pluck which did not pause\nnor shrink\u2014that made a powerful impression upon me, and has been one of\nthe reasons of the success of my life; not just here and now, but in my\nearlier career, when I was in the West on the frontier, and when I was\nvery poor and had to do a great deal of rough work under circumstances\nof discouragement. I had an ideal of what a man should be and should do,\nand it stood me in stead better than any amount of catechetical\ninstruction could have done.\u201d\n\nSo joined these\u2014the stepmother, the mother, the humble servant in the\nfamily, Charles Smith the happy Christian black man, Aunt Esther, and\nthe father\u2014hand-in-hand with nature, with the life and events that were\nmoving on around them, and with God, in directing and moulding him in\nevery part in these early years.\n\nThere were none of them, perhaps, unusual, certainly not unprecedented;\nfor others besides Henry Ward Beecher have had heavenly-minded and\nlarge-hearted mothers; others, as well as he, have been trained in\nconscientiousness and have had a happy Christian example set before\nthem, and have enjoyed the influence of fathers full of manly\ninspiration, while God and nature have been with and around them, and\nyet no such marked results have been seen as in him. Something native\nthere was in the soil that enabled it to respond to such genial\ninfluences with such unusual fruitage. We are driven, in accounting for\nthis, to that especial endowment that was given to him and withheld from\nothers through the will of One who gives to every man according to His\nown good pleasure. \u201cAnd to one He gave five talents.\u201d\n\nHis appearance and attainments at this time are thus summed up by Mrs.\nStowe: \u201cHenry was now ten years old, a stocky, strong, well-grown boy,\nloyal to duty, trained in unquestioning obedience, inured to patient\nhard work, inured also to the hearing and discussing of all the great\ntheological problems of Calvinism which were always reverberating in his\nhearing;... but as to any mechanical culture, in an extremely backward\nstate, a poor writer, a miserable speller, with a thick utterance, and a\nbashful reticence which seemed like stolid stupidity....\n\n\u201cHe was not marked out by the prophecies of partial friends for any\nbrilliant future. He had precisely the organization which often passes\nfor dulness in early boyhood. He had great deficiency in verbal memory\u2014a\ndeficiency marked in him through life. He was excessively sensitive to\npraise and blame, extremely diffident, and with a power of yearning,\nundeveloped emotions which he neither understood nor could express. His\nutterance was thick and indistinct, partly from bashfulness and partly\nfrom an enlargement of the tonsils of the throat, so that in speaking or\nreading he was with difficulty understood. In forecasting his horoscope,\nhad any one taken the trouble then to do it, the last success that ever\nwould have been predicted for him would have been that of an orator!\n\u2018When Henry is sent to me with a message,\u2019 said a good aunt, \u2018I always\nhave to make him say it three times. The first time I have no manner of\nan idea more than if he spoke in Choctaw; the second I catch a word now\nand then; by the third time I begin to understand.\u2019\u201d\n\nOf the bashfulness referred to in the above he says: \u201cWe had our own\nfill of it in childhood. To walk into a room where \u2018company\u2019 was\nassembled, and to do it erectly and naturally, was as impossible as it\nwould have been to fly. The sensations of sensibility were dissolving.\nOur back-bone grew soft, our knees lost their stiffness, the blood\nrushed to the head, and the sight almost left our eyes. We have known\nsomething of pain in after-years, but few pangs have been more acute\nthan some sufferings from bashfulness in our earlier years.\u201d\n\nHealthy, robust, frolicksome, conscientious, obedient, loving, and\nefficient, but bashful in the extreme and backward in all his studies,\nis the summing-up that we must make of Henry Ward Beecher at this period\nof his life.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER IV.\n\nBoyhood\u2014Sent to School at Bethlehem\u2014The Widow Ingersoll\u2019s\u2014Failure\u2014A\n    Champion\u2014Sent to Catharine Beecher\u2019s School in Hartford\u2014Humorous\n    Incidents\u2014Religious Experience.\n\n\nTo remedy the marked defects in his training, noticed in the preceding\nchapter, something must be done, or this boy will fail not only of\nbecoming a student but of acquiring even a decent common-school\neducation. Mr. Brace\u2019s select school was tried for a year, but with\nlittle benefit. After a good many family discussions and some\ncorrespondence it was decided to place him in a private school in the\nvillage of Bethlehem, seven miles distant from his home, under the care\nof Mr. Langdon, to begin study in earnest. Of this important era, his\nfirst going from home, we have not a syllable, as we are aware, from his\nown pen or lips. That there was a mingled feeling of pain at leaving\nhome, of pleasure in the novelty, and a shrinking from the new faces and\nthe new duties, every one who remembers this epoch in his own life can\nreadily imagine. The ride, for a large part of the distance across a\nbroad plateau that stretched away cold and strange like the Downs of\nEngland, was well calculated to awaken that yearning sadness which was\nso prominent a feature of his secret experiences from childhood, and\ngave in part that tone of melancholy which appears so markedly in\neverything that we know of him at this period.\n\nSingularly enough, he boarded with the grandmother of the one who\nafterwards became his son-in-law and is now aiding to write this\nbiography. Her name was Ingersoll, and she is well described as a\n\u201clarge-hearted, kindly woman, a widow, living in a great, comfortable\nfarm-house where everything was free and unconstrained.\u201d\n\nHe was well remembered by my mother, Mrs. Martha Ingersoll Scoville,\nwho, being somewhat older than he, had him much under her care. She said\nhe was always a good boy about the house, but very bashful. \u201cI used to\nfeel very sorry for him, he seemed so homesick. He liked to be off by\nhimself, wandering around in the woods, and I don\u2019t think he studied\nmuch.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Ingersoll House.]\n\nThis was true. Whether it was because this first separation from home\nbrought an increase of those gloomy yearnings of heartsickness to which\nhe was subject at times through life, or simply because of his innate\ndislike to the study of mere names and forms of things, that he failed\nto make progress in his books, no one knows. We only know on the\nauthority of his sister, Mrs. Stowe, that \u201cHenry\u2019s studies were mostly\nwith gun on shoulder roving the depths of the forest, guiltless of\nhitting anything because the time was lost in dreamy contemplation.\nWhence returning unprepared for school, he would be driven to the\nexpedient of writing out his Latin verb and surreptitiously reading it\nout of the crown of his hat\u2014an exercise from which he reaped small\nprofit, either mentally or morally.\u201d This was not understood at home at\nthe time, and Dr. Beecher writes concerning him:\n\n\u201cMr. Langdon has been faithful with Henry, and I trust successful; he\nsays in a letter: \u2018His observance of my regulations relating to study\nhas become exact and punctual. His diligence all along has gradually\nincreased, and I think he has arrived at that full purpose which will\ninsure his making a scholar. My method of instruction for beginners is a\nsystem of extended, minute, and reiterated drilling, and the make of his\nmind is such as fits him to receive benefit from the operation.\u201d\n\nPerhaps the method of \u201creiterated drilling, extended and minute,\u201d was\nnot so well adapted to the boy as the teacher thought. At all events we\nhave this testimony on the other side, that \u201cafter a year spent in this\nway it began to be perceived by the elders of the family that as to the\noutward and visible signs of learning he was making no progress.\u201d\n\nHe was therefore brought home to Litchfield, leaving but one incident of\nhis life at Bethlehem especially worthy of note. It was this: One of the\nolder boys, having studied Tom Paine\u2019s \u201cAge of Reason,\u201d was freely\nadvocating infidel sentiments and gaining a strong and vicious influence\nover his companions. Young Beecher saw it and came to the rescue. He\nbrushed up the knowledge he had already gained at the hearth-stone and\ntable of his home, studied \u201cWatson\u2019s Apology,\u201d challenged the advocate\nof Tom Paine\u2019s philosophy to a debate, and, in the judgment of the\nschool, gained a complete victory, proving himself thus early to be a\ndoughty champion of the faith.\n\nThe experiment at Bethlehem having proved substantially a failure, his\noldest sister, Catharine, who was then teaching a young ladies\u2019 school\nin Hartford, proposed to take the boy under her care to see what she\ncould do with him.\n\nIf his nature lay in strata, as has been said\u2014the one a dreamy, yearning\nmelancholy lying at the bottom, which had its full exercise in his\nlonely wanderings around Bethlehem; and the other, the surface one, of\nhumor and fun\u2014it was the latter, constantly effervescing and exploding,\nthat appeared in his life in his sister\u2019s school of thirty or forty\ngirls in Hartford. The story of his arranging the umbrellas on the\nstairs one recess, when he was supposed to be studying grammar, so that\nwhen the outside door was opened by a late comer the whole series rushed\npell-mell down into the street, greatly to the dismay of the teachers\nand the enjoyment of the school\u2014with whom, of course, he was a great\nfavorite\u2014is well known. And one of the incidents of the recitation-room\nis equally familiar, but, as it is very characteristic, we give it\nplace, copied verbatim from Mrs. Stowe:\n\n\u201cThe school-room was divided into two divisions in grammar, under\nleaders on either side, and the grammatical reviews were contests for\nsuperiority in which it was vitally important that every member should\nbe perfected. Henry was generally the latest choice, and fell on his\nside as an unfortunate accession, being held more amusing than\nprofitable on such occasions.\n\n\u201cThe fair leader of one of these divisions took the boy aside to a\nprivate apartment, to put into him with female tact and insinuation\nthose definitions and distinctions on which the honor of the class\ndepended.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, Henry, _a_ is the indefinite article, you see, and must be used\nonly with a singular noun. You can say _a man_, but you can\u2019t say _a\nmen_, can you?\u2019 \u2018Yes, I can say _amen_, too,\u2019 was the ready rejoinder.\n\u2018Father says it always at the end of his prayers.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Come, Henry, now don\u2019t be joking! Now decline he.\u2019 \u2018Nominative he,\npossessive his, objective him.\u2019 \u2018You see _his_ is possessive. Now, you\ncan say his book, but you can\u2019t say him book.\u2019 \u2018Yes, I do say hymn-book,\ntoo,\u2019 said the impracticable scholar, with a quizzical twinkle. Each one\nof these sallies made his young teacher laugh, which was the victory he\nwanted. \u2018But now, Henry, seriously, just attend to the active and\npassive voice. Now, I strike is active, you see, because if you strike\nyou do something. But I am struck is passive, because if you are struck\nyou don\u2019t do anything, do you?\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Yes, I do\u2014I strike back again!\u2019\u201d\n\nA letter from the afore-mentioned teacher, sent to him with her New\nYear\u2019s salutation, January 1, 1858, has lately come to hand. She says,\nin recalling this incident: \u201cMemory has daguerreotyped upon my mind a\nboy, a small specimen of perpetual motion, perpetual prank, and\nperpetual desire to give wrong answers to every sober grammatical rule,\nthereby not only overwhelming Murray but the studious gravity of a\nhundred school-girls.\u201d\n\n\u201cSometimes his views of philosophical subjects were offered\ngratuitously. Being held of rather a frisky nature, his sister appointed\nhis seat at her elbow when she heard classes. A class in natural\nphilosophy, not very well prepared, was stumbling through the theory of\nthe tides. \u2018I can explain that,\u2019 said Henry. \u2018Well, you see, the sun he\ncatches hold of the moon and pulls her, and she catches hold of the sea\nand pulls that, and this makes the spring tides.\u2019 \u2018But what makes the\nneap tides?\u2019 \u2018Oh! that\u2019s when the sun stops to spit on his hands,\u2019 was\nthe brisk reply.\n\n\u201cAfter about six months Henry was returned to his parents\u2019 hands with\nthe reputation of being an inveterate joker and an indifferent scholar.\nIt was the opinion of his class that there was much talent lying about\nloosely in him, if he could only be brought to apply himself.\u201d\n\nOf his religious life at this time we have a glimpse in a letter written\nby Dr. Beecher in November, 1825:\n\n\u201cOur family concert of prayer was held in the study on Thanksgiving\nDay\u2014your mother, Aunt Esther, Henry, and Charles. It was a most deeply\nsolemn, tender, and interesting time.... Henry and Charles have both\nbeen awakened, and are easily affected and seriously disposed now. But\nas yet it is like the wind upon the willow, which rises as soon as it is\npassed over. It does not grapple, but the effect is good in giving power\nto conscience, and moral principle producing amendment in conduct.\u201d\n\nThis was during a revival which was then in progress in Litchfield, in\nwhich the pastor was assisted by Mr. Nettleton, the great revivalist of\nthat period. Henry was twelve years old.\n\nThat no permanent good resulted from this work appears true, as the\ndoctor feared, but for a reason very different from that which he gives.\n\nHenry Ward himself tells us why it was:\n\n\u201cMy mother\u2014she who in the providence of God took me to her heart when my\nown mother had gone to see my Father in heaven, she who came after and\nwas most faithful to the charge of the children and the household\u2014she\noften took me, and prayed with me, and read me the word of God, and\nexpounded to me the way of duty, and did all that seemed to her\npossible, I know, to make it easy for me to become a religious child;\nand yet there have been times when I think it would have been easier for\nme to lay my hand on a block and have it struck off than to open my\nthoughts to her, when I longed to open them to some one. How often have\nI started to go to her and tell her my feelings, when fear has caused me\nto sheer off and abandon my purpose! My mind would open like a rosebud,\nbut, alas! fear would hold back the blossom. How many of my early\nreligious pointings fell, like an over-drugged rosebud, without a\nblossom!\u201d\n\nAgain, and more at length, he opens his religious experiences of the\nwhole period:\n\n\u201cI remember having religious impressions, distinct and definite, as\nearly as when I was eight or nine years of age.\n\n\u201cThe first distinct religious feelings I had were in connection with\nnature. Although I was born, as far as any one can be born so, a\nCalvinist, and although I was conversant at a very early age with the\nthings which pertain to Calvinism, yet, as I look back, I see that the\nonly religious feelings or impressions I had were those which were\nexcited in my mind through the unconscious influence of God through\nnature. It was not until years later that I knew it was the divine\nelement. I yearned, I longed, for purity and nobility. I had the\nbeginnings of the feeling of self-renunciation. I had a wistful desire\nthat something higher, something superior to myself, should be developed\nout of the system of nature to help me. I had the germs of evangelical\nteaching; but I never spoke to anybody about them, and it seems to me a\nhermit could not have been more solitary, so far as that part of my life\nwas concerned, than I was.\n\n\u201cThe next thing I remember was a transition, under the influence of\nteaching, from the religious conditions and tendencies in my mind to a\nspeculative state. I began to listen to sermons when I was eight or nine\nyears old, and what seems strange is that the picturesque parts stopped\nnot much with me; that they faded out of my mind; that the colors were\nnot \u2018fast\u2019; but that I caught hold of the speculative parts,\nparticularly those which were most insoluble, about which men knew least\nand taught most\u2014the nature of God, the purposes of God, the scheme of\ndivine government, not those parts which are transcendently important,\nnamely, the elements of justice, truth, and morality commingled; that\nGod from all eternity foreknew; that, foreknowing, he predestinated;\nthat by predestination things were fixed, made certain; that so many as\nhe fore-ordained to be saved would be saved, do what they would or come\nwhat might\u2014my mind greedily seized on these, not merely as undoubted\nfacts, as they were to me, but as having special reference to myself.\n\n\u201cI recollect being sometimes, as it were, behind the entrenchments of\nsuch a doctrine, and wishing I could get over them, and feeling that I\nwould give everything in the world if I only knew that I was one of the\nelect, and praying that God would in some way let me know whether I was\nor not.\n\n\u201cAt other times it would come in this shape: I had probably been\nreprimanded for a misdemeanor or a delinquency, or something of that\nsort. I used to be melancholy and to sit in judgment upon myself; and I\nremember thinking, \u2018Well, it is no use for me to try to be a good\nboy\u2019\u2014not a saintly boy; that sort did not abound where I was born, and I\nwas certainly no exception to the average run. I don\u2019t think there are\nmany of that kind outside of Sunday-school books. Judged by the ordinary\nstandard, I was a very good boy. I had no vices, and no objectionable\ntendencies except those which sprang from robust health, buoyant\nspirits, and immense nerve resources. But I thought I was a base sinner.\nThe pulpit represented all men as being sinners, and I accepted it\nabsolutely and literally. I thought I was an awful transgressor; every\nlittle fault seemed to make a dreadful sin; and I would say to myself,\n\u2018There! I am probably one of the reprobate. I have tried to be good, but\nI am going down. The probability is, I am not one of the elect; and what\nis the use of my trying? If I am not fore-ordained to be saved there is\nno chance for me, and I may as well go by the wholesale as by the\nretail.\u2019 So sometimes on the one side and sometimes on the other these\nthoughts wrought upon me. Not once or twice merely, but many times, they\npassed through my mind. They were the sub-base, as it were, of my life.\nI think it was a period of fifteen or twenty years before I got relief\nfrom that undertone. It had some advantages and not a few disadvantages.\n\n\u201cIf I had had the influence of a discreet, sympathetic Christian person\nto brood over and help and encourage me, I should have been a Christian\nchild from my mother\u2019s lap, I am persuaded; but I had no such influence.\nThe influences of a Christian family were about me, to be sure, but they\nwere generic; and I revolved in these speculative experiences, my strong\nreligious habitudes taking the form of speculation all through my\nchildhood. I recollect that from the time that I was about ten years old\nI began to have periods when my susceptibilities were so profoundly\nimpressed that the outward manifestations of my nature were changed. I\nremember that when my brother George\u2014who was next older than I, and who\nwas beginning to be my helpful companion, to whom I looked up\u2014became a\nChristian, being awakened and converted in college, it seemed as though\na gulf had come between us, and as though he was a saint on one side of\nit while I was a little reprobate on the other side. It was awful to me.\nIf there had been a total eclipse of the sun I should not have been in\nmore profound darkness outwardly than I was inwardly. I did not know\nwhom to go to; I did not dare to go to my father; I had no mother that I\never went to at such a time; I did not feel like going to my brother;\nand I did not go to anybody. I felt that I must try to wrestle out my\nown salvation.\n\n\u201cOnce, on coming home, I heard the bell toll, and I learned that it was\nfor the funeral of one of my companions with whom I had been accustomed\nto play, and with whom I had grown up. I did not know that he had been\nsick, but he had dropped into eternity; and the ringing, swinging,\nbooming of that bell, if it had been the sound of an angel trumpet of\nthe last day, would not have seemed to me more awful. I went into an\necstasy of anguish. At intervals, for days and weeks, I cried and\nprayed. There was scarcely a retired place in the garden, in the\nwood-house, in the carriage-house, or in the barn that was not a scene\nof my crying and praying. It was piteous that I should be in such a\nstate of mind, and that there should be nobody to help me and lead me\nout into the light. I do not recollect that to that day one word had\nbeen said to me, or one syllable had been uttered in the pulpit, that\nled me to think there was any mercy in the heart of God for a sinner\nlike me. For a sinner that had repented it was thought there was pardon;\nbut how to repent was the very thing I did not know. A converted sinner\nmight be saved, but for a poor, miserable, faulty boy, that pouted, and\ngot mad at his brothers and sisters, and did a great many naughty\nthings, there was no salvation so far as I had learned. My innumerable\nshortcomings and misdemeanors were to my mind so many pimples that\nmarked my terrible depravity; and I never had the remotest idea of God\nexcept that he was a Sovereign who sat with a sceptre in his hand and\nhad his eye on me, and said: \u2018I see you, and I am after you.\u2019 So I used\nto live in perpetual fear and dread, and often I wished myself dead. I\ntried to submit and lay down the weapons of my rebellion, I tried to\nsurrender everything; but it did not seem to do any good, and I thought\nit was because I did not do it right. I tried to consecrate myself to\nGod, but all to no purpose. I did everything, so far as I could, that\nothers did who professed to be Christians, but I did not feel any\nbetter. I passed through two or three revivals. I remember, when Mr.\nNettleton was preaching in Litchfield, going to carry a note to him from\nfather; and for a sensitive, bashful boy like me it was a severe ordeal.\nI went to the room where he was speaking, with the note in my trembling\nhand, and had to lay it on the desk beside him. Before I got half-way\nacross the floor I was dazed and everything seemed to swim around me;\nbut I made out to get the note to him, and he said: \u2018That\u2019s enough; go\naway, boy,\u2019 and I sort of backed and stumbled toward the door (I was\nalways stumbling and blundering in company), and sat down. He was\npreaching in those whispered tones which always seem louder than thunder\nto the conscience, although they are only whispers in the ear. He had\nnot uttered more than three sentences before my feelings were excited,\nand the more I listened the more awful I felt; and I said to myself: \u2018I\nwill stay to the inquiry meeting.\u2019 I heard Mr. Nettleton talk about\nsouls writhing under conviction, and I thought my soul was writhing\nunder conviction. I had heard father say that after persons had writhed\nunder conviction a week or two they began to come out, and I said:\n\u2018Perhaps I will get out\u2019; and that thought produced in me a sort of\nhalf-exhilaration of joy. I stayed to the inquiry meeting, felt better,\nand trotted home with the hope that I was on the way toward conversion.\nI went through this revival with that hope strengthened; but it did not\nlast long.\u201d\n\nIt is evident from this chapter that if we would understand Henry Ward\nBeecher and the influences that went to the formation of his character\nand to the success of his life, other things than parentage, home,\nschool, or nature must be taken into the account. The vast things of the\ninvisible realm have begun to speak to him, and his nature has proved to\nbe peculiarly sensitive to their influence.\n\nHe is thus early groping, unresting, and unsatisfied; but it is among\nmountains, and not in marshes or quicksands. Some day these mountain\ntruths, among which he now wanders in darkness, shall be radiant in his\nsight with the Divine Compassion and his gloom shall give place to\nabiding love, joy, and peace.\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER V.\n\nBoston\u2014Home Atmosphere\u2014Various Experiences\u2014Ethics rubbed in by a\n    six-pound Shot\u2014Discontent\u2014Makes up his mind to go to Sea\u2014To Study\n    Navigation\u2014Picture of his Life in Boston.\n\n\nIn the spring of 1826 Dr. Lyman Beecher moved with his family to Boston.\nHenry Ward was thirteen years old the following June, \u201ca green, healthy\ncountry lad,\u201d \u201cwith a round, full, red-cheeked face.\u201d Here a new world\nopened to him and a new set of influences was brought to bear upon him.\n\nThe same home life was around him, and, if possible, more intense than\never; for Dr. Beecher had come to Boston to be the champion \u201cof the\nFaith once delivered to the saints,\u201d and he threw himself into the work\nwith all the zeal and enthusiasm of an intensely ardent nature.\n\nHe had watched with intense interest every step of that reaction in\nMassachusetts from the strict theocracy of the Puritans, called the\n\u201cUnitarian Controversy.\u201d He thoroughly understood and heartily condemned\nthe process, employed by the wealthy and literary classes, of taking\naway from the church, composed presumably of regenerate persons, the\npower to govern their own affairs and of giving it to the congregation,\nwhich was often composed of men hostile to a spiritual religion. He had\nseen the dominant majority enter into the possession of church edifices\nand church property, employ ministers opposed to the old faith, and\ndrive the orthodox ministry out into school-houses and town-halls; and\nold foundations established by the fathers to perpetuate the faith had\nbeen seized and made to support opposite and antagonistic views. All\nthis had kindled in him a burning indignation against the wrong that had\nbeen perpetrated, and a deep sympathy for the brethren who had suffered.\n\u201cIt was as a fire in my bones,\u201d he said. \u201cMy mind was all the time\nheating, heating, heating.\u201d\n\n\u201cHis family prayers,\u201d we are told by Mrs. Stowe, \u201cat this period,\ndeparting from the customary forms of unexcited hours, became often\nupheavings of passionate emotion such as I shall never forget. \u2018Come,\nLord Jesus,\u2019 he would say, \u2018here where the bones of the fathers rest,\nhere where the crown has been torn from thy brow\u2014come and recall thy\nwandering children. Behold thy flock scattered on the mountains; these\nsheep, what have they done? Gather them, gather them, O Good Shepherd,\nfor their feet stumble upon the dark mountains.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher in after-years spoke of the work here as something deeper\nthan a mere dispute between rival denominations or antagonistic creeds.\n\u201cThe outward form of the great excitement was that of controversy\nbetween the Unitarian and Calvinistic faiths. But, as compared with the\ngreat inward reality, this was but superficial. It was broader than any\ndoctrinal controversy, deeper than any sectarian conflict. It was a\nresurrection of vital religion, in all churches of every name, and in\nthe Unitarian churches as well as the Evangelical.\u201d\n\nIt will be seen that the same atmosphere of deep feeling and triumphant\nfaith, if possible more tropical and more thoroughly charged with\nelectricity, continued in the new as in the old home; but outside the\nfamily very different influences were brought to bear upon the lad, and\nhe was led out into a much wider range of experiences. We give as many\nof these as space will allow.\n\nThe first thing that greatly impressed him seems to have been the bells:\n\n\u201cIs there any boy left in Boston to whose ears the Christ Church chimes\nsound as they did to mine? Some travelled persons in Litchfield had\ninformed me that the churches in Boston were so thick that the bells on\nSunday morning would almost play a tune. The first Sunday morning after\nthe family took possession of the house in Sheafe Street, being in the\nback-yard, I heard in a wondrous manner the tune of \u2018Greenville,\u2019 played\non bells! The whole air was full of \u2018Greenville.\u2019\n\n\u201cI was fully persuaded that this was the thing predicted, and that this\ntune simply fell into place among the vast number of bell-strokes. Too\nyoung to analyze or reason upon the matter, I listened with a pleasure\nand amazement which I fear nothing will ever give me again till I hear\nthe bells ring out wondrous things in the New Jerusalem. Blessed city!\nin which dwelt so divine a spirit of harmony that some airy hand\ngoverned the widely scattered belfries, and taught the notes which each\nbell carelessly struck to come together in time and tune, and march\nthrough the air in harmony. And when, after a few minutes, the tune\nchanged and \u2018St. Martyn\u2019s\u2019 came sadly and slowly through the air, I\ncould contain myself no longer, but rushed, red and eager, to bring out\n\u2018Charles,\u2019 the inseparable companion of all my marvels, who opened his\ngreat eyes with a look of amazement as utter and implicit as if he had\nbeen a young devotee witnessing his first miracle. I expounded to him\nthe cause, taking for text the reports which had been made to me while\nyet in the country. Alas for marvels! The cook, overhearing, laughed us\nout of countenance, and explained that it was a chime of bells, and also\nwhat a chime was. Of course we were wiser and less happy. But never, in\nforty years, has that _chime_ of bells sounded in my ears without\nbringing back, for a second, the first electric shock of wonder and\npleasure.\n\n\u201cNext to Boston bells were Boston ships. Here first we beheld a ship! We\nshall never again see anything that will so profoundly affect our\nimagination. We stood and gazed upon the ship, and smelt the sea-air,\nand looked far out along the water to the horizon, and all that we had\never read of buccaneers, of naval battles, of fleets of merchantmen, of\nexplorations into strange seas, among rare and curious things, rose up\nin a cloud of mixed and changing fancies, until we scarcely knew whether\nwe were in the body or out. How many hours have we asked and wanted no\nbetter joy than to sit at the end of the wharf, or on the deck of some\nnewly-come ship, and rock and ride on the stream of our own unconscious\nimagination! We went to school in Boston Harbor.\n\n\u201cNext to the merchant marine was the Navy-Yard. We stole over to\nCharlestown almost every week. With what awe we walked past the long\nrows of unmounted cannon! With what exhilaration we looked forth from\nthe mounted sea-battery that looked down the harbor, and just waited for\nsome Britisher to dare to come in sight! We have torn any number of\nships to pieces with those cannon, with imagination for our commodore\nand patriotism for our cannoneer. There have been great battles in\nBoston harbor that nobody knows anything about but ourself!\u201d\n\nOther experiences there were of a different nature.\n\nThe peaceful life of the quiet New England village, where each one took\nhis place mostly by the position of the family and held it largely\nundisturbed, had given way to that of a city full of antagonisms and\nstrife. It was a life not exactly in accordance with the instructions of\na well-regulated Christian family, but its rough experiences were\nundoubtedly adapted to bring out some qualities that were useful in an\nafter-career in which battle was to have so prominent a place.\n\n\u201cIt was with some slight contempt that we beheld our first companions.\nOur first home was in Sheafe Street, far down at the North End, next\ndoor to Mr. Gay, the landlord. The boys thereabouts were smart and\nlively, but few of them could wrestle, and none of them often held out\nwith us in a downright race. I was always long-winded, even before I\nbegan public speaking.\n\n\u201cIn those days no boy was a good boy among his fellows who had not the\ncourage of battle. It was the duty of all living in certain districts,\nupon proper occasion, to fight the boys of other streets or districts.\nThe Salem-Streeters included all the small streets adjacent\u2014Sheafe\nStreet, Bennett Street, etc. When nothing else was on hand small\nscrimmages were gotten up between ourselves\u2014Sheafe Street vs. Bennett\nStreet, etc.; but we all united against Prince Street. Prince-Streeters\nwere the natural enemies of all the surrounding streets. Yet, when the\nWest-Enders came over in battle array, yelling, throwing stones, and\ndriving in the timid lads caught out of bounds, all the North-Enders\nrose, forgot their local feuds, and went forth in awful array to\nchastise the wretches that lived at the West End. And if one were to\nbelieve all the feats of which we boasted for a month thereafter, he\nwould be sure that since the days that Homer sang no such fighting had\never taken place.\n\n\u201cBut what were all these things to that implacable and ineradical hatred\nwhich all true Boston boys entertained against Charlestown Pigs? For by\nsuch a title did we expose the meanness, the degradation, the cowardice,\nthe utter despicableness of a boy born the other side of the \u2018draw\u2019 of\nthe Charlestown Bridge!\u201d\n\nWhile the father was coming to leadership in the pulpit his son Henry\nwas reaching the same point in his set by the only way opened to him at\nthat time.\n\n\u201cCopp\u2019s Hill? It recalled many a boyish prank. One sport engaged our\nyouthful leisure. It was called \u2018Follow your leader.\u2019 It was considered\nas a testimony to one\u2019s courage when, by acclamation, he was elected to\nleadership! The game was simple; but the results, always amusing, were\nsometimes somewhat too stimulating for pleasure. The leader started upon\na run, with a long trail of boys in a line behind him, whom he\nendeavored to throw off by doing things which they were not strong\nenough or skilful or daring enough to imitate. If twenty boys started,\nhalf would drop away, after a sharp run, by mere want of breath; another\nsection could be thrown off by some feat that terrified them.\n\n\u201cWe recall one memorable chase. Called to the head of the column, I\nplunged down Margaret\u2019s Lane, up Prince and back, up toward Copp\u2019s Hill,\nreducing my followers, by sheer exhaustion, one-half. A brick house was\ngoing up; into it I dashed, ran up the ladder, walked along the\nfloor-joists, and let myself down by a rope attached to a guy on the\nfront. Only six or seven could follow. A large mortar-bed lay near by. I\ndashed into that, wading through the slush. Five came out on the other\nside with me. Tough five! They followed me into a shop, right back into\nthe adjacent parlor, out at a side-door, though some of the last got the\nyard-stick well laid on by the indignant shop-keeper, and the last one\nout came dripping from a pail of water which a woman flung after \u2018the\nnasty varmints,\u2019 as she styled us. Many other feats did we, but in vain.\nThe five would stick. I remember that a large part of Copp\u2019s Hill had\nbeen dug down for filling the \u2018Causeway,\u2019 leaving a precipitous\nface\u2014well, say fifty feet high to the eyes, but, if measured, perhaps\ntwenty feet. Ascending the hill, I drew near the verge, a little\nhesitant to venture the plunge. But to confess that I dare not do\n_anything_ would be disgraceful, and so, with but a moment\u2019s pause, I\njumped for a little crumbling foothold half-way down, and off from that,\nas soon as on it, to the bottom, which I reached in a heap, with dirt\nand stones and two boys following after! Not stopping to rub my shins,\nrejoicing that only two were left, and desperate, I took my way to the\nnear wharf where \u2018Billy Gray\u2019s\u2019 ships used to be, climbed the side, ran\nalong the deck, up the bowsprit, far out, and then, with a spring, off\ninto deep water! Down, down, down we went, and seemed likely to go on\nfor ever. At length the descent stopped, and we rose again to the\nsurface\u2014O joy!\u2014to see the two boys standing on the bowsprit! They did\nnot dare! That day\u2019s work established our reputation! We know how\nAlexander felt! C\u00e6sar and Napoleon can tell us nothing new about the\nglories of victory!\u201d\n\nThat his country honesty was not altogether proof against the\ntemptations of his life in the city is shown by a description he gives,\nin \u201cEyes and Ears,\u201d of his successful attempt to purloin a six-pound\ncannon-ball from the Navy-Yard:\n\n\u201cOne day I visited some ill-constructed vaults where shot had been\nstored. The six and twelve pound shot were extremely tempting. I had no\nparticular use for them. I am to this day puzzled to know why I coveted\nthem. There was no chance in the house to roll them, and as little in\nthe street. For base-ball or shinty they were altogether too\nsubstantial. But I was seized with an irresistible desire to possess\none. As I had been well brought up, of course the first objection arose\non the score of stealing. But I disposed of that, with a patriotic\nfacility that ought long before this to have sent me to Congress, by the\nplea that it was no sin to steal from the government. Next, how should I\nconvey the shot from the Yard without detection? I tried it in my\nhandkerchief. That was altogether too plain. I tried my jacket-pocket,\nbut the sag and shape of that alarmed my fears. I tried my\nbreeches-pocket, but the abrupt protuberance was worse than all. I had a\ngood mind to be honest, since there was no feasible way of carrying it\noff. At length a thought struck me: Wrap a handkerchief about it and put\nit in your hat.\n\n\u201cThe iron ball was accordingly swaddled with the handkerchief and\nmounted on my head, and the hat shut over it. I emerged from the vault a\nlittle less courageous than was pleasant, and began my march toward the\ngate. Every step seemed a mile. Every man I met looked unusually hard at\nme. The marines evidently were suspecting my hat. Some sailors, leering\nand rolling toward the ships, seemed to look me through. The\nperspiration stood all over my face as an officer came toward me. Now\nfor it! I was to be arrested, put in prison, cat-o\u2019-nine-tailed, or\nshot, for aught I knew. I wished the ball in the bottom of the sea; but\nno, it was on the top of my head!\n\n\u201cBy this time, too, it had grown very heavy; I must have made a mistake\nin selecting! I meant a six-pounder, but I was sure it must have been a\ntwelve-pounder, and before I got out of the Yard it weighed twenty-four\npounds! I began to fear that the stiffness with which I carried my neck\nwould excite suspicion, and so I tried to limber up a little, which had\nnearly ruined me, for the shot took a roll around my crown in a manner\nthat liked to have brought me and my hat to the ground. Indeed, I felt\nlike a loaded cannon, and every man and everything was like a spark\ntrying to touch me off. The gate was a great way farther off than I had\never found it before; I seemed likely never to get there.\n\n\u201cAnd when at length, heartsore and headsore, with my scalp well rolled,\nI got to the gate, all my terror came to a culmination as the sentinel\nstopped his marching, drew himself up, and, looking through me, smiled.\nI expected him to say: \u2018O you little thievish devil, do you think I do\nnot see through you?\u2019 But, bless his heart! he only said: \u2018Pass!\u2019 He did\nnot say it twice. I walked a few steps farther, and then, having great\nfaith in the bravery of my feet, I pulled my hat off before me, and,\ncarrying it in that position, I whipped around the first corner and made\nfor the bridge with a speed which Flora Temple would envy.\n\n\u201cWhen I reached home I had nothing to do with my shot. I did not dare\nshow it in the house nor tell where I got it; and after one or two\nsolitary rolls I gave it away on the same day to a Prince-Streeter.\n\n\u201cBut, after all, that six-pounder rolled a good deal of sense into my\nskull. I think it was the last thing I ever stole (excepting a little\nmatter of a heart now and then), and it gave me a notion of the folly of\ncoveting more than you can enjoy, which has made my whole life happier.\nIt was rather a severe mode of catechising, but ethics rubbed in with a\nsix-pound shot are better than none at all.\u201d\n\nHis student life, which had been such a failure heretofore, was improved\na little, and but a little. By means of the pressure of school\ndiscipline, backed up and made formidable by family pride and the advice\nand exhortations heard at home, he managed to make fair progress in most\nof his studies, especially in the rules and exceptions of the Latin\ngrammar, and to the day of his death was able to establish his claims to\nproficiency in that language by rattling off the list of eleven\nprepositions that govern the ablative. But his heart was not in the\nwork. Disgust, insurrection, revolution, was the stormy way along which\nhe was rapidly travelling.\n\nThis period in his own life is described in \u201cNorwood\u201d: \u201cLong before the\nAmazon reaches the ocean it has grown so wide that from the channel no\nshore can be seen from either side. It is still a river, but with all\nthe signs and symptoms of becoming an ocean. There is a period,\nbeginning not far from fourteen, in young lives, when childhood is\nwidened suddenly, and carries its banks so far out that manhood seems\nbegun, though as yet it is far off. The stream is ocean-deep. Upon this\nestuary of youth the currents are shifting, the eddies are many. Here\nare united the strength of the sea and the hindrances of the land.\n\n\u201cThe important organic changes which, in our zone, take place in the\nsecond full seven of years, produce important results even in the\ncoldest temperaments and in the slenderest natures. But in persons of\nvigor of body and strength of feeling there is frequently an uprising\nlike a city in insurrection. The young nature, swelling to the new\ninfluences with a sense of unmeasurable strength, sometimes turbulent\nwith passions, but always throbbing with excited feelings led on and fed\nby tantalizing fancies, seems transformed from its previous self and\nbecomes a new nature. New moral forces are developed into activity.\nAspirations begin to quicken the soul. Ambitions grow nobler.\u201d\n\nMrs. Stowe says: \u201cThe era of fermentation and development was upon him,\nand the melancholy that had brooded over his childhood waxed more\nturbulent and formidable. He grew gloomy and moody, restless and\nirritable. His father, noticing the change, got him on a course of\nbiographical reading, hoping to divert his thoughts. He began to read\nnaval histories, the lives of great sailors and commanders, the voyages\nof Captain Cook, the biography of Nelson; and immediately, like\nlightning flashing out of rolling clouds, came the determination not to\nrest any longer in Boston, learning terminations and prepositions, but\nto go forth to a life of enterprise. He made up his little bundle,\nwalked the wharf and talked with sailors and captains, hovered\nirresolute on the verge of voyages, never quite able to grieve his\nfather by a sudden departure. At last he wrote a letter announcing to a\nbrother that he could and would no longer remain at school; that he had\nmade up his mind for the sea; that if not permitted to go he should go\nwithout permission. This letter was designedly dropped where his father\npicked it up. Dr. Beecher put it in his pocket and said nothing for the\nmoment, but the next day asked Henry to help him saw wood. Now, the\nwood-pile was the doctor\u2019s favorite debating-ground, and Henry felt\ncomplimented by the invitation, as implying manly companionship.\n\n\u201c\u2018Let us see,\u2019 said the doctor, \u2018Henry, how old are you?\u2019 \u2018Almost\nfourteen!\u2019 \u2018Bless me! How boys do grow! Why, it\u2019s almost time to be\nthinking what you are going to do. Have you ever thought?\u2019 \u2018Yes; I want\nto go to sea.\u2019 \u2018To sea! Of all things! Well, well! After all, why not?\nOf course you don\u2019t want to be a common sailor. You want to get into the\nnavy?\u2019 \u2018Yes, sir; that\u2019s what I want.\u2019 \u2018But not merely as a common\nsailor, I suppose?\u2019 \u2018No, sir; I want to be a midshipman, and after that\na commodore.\u2019 \u2018I see,\u2019 said the doctor cheerfully. \u2018Well, Henry, in\norder for that, you know, you must begin a course of mathematics and\nstudy navigation and all that.\u2019 \u2018Yes, sir; I am ready.\u2019 \u2018Well, then, I\nwill send you up to Amherst next week, to Mount Pleasant, and then\nyou\u2019ll begin your preparatory studies, and if you are well prepared I\npresume I can make interest to get you an appointment.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd so he went to Mount Pleasant, in Amherst, Mass., and Dr. Beecher\nsaid shrewdly: \u201cI shall have that boy in the ministry yet.\u201d\n\nIn a sermon preached by his brother, Rev. T. K. Beecher, we have this\npicture:\n\n\u201cAll of you know more about \u2018Henry Ward Beecher\u2019 than I do, but I know\nmore about \u2018Brother Henry\u2019 than you do.\n\n\u201cA little Boston boy five years old had a brother Henry who was sixteen,\nand a brother Charles who was fourteen; and though he knew of David and\nGoliath, who \u2018fell down slambang,\u2019 and David, \u2018little David ran up and\ncut his head off\u2019! though he knew about Samson and the lion, yet for the\npresent strength and greatness Henry and Charles were his heroes. Did\nthey not own a long sled and coast down Copp\u2019s Hill and jump sixteen\nsleds at the bounce? Did they not sharpen skates with enthusiasm and go\noff to the mill-dam alone?\n\n\u201cBy night when the tocsin rang and the little boy covered his head and\nshivered under the sheets, did not Henry and Charles rush down two\nflights of stairs and out the door, yelling fire? And they were at\nschool fitting for college at Mt. Pleasant. Their hair-trunk was two\ndays a-packing, and the stage took them away before daylight, leaving\nthe house so quiet and _so_ empty. Sixteen and five\u2014oh! how magnificent\nthe boy of sixteen to the little boy of five. I speak of brother Henry.\n\n\u201cBut at prayers, family prayers, Henry and Charles could sing, and so\ncould the little boy. A frail, blue-eyed, willowy mother sat in the\nrocking-chair. Father would read\u2014the little boy knew not what. But for\nthe singing from village hymns Henry sometimes fluted, making a queer\nmouth; and then, all kneeling, it was ever asked by father, \u2018Overturn\nand overturn, till He whose right it is shall come and reign, King of\nnations as King of saints.\u2019\n\n\u201cPrayers over, Aunt Esther and the little boy, he standing in a chair,\nwashed the dishes, and Henry and Charles stormed out to the Latin\nSchool. But they went to Mount Pleasant, and Mr. Colton was the teacher.\nTwice a year they came home, at Thanksgiving and the summer vacation.\nThe expected stage drove up, and the little boy, in agony of delight\nthat could not be endured, hid himself on a trundle-bed under mother\u2019s\nand braided bed-cords till, searched out, he was tossed above the clouds\nby great, strong brother Henry.\n\n\u201cAt morning prayers, \u2018Thou hast brought back our boys in health,\u2019 the\nlittle boy heard that and the \u2018overturn and overturn\u2019 part; and that\nlittle boy, now your pastor, bears witness in your ears that the boys\nwere kept, and that since those days there have been overturnings not a\nfew. And further he tells you that those family prayers propagated the\nancestral religion in brother Henry, though they have failed to hand\ndown the ancestral theology.\n\n\u201cThe boys must go to college, and leave the little boy to go to infant\nschool, to Miss Bull, and learn to tell the hour on a card clock, and\nadd, subtract, and count with an abacus. Henry in the world of departed\nspirits, Amherst; Charles at Bowdoin. Every morning father praying for\nour boys at college: \u2018May they become good ministers of our Lord Jesus\nChrist!\u2019\n\n\u201d... Edward was a man, like father. But Henry and Charles were heroes,\ndoing things. How they could jump! How they whirled around the\nhorizontal bar! How Charles could flog a top! And Henry had peanuts and\nred peppermints. Shall I ever be big and do things, and run to fires,\nand go way down Milk Street?\n\n\u201cYes, one vacation brother Henry took the little boy down on Milk\nStreet, past two Unitarian churches safely, past Tremont Theatre, past\nan open stable-door where lay a red cow with monstrous horns, chewing\nher big mouth with nothing in it, and looking, oh! so strong and hungry\nat that little boy. But Henry wasn\u2019t scared. He was whistling. \u2018Come\nalong, Tom,\u2019 he said, \u2018that\u2019s only a cow.\u2019\n\n\u201cHenry and Charles at college; father and eight of us staging from\nBoston to Cincinnati, leaving my heroes. Amherst and Bowdoin loom large\nin my fancy still. My heroes were to stay and grow! Tidings once a\nmonth: Charles has a fiddle, Henry has a six-keyed flute; Charles, and\nsomething about circles and geometry; Henry, and phrenology and\ntemperance lectures.\u201d\n\nSuch was his life in Boston, undoubtedly to a certain extent beneficial,\nand, by reason of the activity of the streets of the city and the bustle\nof the wharves, attractive. But coming at the turbulent period of his\nown development, when the rough elements of its thoroughfares were more\ncongenial to him than the influences of its churches, libraries, or\nhomes, it was far from being satisfactory. Its liberty was not\naltogether safe, nor were its restrictions healthful; and he says: \u201cI\ncannot see how, if I had remained much longer in Boston, I could have\nescaped ruin.\u201d We see him, therefore, start off on the lumbering\nstage-coach, in the early autumn morning before daylight, for Amherst,\nwith a sense of relief and hearty thankfulness that he is escaped as a\nbird from the snare of the fowler.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VI.\n\nSchool-Life at Mount Pleasant\u2014Mathematics\u2014Elocution\u2014Testimony of\n    Classmates\u2014Religious Experiences\u2014Troubles\u2014A Romantic\n    Friendship\u2014Another Kind\u2014Letter of Reminiscence\u2014A Royal School-boy.\n\n\nIt was in 1827, and Henry was fourteen years old, when he entered the\nMount Pleasant Institute. \u201cHe was admitted to the institution at a price\nabout half the usual charge, for one hundred dollars per year.\u201d \u201cHis\nappearance was robust and healthy, rather inclined to fulness of form,\nwith a slight pink tinge on his cheeks and a frequent smile upon his\nface. In his manners and communications he was quiet, orderly, and\nrespectful. He was a good-looking youth.\u201d This is the testimony of one\nof his teachers, Mr. George Montague.\n\n\u201cI think he must have been fond of children, for he was always ready for\na frolic with me. I don\u2019t remember how he spoke, except that he talked a\ngood deal and was full of life and fun.\u201d So says a friend, in whose home\nhe boarded, in a letter written during the past year.\n\nNo place could have been better fitted to the condition of the boy, as\nhe then was, than the one chosen. He was tired of the city with its\nbrick walls, stone pavements, and artificial restrictions, and longed\nfor the freedom and the freshness of the country. Amherst at that time\nwas only a small village, fighting back with indifferent success the\ncountry that pressed in upon it from every side, and offering this\ncity-sick lad, almost within a stone\u2019s throw of the school, the same\nkind of fields and forests that were around him at Litchfield, and\nspreading out for him a landscape equal in beauty to that of his\nchildhood home.\n\nBesides, he has an object in view that stirs his blood. He is to fit\nhimself for the navy; his father has promised his influence to get him\nan appointment, if wanted, and Admiral Nelson and all other brave\nadmirals and commodores are his models. For the first time in his life\nhe takes hold of study with enthusiasm.\n\nThe institution was very popular in its day, and a great advance upon\nthe old academy. It was semi-military in its methods, and in its\ngovernment there was great thoroughness without severity. Its teachers\npossessed superior qualifications, and all were men of great kindness as\nwell as of marked ability. Among them were two men who especially had\ngreat influence in directing his energies and preparing him not only for\nAmherst College but for the greater work beyond, and who were ever\nremembered by him with the deepest gratitude.\n\nThe first of these was W. P. Fitzgerald, the teacher of mathematics at\nMount Pleasant school:\n\n\u201cHe taught me to conquer in studying. There is a very hour in which a\nyoung nature, tugging, discouraged, and weary with books, rises with the\nconsciousness of victorious power into masterhood. For ever after he\nknows that he can learn anything if he pleases. It is a distinct\nintellectual \u2018conversion.\u2019\n\n\u201cI first went to the blackboard, uncertain, soft, full of whimpering.\n\u2018THAT LESSON MUST BE LEARNED,\u2019 he said, in a very quiet tone, but with a\nterrible intensity and with the certainty of Fate. All explanations and\nexcuses he trod under foot with utter scornfulness. \u2018I want that\nproblem. I don\u2019t want any reasons why I don\u2019t get it.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018I did study it two hours.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018That\u2019s nothing to me; I want the lesson. You need not study it at all,\nor you may study it ten hours\u2014just to suit yourself. I want the lesson.\nUnderwood, go to the blackboard!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh! yes, but Underwood got somebody to _show_ him his lesson.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018What do I care _how_ you get it? That\u2019s your business. But you must\nhave it.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt was tough for a green boy, but it seasoned him. In less than a month\nI had the most intense sense of intellectual independence and courage to\ndefend my recitations.\n\n\u201cIn the midst of a lesson his cold and calm voice would fall upon me in\nthe midst of a demonstration\u2014\u2018_No!_\u2019 I hesitated, stopped, and then went\nback to the beginning; and, on reaching the same spot again, \u2018_No!_\u2019\nuttered with the tone of perfect conviction, barred my progress. \u2018The\nnext!\u2019 and I sat down in red confusion. He too was stopped with \u2018No!\u2019\nbut went right on, finished, and, as he sat down, was rewarded with,\n\u2018Very well.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Why,\u2019 whimpered I, \u2018I recited it just as he did, and you said No!\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Why didn\u2019t you say _Yes_, and stick to it? It is not enough to know\nyour lesson. You must _know_ that you know it. You have learned nothing\ntill you are _sure_. If all the world says _No_, your business is to say\n_Yes_ and to _prove it_!\u2019\u201d\n\nThe other helper of this period was John E. Lovell.\n\nIn a column of the _Christian Union_ of July 14, 1880, devoted to\n\u201cInquiring Friends,\u201d appeared this question with the accompanying\nanswer:\n\n\u201cWe heard Mr. Beecher lecture recently in Boston and found the lecture a\ngrand lesson in elocution. If Mr. Beecher would give through the column\nof \u2018Inquiring Friends\u2019 the methods of instruction and practice pursued\nby him, it would be very thankfully received by a subscriber and\nstudent. / / / / / / E. D. M.\n\n\u201cI had from childhood a thickness of speech arising from a large palate,\nso that when a boy I used to be laughed at for talking as if I had\npudding in my mouth. When I went to Amherst I was fortunate in passing\ninto the hands of John Lovell, a teacher of elocution, and a better\nteacher for my purpose I cannot conceive. His system consisted in drill,\nor the thorough practice of inflexions by the voice, of gesture,\nposture, and articulation. Sometimes I was a whole hour practising my\nvoice on a word\u2014like \u2018justice.\u2019 I would have to take a posture,\nfrequently at a mark chalked on the floor. Then we would go through all\nthe gestures, exercising each movement of the arm and the throwing open\nthe hand. All gestures except those of precision go in curves, the arm\nrising from the side, coming to the front, turning to the left or right.\nI was drilled as to how far the arm should come forward, where it should\nstart from, how far go back, and under what circumstances these\nmovements should be made. It was drill, drill, drill, until the motions\nalmost became a second nature. Now I never know what movements I shall\nmake. My gestures are natural, because this drill made them natural to\nme. The only method of acquiring an effective education is by practice,\nof not less than an hour a day, until the student has his voice and\nhimself thoroughly subdued and trained to right expression.\n\n                                                           H. W. B.\u201d\n\nMr. Montague says: \u201cMr. Beecher submitted to Mr. Lovell\u2019s drilling and\ntraining with a patience which proved his interest in the study to be\ngreat. The piece which was to be spoken was committed to memory from Mr.\nLovell\u2019s mouth, the pupil standing on the stage before him, and every\nsentence and word, accent and pronunciation, position and movement of\nthe body, glance of the eye and tone of voice, all were subjects of\nstudy and criticism. And day after day, often for several weeks in\ncontinuance, Mr. Beecher submitted to this drilling upon the same piece,\nuntil his teacher pronounced him perfect.\u201d\n\nHis dramatic power was displayed and noted at this early period. Dr.\nThomas Field, a classmate in the school, says: \u201cOne incident occurred\nduring our residence in Mount Pleasant which left an abiding impression\non my mind. At the exhibition at the close of the year, either 1828 or\n1829, the drama of \u2018William Tell\u2019 was performed by some of the students,\nand your father took the part of the tyrant Gessler. Although sixty\nyears have passed, I think now, as I thought then, that it was the most\nimpressive performance I ever witnessed.\u201d\n\nHis love of flowers was so marked as to attract the attention of a\ngardener in the village, who gave him the use of a plot of ground where\nhe might sow and plant what he chose; and here the boy spent many a\nplay-hour in digging, sowing, and weeding, that he might enjoy the\nbeauty which his own hand had been instrumental in producing. \u201cIn this\ngarden-corner the chaplain of Mount Pleasant Institute found him one day\nlost in admiration for the opening buds and beautiful blossoms that were\nunfolding under his culture, and could not forbear to improve the\nopportunity and administer a gentle rebuke to the enthusiastic youth.\n\u2018Ah! Henry,\u2019 he said, \u2018these things are pretty, very pretty, but, my\nboy, do you think that such things are worthy to occupy the attention of\na man who has an immortal soul?\u2019\u201d The boy was abashed before so much\ndignity, and, we may add, stupidity, and assuming the stolid look that\nhis bashfulness had made natural, at this time, under such\ncircumstances, went on with his work among the flowers; but he said\nafterwards that he wanted to tell him that \u201csince Almighty God had taken\ntime to make these trifles, it did not seem amiss for him to take time\nto look at them.\u201d So, now a youth, he is walking as when a child among\nflowers, and the leader of the boys in their most venturesome sports is\nkneeling in adoring silence over beds of pansies and asters, and feeding\nthe hunger of his soul with the beauty of their forms and colors.\n\nIn a letter dated December 24, 1828, addressed to his sister Harriet\u2014the\nfirst that has come to our hands from Mount Pleasant\u2014he gives some\naccount of his manner of life at school, and various experiences:\n\n\u201cDEAR SISTER:\n\n\u201d... I have to rise in the morning at half-past five o\u2019clock, and after\nvarious little duties, such as fixing of room, washing, etc., which\noccupies about an hour, we proceed to breakfast, from thence to chapel,\nafter which we have about ten minutes to prepare for school. Then we\nattend school from eight to twelve. An hour at noon is allowed for\ndiversions of various sorts. Then dinner. After that school from\nhalf-past one to half-past four. At night we have about an hour and a\nhalf; then tea. After tea we have about ten minutes; then we are called\nto our rooms till nine.\n\n\u201cNow I will tell you how I occupy my spare time\u2014in reading, writing, and\nplaying the flute. We are forming a band here. I shall play either the\nflute or hautboy. I enjoy myself _pretty_ well. In Latin I am studying\nSallust. As to ease, all I have to do is to study straight ahead. It\ncomes _pretty_ easy. My Greek is rather hard. I am as yet studying the\ngrammar and Jacob\u2019s Greek Reader. In elocution we read and speak\nalternately every other day.\n\n\u201d... I find it hard to keep as a Christian ought to. To be sure, I find\ndelight in prayer, but I cannot find time to be alone sufficiently. We\nhave in our room only two, one besides myself, but he is most of my\nplay-hours practising on some instrument or other. I have some time, to\nbe sure, but it is very irregular, and I never know when I shall have an\nopportunity for private devotions until the time comes. I do not like to\nread the Bible as well as to pray, but I suppose it is the same as it is\nwith a lover, who loves to talk with his mistress in person better than\nto write when she is afar off....\n\n                                         \u201cYour affectionate brother,\n                                                     \u201cHENRY.\u201d\n\nHis religious experience, of which we have heard nothing since he left\nLitchfield, the life in Boston apparently not being very favorable to\nit, again attracts our attention at this point. He says:\n\n\u201cWhen I was fourteen years of age I left Boston and went to Mount\nPleasant. There broke out while I was there one of those infectious\nreligious revivals which have no basis of judicious instruction, but\nspring from inexperienced zeal. It resulted in many mushroom hopes, and\nI had one of them; but I do not know how or why I was converted. I only\nknow I was in a sort of day-dream, in which I hoped I had given myself\nto Christ.\n\n\u201cI wrote to father expressing this hope; he was overjoyed, and sent me a\nlong, kind letter on the subject. But in the course of three or four\nweeks I was nearly over it; and I never shall forget how I felt, not\nlong afterward, when a letter from father was handed me in which he said\nI must anticipate my vacation a week or two and come home and join the\nChurch on the next Communion Sabbath. The serious feelings I had were\nwell-nigh gone, and I was beginning to feel quite jolly again, and I did\nnot know what to do. I went home, however, and let them take me into the\nChurch. A kind of pride and shamefacedness kept me from saying I did not\nthink I was a Christian, and so I was made a church-member.\u201d\n\nIn an editorial in the _Independent_, written in 1862, upon the\ndisbanding of this old church, the Bowdoin Street\u2014originally Hanover\nStreet\u2014Church, Boston, he describes this event:\n\n\u201cIf somebody will look in the old records of Hanover Street church about\n1829 they will find a name there of a boy about fifteen years old who\nwas brought into the Church on a sympathetic wave, and who well\nremembers how cold and almost paralyzed he felt while the committee\nquestioned him about his \u2018hope\u2019 and \u2018evidences,\u2019 which, upon review,\namounted to this: that the son of such a father ought to be a good and\npious boy. Being tender-hearted and quick to respond to moral sympathy,\nhe had been caught and inflamed in a school excitement, but was just\ngetting over it when summoned to Boston to join the church! On the\nmorning of _the_ day he went to church without seeing anything he looked\nat. He heard his name called from the pulpit among many others, and\ntrembled; rose up with every emotion petrified; counted the spots on the\ncarpet; looked piteously up at the cornice; heard the fans creak in the\npews near him; felt thankful to a fly that lit on his face, as if\nsomething familiar at last had come to break an awful trance; heard\nfaintly a reading of the Articles of Faith; wondered whether he should\nbe struck dead for not feeling more\u2014whether he should go to hell for\ntouching the bread and wine, that he did not dare to take nor to refuse;\nspent the morning service uncertain whether dreaming, or out of the\nbody, or in a trance; and at last walked home crying, and wishing he\nknew what, now that he was a Christian, he should do, and how he was to\ndo it. Ah! well, there is a world of things in children\u2019s minds that\ngrown-up people do not imagine, though they too once were young.\u201d\n\nUnsatisfactory in many respects as was his religious experience, it\nseems to have been powerful enough to change his whole ideal of life. We\nhear no more of his becoming a sailor. He appears to have yielded to the\ninevitable, and henceforth studies with the ministry in view.\n\nThat there was awakened in him a strong sense of duty and a deep\nearnestness of purpose appears from a letter written from the school to\nhis brother Edward:\n\n                                   \u201c_Mount Pleasant_, July 11, 1829.\n\n\u201dDEAR BROTHER:\n\n\u201cI have been expecting a letter from you all the time; but I suppose you\nhave too much to do to write letters. Mr. Newton has set up a\nBible-class on Sabbath morning for the larger boys, and a Sabbath-school\non Sabbath afternoon for the smaller boys. The Bible-classes are very\ninteresting indeed. He first began with the 73d Psalm; then he commenced\nthe New Testament and is going through it in course. The boys generally\nare very much pleased with the lecture.\n\n\u201cOn Wednesday evenings he is a-going to deliver doctrinal sermons. All\nwith whom I have conversed on the subject are very desirous that he\nshould commence them.\n\n\u201cThere has been a boy named Forsyth who has since the revival been very\nactive in the cause of religion, and promised to be a man of great\nusefulness; he is a boy of great influence, and he has gone back. He\ndoes not oppose religion, but wishes that he had it. His going back has\ncaused a great deal of sorrow here among the boys who profess to be\npious.\n\n\u201cI room with Homes at present; he is, I think, very amiable and pious.\nWe have prayers together every evening. Then he has an hour in the\nmorning and I an hour in the evening for private devotions. I find that\nif I neglect prayer even _once_ that I do not desire to pray again as\nmuch as I did before, and the more I pray the more I love to do it.\n\n\u201cAt present I am comparing the Evangelists together, and looking up the\npassages in the Old which are referred to in the New Testament.\n\n\u201cCharles and I correspond regularly. In order to make it profitable as\nwell as interesting, we have in every letter some difficult passage for\none another to explain. I like the plan very much.\n\n\u201cOur examination is over, and exhibition also. I send you one of our\npapers (published at the institution), which has a scheme of the\nexhibition. I got through my examinations very well. I hope that you\nwill find time to answer this soon. Give my best love to any of the\nfamily who may be in Boston, and Aunt Homes\u2019s family.\n\n                                           \u201cYour affec. brother,\n                                                    \u201cH. W. BEECHER.\u201c\n\nIn another one to the same, dated August, 1829, he says:\n\n\u201dMY DEAR BROTHER:\n\n\u201cI received your letter Sabbath eve. I expect father received a letter\nfrom me about the same time that you did this one, in which I asked him\nto explain some things from the Bible to me.... While I think of it, Mr.\nNewton explains the Bible twice a week now instead of once. He presses\nthe boys to the study of the Bible and to prayer more than any minister\nI ever knew, and I believe it to be not without effect. I, for one, have\nread my Bible more and studied it more. Father recommended me to keep a\nlittle book in which I should put all my loose thoughts. I got one about\na month since and have filled a good deal of it already. My studies go\npretty well. At present I am studying Cicero and the Greek reader. I\nexpect next term (in about five weeks) to take up the Greek Testament,\nand Virgil, and mathematics. I intend to stay here another year, almost\nfor no other purpose than to learn mathematics, it is taught so well\nhere! I exercise three hours in a day. One of the questions which I\nwished to ask you is this, Matthew ii. 23: \u2018That it might be fulfilled\nwhich was spoken by the prophets: He shall be called a Nazarene.\u2019 Mr.\nNewton gave one explanation, but it did not satisfy me. I have been and\nam still reading Dr. Gregory\u2019s letters on the evidences, doctrines, and\nduties of the Christian religion.\n\n\u201cI intend to spend a part of my vacation (which will commence soon) in\nHartford. I do not exactly understand the doctrine of predestination,\nand several boys have been to me and asked me to explain it to them, but\nI could never do it to my own satisfaction. I am paying a considerable\nattention to elocution, reading, etc.\n\n\u201cI wish to ask you concerning _novel_-reading. I know that to read much\nof any such thing is bad, but do you think that it would injure me to\nread now and then those of Scott and Cooper? Write soon as possible.\n\n                                                Your affec. brother,\n                                                          \u201cHENRY.\u201c\n\nThe following letter, written near the close of his school-life, affords\na view of some of his troubles, and is given entire:\n\n                                      \u201dMOUNT PLEASANT, Mar. 1, 1830.\n\n\u201cMY DEAR SISTER:\n\n\u201cI received your letter yesterday and have got up about an hour earlier\nthis morning in order that I may have time to answer it. My studies are\ngrowing more and more difficult, for I am preparing for examination, and\nmost of the Greek which I am reviewing I have never been over, and I\nhave to learn something like _ten_ pages. Sometimes I feel almost\ndiscouraged, and if I was studying for _myself_ alone I should have\ngiven up long ago; but when I think that I am preparing myself to bear\nthe commands of Him who is my Master, I can go with renewed strength\nfrom day to day. A little time spent here in performing our duty, and\nthen our toil and trouble will be rewarded with double and eternal\nhappiness. I feel just as you do while writing or thinking of these\nthings\u2014I feel drawn up toward heaven, my home, and am enabled to look\nupon the earth as a place of pilgrimage and not an abiding city. Those\nare moments of true happiness, which the world knows not; but when I mix\nwith the boys I forget these things, and do talk and act unworthy of a\ndisciple of Christ. I find this to need much watchfulness and prayer,\nfor I believe that I take to light trifling more than people generally\ndo. I find much trouble with _pride_. I am afraid every day that I shall\nget into some difficulty with my instructors. I feel more at liberty\nwhen I write to you than any other of my sisters; not because I do not\nlove them, but because you are nearer my age. I notice many things in\nreading your letter which struck me as exactly like my own feelings. I\nfeel when in meeting, or when reading any book, as if I should never\ncease serving Christ, and could run with patience the race which is set\nbefore me. Oh! then I have such thoughts, such views of God, and of His\nlove and mercy, that my heart would burst through the corrupt body of\nthis world and soar up with angels. Oh! how happy the thought that we\nmay in all the ages of eternity serve and enjoy the _presence_ of that\nGod, the very glimpses of whom fill us with such joy here. I believe\nthat if I had not somewhere to lay my troubles, if Christ had not\ninvited all those that are \u2018weary and heavy laden\u2019 to come unto Him,\nthat I should have long since been discouraged, for I do not think that\nmy instructors do right with me; for although they know that my lessons\nare double those of any other boy, still they scold and ridicule me\nduring recitation, and, what is worse, the principals will at the close\nof the week, when the reports are read, read off my reports and all the\nremarks which are made of me by the under-instructors, and yet will not\neven say (_I_ can say it with my whole heart) that I exert myself all in\nmy power. And the deficiency is not for want of study. Nevertheless, if\nit will do me any good, if it will break down my proud spirit, if it\nwill make me depend more upon help from above than earthly help, I will\nsuffer it\u2014yes, rejoice in it.\n\n\u201cI _write_ to you, Harriet, just as I would _speak_ with you; and if it\nseems to you that I am childish in feeling thus, I can say perhaps I may\nbe, but there are feelings which I have long had, and have wished to\nrelate to some one whom I loved and who could advise me. I have said\nlittle or nothing to any of my schoolmates concerning these things. You\ninquired something concerning card-playing, etc. I don\u2019t know what to\nthink about it. I believe that there are little societies which meet at\ncertain places for the purpose of playing. It is not among the large\nboys only, but among those of ten or twelve years of age, and most all\nthe boys say \u2018they would not _play, because_ it is _forbidden_ by Mr.\nColton; but they don\u2019t _think_ there is _any harm_ in it _any more_ than\nthere is in playing _chess_.\u2019 Mr. Colton knows that the boys play, and\nall that he has found out he has punished in some way or other; but\nthere are many that he has not found who still continue to play in\nsecret places, and it is not uncommon to hear little boys of eight or\nnine years old swearing most shockingly.\n\n\u201cThe bell is ringing and I must begin my studies now. Write _soon_.\n\n                                   Your most affectionate brother,\n                                                             \u201cHENRY.\n\n\u201cP. S. Will you send me a few questions that will be good for a debating\nsociety? We wish to get the best one we can for a public debate.\u201d\n\nOccasionally in some moment of frolicsome reminiscence he would tell one\nof his grandchildren of another kind of experience that belonged to\nthese days. Bashful as he was and retiring by nature, he was not by any\nmeans proof against the tender passion\u2014in fact, such a nature as his was\njust the one that its arrows would reach the earliest, and into which\nthey would strike deepest.\n\nShe was the sister of a schoolmate, and her name was Nancy. All this\nvacation he had developed great fondness for this school friend; was\noften at his house. \u201cAnd there,\u201d he said, \u201cI would lean against the\nwindow and watch Nancy sew, she had such little pink fingers\u2014how I\nwanted to take hold of them! And then once in a while she would just\nglance up, and I would be covered with hot and awkward confusion.\u201d\n\nOn one evening in particular he had spruced up his dress and screwed up\nhis courage preparatory to making an evening call, when, as the family\nsat around the fire, \u201cLyman,\u201d said the mother, without looking up from\nher lace knitting, \u201cMount Pleasant is an excellent school. Henry is\nimproving very much. He has grown tidy, blacks his boots and brushes his\nhair, and begins to pay a proper attention to his clothes.\u201d\n\n\u201cAt this point,\u201d says Mr. Beecher, in telling the story, \u201cCharles gave\nan explosive giggle and punched me slyly. Father lowered his newspaper;\nglancing over his glasses in our direction, seeing me covered with\nconfusion and Charles full of suppressed laughter, said dryly:\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh! it is the school, is it? Humph! I guess the cause is nearer\nhome.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cHow did it turn out, grandpa?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! she was older than I, and married another fellow soon after. A\nshort time ago, after a lecture in Boston, a little old lady introduced\nherself to me as \u2018Nancy \u2014\u2014\u2014.\u2019 But the charm was gone. I shook the once\ntempting hand and felt neither awkward nor hot.\u201d\n\nTo some of his letters of this school-boy era he signs the initials H.\n_C._ B. instead of H. W. B. The adoption of this letter C came about\nfrom that enthusiasm of friendship which was always one of his marked\ncharacteristics. The following is the history of the matter:\n\nOn the back of a sheet of letter-paper which we have before us, folded\nas if for filing, is written:\n\n                           \u201cHENRY W. BEECHER\n                                   &\n                         CONSTANTINE F. NEWELL,\n                 Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institution,\n                            Amherst, Mass.\u201d\n\nOpening it we read:\n\n\u201cWe do, in the presence of God and his holy angels, by our signatures,\nmutually pledge ourselves to be and perform all things subjoined:\n\n\u201c(1) We do pledge ourselves to be _real_, lawful, and everlasting\n_brothers_; and that we will perform toward each other _all the duties_\nof brothers, whether present or _absent_, in health or in _sickness_, in\nwealth or in _poverty_, in prosperity or adversity; and that we will\nlove and watch over one another, seeking by all means in our power to\naid and make each other happy.\n\n                                             \u201dH. C. BEECHER,\n                                             \u201cCONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.\n\n\u201c(2) If parted hereafter we pledge ourselves to write to one another\nonce in two months, provided we are both in the United States. But if\neither shall remove or reside in any foreign land, we will write _four_\ntimes each year, that is, once in three months, unless we shall alter\nthe arrangement.\n\n                                             \u201dH. C. BEECHER,\n                                             \u201cCONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.\n\n\u201c(3) If we hear one another\u2019s character evil spoken of, we pledge\nourselves fearlessly to defend it and shield it from reproach.\n\n                                             \u201dH. C. BEECHER,\n                                             \u201cCONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.\n\n\u201c(4) We will pass over the little faults which we may observe in each\nother, nor will we reproach one another of any little misstep.\n\n                                          [Signatures omitted here.]\n\n\u201c(5) Our sorrows and joys shall be common, so that we may rejoice in\nmutual prosperity and assist one another in adversity.\n\n                                             \u201dH. C. BEECHER,\n                                             \u201cCONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.\n\n\u201cAnd now we consider ourselves as _brothers_, and we are bound together\nby ties and obligations as strong as can be placed upon us. But we\nrather rejoice in the relationship, as now it has converted our former\nfriendship into brotherly love. As formerly we were connected by nothing\nsave voluntary friendship, which could be broken off, so now we are\nconnected by a love which _cannot_ be broken; and we have pledged\nourselves before God and his angels to be as written above. But we do\nnot sorrow on this account\u2014far from it, we greatly rejoice\u2014for we have\nnot done this thoughtlessly, but being convinced by _three years\u2019_\nfriendship that we mutually love one another; and from this time are now\nassumed new duties and obligations. And to all the foregoing we\ncheerfully and voluntarily subscribe our names. And now may God bless us\nin this our covenant and in all our future ways, and receive us both at\nlast in heaven.\n\n                                             \u201cH. C. BEECHER,\n                                             \u201cCONSTANTINE F. NEWELL.\n\n\u201cAMHERST, April, 1832.\u201d\n\nThe explanation of this singular paper is found in a very romantic\nhistory and friendship.\n\nConstantine Fontellachi was a Greek from the island of Scio, in the\nGrecian Archipelago. His parents were killed by the Turks in that\nterrible massacre of the Sciotese which horrified the world in 1822.\nConstantine, who was six or eight years old, escaped and hid among the\nrocks upon the coast until he was discovered and taken off by a coasting\nvessel. He made his way to the New World and was adopted by Mrs. Newell,\nof Amherst, as her own, and sent to the Mount Pleasant school. His\nromantic but sorrowful history, his great beauty and grace of person,\ncaptivated Henry Ward; as he said: \u201cHe was the most beautiful thing I\nhad ever seen. He was like a young Greek god. When we boys used to go\nswimming together I would climb out on the bank to watch Constantine\nswim, he was so powerful, so beautiful.\u201d\n\nThe brightness of his intellect and his kindliness of heart were equal\nto the beauty of his person, and the admiration excited deepened into\nthe warmest and most sincere affection. It was like that between David\nand Jonathan, and appears to have been mutual.\n\nWhen they separated at the close of their school-days, one to enter\ncollege and the other to go into business in Boston, the above covenant\nwas written, admirable only as it illustrates what has been called Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s genius for friendship. Returning to his native land in 1842,\nConstantine died very suddenly of cholera. But even then the old\nfriendship was not forgotten. Years after Mr. Beecher gave to one of his\nsons \u201cConstantine\u201d as a middle name, that he might have in his family\none who should always remind him of the friend so greatly beloved.\n\nWe close this chapter with a letter of reminiscence of Mount Pleasant\ndays.\n\n                                      \u201cAMHERST, MASS., May 17, 1849.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR EUNICE AND VERY DEAR WIFE:\n\n\u201cHere am I in this memorable place. It is now fifteen years since you\nreceived a letter from me dated as is this one. It is twenty-three years\nsince I first put my foot on the village sod! It gives my head a whirl\nto look back so far, or to hear myself, with my young-looking face and\nyounger-acting one, talking of things that happened to me at such long\ndistances of time.... Arrived at Northampton about four o\u2019clock; took\nstage for Amherst, mounted on top for sight-seeing. Rode through the old\ntown along by the ploughed fields to the bridge of memorable history.\nAll _our_ experiences came very freshly back. I thought I could tell the\nvery places where I kissed you in our ride home....\n\n\u201cAfter emerging from this old town (Hadley) the colleges shone out from\nafar; then Mount Pleasant gradually, and one by one the various\nprominent dwellings in the village. I put up at the Baltwoods\u2019 old\ntavern.... I first went to the college; walked up and down and around in\nthe various entries, in the grove, by the well, in the chapel, in each\nrecitation-room. Then I went to each of the rooms which I occupied in\ncollege. I sought out the spots which had a very melancholy interest\nfrom events in my morbid religious history. I then turned my steps to\nMount Pleasant. I cannot tell the emotions that I had when I once more\ntrod the grassy ascent where my opening manhood first fairly dawned. As\nI walked up the long slope I almost thought that I should see the crowd\nof boys break forth from some door. I stopped on the terrace where for\nthree years I mustered with more than a hundred boys, and whence we\nmarched to chapel, to meals, to church, etc. As I stood there\nConstantine seemed to rise up to greet me, as he never will greet me;\nHunt, Pomeroy, French, Burt, Thayer, Tilghman, Dwight, Van Lennep,\nFitzgerald, and scores of others. The wings of the building, the chapel,\nthe kitchen, etc., were all taken away, so that the places where most I\nroomed, and the veranda in which I used to sit and muse and feel the\nrise and swell of yearnings the meaning of which I did not know, are all\nswept away. Here I spent the half-ideal and half-emotive, dreamy hours\nin which I used to look across the beautiful Connecticut River valley,\nand at the blue mountains that hedged it in, until my heart swelled and\nmy eyes filled with tears; why, I could not tell. Then I would push out\ninto the woods and romp with the wildest of them. I visited the grove,\nonce beautiful, now meagre and forlorn. I went into the rear building;\neach room brought up some forgotten scene, some face remembered for good\nor ill. I went to the room where I roomed early in my course. The boys\nwere at supper, and so I sat down and meditated awhile. The room in\nwhich I lived with Fitzgerald was not to be found, some changes in the\ninterior of the house having shut it out from the entry where I formerly\nfound it. It was a strange mixture of old things found again and old\nthings not to be found\u2014of surprise and disappointment, of things painful\nand of things joyful. All my favorites, the little fellows that I used\nto love and cherish, their faces looked out at me at every turn. I tried\nto find the trees, growing three from a root, on which I made steps and\nbuilt a slat house up among the branches; where I used to sit\nwind-rocked and read or muse, cry and laugh, just as the fancy took me.\nIt was gone. There are twenty-five boys here at a select school. They\nwere playing down on the old football ground, and the voices and shouts,\nquips and jokes, were so natural that I could hardly help plunging down\nthe hill, catching up a club, and going into the game of ball with all\nmy old ardor. But they would have no remembrances to meet mine. I should\nnot have been _Hank_ Beecher to them.... Good-by, dear wife.\n\n                                        \u201cTruly yours,\n                                                           \u201cH. W. B.\n\n\u201cLove to all the children, big and little.\u201d\n\nFor the benefit of all school-boys we call attention to some of the\nmost marked features of this period in the life of H. W. Beecher, as\nthey appear from the extracts given and from other papers for which we\nhave no space. He was healthy and robust, a favorite among the boys\nupon the play-ground, who called him \u201cHank\u201d Beecher. He was a leader\nin their sports, and at the same time a champion of the younger and\nweaker boys. He learned to master his work, and by drill in\nschool-room and gymnasium gained control of his own powers of body and\nmind. He kept his eyes open to the beauty of the world around him, and\nwas very susceptible to the attractions of fair faces as well. He was\nopen and manly in following his religious convictions, clean-mouthed\nand pure-hearted in his morals. He pondered big matters, and asked\nlarge questions, and sought out satisfactory conclusions for himself\nand for his companions. He looked for information in all directions,\nand took great pains to store it away for future use. He read good\nbooks and a great many of them, and the novels he read were of the\nbest kind. Withal he was a \u201chail-fellow-well-met\u201d companion and a most\ndevoted and faithful friend. Upon the authority of every word of\ntestimony we have been able to get from teachers, classmates, and old\nresidents of the town, we declare him to have been a royal school-boy,\nwhose manly faithfulness, kindly service, stalwart morality, and\nloving, cheerful friendliness prepared him for the grand life which he\nafterwards lived and the great success which he achieved, and make him\na worthy example for all the ingenuous, aspiring youth of our land.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER VII.\n\nAmherst College\u2014Private Journal\u2014Testimony of Classmates\u2014Tutor\u2019s\n    Delight\u2014Begins his Anti-Slavery Career\u2014Spiritual\n    Darkness\u2014Engagement\u2014Letters of his Mother\u2014Experiences in Teaching\n    School\u2014First Sermons\u2014Lecturing\u2014His Reading\u2014The Record.\n\n\nHenry Ward Beecher entered Amherst College in 1830 in a class of forty\nmembers. Although prepared for the Sophomore year, yet, following the\nadvice of his father, he entered as a Freshman in the class of \u201934. On\nthe cover of a very commonplace-looking copy-book, brown and yellow with\nage, which we have in our possession, he has written with a great many\nflourishes \u201cPrivate Journal,\u201d and then has added with equal emphasis,\n\u201cNot to be looked into.\u201d But since he afterwards drew his pen through\nboth clauses, we have taken the liberty not only to look but also to\nmake extracts from its contents.\n\nThe pages appear to have been written for the most part with reference\nto a correspondence which he was then carrying on with his brother\nCharles, referred to in the previous chapter, many of the questions\nbeing apparently argued, and incidents in the diary noted with him in\nview. As a whole it forms a rather odd mixture of excellent sentiments,\nreligious doctrines, questions and arguments, studied illustrations and\ndaily incidents, showing an alert mind, and one that, while awake to\nobserve the smallest events, was equally ready to grapple with the\nlargest subjects. A list of eleven \u201cTracts French\u201d on half the first\npage is followed on the blank spaces of the remainder with careless\npen-scrawls in which the name of \u201cNancy\u201d appears with attempts at\nmonograms, showing the pleasant fancies that possessed his idle moments.\n\n\u201cTracts English\u201d heads the next page, which is ruled for names and\nnumbers; but for some reason, perhaps because the list was too great or\nthe selection too difficult, the plan was never carried out and not a\nsingle entry was made\u2014a failure so human, so common, that it at once\nbrings him into the sympathies of thousands who remember how often they\nhave done the same thing.\n\n\u201cOccasional Thoughts\u201d comes next, printed with the pen in small caps in\nthe middle of a page, and surrounded with the usual artistic\npen-decorations. On the opposite page the thoughts begin. The first is\n\u201cProof of a Hell.\u201d \u201cI prove first that there must be a hell, and then it\nwill appear evident that there must be a judgment.\u201d Six pages of\nproof-texts and argument follow, when we come to the next question: \u201cWho\nwill enjoy heaven most?\u201d When this has been answered, somewhat more\nbriefly than the former, but apparently to his own satisfaction, he\nopens the next subject:\n\n\u201cI wish to ask you [evidently addressed to his brother], not as a\nquestion, but for my own information, what you think about the devil?\nNow, this of itself is quite a curious question, but what I wish to ask\nin this particular is, Do you think that he is at all under the divine\ndirection as we are?\u201d\n\nSeveral pages of pithy sayings and illustrations follow, of which the\nfirst three are fair samples:\n\n\u201cGod\u2019s plans are like a hive of bees, for they seem to go on without any\norder till they are accomplished, but then you can see a great plan.\nEach one seems to be pursuing something for itself, but, like the bees,\nthey at the end help to form one elegant edifice.\u201d\n\n\u201cA half-way Christian has too little piety to be happy in the next\nworld, and too much to be happy in this.\u201d\n\n\u201cReligion, like fire, will go out nearly as soon if no fuel is added to\nit as if water is poured on it.\u201d\n\nThese are not quotations, but original, and show thus early a habit\nalready formed and a power already being educated of illustrating\nreligious truth by natural objects and processes.\n\nThe last half of the book is used as a diary, written mostly with a\nlead-pencil, and opens with an account of his journey from Boston to\nHartford on his way to enter college:\n\n\u201cI started from Boston Tuesday eve at ten o\u2019clock, and, riding all\nnight, I arrived in Hartford in time to dine. I took passage in the\nUnited States mail-stage. It can hold but six passengers inside, it\nbeing made light in order to travel fast. I think that we travelled very\nfast, for we went one hundred miles in about fifteen hours. After I got\ninto Hartford I started off to find Mary. I went to her house, and sent\nword that I wished to see Mrs. Perkins. After waiting awhile she came\ndown-stairs, and did not know me, and I had to tell her who I was. About\nfive o\u2019clock I went to see Harriet and Catharine. Catharine knew me, but\nHarriet did not. She could not think what to make of it when I went up\nand kissed her.\n\n\u201cI shall now begin my journal:\n\n\u201cCatharine wishes me to go to her lev\u00e9e to-night. Don\u2019t want to much,\nbut conclude that I will. Went before any of the company came. Went into\nCatharine\u2019s room and sat till it was time to go down. The company began\nto come in, at first ladies, like flocks of pigeons, stringing along\nthrough the parlors; soon also the gentlemen began to come in. In the\nmeantime I was sitting by the side of the pianoforte, alone and\n\u2018unbefriended,\u2019 looking at the different groups of persons talking. At\nlength Harriet came and sat down by me, and I had quite a talk; but she\nwishing me to go with her into the other parlor, where a great many\nyoung ladies and no gentlemen were sitting, I refused, whereupon she\nkept pressing me, till at length, when she got up to go and speak with\nsome one on the other side of the room, I seized the opportunity, and\nvery quickly started for the door, but unluckily ran against a\ngentleman, knocked him half-over, made an apology, and got into the\nentry. Nor did my scrape end here; for, getting my hat, I perceived that\nthey saw me from the parlors, and, getting the other side of the entry\nto hide myself from them, I espied six or seven young ladies seated on\nthe stairs, watching to see what I was a-going to do. Well, I went back\nto the table where I had taken my hat, and from there _whipped_ out of\nthe door. After I had got home I sat and talked with Aunt Esther and\nMary for a few moments, and then I went out to get a lamp. The stairs, I\nthought, were in this shape:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nbut instead of that they were in this way:\n\n[Illustration]\n\nYou know when they are moved round in that way there are four or five\nsteps that meet in one point, _a_, and branch at _b_, so you cannot step\non them except at _b_. Well, I stepped down at _a_ and fell five stairs\nhead-first\u2014stretching my hands forward saved my cranium\u2014and tumbled the\nrest of the way, to the no small annoyance of my shins and knees. So\nmuch for running away from the lev\u00e9e.\u201d\n\n\u201cCatharine and Harriet came to tea, after which I went home with them,\nwhen Harriet put her curls on to my head and her bonnet, Catharine a\ncloak and neck-handkerchief, and then called the young ladies in, and\nthey all thought that I was Harriet; and then, to cap all, Harriet put\non a man\u2019s cloak and my hat, and she looked exactly like _you_\n[Charles]!\u201d\n\nSuch was Henry Ward Beecher at the age of seventeen, on the eve of\nentering college\u2014bashful, smooth-faced, and changing rapidly in\nappearance, so that his own sisters did not know him. The penmanship\nshows as yet an unformed hand, but in its main features is like that of\na later date.\n\nHe carelessly leaves out a word or a letter here and there, and markedly\nin places continues the old habit of his early school days\u2014poor\nspelling. Nothing appears that indicates any talent superior to the\nmajority of young men on their way to college, unless it be a certain\nenthusiasm, straightforwardness, and simplicity.\n\nThe college at this time was but nine years old, having been established\nin 1821. Rev. Heman Humphrey was president. It was small and poorly\nendowed, as well as young, but the chairs of instruction were ably\nfilled; and since it had been founded by the orthodox Congregationalists\nas, in fact, an antidote to the Unitarianism of Harvard, and with\nespecial reference to the education of young men for the ministry, its\northodoxy was unquestioned and its religious spirit pronounced and\nactive.\n\nBy reason of his excellent preparation and the admirable mental training\nhe had received, either of two courses were open to Henry Ward. He might\naspire to lead his class in scholarship, become a \u201chigh-honor\u201d man, and\npossibly take the valedictory, or use the time which he had at his\ndisposal in following out those studies and readings that were to his\ntaste.\n\nHe chose the latter, and, while giving sufficient study to the college\ncourse to preserve a respectable standing in his class, gave his\ngreatest effort to carrying out his own plan of development and culture.\n\n\u201cI had acquired by the Latin and mathematics the power of study,\u201d he\nsays. \u201cI knew how to study, and I turned it upon things I wanted to\nknow.\u201d\n\nThe beauty of the Greek and Latin classics did not attract him; it\nseemed cold and far away, belonging to another time and another order of\nmind; but our English classics, with their warmth of feeling, their\nlofty imagination, their delicate sentiment, their power and eloquence,\nseemed akin and near to him; they had to do with the present, and he\ngave himself to their study with a whole-hearted enthusiasm that\nrendered him peculiarly open to their influences.\n\nInspired and fed by them as to what to say, he also gave especial\nattention to the manner of saying it. Rhetoric and oratory were\ndiligently pursued throughout his college course. In these departments\nhe seems, according to the testimony of his class and college mates, to\nhave excelled then almost as markedly as he has since.\n\nSays Dr. Thomas P. Field: \u201cThe first thing I particularly remember about\nhim in college was this: I went into our class prayer-meeting on\nSaturday evening, and young Beecher gave an exhortation. He urged us to\na higher life and more constant activity in religious work. I heard him\na great many times after he became a famous preacher, but I think I\nnever was more moved by his eloquence than in that boys\u2019 prayer-meeting.\nIn the regular routine of our studies I always was aroused and\nastonished by his extemporaneous debates. He surpassed all the rest of\nus then in extemporaneous power of speech as much as he did in his\nafter-life. There was where he seemed to me particularly to excel as a\nstudent. In mere recitation of mathematics or languages many of us could\nsurpass him, but in extemporaneous debates he could beat us all. I was\nalways greatly interested, too, in his written essays. We were in the\nhabit of reading our essays to the professors in the class-room. Your\nfather always had something to say that was fresh and striking and out\nof the beaten track of thought\u2014something, too, that he had not gotten\nfrom books, but that was the product of his own thinking.\u201d\n\nDr. John Haven, another classmate, says of him: \u201cHe was a great reader,\nand probably had more general knowledge than any one of his classmates\nwhen he graduated.\u201d\n\nSays Lewis Tappan, a classmate: \u201cIn logic and class debates no one could\napproach him. I listened to his flow of impassioned eloquence in those\nmy youthful days with wonder and admiration.\u201d\n\nS. Hopkins Emery, another classmate, in answer to a letter, writes:\n\u201cNobody could be gloomy or desponding near your father. He made us all\ncheerful and happy. Do I remember him in college? Indeed I do\u2014more than\nI have time to write or you patience, perhaps, to read. It seems but\nyesterday that I was reading a composition in the lecture-room of\nProfessor Worcester. Beecher sat just behind me. I had finished reading,\nwhen I heard a friendly whisper in my ear: \u2018Emery, your porch is too\nlarge for the house.\u2019 It was a good criticism. In such college studies\nwhich had to do with writing and speaking the English language your\nfather excelled. The dead languages and mathematics never seemed to suit\nhis taste. He might have excelled in them if he had been so minded. He\nwas equal to anything he undertook. No one was his match in\nextemporaneous talk or debate.\u201d\n\nThis power and its exercise upon one memorable occasion was fraught,\naccording to a college mate, Rev. S. W. Hanks, with very marked\nconsequences:\n\n\u201cIn the annual Sophomore and Freshman fray the former found themselves\nengaged with a force that was more than a match for them, and their\npranks upon the Freshmen got repaid with much more than the usual\ninterest. In consequence of this a meeting of all the classes in college\nwas held to protest against the barbarities of this customary war, in\nwhich the smoke of the battle usually found its way into the Freshmen\u2019s\nrooms. At this meeting a leading member of the Junior class, finding the\nSophomores a little wanting in courage and speaking talent, volunteered\nto act as their attorney, and made a telling and crushing speech against\nthe Freshmen class for their hard handling of the Sophomores, who had\nonly followed an old custom in their treatment of the Freshmen. At the\nclose of this speech by the \u2018leading Junior,\u2019 Beecher arose and said he\nwished to say a word on the other side, whereupon he \u2018went for\u2019 the\nJunior in a speech full of wit and point, which altogether \u2018turned the\ntables\u2019 to the great amusement of all present and the great annoyance of\nthe \u2018leading Junior.\u2019 When the meeting broke up the Goliah of the Junior\nclass found himself suffering from a wound which the little smooth stone\nfrom the sling of the hitherto unknown Freshman had made. This was a new\nexperience for the proud Junior, and the wound rankled.\n\n\u201cIt seems never to have been forgotten. Time passed on and the \u2018leading\nJunior\u2019 became a leading lawyer, jurist, judge, and Democratic\npolitician, and when the great scandal arose volunteered a very strong\nargument against Mr. Beecher. It had great weight in some quarters, but\nwas less convincing to those parties who remembered that this judge was\neagerly embracing the first opportunity that had offered of paying off\nan old score of their college days.\u201d\n\n\u201cHe was whole-souled and hearty, humorous in the extreme but without a\nparticle of viciousness, a reformer and an earnest man.\u201d This is again\nthe testimony of his classmate, Dr. Field.\n\n\u201cWe would often gather on the steps of the chapel, a number of us\nincidentally, and if your father was in the gathering we always had much\nwit and sparkling repartee, and anecdote and description, all of which\nseemed to be infused by your father, and of which, indeed, he was the\ngreater part. He always seemed full of health and hilarity, and yet,\nafter all, there was a prevailing seriousness, an earnest purpose, a\ndetermination to be a good and true man. I never knew anything of him\nbut what was good, and great, and orderly, and becoming a Christian. I\nhave heard persons say he was wild in college. Nothing more untrue. I\nnever heard him utter a word, and never heard of his doing a deed, that\nwas contrary to the rules of morality and propriety. He would criticise\nsome things in college studies, etc. I remember his maintaining very\ndecidedly that the study of mathematics was not a good discipline for\nthe mind, but he never set himself against college rules of order. He\nwas a strong temperance man, and was very bold to rebuke his\nfellow-students in anything he thought to be wrong.\u201d\n\nOf his social and humorous qualities Mrs. Stowe says:\n\n\u201cIn fact, Mr. Beecher was generally the centre of a circle of\ntempestuous merriment, ever eddying round him in one droll form or\nanother.\n\n\u201cHe was quick in repartee, an excellent mimic, and his stories would set\nthe gravest in a roar. He had the art, when admonished by graver people,\nof somehow entrapping them into more uproarious laughing than he himself\npractised, and then looking innocently surprised.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher on one occasion was informed that the head tutor of the\nclass was about to make him a grave exhortatory visit. The tutor was\nalmost seven feet high, and as solemn as an Alpine forest. But Mr.\nBeecher knew that, like most solemn Yankees, he was at heart a\ndeplorable wag, a mere whited sepulchre of conscientious gravity, with\nmeasureless depths of unrenewed chuckle hid away in the depths of his\nheart. When apprised of his approach he suddenly whisked away into his\ncloset the chairs of his room, leaving only a low one which had been\nsawed off at the second joint, so that it stood about a foot from the\nfloor. Then he crawled through the hole in that study-table which he had\nmade after a peculiar plan of his own, and, seated meekly among his\nbooks, awaited the visit.\n\n\u201cA grave rap is heard. \u2018Come in.\u2019 Far up in the air the solemn dark face\nappears. Mr. Beecher rose ingenuously and offered to come out. \u2018No,\nnever mind,\u2019 says the visitor; \u2018I just came to have a little\nconversation with you. Don\u2019t move.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh!\u2019 says Beecher innocently, \u2018pray sit down, sir,\u2019 indicating the\nonly chair.\n\n\u201cThe tutor looked apprehensively, but began the process of sitting down.\nHe went down, down, down, but still no solid ground being gained,\nstraightened himself up and looked uneasy.\n\n\u201c\u2018I don\u2019t know but that chair is too low for you; do let me get you\nanother,\u2019 said Beecher meekly.\n\n\u201c\u2018Oh! no, my young friend, don\u2019t rise, don\u2019t trouble yourself; it is\nperfectly agreeable to me; in fact, I like a low seat.\u2019 And with these\nwords the tall man doubled up like a jack-knife, and was seen sitting\nwith his grave face between his knees, like a grasshopper drawn up for a\nspring. He heaved a deep sigh and his eyes met the eyes of Mr. Beecher;\nthe hidden spark of native depravity within him was exploded by one\nglance at those merry eyes, and he burst into a loud roar of merriment,\nwhich the two continued for some time, greatly to the amusement of the\nboys who were watching to hear how Beecher would come out with his\nlecture. The chair was known thereafter as the \u2018Tutor\u2019s Delight.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe carried his usual sports with him into college life. \u201cOn Saturday\nafternoons,\u201d says Lewis Tappan, \u201cwe often revisited the woods in the\nrear of our former home, on which occasion your father would climb the\ntallest trees and place a pillow-case over the holes where the flying\nsquirrels were. I on the ground rapped the trees, startling the inmates,\nwho were caught in their efforts to escape.\n\n\u201cBotanical and geological specimens were collected on the way, and in\nhis room your father had a good collection of the latter.\u201d\n\nHe joined a club of eight who boarded a mile from college, that the\ngoing and returning for their meals might give them six miles of\nexercise a day. This was done in part to save expense, the board being\ncheaper at that distance from the village. He also walked from college\nto Boston, more than a hundred miles, on his vacations, for the same\nreason. Yet, with all his care in economy, and although his board cost\nhim but $1.50 a week, it was thought at one time impossible to keep him\nin college on account of the expense, as this letter, written by a\nfriend of the family during his Freshman year, will explain:\n\n\u201cWhile Henry and Charles were in college your father and mother felt\nvery much straitened for money. One evening particularly they were\ntalking about it, and did not know what they should do to keep the boys\nalong. At last your father said: \u2018Well, the Lord always has taken care\nof me, and I am sure he always will.\u2019 The mother lay awake, she told me\nafterwards, and cried. She cried because she did not see how they should\nget along; but what most troubled her was that her husband had so much\nfaith and she had not any.\n\n\u201cThe next morning was Sabbath morning. Some one rang at the door, and a\nletter was handed in containing a $100 bill and no name. They came up to\ntell me, as they always did, but they did not know, nor I then, who gave\nit. I found out afterwards it was Mr. Homes\u2014a thank-offering at the\nconversion of one of his children.\u201c\n\nThe following letter, written near the close of his Freshman year, shows\nthe bent of his mind at this period:\n\n\u201dMY DEAR SISTER:\n\n\u201cI write principally to tell you that I have sent the \u2018Book of Nature,\u2019\nand that it is probably at the stage-house.\n\n\u201cBut I want to consult you on a _plan_ that I have formed\u2014for I possess\nreal Beecher blood in the matter of _planning_. It is this: In my six\nweeks\u2019 vacation, and in the four weeks\u2019 one, I mean to attach myself as\nsome kind of agent to the Bible, or Tract, or Education, or some other\nsociety, wherever I can, and travel round to the small towns at a\ndistance, and collect funds or distribute Bibles and tracts, or\nsomething like that, or do something or other\u2014of course I can\u2019t tell\nwhat they may want me to do.\n\n\u201cI shall in a month or two be eighteen years old, and I think that that\nis old enough to begin to do something. I can get letters of the\npresident and professors here and of gentlemen of Boston to establish my\nmission, so that folks will not think that I am collecting for my own\npurposes under the name of some society. Will you write to me about it?\nTell C. that I have engaged one to hear me recite botany. I am going to\nestablish a daily prayer-meeting here, and pray for a revival. Pray for\nus, too. Mount Pleasant is in a very bad state. Lotteries are here\nwithout number\u2014five dollars is the highest prize\u2014and books and\neverything else, morals and all, are going, I believe, and the masters\n(blind fellows) know nothing of it, although one of the monitors handed\nin to Mr. Fellowes a _lottery scheme_ instead of his report in the\ndivision.\n\n\u201cGive my love to Mary and husband, Catherine, Cos. Elizabeth, and all\nwho care for me, taking a goodly portion to yourself.\n\n                                        \u201cYour Brother,\n                                                          \u201cH. C. B.\u201d\n\nLest we get a stronger impression of his sanctity at this time than the\nfacts would warrant, we add this incident, related by himself, of one of\nhis vacation experiences in Boston that has in it a very decided flavor\nof humorous and unsanctified humanity: \u201cLooking for a friend, I rapped\nat the door where I thought he lived. The door stuck, but at last flew\nopen after a good deal of tugging from the other side, and a very\nred-faced woman appeared and asked in a very cross tone what I wanted.\n\u2018Does Mr. \u2014\u2014\u2014 live here?\u2019 I asked very meekly. \u2018No, he don\u2019t!\u2019 snapped\nthe woman, and slammed the door in my face. I thought I would teach her\na lesson; so, after I had walked a little ways to give her time to get\nto work, I went back and rapped again as if I wanted to tear the knocker\noff. And when the same woman opened the door I shouted at the top of my\nvoice, \u2018_Who said he did?_\u2019 and then turned and walked away. When I\nreached the corner the woman was still gazing after me in amazed\nsilence.\u201d\n\nIt was at Amherst that young Beecher began his anti-slavery career, as\nhe tells us in his sermon upon the death of Wendell Phillips:\n\n\u201cFifty years ago, during my college life, I was chosen by the Athenian\nSociety to debate the question of African colonization, which then was\nnew, fresh, and enthusiastic.... Fortunately I was assigned to the\nnegative side of the question, and in preparing to speak I prepared my\nwhole life. I contended against colonization as a condition of\nemancipation\u2014enforced colonization was but little better than enforced\nslavery\u2014and advocated immediate emancipation on the broad ground of\nhuman rights. I knew but very little then, but I knew this, that all men\nare designed of God to be free, a fact which ought to be the text of\nevery man\u2019s life\u2014this sacredness of humanity as given of God, redeemed\nfrom animalism by Jesus Christ, crowned and clothed with rights that no\nlaw nor oppression should dare touch.\u201d\n\nOf his religious life at this period we give the story in his own words:\n\n\u201cWhen I went to college there was a revival there, in which I was\nprodigiously waked up. I was then about seventeen years old, and I had\nbegun to pass from boyhood to manhood, but I was yet in an unsettled\nstate of mind. I had no firm religious ground to stand upon. I was\nbeginning to slough hereditary influences without being able to take on\nmore salutary influences, and I went through another phase of suffering\nwhich was far worse than any that I had previously experienced. It\nseemed as though all the darknesses of my childhood were mere puffs to\nthe blackness which I was now passing through. My feeling was such that\nif dragging myself on my belly through the street had promised any\nchance of resulting in good I would have done it. No man was so mean\nthat I was not willing to ask him to pray for me. There was no\nhumiliation that I would not have submitted to ten thousand times over\nif thereby I could have found relief from the doubt, perplexity, and\nfear which tormented me.\n\n\u201cI went to Dr. Humphrey in my darkness of soul and said: \u2018I am without\nhope and am utterly wretched, and I want to be a Christian.\u2019 He sat and\nlooked with great compassion upon me (for he was one of the best men on\nearth; if there is a saint in heaven Dr. Humphrey is one), and said:\n\u2018Ah! it is the Spirit of God, my young man; and when the Spirit of God\nis at work with a soul I dare not interfere.\u2019 And I went away in blacker\ndarkness than I came, if possible.\n\n\u201cI went to an inquiry-meeting which Professor Hitchcock was conducting,\nand when he saw me there he said: \u2018My friends, I am so overwhelmed with\nthe consciousness of God\u2019s presence in this room that I cannot speak a\nword.\u2019 And he stopped talking, and I got up and went out without\nobtaining rescue or help.\n\n\u201cThen I resorted to prayer, and frequently prayed all night\u2014or should\nhave done so if I had not gone to sleep; I tried a great many devices; I\nstrove with terrific earnestness and tremendous strength; and I remember\nthat one night, when I knelt before the fire where I had been studying\nand praying, there came the thought to my mind: \u2018Will God permit the\ndevil to have charge of one of his children that does not want to be\ndeceived?\u2019 and in an instant there rose up in me such a sense of God\u2019s\ntaking care of those who put their trust in him that for an hour all the\nworld was crystalline, the heavens were lucid, and I sprang to my feet\nand began to cry and laugh; and, feeling that I must tell somebody what\nthe Lord had done for me, I went and told Dr. Humphrey and others.\n\n\u201cI endeavored, from that time out, to help those who were in trouble of\nmind like that in which I had been whelmed; and yet I was in a sort of\nhalf-despair.\u201d\n\nIt was in one of these half-despairing moods, doubtless, that he sought\ncounsel from Moody Harrington, of whose piety and wisdom in directing\ninquirers he has often spoken. Harrington\u2019s room-mate writes:\n\n\u201cIt was in the midst of this great religious movement that one day Henry\nWard Beecher came to our room\u2014how distinctly I remember it!\u2014and, with a\ncountenance betokening a mighty pressure upon his spirit, said\nsubstantially: \u2018Harrington, I am in great distress, in spiritual\ndarkness; I don\u2019t think I have any religion. I\u2019ve come to talk with\nyou.\u2019 My room-mate took him into his bedroom and talked and prayed with\nhim a long time, and when the young man came out from that interview his\nface seemed radiant with hope and peace. Years after Beecher had become\nfamous he would repeatedly speak of Harrington as having been to him a\nspiritual helper beyond that of any other man he had known.\u201d\n\nHis first talk in a religious meeting outside the school or college is\nthus described:\n\n\u201cI think it must have been late in my Freshman career at Amherst College\nor in my Sophomore. My mind was much stirred and distressed at that time\non the subject of religion. In the class above, one Moody Harrington\ntook much interest in me. He was in some respects a remarkable man for\nprofound religious feeling, for fervid imagination, and for remarkable\neloquence in exhortation. He lifted me by his personal sympathy and his\nencouragement out of great despondency and set me on my feet with some\ntremblings of heart. On one occasion he asked me to walk with him one\nevening to Logtown to a little prayer and conference meeting. After\nHarrington had spoken for a while he turned to me all unexpectedly and\nasked me to make some remarks. I was confounded. I rose and said\nsomething\u2014I do not know what, nor did I quite know then, for everything\nwas whirling darkness while I was speaking, but it was the letting out\nof waters. I never ride past the Dwight house without going out of the\ncars to look over the place and to bring back to memory that dismal\nnight, and that dismal speech, and the dismal walk back to college,\nashamed and silent.\u201d\n\nAnother important event took place in his Sophomore year, January 2,\n1832. He became engaged to Eunice White Bullard, daughter of Dr. Artemas\nBullard, of West Sutton, Mass. Of this event, the preceding and\nsucceeding acquaintance, our dear mother has written in a paper entitled\n\u201cLooking Back,\u201d of which she says: \u201cOf course all this is no help to you\nin preparing your father\u2019s life, but I sit and dream of the past and\nwrite just as it rises before me, as fresh as if but yesterday, hoping\nby doing so something may come to me that will be of service to you.\u201d\n\nWe shall give her notes just as she has written them, leaving it for our\nreaders to judge whether or not they are of any service:\n\n                             \u201cLOOKING BACK.\n\n\u201cFifty-seven years ago last May, 1831, my brother Ebenezer, then in his\nFreshman year in Amherst College, wrote: \u2018The term closes this week. I\nshall walk home (fifty miles), and would like to bring two of my\nclassmates with me. We shall start before the sun and hope to be with\nyou by supper-time. Don\u2019t be at any more trouble than if there were\nthree Ebenezers coming home.\u2019\n\n\u201cNo; of course not! Sickness in the village made it impossible to get\nhelp that summer, and mother and I were doing the work alone for a very\nlarge family, so large that a half-dozen more or less made little\ndifference.\n\n\u201cIn good time for supper, weary and travel-soiled, my brother and his\ntwo friends made their appearance: one a tall, very dark-complexioned\ngentleman, the other a very verdant-looking youth, a Freshman of not\nquite eighteen\u2014an age when one is prepared to find a young man awkward\nand painfully embarrassed, and to look with dismay on the prospect of\ntrying to entertain and make him comfortable.\n\n\u201cBut even then the roguish mouth, the laughing, merry eyes, the quaint\nhumor and quick repartee, very soon put all such anxiety to flight. This\nwas _Henry Ward Beecher_ as I first saw him. Truth to tell, an\nexceedingly homely young man. But, in youth or old age, who ever thought\nof that, or, thinking, believed it after being with him an hour? Before\nthat first evening was ended none of the family thought of him as a\nstranger; he was thoroughly at home with all. There were truly \u2018only\nthree Ebenezers there,\u2019 each equally ready for quiet conversation,\nmusic, fun, repartee, or teasing; but the youngest of the three was the\nmost expert in the latter accomplishment.\n\n\u201cAfter our outside work was done mother and I took knitting and sewing\nand sat down with them. I was going to wind a skein of sewing-silk (that\nwas before _spools_ were common), and, as was my custom, put it over the\nback of a chair. More gallant and thoughtful, _apparently_, than his\nolder companions, this young gentleman insisted upon holding it for me\nto wind. For some reason\u2014_perfectly unaccountable_ if one judged only by\nhis quiet, innocent face, without watching the eyes and mouth\u2014that skein\nbecame as intricately tangled as if tied by Macbeth\u2019s witches. \u2018A badly\ntangled skein, is it not?\u2019 said he, when I had lost half my evening in\ngetting it wound. \u2018Rather more troublesome, I imagine, than if I had\nkept it on the chair,\u2019 I replied. \u2018It was a good trial of patience,\nanyhow,\u2019 was his response to the laugh that followed.\n\n\u201cEven my quiet mother was not exempt from some of his mirthful sallies,\nbut he carried, in all his fun, such an inexhaustible store of\ngentleness and good-humor that I think she really enjoyed it. Often in\nafter-years she used to say that Henry always made her feel young again.\n\n\u201cMy father had been called out some distance to see a patient and had\nnot yet met the \u2018three Ebenezers,\u2019 but came in just as we were all\nlaughing heartily at some story Henry had told. He stood in the doorway,\ntall, dignified, and somewhat stern. When at last we became conscious of\nhis presence brother at once came forward and introduced his classmates.\nFather received them courteously, but a little of the sternness still\nlingered on his face as he took the chair which, without the least\nappearance of boldness, _somehow_ young Mr. Beecher was the first to\nbring him, yet in no way seeming to put himself forward. Little by\nlittle the same subtle influence that had pervaded the whole evening\u2019s\nenjoyment began to steal over father. The little cloud seen at first\nvanished, and long before it was time to retire my father was telling\nstories and Henry following with another as freely as if they had been\nboys together.\n\n\u201cThe others joined, but it was to _young Beecher_ that father was most\ndrawn. When the \u2018good-nights\u2019 were said, and while I went to the dairy\nto make some preparations for breakfast, father and mother took counsel\ntogether about the work for the morrow and various matters; but just as\nI returned father was saying: \u2018He\u2019s smart. If he lives he\u2019ll make his\nmark in the world.\u2019 \u2018Who, father?\u2019 I asked. \u2018Why, young Beecher.\u2019 (But\nfather didn\u2019t quite like the \u2018mark\u2019 he made a few months later\u2014\u2018Nothing\nbut a boy!\u2019)\n\n\u201cThe visit was prolonged some days, and there was no end to the fun and\nfrolic. Your father was constantly investigating, and by no means lacked\nassistance from my brother and his other more demure classmate, who,\nhowever, stayed only part of the time.\n\n\u201cMother and I were necessarily much of the time busy in the kitchen,\nmilk-cellar, dairy, etc., but these young collegians found those places\nmost attractive. The gentle way mother smiled at all the younger one\u2019s\nmischievous pranks was a source of perpetual delight to him. He always\nsaid he fell in love with my mother, and, not being able to get her,\ntook up with me.\n\n\u201cOne day, in taking out the bread, pies, etc., from the old-fashioned\nbrick oven with the long-handled shovel, she dropped some ashes on one\nof the pies, and called me from the dairy to get it off while she\nremoved other articles. Your father sprang forward. \u2018No, no; I will get\nit off for you,\u2019 and, respectfully taking it from her hands, the three,\nwithout her seeing the mischief, marched off with it into the garden,\nand, seating themselves under a big apple-tree, ate it all up. This\nlabor of love accomplished, the others rather held back from proclaiming\nit, but your father demurely walked in and handed mother the empty\nplate, saying: \u2018There! see, we have cleaned the plate nicely!\u2019\n\n\u201cOne evening your uncle told him one of their classmates was engaged to\nMiss \u2014\u2014\u2014. \u2018I don\u2019t believe it,\u2019 said young Beecher. \u2018She knows nothing\nabout singing, and I am sure F\u2014\u2014\u2014 would never marry one who did not. I\nknow I never would marry a woman who could not sing.\u2019 Short-sighted\nmortal! In the evening brother asked him to get his flute and have some\nmusic. He did so, and after a short time asked me to sing. I replied: \u2018I\ncan\u2019t; I never sang a note in my life.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn the summer and fall after first meeting your father I taught school\nin Clappville, South Leicester, Mass., and at the commencement of his\nfall vacation at Amherst Henry found it necessary to go from Amherst to\nBoston (thinking it _shorter, perhaps_!) _via_ Clappville, and entered\nmy school-room just as I was dismissing the school for the day. He spent\nthe evening at Brother Jones\u2019s, where I was boarding, and, incidentally\nof course, remarked that he understood I was intending to visit my aunt\nin Whitingsville during the winter. I replied that after my school\nclosed I was thinking of having a play-spell before taking another, and\nmight be there at least through December.\n\n\u201cAfter my school closed, while spending some time at home before my\nvisit to my aunt, he called at father\u2019s, and incidentally (again)\nremarked that he had been requested to teach the town school in\nNorthbridge, and was to board at a Mr. Fletcher\u2019s (Whitingsville was\nonly a part of Northbridge, and he knew it all the time).\n\n\u201c\u2018Why,\u2019 said my father, \u2018that\u2019s where Eunice will be. Now, child, you\nhave been teasing to go to some academy this winter and go on with your\nLatin, but,\u2019 turning to the demure, quiet-looking young man, who had not\nseemed to pay any attention to what was going on\u2014\u2018but she has overworked\nthe past few months, and I won\u2019t let her go to school. Perhaps, as you\nare to board at her aunt\u2019s and she will be there a short time, you might\ngive her some help if she is in trouble with her Latin!\u2019 Strange as it\nmay seem, he didn\u2019t appear to feel it an intrusion, but professed\nhimself as very ready to render me any service. Even my clear-sighted\nmother saw nothing out of the way in father\u2019s suggestion. \u2018He was such a\nboy!\u2019 as she said afterward. Neither did I, as I might have done had he\nbeen older; only, even though he was now a Sophomore, I didn\u2019t believe\nhe could help me much\u2014_I_ who had been a school-ma\u2019am for three terms!\nAnd how young and boyish he did look! But (an after-thought) he might,\nafter all, know much more than his _looks_ led us to give him credit\nfor.\n\n\u201cHe came to uncle\u2019s a week after I did, one Saturday, so as to be ready\nto begin school Monday. That evening (January 2, 1832) the young\nteacher, my cousin, a young lad who was to be under his care, and myself\nwere all in the parlor writing. Uncle and aunt were out calling. He\ninterrupted my writing by asking how far I had progressed in Latin. Was\nI perfect in the Latin grammar? Could I conjugate all the verbs? etc. I\nthought it a queer way to begin teaching, but I said, \u2018Oh! yes; I think\nso.\u2019 \u2018Suppose you try some of them, and let me see how well you\nunderstand them.\u2019 I laughed to myself, for I was sure I knew them\nperfectly, and rather thought I knew them as well as my teacher; but I\nrespectfully conjugated the verbs as he gave them out, and at last, \u2018Go\nthrough the verb \u201camo.\u201d\u2019 I did so, soberly, honestly, without a thought\nof any mischievous intentions. I went through it creditably, and was\ntold that the lesson was perfect.\n\n\u201cI then turned to my writing, and soon after he slipped a bit of paper\non to my writing-desk: \u2018Will you go with me as missionary to the West?\u2019\nA few minutes after my cousin finished his studies for the evening and\nwent to bed. Then some few short questions ensued and a few shorter\nanswers not necessary to repeat. But, as the embarrassment consequent\nupon such abrupt and unexpected questions had somewhat diminished, he\nurged a more decided, definite answer from me personally. Simply\nreferring him to my parents did not satisfy him, so I quietly remarked:\n\u2018Why! I can\u2019t sing, and only a short time since you said you would never\nmarry a woman who could not sing!\u2019 \u2018Oh! that was six months ago, and I\nhave changed my mind.\u2019 \u2018And in six months from now you may change it\nagain.\u2019 \u2018No! I did change it the very minute you said that night that\nyou never sang. There is no fear of my changing again.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe next day, Sabbath, uncle\u2019s horse shied going to church, and tipped\nus all out of the sleigh; and Henry was so anxious to know if I were\nhurt, paying no attention to others, that he awakened uncle\u2019s\nsuspicions.\n\n\u201cThat week at the week-day evening meeting (Preparatory Lecture) Henry\nwas called to speak, and did wonderfully well, to the great surprise of\nall who heard that \u2018young lad.\u2019 After that, while he stayed at\nWhitingsville, he spoke at almost all the evening meetings, and always\nwith increasing surprise and acceptance. I do not remember your father\u2019s\nalluding to those meetings but once, and that, I think, was to an\nEnglish friend who called when we lived on \u2018The Heights.\u2019 He said,\nsmiling: \u2018Whitingsville was my first pastorate. While teaching there one\nwinter I spoke there several times and in some other places near by.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe next Saturday after giving me that momentous question on that\nlittle slip of paper, Henry rode to West Sutton and spoke to father and\nmother, to their infinite surprise. Mother was grieved, but father was\nvery angry. \u2018Why, you are a couple of babies! You don\u2019t know your own\nminds yet, and won\u2019t for some years to come,\u2019 he repeated over and over\nagain. (_Fifty-seven_ years have given ample proof that we did.) But\nfather was grieved, mortified, angry that he should have been so blind.\nBut who could resist your father when he pleaded in earnest? Mother\noften spoke of it long after we were married. She said it was wonderful\nhow he swayed that strong, proud man, my father, who winced at being\noutgeneralled by a boy. His extremely youthful appearance perfectly\nblinded them both. But mother was soon only a listener, charmed by the\nmodest, manly, earnest manner, illumined occasionally by flashes of\nhumor, with which he opened his heart to father and finally overcame\nhim. From the first Henry\u2019s youth and the long engagement was father\u2019s\nonly objection, and the fear that, as he grew older, he would repent of\nsuch imprudence.\n\n\u201cFrom the first hour father saw him he was drawn to him, and when he\nleft after this conversation, and returned to Whitingsville, father\nsaid: \u2018Boy as he seems, he will be true to Eunice; I have no fear on\nthat score.\u2019 Just before your father came to teach _several branches_ he\nwent a few miles out from Amherst and gave a lecture, I think on\ntemperance (am not quite sure), for which he received five dollars. With\nit, among other things, he bought me Baxter\u2019s \u2018Saint\u2019s Rest\u2019\u2014not a usual\nlove-token\u2014and some paper that was for me if his suit prospered. On the\nfly-leaf of the little book, in pencil, were the following lines:\n\n                     \u2018Take it; \u2019tis a gift of love\n                       That seeks thy good alone;\n                     Keep it for the giver\u2019s sake,\n                       And read it for thine own.\u2019\n\n\u201cBefore his next vacation he walked to Brattleboro\u2019, Vermont, gave a\nlecture, received ten dollars, and then bought our engagement-ring, a\nplain gold ring, which was also my wedding-ring. With the remainder he\nbought books.\n\n\u201cThe three years in college soon passed. We only met once in three\nmonths\u2014vacations\u2014and there was nothing unusual to record. The \u2018young\nboy,\u2019 \u2018too young to know what he was about,\u2019 as we were so often told,\nwent on toward manhood, unshaken by opposition, laughing at all\nprophecies of inconstancy or change, and then we bade farewell for four\nyears while Henry went to Lane Seminary, Walnut Hills, Ohio, for his\ntheological course.\u201d\n\nSomewhere Father Beecher has described a \u201cSaxon courtship\u201d as \u201ca grave\nand serious thing. It is a matter of consideration. I have known a\nproposal of love to be stated like a proposition, and calmly argued for\nand against with far less warmth than Luther would have felt in debating\na thesis. Indeed, many courtships are like attempts at kindling fires\nwith green wood\u2014a few starveling coals are heaped together, a mere spark\ndances in and out upon the inhospitable charcoal, and disappears on one\nside as fast as it appears on the other. But by all manner of shavings\nand bits of paper\u2014mere trinkets, as it were, and billet-doux\u2014a slight\nflame is got up, which strives, with doubtful prospect, to convert the\nsmoke into blaze. The bellows are called in, the fire is fairly driven\nup to its work, the green sticks begin to sizzle at either end; and\nthough at last, when the heat triumphs, the fire is large and lasting,\nthe poor fellow that kindled it had to work for it.\u201d\n\nNow, we never could bring ourselves to asking direct questions, and we\ndo not suppose that we should ever have been any wiser if we had; but,\nfrom the references sometimes made to riding through covered bridges,\nfrom the comical look that would come to his face and the blushes that\nwould be sure to come to her cheeks when the raillery around the table\nbecame hot and personal, we were led to believe that this was not their\nkind.\n\nOn two leaves of his diary, written probably while at his home in Boston\nin the vacation that followed his Freshman year, and during the summer\nin which he had made the acquaintance of Miss Bullard, we find the\nfollowing:\n\n\u201c_Sept. 3, 1831, Sab. morn._\u2014I found the correspondence of my father and\nown mother this morning, and eagerly sought out _her_ letters and read\nthem. O my mother! I could not help kissing the letters. I looked at the\npaper and thought that her hand had rested upon it while writing it. The\nhand of my mother! She had formed every letter which I saw. _She_ had\n_looked_ upon that paper which I now looked upon. She had folded it. She\nhad sent it. But I found out more of her _mind_ than I ever knew before;\nmore of her _feelings_, her _piety_. I should think from her writings\nthat she was very _amiable_, _lovely_, and _confiding_ in her\ndisposition, yet had much dignity. She appeared to have a mind very\nclear, strong, yet not _perceptible_ till brought out by her feelings.\nHer letter to father in which she treats of \u2018love to _God_, whether we\nshould love him because he has done us good or not,\u2019 etc., I was much\npleased with. And I could not help observing that her letters were\nsuperior, more refined and conclusive, than the corresponding ones of\nfather\u2019s. They corresponded upon _subjects_, it seems, as pride, dress,\nslander, etc., etc. Her piety was doubted by herself, although no one\nwho reads her description of her feelings can doubt for a moment that\nChrist was found within her heart.\n\n\u201cThe letter to father in reply, apparently, to one in which he had\nexpressed his feelings toward her and urged for her permission to hope\nfor a future union, pleased me much. There was much playfulness about\nit. I thought that I could see that she loved him while she was writing\nit, yet she tried not exactly to show it. I should think that at the\nconclusion she told her feelings frankly, from one line which I saw, but\nthe rest was torn off. I suspect that father did it that no one might\never see it.\u201d\n\nIn common with many other students of limited means, he taught a term of\neight weeks during three of the four years of his college course, using\nthe winter vacation, which was at first six weeks long, and borrowing\ntwo weeks from the winter term in college.\n\nOf his experience in Hopkinton and some other matters, especially the\nfear of his friends concerning his engagement, the following letter to\nhis brother William gives some interesting details:\n\n                                       \u201cHOPKINTON, Friday eve, 1832.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR BROTHER:\n\n\u201c... I know not as you would have had a reply at all if it were not for\nsomething said on the first page. Now, I supposed that my good friends\nwould find out all at once that my engagement had undermined all my\nhabits of study and was ruining me, nor did it surprise me to have you\nwrite it. It is all false, as false as it can be. No term since I have\nbeen in college have I studied so much as the last term; no year\naccomplished so much as the last. I am not anxious, however, to\nvindicate myself; I am ready to have you all think so, if needful, for I\nexpected it from the first.\n\n\u201cSoon after I began the school some of the boys began to be\nfractious\u2014all of them larger and stronger than myself. Their parents set\nthem on, and they determined to carry me out of the room. A large fellow\ndisobeyed me before the whole school, and persisted in it. They hoped I\nwould thrash him, and then they would rise. But I turned him out of the\nschool forthwith. He came the next day. I had previously told the\ncommittee and asked them to take the business out of my hands. They\napproved, but said that they wished I would do it. The next day I saw\nthat they had got another great fellow in to help them. I called two of\nthe committee in, and then ordered this disobedient boy out. He refused,\nand I took a rule and beat him, and finally broke it over his head. He\nstruck at me a number of times and I parried them. The large ones then\nrose. I seized a club of wood and struck the boy three times\u2014tore the\nskin each blow. The committee had to take the other fellows to keep them\noff. I then dismissed the school; told the committee that I should not\nkeep the school where I could have them stand by and see such a scene\nwithout doing something; that if they would see those fellows removed I\nwould go on, if not I would not. They said that they would do it if they\nthought they had power. I settled it all very soon by saying that _I\nwould not keep the school_, and set my face as though I would return to\nAmherst. But the next day, Saturday, it rained. The committee liked my\nschool, and gave me a good dismission in writing. The scholars were\npleased for the most part, and through them their parents. They wished\nme much to open a private school. I waited till I found they were in\nearnest, and then opened one, and now am comfortably teaching about\nthirty scholars. Besides this my time is loaded. Sunday noon,\nSabbath-school; Sunday afternoon, five o\u2019clock, I have a Bible-class of\nladies; Wednesday and Saturday evenings, meetings in the centre of town;\ntwo other evenings in the districts, and, after this, Sunday evening in\nthe vestry.... May God bless and prosper you.\n\n                                 \u201cYour affectionate brother,\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\nOf his preaching at this time he says:\n\n\u201cMy earliest remembered sermons were delivered at Northbridge, Mass.,\nwhere I taught school for three months in 1831. I conducted conference\nmeetings almost every night, and a temperance address at Upton, Mass.,\nwhere old Father Wood was pastor, and in his church. In the winter of\n1832 I taught school in Hopkinton, Mass., and carried on revival\nmeetings every night and preached on Sundays. The people were plain and\nsimple and liked the effusions. During the winter of 1833 I again taught\nschool at Northbridge, and made a formal sermon in a chapel over the new\nstore built by Messrs. Whitings.\u201d\n\nIt was in his Sophomore year that a number of students, Henry Ward among\nthem, invited a college mate who had been reading up on phrenology to\ndeliver a lecture upon that subject. They did it for a joke, but it\nended in Henry Ward\u2019s accepting this philosophy as the foundation of the\nmental science which he used through life.\n\nIt was during his college course that he began lecturing\u2014that mode of\ncommunication with the people that afterwards became so popular, and in\nwhich for so many years he was the acknowledged leader. His first formal\nlecture for which he received pay was delivered in Brattleboro\u2019, Vt. He\nwas paid ten dollars, and walked the whole distance, nearly fifty miles\neach way, that he might have the whole sum to expend as he pleased.\n\nSpeaking of this period, he says:\n\n\u201cThere stands before me a line of battered and worn books\u2014English\nclassics. Their history is little to them, but much to me. In part it is\nmy own history. I wish I could lay my hand on the _first_ book that I\never bought after the dim idea of a library began to hover in my mind!\nBut that book is gone. Here, however, are others whose biography I can\ngive. As early as 1832 I began to buy books\u2014a few volumes, but each one\na monument of engineering. My first books, if I remember correctly, were\nbought of J. S. & C. Adams, in Amherst, Mass. I used to go in there and\nlook wistfully at their shelves. My allowance of money was very\nsmall\u2014scarcely more than enough to pay my postage, when a letter cost\ntwelve and a half or twenty-five cents. To take a two or three-dollar\nbook from my five dollars of spending-money would have left me in a\nstate of sad impecuniosity. Therefore, for many, many months I took it\nout in looking.\n\n\u201cAs early as at _sixteen_ years of age I had begun to speak a little in\npublic\u2014faint peepings, just such as I hear in young birds before they\nare fully fledged. For such service the only payment was a kind patience\ntill I relieved them by finishing my crude efforts. But at that time\u2014say\n1832\u2014I was sent by the college society as delegate to a temperance\nconvention in Pelham, or Enfield, or somewhere else. I conceived a\ndesire thereafter to give a temperance lecture. I have forgotten how I\never got a chance to do it. But I remember that there came an invitation\nfrom Brattleboro\u2019, Vt., to lecture on the 4th of July. My expenses were\nto be paid! A modest pride warmed my heart at the thought of making a\n_real_ speech in public. I smothered all the fears and diffidences with\nthe resolute purpose that I _would_ succeed! I remember the days of\nwriting and anxious preparation, and the grand sense of being a man when\nI had finished my manuscript! But the most generous purposes are apt to\nbe ruined with selfishness; and my public spirit, alas! had a financial\nstreak of joy in it\u2014my expenses were to be paid!\n\n\u201cWell, suppose I chose to walk and save all the expenses? I should have\nat least eight dollars of my own, of which I need give no account! That\nwould be an era indeed. But grave scruples arose. Was it honest to take\nmoney for expenses which I had not really incurred? If I went by stage I\nmight lawfully charge my fare and food; but if neither of them cost me\nanything, how could I honestly make a bill of expenses? I did not get\nany relief in reflecting upon it. I started off on foot, went up the\nConnecticut River valley, and reached Brattleboro\u2019 by way of Greenfield.\n\n\u201cEvery hour this question of honesty returned. My feet blistered with\nwalking, but I stamped on them hard in the morning, and the momentary\nexquisite pain seemed to paralyze the sensibility afterwards. Whether it\nwas the counter irritation that relieved my brain, or whether\u2014as I fear\nthat I did\u2014I smothered conscience by saying to myself that I would\nsettle the matter when the time came, I do not know. But I was relieved\nfrom even that struggle, inasmuch as not a word was said to me about\nexpenses, or money in any form. Yet I had a charming visit. The rising\nof the moon from behind the mountain that hedges in the town on the east\npowerfully excited my imagination, and led to the writing of the first\npiece, I believe, that I ever printed. It was published in the _Guest_,\na college paper, issued chiefly as a rival to another college paper\nwhose name (alas!) has escaped me. And if anybody could send me a volume\nof that _Guest_ I should be exceedingly beholden to him!\n\n\u201cBut after reaching college again\u2014no longer a mere student, but a public\nman, one who had made speeches, one who determined to be modest and not\nto allow success to puff him up\u2014a very great and wonderful thing\nhappened: the post brought me a letter from Brattleboro\u2019 containing _ten\ndollars_. I could not believe my eyes. I forgot my scruples. Providence\nhad put it to me in such a way that I got my conscience over on the\nother side, and felt that it would be a sin and shame for me to be\nraising questions and scruples on such a matter! But O that bill! How it\nwarmed me and invigorated me! I looked at it before going to sleep; I\nexamined my pocket the next morning early, to be sure that I had not\ndreamed it. How I pitied the _poor_ students, who had not, I well knew,\nten dollars in _their_ pockets. Still, I tried to keep down pride in its\noffensive forms. I would not be lifted up. I would strive to be even\nmore familiar than before with the plainest of my acquaintances. \u2018What\nis money?\u2019 said I to myself. \u2018It is not property that makes the man; it\nis\u2014\u2019 Well, perhaps I thought it was the ability to deliver eloquent\ntemperance addresses. But great is the deceitfulness of money. I felt\nthe pride of riches. I knew every waking moment that I had money. I was\ngetting purse-proud.\n\n\u201cI resolved to invest. There was but one thing to invest in\u2014books. I\nwent to Adams\u2019s store; I saw an edition of Burke\u2019s works. With the ease\nand air of a rich man I bought and paid for them. Adams looked at me,\nand then at the bill, and then at me. I never could make up my mind\nwhether it was admiration or suspicion that his face expressed. But I\nwanted him, and panted to have him ask me, \u2018Where did you get all of\nthis ten-dollar bill?\u2019\n\n\u201cHowever, I concluded that the expression was one of genuine admiration.\nWith my books under my arm (I never to this day could get over the\ndisposition to carry home my own packages) I returned to college, and\nplaced on my table my volumes of Burke! I tried to hide from myself that\nI had a vain purpose in it, that I was waiting to see Bannister\u2019s\nsurprises and to hear Howard\u2019s exclamation, and to have it whispered in\nthe class-room: \u2018I say! have you heard that Beecher has got a _splendid_\ncopy of Burke?\u2019\n\n\u201cAfter this I was a man that owned a library! I became conservative and\nfrugal. Before, I had spent at least a dollar and a half a year for\nknickknacks; but after I had founded a library I reformed all such\nwastes, and every penny I could raise or save I compelled to transform\nitself into books!\n\n\u201cAs I look back on the influence of this struggle for books I cannot\ndeny that it has been salutary. I do not believe that I spent ten\ndollars in all my college course for horses or amusements of any kind.\nBut at my graduation I owned about fifty volumes. The getting of these\nvolumes was not the least important element of my college education.\nThere are two kinds of property which tend to _moralize_ life. What they\nare I will tell you some other time, if you will coax me.\u201d\n\nHis reading, as we have said, was very largely of the old English\nwriters, whom he studied until the flavor of their language had been so\nthoroughly appropriated that it is very plainly discernible in all his\nearly public writings. An old poet, Daniel, who belonged to the times of\nSpenser and Shakspere, was a great favorite of his. In a sermon preached\nin 1862 he quotes the poem that especially pleased him. We quote it\nentire with his introduction, and venture to say that the mind that\nmakes choice of such a poem is sound and healthy at the core:\n\n\u201cI remembered a poem that I had read in my youth, and that I used to\nhang over with great interest. It had a strange fascination for me then.\nThe writer was born in 1562, and he wrote it somewhere between that time\nand 1600. It has had a good long swing, and it will go rolling down a\ngreat many years yet:\n\n          \u201c\u2018He that of such a height hath built his mind,\n          And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong,\n          As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame\n          Of his resolv\u00e8d powers, nor all the wind\n          Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong\n          His settled peace or to disturb the same\u2014\n          What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may\n          The boundless wastes and wilds of man survey?\n\n          \u201c\u2018And with how free an eye doth he look down\n          Upon these lower regions of turmoil!\n          Where all the storms of passions mainly beat\n          On flesh and blood; where honor, power, renown\n          Are only gay afflictions, golden toil;\n          Where greatness stands upon as feeble feet\n          As frailty doth, and only great doth seem\n          To little minds, who do it so esteem.\n\n          \u201c\u2018He looks upon the mightiest monarch\u2019s wars\n          But only as on stately robberies;\n          Where evermore the fortune that prevails\n          Must be the right; the ill-succeeding mars\n          The fairest and the best-fac\u2019d enterprise.\n          Great pirate Pompey lesser pirates quails:\n          Justice, he sees (as if seduced), still\n          Conspires with power, whose cause must not be ill.\n\n          \u201c\u2018He sees the face of right as manifold\n          As are the passions of uncertain man,\n          Who puts it in all colors, all attires,\n          To serve his ends and make his courses hold.\n          He sees that, let deceit work what it can,\n          Plot and contrive base ways to high desires,\n          That the all-guiding Providence doth yet\n          All disappoint, and mocks the smoke of wit.\n\n          \u201c\u2018Nor is he moved with all the thunder-cracks\n          Of tyrants\u2019 threats, or with the surly brow\n          Of Pow\u2019r, that proudly sits on others\u2019 crimes,\n          Charg\u2019d with more crying sins than those he checks.\n          The storms of sad confusion that may grow\n          Up in the present for the coming times,\n          Appall not him, that hath no side at all\n          But of himself, and knows the worst can fall.\n\n          \u201c\u2018Although his heart (so near allied to earth)\n          Cannot but pity the perplex\u00e8d state\n          Of troublous and distressed mortality,\n          That thus make way unto the ugly birth\n          Of their own sorrows, and do still beget\n          Affliction upon imbecility:\n          Yet, seeing thus the course of things must run,\n          He looks thereon not strange, but as foredone.\n\n          \u201c\u2018And whilst distraught ambition compasses,\n          And is encompassed; whilst as craft deceives,\n          And is deceived: whilst man doth ransack man,\n          And builds on blood, and rises by distress,\n          And th\u2019 inheritance of desolation leaves\n          To great-expecting hopes: he looks thereon\n          As from the shore of peace, with unwet eye,\n          And bears no venture in impiety.\u2019\u201d\n\nSuch is the record of Henry Ward Beecher in college. It is one of which\nnone need be ashamed. It may be pondered with advantage and followed\nwith profit by every one standing himself upon the threshold of that\neventful period in his own life. It is the record of a man who was loyal\nto duty, to truth and purity. Independent in his line of thought and\nstudy, yet obedient to the government of the college, industrious and\naspiring, his course was essentially a period of education, a drawing\nout of his powers, a training-school of his whole nature, a fitting\npreparation for that high place which he came ultimately to fill in the\nconfidence and affection of the nation and the world.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER VIII.\n\nLane Seminary\u2014Dr. Beecher Called\u2014Home at Walnut Hills\u2014Amusing\n    Incidents\u2014Family Meeting\u2014Death of Mrs. Beecher\u2014Extracts from\n    Journal\u2014First Mention of Preaching in the West\u2014Experience in\n    Ecclesiastical Matters\u2014Despondency\u2014Meeting of Synod\u2014Influences of\n    the Times\u2014Revulsion\u2014A Rift along the Horizon\u2014\u201cFull iolly Knight.\u201d\n\n\nAt the close of his college course, after a two-days\u2019 visit to Sutton\nwith Miss Bullard, he started for Cincinnati to begin his theological\nstudies at Lane Seminary, of which institution his father had been\nelected president and professor of theology, and whither he had moved\nwith his family two years before. The Seminary, located at Walnut Hills,\ntwo miles out of the city, had been established for the sake of\nsupplying preachers and pastors for the great and growing West. It was\nthought that the territory traversed by the Ohio and the Mississippi was\n\u201cthe valley of decision\u201d for the great interests of our country and of\nthe world. To meet the emergency and take possession of this broad\ndomain for Christ, its rightful Lord, was felt to be the most important\nwork that could occupy the attention of the Christian public. It had\nbeen decided that a theological seminary established at Cincinnati, in\nthe very centre of this district, afforded the most effective means for\nattaining the great object in view; that the best man in the whole\ncountry should be secured to stand at its head; and that that man, all\nthings considered, was Dr. Beecher. He would bring energy, enthusiasm,\nand practical wisdom; would secure confidence in the work among Eastern\ncapitalists, and conduct the enterprise to assured success.\n\nOut of this conviction sprang the Seminary and the call to Dr. Beecher\nto be its head. He was in perfect and enthusiastic sympathy with the\nobject in view. He says of the project: \u201cThere was not on earth a place\n_but that_ I would have opened my ears to for a moment.... But I had\nfelt and thought and labored a great deal about raising up ministers,\nand the idea that I might be called to teach the best mode of preaching\nto the young ministry of the broad West flashed through my mind like\nlightning. It was the greatest thought that ever entered my soul; it\nfilled it, and displaced everything else.\u201d\n\nComing to this definite work under the inspiration of this great\nthought, from a church which had been for years in the midst of a\ncontinuous revival, he had naturally given the Seminary a markedly\npractical tone of spiritual earnestness. A strong man himself, he\nattracted men of like stamp; and there had come, soon after he took\ncharge of the institution, \u201ca noble class of young men, uncommonly\nstrong, a little uncivilized, entirely radical, and terribly in\nearnest.\u201d\n\nDr. Beecher\u2019s method of instruction was peculiar and in harmony with his\nspirit and purpose. It was not so much of the formal lecture order as of\nthe free conversational kind, in which questions were invited,\nobjections were answered, thought was quickened, and feeling was\nawakened, with the result that the great truth which was the subject of\nthe lecture was likely to be not only in a large measure comprehended\nbut felt and appropriated by the students.\n\nOne of the professors, Calvin E. Stowe, for whom Henry Ward conceived\none of those ardent friendships which distinguished him through life,\nhelped him in the same direction. \u201cHe led him to an examination of the\nBible and to an analysis of its several portions, not as the parts of a\nmachine, formal and dead, but as of a body of truth instinct with God,\nwarm with all divine and human sympathies, clothed with language adapted\nto their fit expression and to be understood as similar language used\nfor similar ends in every-day life.\u201d And we have now in our hands a roll\nof manuscript in which, in line with this idea, the young student wrote\nout during his theological course a careful analysis of the miracles and\nparables of the New Testament.\n\nWithout doubt this tone of the institution and method of instruction had\nan important and very beneficial influence upon him at this formative\nperiod of his professional life, giving him a genuine enthusiasm for his\nwork, and training him to investigate carefully and analyze clearly the\ntruths brought under examination.\n\nAnd, that there might be lacking no element for his fittest training for\nthe great work that was before him, the question of slavery had arisen\namong the students, creating such a disturbance that forty, under the\nleadership of Theodore Weld, had withdrawn just before he appeared on\nthe ground.\n\nOf the place, his coming, and some of the incidents in his life his\nbrother, Rev. T. K. Beecher, says:\n\n\u201cBy and by they two, Henry and Charles, came to study theology in Lane\nSeminary, a brick building in the woods of Ohio. The whistle of the\nquail, the scolding squirrels, once the heavy, busky flight of wild\nturkeys\u2014my hero killed one and claimed a second\u2014the soft thump and pat\nof a rabbit, the breezy rush of wild pigeons, were here heard.\n\n\u201cA foot-path led through the woods, over which came three times a day\nthe heroes, shouting, exploding the vowel sounds, and imitating cows,\nfrogs, and crows\u2014a laughing menagerie.\n\n\u201cThe Academy of Music, two miles off down-town\u2014Henry primo-basso,\nCharles violin and tenor; and the little boy, at last an alto, permitted\nto run between the heroes and sing, while eyes feasted on Charles\u2019s\nviolin bow-hand, and ears were filled with Henry\u2019s basso, are well\nremembered.\n\n\u201cThe \u2018Creation\u2019 and \u2018Hallelujah Chorus\u2019 were our winter\u2019s work, and\nHenry was off sometimes lecturing on temperance and phrenology.\nSometimes on a Saturday morning, at family prayer, there were Catharine,\nGeorge, Henry, Harriet, Isabella, Tom and Jim, Aunt Esther, and father\nstill praying \u2018Overturn and overturn,\u2019 and singing by all hands:\n\n                  \u201c\u2018Awake and sing the song\n                    Of Moses and the Lamb;\n                  Wake, every heart and every tongue,\n                    To praise the Saviour\u2019s name.\n                  Sing on your heavenly way,\n                    Ye ransomed sinners, sing!\n                  Sing on rejoicing every day\n                    In Christ the Heavenly King.\u2019\n\nLong, long discussions, lasting till past midnight and resumed at every\nmeal, of \u2018free agency,\u2019 \u2018sovereignty,\u2019 \u2018natural and moral ability,\u2019\ninterpretations, and such.\n\n\u201cCharles could whittle graceful boats with sharp knife out of thick\nsticks.\n\n\u201cHenry had the full set of Walter Scott\u2019s works.\n\n\u201cCharles took lessons on the violin of Tosso, in the city. Henry wrote\nsomething that Editor Charles Hammond printed in the Cincinnati\n_Gazette_. O wonderful Henry! They both wrote long, long letters to two\nfar-away beings, and the little boy sometimes took them to the\npost-office and paid twenty-five cents, wondering what they could find\nto write such long, long letters about.\u201d\n\nHis brother Charles says:\n\n\u201cThe glorious old forest lay between the Seminary and father\u2019s house,\nand we made it ring with vocal practice and musical scales and\nimitations of band-music. The house father occupied was of brick, and\nHenry whitewashed it with a kind of whitewash that was equal to paint,\nof a sort of cream color. I can see him now, on his tall ladder, with\nhis spattered overalls, working away.\n\n\u201cOne of our professors was B\u2014\u2014\u2014, a nice, dapper, rosy little man, in the\nchair of history. We naughty boys made fun of him. Henry took notes. I\nwould give something handsome for that note-book. B\u2014\u2014\u2014 was fond of\nquoting authors with sounding names, Bochart among others, and Henry\nwould have it \u2018Go-cart,\u2019 and made a hieroglyphic to that effect.\n\n\u201cWe walked to and from the city, up and down the long hill, and attended\nfather\u2019s church, Second Presbyterian, on Fourth Street. Henry had a\nBible-class of young ladies, for which he made preparation by writing.\u201d\n\nFor three years young Beecher was again a member of the home-circle,\nfrom which he had been so long separated. This home had apparently lost\nnone of that broad, open-doored hospitality and cheerful spirit that so\nmarkedly characterized it in Litchfield. \u201cThe house was full. There was\na constant high tide of life and animation. The old carry-all was\nperpetually vibrating between home and the city, and the excitement of\ncoming and going rendered anything like stagnation an impossibility.\u201d\n\u201cIt was an exuberant and glorious life while it lasted. The atmosphere\nof the household was replete with mental oxygen, full charged with\nintellectual electricity. Nowhere else have we felt anything resembling\nor equalling it. It was a kind of moral heaven, the purity, vivacity,\ninspiration, and enthusiasm of which only those can appreciate who have\nlost it and feel that in this world there is, there can be, no place\nlike home.\u201d\n\nOf two of its members and some of their make-shifts we have this\naccount, copied from his journal:\n\n_\u201cThe Economical Family._\u2014My father was an excellent man (for no one\nprovided better dinners\u2014soups, codfish, mutton-chops; even, upon great\ndays, he has been known to have a _turkey_). He was a man of enlarged\nmind and great sagacity. He was before his age in his views, and always\nbefore his salary in his expenses. This was from no want of calculation:\nnobody ever was longer and shrewder in that. But he was aspiring, and by\nnature seemed to go beyond things seen, far into the region of things\n_hoped_ for.\n\n\u201cHis sister, an antique maiden lady, differed vastly from him and could\nin no sense be called enlightened. It was astonishing to see how his\nexample and his reasoning were thrown away upon her. To the last she\nclung to those earthly, _low_ notions which seem so peculiar to this\nworld. She would persist in saying that no one should buy what he could\nnot pay for, nor pay for any new thing until old debts were settled. Nor\ncould she be brought to adopt an enlarged policy in respect to the\nfamily. We were obliged to wear clothes until they were worn out\u2014at\nleast out at the knees and elbows\u2014altho\u2019 the fashion should change a\ndozen times during that period. So that it was not uncommon to find\none\u2019s self two or three times the pink of fashion before a suit was\nfairly condemned as unseaworthy. In fact, we may be said always to have\nset the fashion at such times, since we were seen wearing the proper cut\nbefore even the leading beau. But if this was comfortable it was but\nlittle amends for the days of darkness which ensued. One day we revelled\n(?) in our glory; the next every one gaped at our uncouth fashion. We\nmight properly be likened to a ship riding gracefully upon the water,\nbut suddenly left by the tide sticking in the mud, stiff and immovable.\nI used to comfort myself, when laughed at, by saying, \u2018Never mind; you\nlaugh now, before six months you\u2019ll be imitating me.\u2019 And so it often\nproved, till I began to think I was a prophet.\n\n\u201cBut it is of the family I write and not of myself, for be it known that\nI am not under vassalage. I am free from both authority and\u2014money; the\nlatter condition as no reproach. I have often noticed that these two\nkinds of independence are closely allied. True independence seems always\nin the lurch.\u201d\n\nOne amusing incident that grew out of the half country-farm life which\nthey then lived he used often to refer to.\n\nLiving in the outskirts of the city, where the fences were poor and\nstraying cattle often gave them great annoyance, Henry one day, to his\nimmense disgust, found a cow quietly resting in the middle of the barn\nfloor. With the accumulated indignation aroused, by numerous chases,\nwhich these poachers of the highway had led him, by many tramplings\nacross flower-beds and destruction of the garden vegetables, he drove\nher out and chased her down the street. Coming in hot and tired from his\nrun, he threw himself upon the sofa, saying: \u201cThere, I guess I have\ntaught one old cow to know where she belongs!\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean?\u201d said\nthe doctor, looking up apprehensively from his paper. \u201cWhy, I found\nanother cow in the barn, and I have turned her out and chased her clear\ndown the street, and I think she will stay away now.\u201d \u201cWell,\u201d said Dr.\nBeecher, \u201cyou have done it. I have just bought that cow, and had to wade\nthe Ohio River twice to get her home, and after I have got her safely\ninto the barn you have turned her out. You have done it, and no\nmistake.\u201d And the chasing of that cow was renewed.\n\nHis humor bubbled out at all times and in all places, finding its\noccasion even in so staid a matter as chapel prayers. He roomed with\nProf. Stowe, who was the soul of punctuality, and was continually pained\nat the failure of his young room-mate to be on time at morning prayers\nin the Seminary chapel.\n\nHaving done his best to wake him up one morning, apparently without\nsuccess, he had gone down-stairs with many expressions of disgust. No\nsooner was he out of the room than Henry sprang up, dressed himself as\nonly college students can, ran to the Seminary by a back way, and when\nthe professor entered was sitting demurely in front of the desk. The\namazement of the teacher at this unexpected appearance, rubbing his\nglasses and peering at him again and again to determine whether it was\nreal or he only saw a vision, was always remembered by Mr. Beecher with\na chuckle of merriment.\n\nFor a short time near the close of his theological course he edited a\npaper, and appears to have done his work with marked success; but\ncircumstances brought it to a speedy close. \u201cThe _Cincinnati Journal_\nneeded an editor. There was at that time in the middle class of Lane\nSeminary a green young man of some facility of pen. He had written a\nseries of anonymous articles on the Catholic question in the evening\npaper edited by Mr. Thomas. He was considered rather tonguey, and not\nlikely to back down from anything from want of hopefulness and\nself-confidence. Him Dr. Brainerd called to the chair, and, on\nrelinquishing the editorship, recommended this beardless youth to the\nproprietors of the journal as his successor. One fine morning this young\nman found himself an editor upon a salary! An editor must have a coat;\nand Platt Evans made a lion-skin overcoat that has never had a successor\nor an equal. He must have a watch! A plain, white-faced watch soon\nticked in his pocket. Alas! evil days befell the publishers. The paper\nhad a new owner. He did not want the young editor; the young editor\n_did_ want the watch, but could not pay for it; the seller took it back,\nto the great grief of the young theologian, who went back disconsolate\nto his classes at Lane Seminary, and was broken-hearted for a whole day.\nThe young man recovered, and has been in mischief ever since, some folks\nthink.\u201d\n\nWhen the pro-slavery riots broke out in Cincinnati in 1836, and James G.\nBirney\u2019s printing-office and press were destroyed by a mob headed by\nKentucky slaveholders, young Beecher volunteered and was sworn in as\nspecial constable, and for several nights patrolled the streets\nthoroughly armed to protect the negroes and their friends. He was\nearnest in this matter, as in everything else that he undertook. His\nsister Harriet, finding him busy running bullets, and asking him what he\nwas doing it for, was a good deal startled to hear him answer in a hard,\ndetermined voice: \u201cTo kill men.\u201d\n\nBesides the influence of this common, every-day life, which was\nafterwards reflected in his own hospitable spirit and home, two domestic\nevents took place during these three years that deserve more especial\nnotice. The first was \u201cthe Family Meeting.\u201d\n\n\u201cLong before Edward came out here the doctor had tried to have a family\nmeeting, but did not succeed. The children were too scattered. Two were\nin Connecticut, some in Massachusetts, and one in Rhode Island. But\nnow\u2014just think of it!\u2014there has been a family meeting in Ohio! When\nEdward returned he brought on Mary from Hartford. William came down from\nPutnam, George from Batavia, Ohio; Catharine and Harriet were here\nalready; Henry and Charles at home, too, besides Isabella, Thomas, and\nJames. These eleven! The first time they all ever met together! Mary had\nnever seen James, and she had seen Thomas but once. Such a time as they\nhad! The old doctor was almost transported with joy. The affair had been\nunder negotiation for some time. He returned home from Dayton late one\nSaturday evening. The next morning they for the first time assembled in\nthe parlor. There were more tears than words. The doctor attempted to\npray, but could scarcely speak. His full heart poured itself out in a\nflood of weeping. He could not go on. Edward continued, and each one in\nhis turn uttered some sentence of thanksgiving. They then began at the\nhead and related their fortunes. After special prayer all joined hands\nand sang \u2018Old Hundred\u2019 in these words:\n\n                 \u201c\u2018From all that dwell below the skies\n                 Let the Creator\u2019s praise arise.\u2019\n                   *     *     *     *\n\n\u201cWhen left alone in the evening they had a general examination of all\ntheir characters. The shafts of wit flew amain, the doctor being struck\nin several places. He was, however, expert enough to hit most of them in\nreturn. From the uproar of the general battle all must have been\nwounded....\n\n\u201cTuesday morning saw them together again, drawn up in a straight line\nfor the inspection of the king of happy men. After receiving particular\ninstructions they formed into a circle. The doctor made a long and\naffecting speech. He felt that he stood for the last time in the midst\nof all his children, and each word fell with the weight of a\npatriarch\u2019s. He embraced them once more in all the tenderness of his big\nheart. Each took of all a farewell kiss. With joined hands they united\nin a hymn. A prayer was offered, and finally the parting blessing was\nspoken.\u201d\n\nThe other event referred to was the death of Mrs. Beecher, which\noccurred at the close of Henry\u2019s first Seminary year. She was his\nstep-mother, but \u201cshe did all that she could for my good.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the holy yearnings of this truly devoted mother the whole family was\nincluded; nor could the older children perceive any less fervency in her\ndesires for their true welfare than for that of her own flesh and\nblood.\u201d And it was with deep and true feeling that he writes \u201cthat God\nwas with her in her closing days, and that the light of his countenance\ncheered her passage to the tomb.\u201d\n\nThese varied experiences of joy and sorrow in the home-life of this\nperiod; this variety of occupation\u2014now studying and attending lectures\nin the Seminary, lecturing on temperance and phrenology, drilling in the\n\u201cHallelujah Chorus,\u201d painting the old family mansion, accompanying his\nfather in his attendance upon presbytery and synod, now a constable and\nanon an editor\u2014all contributed to give him a broad culture, had much to\ndo with the variety of labor which he undertook in after-life, and\nfitted him for that easy, natural, and familiar mingling with all kinds\nand conditions of men which was in him so marked a characteristic.\n\nOf what he did, read, and thought at this time we are fortunate in\nhaving another source of authentic information from his own pen. Upon\nthe unruled blank leaf of a letter-book, as large as a commercial ledger\nand heavily bound in leather, is written in a large hand, large enough\nto cover the whole page:\n\n                                JOURNAL\n\n                                   OF\n\n                EVENTS, FEELINGS, THOUGHTS, PLANS, ETC.,\n\n             JUST AS THEY HAVE MET ME, THUS GIVING IN PART\n\n                A TRANSCRIPT OF MY INNER AND OUTER LIFE.\n\n               BEGUN JUNE, 1835, AT LANE THEOL. SEMINARY.\n\nOn the first page, \u201cBegun three days after birthday,\u201d June 27. \u201cI have\ntried times without number to keep a diary or a journal of my religious\nfeelings. I have never succeeded.\u201d 1. \u201cI am not enough contemplative to\nmake a record of reflections and feelings very definite.\u201d 2. \u201cI never\ncould be _sincere_. The only use which I distinctly know that I have\nderived from it is a knowledge of my being very averse to saying just\nwhat my feelings were. I could not help feeling: \u2018_This_ will, perhaps,\nbe seen.\u2019 And why should I not so feel? One object in keeping a journal\nis to look back upon your mind as it reflected itself at different\nperiods past, and if you _keep_ one no one can pretend to have enough of\nprospective wisdom to save it from the hands of others.\u201d\n\nAfter half a page of reasons why this possibility\u2014which has indeed been\nrealized\u2014may take place, he says: \u201cCan I conceal it all from myself, and\nfeign to myself that that which I am disclosing and giving form and\npermanence to, my most secret feelings, none will see? And when I feel\nsecretly that they will be seen, is it possible to go through honestly a\nnarration of those emotions from the disclosure of which I shrink in my\ninmost soul?\u201d\n\nIn view of this possibility, he decides upon a modification of his\nideal:\n\n\u201cIn this journal I do not set before me as an object to tell _all_ my\nfeelings, but only such as for any reason I may choose to tell. I intend\nto record, too, my opinions and reflections on occurrences, on persons,\non books, and to find a resting-place, if possible, for many of those\ndaily thoughts which are too short and unconnected to be noted down\nseparately, and yet of some small value, perhaps\u2014at least to give\nvariety to a journal. Then, too, being little tenacious of dates, I here\nmean to record and date all changes in my life, that afterwards, when\nbusiness and multiplicity of other facts have crowded from my mind such\nfacts, I may here recur as to a faithful chronicle and refresh my\nmemory.\n\n\u201cHere, then, I mean to be at ease, and not molest myself with any\nobligations to write so much, or so often, or so anything, but in mental\n_dishabille_ I will stroll through my mind and do as I choose.\u201d\n\nIt can well be supposed that with such an introduction facing us we feel\nsome delicacy, even with the _quasi_ permission which his departure from\nthe true ideal of a journal gives, in handling, and especially in giving\nto the public, the matters which are here written. While we find no word\nthat a perfectly upright and honorable man need be ashamed of, we do\nfind private matters which we have no right to make public. Out of the\ngreat amount of material which the journal affords we have selected such\nportions as illustrate the salient features of his life, character,\nwork, and methods at this time.\n\nFirst of all, we find him still keeping up the old habit of reading, and\nafter a very critical method.\n\n\u201c_July 1, 1835._\u2014I finished Scott\u2019s \u2018Antiquary\u2019 this morning, and I\npropose giving some little account of my impressions. To do it I shall\nbe obliged to collect my general scattered feelings into a definite,\ntangible form; and if I always did it after reading I should have more\nnumerous ideas of things and of their forms, and more correct ones.\n\n\u201cI think it one of Scott\u2019s best, although my _personal taste_ gives his\nnovels founded on warlike customs, as \u2018Ivanhoe,\u2019 more relish. But that\ndoes not alter the abstract merits of this, for there are grounds of\njudging a work altogether aside from our taste as to the subject judged.\nThere are but two general considerations in estimating a novel. First,\nhas the author been a faithful copyist of nature, even when his effort\nis of the imagination? And, second, has he made a judicious selection\nand skilful combination of his material.\u201d\n\nAfter several pages of the large ledger have been devoted to this\nsubject, there follows this entry:\n\n\u201c_July 4._\u2014The difference between Scott and Shakspere is of two kinds:\n(1) the difference of dramatic and prosaic description, and (2) the\nnative difference of the two men. The first involves a discussion and\ncomparison of the two kinds of writing. The dramatic is _narrower_, more\nformal and measured, and consequently more _stiff_. No one ever heard\none speak as Macbeth, as Hamlet, or as Iago, for no one ever spoke so.\nPassion, or indeed nature, never marches in heroic measure. In another\nrespect it differs. There is a general _sameness of language_. The\nimitation of nature respects _feelings_ and character, and not\n_expression_, if we except some comic characters. But prose imitates\nwith perfect freedom, unshackled by _verse_, not only the passion,\n_character_, etc., but the _expression_ and _language_.\n\n\u201cIn this respect Scott differs from himself as a poet and novelist as\nmuch as when a novelist he differs from Shakspere, etc....\u201d\n\nSimilar and lengthy criticisms of Crabbe, Coleridge, Byron, Burns, and\nothers follow, many of them crude, but all aiming to grasp and express\nthe original thought of the poet, as he says after naming some rules by\nwhich to judge a book:\n\n\u201cBut such things are the externals of criticism. I admire the German way\nof going into the motive and spirit of a poem, and discussing the\nprinciples and source of feeling.\u201d\n\nWe find his habit of drawing from his own experiences some moral or\nspiritual lesson, and then teaching it to others, thus early formed:\n\n\u201c_June 27, 1835._\u2014 ... Being unwell is by no means useless. It crowds\none on to thoughts of death, and sweeps away all the mist of\nforgetfulness which the frivolity of events has accumulated. One must\neither wrap himself in designed forgetfulness\u2014which is a stupid\nresource\u2014or come to some conclusion in respect to his religious\nprospects. For my part, in sickness (what little I have had) I am not\nagitated, but rendered serious and calmly apprehensive, and I begin to\nthink what God is, and Christ, and heavenly joy, and compare them with\nmy tastes and disposition, and see if they accord or are repulsive. I\u2019ve\nwritten enough for the present, so I\u2019ll return to Scott\u2019s \u2018Legend of\nMontrose.\u2019\u201d\n\nWe find very little, almost nothing, concerning the regulation work and\nstudies of the theological course, possibly because some other book\nwhich has not come down to us contained these. He seems to have plenty\nto do, and carries into his work a very decided determination to\nsucceed.\n\n\u201c_Aug. 2, 1835, Sunday._\u2014I have for this time work enough: two courses\nof lectures\u2014one, for my Bible-class, to begin next Sunday; the other a\ncourse of temperance lectures for Reading and elsewhere. I don\u2019t know\nhow I shall succeed, but I am never self-distrustful and often feel sure\nI _shall_ do VERY well, and as often see that I may fall through\nentirely. Either course failing would mortify me. But here, as\nelsewhere, let me start with feeling, \u2018I will _persevere_, and with\nevery endeavor which interest and ingenuity can furnish.\u2019 Such being\none\u2019s constant feeling and action, hardly anything is invincible.\n_Perseverance_ without corresponding exercise of ALL ONE\u2019S MIND is but\na dogged spinning out of tedious and useless effort. _Remember when most\ndiscouraged_ to _labor_ as though you were in the full blossom of\n_Hope_, and shortly you will be.\u201d\n\nAt this time he was singing in, and sometimes leading, the choir in his\nfather\u2019s church, as he writes:\n\n\u201c_Nov. 14._\u2014The medical authorities of the family, having ordered me up\nfor inspection, have decided that I was not sea-worthy, but have, in\nview of past services, ordered me into dock to be a receiving-ship, and\nthere to undergo thorough repairs. I am quietly riding in the dock\nwithout mast or rigging. They have sent aboard two sets of workmen this\nmorning, under the care of Messrs. Calomel and Aloes; and these are to\nremove all my cargo, ballast, etc., after which I am to be new-rigged\nand furnished and sent out on a new cruise. This is well. I have sailed\nvery dully for some time and came near to foundering once or twice.\n\n\u201cWill you take my place to-day and sing bass? I know of no one\npossessing suitable gravity except yourself to confront the audience and\ndo justice to music....    Yours truly,\n\n                                             \u201c\u2018_Old Constitution_.\u2019\u201d\n\nA line of tender sentiment runs through the journal, appearing whenever\nany reference is made to the one to whom he was engaged. Concerning so\ndelicate a matter we only give extracts sufficient to show the radiant\natmosphere in which, at least at times, he walked, and the deep and\nsincere affection which he cherished. They are to be read as the opening\nstanzas of that beautiful idyl that closed only with his life.\n\n\u201c_Aug. 4, 1835._\u2014It is a little curious, perhaps not, however, that I\nvery much dislike to say anything in my journal of my thoughts and\nfeeling for E., who is so much of my _existence_. Well, I suppose the\nmore and the more delicately we love the less we care and wish to say\nabout it. It becomes a matter of _heart_, not of _tongue_; it becomes a\n_feeling_, and feeling has no language except _action_. I have sent her\na large letter, largely laden with affection....\u201d\n\n\u201c_Aug. 5, 1835._\u2014Woke up and thought of E\u2014\u2014\u2014, M\u2014\u2014\u2014, and G\u2014\u2014\u2014; compared\ntheir characters. M\u2014\u2014\u2014 is marked by INTELLECT, G\u2014\u2014\u2014 by lady-like\ncharacter, sweetness, and gayness. E\u2014\u2014\u2014 has neither so _prominent_, but\nboth well combined and softened by strongest and sweetest\n_affectionateness_. Her character is uniform, and projects, if anywhere,\nin line of _affection_.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Sept. 14, 1835._\u2014I wonder what people think of my warmth? Some, I\nknow, estimate it far too highly, because they have not _seen_ much of\nsuch things. Others, and _most_, suppose it very _low_ and suspect very\nlittle of it. It is in truth but _medium_ naturally. Well, in a year or\ntwo, and then E\u2014\u2014\u2014 will be disappointed the right way. What a noble\ncreature E\u2014\u2014\u2014 is! I could have looked through ten thousand and never\nhave found one so every way suited to me. How dearly do I love her! I\nlong for the portrait.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Oct. 1, 1835._\u2014Found a packet of letters from my dearest E\u2014\u2014\u2014. Oh, how\ndear! Her _likeness_ too, which, though imperfect in some respects, has\nvery much the looks of the original, and if only _one_ feature were\npreserved I would feel grateful. But, excepting the _mouth_, each\nfeature is faithfully like her own. I shall begin a letter to her\nto-night. God bless and keep her! I love her more and more and say less\nand less about it.\n\n\u201cHarriet has had E\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2019s portrait all day, and I have felt quite lonesome\nwithout it. Last evening I retired to bed and very philosophically\ndecided to leave the portrait in my side-pocket. I lay for some\nhalf-hour and was quite convinced that it was in the wrong place, and\nremoved it to my pillow. It soon underwent another migration\u2014_where_,\none may imagine if he will recall all such doings as depicted in\nnovels.\u201d\n\nThe following is his first mention of preaching in the West:\n\n\u201c_Aug. 9, Sunday, 1835._\u2014Preached twice in George\u2019s church. In morning\nwith great dryness and trouble, and felt much mortified\u2014more, I think,\nthan _grieved_.\n\n\u201cAfternoon smaller audience, but had great liberty and fluency, and\nproduced effect; but whether superficial or permanent and saving, God\nonly knows. Afternoon text: \u2018My ways not as your ways\u2019; Morning: \u2018For we\nthus judge\u2019 (2 Cor. v. 14, etc.)\n\n\u201cAfter preliminaries, subject, \u2018The genius of Christianity is not to\nproduce _gloom_ or debar from pleasure; but, contrary, _earthly_\npleasures can _only_ be enjoyed by Christians, and much more\n_heavenly_.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe begins to be conscious of unused powers.\n\n\u201c_Sept., 1835._\u2014Since reading Crabbe and Scott I am possessed with the\nnotion of writing _characters_. I have some models which I know would be\noriginals.\u201d\n\nHis love of fun evidently subjected him now and then to criticism. To\none whose remarks had touched him to the quick he writes in\nself-defence:\n\n\u201c_Oct. 29_ [1835].\u2014... You said last night that I was never made for a\nminister. If a minister were made to wear a lachrymose face and never to\nenjoy or make mirth, you said truly and I was not born to it. There are,\nin fact, three classes of divines\u2014the ascetic, the neuter, and the\nsunshiny; the first conceive the chief end of man to consist in a long\nface, upturned eyes, a profound sanctimonious look.... I must plead\nguilty if you mean that I was not born to the rank of these worthy\npersonages. Far be it from me to believe that _religion_ makes\nridiculous dunces. And though I think many such are truly pious men, yet\nsuch endowments are the deformity and misfortune, not the ornament, of\ntheir piety. The second class I call neuter because they (like the\nChinese leaf by which character is told) quirl and roll just according\nto the party with which they are.... I must confess I have too many\nopinions of my own to be whirled about by every change of company. And\nthough it is proper and decent that one should conform to the nature of\ndifferent occasions, so as not to jest at a funeral, laugh at church, or\ndance in a hospital among the sick, the dead and dying; and though one\nshould respect the conditions of his company, so as not to obtrude upon\nage the buoyancy of youth, ... yet I am sure neither old age nor old\nreflections ... shall make me disown mirth.... Now for the third class,\nthe glorious, sunshiny ones. I envy them, I emulate them. These are they\nwho think there is a time for relaxation and elegant enjoyment. Too much\nis to be done to allow them long seasons of gayety.... But while they\nlabor hard, think and write, and preach and visit, weeping with those\nwho weep, they conceive by the same authority that they may unbend and\nrefresh the mind by laughing with those who laugh.... To be mirthful is\npart of our constitution, and I believe God never gave us that which it\nis a sin to exercise.... None but those who feel it can tell how hard it\nis to restrain a disposition which sees everything in the most ludicrous\npoint of view. But God knows that if I have a good deal of mirth I\ncompensate for it in secret; and although now I look for different\ntimes, yet till now I have had enough of anything but joy to make mirth\nacceptable to me. You said what you did in jest, but I lay awake all\nnight thinking of it. God will bear me witness that I love the ministry,\nand if it be necessary for me to lay aside even my constitutional gayety\nthat I may be more useful, I will cheerfully do it....\u201d\n\nFrom a \u201ccatalogue of books in my possession\u201d we learn that on December\n2, 1835, he had 42 volumes of theological works, 71 volumes of literary,\n10 scientific, and 12 miscellaneous, making a grand total in all of 135\nvolumes\u2014not a bad showing for one who had earned every book, either by\nlabor or severe economy, and, what is more to the point, had read and\nstudied them all.\n\nWe must now turn from the perusal of his journal to note other\ninfluences than those already referred to\u2014those of the Seminary, of home\nand books\u2014that were at work upon him at this time. There were some that\nhad a very important influence in shaping his ecclesiastical bearing\nthrough life.\n\nThese were days of heresy-hunting; days when Albert Barnes was arraigned\nbefore presbytery for unsoundness because of some kind of heterodoxy (?)\ndiscovered in his notes upon Romans, and when the conflict between the\ntwo parties in the Presbyterian Church was rapidly advancing to a\ndivision of that great body into Old and New School. \u201cDr. Beecher,\u201d so\nwrites Mrs. Stowe, \u201cwas now the central point of a great theological\nbattle. It was a sort of spiritual Armageddon, being the confluence of\nthe forces of the Scotch-Irish Presbyterian Calvinistic fatalism,\nmeeting in battle with the advancing rationalism of New England New\nSchool theology. On one side was hard, literal interpretation of Bible\ndeclarations and the Presbyterian standards asserting man\u2019s utter and\nabsolute natural and moral inability to obey God\u2019s commands, and on the\nother side the doctrine of man\u2019s free agency and the bringing to the\nrendering of the declarations of the Scriptures and of the standards the\nlights of modern modes of interpretation.\u201d This battle soon assumed the\ncharacter of an assault upon Dr. Lyman Beecher for the purpose of his\ndestruction. His son knew it to be wholly without justification and as\nsenseless as it was wicked. He knew his father\u2019s earnestness, devotion,\nand unselfishness, the sacrifices he had made to take up this work, felt\nhow greatly he deserved the gratitude of all Christian men; and when he\nsaw that father attacked for heresy and brought before every tribunal of\nthe Presbyterian Church, except the highest, for trial, and all because\nhis construction of the Presbyterian Confession was not according to the\nviews of one or two of the leaders of that Church in the West, he was\nnot more indignant than disgusted.\n\nHe saw him triumphantly acquitted by one body after another, but still\npursued by suspicion, and knew that a conspiracy had been formed in\nwhich some of his Eastern friends and one or more Eastern seminaries\nwere enlisted, with the avowed intention of crushing him, and all this\nmostly by good men, under the strong bias of ecclesiastical prejudice\nand in a mistaken zeal for God\u2019s service.\n\nWe must feel his disgust as he was compelled to go scurrying through the\ncountry, not to rescue souls from danger nor to forward any great moral\nend, but to anticipate the action of some presbytery or arrange for some\nmeeting of synod; we must realize his indignation at seeing his father\ncompelled to leave the death-bed of his mother to defend himself against\nthese heresy-hunters, if we would understand the position which Mr.\nBeecher occupied towards ecclesiastical bodies in after-years.\n\nIn a letter dated \u201c_Canal Boat, Wednesday morning, Oct. 14, 1835_,\u201d\nHenry Ward gives an account of a meeting of Synod. After a humorous\ndescription of the eccentricities of Dr. Beecher, for which we have no\nspace, he writes: \u201cAt length we are ready to start. A trunk tumbles out\nof one side as Thomas tumbles in the other. I reverse the order\u2014tumble\nTom out, the trunk in. At length all are aboard, and father drives out\nof the yard, holding the reins in one hand, shaking hands with a student\nwith the other, giving Charles directions with his mouth\u2014at least that\npart not occupied with an apple; for since apples were plenty he has\nmade it a practice to drive with one rein in the right hand and the\nother in the left, with an apple in each, biting them alternately, thus\nraising and lowering the reins like threads on a loom. Away we go,\nCharley horse on a full canter down the long hill, the carriage bouncing\nand bounding over the stones, father alternately telling Tom how to get\nthe harness mended and showing me the true doctrine of original sin.\nHurrah! we thunder alongside the boat just in time.... Yesterday the\nSynod was constituted Old School. Moderator by a majority of seven,\nunder his administration the system is beginning to assume form and\nbecomes apparent. All the committees are one way, and the whole aspect\nof affairs shows you that there is a deep-laid, regular plan, and the\nelders are all _drilled in_. The committee give leave of absence to all\nNew School men, and refuse all others, so that they may increase and we\ndecrease.\n\n\u201cIt is Tuesday morning and everybody is talking, planning, plotting\u2014all\nbustle; heads together; knots at every corner; hands going up and down,\nand faces approaching earnestly or drawing back in doubt; one taking\nhold of the other\u2019s coat, leading off into one corner for _a particular\nargument_; elders receiving drill, some bolting the collar. Here, in my\nroom, are father, George, and Mr. Rankin. They are looking over the\nground, prognosticating, arranging for the onset, or for the reception\nof an onset.... I never saw so many faces of clergymen, and so few of\nthem intellectual faces.... And the elders are just what forty or fifty\ncommon farmers would be supposed to be\u2014except that _for eldership_ the\n_soberest men are chosen_, and, as _stupidity is usually graced with\nmore gravity than great good sense_, the body of elders are not quite so\nacute in look as the higher class of workingmen.\u201d\n\nAlthough written in a playful mood, it is evident that he had no fancy\nfor such work, and as he advanced his dislike increased. The broad,\nkindly, hospitable living, the strong, practical, sympathetic preaching,\nand the honest dislike of all the rattle of ecclesiastical machinery,\nwhich marked his after-life, came naturally from the training he\nreceived on the _outside_ of Lane Seminary.\n\nThe influences of the place in which he lived as well as of the times\nwere powerful factors in his theological education. The great West, with\nits boundless possibilities which had so moved the spirit of his father,\nlay before him, and stirred his imagination as at an earlier period the\nsea had done. And, as when he looked out upon the broad Atlantic from\nthe wharves of Boston he had felt the impulse to go forth to be a\nsailor, command ships, and fight naval battles, so did the movement of\nthe great streams of population Westward, and the vast field that\nstretched out before him like the ocean, move his spirit to go forth\nupon the sea of human life and conquer for Christ.\n\nIn this period of theological study, when the most of students withdraw\nthemselves as much as possible from real life, he was brought to face it\nin some of its most intense forms. Cincinnati was then the central and\nmost important city of the great West; an immense commerce was carried\non from its wharves; it was the point where gathered the multitudes that\nwere going out to occupy the new territory; it was still the rendezvous\nfor frontiersmen; more than this, it lay upon the border-land between\nthe free and slave States, and already felt the uneasiness and\nbitterness of the irresistible conflict. Chain-gangs of slaves were\ncontinually passing on the decks of the steamboats, to be sold down\nSouth, and fugitives from bondage were keeping the sympathy or the\nhatred of the people in continual activity. Life of high pressure and in\ngreat variety was presented to Henry Ward Beecher there in the heart of\nthe great West in the years of 1834-1837; life that was very real, and\nthat called not so much for fine-spun theories as for practical forces;\nnot for dead and formal dogmas, but for living truth, for _Him_ who is\nboth _Life_ and _Truth_.\n\nTrue, he might have measurably kept himself from it and immured himself\nin the library and class-rooms of the Seminary, but he followed an\nentirely opposite course; he lectured, wrote anti-slavery editorials,\njoined the citizens\u2019 body of police for the preservation of order, every\nway keeping himself in sympathy with the stirring times in which he\nlived, and they helped to make him the living, practical preacher he\nafterwards became.\n\nHis Bible-class, to which he gave great attention, both in preparation\nand in teaching the lesson, afforded him a field for the application of\nthe truths he had learned, and for testing the methods he had adopted.\n\nYet for the most of the time his mind was not settled. His ideal of the\nChristian ministry was so high that he sometimes despaired of ever\nattaining it, and at times he seems to have seriously contemplated\ngiving up his preparation for the ministry and of devoting himself to\nsome other pursuit. Mrs. Beecher says that through these years his\nletters were very full of the discomforts and doubts that troubled him.\n\u201c... Sometimes I think I shall not succeed in anything. If, when my\ncourse here is finished, they will not license me, suppose I go far\nWest, enter a homestead (?), clear the wood off, build a little log hut,\nwork during the week, and hunt up the settlers and hold conference and\nprayer meetings\u2014will you come to me if that is all I can offer you?\u201d\nThen, perhaps, in the next letter: \u201cI will preach, if it is in the\nby-ways and hedges; but oh! for more light to see my way clear!\u201d \u201cDuring\nthe last two years his letters had less of this depression. He would\npreach, whether men would hear or whether they would forbear.\u201d \u201cBut I\nmust preach the Gospel as it is revealed _to me_, not as it is laid down\nin the schools.\u201d\n\nHe gives his experience in these words:\n\n\u201cDuring the latter part of my stay in college my feelings were\nunsettled. Sometimes they inclined one way and sometimes the other,\nuntil I went to Lane Seminary. I was then twenty years old, and there\ncame a great revulsion in me from all this inchoate, unregulated,\nundirected experience in religion. My mind took one tremendous spring\nover into scepticism, and I said: \u2018I have been a fool long enough.\u2019 I\nrefused to be any longer played upon in such a way. It was bitter, it\nwas malignant, it was sad, it was sorrowful; but it was wholesale, and\nswept away ten thousand fictions and external observances. I said: \u2018I\nwill not stir one step further than I can see my way, and I will not\nstand a moment where I cannot see the truth. I will have something that\nis sure and steadfast.\u2019 Having taken that ground, I was in that state of\nmind for the larger part of two years.\n\n\u201cIt then pleased God to lift upon me such a view of Christ as one whose\nnature and office it is to have infinite and exquisite pity upon the\nweakness and want of sinners as I had never had before. I saw that He\nhad compassion upon them because they were sinners, and because He\nwanted to help them out of their sins. It came to me like the bursting\nforth of spring. It was as if yesterday there was not a bird to be seen\nor heard, and as if to-day the woods were full of singing birds. There\nrose up before me a view of Jesus as the Saviour of sinners\u2014not of\nsaints, but of sinners unconverted, before they were any better\u2014because\nthey were so bad and needed so much; and that view has never gone from\nme. It did not at first fill the whole heaven; it came as a rift along\nthe horizon; gradually, little by little, the cloud rolled up. It was\nthree years before the whole sky was cleared so that I could see all\naround, but from that hour I felt that God had a father\u2019s heart; that\nChrist loved me in my sin; that while I was a sinner He did not frown\nupon me nor cast me off, but cared for me with unutterable tenderness,\nand would help me out of sin; and it seemed to me that I had everything\nI needed. When that vision was vouchsafed to me I felt that there was no\nmore for me to do but to love, trust, and adore; nor has there ever been\nin my mind a doubt since that I did love, trust, and adore. There has\nbeen an imperfect comprehension, there have been grievous sins, there\nhave been long defections; but never for a single moment have I doubted\nthe power of Christ\u2019s love to save me, any more than I have doubted the\nexistence in the heaven of the sun by day and the moon by night.\u201d\n\nWe have thus followed Henry Ward Beecher from the cradle to the moment\nthat he stands prepared to enter upon his life-work; have noted every\nstep of his course from the hills to the sea, from school to college,\nfrom the East to the West; have marked the influences of the home, of\nnature, of the city, of school, college, and seminary, of the times, of\nthe Word and Spirit of God; have traced his experiences, felt his\ndawning strength, examined the life he lived, the dispositions he\nmanifested, the hopes he cherished, and the character he formed; and in\nour confidence and admiration choose, as not inappropriate for him at\nthis time, the description of \u201cThe Patrone of true Holinesse\u201d in the\n\u201cFaerie Queene\u201d:\n\n         \u201cFull iolly knight he seemed, and faire did sitt,\n         As one for knightly giusts and fierce encounters fitt;\n         And on his brest a bloodie crosse he bore,\n         The deare remembrance of his dying Lord,\n         For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore,\n         And dead, as living ever, Him ador\u2019d:\n         Upon his shield the like was also scor\u2019d,\n         For soveraine hope, which in His helpe he had,\n         Right faithfull true he was in deede and word;\n         But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad;\n         Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER IX.\n\nCall to Preach\u2014License\u2014Examination by Miami Presbytery\u2014Refusal to\n    Subscribe to Old School\u2014Ordination by Oxford Presbytery\u2014Visit\n    East\u2014Marriage\u2014Housekeeping.\n\n\nIn the early spring of 1837 Mr. Beecher graduated from Lane Seminary. In\naccordance with the practice of the Presbyterian Church, a clergyman\nmight be licensed to preach, even though not ordained; but such license\ncould only be obtained after the applicant had appeared before the\nPresbytery for examination, and he was required also to read a \u201ctrial\nlecture,\u201d as it was called. Agreeably to this custom, upon graduating\nfrom the Seminary Mr. Beecher went before the Cincinnati Presbytery, was\nexamined, and read his \u201ctrial lecture.\u201d The examination and lecture seem\nto have been satisfactory, for he was duly licensed to preach.\n\nFor a few weeks prior to his examination for license he preached in a\nlittle hall at Covington, Kentucky, just across the river from\nCincinnati. He seriously contemplated settling there as soon as he\nshould be licensed.\n\n\u201cAfter preaching there [Covington] three or four Sundays I was called,\nby Martha Sawyer, a Yankee woman, to go to Lawrenceburg and preach.\nThere was a church in that place, composed of about twenty members, of\nwhich she was the factotum. She collected the money, she was the\ntreasurer, she was the manager, she was the trustee, she was the\neverything of that church.\u201d\n\nAt this time the pulpit of the little, struggling Presbyterian church at\nLawrenceburg, Indiana, was vacant, and one of the ladies of that church\ncame up to Cincinnati to see if Bishop Little could not secure for them\na pastor. The good bishop introduced her to young Henry Ward Beecher.\nThis led to his preaching one or two trial sermons at Lawrenceburg. The\nresult of the experiment seemed to be satisfactory on both sides,\nalthough the first sermon was said to have been a lamentable failure\nthrough the nervous apprehensions of the young preacher in facing the\nunusually large audience of one hundred persons.\n\nIn May, 1837, he moved to Lawrenceburg and began preaching regularly as\na licentiate, not yet ordained.\n\nIt may not be uninteresting to read just here the brief memoranda from\nthe journal which he was keeping then:\n\n\u201c_May 4_ [1837].\u2014Returned from Lawrenceburg. I think seriously of\nsettling there\u2014a destitute place indeed....\n\n\u201cIf I go to Lawrenceburg, remember you can gain men easily if you get\nround their _prejudices_ and put truth in their minds; but _never_ if\nyou attack _prejudices_. Look well at this....\n\n\u201d_Mem._\u2014My people must be alert to make the church agreeable, to give\n_seats_ and wait on _strangers_, etc.\u201c\n\n\u201d_June 15, Thursday._\u2014To-day received call from Lawrenceburg, and a very\nflattering call it was and did my heart good. Meeting called June 12,\n1837; about 30 persons present. Mr. Hunt, moderator; D. S. Mayer, sec.\nVote for me unanimous. Blank filled for $250, with but one dissenting\nvoice (he voting for double that sum).\u201c\n\n\u201d_Monday, July 10._\u2014Sat. eve., 8th, arrived here permanently to\nremain....\n\n\u201cI mean to write down little plans and devices for _pastoral labor_ as\nthey occur; I may else forget them.\n\n\u201c1. In different districts get men quietly to feel _themselves_\nresponsible for progress of temperance or Sunday-schools.\n\n\u201c2. Quietly to visit from house to house and secure congregations.\n\n\u201c3. Secure a _large congregation_. Let this be the _first_ thing. For\nthis\u2014\n\n        \u201c1. Preach well uniformly.\n\n        \u201c2. Visit widely and produce a personal attachment; also wife do\n        same.\n\n        \u201c3. Get the young to love me.\n\n        \u201c4. See that the church have this presented as a _definite_\n        thing, and set them to this work just as _directly_ as I would\n        to raising a fund, building, etc.\n\n\u201c4. Little girls\u2019 societies for benevolent purposes.\u201d\n\nThe town was small, scarce fifteen hundred inhabitants, located at the\njunction of the Ohio and Miami rivers\u2014just across the Miami from Ohio on\nthe east, and the Ohio River from Kentucky on the south\u2014subject to\ndevastating floods from both rivers impartially.\n\nThe church was small, with meagre accommodations, the people poor. We\nquote his description of the place and church:\n\n\u201cYou can form some conception of that field when I tell you that it was\na place where they had four gigantic distilleries, from which was\ncarried to market a steamboat-load of liquor every day. When I went\nthere and entered upon my vocation of preaching, I found a church,\noccupying a little brick building, with nineteen or twenty members.\nThere was one man, and the rest were women. With the exception of two\npersons, there was not one of them who was not obliged to gain a\nlivelihood by the labor of the hands. So you will understand how very\npoor they were. I could not, of course, obtain my living in so small a\nchurch, and in a community that was not overblessed with wealth. I was\ntaken up, therefore, as a pensioner by the Home Missionary Society, and\nmy first two years were spent in the field as a missionary, in part\nsupported by the funds of this society.\n\n\u201cI was sexton in the church. There were no lamps there, so I went and\nbought some, and filled them and lit them. I swept the church and\nlighted my own fires. I did not ring the bell, because there was none. I\nopened the church before every meeting, and shut and locked it after\nevery meeting. I took care of everything in the church.\u201d\n\nHere in this little frontier village, then upon the very borders of\ncivilization, began his real work. For twenty-four years he had been\npreparing for this step. Now it must be determined whether his life\nshould be a success or a failure.\n\nThe year passed uneventfully, and it was not until September, 1838, when\nhe applied for ordination, that he got his first taste of trouble.\n\nAt this time the division between the Old School and the New School\nPresbyterian churches was about to take place, and two General\nAssemblies, afterwards called the Old School General Assembly and the\nNew School General Assembly, were, a short time later, convened in\nPhiladelphia. A resolution was introduced into the Oxford Presbytery\nthat no man should be licensed or ordained by that body who did not\nconnect himself with the Old School Presbyterian Church, dropping from\ntheir care those who declined to do so.\n\nThis resolution, it was thought, was probably aimed at Mr. Beecher[3]\u2014an\nattempt to strike the father over the shoulders of his son. For the\nactual division and separation of the Presbyterian Church into Old and\nNew School was in no small measure the result of the controversy carried\non for several years previously against Dr. Lyman Beecher. The doctor in\n1832 had, as we have seen, accepted the presidency and professorship of\ndoctrinal theology in Lane Seminary. He had been brought up in, and had\nbeen connected with, the Congregational Church until this time. While he\nentertained no revolutionary spirit, he had some expectation that the\nfree spirit of New England thought, and that loving spirit of voluntary\nco-operation which he had enjoyed so in his New England pastorate, might\nbe infused into the forms of Presbyterianism. The idea of an intimate\nfriendship and co-operation between the Congregational and Presbyterian\nchurches in the United States had always been dear to him.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n  \u201cIt is no inconsiderable matter in these days that Dr. Beecher has at\n  least one son who, after a full and free examination before the Oxford\n  Presbytery, has been pronounced to be orthodox and sound in the faith;\n  and that, in order to exclude the son of the arch-heretic, a new term\n  of ministerial communion had to be introduced\u201d (Extract from letter of\n  Dr. Bishop, President of Oxford College, to Mr. Beecher in 1838).\n\n-----\n\nBut when he went to Cincinnati there had already commenced in different\nquarters a movement aiming at greater stringency and the expulsion from\nthe Presbyterian Church of what was called the New England element, of\nwhich Dr. Beecher was an eminent representative. His settlement at Lane\nSeminary was followed by a more active demonstration of hostility.\nFormal charges of heresy, slander, and hypocrisy were preferred against\nhim, to which reference has already been made.\n\nThese proceedings produced a very markedly unfavorable impression in the\npublic mind against Presbyterianism. They had only ended at about the\ntime his son, Henry Ward, came to Lawrenceburg.\n\nThere was a good deal of feeling in the two branches of the Presbyterian\nChurch, and when Mr. Beecher applied to the Oxford Presbytery, within\nwhose jurisdiction Lawrenceburg was located, a good deal of interest was\naroused. A son of Dr. Lyman Beecher was to be examined by a presbytery\nknown to be in marked hostility to him. It would be a good chance to\ndemonstrate the laxity and heterodoxy of Dr. Beecher. For, of course,\nthe young man would only reflect the father\u2019s views.\n\nThe presbytery duly met in session in September, 1838, and Henry Ward\nappeared before them. Writing to his brother George, he refers to his\nexamination. After telling of his family affairs he says:\n\n\u201cSo much for family news\u2014a quiet lake; now for public affairs\u2014a troubled\nocean casting up mud and dirt.\n\n\u201cI went some sixty miles up into Preble County, near Eaton, before\nOxford Presbytery. Presented my papers. Father Craigh was appointed to\n_squeak_ the questions. They examined me to their hearts\u2019 content. I was\na model to behold, and so were they! Elders opened their mouths, gave\ntheir noses a fresh blowing, fixed their spectacles, and hitched forward\non their seats. The ministers clinched their confessions of faith with\ndesperate fervor and looked unutterably orthodox, while Graham and a few\nfriendly ones looked a little nervous, not knowing how the youth would\nstand fire. There he sat, the young candidate begotten of a heretic,\nnursed at Lane; but, with such a name and parentage and education, what\nremarkable modesty, extraordinary meekness, and how deferential to the\n_eminently acute_ questioners who sat gazing upon the prodigy! Certainly\nthis was a bad beginning. Having predetermined that I should be hot and\nforward and full of confidence, it was somewhat awkward, truly, to find\nsuch gentleness and teachableness!\n\n\u201cThen came the examination: \u2018Will the mon tell us in what relation Adam\nstood to his posterity?\u2019 \u2018In the relation of a _federal head_.\u2019 \u2018What do\nyou mean by a federal head?\u2019 \u2018A head with whom God made a covenant for\nall his posterity.\u2019 Then questions on all the knotty points. \u2018Still the\nwonder grew,\u2019 for the more the lad was examined the more incorrigibly\northodox did he grow, until they began to fear he was a _leetle_ too\northodox upon some points. What was to be done? The vote on receiving me\nwas _unanimous_! Well, they slept upon it. Next day, while settling the\n_time_ of my ordination, Prof. McArthur, of Oxford, moved to postpone\nthe business to take up some resolutions. In the first they \u2018sincerely\nadhered to the Old School Pby. Assembly\u2019; second, required that all\n_licentiates_ and candidates under their care should do the same or be\nno longer such. I declined acknowledging it to be the true one. Father\nCraigh (whom my orthodoxy had softened) said they would give me _six\nmonths_ to think and decide, and I might continue to preach in their\nbounds. I refused, and they turned me out and gave me my papers back\nagain. I asked them what the duty of my church was. They replied that it\nwas _vacant_\u2014just what they _had to_ say, and just what I wanted them to\nsay, and, moreover, just what I determined they should say. I drove home\nforthwith; got back on Saturday. On Sunday recounted from the pulpit the\ndoings of Pby., and declared them vacant if they continued under Oxford;\nappointed a meeting for Wednesday P.M. for their action. By a unanimous\nvote they withdrew from Oxford and declared themselves an _Independent_\nPbyn. ch. Now for Synod. The Old School called a convention to meet two\ndays before Synod met; cut out a series of resolutions going for O. S.\nAssembly, cutting off those who had officially joined the Constitutional\nAssembly, etc., etc. After sermon by Jno. Rankin, Stowe and Coe\nnominated for moderator\u2014Stowe 47, Coe 70. The New School then determined\nsimply to urge on to voting. All speaking was on one side. When they had\npassed the resolutions to the one cutting off all who had joined N. S.\nAssembly they inserted a new one, by which _majority of Cincinnati\nPresbytery_ were _ejected_! Jno. Rankin then rose and declared the body\n_dissolved,_ and as moderator of last Synod would give them time to\nleave the house, and would then form the true Synod. They prayed and\nadjourned to Wilson\u2019s. It was queer. \u2018Synod of Cincinnati will adjourn\nto meet at 7 in 1st Pby. ch.\u2019; \u2018Synod Cin. will now come to order,\u2019 etc.\nI left after this and both bodies were still in session. I stepped in a\nmoment Saturday morning just before leaving, and they were then passing\nin _our_ Synod a resolution not to allow any _slave-holder_ in our\nconnection. Mills agreed to it. I did not wait to hear votes, but\npresume it was nearly unanimous. Synod declared the whole ground\nformerly held by Oxford Pby. to be held by the Cin. Pby. Stowe has just\nwritten me that Graham, Thomas, Chidlow, Merril, Crothers, Dickey, and\nothers have formally withdrawn from the Old School Synod, but not yet\nunited with ours. This is a brief sketch of matters ecclesiastical. Pby.\nof Cin. will begin their new authority over former territory of Oxford\nPby., by coming here to ordain me on Thurs., Nov. 8 [1838].\u201d\n\nThe New School Presbytery met in Cincinnati, and before this body Mr.\nBeecher applied for ordination, the minutes of which record that it\nordained and installed him November 9, 1838, over the independent church\nat Lawrenceburg, Dr. Lyman Beecher presiding, Dr. Blanchard charging the\npastor, and Dr. Calvin E. Stowe, his brother-in-law, charging the\npeople.\n\nMr. Beecher felt that the division in the Church was wholly uncalled\nfor, but naturally was unwilling to desert the school to which he was\nattached by its more liberal and democratic policy, by the associations\nof his education, and the ties of filial love and admiration. The\nbitterness of this controversy in the body of the Church, and the utter\nfolly of a great Church, organized for the work of saving men\u2019s souls,\nwasting its strength in harsh recriminations and angry feuds over\nmatters which seemed to him of minor importance, and finally splitting\nthe Church into two hostile bodies, produced a profound impression upon\nMr. Beecher\u2019s mind, and developed rapidly that trait, doubtless then\nlatent, which has so markedly characterized his preaching since then\u2014a\ndisregard of mere forms, provided he could secure the substance. And so\nhe grew to look upon all denominations as his brethren, wholly\ndisregarding the formal differences that existed, rejoicing heartily in\nall their successes, and wishing them God-speed, seeing only the objects\nfor which all labored\u2014the enlightenment of the world, the saving of\nmankind. He was always willing to co-operate. He never withheld his hand\nor voice, when there was a chance to help a struggling church, because\nit was of a different denomination from his own.\n\nHe gave another account of these experiences and their effect upon his\nmind, in some remarks at one of his Friday-night meetings, suggested by\nthe meeting, in the spring of 1869, of the Assemblies of the Old and New\nSchools, and their reunion as one body at that time:\n\n\u201cMy whole life has more or less taken its color from the controversy\nwhich led to the division of the Old School and the New School\nPresbyterians. I was brought up in New England, a minister\u2019s son, the\nson of a minister who was doctrinally inclined and whose warmest friends\nwere great doctrinarians. My father\u2019s household was substantially a\ndebating society. As early as I can remember I knew enough to discuss\nforeordination, and I could do it as well as my betters. I could go just\nas far as they could, could run against snags at the same spots that\nthey did, and could not get off any better than they could. All those\ngreat doctrines which tend powerfully to enlarge the imagination and to\nsharpen the reason without feeding them were, I had almost said, matters\nof daily conversation in my father\u2019s family. When I went to college I\nfell under the influence of a young minister who became an Old School\nPresbyterian. He was a man of large brain and marked ability. He had a\nnaturally philosophic mind. He was noble-hearted and genial. I remember\nthat my poetic temperament, alongside of his rigorous, logical\ntemperament, used to seem to me mean and contemptible. I thought he was\nlike a big oak-tree, while I was more like a willow, half-grown and\npliant, yielding to every force that was exerted upon it. At any rate,\nhe had a powerful influence upon my development. But as I came to the\npossession of myself more and more I took on the logical methods in the\nexercise of the reasoning faculty which God had implanted in me, and\nthey came near wrecking me; for I became sceptical, not malignantly but\nhonestly, and it was to me a matter of great distress and anguish. It\ncontinued for years, and no logic ever relieved me. My brother Charles\nwent through the same process, and he came back in the same way that I\ndid, through the instrumentality of a living Saviour. An abstract,\nphilosophical statement of the truth never met my wants, but when there\narose over the horizon a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ as a living\nFriend, who had the profoundest personal interest in me, I embraced that\nview and was lifted up. My heart did for me then what my head had failed\nto do. This was an experience which has constituted one of the greatest\naffirmative forces that have acted on my mind in preaching. All my life\nlong I have had a strong disposition to so preach the truth as to meet\nthe wants of men who stand not only outside of the churches but outside\nof belief. I suppose that as long as I live I shall think of the truth,\nnot as it looks to those that are within the Church, but as it looks to\nthose that are outside of the Church and outside of belief itself.\n\n\u201cThis has given to my preaching an element of naturalism. It has led me\nto seek for a ground on which I could stand and bring men to a knowledge\nof the love of Christ. I have gone far from the usual narrow\necclesiastical and theological rules to broader social methods by which\nmen that are doubters can be reached.\n\n\u201cMy first settlement as a pastor was at Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where I\nwas two years in the Presbyterian Church. When I left Lane Seminary I\nwent down there to preach, and I thought nothing about Church\nconnection. My business, as I supposed, was to preach what little I knew\nand to lead men to the Saviour; but I soon felt, for the first time, the\nauthority of the Church. I had not been ground; I was nothing but corn,\nand I had to be run through a mill. This Lawrenceburg church was in the\nterritory of the Miami Presbytery. The Presbytery was not only a body of\nPresbyterians, but was composed of _Old School_ Presbyterians; not only\nwere they Old School Presbyterians, but they were _Scotch-Irish_\nPresbyterians; and not only were they straight, but they bent like a\nhoop the other way. I had received an ordination license at the\nCincinnati Presbytery\u2014where my father belonged at that time\u2014in about\n1837; but it was necessary that I should undergo another examination.\nThe Assemblies had not then divided; there was only the one Church; but\nthere were two parties\u2014the Old School and the New School. There was the\none great body, but there were these two sections. There were\npresbyteries and synods of the New School, and there were presbyteries\nand synods of the Old School; but they were under the same authority.\n\n\u201cI went on horseback from Lawrenceburg to Oxford, where the Presbytery\nwas in session. And, by the way, I came near losing my life in crossing\nthe river. The water was high, and I was thrown into it; but I got out\nand dried off, and started again, and reached my destination without any\nfurther mishap, and went through my examination.\n\n\u201cAt that time, under the instruction which I had had in my father\u2019s\nfamily, under the college drill that I had gone through, and under the\ntraining to which I was subjected in Lane Seminary, I had become so\nfamiliar with the doctrines of theology that it was difficult for any\none to put me down in a discussion of them. I could state them very\nglibly. I was ready with an explanation of every single point connected\nwith them. I knew all their proofs, all their dodging cuts, all their\nins and outs. Therefore I had no trouble in standing my ground with the\nmen who examined me. They knew they had Dr. Beecher\u2019s son before them;\nthe questions came like hail, and I was very willing. Somehow I have\nalways had a certain sympathy with human nature which has led me\ninvariably, in my better moods, to see instinctively, or to perceive by\nintuition, how to touch the right chord in people, how to reach the\nliving principle in them; and that faculty was fully awakened in me on\nthis occasion. I recollect that the presiding clergyman at that\nPresbytery was a man that I had seen at my father\u2019s house and that I had\ntaken a sort of fancy to. He was probably fifty or sixty years of age.\nHe was tall, and was thin in the face, and he had a shrill, ringing\nvoice. I felt that he was like a file; but still I liked him. Well, he\nput questions to me. Some of them I answered directly, some ingeniously,\nsome intelligently, and others somewhat obscurely. The examination\nextended over two or three hours; and I thought I perceived a warming\nand melting influence among those men. I was quite indifferent as to\nwhether or not I came out with their endorsement, and I have a\nrecollection of feeling very fine. They questioned, and questioned, and\nquestioned; and it happened that the points on which they were very\nparticular were man\u2019s sinfulness, the influence of the Holy Ghost, its\nnecessity, its work, the thoroughness of it, and so on.\n\n\u201cNow, I was always immensely orthodox\u2014thunderingly so; and when they\nthought they were going to get heresy they got a perfect avalanche of\northodoxy. This man whom I had seen at father\u2019s was quite carried away\nwith me; he shielded me and helped me over some rough places; and the\nPresbytery, without a dissenting voice, voted that I was orthodox\u2014to\ntheir amazement and mine!\n\n\u201cI thought then that the bitterness of death was past, when lo! a\nprofessor from Oxford University, Miami, introduced a resolution, which\nwas passed, that that Presbytery would not license nor ordain any\ncandidate who would not give in his adhesion to the Old School\nPresbyterian General Assembly. It was on that point that the Old and New\nSchools divided, and I, being my father\u2019s son, spurned the idea of going\nover to the Old School; I felt as big as forty men; and when that\nresolution passed I simply said: \u2018Well, brethren, I have nothing to do\nbut to go back to my father\u2019s house.\u2019 They were kind to me; they seemed\nto have conceived an affection for the young man; they took the greatest\npains to conciliate me; they endeavored to smooth the way for me, and\ntried to persuade me to comply with their wish; but I was determined,\nand said, \u2018I won\u2019t.\u2019 I always had the knack of saying that and sticking\nto it!\n\n\u201cSo I turned my back on the Oxford Presbytery, and rode to Lawrenceburg\nagain; and the next Sunday morning I announced to my congregation the\nresult of my week\u2019s pilgrimage, told them of the vote which declared\ntheir church vacant, and said to them: \u2018Now, brethren, one of two things\nis necessary: you must get somebody else to preach for you, or you must\ndeclare yourselves independent of the Presbyterian Church.\u2019 It was no\nsooner said than done. Before sundown on that day they declared\nthemselves an independent church, and I decided to stay with them. I was\nthen ordained by the New School Presbytery in Cincinnati, after which I\nwent on with my work regularly.\n\n\u201cPreceding all this, you should recollect that during the three years\nthat I was in the Seminary the controversy between the Old and New\nSchool Presbyterians ran very high on questions of theology and on\nquestions of Church authority. I had been stuffed with these things. I\nhad eaten and drank them. I had chopped and hewed them. I had built up\nfrom them every sort of argument. I had had them _ad nauseam_.\n\n\u201cWhen I went out into the field I found all the little churches ready to\ndivide, such was the state of feeling throughout the whole West. Going\ninto my work in the midst of that state of affairs, I made up my mind\ndistinctly that, with the help of God, I would never engage in any\nreligious contention. I remember riding through the woods for long,\ndreary days, and I recollect at one time coming out into an open place\nwhere the sun shone down through to the bank of the river, and where I\nhad such a sense of the love of Christ, of the nature of His work on\nearth, of its beauty and its grandeur, and such a sense of the\nmiserableness of Christian men quarrelling and seeking to build up\nantagonistic churches\u2014in other words, the kingdom of Christ rose up\nbefore my mind with such supreme loveliness and majesty\u2014that I sat in my\nsaddle, I do not know how long (many, many minutes; perhaps half an\nhour), and there, all alone, in a great forest of Indiana, probably\ntwenty miles from any house, prayed for that kingdom, saying audibly, \u2018I\nwill never be a sectary.\u2019 I remember promising Christ that if He would\nstrengthen me and teach me how to work I would all my life long preach\nfor His kingdom and endeavor to love everybody who was doing that work.\nNot that I would accept others\u2019 belief, not that I would embrace their\ntheology, not that I would endorse their ecclesiastical organizations;\nbut whatever their instruments might be, if they were sincerely working\nfor the kingdom of Christ I would never put a straw in their way and\nnever strike a blow to their harm. By the grace of God I have kept that\nresolution to this day. There was _so_ much good that came from the\ndiscussions and quarrels of the Old and New Schools by which at that\nperiod of my ministry I was surrounded. So much for the influence on my\nmind of those early scenes and experiences, which were more, in some\nrespects, a theological school to me than Lane Seminary itself was.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher at the Time of his Marriage.]\n\nSuch was the beginning of his ministry.\n\nWe may now retrace our steps a little to take a look at the beginning of\nhis domestic life.\n\nFor seven years, like Jacob of old, he had labored, waiting for the time\nwhen he could claim his wife. Of course, until he was settled somewhere\nwith some definite income, it was folly to think of marrying. But when\nhe began preaching on trial at Lawrenceburg, and it seemed probable that\nhe might be called there, his mind ran forward to when, having a\ndefinite home, he might go East for his bride. In his journal we find\none of his written reveries:\n\n[Illustration: Mrs. Beecher at the Time of her Marriage.]\n\n\u201cSPRING, _March 1, 1837_.\u2014The winter has gone. Spring has come\u2014the time\nof the singing of birds. How vividly does that little expression call up\nthe whole scene\u2014the bright sun, the mild air, the heaven full of sweet\ninfluences, and the green sprouting grass among patches of snow, and the\nswelling buds! Every voice echoes in the air, and all sounds are mellow.\nThe falling of a plank, the pound of a hammer or beetle, the rumble of a\nwagon, all, this morning, sound like joyful music. But I have one\nthought sweeter than any of these, which _makes_ these sweet: it is that\nnow only spring and summer are to fly before I meet my dear wife, not\nagain to be parted, except by death!\u201d\n\nIn July, 1837, having been formally called, though before his\nordination\u2014it then being apparent that he was to be definitely settled\nat Lawrenceburg\u2014he wrote to Miss Bullard, suggesting that their marriage\nbe celebrated shortly after his ordination, which was then expected to\nbe in the following September. He had no sooner written and mailed the\nletter when he said to himself, as he explained to his wife later: \u201cWhy\nshould I wait for my ordination? Why not have _my wife_ present at it?\nAnd I started that very afternoon.\u201d\n\nHis letter reached Miss Bullard in the morning of Saturday, July 29, and\nhe himself appeared in the evening of the same day, to the great\nsurprise of all. His plan was explained, and after a hasty discussion\nAugust 3 was fixed on for the wedding, and three o\u2019clock in the\nafternoon the hour.\n\n\u201cI was expected to be ready to leave in the afternoon of August 3,\u201d\nwrites Mrs. Beecher. \u201cThe wedding-dress and wedding-cake were to be\nmade\u2014for what New England damsel could be married without wedding-cake?\nAt _one_ o\u2019clock Monday morning I began my work, sewing until the family\nwere up. After the breakfast was over the materials for the wedding-cake\nwere brought from the village store, and _Henry and I_ began the work\nfor _the cake_. He picked over and stoned the raisins\u2014taking abundant\n_toll_ while doing it\u2014beating the eggs, and in every way made himself\nuseful, and kept the whole family in good spirits and cheerful, when,\nbut for him, in such hurried preparations we might have felt the great\nexertion severely. But the work was done, and the 3d of August dawned\nbright and rosy.\n\n\u201cVery few guests were invited outside of the brothers and sisters, with\ntheir families, who were near enough to the old home to reach us. Both\nmy sisters were married in a storm, and I had always said _I would not\nbe_. Three o\u2019clock was the hour appointed for the wedding. About two a\nheavy thunder-shower came on, and it began to rain, thunder, and\nlighten. At three o\u2019clock we were summoned, but I said: \u2018Wait until the\nstorm passes,\u2019 and, in spite of their remonstrance, they did wait. At\nfour o\u2019clock the clouds broke away and the sun appeared, and we were\nushered into the parlor, Henry and I together. Just as we were entering\nthe door (it was very warm, and door and windows all open) a _rainbow_,\nthe most brilliant I ever saw, and so remarked by all in the room,\nseemed through the open window to span the parlor, and the spectators\nsaid we walked under its arch to our places. In his prayer the clergyman\nspoke of the \u2018bow of peace and promise,\u2019 which he hoped was the\nbeautiful symbol of what our lives were to be.\n\n\u201cWe rode to Worcester after the long farewells were said, not expecting\nto meet the home friends again for years.\u201d\n\nA few days later Mr. Beecher wrote from New York to his sister, Mrs.\nStowe:\n\n\u201cMY VERY DEAR SISTER:\n\n\u201cBefore this gets to you, you will have begun to look for us and wonder\nthat we do not write or come. This is to certify that we are alive,\nsafely and thoroughly married. Coming, and _came_ as far as New York.\nNow, this damsel, my most comely wife, longing for the leeks and\ncucumbers of Boston, did freely eat thereof, and these, as in duty\nbound, did most freely hurt her. Three days she bore it, but on arriving\nat New York they had come well-nigh to the cholera morbus; and thus we\nare detained for a few days. The doctor\u2019s prescriptions have acted like\na charm. She is relieved, and rapidly grows better. Nevertheless, it\nbeing now Thursday, we shall tarry until Monday for her to gain\nstrength, and then, God willing, we shall set our faces westward and\ntravel like the wind. We were married on Thursday afternoon, at four\no\u2019clock, August the third. We went immediately to Worcester, to Mr.\nBarton\u2019s. Nothing could surpass his delicate kindness to us.\n\n\u201cI preached a preparatory lecture to the three churches on Friday P.M.,\nand preached twice for Mr. Peabody on Sunday. Monday left for Boston.\nStayed until Tuesday of the week ensuing. Preached in Bowdoin church in\nthe morning of Sunday, and at Park Street in the P.M. Was invited to\npreach _all_ day at Bowdoin, and also all day at Odeon, but preferred my\ncourse. Left for New York on Tuesday noon; arrived next morning. Am at\nRev. Mr. Jones\u2019s (Mrs. Beecher\u2019s brother-in-law), and very pleasantly\nsituated. Lucy Ann is a dear, sweet sister, and Mr. Jones a most amiable\nand well-read, gentlemanly man. Probably I shall preach here on the\nSabbath, but nothing has yet been definitely said.\n\n\u201cShall return by Pittsburgh, leaving this place on Monday next, if God\nwills. At that rate you may calculate upon seeing us somewhere about the\nmiddle of the week ensuing.\n\n\u201cAh! Harriet, how I long to see you and Calvin. I shall soon show you my\ndear, dear wife. I grow more and more proud of her every day....\n\n\u201cLove to _all_\u2014for I love you all, even to the little homely kitten\u2014and\nlove to all _our_ folks, Margaret Hastings and all.\n\n                   \u201cYours most affectionately, dear Harriet,\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\nLeaving New York, they started westward, partly by rail, partly by\nsteamer, and not a little by the slow method of the canal; travelled day\nand night, until they finally reached Cincinnati the last of August.\n\nFrom Mrs. Beecher\u2019s memory we obtain her impressions of their first\npastorate:\n\n\u201cWe remained a few days at Walnut Hills, and then took the little\nsteamer with a free pass to Lawrenceburg. We were to board for the\npresent, as we did not think that eighteen cents in pocket and three\nhundred dollars a year prospective salary would enable us to begin\nhousekeeping. Lawrenceburg was a small place on the Miami.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher was obliged to take charge of that part of the building in\nwhich he was to preach. Together we went every Saturday afternoon, swept\nand dusted the room, filled the lard-oil lamps, and laid the wood and\nkindlings ready for him to start the fire the next morning before\nservice, when needed; for the members of the church were all, except a\nfew families, poor laboring people, with all they could attend to at\nhome.\n\n\u201cBut curiosity to hear the young preacher filled the room the first\nSabbath, and from that time it continued to be filled\u2014crowded. The\nMethodist church had always been the fashionable church, where the\nwealthy and more refined part of the population worshipped. This little\nPresbyterian church had almost died out, and, when first requested to\npreach there, neither Mr. Beecher nor the people had any thought of his\ncoming for more than that one Sabbath. But his manner of preaching was\nso very different from what they had been accustomed to\u2014so original\u2014that\nthey wanted to hear him again, and after that they gave him a call to\nsettle there. The Home Missionary Society were to give $150, and the\nlittle band who composed the church thought they could manage to raise\n$150\u2014in all $300\u2014and the call was accepted, notwithstanding the\nremonstrance of friends in Cincinnati. They were more ambitious for him\nthan he was for himself, knowing that he could doubtless, in a short\ntime, get a better settlement. They knew, also, he intended to marry as\nsoon as his theological course was finished, and thought him wild to\nthink of bringing a wife out West and expect to be able to live on three\nhundred dollars a year. But from the first he acted up to the advice he\nalways gave in after-years to young graduates from theological\nseminaries: \u2018_Don\u2019t hang_ round idle, waiting for a _good offer_. Enter\nthe first field God opens for you. If He needs you in a larger one He\nwill open the gate for you to enter.\u2019 _And so_ he _did_.\n\n\u201cFrom his first sermon[4] in Lawrenceburg that little room was crowded.\nHe did not extemporize so entirely, at first, as in later years\u2014at least\nhe wrote more copious notes\u2014but those who knew him can well imagine that\nwhen warmed up by his subject his notes did not hold him very closely.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n  \u201cSee Appendix A.\u201d\n\n-----\n\n\u201cHow vividly I recall that first Sabbath! How young, how boyish he did\nlook! And how indignant I felt, when some of the \u2018_higher classes_\u2019 came\nin out of simple curiosity, to see the surprised, almost scornful looks\nthat were interchanged!\n\n\u201cHe read the first hymn, and read it well\u2014as they had never heard their\nown ministers (often illiterate, uneducated men) read hymns. I watched\nthe expression change on their faces. Then the first prayer! It was a\nrevelation to them, and when he began the sermon the critical expression\nhad vanished, and they evidently settled themselves to _hear_ in\nearnest.\n\n\u201cThe next Sunday the interest was still more strongly marked. His\npreaching was to them something unusual. It was evident the hearers were\nnot quite at ease. He _woke_ them up, and they were not quite prepared\nto decide whether they were anxious to be so thoroughly aroused. They\nwere not exactly comfortable, and some went away, after the services\nwere over, a little irritated and half-decided never to hear him again.\n\n\u201cThe next Sabbath they concluded it would not hurt them to go just this\none time more, and from that time were constant attendants. The\nsatisfaction with this young preacher increased, and many from all sects\ncame regularly.\u201d\n\nOn his return from the East with his young wife, not feeling that they\ncould afford to undertake housekeeping, he accepted the hospitality of\none of his elders, who had offered him a room in his house. There they\nlived for some little time, when the sudden death of a member of the\nfamily and the necessity of a change in the good elder\u2019s domestic\narrangements required the use of this room.\n\nAt this time Mr. Beecher was attending a synodical meeting at\nCincinnati. Mrs. Beecher set to work at once to get board elsewhere.\nFailing in this, she sought to hire rooms. After hunting until nearly\nexhausted she secured the refusal of two rooms over a stable down by the\nbanks of the Miami, which had been occupied by the hostler, rental forty\ndollars per annum.\n\nShe immediately took the boat to Cincinnati, and then, being too poor to\nhire a wagon, she walked to Walnut Hills, four miles from\nCincinnati\u2014which was then the home of the Beecher family\u2014to report on\nthe state of affairs to her husband. A hasty examination of his finances\nshowed just sixty-eight cents. As they had no household furniture of any\nkind, the prospect was not alluring. But an ability to get along somehow\nwas a characteristic of those days. Friends, though not over-rich\nthemselves, were able each to furnish something. One supplied half of an\nold carpet, another some knives and forks, a third a few sheets and\npillow-cases, then a bedstead, a stove; and little by little, before\nthey returned home that night, there was gathered together enough to\nmeet the absolute requirements of living. Later the sale of Mrs.\nBeecher\u2019s cloak realized thirty dollars. The salary, though nominally\n$500 per annum, was in fact but $300, of which one-half was paid by the\nHome Missionary Society, and neither half paid with great regularity.\nAny industrious day-laborer of modern times would have been ill-content\nwith either income or home possessions.\n\nReturning from Walnut Hills, the next thing was to cleanse the rooms and\nsettle down. Mrs. Beecher gives a graphic account of their first\nhousekeeping: \u201cWhen we reached our former boarding-house we found our\ngood friends with whom we had boarded very blue because their pastor and\nwife could find no better rooms; but the lady was a true New England\nwoman and knew how soon a little hard labor would change the looks of\nthe rooms. Old Toby, their colored man, brought round, the next morning,\ntwo pails and scrub-brushes and plenty of soap, and Henry and I went to\nwork with great energy. Think of father with sleeves rolled up, a big\napron on, scrubbing the floors! But I confess I never had known anything\nso hard to clean. Tobacco-stains and all manner of dirt that might have\nbeen looked for from the former occupants was so soaked into the floor\nthat it seemed impossible to remove the stains. I asked the landlord if\nwe might get some paint and paint the floors. \u2018_Oh! no. That would\ninjure the wood!_\u2019\n\n\u201cIn a day or two the rooms were as clean as faithful, hard work could\nmake them, and after our last breakfast with our kind friends we bade\nthem good-morning, with thanks and a blessing, and went to get our\nfurniture, which the good captain of the steamboat had stored until we\nwere ready. With it came some groceries, wash-tubs, and a nice painted\ndining-table, and a _husk_ mattress, and _husk_ pillows.\n\n\u201c\u2018Where did these last things come from?\u2019 said your father.\n\n\u201c\u2018Part of my cloak,\u2019 I replied, \u2018but not all of it.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe kitchen-window looked out on a large back-yard that could be made a\nfine one with a little care, but among the rubbish I espied an old\nthree-legged table and something that looked like the remains of small\nhanging shelves. I ran down stairs and asked the landlady if they had\nbeen thrown aside as worthless. \u2018Oh! yes. They are good for nothing.\u2019\n\u2018Then may I have them?\u2019 \u2018Certainly. But on examination you will find\nthem of no use.\u2019\n\n\u201cI washed and cleaned them well, and called to Henry to take them\nup-stairs to our rooms. By the table I found the broken leg. With very\nlittle trouble the table was repaired, the hanging shelves put up, and\nboth varnished. They proved to be mahogany, and when the varnish was dry\nthey looked quite nice. Among your father\u2019s very scanty wardrobe was an\nold coat past any mending. I took the skirt, cleaned it, and put it on\nthe top of the table, and fastened the sides and ends with some strips\nof kid that I had brought from home. It did look quite fine, and you can\nhardly imagine how much pride and pleasure your father had with his\nwriting-table.\n\n\u201cThe long boxes made in Amherst expressly to pack his books in when he\ncame West were well made of planed boards. These we set one atop of the\nother, open side out, and filled with books bought by his own labors\nwhile in college, teaching school, and making speeches. These made quite\na fine addition to the room which was to be the parlor, study, and our\nbed-room all in one.\n\n\u201cIn the back room was a cook-stove given by brother George, and the old\nthree-quarter bedstead that your father used at Lane Seminary, now all\nnice and clean, curtained with some four-cent calico Mrs. Judge Burnet\ngave us. Henry made the upright posts and ran a large wire round it on\nwhich the curtain was hung, with a wide tape all round the top on which\nour clothes were pinned. Crosswise from the door to the chimney a piece\nof four-cent calico curtained the corner where wash-benches and tubs,\nflour-barrel and sugar-barrel (the two last sent in by good friends)\nwere placed, and over the door leading to the loft in the adjoining\nstore your father had nailed some large pieces to hold saddle, bridle,\nand buffalo-robe. On the other side of the range was a good dish-closet,\nand in front a sink.\n\n\u201cSo these two small rooms, at first so repulsive, were becoming quite a\npleasant home. The house was situated very near the boat-landing on the\nwharf of the Miami River\u2014too near for comfort when freshets swept down\nin _that direction_, but a pleasant outlook across on to the Kentucky\nhills; the river sometimes so low that your father has walked across and\ngathered flowers in Kentucky, then again rising so as to sweep\neverything before it as it did two years ago, utterly obliterating all\nthat portion of Lawrenceburg where we lived.\u201d\n\nWe are indebted to the Rev. John H. Thomas, the present pastor of Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s old church in Lawrenceburg, for the impressions of his\nministry there, as gathered from the reminiscences of his surviving\nparishioners:\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher made his mark immediately. His youthful appearance\u2014he was\nbut twenty-three\u2014and his careless dress may have raised doubts as to his\nability when his hearers first saw him, but they disappeared as soon as\nhe began to speak. The characteristics of his later oratory were all\npresent from the first\u2014fluency, glowing rhetoric, abundance of\nillustrations, witty points, brilliant ideas. From the first he filled\nthe church. Merchants told their customers of the talented young\npreacher, and they would come miles to hear him. He was annoyed at\ninterruptions, and when late-comers appeared he would stop speaking till\nthey were seated.\n\n\u201cHis personal habits were as original and effective as his pulpit\nefforts. He was not what would be called a good pastor. An old pastor of\nthe Methodist Episcopal church in Lawrenceburg said to me: \u2018Mr. Beecher\ncould outpreach me, but I could out-visit him, and visiting builds up a\nchurch more than preaching.\u2019 The records of the church during his\npastorate are yet in our hands, though in one of the great floods here\nthe volume floated out of the submerged study of the pastor, and was\nfound, by chance, embedded in the yellow deposit of the Ohio. It is\naccurately and neatly kept, in the beautiful hand of Mr. Beecher, each\nentry signed with his well-known autograph. The additions to the church\nwere about on the average of other pastors.\n\n\u201cBut outside of strictly pastoral work Mr. Beecher\u2019s influence was felt\nwidely and beneficially. He was universally popular. He was kindly,\ngenial, and free with all classes. He would hunt and fish with men not\nused to the society of clergymen, and spent much time on the river,\nespecially in catching drift-wood brought down in every rise. Once he\ncalled to a poor German emigrant woman that if she would bring him her\nclothes-line he would show her how to get her winter\u2019s supply of fuel.\nShe brought it, and he tied a stone to one end, and, flinging it out\nfrom the shore over logs, would draw them in. In a little while their\ncombined efforts had brought in a dray-load.\n\n\u201cHe was fond of talking with all sorts and conditions of men. There was\nan old shoemaker in the town of pronounced infidel views. Mr. Beecher\nwould spend hours in the room where he worked, discussing with him.\n\n\u201cThere is no evidence that he lowered in any degree his character as a\nGospel minister, but plenty that his influence was felt by the neglected\nclasses, and even by the rough elements. And in this did he not follow\nthe example of his divine Master, of whom it was said: \u2018This man\nreceiveth sinners and eateth with them\u2019?\n\n\u201cHe was not unscholarly, but is remembered as a reader rather than as a\nstudent. He studied men even more than books. A Baptist minister with\nwhom he had a discussion one Sunday is yet living here, and has told me\nthat at the close of the discussion, in which the Baptist minister\nthought he had the best of it, Mr. Beecher waved his hand and said to\nthe audience: \u2018Well, I don\u2019t care if you all go down to the river and\nget immersed.\u2019\n\n\u201cHis going away was esteemed a great loss. \u2018Cords of people,\u2019 says an\nold lady graphically, \u2018were about to come into the Church.\u2019 But\nIndianapolis, then with only 2,500 people, was the State capital, and\nwas rapidly outstripping the little town on the river. It was a louder\ncall.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher\u2019s relations with the other ministers were happy, although\nhe outshone them completely. He established a popular union\nSunday-school, notwithstanding there was one in each church, and he\noften spoke in other churches.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher described his preaching there as follows:\n\n\u201cI preached some theology. I had just come out of the Seminary, and\nretained some portions of systematic theology, which I used when I had\nnothing else; and as a man chops straw and mixes it with Indian meal in\norder to distend the stomach of the ox that eats it, so I chopped a\nlittle of the regular orthodox theology, that I might sprinkle it with\nthe meal of the Lord Jesus Christ. But my horizon grew larger and larger\nin that one idea of Christ. It seems to me that first I saw Christ as\nthe Star of Bethlehem, but afterward He seemed to expand, and I saw\nabout a quarter of the horizon filled with His light, and through years\nit came around so that I saw about one-half in that light; and it was\nnot until after I had gone through two or three revivals of religion\nthat, when I looked around, He was _all_ and in all. And my whole\nministry sprang out of that.\u201d\n\nAt another time he said:\n\n\u201cI had no idea that I could preach. I never expected that I could\naccomplish much. I merely went to work with the feeling: \u2018I will do as\nwell as I can, and I will stick to it, if the Lord pleases, and fight\nHis battle the best way I know how.\u2019 And I was thankful as I could be.\nNobody ever sent me a spare-rib that I did not thank God for the\nkindness which was shown me. I recollect when Judge \u2014\u2014\u2014 gave me his\ncast-off clothing I felt that I was sumptuously clothed. I wore old\ncoats and second-hand shirts for two or three years, and I was not above\nit either, although sometimes, as I was physically a somewhat\nwell-developed man, and the judge was thin and his legs were slim, they\nwere rather a tight fit.\n\n\u201cThere was a humorous side to this, but I could easily have put a\ndolorous side to it. I could have said: \u2018Humph! pretty business! Son of\nLyman Beecher, president of a theological seminary, in this miserable\nhole, where there is no church, and where there are no elders and no men\nto make them out of! This is not according to my deserts. I could do\nbetter. I ought not to waste my talents in such a place.\u2019 But I was\ndelivered from any such feeling. I felt that it was an unspeakable\nprivilege to be anywhere and speak of Christ. I had very little\ntheology\u2014that is to say, it slipped away from me. I knew it, but it did\nnot do me any good. It was like an armor which had lost its buckles and\nwould not stick on. But I had one vivid point\u2014the realization of the\nlove of God in Christ Jesus. And I tried to work that up in every\npossible shape for my people. And it was the secret of all the little\nsuccess which I had in the early part of my ministry. I remember that I\nused to ride out in the neighborhood and preach to the destitute, and\nthat my predominant feeling was thanksgiving that God had permitted me\nto preach the unsearchable riches of His grace. I think I can say that\nduring the first ten years of my ministerial life I was in that spirit.\u201d\n\nHere he began a habit which he followed during the first ten years of\nhis ministry\u2014that of keeping a record of every sermon preached, stating\nthe date, text, an outline of the sermon, and then the reasons why he\npreached that particular sermon, \u201cas giving a kind of guide to my course\nby a perusal of what I have done, also to avoid repetition and to show\n_why_ I made given sermons\u201d; thus forming the habit of preparing his\nsermons with a view to reaching some specific object. This record, with\nhis daily journal in which he jotted down such thoughts on religious\nsubjects as came to his mind day by day, are now before us, and show an\nimmense amount of painstaking care. His habit of careful analysis was of\nincalculable value to him later, giving a logical method to his\nreasoning. It was not until after he came to Brooklyn that, under the\nincreased pressure of this larger field of work, he abandoned this\nhabit.\n\nThe last recorded sermons we find were those preached on the morning and\nevening of January 5, 1848.\n\nDuring the second year of his Lawrenceburg pastorate he received a call\nto the Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, at a salary of $600\nper year. Though this opened up a much larger and more effective field\nof labor, with the means of living much more comfortably, yet, feeling\nthat he was doing effective work where he was, he refused the call. He\nwas always opposed to short pastorates and frequent changes: he had no\nfaith in rolling stones.\n\nAfter a short time the call was repeated and again declined. He was then\nurged to reconsider his refusal, and strong representations were made to\nhim that it was his duty to accept the larger and more important field.\nAt last, perplexed, he agreed to lay the matter before the Synod and\nabide by their recommendation The Synod advised that he accept the call.\n\nAside from the strong aversion which he felt for restless changes, and\nthe feeling that, no matter how humble the field might be, he ought to\nlabor there so long as there was work for the Master to engage him, he\nalso felt a great unwillingness to leave the people to whom he was\nbecoming strongly attached. The life there, though rude and simple, had\nbeen very happy. There his first child had been born. There for the\nfirst time he really had begun to live and work in the field he had\nchosen. But as he felt constrained to be guided by the advice which he\nhad sought, on the Synod\u2019s recommendation he accepted the call.\n\nOn the afternoon of July 28, 1839, he preached his farewell sermon at\nLawrenceburg from the text: \u201cThese are the words which I spake unto you\nwhile I was yet with you.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                               CHAPTER X.\n\nThe New Field\u2014Growth of Influence\u2014Social Life\u2014The Secret of Effective\n    Preaching\u2014Editorial Labors\u2014Lectures to Young Men\u2014Call to\n    Brooklyn\u2014Departure.\n\n\nWith a heart full of tender feelings he parted with his people and\nentered into the larger work in which he first became known outside of\nthe limits of his Presbytery.\n\nIn the last week in July, 1839, he removed his family to Indianapolis,\nwhich, though it was the State capital, was hardly more than a village,\nhaving less than 4,000 inhabitants, its streets unpaved and noted for\nthe depth and persistency of the mud. Like most of the then frontier\ntowns, it was very malarial; chills and fever were expected as a matter\nof course, very rarely disappointing the expectation.\n\nThe Second Presbyterian Church was an offshoot from the \u201cFirst\u201d Church,\na chip struck out by the axe of controversy, then being so fiercely\nwaged between the Old and New Schools. The new church was of course New\nSchool. Its fifteen original members, having been released from the\nFirst Church after some little ecclesiastical difficulty, organized at\nonce, and secured the second story of the old Marion County Seminary.\n\nTheir first call was to Rev. S. Holmes, of New Bedford, Mass.; he\ndeclined. They then invited Rev. John C. Young, of Danville, Ky., with\nlike result. Their next call was to Henry Ward Beecher, who became their\nfirst pastor. He was then but twenty-six, looking still young, but\nfresh, rugged, and full of life.\n\nTo the few survivors of that little band who knew and loved him in those\nearly days we are largely indebted for the impression produced by his\npreaching in this church and in the community, and for a brief account\nof his life among them.\n\n\u201cMy first recollection of Mr. Beecher,\u201d said one of his early\nparishioners, \u201cwas when I was a journeyman printer. A man named King\ncame to me and, with much enthusiasm, declared he had heard the greatest\npreacher he had ever listened to in his life\u2014a young fellow who was\npreaching at the Marion County Seminary.\n\n\u201cI went there and heard him for the first time in the spring of 1840, I\nsuppose it was. I was, like everybody else, perfectly carried away with\nhim. I soon formed his acquaintance, and, after he got to the new church\non the Circle, became a member in the great revival of 1842. I was a\nprinter when he delivered those lectures to young men, and in the course\nof printing them (I was at work in the shop where they were published) I\nwas much in contact with him. They were published by the old jobbing\nhouse of E. Chamberlain, who was afterwards a bookseller here. The\n_Indiana Farmer_ was printed in the office where I worked, published by\na Quaker named Willis. Mr. Beecher was really the life and soul of\nit\u2014wrote all the articles in it that were good for anything. I\nfrequently assisted him in reading proofs. He had no practical\nexperience as an agriculturist, except that he was thoroughly alive to\nevery new thing. He took great pride in raising flowers, and his garden\nwas full of plants that had never been seen here before. During his\nrevival meetings\u2014I think as much to test my sincerity and earnestness as\nanything else\u2014he invited me to come to his house at five o\u2019clock in the\nmorning and breakfast with him. It was a winter morning and before\ndaylight. Mrs. Beecher and the children were up, everything in perfect\norder, and breakfast ready. He called his wife and children together for\nfamily worship, and spoke and prayed in simple words. It seemed to me\nthe most beautiful and touching thing I ever saw in my life. Mr.\nBeecher, I thought, was even then broad in his ideas and the most\nindustrious man I ever knew. For a time he lived in one side of a little\none-story house in the alley half a square north of Washington Street,\nbetween East and New Jersey Streets, in the rear of where the Jewish\nSynagogue now stands. I think there were three rooms. At another time he\noccupied a house that stood near the southeast corner of Pennsylvania\nand New York Streets. He has told me that during a malarial season he\npreached when he could hardly stand up, and, making his way home, would,\non entering his door, fall from exhaustion.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Church at Indianapolis.]\n\nAnother writing to us says:\n\n\u201cI remember well the occasion of his advent here (from Lawrenceburg).\nAlmost immediately his ministry attracted a strong following\u2014quite too\nnumerous and influential for the limited seating capacity of one hundred\nand fifty the chapel could accommodate, and a church was erected for him\non the corner of Market and Circle Streets. That was probably in 1840.\nThe building was regarded as a colossal edifice, and, while what would\nnow be considered primitive in the extreme, was in the main comfortable\nand inviting. It was the first departure from the orthodox style of high\npulpits, and contained a low desk and platform. From the first his\npreaching and precept were of the beauty of holiness and praise,\ngladness and thanksgiving, and to this end he added the attraction of\nmusic to the service of lesson and prayer. In those days his choir was\nconsidered magnificent, and what the organ might lack in volume was more\nthan made up in melody and soul-reaching timbre. He was especially happy\nin the selection of music that seemed to be an accompaniment to his\ndiscourse. He was also the first clergyman, out of the Episcopal Church,\nto introduce chants in the service.\n\n\u201cUpon the opposite side of _The Circle_ from his church, facing west,\nwas located the First Presbyterian Church, the Rev. Phineas D. Gurley,\npastor. I have often heard them spoken of as the \u2018two distinguished\ndivines\u2019 who were \u2018the wheel-horses among theologians.\u2019 They were both\nleaders. I think that if there was one impression more than another\nconveyed by Mr. Beecher\u2019s appearance it was that of reserve force. The\nsteam up, he was capable and eager for the work in hand. Indeed, he\nseemed the very personification of energy. I recall, however, that he\nwas always neatly dressed, usually in black, and that he was the first\nclergyman in this part of the country to wear a soft hat. I am not sure\nif he did not wear the first straw hat in those days of clerical\nconventionality. He was certainly devoted to comfort, if in no manner\ngiven to taking his ease. I doubt if he knew what it was to be idle.\nWhen apparently indulging in recreation his active mind was storing food\nfor thought and spiritual teaching. The lightest romance which caught\nhis fancy (for he was an omnivorous reader) furnished material for\npractical application.\n\n\u201cIn form he was compactly built, with just enough flesh to give grace to\nhis lithe and active movements. His step was particularly elastic and\nyet firm. All vigor and animation, there was the rosy tint of health in\nhis complexion, and his eyes were as clear and bright as a child\u2019s. His\ndisposition was sunny, and the kindly grasp of his hand confirmed the\ncharm of his genial presence. It followed that he was fond of young\npeople and frequently participated in their romps and sports. I remember\nin a game of copenhagen at a church picnic he was in no way disconcerted\nby being rolled over and over down the hill when entangled in the rope.\n\n\u201cWhen need be he could be determined enough. At one time a younger\nbrother was an inmate of his family, and was a classmate of mine at the\nUniversity. In the boy\u2019s judgment \u2018all work and no play made Jack a dull\nboy,\u2019 and he went fishing and was gone two days. Instead of whetting his\nappetite for study the diversion had the opposite effect, and he openly\ndeclared he would go to school no more. Mr. Beecher did not waste words\non the matter, but seized him and took him by main force. As they drew\nnear the University the lad broke loose and took to his heels, Mr.\nBeecher after him. The mud in our streets at that day was something\nphenomenal, and there was a tussle in it, when the two closed, that sent\nthe \u2018soft impeachment\u2019 in every direction. For a little while the air\nwas filled with mud; arms and legs were scarcely distinguishable. The\nauthority of elder brother prevailed, carrying its point\u2014and the younger\nbrother, too\u2014and handed him over to the tender mercies of the principal,\nMr. Kemper, who was a rigid disciplinarian, and proverbial for observing\nthe Scriptural injunction of not sparing the rod. The youth was equal to\nthe occasion, however. Equipped in extra thickness of clothing, he took\nhis punishment with most astonishing fortitude, much to the admiration\nof the other boys, whose sympathies were naturally enlisted.\n\n\u201cThis incident illustrated Mr. Beecher\u2019s indifference to appearances\nwhere a duty was involved. He also assisted in building, painting, and\nvarnishing his house, and, if material fell short or heavy groceries\nwere needed, did not hesitate to go after them with his wheelbarrow and\ntake them home. In the single particular of giving dignity to labor, if\nthere had been no other, his influence in the community was invaluable.\n\n\u201cAs in a notice of his _personnel_ his characteristics first attract\nattention, so in his ministerial labors his method of conversion came\nbefore the inculcation of doctrine.\n\n\u201cI have spoken of his fondness for young men. It was reciprocated to a\ndegree amounting to championship. His influence was personal and direct.\nIn his revival work he did not trust entirely to church service. He\nbecame personally acquainted with people. He had a habit of taking long\nstrolls with men, and what his precept failed in his good companionship\nmade up. One long walk generally captured the sinner.\n\n\u201cHe did not confine himself to Bible preachments. I heard his lectures\nto young men in the basement of the church, and they were so practical\nthat they reached every mind. He struck yeoman blows at the evils of\nintemperance, and engaged in a controversy with an influential distiller\nof Lawrenceburg that attracted much attention and was reported by the\npress of that date. Largely owing to the sentiment aroused by the\ndebate, no doubt, the distiller abandoned his calling.\n\n\u201cHe also engaged in the publication of an agricultural paper, the\n_Indiana Farmer_, and, as far as known, was the only professional man\nwho ever put practical sense into a periodical of the sort. A keen lover\nof nature, he may be said to have put his heart in the work and made it\na memorable success.\n\n\u201cI do not remember his making any political speeches, although it is\nwell known that his church was the favorite resort of statesmen, who\nmade a study of his oratory and diction for their own benefit. I know\nthat he was deeply interested in all charitable enterprises,\nparticularly the benevolent institutions that are now the pride of the\nState.\n\n\u201cNor am I aware that he ever addressed the legislative bodies in\nparticular, although the General Assembly men attended his church almost\nin a body. He was known as a Whig, but was not pronounced in that\ndirection.\n\n\u201cThe heart-felt interest he took in the slavery question was well known.\nAbout the year 1842 a roving commission of Abolitionists from the East\nvisited Indianapolis. They held a meeting on the State House grounds,\nand I remember seeing Mr. Beecher a prominent figure on the platform.\n\n\u201cThe unpopularity of the Abolition cause at that time cannot easily be\nimagined. To be identified with it was to be socially ostracized and\nboycotted generally. It required the courage of a martyr to be an\nAbolitionist. As notable examples may be cited two physicians who were\nmembers of Mr. Beecher\u2019s church. Bold enough to avow their principles,\nthey were exceedingly unpopular with the masses, and in their struggle\nto combat popular opinion found it extremely difficult to support\nthemselves and families. They literally had no practice. The manner in\nwhich Mr. Beecher sustained himself on this question was prophetic of\nthe personal hold he had upon men. It was exceptional.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile his popularity both as a preacher and man continued to\nincrease. Indeed, his success was without precedent and has never been\nrivalled since. His church was crowded every Sabbath, both by his own\ncongregation and visitors from other and distant churches. Although the\npew system obtained, at least one-fourth of the seats (one entire\nsection) was reserved for young men and strangers. Among them may be\nnamed the judges of the Supreme, Federal, and local courts;\ndistinguished professional men; and if there was a Hugh Miller of a\nfellow, picking out truths of humanity from stone or devoting himself\nlike the Owens to his fellow-man, he would be found in that imposing\nbody of men. I suppose Indianapolis could not then boast of more than\nfive thousand inhabitants, but there was an unusual aggregate of culture\nand refinement, and it was pretty sure to find delight in Mr. Beecher\u2019s\npreaching and service.\n\n\u201cAs a rule his morning sermons were more doctrinal and more confined to\nnotes than his evening discourse. In the delivery of all of his sermons,\nhowever, he would at times become very much enthused and dramatic.\n\n\u201cOne frequent gesture that I noticed in attending his last lecture here\nhe retained through life. It was the habit of raising his right hand\nhigh in air, and after a pause, sometimes prolonged, bringing his arm\ndown sharply to his side. An amusing incident once occurred in\nconsequence. At the identical moment that his hand was raised a big,\nburly fellow, a member of his congregation, aroused from a nap (even his\neloquence could not keep every man awake) and seeing the hand uplifted,\nthe sleepy lout thought the benediction was being pronounced. He\ngathered himself up accordingly and marched toward the door, making a\nterrible racket with his squeaking boots, to the visible annoyance of\nthe congregation. There was a charming twinkle of fun in the preacher\u2019s\neye as he gravely said: \u2018If others of the congregation desire to leave I\nwill wait.\u2019 A laugh went round the audience.\n\n\u201cIn his liberal interpretation of the divine calling of bringing sinners\nto repentance, some motley members, not to say black sheep, were\ngathered into the fold. Among these was a lame tailor who was a very\nhard case indeed, but was possessed of an appreciative soul and a\nwonderfully retentive memory. He was always to be found in his seat in\nchurch and was attentive enough to inspire a speaker. The following\nmorning the tailor\u2019s shop would be crowded to hear him repeat the\nsermon, or eloquent passages thereof. This he would do, word for word,\nand with a close imitation of voice and gesture that proved a\nfirst-class actor had been lost to the world in the realm of \u2018the\nshears\u2019 and \u2018goose.\u2019 A propensity for gambling that could not be checked\nwas reported to the church and he was dropped from the roll.\n\n\u201cTake them all in all, Mr. Beecher\u2019s sermons in Indianapolis were\nmarvels of logic and learning, graced by rare beauty of expression and\nthat feeling to nature kin which touched the heart. His usefulness could\nnot be circumscribed by the then narrow limits. His fame spread abroad\nin the land, and one fine Sunday two or more strangers, with an\nunmistakable New York air, appeared in the church. It transpired that\nthey were a visiting committee in search of a bright and shining pulpit\nlight, and it all ended in his call to Brooklyn.\n\n\u201cGreat were the regrets of his congregation and the community of which\nhe was the great central figure of interest and influence. The impress\nhe left has not been obliterated, with the growth of the city, by the\nlapse of time. In many respects the city is a monument to his earnest\nefforts to promote her moral and intellectual development.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher has often remarked in later years that his first real\npreaching was at Indianapolis. Although at Lawrenceburg he was noted for\nhis brilliancy of diction and wonderful oratorical power, and by his\ngood-fellowship and the strong personal interest which he took in all\nhis people made many and lasting friends, yet he did not feel that he\nwas doing real, effective work. \u201cI can preach so as to make the people\ncome to hear me,\u201d said he to good old Bishop Little, \u201cbut somehow I\ncan\u2019t preach them clear into the kingdom.\u201d\n\nA year or two after his removal to Indianapolis he determined to find\nout what the difficulty was.\n\n\u201cWe had delivered hundreds before, but until then the sermon was the end\nand not the means. We had a vague idea that truth was to be preached,\nand then it was to be left to do its work under God\u2019s blessing as best\nit might. The result was not satisfying. Why should not preaching do now\nwhat it did in the Apostles\u2019 days? Why should it be a random and\nunrequited effort? These thoughts grew, and the want of fruits was so\npainful that we determined to make a careful examination of the\nApostles\u2019 teaching, to see what made it so _immediately_ efficient. We\nfound that they laid a foundation first of historical truth common to\nthem and their auditors; that this mass of familiar truth was then\nconcentrated upon the hearers in the form of an intense personal\napplication and appeal; that the language was not philosophical and\nscholastic, but the language of common life. We determined to try the\nsame. We considered what moral truths were admitted by everybody and\ngathered many of them together. We considered how they could be so\ncombined as to press men toward a religious state. We recalled to mind\nthe character and condition of many, who, we knew, would be present, and\nthen, after as earnest a prayer as we ever offered, and with trembling\nsolicitude, we went to the academy and preached the new sermon. The Lord\ngave it power, and ten or twelve persons were aroused by it and led\nultimately to a religious life.\n\n\u201cThis was the most memorable day of our ministerial life. The idea was\nborn. Preaching was a definite and practical thing. Our people needed\ncertain moral changes. Preaching was only a method of enforcing truths,\nnot for the sake of the truths themselves, but for the results to be\nsought in _men_. _Man_ was the thing. Henceforth our business was to\nwork upon _man_; to study him, to stimulate and educate him. A sermon\nwas good that had power on the heart, and was good for nothing, no\nmatter how good, that had no moral power on man. Others had learned\nthis. It was the secret of success in every man who ever was eminent for\nusefulness in preaching. But no man can inherit experience. It must be\nborn in each man for himself. After the light dawned I could then see\nhow plainly Jonathan Edwards\u2019s sermons were so made. Those gigantic\napplications of his were only the stretching out of the arms of the\nsermon upon the lives and hearts of his audience. I could see it now,\nand wondered that I had not seen it before.\u201d\n\nThe application of this, to him, new idea soon began to be apparent in\nrich results.\n\nA series of revivals sprang up, by which many were brought into the\nchurch. From one of his successors we learn that \u201cthese were great\nfoundation days for the church. Strong religious impressions were made\nupon the young town, and very many were redeemed to a life of Christian\nservice. These were fruitful years, starred over by three prolific\nrevivals. In the spring of 1842 nearly one hundred were received; again,\nin 1843, was another spiritual blessing, and once more in 1845. Such\nfruits vindicate the character and fervor of the pastoral activity. Many\nof these converts are in the church to-day, old men, testifying as\nelders and devout believers to the genuineness of this work. Mr. Beecher\npreached seventy nights in succession during one spring, in labors\nabundant. He ceased special effort, he said, to permit many who did not\nwish to come out under an excitement, to calmly join the church.\n\n\u201cRevivals have been characteristic of this church from the beginning.\nThey have brought it steady and growing and efficient workers.\u201d\n\nHe wrote to his father May 1, 1842:\n\n\u201cProsperity and peace dwell with us. Our church is filled; our young\nconverts run well, and already there is gathered in material for another\nrevival of persons hitherto not wont to attend church anywhere.\n\n\u201cI hope this fall and early winter to see the scenes of this spring\nrenewed. The neighborhoods about town are also revived.\u201d\n\nHe has told us of one occasion when he attended a meeting of the\nPresbytery with his father. Great efforts were made at these meetings to\nawaken a religious interest among the people especially in the church\nwhere the meetings were held. Several sermons had been delivered on this\noccasion, with no great effect, when he was called upon to preach. He\nselected for his subject \u201cThe Parable of the Prodigal Son.\u201d \u201cAs I went\non describing the going away of the sinner from God the people became\ninterested; as I described the sinner\u2019s coming to himself the interest\nincreased; but when I came to the return of the sinner to God, and God\u2019s\nreadiness, even hastening, to receive him, the whole audience broke\ndown, and father, who was on the platform with me, said, wiping his eyes\nand spectacles, \u2018Thank the Lord! a revival is begun.\u2019 Mr. C\u2014\u2014\u2014, a good\nbrother, grasped my hand after the sermon with great fervor. \u2018You did\nwell, Beecher, you did well; but you ought to have given \u2019em salt\ninstead of sugar.\u2019 But since the salt had been tried several days\nwithout effect, and the sugar, as he called my preaching, brought many\nto Christ, I did not agree with him.\u201d\n\nHis zealous labors were by no means confined to Indianapolis. He was\nconstantly called to help in the towns and villages throughout the\ncentre of the State. One, two, and even three weeks at a time he would\nbe gone, laboring to help some brother striving to awaken his people.\n\nTerre Haute, Madison, Greenwood, Greencastle, Lafayette, Logansport,\nFort Wayne, Laporte, and Columbus are the names we find most frequently\nendorsed on the manuscript notes of his old revival sermons now before\nus. These were the days he loved to look back upon; though full of\nhardship, privations, and not a little suffering, they were also full of\nthat great joy which comes to those who labor successfully in winning\nsouls.\n\nRevisiting Terre Haute in one of his lecture tours many years afterward,\nand for the first time after coming East, he writes back:\n\n\u201cAnd now my face is turned homeward! I am bound to Terre Haute\u2014clear\nacross the prairie that I once traversed in early days. Farm touches\nfarm over these wide expanses which, forty years ago, I thought could\nnever be inhabited! No coal, no timber\u2014how, except along the streams,\ncould men settle and thrive? Railroads, those dry and solid rivers, have\nsolved the problem.\n\n\u201cIs this Terre Haute? How has thy prosperity increased and thy beauty\ndiminished!\n\n\u201cI wandered up and down the streets to find _my_ Terre Haute! It was\ngone, covered up, lost, utterly lost, in new streets, new buildings!\nWhere is the former green? Where the quiet fields within bowshot of the\ntown?\n\n\u201cAt any rate, I shall know the church. There it was that I first wrought\nin revivals, and every board and nail in it was precious. I found it. I\nentered by the basement side-door and stood in the lecture-room where I\npreached my first sermon, the same day of my arrival in town, to aid\nRev. Dr. Jewett. It was a solemn feeling that stole over me. I saw the\naudience again. The seats were filled with shadowy listeners! It only\nneeded to see a few of the familiar faces\u2014L. H. Scott, Dr. Ketcham,\nBall, Gookin, and others\u2014to make it real again! Just then came up the\naisle Harry Ross himself! It was the touch needed to round out the\nreminiscence. Only one fact disturbed the sweet illusion. This was not\nthe same church. The old one had been burned, and this one took its\nplace! It was a gentle shock to my sensibilities. But it stood on the\nvery ground, and was on the old foundations, and upon the same plan, and\nlooked like the old one, and so I inwardly voted that it _was_ the old\none and took my comfort of it! The city is wonderfully improved in every\nway except to those sentimentalists who come hither to renew the past\nand live over again old experiences.\n\n\u201cAfter the lecture, in a special train, we sped, through darkness and\nstorm, to Indianapolis\u2014three hours\u2019 blessed ride. How different this\nmidnight ride from the first one, thirty-five years before! For three\nweeks I had labored side by side with Brother Jewett\u2014the first revival\nin which I had ever taken part! How helpless and wretched did I feel\nwhen Jewett sent for me\u2014then newly settled in Indianapolis\u2014to come over\nand help him! I had no effective sermons. I did not know how to preach\nin a revival. Yet my elders said, Go. I rode two days the lonely road,\nthrough beech forests (now all gone), in a dazed and wondering state.\nHardly was my saddle empty before Jewett was at my elbow. \u2018You have done\nwell to come. You must preach to-night.\u2019 In a moment the cloud lifted.\nThe reluctance was gone. It has been so all my life. At a distance I\ndread and brood and shrink from any weighty enterprise; but the moment\nthe occasion arrives joy shines clear, and an eager appetite to dash\ninto the battle comes.\n\n\u201cThree memorable weeks at a time when events stamp the memory and the\nheart as the die stamps the coin! When the time came to return home did\never heart swell with stronger and more unutterable feeling? To go back\nto the ordinary round of church life from this glowing centre seemed so\nintolerable that my whole nature and all my soul rose up in\nuncontrollable prayer. Through the beech woods, sometimes crying,\nsometimes singing, and always praying, I rode in one long controversy\nwith God. \u2018Slay me if Thou wilt, but do not send me home to barrenness.\nThou _shalt_ go with me. I will not be refused. I am not afraid of Thee!\nI will prevail or die!\u2019\u2014these and even wilder strains went through the\nsoul.\n\n\u201cAt length the clouds rolled away. The heavens had never seemed so\nbeautiful and radiant. An unspeakable peace and confidence filled my\nsoul. The assurance of victory was perfect, and tranquillity blossomed\ninto joy at every step. The first day was one long struggle of prayer.\nThe second day was one long ecstasy of joy and thanksgiving! I need not\nsay to the wise that the fire of my heart kindled in the church, and for\nmonths the genial warmth brought forth a spiritual summer, so that\nflowers and fruit abounded in the garden of the Lord.\n\n\u201cAnd now in this three-hour midnight ride, amid outward storms but\ninward joy and thanksgiving, I recalled the old days, and mingled their\nlight with the gladness of the passing hour.\u201d\n\nReferring to a revival at Terre Haute\u2014perhaps the one just mentioned\u2014Dr.\nLyman Beecher wrote:\n\n\u201cThe revival here under Henry\u2019s administration and preaching was, in the\nadaptation of means and happy results, one of the most perfectly\nconducted and delightful that I have ever known.\u201d\n\nWe can get some slight idea of the hard physical labor he endured in his\nordinary home preaching by quoting a single page of his \u201cSermon Record\nBook\u201d\u2014a not unusual record:\n\n\u201cOct. 22. Rode 36 miles; Adams\u2019 neighborhood by noon. Evening\n        rode five miles to Franklin; preached on Faith.\n  \u201c   23. Rode back to Adams, and at 10\u00bd preached ordination\n        of Stimson: Duties of Pastor.\n  \u201c   24. Sunday morning and evening, our church.\n  \u201c   26. Funeral of Mrs. Jennison.\n  \u201c   31. Twice\u2014once on Baptism.\nNov.   7. Morning, baptism; P.M., funeral.\n  \u201c   11. Rode 8 miles to Brewer\u2019s and preached; home again.\n  \u201c   12. Rode 8 miles to N. Prov. Ch.; preached, and home.\n  \u201c   13. Preached morning and night, and rode 5 miles to M\u2014\u2014\u2014;\n          P.M., 10 miles, preached 3 times a day.\u201d\n\nAt this time he undertook a minute and careful analysis of the Gospels:\n\n\u201cI took the New Testament, I read it diligently, I made myself familiar\nwith the life and teachings of Christ, I became saturated with the\nspirit of the four Gospels, I obtained all the helps I could get for\ntheir interpretation, and I have now in my drawer a heap of manuscripts\nin which I have condensed and compiled these Gospels, everything in them\nbeing conveniently arranged for use. It was an immense work. These four\nGospels had, as it were, been eaten and digested by me and gone into my\nblood and bones.\n\n\u201cIt was while I was engaged in this work that Christ was brought to my\nsoul for the first time in my life with a sweetness and beauty, with a\nvividness and glory, that for the time transformed the heavens and the\nearth to my eyes. I had a conception of the depths of the nature of the\nDivine Being that made metaphysical doctrines and philosophical formulas\nmore repugnant to me than they had ever been before, and I entered into\na vow and covenant that if I were permitted to preach I would know\nnothing but Christ and Him crucified among His people. I took my horse\nand saddle-bags and traversed the wilderness of Indiana, keeping that\nview in my mind. For eight or ten years I labored for the poor and\nneedy, in cabins, in camp-meetings, through woods, up and down,\nsometimes riding two days to meet my appointments. I had no books but my\nBible, and I went from one to the other\u2014from the Bible to men, and from\nmen to the Bible. When a case came up I said to myself: \u2018What will reach\nthat case?\u2019 and I looked through the Acts of the Apostles to see how\nthey reached such cases. I hunted the Bible through in order to get at\nthe right way. So I worked on, and at last the habit was formed in my\nmind of studying men, their dispositions, their wants, their\npeculiarities; and then I worked with reference to curing them, not\nconstructing a system, but striving to produce righteousness in the\nindividual and in communities.\u201d\n\nIt is said that in his preaching he often went double-loaded. He would\ngo to church with a sermon specially prepared for some person whom he\ngreatly desired to reach. If, however, he was not present, he would\npreach a more general sermon. But when, on some other occasion, he\nfound, on entering church, that the object of his solicitude was\npresent, he would lay aside the sermon prepared for that day and preach\nthe special one.\n\nIt often occasioned no little surprise in the mind of the subject that\nMr. Beecher should have _happened_ that day to preach a sermon so\nexactly fitted to his case.\n\nAlthough he had the strongest feelings of love and kindliness toward\nmankind, both in the abstract and the concrete, yet he never hesitated\nto lash with stinging words any who took advantage of their strength to\nabuse another\u2019s weakness. And in such a case nothing could induce him to\nback down or withdraw from the attack, unless he could be satisfied that\nhe had been mistaken in his facts.\n\nOne noticeable incident of the kind occurred during his ministry in\nIndianapolis, as narrated by Mrs. Beecher:\n\nA man in the city hotel, and not a little feared because of his\nbrutality, had done something more brutal than usual, and, the facts\ncoming to Mr. Beecher\u2019s knowledge, in his sermon on the following Sunday\nhe expressed in no gentle terms his abhorrence of the act, and in very\nstrong language rebuked the man.\n\nMany of his listeners were alarmed lest the man would, when he heard of\nthe sermon, do Mr. Beecher some injury.\n\nOf course before the day was over the substance in the sermon had been\nreported throughout the town, and did not fail to reach the man\u2019s ears.\n\nMonday morning Mr. Beecher went to the post-office immediately after\nbreakfast, and must go right by the hotel around which this man would\nmost likely be hanging. He got his mail and turned to come home. As he\npassed the hotel there were several standing by, evidently watching for\nsome development. At that moment the man came down the steps with a\npistol in his hand.\n\n\u201cDid you say thus and so in your sermon yesterday?\u201d\n\n\u201cI did.\u201d\n\n\u201cDid you intend those remarks for me, or were you meaning me?\u201d\n\n\u201cI most certainly did.\u201d\n\n\u201cThen take it back right here, or by \u2014\u2014\u2014 I\u2019ll shoot you on the spot.\u201d\n\n\u201cShoot away,\u201d was the reply, as, looking the ruffian sternly in the\nface, Mr. Beecher calmly, with deliberate step, walked past the man.\nWith pointed pistol and fierce oaths the man followed for a few paces,\nwhen, baffled by the imperturbable coolness of his opponent, he slunk\naway down a side-street, ashamed to return to the hotel.\n\nMr. Beecher himself has given us an account of another similar event:\n\n\u201cI remember that in Indianapolis there was a meeting called for the\nenforcement of the laws against gamblers and against grog-selling, at\nwhich I was requested to address mechanics and laborers; and some of\nthese violators of the law were there. A man named Bishop, and others of\nthat stamp, were in the meeting to hear what was going to be said. They\nwere the very men that we were aiming at. I was much excited. There were\ngambling-dens and liquor-saloons where young men were induced to drink\nand form bad habits, and were in danger of being dragged down to\ndestruction; and I expressed myself plainly, and pointed to Bishop, who\nsat on a back seat, and denounced him to his face. There was a lively\ntime, if I recollect right; and he gave out the next day that when he\nand I met one or the other of us was going to be whipped. I went down\nthe street soon after, and I had forgotten all about it until I was\nright in front of his shop. He was a bully. He watched me as I came\ndown, and I confess that my first thought was a wish that I was not\nthere; but then it would never do for me to flinch, and I walked as\nthough I did not see him till I came close to him, when I turned and\nlooked at him. He thought I was going to attack him, and waited a\nmoment; I bowed and said, \u2018Good-morning, Mr. Bishop,\u2019 and passed on. He\nwould not run after me and hit me, and so the affair blew over.\n\n\u201cA year or two after that I left Indianapolis and went up the river, and\nhe chanced to be on the boat with me; and there never was a man that\npaid me more kind attention than he did. He looked after my children\nhere and there, guarded me at night, and wanted me to drink with\nhim\u2014some soda-water. He opened his whole heart to me, and told me how he\nfelt at the time of my remarks, how he felt the next day, and how he had\ncome to feel since. He said he knew he was carrying on a wicked trade,\nthat he was mad with himself, and that he was mad with me, and told me\nwhat it was that induced him to stop. I found that under his love of\ngain, which had led him to sell liquor, there was a conscience, a heart,\nand a good deal of kindness.\u201d\n\nDuring the latter part of his ministry in Indianapolis the Presbyterian\nclergymen had been requested by the presbytery to preach at least one\nsermon during the year on slavery. Agreeably to this suggestion Mr.\nBeecher prepared three sermons on this subject. He waited until the\nUnited States Federal Court came there, with Judge McLean as the\npresiding judge; and when all of the State courts, Supreme Court and\nCircuit, were in session and the Legislature was convened\u2014so that all\nlawyers and public officers, men of every kind, thronged the city\u2014he\nannounced that he should preach on slavery.\n\nFrom the original manuscript before us we learn that he presented his\nsubject in three sermons. In the first he discussed ancient slavery,\nespecially among the Hebrews, its origin, methods, and final\nabandonment. In his second he presented \u201cthe doctrine and practice of\nthe New Testament in respect to slavery.\u201d\n\nIn his last he discussed the moral aspects of slavery and its effect\nupon the community. These sermons made a profound impression on the\npublic mind. Indiana was just over the border of slaveland, and many of\nits people sympathized heartily with the slave-holders. The prevailing\nsentiment was very bitter against the Abolitionists. There was very\nlittle patience with such \u201ccranks\u201d and \u201cfanatics.\u201d So when Mr. Beecher\nattacked slavery with the same unsparing earnestness which characterized\nhis utterances on this subject in latter days\u2014for he did not hesitate to\ndenounce it as a crime against God and man\u2014he stirred up a very large\nand very energetic hornet\u2019s nest. The city was all excitement. Men\ntalked of nothing else. The friends of slavery were bitter and\nthreatening; the few friends of freedom, overawed by the threatening\ndemonstrations, held their peace and waited to see the outcome. Mr.\nBeecher stood almost alone. Many of the church-brethren were shocked and\ngrieved beyond all expression; some even felt so outraged as to send for\nletters of dismissal. Many prophesied that he had destroyed himself and\nended his influence for usefulness for ever, mourning over his speedy\ndownfall\u2014a mournful prophecy so often repeated in after-years by timid\nbrothers whenever he took any advanced position, and with the same\nresults as in this instance.\n\nHolding the United States Circuit, then in session, was Judge McLean, of\nthe United States Supreme Court, whose views upon all public questions\nwere naturally held in high esteem. The hotel where he was stopping was\nfull of lawyers and members of the Legislature. On the Monday morning\nafter these sermons, in angry and excited groups, they stood in the\npublic rooms of the hotel, talking about the three sermons which had\nthrown the town into such a ferment. The judge, happening to join one of\nthese groups, was asked his opinion. Instead of denouncing Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nbold stand as madness, he calmly but with decisive emphasis replied:\n\u201cWell, I think if every minister in the United States would be as\nfaithful it would be a great advance in settling this question.\u201d The\njudge\u2019s words spread as rapidly as had the sermons. They checked the\nflow of bitter criticism. Men stopped talking and began to think; before\nthe day was out a revulsion of feeling set in. Many of the most hostile\nfound their anger changing into admiration\u2014not convinced by Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s logic, but deeply impressed by his pluck. Those who shared his\nviews felt emboldened to speak out; and that middle class, the social\nweather-vanes who like to go with the majority, soon felt the changing\nbreeze and began veering around to his side. The timid church-members\ntook heart, the applications for letters of dismissal were recalled. The\ntide that threatened to overwhelm the plucky preacher only lifted him up\nand carried him the higher in public estimation. This was the first\ndemonstration of his ability to face and overcome an adverse public\nsentiment while championing a just but unpopular cause\u2014an experience\nmany times repeated in the forty years that followed. Sometimes it\nseemed as if he could not stand against the flood poured out upon him.\nThen the consciousness of right made him strong and gave him that great\npeace that no whirlwind of adversity could destroy, and roused up in him\na determination to only work the harder.\n\nIt was while in Indianapolis that he began his first real literary work.\nIt is true that he did some editorial work while at Lane Seminary, but\nthat was too short-lived and occasional to be regarded as regular\nliterary occupation.\n\nHere at Indianapolis he accepted the editorial chair of the _Indiana\nFarmer and Gardener_, and, as we are assured by those who were readers\nof that journal, threw around the subjects therein discussed a\nbrightness of humor and fancy that made the otherwise dry topics of\nfodder, fertilizers, and plantings seem new and interesting subjects.\n\n\u201cIt may be of some service to the young, as showing how valuable the\nfragments of time may become, if mention is made of the way in which we\nbecame prepared to edit this journal.\n\n\u201cThe continued taxation of daily preaching, extending through months,\nand once through eighteen consecutive months without the exception of a\nsingle day, began to wear upon the nerves, and made it necessary for us\nto seek some relaxation. Accordingly we used, after each week-night\u2019s\npreaching, to drive the sermon out of our heads by some alterative\nreading.\n\n\u201cIn the State Library were Loudon\u2019s works\u2014his encyclop\u00e6dias of\nHorticulture, of Agriculture, and of Architecture. We fell upon them,\nand for years almost monopolized them.\n\n\u201cIn our little one-story cottage, after the day\u2019s work was done, we\npored over these monuments of an almost incredible industry, and read,\nwe suppose, not only every line but much of it many times over; until at\nlength we had a topographical knowledge of many of the fine English\nestates quite as intimate, we dare say, as was possessed by many of\ntheir truant owners. There was something exceedingly pleasant, and is\nyet, in the studying over mere catalogues of flowers, trees, fruits,\netc.\n\n\u201cA seedsman\u2019s list, a nurseryman\u2019s catalogue, are more fascinating to us\nthan any story. In this way, through several years, we gradually\naccumulated materials and became familiar with facts and principles,\nwhich paved the way for our editorial labors. Lindley\u2019s \u2018Horticulture\u2019\nand Gray\u2019s \u2018Structural Botany\u2019 came in as constant companions. And when,\nat length, through a friend\u2019s liberality, we became the recipients of\nthe London _Gardener\u2019s Chronicle_, edited by Prof. Lindley, our\ntreasures were inestimable. Many hundred times have we lain awake for\nhours unable to throw off the excitement of preaching, and beguiling the\ntime with imaginary visits to the Chiswick Garden, to the more than\noriental magnificence of the Duke of Devonshire\u2019s grounds at Chatsworth.\nWe have had long discussions in that little bed-room at Indianapolis,\nwith Van Mons about pears, with Vibert about roses, with Thompson and\nKnight of fruits and theories of vegetable life, and with Loudon about\neverything under the heavens in the horticultural world.\n\n\u201cThis employment of waste hours not only answered a purpose of soothing\nexcited nerves then, but brought us into such relations to the material\nworld that we speak with entire moderation when we say that all the\nestates of the richest duke in England could not have given us half the\npleasure which we have derived from pastures, waysides, and unoccupied\nprairies.\u201d\n\nHe was an earnest advocate of manual labor. He had no patience with\nthose whose squeamish effeminacy made them look upon labor as degrading.\n\nOn the fly-leaves of his \u201cEditorial Agricultural Book,\u201d begun January\n10, 1845, he wrote:\n\n\u201cIt is my deliberate conviction that _physical_ labor is indispensable\nto intellectual and moral health, that the industrial and producing\ninterests of society are powerfully conservative of morals. Especially\ndo I regard the tillage of the soil as conducive to life, health,\nmorals, and manhood. I sympathize with the advance of society through\npractical physical labors more than I do through metaphysical\nspeculations. I obtain clearer views of religious truth through my\nsympathies with _men_ and their _life_ than I do through _books and\ntheir thoughts_. Nor do I think any theology will be sound which is made\nin the _closet_. It should be made in the street, shop, ship, office,\nand on the farm. I have followed both inclination and conviction in\nallying myself to the laboring classes.\u201d\n\nHis knowledge on the subject of farming was not altogether theoretic.\nOne of his old parishioners writes us:\n\n\u201cHe loved to work and toil, especially in his own garden. He always had\nthe earliest vegetables in the market, and his garden was better than\nany other in the city. He loved to work among his flowers, and could\ncall every flower by its name readily. I think that he loved his flowers\nand took more pleasure with them than anything else, excepting his\nfamily. He certainly was more devoted to his family than any man I ever\nsaw.\u201d\n\nIt was no uncommon thing for him to take his vegetables to the market\nbefore daylight, sometimes, as an especial favor, taking his little\nfive-year-old girl with him.\n\nFrom the report of the fall exhibition of the Indiana Horticultural\nSociety we learn that Mr. Beecher took the three first prizes for the\nbest exhibition of squashes, beets, and oyster-plants. His beets, it is\nstated, weighed from eight to fourteen pounds.\n\nThe literary production which first attracted any general attention was\nhis \u201cLectures to Young Men.\u201d The State capital seemed to be the\nheadquarters for all those forms of temptation and vice which are\nparticularly liable to undermine the morals of the young. Many a young\nman, whose future seemed bright with the promise of an honorable and\nuseful life, had Mr. Beecher seen swept from his feet and whirled away\nto a dishonorable end\u2014young men who might have been saved had some one\nbeen able to show them the dangers of the paths they were treading,\nwhose beginnings seemed so pleasant and fair. Greatly distressed at what\nhe saw, he finally determined to deliver a series of lectures intended\nprimarily for young men, and for the purpose of opening their eyes.\nThese were subsequently revised and published, under the title of\n\u201cLectures to Young Men.\u201d The purpose of these lectures he aptly\nindicated in his preface:\n\n\u201cWhen a son is sent abroad to begin life for himself, what gift would\nany parent consider excessive to him who should sit down by his side and\nopen the several dangers of his career, so that the young man should,\nupon meeting the innumerable covert forms of vice, be able to penetrate\ntheir disguises, and to experience, even for the most brilliant\nseductions, a hearty and _intelligent_ disgust?\n\n\u201cHaving watched the courses of those who seduce the young\u2014their arts,\ntheir blandishments, their pretences\u2014having witnessed the beginning and\nconsummation of ruin, almost in the same year, of many young men,\nnaturally well disposed, whose downfall began with the _appearances_ of\ninnocence, I felt an earnest desire, if I could, to raise the suspicion\nof the young and to direct their reason to the arts by which they are\nwith such facility destroyed.\n\n\u201cI ask every YOUNG MAN who may read this book not to submit his judgment\nto mine, not to hate because I denounce, nor blindly to follow me, but\nto weigh my reason, that he may form his own judgment. I only claim the\nplace of a companion; and, that I may gain his ear, I have sought to\npresent truth in those forms which best please the young; and though I\nam not without hope of satisfying the aged and the wise, my whole\nthought has been _to carry with me the intelligent sympathy of young\nmen_.\u201d\n\nHe dedicated the book to his father\u2014\n\n                                  \u201cTO\n                          \u201cLYMAN BEECHER, D.D.\n\nTo you I owe more than to any other living being. In childhood you were\nmy Parent, in later life my Teacher, in manhood my Companion. To your\naffectionate vigilance I owe my principles, my knowledge, and that I am\na minister of the Gospel of Christ. For whatever profit they derive from\nthis Book the young will be indebted to you.\u201d\n\nOur space forbids any attempt at reproducing or analyzing these\nlectures.\n\nThe evils that he attacked were real, and he did not mince matters in\nthe assault. In the course of his lectures some of his good people,\nincluding one or two of the elders, thought that he was too plain and\noutspoken in his description of the temptations and dangers that beset\nthe young, and undertook to advise him, suggesting that he should be\nmore prudent in the forms of his expressions. He expressed regret that\nhe should differ with them, but he proposed, he said, to treat the\nsubject as he thought he ought, without regard to any instructions\ngiven. He did not propose to fight a mad dog with a handful of straw.\nNotwithstanding the timidity of his advisers, it appears, from the\nuniversal testimony of those who heard them, that they did great good,\nawakening the community to the dangers he exposed.\n\nHe was earnestly urged to revise and print them, \u201cthat their usefulness\nmay be extended beyond the place of their delivery.\u201d\n\nHis first attempts at their revision were not at all satisfactory to\nhim, for he said afterwards:\n\n\u201cI remember, when I was reading over my lectures to young men, with the\nintention of printing them, that I took down a volume of Dr. Barrow\u2019s\nsermons and read two on the subject of \u2018Industry and Idleness.\u2019 I had\ntwo lectures on similar subjects that I thought of publishing, but they\nseemed to me so mean in the comparison that I took up the manuscript and\nfired it across the room and under the book-case, where it lay I do not\nknow how long, and said: \u2018I am not going to put those lectures into\nprint and make an ass of myself.\u2019 I thought that I would be a fool to\nthink there was anything in them worth publishing. Afterwards, however,\na volume of lectures to young men was lent to me, and when I read them\nthey seemed so thin and weak that I said: \u2018If these are acceptable to\nthe public and will do good I think I can print mine.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe many editions published in this country and England justified his\nfinal conclusion.\n\nAlthough his salary had been doubled on coming to Indianapolis, had he\nreceived it all it would hardly have kept pace with his necessities.\nMany little necessities incident to their new surroundings called for\nexpense. In the State capital two rooms over a stable would hardly meet\nthe requirements of his social surroundings. It became necessary to hire\nan entire house, the spare rooms of which were devoted to boarders whose\nrent helped out the slender family purse. The house needed painting; why\nhire a painter? He could do it himself. Was he not born and brought up\nin sturdy old New England, where every lad was expected, almost from the\nday he was weaned, to take care of himself and add his labor to increase\nthe common good; where a man was thought wanting in ordinary \u201ccuteness\u201d\nwho could not turn his hand to any job and do anything he had seen\nanother do?\n\nOff he starts to the paint-store with his old horse and wagon, entering\nso enthusiastically upon the work in hand that he wholly forgot an\nengagement, made for that morning, to marry a couple. As the paints were\nbeing put up, he suddenly recalls his engagement, abruptly turns on his\nheel, rushes from the store, jumps into his wagon, and goes clattering\ndown the street, leaving the astounded storekeeper in anxious solicitude\nfor his sanity. Returning shortly, with a merry laugh he explained the\ncause of his precipitate outgoing. He found the couple waiting, married\nthem, and then returned for his paint. Getting his supplies, he goes to\nwork. He said:\n\n\u201cI wanted to economize in every way I could, and meant to paint the\nhouse myself; and I did. I got along well enough until I came to the\ngable end, which was two and a half stories high. When I began to paint\nthere I was so afraid that I should fall off from the platform that I\nnearly rubbed out with my vest what I put on with the brush, but in the\ncourse of a week I got so used to climbing that I was as nimble as any\npainter in town.\u201d\n\nHere three more little ones came to swell the family circle, adding new\njoys to the heart of one who loved almost with a mother\u2019s devotion every\nlittle child he saw. But these joys brought three more mouths to feed,\nthree more little bodies to clothe.\n\nFortunately food was abundant and very cheap. In the fall and early\nwinter game abounded, so that pigeon, quail, and ducks were bought for\nalmost nothing, and at times were literally given away.\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher\u2019s House at Indianapolis.]\n\nWe remember the story oft told by him of the man bringing six dozen\npigeons to town. He tried to sell them, and was laughed at. He then\noffered to give them away; no one wanted them. \u201cWell,\u201d he said, \u201cI won\u2019t\ntake them home; perhaps if I leave them in my wagon in the street some\none will steal them.\u201d Returning a half-hour later, he found that some\nother hunter equally anxious to get rid of his game had dumped eight\ndozen more into his wagon.\n\nHis people would sometimes donate food or clothing. The best suit of\nclothes he owned was made over from a discarded suit donated by one of\nhis parishioners.\n\nYet these were among the happiest years of his life.\n\nFor he found joy in his work. He loved his people and was beloved. Above\nall, his teaching was bearing rich harvest, and many, many souls found\nrest and peace through his words. His success was very gratifying, and\nurged him on to greater effort.\n\nAmong the young his influence was especially marked. A genial playfellow\nand companion, entering with hearty zest into all their sports, helping\nthem out of their little difficulties, he gained their confidence and\nlove. He guided the feet of many into the paths of a higher and nobler\nlife.\n\nOne of these friends writes:\n\n\u201cHe had a class of young girls, and I do not think that any one that\nrecited to him could ever forget his original way of teaching. There\nwere eight in the class, and we enjoyed the hour spent with him. He\ndeveloped our originality. He first attracted us toward Milton. We\nstudied, for he inspired in us the desire to know. In after-years, in\nhis visits to Indianapolis, the surviving scholars were looked up and\ncalled upon, and the children of those who were gone were asked after.\nWith some of these scholars he was thrown more intimately than with\nothers, for all were not in his church. In these he naturally took much\ninterest and directed them in their reading. I remember his telling me\nto \u2018let Bulwer alone and the French novels,\u2019 which were then first being\ntranslated. At a company, a church social, or the singing-school he had\na merry word to say to one and another. All felt at home with him.\n\n\u201cMy brother tells this story: When he was nine years old he had with\ngreat labor made a kite, at least what he thought would serve as one. In\nthose days there were no toy-shops here, and, indeed, it was with\ndifficulty material could be found out of which to manufacture a kite.\nBut, as I said, he and his little sister had succeeded in shaping a\nthing which they called a kite. So, on a spring day, they set forth to\nfly it. My brother held the string and the little sister kept the kite\noff the ground. He ran, and she after him; but run as they would, coax\nas they might, their efforts availed nothing. Finally, disappointed,\nfootsore, and covered with dust, they stopped to take breath. While thus\nbrooding over their failure they saw Mr. Beecher standing near, looking\ndown upon them with an amused but sympathetic expression on his face.\n\u2018What do you call that?\u2019 \u2018A kite,\u2019 was the melancholy response. \u2018Well!\nwell!\u2019 the kind heart fully taking in the situation. \u2018Come to my house\nto-morrow afternoon.\u2019 There was hope in the tone, and the boy\u2019s heart\nbounded. The next day he went to Mr. Beecher\u2019s. He was shown a kite\nbigger than himself. He could scarcely believe his senses. Why, the tail\neven was long enough to set him wild. \u2018Where\u2019s your string?\u2019 asked Mr.\nBeecher. Out of his well-worn pocket, where all a boy\u2019s treasures are\nhidden, he drew forth a cotton string neither long nor strong. \u2018This\nwill not do; have you any money?\u2019 \u2018No, sir.\u2019 \u2018Come, let\u2019s go and get a\nstring.\u2019 To the nearest grocery-store, where in early times everything\nwas kept, from pins up to ploughs, they went. A ball of twine was bought\nfor a \u2018bit\u2019; one was not enough\u2014two for a quarter. Out into the street\nthey went, and the kite was a success. Away it flew over their heads,\nthe heart of the happy boy flying with the kite far into the heavens,\nand won to his pastor for all time by this simple, kindly act.\u201d\n\nLike all mankind, he had to taste the bitter with the sweet and pass\nunder the shadow of the dark cloud of sorrow.\n\nFirst his brother George, who had been a kind of guardian brother to\nhim, and deeply loved, was killed. The news came with the shock of a\nlightning-bolt.\n\n\u201cI was called to go to Jacksonville to deliver an address,\u201d he said,\nspeaking of his brother\u2019s death. \u201cThe journey was a long one, across two\nStates (or one and a half). I took my wife and child with me, and we\nwere gone some two weeks. When, on returning, we had got within two\nmiles of Indianapolis, and were as elated and songful and merry as one\ncan imagine anybody to be, we met one of the elders of my church riding\nout from the city, and he said, after stopping to greet us: \u2018Have you\nheard the news?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 said I; \u2018what is it?\u2019 \u2018Your brother George has\nkilled himself.\u2019 I did not say a word, my wife did not say a word, and\nhe did not say one word more. We rode on, and as we rode I could not\nhelp thinking, \u2018Killed himself! killed himself! killed himself!\u2019 It was\nnearly an hour before we got home, and then I learned that my brother\u2019s\ndeath was caused by an accident with a double-barrelled gun while he was\nshooting birds in the garden; and it was a great relief to me to know\nthat \u2018killed himself\u2019 did not mean suicide.\u201d\n\nLater came the death of his little boy George, the first loss in his own\nimmediate family. He wrote, a few years later, to his sister, Mrs.\nStowe:\n\n\u201cI was in a missionary field, enduring hardships, and thinking in myself\nalways how to stand up under any blow, even if it were a thunder-stroke,\nwith Paul\u2019s heroism at once firing me and putting me to shame. Our noble\nboy suddenly sickened. Our people did not know _how_ to sympathize. Few\ncame while he lived; fewer yet when, on a bleak March day, we bore him\nthrough the storm, and, standing in the snow, we laid his beautiful form\nin his cold, white grave. Eunice was heart-broken. My home was a\nfountain of anguish. It was not for me to quail or show shrinking. So I\nchoked my grief and turned outwardly from myself to seek occupation.\u201d\n\nIn later years this sorrow had hardly lost its acuteness:\n\n\u201cI remember, to-night, as well as I did at the time, the night that my\neldest-born son died. That was my first great sorrow. I remember the\nbattle of hope and of fear, and I remember the victory of submission.\nThe child revived in the night. I went to Indianapolis (I lived on the\nedge of that city), and I shall never forget the amazing uplift of soul\nthat I had, nor that one unspoken, universal thought of prayer, which\nseemed to me to fill the whole hemisphere, for the life of my child. I\nthink that if one ever came near throwing his soul out of his body, I\ndid. And yet before the morning dawned the child had found a brighter\nworld. This was a double sorrow because I had given him up and then\ntaken him back again. Then came the sudden wrench.\n\n\u201cIt was in March, and there had just come up a great storm, and all the\nground was covered with snow.\n\n\u201cWe went down to the graveyard with little Georgie, and waded through it\nin the snow. I got out of the carriage, and took the little coffin in my\narms, and walked knee-deep to the side of the grave, and looking in I\nsaw the winter down at the very bottom of it. The coffin was lowered to\nits place, and I saw the snowflakes follow it and cover it, and then the\nearth hid it from the winter.\n\n\u201cIf I should live a thousand years I could not help shivering every time\nI thought of it. It seemed to me then as though I had not only lost my\nchild, but buried him in eternal snows. It was very hard for faith or\nimagination to break through the physical aspect of things and find a\nbrighter feeling.\u201d\n\nThe attachment which his people felt for him was more than reciprocated.\nHe always loved to recall these early years and in memory live over\nagain their joys and sorrows, their struggles and triumphs.\n\nIn the early winter of 1877, in the course of a Western lecture trip,\nrevisiting Indianapolis, he wrote back:\n\n\u201cI went to Indianapolis in the fall of 1849 with a sick babe in my arms,\nwho showed the first symptoms of recovery after eating blackberries\nwhich I gathered by the way. The city had then a population of four\nthousand. At no time during my residence did it outreach five thousand.\nBehold it to-day with one hundred and ten thousand inhabitants! The\nGreat National Road, which at that time was of great importance, since\nsunk into forgetfulness, ran through the city and constituted the main\nstreet. With the exception of two or three streets there were no ways\nalong which could not be seen the original stumps of the forest. I\nbumped against them in a buggy too often not to be assured of the fact.\n\n\u201cHere I preached my first _real_ sermon; here, for the first time, I\nstrove against death in behalf of a child, and was defeated; here I\nbuilt a house and painted it with my own hands; here I had my first\ngarden and became the bishop of flowers for this diocese; here I first\njoined the editorial fraternity and edited the _Farmer and Gardener_;\nhere I had my first full taste of chills and fever; here for the first\nand last time I waded to church ankle-deep in mud and preached with\npantaloons tucked into my boot-tops. All is changed now.\n\n\u201cIn searching for my obscure little ten-foot cottage I got lost. So\nchanged was everything that I groped over familiar territory like a\nblind man in a strange city. It is no longer _my_ Indianapolis, with the\naboriginal forest fringing the town, with pasture-fields lying right\nacross from my house; without coal, without railroads, without a stone\nbig enough to throw at a cat. It was a joyful day and a precious gift\nwhen Calvin Fletcher allowed me to take from the fragments of stone used\nto make foundations for the State Bank a piece large enough to put in my\npork-barrel. I left Indianapolis for Brooklyn on the very day upon which\nthe cars on the Madison Railroad for the first time entered the town;\nand I departed on the first train that ever left the place. On a\nwood-car, rigged up with boards across from side to side, went I forth.\n\n\u201cIt is now a mighty city, full of foundries, manufactories, wholesale\nstores, a magnificent court-house, beautiful dwellings, noble churches,\nwide and fine streets, and railroads more than I can name radiating to\nevery point of the compass.\n\n\u201cThe old academy where I preached for a few months is gone, but the\nchurch into which the congregation soon entered still is standing on the\nGovernor\u2019s Circle. No one can look upon that building as I do. A father\ngoes back to his first house, though it be but a cabin, where his\nchildren were born, with feelings which can never be transferred to any\nother place. As I looked long and yearningly upon that homely building\nthe old time came back again. I stood in the crowded lecture-room as on\nthe night when the current of religious feeling first was beginning to\nflow! Talk of a young mother\u2019s feelings over her first babe\u2014what is that\ncompared with the solemnity, the enthusiasm, the impetuosity of\ngratitude, of humility, of singing gladness, with which a young pastor\ngreets the incoming of his first revival? He stands upon the shore to\nsee the tide come in! It is the movement of the infinite, ethereal tide!\nIt is from the other world! There is no color like heart color. The\nhomeliest things dipped in that for ever after glow with celestial hues.\nThe hymns that we sang in sorrow or in joy and triumph in that humble\nbasement have never lost a feather, but fly back and forth between the\nsoul and heaven, plumed as never was any bird-of-paradise.\n\n\u201cI stood and looked at the homely old building, and saw a procession of\nforms going in and out that the outward eye will never see again\u2014Judge\nMorris, Samuel Merril, Oliver H. Smith, D. V. Cully, John L. Ketcham,\nCoburn, Fletcher, Bates, Bullard, Munsel, Ackley, O\u2019Neil, and many, many\nmore! There have been hours when there was not a hand-breadth between us\nand the saintly host in the invisible church! In the heat and pressure\nof later years the memories of those early days have been laid aside,\nbut not effaced. They rise as I stand, and move in a gentle procession\nbefore me. No outward history is comparable to the soul\u2019s inward life;\nof the soul\u2019s inward life no part is so sublime as its eminent religious\ndevelopments. And the pastor, who walks with men, delivering them from\nthrall, aspersing their sorrow with tears, kindling his own heart as a\ntorch to light the way for those who would see the invisible, has, of\nall men, the most transcendent heart-histories. I have seen much of life\nsince I trod that threshold for the last time; but nothing has dimmed my\nlove, nor has any later or riper experience taken away the bloom and\nsanctity of my early love. And I can truly say of hundreds: \u2018_For though\nye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many\nfathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel._\u2019\n\n\u201cBut other incidents arise\u2014the days of sickness, chills and fever, the\ngardening days, my first editorial experience, my luck in horses and\npigs, my house-building; and not a few scrapes\u2014being stalled in mud,\nhalf-drowned in crossing rivers, long, lonely forest rides,\ncamp-meetings, preachings in cabins, sleepings in the open air.\n\n\u201cI was reminded of one comical experience as I was seeking on Market\nStreet to find the old swale or shallow ravine which ran between my\ncottage and Mr. Bates\u2019s dwelling. It had formerly been a kind of bayou\nin spring when the stream above town overflowed, but dried off in\nsummer. To redeem it from unhealth a dike had been built to restrain the\nriver and turn the superfluous freshets another way. But one year the\nlevee gave way in the night; and when the morning rose, behold a flood\nbetween me and my neighbor! There was sport on hand! It was too deep for\nwading, but I could extemporize a boat. I brought down to the edge my\nwife\u2019s large washing-tub, and intended with a bit of board to paddle\nabout. No sooner was I in than I was out. The tub refused to stand on\nits own bottom. Well, well, said I, two tubs are better than one. So I\ngot its mate, and, nailing two strips across to hold them fast together,\nI was sure that they were too long now to upset. So they were, in the\nlong line; but sideways they went over, carrying me with them with\nincredible celerity. Tubs were one thing, boats another\u2014that I saw\nplainly.\n\n\u201cI would not be baffled. I proposed a raft. Getting rails from the\nfence, I soon had tacked boards across\u2014enough of them to carry my\nweight. Then, with a long pole, I began my voyage. Alas! it came to a\nludicrous end.\n\n\u201cA rail fence ran across this ravine in the field, just above the\nstreet. One end of the fence had loosened, and the water had floated it\nround enough to break its connection with its hither side. A large but\nyoung dog belonging to a friend had walked along the fence, hoping to\ncross dry-footed, till he came to the abrupt termination, and, his\ncourage failing him, he had crouched down and lay trembling and whining,\nafraid to go back or to venture the water. I poled my raft up to the\nrescue; and, getting alongside, coaxed him to jump aboard, but his\ncourage was all gone. He looked up wistfully, but stirred not. \u2018Well,\nyou coward, you _shall_ come aboard.\u2019 Seizing him by the skin of the\nneck, I hauled him on to the raft, which instantly began to sink. It was\nbuoyant enough for a man, but not for a man and a lubberly dog. There\nwas nothing for it\u2014as the stupid thing would not stir, I had to; and\nwith a spring I reached the fence just abdicated by the dog, while he,\nthe raft now coming to the surface again, went sailing down the pond and\nwas safely landed below, while I was left in the crotch of the fence.\nOne such experiment ought to serve for a life-time, but alas!\n\n\u201cThere is no end of things gone by. They rise at every point; and one\nwalks encompassed with memories which accompany him through the living\nstreets like invisible spirits.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XI.\n\nInvitation to come East\u2014Call to Plymouth Church\u2014Friendly\n    Misgivings\u2014Plainly Outlining his Views\u2014Early Success\u2014Plymouth\n    Burned\u2014Preaching in the Tabernacle.\n\n\nMr. Beecher had confidently expected to have remained permanently in the\nWest, and to have grown up with the new but rising country; but it was\ndestined to be otherwise.\n\nHis fame had spread Eastward, and in the early winter of 1846 a\ntentative effort was made to call him thither. Mr. W. T. Cutler,\nreturning from a visit at the West, wrote in December, 1846, to Mr.\nBeecher that Dr. Storrs had been called to the Church of the Pilgrims;\nthat one of Dr. Cheever\u2019s principal men, J. Hunt, had \u201cobserved to me\nthat Dr. Cheever named _you_ as the man for the Pilgrims, and he thinks\nthat there will be new churches formed on the Congregational plan here\nand in Brooklyn, and that you are the man to build up _one_ of them.\u201d\nWhile in Cincinnati Mr. Cutler called on Dr. Lyman Beecher relative to\nhis son\u2019s going East, but \u201c_he_ set his face like flint against it.\u201d He\nthen had a long and urgent talk with the son again, in answer to which\nhe received the following letter:\n\n                                   \u201cINDIANAPOLIS, December 15, 1846.\n\n\u201dDEAR SIR: Your letter has just come to hand, and thanks for it. I am\nglad you saw father, for your sake, for his, and for mine. Touching the\nquestion of our former conversations, this is my position: My pride\ntells me that if the only question in life were personal advantage, he\nis on the right road who is _developing truth within himself_, and the\nroad to truth lies in _one\u2019s own self_, and not in the place where he\nlives. But my conscience tells me, and, I thank God, my whole heart goes\nwith my conscience, that the grand question in human life is the work of\nbenevolence\u2014the doing good on _our_ scale, just as God does on _His_. I\nam sure that the shortest road to one\u2019s own happiness is by making\nothers happy. Now, in this work, the labor of _usefulness_, if there be\none thing which, above all others, I especially abhor, it is this _cant_\ntalk about \u2018_taking care of one\u2019s influence_\u2019; going where one can \u2018_use\nhis influence to best advantage_\u2019; refraining from this or that for fear\n\u2018_of ignoring influence_,\u2019 and all suchlike trash. A man\u2019s _influence_\nis simply the shadow which _usefulness_ casts. Let him look out that he\nis _doing enough_, and doing the right things, and then he may spare all\ntime usually employed in looking after his shadow lest it should give\nhim the slip.\n\n\u201cAs to _where_ a man shall live and labor I have no plan, no theory\nexcept this: That God has a very sufficient ability to make Himself\nunderstood when He wants a man. A man should work _just where he is_\nuntil he is clearly _called_ somewhere else. This keeping one\u2019s ear open\nto hear if God is not calling, this looking out every little while to\nsee if one is not wished for somewhere else, is rather of the nature of\n_self-seeking_. A minister, like a maiden, ought not to make the first\novertures, nor to be over-eager to have them made to him.\n\n\u201cNow, I set forth this long preamble because it has occurred to me that\nmy situation and my conversations with you were a little _queer_, and\nthat it was worth while to state explicitly where I stand.\n\n\u201cWhenever it clearly seems to me that God has work for me to perform, I\nshall, I hope, perform it, wherever it lies and whatever the work may\nbe. Moreover, when God has work for me in another sphere, I do not doubt\nthat He will make it so plainly His voice that calls me that I shall be\nin no more doubt about it than Abraham was when called to leave his\nnative land or when called to offer up his son. I have no plan for\nstaying here, or for going to the West, or for going to the East. I\nleave it entirely with Him who called me to the ministry where I shall\nlive, where and when I shall die; and in all fields, actual or\ncontemplated, I do desire above every other thing to have a heart\nprepared to receive that welcome _call_, joyous to every one who has\ntasted of the powers of the world to come, _to go up and labor in a\nhigher field_, with ennobled faculties and results, every one of which\nshall be both perfect and illustrious.\n\n\u201cI believe that Christ will surely lead you wisely, if you will _be_\nled; and that He will point out to you what enterprises it will be wise\nfor you to undertake, and to what one of all His multitudinous servants\nyou should apply for help. And should I never labor in such service with\nyou or near you, in New York, what then? I feel, in that respect, as if\nwe were like the two portions of our army before Monterey. What matters\nit on which side of the city we are, since on either side we are bravely\npushing our arms toward a common centre, and when we meet it will\nassuredly be in the hour of _victory_?\n\n\u201cBut if ever I come to you or go to any other place, although I have no\nplan as to situations, I have, I hope, an immovable plan in respect to\nthe objects which I shall pursue. So help me God, I do not mean to be a\n_party man_, nor to head or follow any partisan effort. I desire to aid\nin a _development of truth_ and in the production of _goodness_ by it. I\ndo not care in _whose hands_ truth may be found, or in what communion; I\nwill thankfully take it of _any_. Nor do I feel bound in any sort to\nlook upon untruth or mistake with favor because it lies within the\nsphere of any church to which I may be attached.\n\n\u201cI do not have that mawkish charity which seems to arise from regarding\nall tenets as pretty much alike\u2014the charity, in fact, of\n_indifference_\u2014but another sort: a hunger for what is true, an\nexultation in the sight of it, and such an estimate and glory in the\ntruth as it is in Christ that no distinction of sect or form shall be\nfor one moment worthy to be compared with it. I will overleap anything\nthat stands between me and truth. Whoever loves the Lord Jesus Christ in\n_sincerity and in truth_ is my _brother_. He that doeth God\u2019s will was,\nin Christ\u2019s judgment, His mother, His sister, His brother, His friend,\nHis disciple.\n\n\u201cYour visit has certainly been of collateral advantage to me. Some who\ndid not seem to care whether I had anything to live on or not have been\nstirred up, at least to attempt to discharge the pledges to me for a\nsupport: $800 does not seem to me to be an extravagant salary, but I\nwould gladly take $600 in lieu of it, if I could have it paid regularly.\n\n\u201cGive my love to Mr. Day and family, if you know them; if not, just take\nthis letter in your hand, go to his store, show him this paragraph: \u2018Mr.\nDay, allow me to present to you my friend, Mr. Cutler. Mr. Cutler, I am\nhappy in introducing you to an old and valued friend, Mr. Day.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd now, as you are at the fountain of news, why will you not drop me a\nline from time to time, and keep me apprised of things in the great\nworld? You hold the pen of a ready writer as well as the tongue of a\nready speaker. And though I may have little news to send in return, such\nas I have will I give unto thee.\n\n                                 Truly yours,\n                                                    \u201cH. W. BEECHER.\u201c\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher and his Father at the time of Call to\nBrooklyn.]\n\nAgain in February Mr. Cutler wrote, this time asking pointedly if Mr.\nBeecher would accept a call to Brooklyn, stating that the property\nformerly owned by the First Presbyterian Church\u2014Rev. Dr. Cox\u2014had been\npurchased by Henry C. Bowen, Seth B. Hunt, and David Hale; that it would\nbe vacant in May, and that they proposed to organize in it a new church\non the Congregational plan; that if he would come they would give him a\nsalary of $1,500 per annum, and, if necessary, make it $2,000. Mr.\nCutler held out many alluring inducements, but without apparent effect.\nMr. Beecher would not even entertain the proposition. In the meantime\nMr. Cutler shrewdly reasoned that if he would come East, even for a\nshort time, it might be possible to make him change his mind. It was so\narranged that Mr. Beecher received an invitation from the American Home\nMissionary Society to deliver an address, under its auspices, at what\nwas then called the \u201cMay Anniversaries\u201d held in New York. He accepted\nthis invitation, intending, as he said since, \u201cto urge young men to go\nWest, to show what a good field the West was, and to cast some fiery\narrows at men that had worked there and got tired, and slunk away, and\ncome back. I remember that I was particularly glowing on this subject;\nbut I came East not knowing what I did. It was a trap. Brother Cutler\n(who has gone to heaven), it seems, had a little plan at that very time,\nand I was running into a noose, though I did not suspect it. The result\nof that visit was the formation of this church [Plymouth]. Mr. David\nHale, of the _Journal of Commerce_\u2014whose son Richard is still one of our\nmembers, though he is not with us\u2014with two or three others, desired at\nonce to extend me an invitation to become the pastor of this church. But\nthe church did not exist. It was like asking a young man to become the\nhusband of an unborn girl. There was no church to be my bride. I refused\nto receive a call to an empty house. They therefore made haste to form a\nchurch; and I think it was early in June of the same year that some\ntwenty-five persons covenanted together over this very ground for the\nchurch as it then stood. The main building fronted on one street, and\nthe lecture-room on the other. Here they agreed to become a church of\nChrist; and then they extended to me a call to be its pastor. The call\nwas not publicly known until the October following; but still the\nmischief was done.\u201d\n\nOn Sunday evening, June 13, 1847, Plymouth Church was formally organized\nwith a membership of twenty-one, Rev. R. S. Storrs, of the Church of the\nPilgrims, preaching the sermon.\n\nOn the Monday evening following business meetings were held by both the\nchurch and society, in each of which it was unanimously voted to invite\nMr. Beecher to be their pastor, with a salary of fifteen hundred dollars\nthe first year, seventeen hundred and fifty the second year, and two\nthousand the third year and thereafter.\n\nA formal call was at once sent.\n\nFor the first time the question was taken into serious consideration,\nand for the next two months every argument was presented that might lead\nto an acceptance of the call, great stress being laid on the fact that\nin the larger field could be accomplished a more important work and an\ninfluence might be exerted that would be felt throughout the entire\ncountry; that the West could easily be reached from New York, when it\nmight be difficult to reach New York from the West.\n\nLong and most urgent letters were sent to Dr. Lyman Beecher, begging him\nto withhold any adverse influence. It is very doubtful if any of the\ninducements or the flattering representations so strongly presented had\nsucceeded in winning him from the field where he was then working, were\nit not that another influence was silently and powerfully at work. The\nhealth of his wife, who literally was giving her very life to aid and\nsustain him in his work, was rapidly failing under the malarial\ninfluences of the West. It became very evident that she must have rest\nand a change of climate. A few years in the East might restore her\nhealth, then he could return and resume his work. In August he came to a\ndecision, and on the 12th wrote his letter of resignation, in which he\nset out his reasons and plans:\n\n                                     \u201cINDIANAPOLIS, August 12, 1847.\n\n\u201d_To the Elders of the Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis_:\n\n\u201cDEAR BRETHREN: I have the very painful necessity laid upon me of\nrelinquishing the pastoral charge of the church over which for eight\nyears I have presided. I need not assure you that I do it with extreme\ngrief. If I could have had the control of my own affairs I should\ncertainly have supposed it wisest and best that, for the present at\nleast, I should remain in the West and with you. It is only the firm\nbelief that in removing temporarily to the sea-coast I should save the\nlife and restore the health of my wife that has induced me to sever the\nconnection which has so long and so pleasantly existed between us. I am\nperemptorily warned, not only by those in whose medical skill I place\nimplicit reliance, but by a continual confirmation of their judgment in\nactual experience, to leave this climate if I would save her life. You\nwill perceive in this state of facts that against which neither I nor\nany one can form any argument or persuasion. I cannot express the\nfeelings which have warred in my breast in the anticipation of this\nnecessity, nor can I without the deepest regret recall the deficiencies\nof my ministry among you. But I shall never forget the kindness with\nwhich my failings have been borne, the sympathy which I have experienced\nfrom you in the vicissitudes of the past eight years, and that\nco-operation without which I am sure I could but in a small part have\naccomplished the work which has been done. There are some details of\narrangements which I desire to make, but which can be better treated in\nconversation.\n\n\u201cI am, with Christian and personal affection, very truly yours,\n\n                                                     H. W. BEECHER.\u201d\n\nHaving decided, he wrote at once to the committee of Plymouth Church\nfrom whom he had received the call:\n\n                                     \u201cINDIANAPOLIS, August 19, 1847.\n\n\u201dDEAR BROTHERS: I desire to convey through you to the Plymouth Church\nand congregation my acceptance of the call to the pastoral office\ntendered by them to me.\n\n\u201cI cannot regard the responsibilities of this important field without\nthe most serious diffidence, and I wholly put my trust in that Saviour\nwhom I am to preach in your midst. I can heartily adopt the language of\nPaul: \u2018_Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free\ncourse and be glorified._\u2019 It will be necessary for me to remain yet for\nsome time in this place, but I hope to arrive in Brooklyn in the middle\nof October, or at farthest by the first of November.\n\n                         \u201cI am, in Christian love, most truly yours,\n                                                     \u201cH. W. BEECHER.\n\n  \u201cJOS. T. HOWARD,\n  \u201cH. C. BOWEN,\n  \u201cCHAS. ROWLAND,\n   and others.\u201d\n\nWhile in the East, after having received the call from Plymouth Church\nand while the question of acceptance was still in doubt, Mr. Beecher\nalso received a call from the Park Street Church of Boston\u2014the same\nchurch where he had preached nine years before, when on his way back to\nLawrenceburg with his young wife.\n\nOn June 10, 1847, he received a letter from the Rev. Silas Aikens, the\npastor of Park Street Church, stating that they very much desired Mr.\nBeecher to accept a call to the position of associate pastor.\n\nEarly in July a formal call was sent by the church and society to the\nsame effect, but was shortly afterwards declined.\n\nThe call to Brooklyn having been definitely accepted, Mr. Beecher began\nat once to arrange for the removal of his family. His salary was in\narrears. To meet the necessities of his family he had been obliged to\nborrow five hundred dollars. This, with other and smaller debts, must be\npaid, and money must be raised wherewith to transport his family East.\nBut how? Fortunately this difficulty had been foreseen, and as soon as\nit seemed probable that the call would be accepted the friends at\nPlymouth Church, in prophecy of that generosity which characterized them\nin all after-years, promptly raised by subscription one thousand\ndollars, and notified Mr. Beecher to draw thereupon as he might need.\n\nAbout the first of October, 1847, he started Eastward, leaving\nIndianapolis on the first passenger-train run on the new road just\nbuilt. Modern luxuries had not then been introduced, if we may rely upon\nhis account of the ride:\n\n\u201cThe car was no car at all, a mere extempore wood-box, used sometimes\nwithout seats for hogs, but with seats for men, of which class I (ah me\nmiserable!) happened to be one. And so at eleven at night I arrived in\nMadison, not overproud in the glory of riding on the first train that\never went from Indianapolis to Madison.\u201d\n\nOctober, 1847, marked a new era in Mr. Beecher\u2019s experience. By\nsuccessive steps he had advanced from field to field with steadily\nincreasing responsibility, from the collegian tramping twenty miles to\ndeliver an occasional address in some adjoining town on topics affecting\npublic morals, to the young theologian still in the seminary, trying his\npowers in some little hamlet\u2014a knight-errant breaking a lance with the\nadversary; to the young, unknown missionary entering the lists for his\nfirst real, earnest battle against \u201cthe world, the flesh, and the\ndevil\u201d; to the acknowledged preacher called to the State capital,\ndealing stalwart blows at those evils which sap the public conscience\nand allure the youth into evil ways, a recognized leader not only within\nthe limits of his Presbytery but even throughout his State.\n\nAnd at last, called to the metropolitan centre, he enters a field whose\nlimits of influence were to be bounded only by the limits of the\ncivilized globe. With each increase of influence came corresponding\nresponsibilities. So far he had developed resources sufficient for each\nincrease in his burdens; but would he be sufficient for this new\nexperience? He had fully sustained himself as a missionary and a\npreacher in a pioneer State, in a comparatively rude and uncultured\nsociety. He had earned a reputation that had preceded him East; could he\nmaintain it? Could he meet the requirements of the refined, critical,\nand highly-cultured metropolis (for New York and Brooklyn were, to all\nintents, one great centre)? Many feared, and kindly volunteered the\ninformation that neither the new church nor its new pastor would last\nmany months.\n\nHe was altogether too outspoken for his own good, said they. It was all\nvery well for a minister to combat evil, but he must do it in the good\nold-fashioned, orthodox way: he should confine himself to generalities\nand not be too specific. There were some things he ought not to meddle\nwith: the pulpit was no place for politics, and slavery was purely a\npolitical question. He would find that in New York the public would not\ntolerate those things which had been permitted to him in Indiana.\n\nIf he persisted he would soon have empty pews to preach to, even if he\ndid not have a personal demonstration of the folly of attacking those\npopular sins\u2014sins which most of his clerical brothers had had the good\nsense to leave alone. Endless were the similes and metaphors indulged\nin, of which the well-worn rocket was perhaps the most suggestive.\n\nSome amiable critics even went so far as to intimate that his success in\nthe West was due more to the surreptitious use of the father\u2019s old\nsermons than any inherent ability in the son, and he was generously\ngiven just one year to run through the barrelful of such sermons\nsupposed to have been brought on with him. The barrel, like the widow\u2019s\noil-cruse, seems to have had a miraculous power of refilling.\n\nMany friends advised him against the change: the risk was too great, his\nexperience too little. He said of this time:\n\n\u201cIn coming to Brooklyn I had but one single thought\u2014that of zeal for\nChrist. I came under all manner of warnings and cautions. Many good\nbrethren told me how men got puffed up in the city, what temptations I\nwould encounter, and how I would very likely be conservative, and forget\nmy zeal, and so on; and I was obliged at last to say even to my father:\n\u2018Father, do you understand, then, that God\u2019s grace only extends to the\ncountry, and that He cannot protect anybody in the city?\u2019\u201d\n\nOn the other hand, some counselled self-interest: \u201cIt is not necessary\nthat you should settle in Brooklyn; with your talent you will make more\nshow in New York.\u201d \u201cI didn\u2019t come to make a show,\u201d he replied. \u201cI came\nto preach what I understand to be the Gospel of Jesus Christ to men, and\nthis is the first opening, and I take it.\u201d\n\nHe did not propose to have any misunderstanding on the part of his new\nchurch as to the course he should pursue. He intended to make that very\nplain and at the outset. If they wanted him they would have to take him\nwith their eyes open\u2014_wide_ open.\n\nOctober 10, the first Sunday after his arrival, he preached in the new\nchurch, both morning and evening.\n\n\u201cMy first sermon, I think, was directed to the Source of all true\nreligion\u2014the Lord Jesus Christ and His power. In my second sermon\u2014on the\nevening of the first Sunday\u2014I recollect that I lifted up the banner and\nblew the trumpet in the application of Christianity to intemperance, to\nslavery, and to all other great national sins. I said to those who were\npresent: \u2018If you come into this church and congregation I want you to\nunderstand distinctly that I will wear no fetters; that I will be bound\nby no precedent; that I will preach the Gospel as I apprehend it,\nwhether men will hear or whether they will forbear, and that I will\napply it without stint, and sharply and strongly, to the overthrow of\nevery evil and to the upbuilding of all that is good.\u2019\u201d\n\nWell-meaning but timid friends took alarm at this bold declaration. It\nwas not customary; it was not what they were used to; they came to him\nto \u201ccounsel him for his own good,\u201d they said. \u201cSave yourself, anyway;\ndon\u2019t ally yourself to unpopular men nor unpopular causes. There is no\nneed of it. You can have your own notions about abolition; what is the\nuse of preaching anti-slavery sermons?\u201d To their great distress their\ncounsels had just the opposite effect intended: \u201cI despised them all,\nand preached like thunder on those subjects, especially before\npew-renting. For a period of more than ten years I never let a month\nelapse before pew-renting that I did not come out with the whole\nstrength of my nature on the abominations of American slavery. I\nremember saying, with some discourtesy and with language that I should\nnot use now: \u2018If you don\u2019t want to hear such doctrines, don\u2019t take a pew\nhere next time.\u2019 It had something of youthful eagerness in it, but I am\nproud that it pleased God to ally me to causes that were weak but right.\nIt has ever been a cause of great gratification to me that I have not\nlost that spirit, and that I ally myself to that which I think to be\nright; and I do not care what man says to me, provided only I can\nbelieve that God likes it, and that I have the testimony of His approval\nin myself.\u201d\n\nTo have remained silent in the presence of such great evils was to have\nshared the responsibility of their existence.\n\nWe quote here his views on this subject, uttered from his pulpit many\nyears later:\n\n\u201cIn every reform from intemperance, from vice, from crime, each\nindividual citizen is responsible to the degree of influence which he\nhas, and if he does not exert it he is responsible for a neglect of\nduty\u2014a binding duty. He is bound to create a public sentiment that shall\nwork for virtue. He is bound to drain the community of all those evils\nthat run together and form a channel for vice and crime. It is not a\nmatter of election, it is a matter of obligation; and because there are\nthe most respectable classes in the community that don\u2019t do it, you are\nnot set free. Because the men of riches and the men of power and the men\nof standing in society don\u2019t do it, the poorest laboring man in the\ncommunity, if he does not, under the direction of his reason and\nconscience, labor for the purification of the commonwealth, is\nresponsible to God. He is bound to do it. If his individuality on the\none side has shielded him against aggression, it brings with it also\ncertain obligations, and he is bound to meet them. All parties hold\ntheir members only subject to the corrected judgment and moral sense of\nthe individual. If they go with their party on the general ground that\nit is going right and is doing right, as far as the limitations of human\nignorance and human power are concerned, travelling in the right\ndirection also with many imperfect steps and many imperfect elements, he\nmay justly go on with it; but if he is committed, as were the parties of\nslavery, to so atrocious a wrong as that which violated the fundamental\nrights of the whole human family, a man is bound to fight the party, in\nand out of it: in it by correction, out of it by protest and opposition.\nAnd merely because he can say, \u2018The party did it, I did not,\u2019 he is not\nrelieved of responsibility. Inasmuch as you knew what was right and did\nnot do it, so much you are involved in the guilt; and there was a great\ndeal of guilt. The Church itself was involved in the same\u2014dumb pulpits,\nuncirculated Bibles, a corrupt and vicious public sentiment.\n\n\u201cWhen I came into Plymouth Church as its pastor there was probably\nhardly a single church in the bounds of New York or Brooklyn of any note\nthat dared to say a word for the liberty of the abject slave. Was I\nwrong in protesting against it, with the knowledge that I had? With the\nconscience that I had, had I been silent I should have been doomed\njustly to the stroke of God\u2019s righteous judgment; and the want of moral\ncourage under such circumstances is a very great sin everywhere. You are\nnot right to stand still in any great party, moving in any direction,\ndoing wrong, without deliberately taking account with yourself. Am I\nstriving to correct the evil by all the influence I can wield? On\nfinding that to be impossible, do I free myself from all imputation of\npartnership in any such guilt, one way or the other?\u201d\n\n_Now_ it is easy enough to express such sentiments: it is popular; it is\nin the line of public sentiment. _Then_ it was a very different matter,\nand the living up to them still more difficult.\n\nRecalling the early history of Plymouth Church, he said:\n\n\u201cIt was formed in the midst of the development of the greatest work of\nthe modern century\u2014the emancipation of the slaves in America, by which\nthe industry of the Continent was also emancipated, and by which the\nChurch and religion itself were saved from a worse than Babylonian\ncaptivity.\n\n\u201cWhen I came here you could get no great Missionary Society, Bible\nSociety, or Tract Society to say one solitary word for the slave. Such\nwere the interests of the mercantile classes of the South that it was\nextremely difficult to exert there any anti-slavery influence. As the\nmerchants largely held the funds, as the great societies needed support,\nand as churches were built by respectable men whose prosperity depended\nmainly upon the peace and order of the South, the position that this\nchurch took was a bold and unpopular one. Those who did not live then\ncan have no conception of what it was to form a church that should stand\nright out in the intense light of the time, and declare for universal\nliberty and for the right of the slave to the Bible, and to full\nreligious freedom. This church grew up right against a flinty way of\nbitterness and opposition.\u201d\n\nSuch was the beginning, and such the times!\n\nAlthough he began preaching in Plymouth Church, October 10, 1847, Mr.\nBeecher was not formally installed until the 11th of November following.\nOn that day an ecclesiastical council was convened \u201cby letters from the\nPlymouth Church in Brooklyn, in the State of New York, at their\nlecture-room, ... for the purpose of installing (if the way should be\nfound clear) the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher as their pastor,\u201d etc.\n\n\u201cAfter an extended and thorough examination of the pastor-elect\nrespecting his views of the doctrine of natural and revealed religion,\nhis experience of renewing and sanctifying grace, and his object in\nentering on the work of the Christian ministry, the council unanimously\npronounced the examination sustained and voted to proceed to\ninstallation.\u201d\n\nThe invocation and reading of the Scriptures was by the Rev. Dr.\nHumphrey, of Pittsfield, Mass.; the sermon by Rev. Dr. Edward Beecher,\nof the Salem Church of Boston, an older brother of the new pastor; the\ninstalling prayer by Rev. Dr. Hewitt, of the Second Congregational\nChurch of Bridgeport; the charge to the pastor by Rev. Dr. Lansing, of\nthe Second Congregational Church of New York; the fellowship of the\nchurches by Rev. R. S. Storrs, Jr., of the Church of the Pilgrims,\nBrooklyn; address to the people by Rev. J. P. Thompson, of the Broadway\nTabernacle, New York, and the concluding prayer by Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of\nthe North Church of Hartford.\n\nAs soon as he was fairly installed the pastor set himself vigorously to\nwork to build up the young church, and to fill it with new converts.\n\nThe audience-room of the church began to fill rapidly, in the morning\nbeing generally three-fourths full, and in the evening entirely full.\nEarly in 1848 difficulty was found in accommodating those who wished to\nattend, the building being crowded from that time on, both night and\nmorning.\n\nIn the spring, daily morning prayer-meetings were held, under the\nconduct of the pastor. Soon revivals broke out in the church, which,\nthough singularly free from undue excitement, produced a deep and\nwide-spread influence. More than seventy persons were converted, most of\nthem joining Plymouth Church, the rest uniting with other evangelical\nchurches.\n\nNotwithstanding the many doleful prophecies that greeted its early\nbeginnings, and the \u201cdangerous stand\u201d taken by its pastor which alarmed\nso many conservative minds, the church was just perverse enough to\nprosper and grow rapidly\u2014a perversity which characterized it for the\nnext forty years. In a little over two years from its birth it had an\nenrolled membership of four hundred and four, of whom fifty-six joined\nin 1847; one hundred and fifty-two in 1848; one hundred and thirty-six\nin 1849 (the year of the fire), and sixty in the first part of 1850.\n\nOn the 13th of January, 1849, occurred one of those fortunate mishaps\nwhich proved to be a blessing in disguise. For some time previous, the\ncongregation had been greatly disproportioned to the capacity of the\nchurch; the necessity of rebuilding began to be seriously discussed,\nwhen occurred a fire that abruptly terminated the discussion. The\nbuilding was so badly damaged that it was unanimously determined to\nrebuild rather than repair.\n\nThe kindly sympathy of neighboring churches, in volunteering the use of\ntheir buildings for the houseless congregation, was gratefully accepted\nfor a short time.\n\nIt soon became apparent that this unsettled and migratory condition was\nharmful to the church. It was therefore determined to erect a temporary\nstructure upon ground in Pierrepont Street, kindly offered by Mr. Lewis\nTappan. In thirty days a building, one hundred by eighty feet, was put\nup, and in this the church made its home until the first Sunday in\nJanuary, 1850.\n\nThe whole expense of this \u201cTabernacle,\u201d as it was called, was\ntwenty-eight hundred dollars. The subsequent sale of the building,\ntogether with the weekly collections, more than repaid this outlay,\nwhile the pew-rents were amply sufficient to meet the current expenses.\n\nAs soon as possible after the fire, steps were taken to put up the new\nbuilding, which was to be constructed on a much larger scale than the\nold one.\n\nOn May 29, 1849, the corner-stone was laid, and on the first Sunday in\nJanuary, 1850, the congregation worshipped in their new church.\n\nThe new structure was built on Orange Street, and ran through to\nPineapple. It was really two buildings under one roof, the church proper\nbeing one hundred and five feet long by eighty broad. Adjoining and\nopening into this, from the rear, was a lecture-room of two stories,\neighty by fifty feet, the second story being the Sunday-school.\n\nThe entire cost of the new church was about $36,000, of which $31,127\nwas raised upon scrip, bearing interest, payable in pew-rents. To\nprovide for the balance, and a mortgage of $10,500 on the old property,\nthe new building was mortgaged for $16,000. The entire indebtedness and\nall encumbrances were paid off by 1867, at which time the church was\nentirely free from debt.\n\nThe cost of the lecture-room and Sabbath-school was about $13,000, of\nwhich $10,800 were donated, the rest being paid partly by festivals and\nfairs held for the purpose, and partly from the general fund of the\nchurch.\n\nThe Sabbath-school at this time consisted of two hundred and fifty\nscholars and thirty teachers.\n\nThe seating capacity of the pews and choir-gallery of the church was\nabout twenty-one hundred persons. This was thought at first, by some, to\nbe a very extravagant allowance. But in 1857 the seating capacity could\nnot supply the demand, and folding-seats were placed in the aisles,\nfixed to the end of each pew, and so constructed as to fold up against\nthe pew-side when not in use; while benches were set along the walls all\naround the galleries, and in the vacant space in front of the pulpit.\nThese accommodated about eight hundred more, while the standing space,\nalmost always occupied during the last twenty-five years, permitted\nabout three hundred more to be present.\n\nAs his last year at Indianapolis had been consecrated by the loss of his\nlittle boy, so in like manner were the first in his new pastorate.\nScarce had a month passed when the death of his little girl \u201cCaty\u201d\nbecame the means of closer communion between pastor and people through\nthe bonds of sympathy and kind service. He wrote to his sister:\n\n\u201cWhen Caty sickened and began her quiet march toward the once opened\ngate, to rejoin the brother (cherub pair), we found our house full of\nfriends. Many of the truest, deepest hearts asked no bidding, but, with\ninstinctive heart taught right, _lived_ with us almost literally; and\nwhen her form was to go forth from us, they embowered her in flowers,\nwinter though it seemed, and every thought and remembrance of her is\nsweet in itself and sweet in its suggestions.\n\n\u201cWhat had I to bear up against? I was held up by increasing love and\nsympathy on every side. Of _this world_ I had more than heart could\nwish; of friends, never so many or so worth having; and the effect, as\nmight be supposed, has answered to the cause. I find now that it is with\nme as with mountains in spring-time\u2014every fissure is growing to a rill,\nevery patch of soil is starting its flowers, every shrub has its insect\nand every tree its bird.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XII.\n\nPlymouth Church\u2014The New Building\u2014Sabbath Service\u2014Prayer-Meeting\u2014Weekly\n    Lecture\u2014Socials\u2014Church Polity\u2014The Pastor\u2019s Policy.\n\n\nAs we have stated, Plymouth Church took possession of its new building\non the first Sabbath in January, 1850. Then, as on the Sabbaths of the\nnearly forty succeeding years in which Mr. Beecher ministered here, the\ncrowd came and filled every available seat. Then began that sound, once\nheard never forgotten, and heard nowhere else so continuously, of the\nincoming multitude, the tread of hurrying feet like the sound of many\nwaters, as the crowds, held back for a time until pew-holders have been\nin part accommodated, press in and take their places. Here, on this\nfirst Sabbath, arose that song of thanksgiving whose fulness and power\nwere for so many years a marked feature of the religious service of this\ngreat congregation. Here began that long succession of sermons which\nopened to so many thousands, at first by the voice and then by the\nprinting-press; the nearness, the righteousness, and the boundless love\nof God revealed in Jesus Christ. And here began on that day to ascend\nthose prayers which drew hearts into the very presence of the Most High\nand left them gladdened, refreshed, and filled as with the fulness of\nGod. Blessed old Plymouth Church! Its every memory, its very walls are\ndear unto multitudes.\n\nIt was plain even to bareness\u2014unnecessarily so in the opinion of\nmany\u2014both without and within, with not the slightest effort at show or\neven ornament. None of those harmonies of color nor graces of form, such\nas are now shown or attempted in almost every church edifice, were here\nfound. It was builded with the simple conscientious purpose of enabling\nas many as possible to hear the Gospel, of affording every advantage to\nsuch as wished to meet together in the prayer-meeting and sociable, and\nof instructing the young in the Sunday-school. Herein lay the beauty of\nthe Plymouth Church building: its excellent adaptation to the great end\nin view. More than any church of that day, and, with all the progress of\nlater times, excelled by but few, if any, at the present time, Plymouth\nChurch building afforded superior accommodations for Gospel hearing and\nspiritual, educational, and social training. By placing the seats in a\npartial curve, by the admirable arrangement of the commodious galleries,\nand by pushing the pulpit well forward toward the centre of the circle,\nthe vast audience of nearly three thousand people were brought near\ntogether and near to the speaker. While this enabled him to address them\nwith great ease, it also afforded an opportunity for the cultivation of\nthat feeling of homeness and fraternity that always characterized the\ngatherings of this church with its pastor.\n\nThe pulpit was then, as now, a plain platform, with no railing in front,\nand no other furniture than a set of chairs, a stand for notices, and an\nopen table for the Bible; as far removed as possible from those boxes\nwhere the man must stand, cramped and stiff, while he delivers his\nmessage. An offering of flowers was also found there, the beginning of a\ncustom which has been continued, we believe, without the failure of a\nsingle Sabbath, from that day to this.\n\nBehind the pulpit was the organ and seats for a choir of fifty or more\nwho should lead the great congregation in their songs of praise.\n\nIn the rear of the audience-room, opening back into another street, was\nthe lecture and prayer-meeting room, and above this were the parlors and\nthe Sunday-school rooms.\n\nSuch was the equipment that the pastor and Plymouth Church began to use\non that first Sabbath in 1850. It seemed to many more than ample. The\naudience-room was more commodious than any in the land. Would the young\nminister be able to fill it? Would he hold out? The \u201csix months\u201d that\none of Brooklyn\u2019s most oracular of D.D.\u2019s had given \u201cthat young man to\nrun out in\u201d had long since passed, and he gave, as yet, no signs of\nwaning popularity; but perhaps he will, and a few possibly hoped, and\nsome, it may be, feared, that it would be so; but by far the larger part\nof that great congregation praised God that day in joyful confidence\nwithout any fears or misgivings. They had faith in their pastor as well\nas in God; and he, conscious that he had builded sincerely, without sham\nor pretence, had no question but that He who had begun this good work\nwould carry it prosperously forward to the end. All these appliances had\nbeen demanded by the thousands in attendance. Their necessity was of\nGod, hence they could trust Him to vindicate His own plans. The young\npastor neither feared nor was anxious. He was the Lord\u2019s; let Him do\nwith him as He pleased.\n\nOf this feeling in connection with his preaching he himself says: \u201cI had\nat that time almost a species of indifference as to means and measures.\nI cared little, and perhaps too little, whether I had or had not a\nchurch building. I thought of one thing\u2014the love of Christ to men. This,\nto me, was a burning reality. Less clearly than now, perhaps, did I\ndiscern the whole circuit and orb of the nature of Christ; but with a\nburning intensity I realized the love of God in Jesus Christ. I believed\nit to be the one transcendent influence in this world by which men\nshould be roused to a higher manhood and should be translated into\nanother and better kingdom. My purpose was to preach Christ to men for\nthe sake of bringing them to a higher life; and though I preferred the\npolity and economy of the Congregational churches, yet I also felt that\nGod was in all the other churches, and that it was no part of my\nministry to build up sectarian walls; that it was no part of my ministry\nto bombard and pull down sectarian structures; but that the work of my\nministry was to find the way to the hearts of men, and to labor with\nthem for their awakening and conversion and sanctification.\n\n\u201cI have said that I had no theory; but I had a very strong impression on\nmy mind that the first five years in the life of a church would\ndetermine the history of that church and give to it its position and\ngenius; that if the earliest years of a church were controversial or\nbarren it would take scores of years to right it; but that if a church\nwere consecrated, active, and energetic during the first five years of\nits life, it would probably go on through generations developing the\nsame features. My supreme anxiety, therefore, in gathering a church, was\nto have all of its members united in a fervent, loving disposition; to\nhave them all in sympathy with men; and to have all of them desirous of\nbringing to bear the glorious truths of the Gospel upon the hearts and\nconsciences of those about them.\n\n\u201cConsequently I went into this work with all my soul, preaching night\nand day, visiting incessantly, and developing as fast and as far as\nmight be that social, contagious spirit which we call a revival of\nreligion.\u201d\n\nThe services in the church were then, as ever since, in harmony with the\nbuilding\u2014simple and without ostentation, differing from those of other\nCongregational churches only in the spirit of unusual heartiness and the\nimpression of unusual power.\n\nWhen the bell ceased tolling the organ began its work of preparing the\nhearts of the great multitude for worship. Then followed the invocation\nby the pastor, always devout, always joyful and trustful, uniformly\nsincere, and always varied. No set phrase ever took possession and held\nin its formal grasp the expression of his praise and expectant prayer:\n\n\u201cThou that dost hold the sun, and pour forth therefrom the light and\nglory of the day, from Thine own self let there come, streaming as the\ndaylight, those influences that shall awake in us all hope and all\ngladness of love. For we sleep except when Thy beams are upon us. Only\nwhen we are in God are we alive. Let us in, O our Father! and may all\nthat is within us rise up to worship Thee. Accept our service according\nto what we would do and according to what Thou wouldst have us do. Bless\nthe word and the reading thereof. Bless our songs of praise and our\nfellowship therein. Bless our communion one with another and with Thee.\nBless us in our meditation, in the services of the day, at home, and\neverywhere. Make this a golden day to our souls, through Jesus Christ\nour Redeemer. Amen.\u201d\n\nThen followed, in those early days\u2014in later years he often omitted\nit\u2014the reading of the hymn, simply, with no straining after effect, but\nso as to give the full meaning of the words to be sung, and in a measure\nto interpret their spirit. The singing which followed, so full and\nappreciative, was something to remember. It was the voices of the\nmultitude joining and blending in one great, full song of adoration and\nthanksgiving.\n\nThe reading of the Scripture was usually without comment, but so vivid\nto his thought were the great truths uttered, and so flexible was his\nvoice in giving them expression, and so natural the adaptation of his\nwhole manner to their import, that his simple reading gave a better\nunderstanding of Scripture than the explanations of most other men.\n\nThe prayer that followed the hymn was very marked in its general\ncharacteristics, comprehensive, and adapted to the occasion and the\nneeds of the people before him. It invariably gave expression to a\nthankful spirit, lamented sins and failures, was permeated with a\nyearning desire for communion with God and with great sympathy with men,\nclass after class of whom he brought before the Heavenly Father for\ndeliverance, comfort, and blessing.\n\nThe sermon was long, consuming from three-quarters of an hour to an\nhour, and sometimes more, in delivery, and usually combined in a very\nmarked degree the three elements, the exegetical, the philosophic, and\nthe hortatory. He delighted in giving a full and broad opening of\nScripture, that all might be quickened and fed; in showing the relation\nand harmony of the truths thus presented to other truths already\nadmitted, making their bearings clear by frequent illustrations, and\npressing them in the progress of the sermon, and especially at the\nclose, upon the acceptance of his hearers. His preaching informed,\nconvinced, inspired, and moved men to decisive action Godward, or it\nwas, in his view, a failure.\n\nThe benediction with which the services closed was as if he saw the\nhands of the living Saviour stretched out over His beloved people, and\nhe became but a mouthpiece for the solemn and tender expression of His\nbeneficence.\n\nThen followed the informal after-meeting, unadvertised and\nunarranged\u2014the pressing forward to the pulpit, or the waiting in the\naisles until he should pass out, of some who perhaps had a word of\nthanks for help received in the sermon, of others asking questions or\nbearing messages, of strangers who wished to press his hand, or of\ntroubled ones who wanted a word of cheer. The meeting continued down the\naisle, out into the porch, out on to the street, as friends still walked\nalong with him, talking as they went.\n\nThe weekly meetings of the church, besides Sabbath services and the\nSunday-school, at this early period, were three: a \u201cLecture,\u201d Tuesday\nevening; a \u201cSociable,\u201d Thursday evening; and a Prayer-meeting, Friday\nevening.\n\nThe weekly _lecture_ was a familiar meeting of the church family and\ntheir friends, where, in simple and colloquial speech, the pastor\ninstructed them in the things that pertain to the spiritual life. It was\nalways spoken of, not as a _sermon_, but as a \u201c_Lecture-Room Talk_.\u201d The\nsubjects chosen were practical, like these, given in the order in which\nhe delivered them: \u201cGroping after God,\u201d \u201cPraying for Others,\u201d \u201cFervency\nof Religious Feeling,\u201d \u201cConversing with the Impenitent,\u201d picked up in\nhis intercourse with his people, selected with direct reference to\nsolving doubts, removing difficulties, and securing spiritual growth and\nactivity. In these, perhaps more than anywhere else, he displayed the\nresources of his great common sense, revealed the depth of his spiritual\nlife, and drew most largely on the wealth of his own Christian\nexperience.\n\nThe prayer-meetings did not differ in form from those that are common in\nCongregational churches. A moment before the hour for the meeting Mr.\nBeecher came upon the platform, threw his hat upon the floor by the side\nof his chair, sat down, and, throwing back his cloak, took up the\n\u201cPlymouth Collection,\u201d and, the instant the bell ceased tolling, without\nrising, gave out in a clear, firm voice the number of some familiar\nhymn, usually of thanksgiving. The pianist wasted no time in playing the\ntune through, but struck the opening note firmly, the audience joined\nwithout delay and sang without dragging, and the meeting gained that\nmost important advantage\u2014a good send-off. No sooner had the hymn ceased\nthan the pastor arose and read a passage from a Bible which he held in\nhis hand. He then led in a prayer, simple, confiding, hopeful, tender,\nthat helped all weary and waiting souls to realize that they were in the\npresence of their very best Friend, and gave them needed help. Another\nhymn, given out in the same manner and sung with the same spirit,\nfollowed. Then, that there might be no break in the movement of the\nservice, looking at the individual addressed, usually some one of the\nold warriors upon the front seats, he would say, \u201cWill Brother \u2014\u2014\u2014 lead\nus in prayer?\u201d When this prayer was finished his eye seemed to take a\nbroader range and search out some of the younger and less experienced to\nbring them into the work. Woe be to you then if you have come in late,\ntaken a back seat, and tried to keep out of sight! He seemed to know\ninstinctively where you were, and how you felt, and how essential, if\nyou would enjoy the meeting, that this ice should be broken; and on this\nsecond call for leaders you would be very likely to hear your name\npronounced with that same kind but authoritative intonation that you\ncould neither pretend not to hear nor refuse to obey. Another hymn\nincreases the kindly warmth of Christian feeling that has begun to\npervade the audience like an atmosphere, and under its inspiration other\nprayers are offered, at this stage by volunteers; experiences are\nrelated, often by the pastor; questions are asked upon some practical\ndifficulty, and answers are given; failures and sins are confessed and\nlamented, and prayers are requested and offered, until the hour was\npassed all too quickly. Another hymn, and then the benediction closes\nthe meeting.\n\nThe social meetings, for the accommodation of which Mr. Beecher added\nthe parlors\u2014at that time an unusual feature of a church\u2014were a very\nearnest attempt made by him in the meridian of his social power and\nenthusiasm, and in a church more than ordinarily inspired by his loving\nspirit, to overcome the separations which different conditions and\ndissimilar social training and surroundings bring about in the Church of\nChrist, and to realize as nearly as possible the family ideal. A\nsewing-meeting was held in the afternoon for some benevolent enterprise,\nfollowed by a plain tea to which all were invited. Friends dropped in,\npleasant conversation ensued, and perhaps a few selections of reading or\nsong, prepared for the occasion, were given. \u201cMr. Beecher then took his\nstand in the centre of the large room, rapped with his pencil and called\nhis flock around him, and gave them ten minutes of appreciative, kindly,\nwitty, helpful talk. \u2018Plymouth Collection of Hymns\u2019 was then handed\nround, and everybody sang, or tried to. After this, prayer and\n\u2018good-night.\u2019\u201d This was about the outline, and for several years it was\nmoderately successful; but busy times crowded in upon it, unregulated\nelements worked into it, getting and doing more harm than good, and at\nlength it was given up, and the members of Plymouth Church chose their\ncompanions according to social affinities, similarity of position, and\ncircumstances, like other people.\n\nSuch preaching and labors, with such appliances, under the blessing of\nGod were sure to bring abundant results, and revivals followed each\nother in quick succession all through those early years; in fact,\nPlymouth Church thus far during its whole history may be called a\nrevival church.\n\nIts polity was Congregational, as we find in its manual of 1850:\n\n\u201cThis church is an independent ecclesiastical body, and in matters of\ndoctrine, order, and discipline is amenable to no other organization.\nThis church will extend to other evangelical churches and receive from\nthem that fellowship, advice, and assistance which the laws of Christ\nrequire.\u201d\n\nHis own policy toward the church is given in these words:\n\n\u201cI have never _managed_. I have never employed management. I have tried\nto inspire kind feelings and thus lead men to take up their crosses. I\nhave never sought to exert my authority, but to promote the utmost\nfreedom of thought and action.... I have maintained from the beginning\nthe most profound desire that there should be a church-life among you\nquite independent of me, and that as the pulpit was independent, so\nshould the pews be also. I have scrupulously avoided meddling with the\nliberties of this church, except to _enforce_ them. My simple aim from\nthe beginning has been to develop among you as high a standard of\nmanhood, and of Christian manhood, as the infirmity of human nature\nwould permit; and for that\u2014the exaltation of manhood in Christ Jesus\u2014I\nhave labored in season and out of season: not without flaw, not without\nfault, not without sin, but, as God is my witness, with every power of\nmy soul and body and understanding, from year to year.\u201d\n\nSuch was Plymouth Church as she stood a score and a half and more years\nago, and as she still remains.\n\n\u201cBeautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is this our Mount\nZion\u201d well expresses the feelings of multitudes as they recall these\nyears and remember these places. Her streets of Sabbath service and\nwork-day conference and prayer were continually trodden by eager crowds,\nand were made beautiful and attractive by the Christian fellowship that\ngrew up and blossomed here on every side under the inspiration and\nculture of one who himself so trustfully, hopefully, and exultingly\nwalked with God.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XIII.\n\nBeginning of the Great Battle\u2014Five Great Eras\u2014Compromise Measures of\n    1850\u2014\u201cShall We Compromise\u201d\u2014The Fugitive Slave Law Denounced\u2014Right of\n    Free Speech Defended\u2014Commercial Liberty\u2014Fighting Caste\u2014Liberty of\n    the Pulpit Defended\u2014Quickness of Retort\u2014Sentiment of the\n    Times\u2014Reaction\u2014Visit of Kossuth\u2014Election of 1852\u2014The Parker\n    Controversy\u2014Degraded into Liberty\u2014John Mitchel\u2014Garrison\u2014Close of\n    this Era.\n\n\nOther things than opening the church building contributed to make 1850\nan eventful year to Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nIn that year slavery came to the place of supreme interest in our\nnational affairs which it never afterwards lost until it was swept away\nin the battle-storm of 1861-65.\n\nThe very month that Plymouth Church took possession of its new house,\nthe first month of the last half of the nineteenth century, Henry Clay\nsubmitted a series of resolutions in the Senate of the United States\nas \u201ccompromise measures for a final and complete adjustment of the\nslavery question.\u201d In the debate, passage, and enforcement of these\nmeasures, the utterly antagonistic nature of the two contending\nelements, liberty and slavery, which had been brought together under\nour Constitution, became so evident; slavery, from the very necessity\nof self-preservation, became so aggressive, advanced claims so\ncomprehensive and so forced the fighting, that the very measures\nintended to compromise the whole difficulty made it clear that there\ncould be _no_ compromise. There could be no amicable adjustment of\ninterests so diametrically opposed; one or the other, liberty or\nslavery, must take undivided and undisputed possession of the\ngovernment. From debate of words the conflict passed rapidly to the\nargument of arms, first on the plains of Kansas and eventually over\nthe whole southern half of our country, developing into the greatest\ncivil war ever known in the world\u2019s history\u2014a war in comparison with\nwhich, in the numbers engaged on either side, in the breadth of the\nbattle-field, in the agents of destruction employed and the important\ninterests at stake, England\u2019s Wars of the Roses, and even the strife\nof the rival claimants for the imperial purple of Rome, were\ninsignificant and secondary contests.\n\nThe part of this great slavery conflict in which Mr. Beecher was\nactively engaged had five distinct eras, clearly marked by well-defined\nboundaries, each presenting peculiar difficulties of its own to be\novercome, and each bringing forward peculiar and important questions for\nsolution. The first began with the agitation of the Compromise measures\nof 1850, and ended in the passage of those measures and their\nenforcement, more or less complete, during the uneasy years of 1850 and\n1853.\n\nThe second began with the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise\nmeasures and continued through what was known as \u201cThe Kansas Struggle,\u201d\nuntil April 1, 1858, when the first substantial victory ever won by the\nfree States was gained in Congress in the permission to give the actual\nresidents of Kansas a fair vote upon the question of the acceptance or\nrejection of the infamous Lecompton Constitution.\n\nThe third began with the abandonment by the slave-power of its\ndependence upon legislative enactments, which its defeat in Kansas had\nproved to be futile, and the inauguration of an era of secession and\nviolence, and ended with the Proclamation of Emancipation, which took\neffect January 1, 1863, and which legally destroyed slavery in all the\nStates in rebellion, and substantially within the whole domain of the\nUnited States.\n\nThe fourth era began with the issuing the Proclamation of Emancipation;\nextended through two years and more of battle by which the proclamation\nwas carried into effect, and slavery was destroyed _de facto_ as it had\nalready been _de jure_, and foreign intervention was prevented; and\nended with raising the flag over Sumter, the sign of the restoration of\nour national authority over a free and undivided national domain.\n\nThe fifth includes the period of reconstruction, in which the difficult\ntask of bringing the States, once in rebellion but now submissive, back\ninto the Union was successfully accomplished. It covers the ground from\nthe close of the war to the present time, or, more properly, from the\ndeath of President Lincoln, when the South lay prostrate at the feet of\nthe victorious North, to the election of President Cleveland, when, as\nMr. Beecher hoped and believed, sectional lines were obliterated and the\nSouth once more saw the candidate she favored raised to be the chief\nmagistrate of our common country.\n\nThe Compromise measures of 1850 were conceived for the purpose of\nremoving the serious and dangerous complications that had arisen,\nbetween the North and the South, in the attempt to organize the\nterritory recently acquired from Mexico, and in admitting California as\na free State with a constitution for ever prohibiting slavery within her\nborders. The South felt that such an addition to the free States would\nso disturb the balance of power between the sections that something must\nbe given her as a compensation. Hence these Compromise measures, which\nprovided for the admission of California as a free State, but gave the\nSouth, as an offset, a more stringent Fugitive Slave Law and paid Texas\nten millions of dollars for the adjustment of her State boundaries.\nHonestly intended, no doubt, and urged by the mover, Henry Clay, and\naccepted by many who disliked it, from patriotic motives, this\nCompromise was, nevertheless, wrong in principle and proved only\nmischievous in results. It rested on the false theory that the\ndevelopment of both liberty and slavery was equally the duty of the\nRepublic, and that whatever gain was made by the former must be\nequalized to the latter by some new concession, and led to constantly\nincreasing disturbance in both sections. While failing to satisfy the\nmore radical men of the South, it was utterly abhorrent to a much larger\nbody at the North. It seemed to the latter to be but another great step\ntaken by the slave-power in its attempt to gain possession of the whole\nland. The first had been the Missouri Compromise, in which slavery,\nsurrendering what it never owned\u2014viz., the territory north of 36\u00b0 30\u2032,\ncalled Mason and Dixon\u2019s line\u2014gained Missouri and a _quasi_ right to all\nterritory south of that line. In this second great step now proposed\nthey did not fail to note that the provision to prohibit slavery in the\nnewly-acquired territories, called the \u201cWilmot Proviso,\u201d had been\ndefeated in Congress, nor fail to see that in these Compromise measures,\nshould they be carried, the slave-power would secure the right to hunt\nand capture its fugitives in every city, town, and home of the free\nStates, and to compel every Northern citizen to aid in the work, thus\nmaking, so far as fugitives were concerned, slave territory of the whole\nNorth. They saw in this measure a great advance towards nationalizing\nthis institution and securing for it the right, aimed at by its\nadvocates from the first, to go unquestioned and protected wherever the\nauthority of the Constitution of the United States was recognized. If\nthis were passed they felt it to be not at all improbable that the\nthreat of Senator Toombs, of Georgia, to call the roll of his slaves\nfrom the steps of Bunker Hill Monument, would be executed, and they\nopposed it with an energy born both of conviction and abhorrence. In\nthis opposition none were more strenuous than Mr. Beecher. Speaking of\nthis period, he says:\n\n\u201cIn 1850, when the controversy came up about Clay\u2019s Omnibus Bill,\nincluding the Fugitive Slave Laws, I was thoroughly roused, and in the\npulpit and with my pen I attacked with the utmost earnestness the\ninfamous Fugitive Slave Bill. It was then that I wrote that article,\n\u2018Shall we Compromise?\u2019 It was read to John C. Calhoun on his sick-bed by\nhis clerk, and he raised himself up and said: \u2018Read that article again.\u2019\nThe article was read. \u2018The man who says that is right. There is no\nalternative. It is liberty or slavery.\u2019 And then, when Webster made his\nfatal apostasy on March 7, 1850, I joined with all Northern men of any\nfreedom-loving spirit in denouncing it and in denouncing him. Forthwith,\nafter a paralysis of a few weeks, his friends determined to save him by\ngetting all the old clergymen\u2014such men as Dr. Spring, Dr. Lord of\nDartmouth, and the Andover professors\u2014to take his part. The effort was\nto get every great and influential man in the North to stand up for\nWebster; and then it was that I flamed. They failed utterly. Professor\nWoolsey of New Haven, Dr. Bacon, Dr. Hopkins, President of Williams\nCollege in Massachusetts, and various other most influential men,\nabsolutely refused to sustain Webster.\u201d\n\nIn the issue of the _Independent_ of February 21, 1850, filling three\ncolumns, we have the famous article referred to above. We quote only\nenough to indicate its spirit and line of argument:[5]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n  This article entire can be found in Mr. Beecher\u2019s \u201cPatriotic\n  Addresses,\u201d published by Fords, Howard & Hulbert, New York City.\n\n-----\n\n                         \u201cSHALL WE COMPROMISE?\n\n\u201cMr. Clay\u2019s Compromise has been violently resisted by the South and but\ncoldly looked upon by the North.\n\n\u201cIt is not that both sides are infatuated and refuse a reasonable\nsettlement; but the skill of Mr. Clay has evidently not touched the seat\nof the disease. He either has not perceived or else has not thought it\nexpedient to meet the real issue now before the people of the United\nStates. The struggle now going on is a struggle whose depths lie in the\norganization of society in the North and South respectively; whose\ncauses are planted in the Constitution. There are two incompatible and\nmutually destructive principles wrought together in the government of\nthis land.... These elements are slavery and liberty.... One or the\nother must die.\n\n\u201d... The South now demands room and right for extension. She asks the\nNorth to be a partner. For every free State she demands one State for\nslavery. One dark orb must be swung into its orbit, to groan and travail\nin pain, for every new orb of liberty over which the morning stars shall\nsing for joy.\n\n\u201c... It is time for good men and true to gird up their loins and stand\nforth for God and humanity. No compromises can help us which dodge the\nquestion, certainly none which settle it for slavery....\n\n\u201cThere never was a plainer question for the North. It is her duty\nopenly, firmly, and for ever to refuse to slavery another inch of\nterritory, and to see to it that it never gets it by fraud. It is her\nduty to refuse her hand or countenance to slavery where it now exists.\nIt is her duty to declare that she will under no consideration be a\nparty to any farther inhumanity and injustice....\n\n\u201cMr. Clay\u2019s Compromise resolutions demand better provision for the\nrecovery of fugitive slaves, and a bill is now pending in the United\nStates Senate for that purpose. On this matter our feelings are so\nstrong that we confess a liability to intemperance of expression.\n\n\u201cIf the compromises of the Constitution include requisitions which\nviolate humanity, I will not be bound by them. Not even the Constitution\nshall make me unjust. If my patriotic sires confederated in my behalf\nthat I should maintain that instrument, so I will to the utmost bound of\nright. But who, with power which even God denies to Himself, shall by\ncompact fore-ordain me to the commission of inhumanity and injustice? I\ndisown the act. I repudiate the obligation. Never while I have breath\nwill I help any official miscreant in his base errand of recapturing a\nfellow-man for bondage; and may my foot palsy and my right hand forget\nher cunning if I ever become so untrue to mercy and to religion as not\nby all the means in my power to give aid and succor to every man whose\ncourageous flight tells me he is worthy of liberty!\n\n\u201d... From those compromises, like Mr. Clay\u2019s, which seek for peace\nrather than for humanity\u2014from such compromises, guileless though they\nseem, and gilded till they shine like heaven, evermore may we be\ndelivered.\u201d\n\nThis battle in Congress resulted, like every battle since the adoption\nof the Constitution, in a victory for the slave party. In September of\nthis year, 1850, the Compromise measures, which had passed both Houses\nof Congress, were signed by President Fillmore and became by a very\ndecided majority the law of the land. Many things had contributed to\nthis result. On the one hand, there was a strong party in the South,\nrepresenting largely the sentiment of that whole section, who felt\nthemselves aggrieved and deprived of their rights under the\nConstitution, since they could not carry their property with them into\nthe common territory of the Union, and who saw in these Compromise\nmeasures a step in the direction of nationalizing their peculiar\ninstitution; on the other the commercial and manufacturing interests of\nthe North demanded a cessation of strife, that they might enter into the\nprosperity opened to them by the discovery of the gold upon our Western\ncoast; again, the fear of disruption, if the bitter discussion in\nCongress should continue, reconciled many to such measures as promised\npeace; also, the habit of compromise, which had been early formed, and\nstood apparently justified by years of prosperity and growth, made it\neasier to again adopt this course; and, perhaps more influential than\nany other, the leaders most beloved and trusted at the North were in\nfavor of the measure. Henry Clay was its originator, and Daniel Webster,\nthe great expounder of the Constitution, in his fatal speech of March 7,\n1850, had justified the Compromise measures, spoke not a word in\ncondemnation of the legal or moral crudities and enormities of the\nFugitive Slave Law, and had reserved the lightning of his sarcasm and\nthe thunder of his condemnation for the Abolitionists:\n\n\u201cNothing can be plainer than that all parties in the state were drifting\nin the dark, without any comprehension of the elemental causes at work.\nWithout prescience or sagacity, like ignorant physicians, they\nprescribed at random; they sewed on patches, new compromises on old\ngarments, sought to conceal the real depth of the danger of the\ngathering torrent by crying peace! peace! to each other. In short, they\nwere seeking to medicate volcanoes and stop earthquakes by administering\npolitical quinine. The wise statesmen were bewildered and politicians\nwere juggling fools.\u201d\n\nIf the anti-slavery men of the North hated the Compromise, and\nespecially the Fugitive Slave clause in it, while it was being debated\nin Congress, their abhorrence was increased a thousand-fold now that all\nit had cost and all it threatened was in a measure comprehended. Looking\nat it calmly, they saw that safe-guards which from time immemorial had\ngathered around the individual to protect him in person and liberty had,\nfor a very large class in the community, been suddenly destroyed.\n\nTrial by jury was denied. Opportunity for the accused to summon\nwitnesses in his own defence was not given, and \u201cin no trial or hearing\nunder this act shall the testimony of such alleged fugitives be admitted\nto evidence.\u201d He had no hearing before any competent judge, but before a\ncommissioner appointed to take depositions, who, whatever his ability or\nlack of ability, was clothed by this infamous act with plenary power in\nthe premises.\n\nOn the simple certificate of this man the unhappy victim was hurried off\nat once into slavery, and no stay of proceedings or liberty of appeal\nwas granted. Dumb, undefended, his destiny at the mercy of any accuser,\nand of a commissioner possibly ignorant and possibly vicious, the\naccused was consigned to a state worse to many than death.\n\nAimed at a particular class, its injustice was seen to be indiscriminate\nenough to make an attack possible upon individuals of any class; and its\nprovisions for the deprivation of a single right made necessary such a\nstringency in the exercise of other rights as could not be tolerated in\na free community.\n\nAtrocious in itself, it became still more offensive and dangerous by\nreason of the ease with which its provisions could be employed by\nvillains for kidnapping negroes, or even white men, who had never been\nslaves. It was stated and believed that along the whole line between the\nslave and free States arresting fugitives at once became a regular\nbusiness, with very little care in many instances as to the previous\nliberty or slavery of those arrested. Instances were continually being\nrecorded of colored boys and girls being unexpectedly spirited away and\nhurried off into bondage. Great activity in this work of securing\nfugitives who had lived in the North for years prevailed, and fear and\napprehension took possession of the whole negro population of that\nsection, and a corresponding indignation grew hot in the hearts of\nmultitudes of freemen.\n\nScenes and incidents were continually transpiring and published in the\nnewspapers that stirred the one party to greater hatred of the\ninstitution of slavery, and the other party to greater hatred to the\nmeans, regular or irregular, that were employed to prevent the carrying\nout of its purpose.\n\nAs may well be supposed, Mr. Beecher speaks with no greater affection\nfor this measure, now that it has become a law, than when it was being\ndebated in Congress.\n\nIn a Star paper that appeared October 3, upon \u201cThe Fugitive Slave Bill\nat its Work,\u201d he meets it with undisguised and open defiance. \u201cWith such\nsolemn convictions no law impious to God and humanity shall have respect\nor observance at our hands. If in God\u2019s providence fugitives ask bread\nor shelter, raiment or conveyance, from us, my own children shall lack\nbread before they; my own flesh shall sting with cold ere they shall\nlack raiment; I will both shelter them, conceal them, or speed their\nflight, and while under my shelter or my convoy they shall be to me as\nmy own flesh and blood; and whatsoever defence I would put forth for my\nown children, that shall these poor, despised, and persecuted creatures\nhave in my house or upon the road.\u201d\n\nHe follows with another very thoughtful and able article upon \u201cLaw and\nConscience\u201d in defence of his position, and for the instruction of those\nwho were in doubt what course to take in the conflicting claims of the\nlaw of the land on one side and their feelings of humanity upon the\nother.\n\nIn the first place, he makes the duty of obedience to law very strong:\n\n\u201cNothing could be more mischievous than the prevalence of the doctrine\nthat a citizen may disobey an unjust or burdensome law. Should that\nliberty be granted, the bad, the selfish, the cruel and grasping, might\ndisregard wholesome laws as easily as just men unjust laws. It would\nconstitute every man a court in his own case; and a court, too, in which\nselfishness would preside. Society could not exist for a day.\n\n\u201cIt is a question seriously asked by thousands: How can we as good\ncitizens subscribe to such wholesome doctrine and yet openly resist the\nFugitive Slave Law? Many reasons make it important that this question\nshould be thoroughly answered. There are thousands who _say_ that this\nlaw must be obeyed, and who, with the next breath, bravely and\ngenerously declare that nevertheless, should a distressed fugitive ask\nsuccor, shelter, and guidance at their hand, he should have them. But\nthis is breaking the law. To keep this law you must not shelter a slave\nmother fleeing to her free husband in the North, nor a slave girl whose\nfoot bounds at the sound of a pursuer, as if it were the knell of\nvirtue. You must not give direction to a fugitive, though his head be\nwhite and his old limbs reveal half a century of unrequited toil; though\na man say to you, in the awful agony of his soul, \u2018Kill me, but for the\nlove of God do not betray me!\u2019 the law enjoins you to go with the\nofficer, if he summon you, and help in his arrest! The minister of the\nGospel, the humane philanthropist, peacefully walking to the\nSabbath-sounding bell, must turn aside and help some scoundrel hireling\nto run down his slave, if the marshal command him, or break the law!\u201d\n\nHe then lays down this general principle:\n\n\u201cEvery citizen must obey a law which inflicts injury upon his person,\nestate, and civil privilege, until legally redressed; but no citizen is\nbound to obey a law which commands _him_ to _inflict_ injury upon\nanother. We must _endure_ but never _commit_ wrong. We must be patient\nwhen sinned against, but must never sin against others. The law may heap\ninjustice upon me, but no law can authorize me to pour injustice upon\nanother. When the law commanded Daniel not to pray he disobeyed it; when\nit commanded him to be cast into the lions\u2019 den he submitted.\n\n\u201cA law which enjoins upon a citizen the commission of a crime, and still\nmore of an open, disgraceful, and flagitious crime, has violated the\nconfidence of the citizen, and is dissolved in the court of God the\nmoment it is enacted.\n\n\u201cLet no man stand uncommitted, dodging between daylight and dark, on\nthis vital principle. Let every man firmly and openly take sides. This\nvibrating between humanity for the fugitive and conscience for the law,\nthis clandestine humanity in spite of law, to which the lips only give a\nsullen and pouting obedience, is not consistent with sincerity and\nopen-hearted integrity. We adjure every Christian man, every man to whom\nconscience is more than meat, and honor better than thrift, to stand\nforth and enunciate the invincible truth of the Christian\u2019s creed:\n_Obedience to laws, even though they sin against me: disobedience to\nevery law that commands me to sin._\u201d\n\nHis conviction of the origin of this whole trouble, his policy\nconcerning it, and his confidence in the working out of natural causes\nare well set forth in an article at this period upon \u201cThe Cause and Cure\nof Agitation\u201d:\n\n\u201cIt ought primarily to be understood that our Constitution has _invited_\nthis whole conflict which has raged about it. Had the framers been\ngifted with prescience they would, we cannot but think, have regarded\nthe inevitable future mischief of that compromise by which slavery had\nits rights embedded in a constitution of liberty, as too great to be\nrisked. They acted with the light which they had. They swaddled and laid\nin one cradle two infant forms. These were rocked together and grew up\ntogether; but one was a wolf\u2019s cub and the other a lamb. Both were alike\npeaceful at birth\u2014for a lion\u2019s whelp when first dropped is as gentle as\na doe. Growth brought forth separate natures. Then appeared hostility.\nEach acted to its nature.\n\n\u201cOur policy for the future is plain. All the natural laws of God are\nwarring upon slavery. We have only to let the process go on. Let slavery\nalone. Let it go to seed. Hold it to its own natural fruit. Cause it to\nabide by itself. Cut off every branch that hangs beyond the wall, every\nroot that spreads. Shut it up to itself and let it alone. We do not ask\nto interfere with the internal policy of a single State by Congressional\nenactments: we will not ask to take one guarantee from the institution.\nWe only ask that a line be drawn about it; that an insuperable bank be\ncast up; that it be fixed and for ever settled that slavery must find no\nnew sources, new fields, new prerogatives, but that it must abide in its\nplace, subject to all the legitimate changes which will be brought upon\nit by the spirit of a nation essentially democratic, by schools taught\nby enlightened men, by colleges sending annually into every profession\nthousands bred to justice and hating its reverse, by churches preaching\na gospel that has always heralded civil liberty, by manufactories which\nalways thrive best when the masses are free and refined and therefore\nhave their wants multiplied, by free agriculture and free commerce.\n\n\u201cWhen slavery begins, under such a treatment, to flag, we demand that\nshe be denied political favoritism to regain her loss; we demand that no\nlaws be enacted to give health to her paralysis and strength to her\nrelaxing grasp. She boldly and honestly demanded a right to equality\nwith the North, and prophetically spoke by Calhoun, that the North would\npreponderate and crush her. It is true. Time is her enemy. Liberty will,\nif let alone, always be a match for oppression. Now, it is because\nstatesmen propose stepping in between slavery and the appointed bourne\nto which she goes, scourged by God and nature, that we resent these\nstatesmen and refuse to follow them. If her wounds can be stanched, if\nshe may have adventitious aid in new privileges, slavery will renew her\nstrength and stave off the final day. But if it be forbidden one\nadditional favor and be obliged to stand up by the side of free labor,\nfree schools, free churches, free institutions; if it be obliged to live\nin a land of free books, free papers, and free Bibles, it will either\ndie or else it _ought_ to live.\u201d\n\nHe ridicules those measures that had been adopted North and South to\nenforce the peace, and compares those who keep agitating against\nagitation to poor old \u201ccrazy Dinah\u201d who used to sit on the pulpit stairs\nin Litchfield. \u201cOnce she began talking, but, startled at her want of\nmanners, she said out loud: \u2018Why I\u2019m talking! I\u2019m talking in meetin\u2019!\nThere, I spoke again. I ought not to speak. There, I spoke once more.\nTut, tut! why, I _keep_ a-speaking.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhile advocating at this time, as ever afterwards, the utmost liberty of\ndiscussion, he stated his creed in these words: \u201cThere is nothing so\nsafe in a free country as _free discussion_, nothing so dangerous as the\nsuppression of it; _peace_ and _liberty of speech_, _violence_ and\n_intolerance_, respectively go together.\u201d\n\nHe argued and advised in a lengthy paper against \u201cthe usual unfortunate\nconcomitants of controversy, bitterness, railing, unfairness, and\nexaggerated prejudices.\n\n\u201cWe have not the least objection to the most unbounded ardor of\nexpression, to the most enthusiastic convictions, expressed in the most\npositive manner, so long as they relate to _truths_ or _principles_. But\nwhen the propagandist comes to regard those who do not receive his views\nas devoid of all principle and necessarily dishonest, and becomes\noffensively personal, then controversy is morbid and mischievous. And as\nnothing gives such vigor to like or dislike as conscience, so they who\nprofess to be conscientious are often conscientiously bitter. There is\nno revulsion against men or measures so violent as that of pure and\nhonorable men. A man consciously right should watch against severe\njudgments of others. It is sad and curious to observe the progress of\nexaggerated impressions of personal character. Those who do not follow\nour conscience on the slavery question are often, nevertheless, on the\nwhole, more conscientious men than we. Those whose reasonings we\npronounce cold and inhuman are not cold or inhuman men. Those whose\ncommercial interests reduce them, as it seems to us, to a policy on this\nparticular question which outrages justice and rectitude, are in their\nprivate character most estimable for truth, and even for tender\nsympathy. Indeed, this is often shown in strange contrast; for the very\nmen who give their counsel and zeal and money against the unseen slave\n_of the South_ irresistibly pity the particular fugitive whom they may\n_see_ running through the North. They give the Union Committee money to\ncatch the slave, and give the slave money to escape from the Committee.\u201d\n\nAll who were acquainted with Mr. Beecher know that the course he advised\nfor others he persistently and conscientiously pursued himself. We doubt\nif any man ever lived who was engaged in so many severe battles and\ncarried into them or brought from them so little bitterness.\n\nSuch a vigorous treatment of large and vital questions commanded a\nfollowing; and it was not long before this young minister from the West\nwas recognized as one of the great anti-slavery leaders and had a\nnational reputation. Men at the South began to hate him; men at the\nNorth, conservatives whose business interests were wrapped up in the\npresent state of things, whose goods and principles were equally for\nsale in Southern markets, were horrified and alarmed at his unwise\nsayings, his blasphemous use of the pulpit for political ends, and his\nfiery denunciations of the nation\u2019s pet institution. But over against\nthese there was another class, daily growing larger, whose consciences\nwere set free by his clear discrimination of a citizen\u2019s and a\nChristian\u2019s duty, whose intelligence was broadened and enlarged by his\nlofty views, and whose hearts were set on fire by his mighty enthusiasm\nand abounding love. This body daily increased in numbers and came more\nand more to share the spirit of their leader. Whatever he wrote they\nread. Whenever he spoke the size of church or hall alone decided the\nnumber of hearers. Without ambition, without self-seeking, with a\nsimple, earnest desire to do his work as God revealed it to him,\nunrasped by hatreds, he had come to a place and leadership as broad and\nhigh as there was in the land. With cheek still ruddy with youth, with\neyes from which the laughter never died out except when the tears of\nsympathy filled them or the deep things of God veiled them, with a heart\nthat was in sympathy with all nature round him, and which nature and He\nwho is above nature fed with perennial freshness, with a voice that\ncould interpret every emotion, with that excellent health that makes the\nbody a perfect channel of expression for the mind and a complete\ninstrument for its service, he stands like a David just come from his\nsheepfolds, free, unencumbered, and singing as he strikes.\n\nIn the progress of this discussion upon the Compromise measures, which\nhad its centre in Congress, but in which every hamlet, almost every\nhousehold, in the North had a share, other questions came to the front\nas parts of the great controversy.\n\nAmong the earliest of these was the right of free speech\u2014a right utterly\nunknown where slavery was in power, and always bitterly attacked where\nit had influence. As may well be expected, it found in Mr. Beecher one\nof its most strenuous champions. Early in his career he urged all the\nclaims of friendship, risked the safety of his new church building, and\ndefied the New York and Brooklyn mob, then under the control of the\nnotorious Captain Rynders, in its defence.\n\nIn a sermon preached in 1884 upon the death of Wendell Phillips he gives\nan account of his experience in this matter:\n\n\u201cIt is a part of the sweet and pleasant memories of my comparative youth\nhere that when the mob refused to let him speak in the Broadway\nTabernacle before it was moved up-town, William A. Hall, now dead\u2014a\nfervent friend and Abolitionist\u2014had secured the Graham Institute, on\nWashington Street, in Brooklyn, wherein to hold a meeting where Mr.\nPhillips should be heard. I had agreed to pray at the opening of the\nmeeting. On the morning of the day on which it was to have taken place I\nwas visited by the committee of that Institute (excellent gentlemen,\nwhose feelings will not be hurt, because they are all now ashamed of it:\nthey are in heaven), who said that, in consequence of the great peril\nthat attended a meeting at the Institute, they had withdrawn the liberty\nto use it and paid back the money, and that they called simply to say\nthat it was out of no disrespect to me, but from fidelity to their\nsupposed trust. Well, it was a bitter thing. If there is anything on\nearth that I am sensitive to it is the withdrawing of the liberty of\nspeech and thought. Henry C. Bowen said to me: \u2018You can have Plymouth\nChurch, if you want it.\u2019 \u2018How?\u2019 \u2018It is a rule of the church trustees\nthat the church may be let by a majority vote when we are convened; but\nif we are not convened, then every trustee must give his consent in\nwriting. If you choose to make it a personal matter and go to every\ntrustee, you can have it.\u2019 He meanwhile undertook, with Mr. Hall, to put\nnew placards over the old ones, notifying men quietly that the meeting\nwas to be held here, and distributing thousands and tens of thousands of\nhand-bills at the ferries. No task was ever more welcome. I went to the\ntrustees man by man. The majority of them very cheerfully accorded the\npermission. One or two of them were disposed to decline and withhold it.\nI made it a matter of personal friendship: \u2018You and I will break if you\ndon\u2019t give me this permission,\u2019 and they signed. So the meeting glided\nfrom Graham Institute to this house. A great audience assembled. We had\ndetectives in disguise, and every arrangement made to handle the subject\nin a practical form if the crowd should undertake to molest us.\u201d\n\nNeither at this nor any other time was an attack actually made upon\nPlymouth Church, although many times in its history have angry men\ngathered in the immediate neighborhood, evidently bent on mischief, but\nwere restrained from violence by the bold bearing of many in the\naudience who were known not to be Quakers, and by the presence of the\npolice, who were kept well informed of their intentions.\n\nAnother of the secondary battles that were fought early in this year was\none for commercial liberty.\n\nThe South, by the help, and perhaps by the instigation, of Northern\nco-operators, attempted nothing less than to boycott every commercial or\nmanufacturing company that was opposed to them upon the great political\nquestions of the day. A great \u201cUnion Saving Committee\u201d was formed in New\nYork, and met in Castle Garden and made out a black-list of the\nmerchants that were anti-slavery, from whom the South were to withdraw\ntheir patronage. Mr. Beecher not only preached against the outrage, but\nvisited from store to store to uphold the courage of the merchants.\n\nHe says: \u201cMr. Bowen was, of course, included in that blacklist, and\nthreatened with the loss of all his Southern custom. He came to me and\nasked me if I would not write a card for him, and I undertook to do it;\nbut, my head not running very clear, the only thing I got at, after\nmaking three or four attempts, was, \u2018My goods are for sale, but not my\nprinciples,\u2019 but I could not lick it into shape, and I gave the paper to\nhim and said, \u2018You must fix it yourself.\u2019 He took it to Hiram Barney,\nand he drew up the card in the shape in which it appeared, including\nthat sentence, which was the snap of the whole thing.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy goods are for sale, but not my principles\u201d became a war-cry for the\nindependent business men of the day, and had immense influence upon\ncommercial action.\n\nHe fought the petty ostracism of the North, and apparently with success:\n\n\u201cI never preached on that subject. I never said to the people in this\ncongregation, from the beginning to this day, \u2018You ought to let colored\nfolks sit in your pew.\u2019 I preached the dignity of man as a child of God,\nand lifted up the sanctity of human life and nature before the people.\nThey made the application, and they made it wisely and well.\n\n\u201cWhen I came here there was no place for colored men and women in the\ntheatre except the negro pen; no place in the opera; no place in the\nchurch except the negro pew; no place in any lecture-hall; no place in\nthe first-class car on the railways. The white omnibus of Fulton Ferry\nwould not allow colored persons to ride in it. They were never allowed\nto sit even in the gentlemen\u2019s cabin on the boats.\n\n\u201cI invited Fred Douglass, one day in those times, to come to church\nhere. \u2018I should be glad to, sir,\u2019 said he; \u2018but it would be so offensive\nto your congregation.\u2019 \u2018Mr. Douglass, will you come? And if any man\nobjects to it, come up and sit on my platform by me. You will always be\nwelcome there.\u201d\n\n\u201cAt the Fulton Ferry there are two lines of omnibuses, one white and the\nother blue. I had been accustomed to go in them indifferently; but one\nday I saw a little paper stuck upon one of them, saying: \u2018Colored people\nnot allowed to ride in this omnibus.\u2019 I instantly got out. There are men\nwho stand at the door of these omnibus lines, urging passengers into one\nor the other. I am very well known to all of them; and the next day,\nwhen I came to the place, the gentleman serving asked: \u2018Won\u2019t you ride,\nsir?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 I said; \u2018I am too much of a negro to ride in that omnibus.\u2019\nI called the attention of every one I met to that fact, and said to\nthem: \u2018Don\u2019t ride in that omnibus, which violates your principles, and\nmy principles, and common decency at the same time.\u2019 I do not know\nwhether this had any influence, but I do know that after a fortnight\u2019s\ntime I had occasion to look in and the placard was gone.\u201d\n\nBut perhaps the most important, at all events the hardest-fought, battle\nof this era was in behalf of the liberty of ministers of the Gospel to\npreach in their pulpits for the slave and against the atrocities of\nslavery.\n\nIt sprang from the publication, by an influential New York daily paper,\nof an article in which it was threatened that clergymen who spoke in\ntheir pulpits upon slavery \u201cwould have their coats rolled in the dirt.\u201d\nMr. Beecher at once took up the glove in his own defence and that of his\nbrethren who thought it their duty to preach on this subject. He entered\ninto an examination of the whole status of the slave with great\nthoroughness, and gathered his materials for defence and attack from\nSouthern sources. A report made to the Synod of South Carolina and\nGeorgia in 1833 says: \u201cThey have no Bible to read by their own\nfiresides; they have no family altars; and when in affliction, sickness,\nor death, they have no minister to address to them the consolations of\nthe Gospel.\n\n\u201cThey are destitute of the privileges of the Gospel, and ever will be,\nunder the present state of things. They may justly be considered the\nheathen of this country, and will bear a comparison with heathen in any\ncountry in the world.\u201d\n\n\u201cSays Judge Ruffin, of North Carolina, in a case brought against\ndefendant for shooting and wounding a _woman_ who endeavored to run away\nfrom a whipping: \u2018With slavery it is far otherwise. The end is the\nprofit of the master, his security, and the public peace. The subject is\none doomed in his own person and in his posterity to live without\nknowledge, and without capacity to make anything his own, and to toil\nthat others may reap the fruits.\u2019\u201d\n\nAroused by such testimony from reports of religious bodies and the\ndecisions of the courts, he exclaims, with hot indignation:\n\n\u201cYet the pulpit, whose echoes roll over the heathenism of the globe,\nmust be dumb!\n\n\u201cIt is vain to tell us that hundreds of thousands of slaves are\nchurch-members; does that save women from the lust of their owners?\ndoes it save their children from being sold? does it save parents from\nseparation? In the shameless processions every week made from the\nAtlantic to the Gulf are to be found slaves ordained to preach the\nGospel, members of churches, baptized children, Sunday-school scholars\ncarefully catechised, full of Gospel texts, fat and plump for market.\nWhat is religion worth to a slave, except as a consolation from\ndespair when the hand that breaks to him the bread of communion on\nSunday takes the price of his blood and bones on Monday, and bids him\nGod-speed on his pilgrimage from old Virginia tobacco-fields to the\ncotton-plantations of Alabama?\n\n\u201cWhat is church fellowship, and church privilege, and church instruction\nworth if the recipient is still as much a beast, just as little loved,\njust as ruthlessly desolated of his family, just as coolly sold, as if\nhe were without God and without hope? What motive is there to the slave\nto strive for Christian graces, when, if they make him a real man, they\nare threshed out of him; or, if they make him a more obedient and\nfaithful man, raise his market price and only make him a more\nmerchantable disciple of Christ? It is the religious phase of slave-life\nthat reveals the darkest features of that all-perverting system.\u201d\n\nRidiculing the idea that it takes _distance_ to make a topic fit for the\npulpit, and upbraiding the ministry, who are engaged in snatching here\nand there a child from the Ganges, and have no words for those children\nthat, here at home, every year are snatched from the parents\u2019 bosom and\nsold everywhither, he says:\n\n\u201cIt requires _distance_, it seems, to make a topic right for the pulpit.\nSend it to Greenland or to Nootka Sound, and you may then practise at\nthe far-away target. And the reason of such discrimination seems to be\nthat preaching against foreign sins does not hurt the feelings nor\ndisturb the quiet of your congregation; whereas, if the identical evils\nat home which we deplore upon the Indus or along the Burampootra are\npreached about, the _Journal_ says that it will risk the minister\u2019s\nplace and bread and butter; and it plainly tells all Northern ministers\nthat if they meddle with such politics they will have their coats rolled\nin the dirt. Will the _Journal_ tell us how many leagues off a sin must\nbe before it is prudent and safe for courageous ministers to preach\nagainst it?\n\n\u201cEvery year thousands of women are lashed for obstinate virtue, and tens\nof thousands robbed of what they have never been taught to prize, and\nthe _Journal_ stands poised to cast its javelin at that meddlesome\npulpit that dares speak of such boundless licentiousness, and send it to\nits more appropriate work of evangelizing the courtesans of Paris or the\nloose virtue of Italy! And it assures us that multitudes of clergymen\nare thanking it for such a noble stand. Some of those clergymen we know.\nThe platforms of our benevolent societies resound with their voices,\nurging Christianity to go abroad, stimulating the Church not to leave a\ncorner of the globe unsearched nor an evil unredressed. But when the\nspeech is ended they steal in behind the _Journal_ to give it thanks for\nits noble stand against the right of the pulpit to say a word about\nhome-heathen\u2014about their horrible ignorance, bottomless licentiousness,\nand about the mercenary inhumanity which every week is selling their own\nChristian brethren, baptized as much as they, often preachers of the\nGospel like themselves, eating from the same table of the Lord, praying\nto the same Saviour, listening to snatches of that same Bible (whose\nletters they have never been permitted to learn), out of which these\nreverend endorsers of the _Journal_ preach!\u201d\n\nHe shows that the slavery of New England never was the slavery of the\nSouth: \u201cThe slavery of the South in our day adopts the Roman civil law\nas the basis of its code.... Now, New England never held a slave on the\nbasis of the Roman civil law, but under a law which was expressly\nenacted for the benefit of the slave and for the ultimate destruction of\nslavery\u2014viz., the _Hebrew law of slavery_. No system of slavery, in this\nland, can be profitable which does not put the slave under a regimen\nwhich denies him the rights of manhood. The North, on the basis of the\nHebrew slavery law, found it out; she refused to go further and\nsacrifice her religious scruples. The South, on the basis of the Roman\ncivil law, imbibed its inhuman spirit, put on the screws, and forced the\nsystem into its present legal attitude, with a written code more\ninfamous than the unwritten law of any pirate\u2019s deck.\u201d\n\nHe proves that the North never sold out her slaves, with a profit, to\n\u201cher partners in the South, and so closed up the business,\u201d by showing\nthat in most of the Northern States the slaves were set free by the\ndecisions of the courts upon the adoption of the State constitutions,\nand that in the meantime their masters were forbidden, under heavy\npenalties, to sell them South.\n\nIn New York gradual emancipation was enacted, and not only was the sale\nof slaves out of the borders forbidden, but masters travelling with\ntheir slaves in the South were required to give heavy bonds for the safe\nreturn of the same.\n\nThese words reveal his own spirit in the discussion:\n\n\u201cIn exploring this wilderness of inhumanity, filled with the shapes and\nmotley sights of degradation, I live in a perpetual struggle how to calm\nthe natural expressions of an honest soul into that measured phrase that\nmay best suit the sated public ear. If one overhang this abyss until his\nspirit do drink in its very import, his soul must be full of thunder and\nhis words glance like fire. Neither are these feelings the foul\nengenderings of fanaticism. They are the true feelings of a heart taught\nto hate injustice and degrading wrong, by that nature which God gave it;\nby the Bible which educated it; by the law under which it was made, and\nby the public sentiment in which it has been bred. It is with a sense of\nshame that we see strong words for oppression granted an unapologized\nliberty to walk up and down as they will; while he who speaks for\nfreedom must rake up his ardor under the ashes of a tame propriety, and\nstand to answer for want of a Gospel spirit if indignation at double and\ntreble wrongs do sometimes give forth a bolt! Nevertheless, we hope; we\ntrust; we pray; and hoping, trusting, and praying, we soothe ourselves\nin such thoughts as these: \u2018From this shame, too, thou shalt go forth, O\nworld! God, who, unwearied sitting on the circle of the earth, hath\nbeheld and heard the groanings and travailings of pain until now, and\ncaused Time to destroy them one by one, shall ere long destroy thee,\nthou abhorred and thrice damnable oppression cancerously eating the\nbreasts of liberty.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe concludes by giving his views upon the position of the pulpit, and\nutters this solemn protest:\n\n\u201cTherefore, against every line of the Coward\u2019s Ethics of the _Journal_\nwe solemnly protest, and declare a minister made to its pattern fitter\nto be sent to the pyramids and tombs of Egypt to preach to old-world\nmummies than to be a living man of God among living men, loving them but\nnever fearing them! God be thanked that in every age hitherto pulpits\nhave been found, the allies of suffering virtue, the champions of the\noppressed! And if in this day, after the notable examples of heroic men\nin heroic ages, when life itself often paid for fidelity, the pulpit is\nto be mined and sapped by insincere friends and insidious enemies, and\nlearn to mix the sordid prudence of business with the sonorous and\nthrice heroic counsels of Christ, then, O my soul, be not thou found\nconspiring with this league of iniquity; that so, when in that august\nday of retribution God shall deal punishment in flaming measures to all\nhireling and coward ministers, thou shalt not go down, under\ndouble-bolted thunders, lower than miscreant Sodom or thrice-polluted\nGomorrah!\u201d\n\nSome idea of his mode of address and quickness in retort at that day\nwill appear from extracts from his speech at the annual meeting of the\nAmerican and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and two incidents that\noccurred at this meeting. Mr. Beecher answered the Scriptural argument\nfor the return of fugitives, based on the return of Onesimus, in this\nmanner: \u201cThere are two ways of sending fugitives back into slavery. One\nis the way Paul sent back the slave Onesimus. Now, if people will adopt\nthat way I will not object. In the first place, he instructed him in\nChristianity and led him to become a Christian; then he wrote a letter\nand sent it by Onesimus himself. Now, I should like to see Marshal \u2014\u2014\u2014\nor Marshal somebody else, of this city, send back a slave in this way.\nIn the first place, the marshal would take him and teach him the\ncatechism, and pray with him, and convert him, and then write a letter\nto his master telling him to receive him as a brother beloved; and then\nthe slave goes of his own free will to his master, and walks into the\nhouse, and, with his broad, black, beaming face, says: \u2018How d\u2019ye do, my\nbrother? and how d\u2019ye do, my sister?\u2019\u201d The broad, beaming face which he\nhimself wore as he described this scene and personated this character\nwas irresistibly comical, and nothing more was heard in that quarter of\nPaul\u2019s return of fugitives.\n\nIt was in this speech that, in describing the situation of the slave, he\nsays:\n\n\u201cThey are married and separated in the South until perhaps they have\ntwenty wives.\u201d [A voice: \u201cThere are men in New York City who have twenty\nwives.\u201d] \u201cI am sorry for them,\u201d he answered at once. \u201cI go for their\nimmediate emancipation!\u201d\n\nHe read extracts from the law as laid down by some of the able members\nof the Southern bench in South Carolina and Louisiana, to show that\nslaves are mere goods and chattels.\n\n\u201cThe slave,\u201d he exclaimed, \u201cis made just good enough to be a good slave\nand no more. It is a penitentiary offence to teach him more.\u201d\n\nHere a person among a group in one corner of the gallery exclaimed:\n\u201cIt\u2019s a lie!\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, whether it\u2019s a penitentiary offence or not, I shall not argue\nwith the gentleman in the corner, as doubtless he has been there and\nought to know.\u201d\n\nSuch was the voice that began to attract attention throughout the whole\nland. It was as truthful and earnest as that of the old Abolitionists,\nbut took in a broader range of subjects and was inspired by a higher\nspirit than theirs; it was as politic in its utterances as that of the\nprince of politicians, Martin Van Buren, but it was the policy of right\nand justice; it had in it the strength of Webster\u2019s, but argued from\ntruer premises than he; it was as popular as Henry Clay\u2019s, but its\nsympathy was broader than his; it was the voice of Henry Ward Beecher as\nhe stood in the early maturity of his powers, aflame with Christian love\nand patriotism, preaching the Gospel of the Son of God, the Deliverer\nand Saviour for slave and master, for North and South, for commerce and\nmanufactures, for our whole land from shame and thraldom.\n\nThe need of such a voice will appear if we consider the state of things\nat this time, as he himself described it:\n\n\u201c\u2018An Abolitionist\u2019 was enough to put the mark of Cain upon any young man\nthat arose in my early day, and until I was forty years of age it was\npunishable to preach on the subject of liberty. It was enough to expel a\nman from church communion if he insisted on praying in the\nprayer-meeting for the liberation of the slaves. I am speaking the words\nof truth and soberness. The Church was dumb in the North, but not in the\nWest. A marked distinction exists between the history of the New School\nof Presbyterian churches in the West and the Congregational churches,\nthe Episcopal churches, the Methodist and Baptist churches in the North\nand East. The great publishing societies that were sustained by the\ncontributions of the churches were absolutely dumb. Great controversies\nraged round about the doors of the Bible Society, of the Tract Society,\nand of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The\nmanagers of these societies resorted to every shift except that of\nsending the Gospel to the slaves. They would not send the Bible to the\nSouth; for, they said, \u2018it is a punishable offence in most of the\nSouthern States to teach a slave to read; and are we to go in the face\nof this State legislation and send the Bible South?\u2019 The Tract Society\nsaid: \u2018We are set up to preach the Gospel, not to meddle with political\nand industrial institutions.\u2019 And so they went on printing tracts\nagainst tobacco and its uses, tracts against dancing and its abuses, and\nrefusing to print a tract that had a shadow of criticism on slavery!\n\n\u201cOne of the most disgraceful things took place under the jurisdiction of\nBishop Doane, of New Jersey\u2014I take it for granted, without his\nknowledge. I have the book. It was an edition of the Episcopal\nprayer-book. They had put into the front of it a steel engraving of Ary\nScheffer\u2019s \u2018Christus Consolator\u2019\u2014Christ the Consoler. There was a\nsemi-circle around about the beneficent and aerial figure of our\nSaviour\u2014the poor, the old, the sick, the mother with her dead babe,\nbowed in grief; every known form of human sorrow belonged to the\noriginal design and picture, and among others a fettered slave, with his\nhands lifted to heaven, praying for liberty. But this was too much; and\nso they cut out the slave, and left the rest of the picture, and bound\nit into the Episcopal prayer-book of New Jersey. I have a copy of it,\nwhich I mean to leave to the Historical Society of Brooklyn when I am\ndone using it.\n\n\u201cThese things are important as showing the incredible condition of\npublic sentiment at that time. If a man came to be known as an\nanti-slavery man it almost preluded bankruptcy in business.\u201d\n\nAfter the intense excitement, within and without Congress, upon the\ndiscussion and the passage of the Compromise measures of 1850, a\nreaction followed, and the year 1851 is, in many respects, a marked\ncontrast to that immediately preceding. The people, in the main, tired\nof the discussion and the consequent turmoil, thankful for their escape,\nas they thought, from the threatened danger of the dissolution of the\nUnion, were determined to preserve the peace that had been won, and\nfrowned upon everything that endangered its continuance. Public meetings\nand conventions, held for the expression of free-State sentiments, were\nregarded with great disfavor and often broken up by mob violence.\n\nFour millions of people in a Christian land were denied every right\nbelonging to them, not only on the ground of Christianity but of\nhumanity, and yet they must be dumb. The pulpit, which represented Him\nwho came to set the captive free and preach the Gospel to the poor, on\nthis great matter must utter no voice. Statesmanship must see\nconsummated an utter perversion of the fundamental principles and policy\nof the nation, and yet offer no protest. A common humanity, outraged by\nthe atrocities committed against a fellow human being, must be silent or\njoin in the hue and cry for the capture of the unhappy victim.\n\nThis was the programme that conservatism, through the press, in the\npulpit, by the ballot-box, through business patronage, social frowns or\nfavors, and not unfrequently through mob violence, attempted to execute.\nIt was as vain as to try to still the voice of Niagara or the noise of\nthe breakers upon the coast.\n\nOne thing more powerful than any other contributed to prevent a complete\nreaction and consequent stagnation upon this subject\u2014the activity of the\nSouth in availing itself of the advantages offered by the Fugitive Slave\nBill for obtaining possession of the property that had escaped and was\nliving on Northern soil. The year 1851 was emphatically a year of\nslave-hunting. And since these refugees from labor had, many of them,\nlived for years at the North, had become respectable citizens and reared\nfamilies, their violent capture invariably occasioned, if not forceful\nresistance, at least deep and bitter indignation.\n\nThe quiet of 1851 was not perfect and it could not be made permanent. It\nwas only the lull which weariness compels in every hard-fought battle.\n\nIn December of this year Kossuth visited this country at the invitation\nof the Senate, coming in a government steamer sent to Asia especially\nfor his conveyance. Many things contributed to awaken immense enthusiasm\nfor him. He had represented Hungary in the Austrian Diet; had championed\nthe liberty of free press and free speech so fearlessly as to gain the\nhonor of an Austrian dungeon; had been elected governor of Hungary, and\nfor two years had waged successful war with Austria. Overcome by the\nimmense military power of that great empire in alliance with Russia, he\nhad been forced into exile with a price set upon his head. He\nrepresented, in that year of European revolutions, the struggles of the\ncommon people for liberty. These experiences, united with his personal\nappearance and marvellous eloquence, combined to secure for him a most\nenthusiastic reception by the people of this country. The Senate, on the\nother hand, were far more chary of their welcome. The Hungarian exile\nstood for universal liberty, and that was just what at that time the\nSenate of the United States were most interested in suppressing.\nHowever, though granted no reception, a banquet was given in his honor,\nat which most of our public men were present, and Daniel Webster,\nSecretary of State, delivered the principal address.\n\nQuick to perceive the dilemma in which Congress found itself, and eager\nthat the nation at large should appreciate it, Mr. Beecher writes a Star\nPaper in which, in his usual happy and effective style, he describes the\nincongruity in the action of our government in welcoming this fugitive\nfrom the oppression of the Old World while we are engaged in remanding\nto their oppressors fugitives in the New.\n\nInvited by Mr. Beecher, Kossuth delivered an address in Plymouth Church\nin behalf of the cause of Hungarian liberty. So great was the eagerness\nof the people to hear him that some ten thousand dollars were realized\nfrom the sale of tickets.\n\nSo did the pastor of this church link himself with the cause of freedom\nall over the earth.\n\nFifty-two, being \u201celection year,\u201d saw efforts more persistent, if\npossible, than ever before to regard the Compromise measures as a\nfinality and discourage all agitation of the subject of slavery. A\npublic pledge was signed by more than fifty senators, among them the\nmost influential from both the great parties, including Henry Clay,\nagreeing that they would thereafter support no candidate who did not\napprove and promise to abide by the provisions of that compact. Both the\ngreat parties of the day\u2014the Whig and Democratic\u2014put into their\nplatforms resolutions declaring that the above Compromise was accepted\nas a final settlement of the questions at issue, and agreed to resist\nall attempts at renewing the agitation of the slavery question under any\npretext whatsoever. In the election Franklin Pierce, who had but two\nqualifications for the office of chief magistrate\u2014he was a gentleman and\na radical pro-slavery man\u2014was chosen by an overwhelming majority for\nPresident, for the reason that his party affiliations gave the best\nassurance that the pledges which all had alike made would in his case be\nfulfilled.\n\nGeneral Scott and the Whig party made just as profound an obeisance to\nthe slave-power, and offered just as heavy a bid for its favors; but\nthere was not the same confidence in their ability to perform the\nservice demanded as in that of their Democratic rivals, and they were in\nconsequence disastrously defeated. So did the popular vote upon its\nfirst opportunity endorse the action of Congress and declare that\ndiscussion on this great matter was closed. Yet, in spite of the verdict\nof the ballot-box, in spite of resolutions, compacts, and threats,\nagitation still went on. Mr. Beecher explains the phenomenon:\n\n\u201cPoliticians inquire whence is the tenacity of life of the anti-slavery\nmovement. It is not fanaticism that animates or controls it, it is the\nreligious principle that is the secret of the strength of this cause; it\nis because Jesus Christ is alive, and there are Jesus Christ men who\ncount this cause dearer than their lives.\u201d\n\nIn the summer and autumn of 1852 Mr. Beecher was engaged in what was\ncalled \u201cThe Parker Controversy.\u201d\n\nWe have no desire to open anew the bitterness of those old matters which\nhave passed so long ago into history, and almost into forgetfulness, but\nno biography of the man would be complete without a reference to this\ntrial, the severest which he had thus far endured, and which prepared\nhim for other and greater ones to come. In our study of the character\nand disposition of Henry Ward Beecher we find him, as we believe, to\nhave been pre-eminently a man of peace. In his history we see him almost\ncontinuously engaged in war. This anomaly is easily explained. It was\nnot from desire or disposition, but a necessary consequence of the\nprogress which he was making and the position which he occupied. The age\nwas moving forward: wrongs must be overcome, new positions of advantage\nmust be gained. By the habit of his mind, the intuitions of his genius,\nand the earnestness and simplicity of his purpose he found himself a\nleader in this progress.\n\nWhile others stopped to discover the truth by laborious study in their\nlibraries, he found it among the results of former researches, derived\nit intuitively from well-admitted principles, or gathered it from the\npeople with whom he associated by the way. While others were carefully\nweighing the consequences of their actions, he, trusting in God, in the\nrighteousness of his cause, in the forces of nature and in himself,\nstepped forward to the front. While others were laboriously forging\ntheir speeches his sprang like the fabled Minerva from the brain of\nJupiter, alive, armed, and beautiful. He came into battle for the same\nreason that the head of a column advancing to seize a favorable position\nwithin the enemy\u2019s lines is early brought under fire, or that a heavy\nfield-battery, which is sending its shot with deadly effect into the\nranks of the enemy, is attacked.\n\nIn his discussion with a New York daily, of which we have already\nspoken, he had come in conflict with the commercial spirit of the day\nwhich held its principles and its goods both for sale, and against it\nhad defended the right of the pulpit to discuss the live topics of the\nhour. This had drawn fire. Men who had been scored as he scored them in\na Star Paper of January 24, 1850, entitled \u201cA Man in the Market\u201d\u2014 \u201c...\nThey hang themselves up in the shambles of every Southern market; they\ntrust the pliant good nature of the North, and are only fearful lest\nthey should fail to be mean enough to please the South\u201d\u2014and who deserved\nthe scoring, would not be likely to forget it soon or forgive it\nreadily. The conflict in which he now became engaged was more painful\nthan the former, for it was waged with Christian brethren. Beginning as\na skirmish, it became a general battle, in which the conservatism of the\nChurch, which had expurgated its religious tracts, curbed the religious\npress, and toned down the utterances of the pulpit, so as not to hurt\nthe feelings of slave-holders, was engaged and brought to judgment.\n\nIt came about in this way: In \u201cUncle Tom\u2019s Cabin\u201d Mrs. Stowe had\ndescribed the sale of a child taken from the arms of the mother, and of\nTom\u2019s feeling on the subject. \u201cTo him it looked like something\nunutterably horrible and cruel, because, poor, ignorant black soul! he\nhad not learned to generalize and take in large views. If he had only\nbeen instructed by certain ministers of Christianity he might have\nthought better of it, and seen in it an every-day incident of a lawful\ntrade\u2014a trade which is the vital support of an institution which some\nAmerican divines tell us has no evils but such as are inseparable from\nany other relations in social and domestic life.\u201d\n\nIn a note she refers to Dr. Joel Parker by name as the man who had given\nutterance to these sentiments, and as representing the class which\nentertained them. The words, \u201cNo evils but such as are inseparable from\nany other relations in social and domestic life,\u201d had been printed as\nhis in a discussion which he had held in Philadelphia, had gone the\nrounds of the papers as his and had been printed and commented upon in\nEngland, and he had never denied that they rightfully belonged to him.\nBut the quickened moral feeling which followed the publication of \u201cUncle\nTom\u2019s Cabin\u201d made the authorship of such sentiments less pleasant than\nformerly, and Dr. Parker suddenly discovered that he had been wronged in\nhaving these words ascribed to him, and threatened Mrs. Stowe with a\nsuit for libel. A friend of his lawyer visited her brother Henry, and\nsuggested that this matter could be arranged without a law-suit. With a\nconfidence that was born of sincerity and inexperience, the brother\nattempts that most difficult r\u00f4le\u2014that of peace-maker. He visits Dr.\nParker, becomes satisfied that his language is capable of a less violent\nconstruction than had been put upon it, confers with Mrs. Stowe and\nfinds her ready to take the most favorable view of the case possible,\nbears a letter from her to the doctor, writes and discusses with him the\nanswer which he shall make, forwards Mrs. Stowe\u2019s letter, which had been\nsomewhat changed in the discussion, to her for approval\u2014which being\ngained, he publishes both letters over the united signatures of the two\nparties, and goes off to Indiana on a lecturing trip, with the happy\nconsciousness that he has done a good thing. Never was a man waked from\na sweeter dream to a more bitter disappointment. Instead of making peace\nbetween them, he found, as a result of his labors, their differences\nincreased and embittered, and himself charged with forgery both of\nletter and signature. Offended professional pride, newspaper rivalry,\nthe hatred of men who had been lashed by his tongue and pen, the fears\nof conservatives and the bitter hatred of pro-slavery men, suddenly\nunited their forces for his destruction. This young radical had left\nhimself open to attack, and they all rushed to the onset or stood back\nand cheered others on, and were already beginning to rejoice in his\ndownfall. The lead in the attack soon passed out of the doctor\u2019s hands\ninto those of more able and less scrupulous men, and aimed at nothing\nless than his annihilation. \u201cThe arrow was well shot,\u201d he said; \u201chad I\nbeen unshielded it would have done its work, for the point was\npoisoned.\u201d But he was not unshielded! the overthrow was not\naccomplished, and he stood, at the end, fully vindicated from all the\naspersions of his enemies.\n\nIn a long, carefully written article over his own name he gives the\nwhole beginning, continuance, and end of this unhappy matter:\n\n\u201cFor myself I profess that no event of my life, not the loss of my own\nchildren nor bereavements of friends most dear, have ever filled me with\nso deep a sorrow as that which I have in being made a party to a public\ndispute when three of the parties concerned are ministers of the Gospel,\nand when the fourth is a woman and the wife of a clergyman. At the very\nbest it is a shame and a disgrace. To avert it I labored most honestly\nand with all my might.\u201d\n\nHe closes with these words:\n\n\u201cI commit this narrative to the sober judgment of all good men, and\nmyself I commit to the charge of Almighty God.\u201d\n\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\nTwo letters selected from the voluminous correspondence of that time,\none to a friend who approved, and the other to one who condemned, his\ncourse, are given, that the spirit which he cherished may be more\nthoroughly understood:\n\n                                           \u201cBROOKLYN, Oct. 12, 1852.\n\n\u201dBARNABAS BATES, ESQ.:\n\n\u201cDEAR SIR: Your kind letter gave me much pleasure, not as adding\nanything to that quiet which belongs to a conscience void of offence,\nbut as showing that I have been able to manifest to others that which\nwas undoubted truth to me. It is very painful to be placed before the\npublic as I have been, even when the verdict is ultimately favorable;\nfor there is something repugnant to one\u2019s feelings even to feel it\npossible that a suspicion of his honor could be for a moment\nentertained.\n\n\u201cBut I am sure that I should be the most ungrateful of men if I failed\nto recognize the presence and abundant blessing of my God in all the\npassages of this painful experience.\n\n\u201cNot a promise made to me has been left unfulfilled, and I know that it\nhas been a better sermon to me than was ever preached by human lips.\n\n\u201cToward the parties of this wrong much must be allowed to wounded\nvanity, much to partisanship, something perhaps to forgetfulness. After\nall this, however, the rest will be a burden to their conscience\nwhenever they shall hereafter look back upon it. And while I do most\nheartily forgive them, and could with earnest good-will do either of\nthem a kindness, I cannot refrain from thanksgiving that I was the\naccused, not the accuser. Your kindness I have felt the more because\npersonally (although not otherwise) a stranger to me, and because,\ncoming among the first letters of sympathy, it has been the harbinger of\ngreat kindnesses, similar in kind, from many.\n\n\u201cI am, with sincere esteem,\n\n                                     \u201cGratefully yours,\n                                                    \u201cH. W. BEECHER.\u201c\n\n                                           \u201dBROOKLYN, Oct. 12, 1852.\n\n\u201cRICHARD HALE, ESQ.:\n\n\u201dDEAR SIR: I was for a moment pained by the reading of your note this\nmorning, and but for a moment; for it has pleased God to grant Himself\nto me in such measure that neither the wrath of enemies, nor the strife\nof tongues, nor the unadvised blows of friends have power to do me harm\nor unsettle my peace. Had I ever doubted the promises of God I should\nnow find every shadow swept away; and I surely count the little\nannoyance which this perversion of honor and truth in these unprincipled\nmen has caused me not worthy to be mentioned in the joy which I have had\nin being folded into the very bosom of my Saviour.\n\n\u201cAll that I can ask in your behalf is that when the day of trouble shall\ncome to you (with as little fault on your part as this on mine) God may\nsustain you by that certainty of integrity and that consciousness of\nhonor which have given me unspeakable comfort, and _would_ were I this\nday standing before God\u2019s judgment-seat.\n\n\u201cI do not blame you; I believe that you meant me no unkindness; but it\nis manifest that with your present views it would be as painful for you\nto associate with me as it would be impossible for me to permit it.\n\n\u201cWhenever the evil impressions which have tempted you into misjudgments\nshall have passed away (and they assuredly _will_), and when my\nrighteousness shall shine forth as the light (and God _will_ bring it\nforth), then you will find me unchanged in my affections for you; nor\nshall I then remember anything but that you were once my friend.\n\n\u201cI am, with God\u2019s unwavering support, and with the patience and peace\nwhich Christ only can give,\n\n                                        \u201cTruly your brother,\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201c\n\nAlso we give extracts from a third:\n\n                                        \u201dBROOKLYN, October 12, 1852.\n\n\u201cR. W. LANDIS:\n\n\u201dDEAR SIR: Your welcome letter I received this morning. It gave me great\npleasure, though I did not need it for my happiness. For it has pleased\nGod so graciously to stand by me in this fiercest attack of my life that\nif every friend in the world had abandoned me I should not have been\nalone. I need not tell you, who have both known and taught to others,\nthat Christ has a peace which, surpassing all other experience of\nearthly joy, requires for its possession an unusual earthly trial. In\nthat peace I have rested as in God\u2019s pavilion....\n\n\u201cI never expected to stand up in the publicity which God has been\npleased to draw me into, and faithfully to declare His truth against the\ninterests of commercial and political circles, and not be visited with\nthis wrath.\n\n\u201cBut they shall neither destroy me nor daunt me nor silence me, for my\nGod is greater than their devil. I will work yet harder and speak more\nplainly for every blow they deal. May God repay your kindness to me a\nthousand-fold!\n\n                                                    \u201dH. W. BEECHER.\u201d\n\nWe find no word from Mr. Beecher concerning the election of this year,\nbut an article immediately following shows that he kept his eye upon the\nmain issue, and that none of its humorous any more than its sorrowful\nfeatures escaped him. It was entitled \u201cDegraded into Liberty\u201d:\n\n\u201cA Southern gentleman _en route_ for Texas brought to New York eight\nslaves, to be shipped hence by one of our ocean-going steamers. The\nbirds of the air informed the Abolitionists of the facts, and it was not\nlong before a writ was served upon the whole chattel-gang, and they were\nhauled up before Judge Paine to show cause why they should not be doomed\nto freedom. The cruel inhospitality of New York was never more manifest.\nThese innocent fellow-beings, blessed by being born slaves, and not\npainfully educated for it, as Northern Southerners are; having had all\nthe manifold mercies which make a Virginia slave so much better off than\na free factory-girl in Massachusetts; having grown up in the indulgence\nof those hilarious dances and in the practice of those songs which make\nplantation life perfectly paradisaical, they were on their way to that\nland waving with sugar-cane and cotton-plants, where, hoe in hand, they\nwere to while away the brilliant hours with gentle dalliances with loam\nand clay\u2014when lo! they were suddenly arrested.\n\n\u201cFrom these bright anticipations they have been ruthlessly snatched, and\nplunged into freedom utterly unprepared! Are there no tears in Castle\nGarden? Ought not the Union Committee to spend something for a trifle of\ncrape? Eight innocent fellow-chattels changed into fellow-_beings_! No\nkind master have they now. The tender relation is sundered. Our bereaved\nmaster and mistress must depart slaveless and alone. Having been worked\nfor so long, and tended and taken care of, it is doubtful whether they\nwill be able to take care of themselves now. Much as we sympathize with\nthem, we do not consider their affliction at all comparable to that of\nthe late happy slaves. These poor creatures are free, and we are assured\nin the highest quarter that no greater evil than that can well befall\nthe slave population. They have degraded themselves. They have refused\nto be \u2018_content_ rather.\u2019 In all the world they cannot find a man who\n_owns_ them. They are now to sneak through life, like white men, owning\nthemselves! They must have had some awful moments of compunction when\nthe conviction first flashed upon them that they owned their own hands,\ntrod upon their own feet, put their clothes upon their own shoulders,\nand felt that thing throbbing under their ribs to be their own heart.\nSome natural feelings must have shot through the maternal heart as she\npressed her own babe to her own breast, and dropped her own tears upon\nits dusky cheek....\n\n\u201cOnly one woman can be found faithful in this emergency. Their former\nmistress alone has appealed to their conscience and adjured them to\nreturn to her! Where were the teachers, the chaplains, the casuists, the\nlawyers, that a little time ago choked the press with beatitudes of\nslavery? \u2018His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are all\ndumb dogs; they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn reply to Mrs. Lemmon\u2019s appeal the deluded slave-woman drew herself\nup, and, pressing her child to her breast, said, \u2018_I had rather be\nfree!_\u2019 What! not value the radiant mercies of slavery more than that?\nThe creature is crazy! Slaves in their senses are always contented. They\nare mere pets. The Uncle Toms of Virginia do nothing but look after the\nchildren, or sit in sunny nooks and smoke their stubbed pipes. The Aunt\nPhillises are always fat, rollicking cooks, bursting with laughter.\nNobody is happy but slaves. The poor masters have all the care and\nburden, slaves all the glee and leisure....\n\n\u201cIt is a dreadful state of things here in New York, where we feed upon\nCotton, and have our very living in the smiles and favor of the South,\nto be hurting their feelings by talking so much about liberty and all\nthat. A few more slaves set free, and the South will get angry again;\nand then New York will be in a world of trouble, and another call will\ncall together another Castle Garden full of anxious merchants, all full\nof love to the South; and we shall have more sermons and more newspaper\narticles; and nobody can tell what will happen the next time.\n\n\u201cIn part, the South is at fault. It has sent North the wrong kind of\nnegroes. Those who have run away, or been judicially sentenced to\nfreedom, or been bought\u2014all these have _loved liberty_. Now, won\u2019t the\nSouth send us some of another sort\u2014some of those model slaves that love\nbondage and wouldn\u2019t take liberty if they could get it? With a few\nspecimen copies of such, we believe that we could do Southern\ninstitutions great good in the North.      *\u201d\n\nFifty-three follows in much the same line as that of the two years\nimmediately preceding. Franklin Pierce, who had been elected in November\nlast, takes the oath of office on the 4th of March. His inaugural gives\nexpression to what was undoubtedly the general feeling of the country\u2014a\ndetermination that the Compromise measures shall be enforced, and a\nfervent trust that the question of slavery has been settled; and in his\nannual message, upon the assembling of Congress in that year, promises\nthat the peace which now so happily existed through the land should not\nbe disturbed during his term of office, if he could prevent it. A large\nmajority of the people, both North and South, were undoubtedly in\nperfect accord with this desire, greatly pleased with this assurance,\nand tried to share his confidence.\n\nThose were days in which a great deal of sympathy was felt in this\ncountry for the Irish, and by many, too, who were stanch opposers of\nliberty for the negro. Mr. Beecher had no patience with men, on either\nside of the Atlantic, whose sympathy was limited by the bounds of race\nor color; and when John Mitchel, who had posed as the \u201cGreat Irish\nPatriot\u201d of that day, having escaped from an English penal colony and\nbeen received here with great enthusiasm, took occasion to state in an\neditorial in the _Citizen_, \u201cWe deny that it is a crime or a wrong, or\neven a peccadillo, to hold slaves, to buy slaves, to sell slaves, to\nkeep slaves to their work by flogging or other needful coercion; we only\nwish we had a good plantation well stocked with healthy negroes in\nAlabama,\u201d he (Mr. Beecher) enters into public correspondence with him,\nin which he denies the claims of the refugee to be an \u201capostle of\nliberty,\u201d sorrows over his downfall, and dismisses him to the test of\nhistory in these words:\n\n\u201cOnce you stood like some great oak whose wide circumference was lifted\nup above all the pastures, the glory of all beholders, and a covert for\na thousand timid singing-birds! Now you lie at full length along the\nground, with mighty ruptured roots ragged and upturned to heaven, with\nbroken boughs and despoiled leaves! Never again shall husbandman predict\nspring from your swelling buds! Never again shall God\u2019s singing-birds of\nliberty come down through all the heavenly air to rest themselves on\nyour waving top! Fallen! Uprooted! Doomed to the axe and the hearth!\n\n\u201cBut there is a future beyond this, even on earth! There is a time\npromised, and already dawning, in which the human family shall be one\ngreat brotherhood, and Love shall be the law of man! In that golden age\nthere shall be research made for all the names that, since the world\nbegan, have wrought and suffered for the good of their kind. There will\nbe a memorable resurrection of forgotten names. From the obscurity into\nwhich despotism has flung all who dared to defy it, from the shades and\ndarkness of oblivion by which oppressors would cover down the memory of\nall who proclaimed human right and human liberty, they will come forth\nshining like the sun, and none be forgotten that labored to bring to\npass the world\u2019s freedom! In that day, when ten thousand names shall be\nheard, in all their number not one shall utter that gone and forgotten\nname\u2014John Mitchel!\u201d\n\nWe do not wish it to be inferred from our words that Mr. Beecher was the\nonly anti-slavery leader who was doing good service in those days. There\nwere many others, and some, perhaps, were doing as effective work in a\nsingle line as he. But we believe that, when the whole sphere of his\nactivity was considered, he went far beyond any man of his time.\n\nIn any one of the three channels of largest influence, of that or of any\ntime\u2014the pulpit, the press, and the platform\u2014he was the peer, if not the\nsuperior, of any leader; and while the most of his co-laborers used but\none, or at the most two, of these instrumentalities, he was constantly\nemploying the three, and each with unequalled efficiency.\n\nHis beliefs, as his labors, were broader than the most who were at that\nday prominently identified with the anti-slavery cause. He believed in\nthe Constitution of the United States, and claimed that, if the\ngovernment should be administered according to the original intent of\nthis document, slavery must speedily cease. In this he differed from\nGarrison and his school, who held that \u201cthe (Federal) Constitution is a\ncovenant with death and an agreement with hell.\u201d He believed in the\nballot-box, and in using its power to the utmost. In this he differed\nfrom Wendell Phillips and others of his school, who had disfranchised\nthemselves for years, lest by voting they should seem to countenance an\ninstitution that was being used for the perpetuity of so great an\ninjustice. He believed in the Church and the moral forces which she\ncould bring to the work. He believed in love rather than hate, and most\nof all, with a triumphant, joyful faith, he believed in the person,\npresence, and leadership of the Redeemer and Reformer of the world. In\nall this he separated from the great body, individuals here and there\nexcepted, of the Garrison and Pillsbury school of Abolitionists.\n\nHis judgment of the spirit of the leaders in this great movement may be\ninferred from the following extracts:\n\n\u201cEvents made Garrison a leader. We never thought, and we do not now\nthink, that Garrison deserved the one-half of the bitter reproaches that\nhave been heaped upon him. His worst faults have been the reaction, in\nhim, of the opposite faults of men favoring slavery or indifferent to\nit. But we regard him as one of the most unfortunate of all leaders for\nthe best development of anti-slavery feeling. He is a man of no mean\nability, of indefatigable industry, of the most unbounded enterprise and\neagerness, of perseverance which pushes him like a law of nature, and of\ncourage which amounts to recklessness. These are the qualifications\nwhich make a man powerful for stimulation. Had he possessed, as a\nbalance to these, conciliation, good-natured benevolence, or even a\ncertain popular mirthfulness; had he possessed the moderation and\nurbanity of Clarkson, or the deep piety of Wilberforce, he had been the\none man of our age. These all he lacked. Had the disease of America\nneeded only counter-irritation, no better blister could have been\napplied.\n\n\u201cGarrison did not _create_ the anti-slavery spirit of the North. He was\nthe offspring of it. It existed before he was born. But he at one time\nmore powerfully developed and organized it than any other one mind; and\ndeveloped it in modes and spirit, as we think, most unfortunate.\nAnti-slavery under his influence was all teeth and claw. It fought. It\nnever conciliated. It gained not one step by kindness. It won not a\nsingle fort by surrender. It bombarded everything it met, and stormed\nevery place which it won. We do not deny that Garrison and his early\nfollowers did a great work. Another generation will divide praise and\nblame, as no one is fitted to do in the heats of the present day. But\nwhen bare justice shall be done we believe that it will be found that a\nnoble soul, deeply and truly benevolent, who sought the truest interests\nof his age, yet sought them with such a fierceness and such a hard and\nrelentless courage as constantly roused up in his path the worst\nfeelings of man, and heaped obstacles before him to such a degree that\nat length, in combating them, his sympathies for good seemed swallowed\nup in a bitter hatred of evil. The result of the agitation, inspired\nlargely with this feeling, was that almost every interest in the nation\nrose up against the movement with which he was identified. Churches\ndreaded abolitionism, parties hated abolitionism, commerce abhorred\nabolitionism. Mobs rioted around the meetings, and threatened the\ndwellings, the stores, and the very persons of Abolitionists.\n\n\u201cThere was odium and influence enough arrayed against the anti-slavery\nmovement, under the form of early abolitionism, to have sunk ten\nenterprises which depended on men for existence. But there was a spirit\nin this cause, there was a secret strength, which nerved it, and it\nlived right on, and grew, and trampled down opposition, and came forth\nvictorious! There was an irresistibility in it which made it superior to\nthe faults of its friends and the deadly hatred of its enemies.\u201d\n\nIt will be seen from the above how thoroughly he differed from what may\nbe called the right wing of the Abolition party.\n\nThis difference is emphasized and the spirit which impelled him is\nindicated in an address which he delivered before the annual meeting of\nthe Anti-Slavery Society, and in a letter which he wrote to the New York\n_Tribune_ in answer to a criticism that appeared in that paper:\n\n\u201cI believe there is to be found Christianity enough in the world, in the\nChurch and out of it, in the Bible and out of it, _i.e._, in the record\nand in the living heart, and, I had almost said, breathed through the\nvery air, as a Divine Providence, inspiring the great organic laws of\nsociety, controlling the moral sense of the Church, yea, beating in the\nveins of political economy, subtly guiding the common generosities of\nmen into a public sentiment which, in God\u2019s own time, in spite of\nrecreant clergymen, apostate statesmen, venal politicians, and\ntrafficking shopmen, shall fall upon this vast and unmitigated\nabomination and utterly crush it. But my earnest desire is that slavery\nmay be destroyed by the manifest power of Christianity. If it were given\nme to choose whether it should be destroyed in fifty years by selfish\ncommercial influences, or, standing for seventy-five years, be then the\nspirit and trophy of Christ, I had rather let it linger twenty-five\nyears more, that God may be honored, and not mammon, in the destruction\nof it. So do I hate it that I should rejoice in its extinction, even did\nthe devil tread it out, as he first kindled it; but how much rather\nwould I see God Almighty come down to shake the earth with His tread, to\ntread all tyrannies and oppressions small as the dust of the highway,\nand to take unto Himself the glory!\u201d\n\nThis having been severely criticised, especially his willingness to have\nslavery linger, if by so doing its destruction could become a trophy to\nthe prevailing power of Christ, he replies in a letter addressed to the\nsame journal:\n\n\u201cOur highest and strongest reason for seeking justice among men is _not_\nthe benefit to men themselves, exceedingly strong as that motive is and\nought to be. We do not join the movement party of our times simply\nbecause we are inspired by an inward and constitutional benevolence. We\nare conscious of both these motives and of many other collateral ones;\nbut we are earnestly conscious of another feeling stronger than either,\nthat lives unimpaired when these faint, yea, that gives vigor and\npersistence to these feelings when they are discouraged; and that is a\nstrong personal, enthusiastic love for Christ Jesus. I regard the\nmovement of the world toward justice and rectitude to be of His\ninspirations. I believe my own aspirations, having a base in my natural\nfaculties, to be influenced and directed by Christ\u2019s Spirit. The mingled\naffection and adoration which I feel for Him is the strongest feeling\nthat I know. Whether I will or not, whether it be a phantasy or a sober\nsentiment, the fact is the same nevertheless, that that which will give\npleasure to Christ\u2019s heart and bring to my consciousness a smile of\ngladness on His face in behalf of my endeavor, is incalculably more to\nme than any other motive. I would work for the slave for his own sake,\nbut I am sure that I would work ten times as earnestly for the slave for\nChrist\u2019s sake.\n\n\u201cI am not ashamed to own that I bear about with me an ineffaceable\nconsciousness that I am what I am from Christ\u2019s influence upon me. I\naccept the power to do good as His inspiration. Life is sacred to me\nonly by my belief that I am walking in the scenes of a personal Divine\nProvidence. When I drop from these beliefs life becomes void, the events\nof human society mere bubbles, and strifes of hope and fear, of good and\nbad, are useless as the turmoil of the rapids above Niagara. Nay, there\nis more than this: there is a heart-swell which no words can express;\nthere is a sense of the sweet freedom of love, a sense of gracious pity,\nof patient condescension, of entire and transcendent excellence in\nChrist, which makes me feel how utterly true was the impassionate\nlanguage of David: \u2018Whom have I in heaven _but Thee_? and there is _none\nupon earth that I desire besides Thee_. My heart and my flesh cry out\nfor God!\u2019...\n\n\u201cThis sentiment does not spring from any indifference to the slave, but\nfrom a yet greater sympathy with Christ Jesus\u2014the slave\u2019s only hope, my\nonly hope, the Saviour of the world!\u201d\n\nWith this letter we close our consideration of Mr. Beecher\u2019s work in\nthis era of slavery agitation. Great as were his labors\u2014and we think\nthey were unsurpassed and unequalled by those of any other man\u2014we still\nbelieve that his best contribution to the great cause was the spirit\nwhich he manifested and the motives that influenced him. It was like the\nwalking of the Hebrew youths in the fiery furnace and coming forth\nunscathed from the flames.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XIV.\n\nThe Battle Renewed\u2014Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Proposed\u2014The\n    Struggle in Congress\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Appeals\u2014The Battle lost in\n    Congress is Transferred to the Territories\u2014Forces Engaged\u2014Kansas\n    War\u2014Dred Scott Decision\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Defence of Kansas\u2014\u201cBeecher\u2019s\n    Bibles\u201d\u2014Charles Sumner Attacked in the Senate\u2014The Fremont\n    Campaign\u2014The Dog Noble.\n\n\n\u201cHenry, the battle is coming on. When it will end I know not. I only\nhope that every one feels as alert as I do\u201d (extract from a letter of\nMrs. Stowe to Henry Ward Beecher). It was dated November 1, 1852, but\nexpresses the feeling of some of the more sagacious ones during the\nwhole of this era of apparent peace. They were not deceived by the\nsurface calm. They felt that, beneath all party platforms, and the\ncompromises of party politics, and the make-shifts of a commercial\nspirit, the great conscience of the North was being stirred. Deep was\ncalling unto deep, and the moanings of the sea that presaged the coming\ntempest had reached their ears. The storm, not a new one but the violent\nrising of the same old elements, began in Congress in the early part of\n1854, upon the question of the organization of the territory of \u201cThe\nPlatte,\u201d afterwards divided into two Territories called \u201cKansas and\nNebraska.\u201d The star of empire was moving Westward, but of what kind\nshould this empire be, of liberty or slavery? If matters continued as\nthey then were it must be the former. California, stretching along the\nPacific coast for two hundred and fifty miles below Mason and Dixon\u2019s\nline, had declared for freedom through all her borders. The Territories\nof New Mexico and Utah were not favorable to any great growth of slavery\nnor capable of rendering it much assistance. Texas, although intensely\npro-slavery, yet, by reason of State pride, would not divide her\nimperial domain into quarters for the benefit of that institution. Only\nin one direction was expansion and growth possible, and that was in this\nbroad domain which was now asking to be organized into Territories and\nwould soon demand admission as States. Why should not this magnificent\ncountry be opened to the slave-owner and his property as well as to the\nsettler from the North? Was not this his right? Other factors than\nproperty interests have entered into the question. Conscience has been\nenlisted upon the one side as on the other. The South has come to look\nupon slavery as having equal rights, under the Constitution, with\nliberty, and she feels aggrieved that she is not given all the\nprivileges of her fellow-citizens of the North. The only thing that\napparently prevented this natural and, as it seemed to her, just\nexpansion, was the Missouri Compromise, which had solemnly guaranteed\nthis whole territory to freedom. Why not repeal this obnoxious measure?\nThe proposition to do this sprang from Kentucky. The same State which,\nthrough its senator. Henry Clay, had been foremost in originally\nsecuring the act, now through its senator, Mr. Dixon, his successor, was\nthe first to ask for its repeal. Unlike as the movement seems, and\ndisowned as it undoubtedly would have been by Mr. Clay, the great\nprojector of the Missouri Compromise, yet in reality the substance of\neach is the same. In both there is but one design\u2014to placate the\nslave-power and save the country by attempting to compromise, not\ndiverse interests, but antagonistic principles. They were but separate\nsteps in one path, and that a road towards national perversion,\ndisgrace, and ruin. The guiding star which once shone in the heavens had\nbeen lost, and our statesmen were taking up with a will-o\u2019-the-wisp,\nborn of swamp and miasma, in its place.\n\nAlthough the project was conceived by the South, it could not have been\nbrought to the birth, much less nourished into baneful strength, had it\nnot been adopted by the North in the person of Stephen A. Douglas, one\nof the ablest leaders of the Democratic party, a member of the United\nStates Senate, and chairman of the Committee upon Territories. Into the\nbill for organizing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which he\nreported to the Senate in January of 1854, he introduced the proposition\nto repeal the old Missouri Compromise. The mere proposal was regarded as\nlittle less than sacrilege. For thirty years that compromise had been\nlooked upon as a sacred pledge, to be held in the same reverence as the\nConstitution itself. Scarcely four years before, the mover of the\nproposition for its repeal had described it as \u201ccanonized in the hearts\nof the American people as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would\never be reckless enough to disturb.\u201d An attempt to set it aside roused\nthe most intense excitement throughout the whole land, the South in\nfavor, the North opposed. The readiness with which the flame sprang up\nproved that through these past years of apparent quiet the fire had been\ncovered but not put out. Now that fresh fuel was added and the draught\nopened, it blazed up more fiercely than ever. It was not confined to any\nclass or condition.\n\nAll of anti-slavery tendencies saw in it an evidence of the settled\npurpose of the South to nationalize the institution of slavery, and a\ntestimony that it would not scruple to use any means to attain its end.\n\nMoralists saw in it a disregard of most sacred promises, and felt the\nground of constitutional fidelity shaking under their feet. More than\nthree thousand clergymen in New England signed a protest against the\naction proposed.\n\n\u201cWe protest against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise as a great\nmoral wrong; as a breach of faith, eminently unjust to the moral\nprinciples of the community and subversive of all confidence in national\nengagements; as a measure full of danger to the peace and even the\nexistence of our beloved Union, and exposing us to the righteous\njudgments of the Almighty.\u201d\n\nEven the mere politician was angry that an issue so repugnant to a\nmajority of the people had been so unwisely precipitated. Nor were his\nanger and apprehension unwarranted. The storm of popular indignation\nswept down like a tempest upon the forests, scattering dead leaves,\nbreaking off dead branches, and throwing down trees that had become\nrotten in trunk or root. Before the end of the year the Democratic party\nhad lost its magnificent majority in Congress, and the Whig party had\npractically ceased to exist, dishevelled, torn up by the roots, buried\nby the storm.\n\nDuring this preliminary contest Mr. Beecher is neither indifferent nor\nsilent. In lectures, in special sermons, and in numerous Star Papers he\nmakes his influence felt. In one of the latter upon \u201cThe Crisis\u201d his\nappeals and reproaches go out to all classes:\n\n\u201cThe virtue, the morals, the prosperity of a domain large enough to be\nan empire has no safeguard about it. Those future States, silent and\nunpopulous, are like so many lambs huddled in a thicket by crowds of\nwolves, that only wait for some single taste of blood to plunge in and\ntear the whole! Unless there is a storm from the people that shall roll\nlike thunder in the mountains; unless the recreant and graceless herd in\nCongress shall hear the coming down of many waters, like roaring\nfreshets from mountains on whose tops clouds have burst, there will soon\nbe no more ground to fight for. If anything is to be done it must be\ndone by the North. It must be quickly, loudly, and impetuously done!\nThere must be an outcry coming up from the bosom of the people, like\nthat which rent the midnight of Egypt when all its first-born were\nstricken. Let no man wait for his fellow. Let children and women lead\nand teach sluggish manhood with what energy and soul a voice should be\nheard for liberty, upon half a continent, like the voice of God when He\nspeaks in storms!\n\n\u201cLet every single man write, \u2018I solemnly protest against the perfidy and\nthe outrage of abolishing the Missouri Compromise\u2019; and as he bears it\nto the post-office, if he find a fellow to sign it, let him sign; but if\nnot, let it go as his single protest.\n\n\u201cLet families send solemn protests\u2014the father and mother, the children\nand hired laborers. Let there be ten thousand petitions from single\nfamilies within a week at Washington.\n\n\u201cLet churches and congregations unite and send instant petitions.\n\n\u201cIn this solemn hour of peril, when all men\u2019s hearts sink within them,\nwe have an appeal to those citizens who rebuked us for our fears in\n1850.\n\n\u201cDid you not declare that that should be a finality? Did you not say\nthat, by a concession of conscience, we should thereafter have peace?\n\n\u201cIs this the peace? Is this the fulfilment of your promise? Is not this\nthe very sequence which we told you would come? That compromise was a\nball of frozen rattlesnakes. You turned them in your hands then with\nimpunity. We warned and besought. We protested and adjured. You\npersisted in bringing them into the dwelling. You laid them down before\nthe fire. Now where are they? They are crawling all around. Their fangs\nare striking death into every precious interest of liberty! It is your\nwork!\n\n\u201cIn this emergency where are those ministers of the Gospel who have\nalways refused to infuse into the public mind a sound and instructed\nmoral sentiment upon the subject of slavery? Hitherto you have been\nsilent, because it did not concern the _North_. We earnestly protested\nthat so deep and dreadful a disease could not prey upon any limb of this\nnation and not strike its taint and danger through and through the whole\nbody politic. We implored men not to let the first principles of human\nrights die out of the popular mind; not to let a gigantic engine of\ndespotism, through its selfish remunerations of commerce, deaden every\nquick sensibility to justice and bribe to sleep the vigilance of\nhumanity, though every palm should have thrice as many pieces of silver\nas did he of old.\n\n\u201cThe North is both bound and asleep. It is bound with bonds of unlawful\ncompromise! You, ministers of Christ, held her limbs, while the gaunt\nand worthy minions of oppression moved about, twisting inextricable\ncords about her hands and feet; or, like Saul, stood by, holding the\ngarments of those that slew the martyr! The poor Northern conscience has\nbeen like a fly upon a spider\u2019s web. Her statesmen, and not a few of her\nministers, have rolled up the struggling insect, singing fainter and\nfainter, with webs of sophistry, till it now lies a miserable, helpless\nvictim, and Slavery is crawling up to suck its vital blood!\n\n\u201cWhat, then, do you owe to God, to heaven, and to your country, in an\neffort to regain conscience, liberty, and duty? God, who searches the\nheart, knows that it is not in our heart to say these things for the\nsake of aspersion. We would lie down before you, and let your steps\ntread our very neck, if you were only marching toward the high ends of\nour country\u2019s good. But we cannot endure to see noble and venerable\nministers of the Gospel first duped and deceived, and made to serve the\nends of oppression, and then, when the mighty juggle is detected, stand\nsilent and aghast, as unwilling now to repair as before to prevent the\nutter misery and evil.\n\n\u201cBut let us not be deceived. Let every man be prepared for a future! If\nthis bill shall be defeated the North will be like a man just dragged\nout of the rapids above Niagara! If this bill pass, the North will be\nlike a man whirled in the very wildest rage of the infuriate rapids and\nmaking headlong haste toward the awful plunge.\n\n\u201cDoes any man believe that there can be _peace_ if this iniquity goes\nforward? Will the South, with such advantage gained, easily relinquish\nher grip? Will the North, betrayed, wounded, and religiously aroused\nfrom the very bottom, let slave States come to the door of the Union,\nfrom the very territory of which she has been cheated, and bid them\nenter? Such struggles are before us as we have never seen. The next time\nthe masses, the religious-minded men of the then undivided North, are\naroused, standing on no flimsy base of compromise but on the solid\nfoundations of humanity, of natural feeling, of a Northern national\nfeeling springing from a love of liberty, they will not be put to sleep\nagain by any mere pretences of peace. The finality which the South gave\nwas a hollow truce but to give them time to forge their arms and grind\ntheir swords. They bribed the North with a lie. The next time the North\nreaches forth her hand it will scarcely be for gold or silver. There is\nmore danger now of wild collisions than of lying finalities. It will\ncome to that if the foolish counsels of timid men prevail. If civil wars\nare to be prevented, now is the time; courage to-day or carnage\nto-morrow. Firmness will give peace; trembling will bring war.       *\u201d\n\nAnother one follows upon \u201cThe Christian\u2019s Duty to Liberty\u201d:\n\n\u201c_Mar. 23, 1854._\u2014At length God seems to have caught the wicked in their\nown craft. It was not in the power of all the men of the North to\ndevelop so earnest a feeling against slavery and for liberty as is now\nfinding tongue and giving itself forth all over the North. All that for\nwhich we have been counted uncharitable by men anxious to be honorable\ntoward the South has come to pass.\n\n\u201cLet the _conscience_ of the North settle this question, not her\n_fears_. God calls us to a religious duty. Long has our talent lain in a\nnapkin. Our testimony for liberty has been waived; our assertion of\nfreedom has been timid and without enthusiasm. We have refused to accept\nat God\u2019s hands the true mission of the North, to preach liberty to the\ncaptives and elevation to the whole human family. At length let the\nbanner flow out to the wind, let the battle begin. There will never be\nanother day of grace if this goes past. Retreat now and the North will\nnever retreat again. We beseech Christian men and ministers to put this\nquestion where it belongs, upon a religious basis. Let them feel their\nduty in their own land as they feel their duty of preaching the truth of\nChrist, _whether men will hear or whether they will forbear_.\n\n\u201cOh! that God, by breathing a spirit of prayer upon His people and of\nunflinching fidelity, would give us token that He has appeared at length\nfor our salvation!\u201d\n\nIn spite of all efforts to the contrary, the repeal of the Missouri\nCompromise was effected in September of 1854, and the battle which had\nbeen fought in Congress and lost by the free States was at once\ntransferred to the newly-admitted Territory, and was there waged with a\nfierceness and persistence that cannot be understood or appreciated,\nunless it be remembered that Kansas had become the strategic point of\nthe whole great conflict. Given Kansas, slavery would have not only\nadditional territory, but, what was even more important to its purposes,\na majority in the United States Senate that should for ever, as it\nhoped, prevent the admission of more free than slave States, or the\nfollowing of any course which should be prejudicial to its interests. In\nthis new field the North at first labored under great disadvantage. The\npeculiar institution had already been planted and had taken root. The\neastern border of Kansas was upon Missouri, a slave State which was\nfully aware of the advantage that broader fields would furnish the labor\nof her increasing slave population, and containing enough of a rough and\nwild frontier element to carry through any plan that desperation or\nvillany might devise. The President of the United States Senate and\nacting Vice-President of the United States, David R. Atchison, was on\nthe ground, and for months had been organizing Blue Lodges and other\nsecret bodies, with the intent to take possession of the Territory, or\nat least of its polling-places, and secure it for slavery. The officers\nappointed by the President\u2014a governor, three judges, a secretary, a\nmarshal, and an attorney\u2014were, of course, all favorable to the policy of\nthe Administration, a policy which was all that the most radical\npro-slavery advocate could desire.\n\nThe party thus happily situated did not hesitate to avail itself of its\nadvantages. Its members swarmed across the borders at the election of a\ndelegate to Congress, took possession of the ballot-boxes, appointed\njudges of election from their own number, elected their man by an\noverwhelming majority, and then for the most part returned to their\nhomes in Missouri.\n\nThis was in October, 1854. In the following spring a Legislature was\nelected by the same illegal process, and proceeded at once to form a\nconstitution most rabidly pro-slavery. It prescribed the death-penalty\nfor any who should entice or decoy away a slave or assist him to escape,\nand ten years\u2019 imprisonment for harboring or concealing a fugitive\nslave. To deny the right of holding slaves in the Territory, either by\nspeaking, writing, printing or circulating books or papers, was declared\nto be felony, punishable with two years\u2019 imprisonment. Having formed an\nelaborate constitution of the above character, and made ample provision\nfor enforcing its requirements, they selected a site for the new State\ncapital, called it Lecompton\u2014after the attorney of the State, whose\nlegal acquirements had assisted them greatly in their villany\u2014and\nadjourned.\n\nLooking upon affairs as they then appeared, and seeing that the\nLegislature, however elected, had been officially recognized, and that\nits enactments were in form legal, that the whole machinery of courts,\nmarshals, and militia were in its hands and could be used to enforce its\nstatutes, that it was favored by the Administration and the dominant\nfaction at Washington, which could employ the United States army for its\nsupport, it would seem as if the battle had already been lost to the\nFree-State men, and that Kansas could be counted upon to give that\nmajority in the United States Senate which the slave-power so greatly\ncoveted. But other forces were at work. In the first place, the very\nenormity of these slave-laws compelled all the decent residents of\nKansas, whether Free-Soil, Whig, or Democrat, to combine for their own\ndefence against the possible outrages to which they were exposed by\nthese enactments. In the second place, the party which had brought about\nthe repeal of the Missouri Compromise had, by this very act, lost the\ncontrol of the Lower House in Congress, and could not be relied upon to\nadmit the Territory with its present infamous code. Besides these near\nand more immediate advantages, there were forces enlisted on this side\nthat were working slowly but with great certainty toward the result\naimed at by the Free-State men. The old migratory instinct which had\nthrobbed in the veins of this race from the first, which had brought\nthem from the steppes of Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, pushed the\nstronger and abler ones across the seas, moved them from the sea-coast\nto the foot of the Alleghanies, then drove them across this barrier to\ntake possession of the great valley of the Ohio and the Mississippi, was\nstill as active as ever and readily responded to the enticements of the\nnew and fertile lands just opened in Kansas for settlement. No sooner\nwas it known that the broad plains of this Territory could be occupied\nthan the tide began to flow in this direction. Principle also came in to\nstrengthen and ennoble this instinct.\n\n\u201cThen arose a majesty of self-sacrifice that had no parallel before.\nInstead of merely protesting, young men and maidens, laboring men,\nfarmers, mechanics, sped with a sacred desire to rescue free territory\nfrom the toils of slavery, and emigrated in thousands, not to better\ntheir own condition, but in order that when this Territory should vote\nit should vote for freedom.\u201d\n\nLest both instinct and principle should move too slowly or with\ninsufficient equipment, emigrant societies were formed at the North to\nassist those who would offer themselves for the redemption of Kansas.\nOne of the earliest of these to be on the ground was the \u201cMassachusetts\nEmigrant Aid Company,\u201d headed by the Hon. Eli Thayer. This organization\nsent out a body of some thirty persons, who, in July of this year, had\nfounded the town of Lawrence. With this company, organized, mutually\nacquainted, and trained in the orderly methods of New England, for a\ncentre, there rapidly gathered a strong body, and one that well\nrepresented the bona-fide settlers of Kansas. They proceeded at once to\ncall a mass convention and elect delegates. In due time a Constitutional\nConvention was called at Topeka, October 23, 1855, which formed a\nconstitution, submitted it to the people, from whom it met with a hearty\nendorsement. It was then transmitted to Congress for approval.\n\nThese, Lecompton and Topeka, were the storm-centres around which surged\nthe principal events of those turbulent times in Kansas which have been\ndesignated as \u201cThe Kansas War.\u201d It was a wild, irregular, barbarous, and\nbloody strife, made up of night-attacks, house-burnings, secret murders,\nskirmishes between armed bodies sometimes rising to the proportions of a\nbattle, Lawrence twice burned, Leavenworth sacked, and acts of that\ndescription, filling up four years or more of most eventful history.\n\nKansas at that time was the skirmish-line of two great hosts that were\nalready settling down to a life-and-death struggle. On the one side a\nLegislature, as we have seen, elected largely by the votes of marauders\nfrom an adjoining State; a reckless population just over the line, whose\nhistoric name, Border Ruffians, seems to have been fully deserved,\norganized into secret bands ready to march at a moment\u2019s warning,\nequipped either to vote or fight as should be required; a regiment of\nUnited States troops placed at their disposal; the whole South awake to\nthe work they have undertaken, and forwarding supplies of men and money\nfor the support of those already on the field; and the Administration at\nWashington, through portions of two presidential terms, alternately\nscheming and commanding for its success.\n\nOn the other hand was a Legislature, illegally convened, but elected by\na large majority of the resident population of the Territory, with a\nconstituency, some of them doubtless adventurers, some fanatics, and\nothers possibly villains, but for the most part honest homesteaders,\nliving, it may be, in sod huts or dug-outs, but living upon land which\nthey had pre-empted and could call their own; the great North behind\nthem, slowly but surely moving down to their rescue; the throb of the\nworld\u2019s progress beating towards them; the consciousness that they are\nfulfilling the purposes of God in saving this land to liberty animating\nthem; and the great natural elements of soil, air, and sunshine, that\nare always on the side of liberty, working for them. These were the\nforces on the other side.\n\nEach section came to the support of its skirmish-line in characteristic\nfashion: the South by military companies and the incursions of armed\nbands of raiders aiming to conquer the country, if necessary, by force\nof arms and overawe it into accepting its bogus State constitution. The\nNorth came in emigrant-wagons, with family, stock, house-furniture, and\nfarm utensils, prepared to remain and occupy the land.\n\nThe general trend of the government at an early period in the strife, as\nseen in various acts at home and abroad, must also be taken into the\naccount. The Ostend Manifesto, issued under the inspiration of President\nPierce by our three ministers, Buchanan, Mason, and Soul\u00e9, at the courts\nrespectively of London, Paris, and Madrid, recommended the purchase of\nCuba, if possible; if not that we obtain it by force. \u201cIf Spain,\u201d they\nsaid, \u201cshould refuse to sell Cuba to the United States, then by every\nlaw, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from her, if\nwe possess the power.\u201d Slavery at this period had a foreign as well as a\nhome policy. It was that of the old buccaneer, a policy of unscrupulous\naggression, that would not hesitate to embroil the nation in war, if\nnecessary for the carrying out of its designs. Filibustering\nexpeditions, which were continually being planned and attempted at this\ntime against Cuba and Central America, were rightly looked upon not only\nas additional proof of the purpose but as the initial steps in the\nproposed plan of foreign conquest.\n\nAs if the forces arrayed against liberty were not enough, as the\nconflict advanced the Supreme Court of the United States added its\ninfluence to the side of the antagonist. In the historic Dred Scott\ndecision, given in the spring of 1857, the ground is taken that the\nnegro slave is so completely and exclusively property, under the\nConstitution, that the owner can take him, as any other property, into\nany and all territory belonging to the United States government. In\neffect \u201cthe negro has no rights which the white man is bound to\nrespect.\u201d\n\nAfter the lapse of many years, upon a calm review of that decision it is\ndifficult to say whether the historical errors, the feeble reasoning, or\nthe immoral sentiments most awaken our surprise and contempt. It is\nsufficient for our purpose at this time to know that this decision threw\na vast influence against the Free-State men. If it were final, then\ntheir struggle was all in vain. Strive as much as they would, and suffer\nas much as they might, they could never make Kansas a free State. And\nyet, in spite of the Dred Scott decision, the hostility of the\nAdministration, and all other adverse forces and circumstances, they\nheld on. To this result had our country come through the compromises and\nsurrenders of three-quarters of a century: slavery in possession of the\nmachinery of government, nationalized by the highest tribunal in the\nland, declared to have equal rights with freedom in all the public\ndomain, and, in logical sequence, not to be shut out from even the free\nStates. Every institution of thirty millions of freemen was to be judged\nand graded, encouraged or restrained, with supreme reference to the\ninterests of this institution. Dominant at home, it was already taking\nsteps preparatory to foreign conquest, and the only effective obstacle\nin the way of the consummation of its plans was the life-and-death\ntenacity with which the free settlers of Kansas held to their\ndetermination that theirs should be a free State.\n\nThe contest continued for four years before any substantial advantage\nwas gained for the Free State party. Four governors, three appointed by\nPresident Pierce and one by President Buchanan, had successively been\nsent, and then deposed and disgraced because they could not, or would\nnot, carry out the unjust measures proposed by the Administration. The\nvictory in Congress in 1858 was simply a resubmission of the Lecompton\nconstitution to the people of the State to be voted upon, whether they\nwould accept it or frame one for themselves. They of course buried it\namid universal execrations. Slight and unmistakably just as was this\nconcession of Congress, it was nevertheless secured but by a small\nmajority. The change of five votes would have passed the notorious\nLecompton Bill, admitted the State with slavery into the Union, added\ntwo senators to the slave-power, restored the supremacy of that power in\nthe Senate of the United States, to be followed by the carrying out the\nDred Scott decision to its logical consequences, slavery supremacy at\nhome, slavery aggression, annexation, and expansion over Cuba and\nCentral America, abroad. A vast slave-empire stretching from the lakes\nto the southern shores of the Caribbean Sea seemed not an improbable\ndream, if there had not been wisdom enough or will enough to fight the\nbattle out in Kansas. All honor to those brave men and women who in\nthose days saved this Territory to the North! All honor to those who\nstood by them and helped them to win! A more important battle was never\nfought in our history, and a more heroic spirit was never shown. What\nthe ch\u00e2teau of Hougoumont, held by the British right centre, was to the\nbattle of Waterloo; what the \u201cBloody Angle\u201d held by Hancock was to the\nbattle of Spottsylvania Court-House, such was the Kansas war in the\nearly and determining era of the great American conflict.\n\nCall this four years of struggle one battle, and it will take rank with\nthe \u201cfifteen great battles\u201d of the world\u2019s history, second in importance\nto none.\n\nWe have thus given an outline of this great preliminary struggle of the\nwar, that Mr. Beecher\u2019s position and labors, which were much criticised\nat the time, may be seen in their true light. As is well known, he threw\nhimself into this work with all the enthusiasm which such an emergency\nmight be supposed to awaken. He felt the importance of the struggle and\nthe need of instant action. Since, under the doctrine of \u201csquatter\nsovereignty,\u201d which had taken the place of the former restriction, the\nquestion of freedom or slavery in Kansas must be decided by the vote of\nthe actual settlers, these must be aided to emigrate to that Territory\nfrom the North, and at once. Since they were to be the foundation\nelements of a Christian State, they should be supplied with Bibles; and\nsince they would doubtless be called upon to defend themselves against\nattack, they _must_ be supplied with firearms. He lectured and took up\ncollections in Plymouth Church and from the lecture platform for Sharp\u2019s\nrifles, an arm then but just come into notice. He preached, lectured,\nand bought rifles with the same object in view\u2014to redeem men to liberty;\nand with the same spirit\u2014love to God and man. Some of the rifles, it is\nsaid, were sent in boxes marked Bibles, but without his knowledge, and\nso passed in safety through Missouri and the enemy\u2019s lines. Hence the\nterm Beecher\u2019s Bibles came to be applied to these effective weapons.\n\nAt this time he published his famous \u201cDefence of Kansas,\u201d that showed\nnot more clearly the warmth of his spirit than his clear understanding\nof the issues at stake and the dangers that were impending:\n\n\u201cA battle is to be fought. If we are wise it will be bloodless. If we\nlisten to the pusillanimous counsels of men who have never shown one\nthrob of sympathy for liberty, we shall have blood to the horses\u2019\nbridles. If we are firm and prompt to obvious duty, if we stand by the\nmen of Kansas and give them all the help they need, the flames of war\nwill be quenched before it bursts forth, and both they of the West and\nwe of the East shall, after some angry mutterings, rest down in peace.\nBut if our ears are poisoned by the advice of men who never rebuke\nviolence on the side of power, and never fail to inveigh against the\nself-defence of wronged liberty, we shall invite aggression and civil\nwar. And let us know assuredly that civil war will not burst forth in\nKansas without spreading. Now, if bold wisdom prevails, the conflict\nwill be settled afar off in Kansas, and without blows or blood. But\ntimidity and indifference will bring down blows there, which will not\nonly echo in our houses hitherward, but will by and by lay the\nfoundation for an armed struggle between the whole North and the South.\nShall we let the spark kindle, or shall we quench it now? But, that\nintelligent citizens may the better judge, let the facts of this case be\nreviewed....\n\n\u201cThere was never so strong an appeal to public sympathy as that which is\npresented in the case of Kansas free settlers. Their emigration was a\nmission of mercy, full of the ripest fruits of Christianity. Their\nconduct has been noble. They have borne hardships without faltering,\nthey have borne outrage and persecution with patience, returning good\nfor evil. They have suffered wrongs manifold and infinitely provoking,\nwithout retaliation. When aggression on one occasion was pushed so\nsorely that their patience failed, some of the men said: \u2018We cannot bear\nsuch wrongs.\u2019 The reply made by Pomeroy will become a maxim of Christian\nmen: \u2018Be patient! your wrongs are your very strength.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhen the armed day came, and their adversaries came out to consume\nthem, then, and only then, they took up arms and surrounded their homes\nwith living men, determined not to attack, but never to surrender....\nOnce when England only asserted the right to tax the colonies without\nrepresentation, the colonies rebelled and went to war. But now a foreign\nLegislature has been imposed upon Kansas. That Legislature has legalized\nslavery against the known wishes of nine-tenths of the actual settlers.\nIt has decreed that no man shall enter the Territory who will not take\nan oath of allegiance to this spurious Legislature. It has made it death\nto give liberty to the man escaping from oppression. It has muzzled the\npress. It has forbidden discussion. It has made free speech a\npenitentiary offence. The rights for which the old colonists fought were\nsuperficial compared with these. These are the rights which lie at the\nvery heart of personal liberty.\n\n\u201cIndeed, there can be no personal freedom where free speech, a free\npress, a free canvass and discussion are penitentiary offences! These\nare the laws which the President is determined to enforce! Congress is\nto be asked for money to sustain this government in Kansas, or to pay\nfor an army to cut the throats of every free citizen who will not yield\nto this infamy!...\n\n\u201cPeace in Kansas means peace everywhere; war there will be war all over\nthe land. Now it can be stopped. But fear will not do it. A truculent\npeace will not do it. Indolence and presumptuous prayer will but hasten\nthe mischief. When tyrants are in arms they who cry peace become their\nconfederates. Manliness, action, courage, and ample preparation for\ndefence will stop the danger. The Providence that will help us is the\nProvidence that we help. God works for those who work for Him. When He\nanswers prayer for harvests He inspires men to work, and petitions for\ncrops and harvests are answered through ploughs and spades. And God will\nanswer prayers for peace by inspiring men with justice, with abhorrence\nof oppression; by making good men bold and active, and bad men feeble\nand cowardly; by stopping the ears of the community to the counsel of\ncowards and hypocrites. Let every man in this awful crisis not fail to\n_pray_, and, that they may pray without hypocrisy, let them watch and\nwork! How shall we dare ask God to save us from bloodshed when we will\nnot use the means He has put into our hands? Faith without works and\nprayer without works are dead\u2014stone-dead. Let the emigrants go hither\nand thither by hundreds, and pray as they go! Let them that have money\nnow pour it out, and pray as they give! Let them that have sons in\nKansas send them arms, and pray that they may have no occasion to use\nthem; but that, if they must be used, that the son may so wield them\nthat the mother be not ashamed of the son whom she bore! Let them that\nhave influence speak out! Let ministers and Christian free men now, if\never, speak against barbarism and uphold the whole retinue of Christian\ninstitutions! Let those whose tongue has been hitherto palsied by evil\nadvisers now loose their tongue and speak! _Of whom will the land take\ncounsel?_ There have been two sorts of counsellors hitherto. One has\npointed out for twenty years the nature of slavery, its tendencies, the\ndangers which it threatened; and all the prophecies have come true. The\nother kind of counsellors have predicted peace, dissuaded from action,\nurged compromise, and at each reluctant step have promised the country\npeace. In not a single instance have they been right. Events have\noverthrown every one of their promises. They have led us down deeper\ninto trouble at every step. We have been betrayed by kisses. Excitements\nhave deepened, lessons have multiplied, compromises have bred\ncockatrices. We are spun over with webs. We are tangled with\nsophistries. We have everything but manliness, straightforwardness,\ncourage, and decisive wisdom....\n\n\u201cBut what is done must be done quickly. Funds must be freely given; arms\nmust be had, even if bought at the price mentioned by our Saviour: \u2018He\nthat hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.\u2019 Young men who\nwould do aught for liberty should take no counsel of fear. Now is the\ntime when a man may do for his country in an hour more than in a whole\nlife besides. Time flies. Events hasten. Fear and treacherous peace,\nthat betray duty with ignorant words of religion, will ruin all; but\nenergy, courage, action will save all. Woe to us if war comes from our\nfault! If it comes, on the skirts of false peace will its blood be\nfound!\u201d\n\nOf the result of this sending armed colonists into Kansas he speaks a\nfew weeks later:\n\n\u201cOf all the revolutions on record, we remember none so remarkable as\nthat which has been wrought by Sharp\u2019s rifles. We do not know that a\nsingle man has ever been injured by them. They are guiltless of blood.\nBut the principle which they involve has brought the whole South to a\nprotest against violence, even in the extremest necessity of\nself-defence! These aforetime heroes of the knife and revolver are now\ndeep in the Scriptures. They are quoting all the peaceable texts; they\nhang with irrepressible delight over all those passages which teach\nforbearance.\u201d\n\nBeing attacked in a religious paper for his aggressive attitude, he\nanswers: \u201cWe have acted consistently with our settled belief. We have\nNOTHING to retract.\u201d\n\nAn event that took place at this time added still more fuel to the hot\nindignation that was glowing through the North\u2014the attack by Preston S.\nBrooks, of South Carolina, upon Charles Sumner, May 22, 1856, in the\nSenate Chamber. It was an act so cowardly and atrocious that it cannot\nbe recalled after these many years without a tingling of the blood. If a\nblow had been given at the moment of the debate, if the man seeking\nredress had approached his adversary face to face and given him\nopportunity to defend himself, if it had been but a single blow,\npossibly some extenuation could be offered; but to strike a man a\nstunning blow without warning, when he is sitting at his desk and so\nhampered that he is unable to rise until he has torn the desk up from\nits fastenings; to follow with more than a score of blows until the\ninstrument of attack, a heavy cane, is broken to pieces and his victim\nis left senseless\u2014is an act that, search where it may, can find nothing\nto add to its infamy. Among the meetings called all over the North to\ngive voice to the anger of the people at this dastardly act, one was in\nNew York City. The advertised speakers were William M. Evarts, John Van\nBuren, Daniel Lord, Jr., and others of eminence. The speeches were able\nbut tame and conservative. They did not meet the demand of the popular\nheart over that tremendous outrage. Just as the meeting was being\nadjourned Mr. Beecher was discovered in the back part of the room,\nhaving come in to listen to men whose reputation was so great but whom\nhe had never heard. At once the cry from the unsatisfied audience was\n\u201cBeecher, Beecher!\u201d\n\nSo unexpected was the call, and so annoyed was he at being called out,\nthat it required almost physical force to get him to take the platform;\nbut when once there his soul kindled with the occasion. A simple recital\nof facts led the audience step by step over the ground which had been\ntraversed for the last ten years. The grand principles of our polity\nwere uncovered to their view. Scene after scene was depicted by his\nmarvellous dramatic power, culminating in that outrage in the Senate\nChamber on account of which they had gathered; and the audience,\nalternately moved by his pathos, fired by his passion, or swept by his\nhumor, became one with the speaker. They saw as he saw, they felt as he\nfelt; and he stamped them that night with the impress of his hatred of\nslavery and his burning enthusiasm for liberty. The next day the press\ncarried this impression to the multitude of its readers, and, dismissing\nthe other speeches of the evening with a formal notice, gave his as\nnearly as possible verbatim. It was his meeting for the first time upon\nthe platform with the leading men of the country, and from that hour he\ntook his place with them and held it to the end.\n\nMany leading men in Massachusetts having been invited to a similar\nmeeting held in Boston, and sending regrets, he analyzes their excuses\nin a Star Paper upon \u201cHearts and no Hearts\u201d:\n\n\u201cAdmirable! The man is sacrificed to the position. No tear, no\nindignation, no heart-felt throb, no voice or gesture which befits an\nopen and free heart. All instincts and spontaneity must be judged by\nsupposed interests of a professorship. In such cases as this the man is\na mere Jonah in the whale\u2019s belly. His professorship has swallowed his\nmanhood! Alas for the whale!\u201d\n\nOf this attack on Sumner he said in the Star article of June 12,\n\u201cSilence must be Nationalized\u201d:\n\n\u201cThis deed stands absolutely alone in our history. It has not a single\nfellow! There have been brutal things, and cruel things, and mean\nthings, and cowardly things, and wicked and inhuman wrongs, but nothing\nbefore that epitomized them all. With the exception of one or two\npapers, the whole South has accepted the act and made it representative!\nIt is no longer Brooks that struck Sumner! He was the arm, but the whole\nSouth was the body! And with one consent it is declared that for the\ncrime of _free speech_ it was done and deserved!\u201d\n\nIn the meantime a new party, born of this conflict, was rapidly coming\ninto power. Made up of elements apparently most diverse, it was brought\ntogether by a common purpose and fused into one by a grand enthusiasm.\nThere was, for a nucleus, the larger part of the old Free-Soil party,\nthat had been in existence since 1842; then came Abolitionists, of which\nthere had been for years a sprinkling in all the Northern States;\nseceders from the Whig party, called in New York State \u201cSilver Grays,\u201d\nand from the Democratic party, called \u201cBarnburners;\u201d and a multitude of\nothers, a daily increasing host, vital in every member with the spirit\nof the hour. Combining some of the best elements of all the parties, it\nhad a breadth of power that no one party could have given it alone.\nWhile it had enough men of experience in affairs to secure wisdom of\naction, its recruits were for the most part young men, who brought the\ninspiration of their youth, their numbers, their hope, and their\nindignation. After a preliminary mass convention in Pittsburgh on\nWashington\u2019s birthday, February 22, 1856, they met in Philadelphia and\nadopted a platform of principles and nominated candidates for President\nand Vice-President.\n\nIn this platform they gave their attention mostly to the great issue of\nsupreme importance\u2014that between liberty and slavery. Their action here\nwas positive and unequivocal: no more slave territory; no more coddling\nof slave institutions. Upon this platform it nominated John C. Fremont\nfor its standard-bearer, and organized its hosts for the great\npresidential contest of that year.\n\nThe party thus brought before the country had some great advantages over\nall rivals. The Whig party was already dead, although not yet fully\nconscious of the fact, and awaiting burial; the Democratic party was\ninextricably associated, for weal or for woe, with the slave-power;\nwhile the Know-Nothing party was but a mushroom, and a poisonous variety\nat that. On the other hand, this new organization was intensely alive.\nIt had a definite object in view and was not afraid to avow it. It had\nthe strength of intense moral conviction. Its cause gave opportunity for\ninspiration and awakened the grandest enthusiasm. It was in harmony with\nthe fundamental principles of our nation and the early struggles of our\npeople. It was in sympathy with the great movement of the age in all\nlands. Its lengthening lines and the rising hosts of the Old World were\nparts of the same army. Its standard-bearer, by reason of his youth,\nadventurous career, and brilliant service, was well adapted to awaken a\nloyal and spirited following. It had nothing to conceal; it had nothing\nto fear; it carried with it the hopes of the nation and the world.\nAdopting the \u201cMarseillaise,\u201d the greatest liberty song that was ever\nwritten, it adapted its own chorus to the music and sang at its meetings\nwith boundless enthusiasm:\n\n                      \u201cArise, arise, ye braves!\n                      And let your war-cry be,\n                        \u2018Free speech, free press,\n                        Free soil, free men,\n                      Fremont, and victory!\u2019\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher gave himself unreservedly to this contest:\n\n\u201cWell, of course we felt all aflame. My church voted me all the time\nthat I thought to be required to go out into the community and speak and\ncanvass the State of New York. I went into that canvass, spoke twice and\noften three times a week, having the whole day to myself\u2014that is, making\nall the speeches that were made. I was sent principally to what we\ncalled the Silver-Gray districts or counties\u2014the old-time Whigs that\nwere attempting to run a candidate between Fremont and Buchanan. I\ngenerally made a three hours\u2019 speech a day in the open air to audiences\nof from eight to ten thousand people. I felt at that time that it was\nvery likely that I should sacrifice my life, or my voice at any rate,\nbut I was willing to lay down either or both of them for that cause.\u201d\n\nOf Mr. Beecher\u2019s contributions to the literature of the campaign we can,\nfor lack of space, give but few quotations, and these only as they\nafford an idea of the humorous and enthusiastic manner in which he stood\nup for his candidate. In the close scrutiny of private life, which is so\nmarked a feature of presidential campaigns, it had been learned that\nJohn C. Fremont and Jessie Benton had fallen in love with each other,\nand, her father not approving of his daughter\u2019s selection, the two\nlovers had made a runaway match of it, and in their haste had been\nmarried by a Roman Catholic priest. This escapade was being used against\nthe candidate by the opposite party, not because he ran away with the\nfair Jessie\u2014the ballot of the average American voter would as likely be\nwon as lost by such an exhibition of youthful enterprise\u2014but because it\nhelped to prove, what was persistently claimed, that he was a Roman\nCatholic. In answer Mr. Beecher wrote a vigorous article disproving the\ncharge, and justifying the groom in securing the services of any one\ncompetent to perform the marriage ceremony, closing with these words:\n\u201cLike a true lover and gallant man, Fremont said that he did not care\nwho married him, so that it was done quick and strong. If we had been in\nColonel Fremont\u2019s place we would have been married if it had required us\nto walk through a row of priests and bishops as long as from Washington\nto Rome, ending up with the Pope himself!\u201d\n\nHe ridicules the persistency with which certain newspapers returned to\nthe attack upon Fremont on the assumed ground of his being a Roman\nCatholic, with the story of \u201cThe Dog Noble and the Empty Hole,\u201d that\nprobably did as good campaign service as any story that was ever\nwritten:\n\n\u201cThe first summer which we spent in Lenox we had along a very\nintelligent dog named Noble. He was learned in many things, and by his\ndog-lore excited the undying admiration of all the children. But there\nwere some things which Noble could never learn. Having on one occasion\nseen a red squirrel run into a hole in a stone wall, he could not be\npersuaded that he was not there for evermore!...\n\n\u201cThe intense enthusiasm of the dog at that hole can hardly be described.\nHe filled it full of barking. He pawed and scratched as if undermining a\nbastion. Standing off at a little distance, he would pierce the hole\nwith a gaze as intense and fixed as if he were trying magnetism on it.\nThen, with tail extended and every hair thereon electrified, he would\nrush at the empty hole with a prodigious onslaught.\n\n\u201cThis imaginary squirrel haunted Noble night and day. The very squirrel\nhimself would run up before his face into the tree, and, crouched in a\ncrotch, would sit silently watching the whole process of bombarding the\nempty hole with great sobriety and relish. But Noble would allow of no\ndoubts. His conviction that that hole had a squirrel in it continued\nunshaken for six weeks. When all other occupations failed this hole\nremained to him. When there were no more chickens to harry, no pigs to\nbite, no cattle to chase, no children to romp with, no expeditions to\nmake with the grown folks, and when he had slept all that his dog-skin\nwould hold, he would walk out of the yard, yawn and stretch himself, and\nthen look wistfully at the hole, as if thinking to himself: \u2018Well, as\nthere is nothing else to do, I may as well try that hole again!\u2019\n\n\u201cWe had almost forgotten this little trait until the conduct of the New\nYork _Express_ in respect to Colonel Fremont\u2019s religion brought it\nludicrously to mind again. Colonel Fremont is, and always has been, as\nsound a Protestant as John Knox ever was. He was bred in the Protestant\nfaith and has never changed....\n\n\u201cBut the _Express_, like Noble, has opened on this hole in the wall, and\ncan never be done barking at it. Day after day it resorts to this empty\nhole. When everything else fails this resource remains. There they are\nindefatigably\u2014the _Express_ and Noble\u2014a church without a Fremont, and a\nhole without a squirrel in it!...\n\n\u201cWe never read the _Express_ nowadays without thinking involuntarily,\n\u2018Goodness! the dog is letting off at that hole again.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe election of 1856 resulted, as is well known, in the choice of James\nBuchanan for President. Since his policy was dictated by the same power\nbehind the throne as that of Mr. Pierce, it was, of course, not unlike\nthat of his predecessor; and this era in the great conflict which opened\nwith the repeal of the Missouri Compromise closes with the\nAdministration at Washington more than ever submissive to the demands of\nthe South. But it also closes with the right wing of the great army of\nliberty, whose lines reached from the Atlantic to the roots of the Rocky\nMountains, securely entrenched and holding its position, and with\ncontinually increasing numbers, barring farther aggressions of slavery\nfor ever.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XV.\n\nRemarkable experiences\u2014The Edmonson Sisters\u2014Pinky and her\n    Freedom-Ring\u2014Slave Auction in Plymouth Church\u2014John Brown\u2014The Wrong\n    and Right Way\u2014Election of Abraham Lincoln\u2014Secession\u2014Buchanan\u2019s Fast.\n\n\nWhile these larger public matters were engaging his attention there was\nan equally engrossing field of private activity in which he was\nconstantly engaged, and which developed into some very peculiar and\nremarkable experiences. As early as 1848 we find him conducting an\nauction sale, in New York City, of the two Edmonson sisters.\n\nThis case at the time attracted wide attention. Two respectable young\nwomen of light complexion, living in Washington City, had the misfortune\nto be born while the mother was a slave. After they had grown to\nwomanhood they found that the former owner of their parent was about to\nsell them to a slave-dealer for exportation to New Orleans and the\nmarket. Despairing of being able to raise the exorbitant sum at which\nthey were valued, and not knowing how to escape from a doom far more\ndreadful than death, they risked everything by going on board the\n_Pearl_ schooner with seventy-seven others, in the hope of escaping to a\nland of liberty and purity. The ship was captured and they were hurried\noff to Slater\u2019s Den, Baltimore, and thence to New Orleans. By some most\nextraordinary providences they were brought back from New Orleans to\nWashington, and their sad case at length reached the ears of those who\nhad hearts to feel and means to save. A meeting was held in the\nTabernacle October 23, at which Dr. Dowling and Mr. Beecher spoke with\nso much effect that $2,200 were raised and the captives were free. Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s speech is described by an eye-witness, himself a minister, as\nbeyond anything he has ever heard before or since. He extemporized there\non the stage an auction of a Christian slave. The enumeration of his\nqualities by the auctioneer, and the bids that followed, were given by\nthe speaker in perfect character. He made the scene as realistic as one\nof Hogarth\u2019s pictures and as lurid as a Rembrandt. Physical excellences,\nmental, moral, and spiritual qualities, are each dwelt on with an\nemphasis and moving effect that proved that he would have made a capital\nauctioneer if he had chosen that business.\n\n\u201cAnd more than all that, gentlemen, they say he is one of those praying\nMethodist niggers; who bids? A thousand\u2014fifteen hundred\u2014two\nthousand\u2014twenty-five hundred! Going, going! last call! _Gone!_\u201d\n\nThe audience were wrought up to a perfect frenzy of excitement while\nthat picture was being drawn, and when real contributions instead of\nimaginary bids were called for, the sum was easily raised and the girls\nwere free. He says of it: \u201cI think that of all the meetings that I have\nattended in my life, for a panic of sympathy I never saw one that\nsurpassed that. I have seen a great many in my day. An amount of money\nwas subscribed, and they were bought and set free. The mother was a very\nold woman. She had been a nurse of a great Richmond lawyer whose name\nhas died out of my memory. He owed his conversion to her. He was famous\nin the days of Webster.\u201d\n\nWe have lying before us as we write a little leather-covered\naccount-book, soiled and worn by use, which has upon its first pages\nletters from various humanitarians\u2014William Lloyd Garrison being among\nthe number\u2014recommending to the Christian public one Pomona Brice, who\n\u201cis engaged in collecting money to secure the ransom of her daughter and\ntwo grandchildren who are scattered somewhere in North Carolina,\nMississippi, Alabama, and Missouri.\u201d The names of subscribers follow,\nwith the sums subscribed\u2014ranging from twenty-five cents to ten\ndollars\u2014among which stands the familiar autograph \u201cH. W. Beecher, if the\nwhole is made up, five dollars.\u201d Receipts from the different\nsavings-banks where she had deposited the money; a letter from her\nlawyer to Mr. Beecher telling him that at her request he had examined\nthe laws of the above-mentioned States, and found them all against her;\na bill for his services and a judgment of the court against her for\n$100, all either directed or entrusted to Mr. Beecher, give us an\ninkling of another kind of work that wore upon his time, sympathy, and\npurse.\n\nNot only did he help by his subscriptions some poor mother or\ngrandmother to buy the liberty of her children or grandchildren, but\nsometimes brought the slave upon Plymouth pulpit and raised the money\nfor its redemption on the spot. A handful of letters in our possession\ngives the preliminaries to such a transaction.\n\nOne is from a Mr. Blake, who has called on the \u201cnigger trader\u201d and\nobtained the refusal of the child for $900, and has also \u201cobtained four\nor five good names to a bond for the payment of the money or return of\nthe child. When I told the grandmother what I had done the poor old soul\ncried for joy. \u2018God bless you!\u2019 she said. \u2018I will sit up all night to\nget you some breakfast. You have saved my child.\u2019\u201d Then comes a hitch in\nthe proceedings. A partner to the trader before spoken of appeared. He\nhated \u201cthe d\u2014\u2014\u2014 Abolitionists, and would not let the child go among\nthem.\u201d \u201cDo you not think something could be done without the child? She\nhas light flaxen hair. Her owner said I would easily get her on the\ncars, for no one would know her from a white child. The grandmother has\npurchased herself. She has also saved up about $200 to support her in\nher old age. She is willing to give this. If we take it we shall want\n$700 more. If you can do anything, in God\u2019s name do it and save the\nchild.\n\n                                                \u201cG. FAULKNER BLAKE.\u201d\n\nIn some way, the letters do not tell us how, the difficulties were\novercome. The permission of the joint owners of this flaxen-haired girl\nwas obtained, bonds were given to the railroads as well as the owners to\nsecure them from loss in case this property should not be returned, and\nthe child was brought to the auction-block of Plymouth pulpit and was\nbought for liberty.\n\nThe following is Mr. Beecher\u2019s farther account of this matter:\n\n\u201cBefore the passage of the Red Sea, before the escape of the Israelites\n(in this country, not in Egypt), I was accustomed, from time to time, to\nbuy slaves here; and it was thrown up that this was one of the best\nslave-auction places anywhere to be found\u2014that better prices were\nobtained for slaves that were put up for sale here than for any others.\nSome thought there was an inconsistency in it. I did not. I was always\nglad, at suitable times, as often as was proper, to bring before you\nliving men and women, and let them stand and look you in the face, that\nyou might see what sort of creatures slaves were made of. I was glad by\nevery means in my power to arouse men\u2019s feelings against the abomination\nof slavery, which I hated with an unutterable hatred, and which I hate\nstill in memory as much as then I hated it in substance and in fact.\n\n[Illustration: Pinky\u2019s Freedom-Ring.]\n\n\u201cWell, at one time there was a girl named \u2018Pink,\u2019 or \u2018Pinky,\u2019 brought\nhere. She came through the agency of G. Faulkner Blake, a brother of one\nof our own members. He was studying in the Episcopal Seminary at\nAlexandria, I believe. He learned from her old grandmother that \u2018Pinky,\u2019\nwho was too fair and beautiful a child for her own good, was to be taken\naway from the grandmother and sent South.\n\n\u201cTo make a long story short, those interested in the girl wrote me to\nsee if I could purchase her. I replied, \u2018I cannot unless you send her\nNorth\u2019; and there was trouble in bringing her here. I wrote that I would\nbe responsible for her, and that she would be lawfully purchased or sent\nback.\n\n\u201cI remember that the pen-keeper paid me a compliment which I shall never\nforget, by saying that if Henry Ward Beecher had given his word he\nconsidered it better than a bond. So she was brought here and placed\nupon this platform; and the rain never fell faster than the tears fell\nfrom many of you that were here. The scene was one of intense\nenthusiasm. The child was bought, and overbought. The collection that\nwas taken on the spot was enough, and more than enough, to purchase her.\nIt so happened (it is not wrong to mention now) that a lady known to\nliterary fame as Miss Rose Terry was present; and as, like many others,\nshe had not with her as much money as she wanted to give, she took a\nring off from her hand and threw it into the contribution-box. That ring\nI took and put on the child\u2019s hand, and said to her, \u2018Now remember that\nthis is your freedom-ring.\u2019 Her expression, as she stood and looked at\nit for a moment, was pleasing to behold; and Eastman Johnson, the\nartist, was so much interested in the occurrence that he determined to\nrepresent it on canvas, and he painted her looking at her freedom-ring;\nand I have a transcript of the picture now at my house in the parlor,\nand any of you can see it by asking.\n\n\u201cSo the girl was redeemed. She went back South after her redemption; but\nshe was in the North for a time and received some rudiments of\neducation. At length I lost sight of her until 1864, I think, when she\nwas at Chief-Justice Chase\u2019s, and I received word that she wished to see\nme.\n\n\u201cIt seems that \u2018Pinky\u2019 was not a good enough name for her when she was\nfree, though it was when she was a slave; so they mixed things and\ncalled her \u2018Ward,\u2019 after my name, and \u2018Rose,\u2019 after the name of this\nlady; and ever since her name has been Rose Ward\u2014a very nice name\nindeed. She then had grown to be a young woman, and was very fair. I\nsupposed she would probably live and die in labor to support herself and\nher grandmother, who was becoming infirm; but it seems that she has\nshown uncommon intelligence, and has manifested a very earnest desire to\nbecome a laborer for her people, and she is to be educated and to become\na teacher and missionary among them.\n\n\u201cNow, it suits me exactly to have this child brought out of slavery,\nredeemed on this platform, and grow up and develop a Christian\ndisposition, and go back and labor for her people. She does not know\nanything about it, but if we can raise $150 she shall have a year\u2019s\nschooling in the Lincoln University at Washington. It seems to me as\nthough there was poetic justice and fitness in it. As you redeemed her\nin the first instance from slavery, in the second instance you must\nredeem her from ignorance by contributing the amount necessary to send\nher a year to that university.\u201c And it was done.\n\nAn account of another is found in the weekly press:\n\n\u201dSLAVE MADE FREE IN PLYMOUTH CHURCH, JUNE 1, 1856.\u2014\n\n\u201cThere was never a more thrilling exemplification of Gospel principles\nthan last Sabbath morning, June 1, in Rev. H. W. Beecher\u2019s church,\nBrooklyn. Mr. Beecher preached from Luke x. 27.\n\n\u201cJust after announcing the last hymn he stepped to the platform and\nsaid: \u2018I am about to do a thing which I am not wont to do, which I have\nnever done before upon this day; and, in order that you may have no\nscruples about it, I will preface it by reading what the Lord Jesus\nChrist says of the Sabbath and its duties: \u201cAnd it came to pass also on\nanother Sabbath that He entered into the synagogue and taught: and there\nwas a man whose right hand was withered.... And He said to the man which\nhad the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he\narose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one\nthing: Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to\nsave life, or to destroy it? And looking around about upon them all, He\nsaid unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so; and his hand\nwas restored whole as the other.\u201d\n\n\u201c\u2018Some two weeks since I had a letter from Washington informing me that\na young woman had been sold by her own father to go South\u2014for what\npurpose you can imagine when you see her. She was purchased by a\nslave-trader for $1,200; and he, knowing her previous character and the\ncircumstances of the case, was so moved with compassion that he offered\nto give her an opportunity to purchase her freedom. He himself gave\ntowards it $100, and persuaded a friend and another slave-trader to give\neach $100 more. So much of good is there in the lowest of men! He\nallowed her to go to Washington to solicit aid from the Free-State men\nthere, and she succeeded in obtaining $400 more. I was then applied to,\nto know if we would do anything to raise the remaining $500. I answered\nwe would do nothing unless the woman could come here. After much\nhesitation on the part of her master she was allowed to visit New York,\ngiving her word of honor that she would return to Richmond if the money\nwere not raised\u2019; and, going to the platform stairs, \u2018Come up here,\nSarah, and let us all see you,\u2019 said he.\n\n\u201cA young woman rose from an adjacent seat, and, ascending the steps,\nsank down, embarrassed and apparently overcome by her feelings, in the\nnearest chair. She was of medium size and neatly dressed. The white\nblood of her father might be traced in her regular features and high,\nthoughtful brow, while her complexion and wavy hair betrayed her slave\nmother. \u2018And this,\u2019 said Mr. Beecher, \u2018is a marketable commodity. Such\nas she are put into one balance and silver into the other. She is now\nlegally free, but she is bound by a moral obligation which is stronger\nthan any law. I reverence woman. For the sake of the love I bore my\nmother I hold her sacred, even in the lowest position, and will use\nevery means in my power for her uplifting. What will you do now? May she\nread her liberty in your eyes? Shall she go out free? Christ stretched\nforth His hand and the sick were restored to health; will you stretch\nforth your hands and give her that without which life is of little\nworth? Let the plates be passed and we will see!\u2019 There was hardly a dry\neye in the church; and amidst tears and earnest lookings at the poor\nwoman, who sat with downcast eyes, the plates went around. Every purse\nwas in requisition, and as the bills were thrown down Mr. Beecher said:\n\u2018I see the plates are heaping up. Remember every dollar you give is the\nstep of a weary pilgrim toward liberty, and that Christ has said:\n\u201cInasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these ye have done\nit unto Me!\u201d\u2019 At this Mr. Lewis Tappan rose and said, \u2018There need be no\nanxiety about the matter; some gentlemen had just now pledged themselves\nto make up the deficiency, whatever it might be.\u2019\n\n\u201cThen she was free! And when Mr. Beecher told her so and announced it\nto the great congregation, there was an involuntary burst of applause.\nIt was in the church, upon the Sabbath day, but it was no\ndesecration\u2014rather it was echoed by richer acclamation in heaven! As\nit subsided Mr. Beecher said: \u2018When the old Jews went up to their\nsolemn feasts they made the mountains round about Jerusalem ring with\ntheir shouts. I do not approve of an unholy clapping in the house of\nGod, but when a good deed is well done it is not wrong to give an\noutward expression of our joy....\u2019\n\n\u201cHe then read the closing hymn, saying, as he handed her the book, \u2018We\nshall sing this hymn as we never have sung a hymn before, and she will\nsing it too.\u2019 This was the hymn:\n\n                  \u201c\u2018Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?\n                    Behold my heart and see;\n                  And turn the dearest idol out\n                    That dares to rival Thee.\u2019\n\n                    .    .    .    .    .    .\n\n                  \u201c\u2018Hast Thou a lamb in all Thy flock\n                    I would disdain to feed?\n                  Hast Thou a foe before whose face\n                    I fear Thy cause to plead?\u2019\n\n                    .    .    .    .    .    .\n\n\u201cThe blessing was pronounced and the meeting was over; but many lingered\nto know the amount of the contribution, and when it was found that $783\nhad been raised, so that not only she but her child of two years old\ncould be redeemed, the applause burst forth anew.\n\n\u201cIn the plates were several articles of jewelry, thrown in by those who\nhad no money with them or were unable to give anything else.\n\n\u201cThus may Plymouth Church be consecrated. Verily \u2018it is lawful to do\ngood on the Sabbath day.\u2019\u201d\n\nA handful of photographs of children, white and beautiful, who had been\nset free, have come to my hand with the above letters. Having to do with\nwhite-faced, flaxen-haired children born under the curse of slavery;\nwith mothers carrying their little account-books from house to house,\ngathering funds wherewith to accomplish the apparently hopeless task of\nfirst finding their children who had been swept away from them in the\nblack maelstrom of slavery, and then of purchasing them; of grandmothers\nwho wept for joy at the prospect of saving their grandchildren, and\nwillingly surrendered all the money which they had laid aside for their\nold age if it could be accomplished, would make a man tender toward the\nvictims and hard against the system which caused their trouble.\n\nThrough this course of training he walked in these years, his heart now\ndissolved in tears and now hot with righteous indignation. No\ncompromise, no surrender, no betrayal, no yielding, but the destruction\nof slavery and the salvation of the Union.\n\nThe Kansas and Nebraska troubles had resulted in more than establishing\ncertain theories or in deciding the status of portions of our territory.\nIt had intensified the feeling in both sections of our country, and men\nwere being irreconcilably divided upon the subject of slavery. Out of\nthese troublous times sprang John Brown, originally a farmer, born in\nthe northern part of Connecticut, and emigrating to Ohio when a child.\nIn 1854 his four elder sons migrated to Kansas, joining with the\nthousands from the North to make that a free State and to secure homes\nfor themselves and their families. Plundered and harassed, they wrote to\ntheir father to procure arms. To make sure that they should get these he\nwent with them. This was his introduction into Kansas. We have no design\nof following out his history in detail, but only claim that his\nfanatical zeal and his unreasonable expectations were the product of the\ntimes in which he lived and the experiences which he suffered, acting\nupon a temperament peculiarly unselfish, heroic, and religious. Enough\nfor us is it to know that his course led him, with an army of sixteen\nmen, to the capture of Harper\u2019s Ferry and to a conflict with the whole\nState of Virginia, in fact with the power of the whole United States\ngovernment, and ultimately to the scaffold. His courage, his calmness,\nhis undoubting faith in the future deliverance of the slaves, crowned by\nhis heroic death, made his name the war-cry of the future legions of the\nloyal States, who sang as they marched:\n\n           \u201cJohn Brown\u2019s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,\n           John Brown\u2019s body lies a-mouldering in the grave,\n               But his soul is marching on.\u201d\n\nThe attack on Harper\u2019s Ferry was made October 17. On Sunday evening,\nOctober 30, Henry Ward Beecher preached upon \u201cThe Harper\u2019s Ferry\nTragedy,\u201d and gives his judgment of the principal actor in the following\nlanguage:\n\n\u201cAn old man, kind at heart, industrious, peaceful, went forth with a\nlarge family of children, to seek a new home in Kansas. That infant\ncolony held thousands of souls as noble as liberty ever inspired or\nreligion enriched. A great scowling slave State, its nearest neighbor,\nsought to tread down this liberty-loving colony and to dragoon slavery\ninto it by force of arms. The armed citizens of another State crossed\nthe State lines, destroyed the freedom of the ballot-box, prevented a\nfair expression of public sentiment, corruptly usurped law-making power\nand ordained by fraud laws as infamous as the sun ever saw, assaulted\nits infant settlements with armed hordes, ravaged the fields, destroyed\nharvests and herds, and carried death to a multitude of cabins. The\nUnited States government had no marines for this occasion! No Federal\ntroops were posted by cars night and day for the poor, the weak, the\ngrossly-wronged men in Kansas. There was an army there that unfurled the\nbanner of the Union, but it was on the side of the wrong-doers, not on\nthe side of the injured.\n\n\u201cIt was in this field that Brown received his impulse. A tender father,\nwhose life was in his sons\u2019 life, he saw his first-born seized like a\nfelon, chained, driven across the country, crazed by suffering and heat,\nbeaten by the officer in charge like a dog, and long lying at death\u2019s\ndoor! Another noble boy, without warning, without offence, unarmed, in\nopen day, in the midst of the city, was shot dead! No justice sought out\nthe murderers. No United States attorney was despatched in hot haste. No\nmarines or soldiers aided the wronged and weak!\n\n\u201cThe shot that struck the child\u2019s heart crazed the father\u2019s brain.\nRevolving his wrongs and nursing his hatred of that deadly system that\nbreeds such contempt of justice and humanity, at length his phantoms\nassume a slender form and organize such an enterprise as one might\nexpect from a man whom grief had bereft of good judgment. He goes to the\nheart of a slave State: one man\u2014and sixteen followers! He seizes two\nthousand brave Virginians and holds them in duress.\n\n\u201cWhen a great State attacked a handful of weak colonies the government\nand nation were torpid; but when seventeen men attacked a sovereign\nState, then Maryland arms, and Virginia arms, and the United States\ngovernment arms, and they three rush against seventeen men!\n\n\u201cTravellers tell us that the Geysers of Iceland\u2014those singular boiling\nsprings of the North\u2014may be transported with fury by plucking up a\nhandful of grass or turf and throwing them into the springs. The hot\nsprings of Virginia are of the same kind! A handful of men was thrown\ninto them, and what a boiling there has been!\n\n\u201cBut meanwhile no one can fail to see that this poor, child-bereft old\nman is the manliest of them all. Bold, unflinching, honest, without\ndeceit or dodge, refusing to take technical advantages of any sort, but\nopenly avowing his principles and motives, glorying in them in danger\nand death as much as when in security\u2014that wounded old father is the\nmost remarkable figure in this whole drama. The governor, the officers\nof the State, and all the attorneys are pigmies compared to him.\n\n\u201cI deplore his misfortunes. I sympathize with his sorrows. I mourn the\nhiding or obscuration of his reason. I disapprove of his mad and feeble\nschemes. I shrink from the folly of the bloody foray, and I shrink,\nlikewise, from all the anticipations of that judicial bloodshed which,\ndoubtless, ere long will follow\u2014for when was cowardice ever magnanimous?\nThey will kill the man, not for treason, but for proving them cowards!\n\n\u201cBy and by, when men look back and see without prejudice that whole\nscene, they will not be able to avoid saying: \u2018What must be the measure\nof manhood in a scene where a crazed old man stood head and shoulders\nabove those who had their whole reason? What is average citizenship when\na lunatic is a hero?\u2019\u201d\n\nHe also availed himself of this opportunity to show the wrong way and\nthe right way in our treatment of this whole question of slavery. I can\nonly mention the heads, but they so far outline his whole principle of\naction during the war that I give them that his position may be\nunderstood:\n\n\u201c1st. We have no right to treat the citizens of the South with acrimony\nand bitterness because they are involved in a system of wrong-doing.\u201d\n\n\u201c2d. The breeding of discontent among the bondmen of our land is not the\nway to help them.\u201d\n\n\u201c3d. No relief will be carried to the slaves or to the South as a body\nby any individual or organized plans to carry them off or to incite them\nto abscond.\u201d\n\nAs to the right way:\n\n\u201c1st. If we would benefit the African at the South we must begin at\nhome. No one can fail to see the inconsistency between our treatment of\nthose amongst us who are in the lower walks of life and our professions\nof sympathy for the Southern slaves. How are the free colored people\ntreated at the North? They are almost without education, with but little\nsympathy for ignorance. They are refused the common rights of\ncitizenship which the whites enjoy. They cannot even ride in the cars of\nour city railroads. They are snuffed at in the house of God, or\ntolerated with ill-disguised disgust. Can the black man be a mason in\nNew York? Let him be employed as a journeyman, and every Irish lover of\nliberty that carries the hod or trowel would leave at once or compel him\nto leave! Can the black man be a carpenter? There is scarcely a\ncarpenter\u2019s shop in New York in which a journeyman would continue to\nwork if a black man were employed in it. Can the black man compete in\nthe common industries of life? There is scarcely one in which he can\nengage. He is crowded down, down, down, through the most menial\ncallings, to the bottom of society. We tax them, and then refuse to\nallow their children to go to our public schools. We tax them, and then\nrefuse to sit by them in God\u2019s house. We heap upon them moral obloquy\nmore atrocious than that which the master heaps upon the slave.\u201d\n\n\u201c2d. We must quicken all the springs of feeling in the free States in\nbehalf of human liberty, and create a public sentiment based upon truth\nand true manhood.\u201d\n\n\u201c3d. By all the ways consistent with a fearless assertion of truth, we\nmust maintain sympathy and kindness toward the South. If, in view of the\nwrongs of slavery, you say that you do not care for the master but only\nthe slave, I reply that you _should_ care for both master _and_ slave!\nIf _you_ do not care for the fate of the wrong-doing white man, _I_ do\ncare for the fate of the wrong-doing white man! But even though your\nsympathy were only for the slave, then for his sake you ought to set\nyour face against, and discountenance anything like, an insurrectionary\nspirit.\u201d\n\n\u201c4th. We are to leave no pains untaken, through the Christian conscience\nof the South, to give to the slave himself a higher moral status.\u201d\n\n\u201c5th. The few virtues which shall lead inevitably to emancipation are to\nbe established and insisted upon\u2014the right of chastity in the woman,\nunblemished household love, and the right of parents to their children.\nThe moment these three stand secure, that moment slavery will have its\ndeath-blow struck.\u201d\n\n\u201c6th. And, lastly, among the means to be employed for promoting the\nliberty of the slave we must not fail to include the power of true\nChristian prayer. When slavery shall cease it will be by such\ninstruments and influences that shall exhibit God\u2019s hand and heart in\nthe work. May He, in His own way and time, speed the day!\u201d\n\nWith such radical yet conservative and kindly speech, bringing home to\nhis audience their own deficiencies and pointing out the way that must\nbe taken, did he temper and direct the hot passion of those fiery days.\n\nThe heat occasioned by the John Brown raid in the fall of 1859 was not\ncooled by the after-events that occurred both in and out of Congress\nduring the following winter; and the country came to nominating its\ncandidates in 1860 in a state of the most intense feeling. Four parties\nwere in the field, each representing as its essential characteristic\nsome phase of feeling towards slavery. Among them stood the Republican\nparty, with a well-defined purpose, clearly understood and openly\ndeclared\u2014no interference with and no extension of slavery. Abraham\nLincoln was its nominee for President. Mr. Beecher had met him in 1859\nwhen he came to New York to deliver his speech at Cooper Institute, and,\nwith his quick perception of the ability of men, and already well\nacquainted with his record, had placed confidence in this tall, gaunt\nWesterner from the first. He had doubted the policy of nominating Mr.\nSeward, and one of his first interviews with a member of the New York\ndelegation, who had labored earnestly but vainly for his nomination, is\nthus described: \u201cWith a laugh that was almost a roar he burst into the\neditorial room where Mr. Raymond sat, his chair tilted upon its two fore\nlegs, and, grasping him cordially, heartily, vigorously, said: \u2018Young\nman, I know the people of this country at heart better than you do. Your\nfriend Seward has too much head and too little heart to succeed in any\nsuch crisis as this.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018And yours,\u2019 replied Mr. Raymond, \u2018I fear, has too much heart and too\nlittle head for such a crisis as will assuredly be precipitated.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Trust, then,\u2019 replied Mr. Beecher, \u2018in God, and keep your powder\ndry.\u2019\u201d\n\nFor the election of their nominee Mr. Beecher labored with pen and voice\nto the utmost of his ability. His sermons Sunday evenings often had\nreference to the great questions of the day. His lectures of this period\nwere little more than political addresses, and by his Star Papers in the\n_Independent_, which were largely copied in other papers, he made his\nviews known to the reading public throughout the land. Believing that\nthe election of Abraham Lincoln was of the utmost importance, he gave\nhimself unreservedly to make it an accomplished fact, and made himself\nas obnoxious to the timid and time-serving as he was admirable to the\nopposite party. Of this period he says: \u201cWe next had to flounder through\nthe quicksands of four infamous years under President Buchanan, in which\nsenators sworn to the Constitution were plotting to destroy that\nConstitution; in which the members of the Cabinet, who drew their pay\nmonth by month, used their official position, by breach of public trust\nand oath of allegiance, to steal arms, to prepare fortifications, and\nmake ready disruption and war. The most astounding spectacle the world\never saw was then witnessed\u2014a great people paying men to sit in the\nplaces of power and offices of trust to betray them.\u201d\n\nMost portentous events followed the election. State after State in the\nSouth called their conventions and passed decrees of secession, in every\ncase, except in South Carolina, by the jugglery of political leaders, in\nspite of the popular vote. Representatives withdrew from the House,\nsenators from the Senate, and members from the Cabinet, and flocked to\nMontgomery, Ga., where a rebel government was being organized. The most\nspecious arguments were urged in justification of secession, were\nsubstantially admitted even by so excellent an authority as the New York\n_Tribune_, and the right to coerce a sovereign State, as well as the\nexpediency of the attempt, was denied by a large portion of the Northern\npress. Preparations to make secession successful, if resisted, were made\nopenly, while the denial of the right to prevent the same tied the hands\nof the government and left it powerless in the toils of its enemies. In\nthe meantime different schemes of conciliation, all amounting to some\nspecies of concession or compromise, were advanced both in and out of\nCongress, and urged to the very utmost possible limit of forbearance and\nkindness. Against \u201cpeace at any price\u201d and all patched-up compromises\nMr. Beecher, together with a multitude of others of like feeling at the\nNorth, threw his influence.\n\nHis Thanksgiving sermon this year was upon this topic: \u201cAgainst a\nCompromise of Principle.\u201d He recounts the common but abundant blessings\nof the year, and gathers assurance that they are from God on the\nfollowing testimony.\n\n\u201cAll the sons of God rejoice and all good men rejoice. It needs but one\nelement to complete the satisfaction. If we could be sure that this is\nGod\u2019s mercy, meant for good and tending thereto, we should have a full\ncup to-day. That satisfaction is not denied us. The Mayor of New York,\nin a public proclamation, in view of this prodigal year that has heaped\nthe poor man\u2019s house with abundance, is pleased to say that there is no\noccasion apparent to him for thanksgiving. We can ask no more. When bad\nmen grieve at the state of public affairs, good men should rejoice. When\ninfamous men keep fast, righteous men should have thanksgiving. God\nreigns and the devil trembles. Amen. Let us rejoice!\u201d\n\nHe then describes the true nature of the compromise that is asked, and\nshows the impossibility of making any that shall be satisfactory to\neither side:\n\n\u201cWe are told that Satan appears under two forms\u2014that when he has a good,\nfair field he is out like a lion, roaring and seeking whom he may\ndevour; but that when he can do nothing more in that way he is a serpent\nand sneaks in the grass. And so it is slavery open, bold, roaring,\naggressive, or it is slavery sneaking in the grass and calling itself\ncompromise. It is the same devil under either name. If by compromise is\nonly meant forbearance, kindness, well-wishing, conciliation, fidelity\nto agreements, a concession in things, not principles, why then we\nbelieve in compromise, only that is not compromise, interpreted by the\nfacts of our past history.\n\n\u201cWe honestly wish no harm to the South or its people; we honestly wish\nthem all benefit. We will defend her coast; we will guard her inland\nborder from all vexations from without; and in good faith, in earnest\nfriendship, in fealty to the Constitution, and in fellowship with the\nStates, we will, and with growing earnestness to the end, fulfil every\njust duty, every honorable agreement, and every generous act within the\nlimits of truth and honor; all that and no more\u2014_no more_ though the\nheavens fall; _no more_ if States unclasp their hands; _no more_ if they\nraise up violence against us\u2014NO MORE! _We have gone to the end._\u201d\n\nHe did not agree with Mr. Lincoln in his hope that the South would be\nsatisfied by the careful explanations given in his inaugural, nor with\nMr. Seward in his expectation that the difficulty would be settled in\nninety days; but he did believe with all his heart that God was in the\nwork, and that the trouble would be settled some day, and that it would\nbe settled right. In the turmoil of that turbulent time his mind was\nkept in perfect peace, because it was stayed on God.\n\nThe Republican party was charged with having brought about this unhappy\nstate of the country. This charge he answers in a sermon preached\nJanuary 4, 1861, the day appointed by President Buchanan for Fasting and\nPrayer:\n\n\u201cWhat is the errand of this day? Why are we observing a sad Sabbath? a\nday of humiliation? a day of supplication? It is for the strangest\nreason the world ever heard. It is because the spirit of liberty has so\nincreased and strengthened among us that the government is in danger of\nbeing overthrown! There never before was such an occasion for fasting,\nhumiliation, and prayer! Other nations have gone through revolutions for\ntheir liberties; we are on the eve of a revolution to put down liberty!\nOther people have thrown off their governments because too oppressive;\nours is to be destroyed, if at all, because it is too full of liberty,\ntoo full of freedom. There never was such an event before in history....\nMeanwhile we have had no one to stand up for order. Those who should\nhave spoken in decisive authority have been\u2014_afraid_! Severer words have\nbeen used; it is enough for me to say only that in a time when God, and\nprovidence, and patriotism, and humanity demanded courage, they had no\nresponse but fear. The heart has almost ceased to beat, and this\ngovernment is like to die for want of pulsations at the centre. While\nthe most humiliating fear paralyzes one part of the government, the most\nwicked treachery is found in other parts of it.\u201d\n\nSo closes in shame and fear the second era of the great conflict.\n\n\u201cBuchanan\u2019s Fast\u201d marks the lowest point of degradation the government\nof the United States ever reached\u2014a point of abject fear of the\nconsequences of its own sins, of feeble persistence in them, and of\ncowardice in applying the remedy for its trouble.\n\nInstead of abandoning its policy of falsehood and injustice, and making\na manly use of the means still at hand to avert the threatening dangers,\nit held to its course, declared that it could do nothing more under the\nConstitution than to advise and remonstrate with treason, and made a\nfrantic appeal to the Christians of the land to plead with Jehovah to\nsave it from the inevitable consequences of its folly and wickedness.\n\nIt was a failure. The Call of the President to his kind of Fast awakened\nlittle response from the people. Another Proclamation was ringing in\ntheir ears. It was that of the old prophet uttered centuries before. \u201cIs\nnot this the Fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,\nto undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye\nbreak every yoke?\u201d\n\nThis Fast of the Lord was rapidly approaching, and for it the people\nwere getting ready.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XVI.\n\nWar Begun\u2014Firing upon Fort Sumter\u2014\u201cThe American Eagle as you want\n    it\u201d\u2014Death of Col. Ellsworth\u2014Equips his Sons\u2014Personal Feeling\n    yields to Patriotism\u2014His House a Store-House of Military\n    Supplies\u2014Sends a Regiment as his Substitute\u2014Our National Flag\u2014The\n    Camp, its Dangers and Duties\u2014Bull Run\u2014Becomes Editor of the\n    _Independent_\u2014Salutatory\u2014The _Trent_ Affair\u2014Fight, Tax\u2014Soldiers or\n    Ferrets\u2014Characteristics as an Editor\u2014One Nation, one Constitution,\n    one Starry Banner\u2014McClellan Safe, and Richmond too\u2014Mildly Carrying\n    on War\u2014The Root of the Matter\u2014The only Ground\u2014A Queer\n    Pulpit\u2014President\u2019s Proclamation of Emancipation\u2014Let come what\n    will\u2014Close of the Third Era.\n\n\nFor five months the daily papers had borne for their prominent\nheadlines, \u201cThe National Crisis,\u201d \u201cPro-Slavery Rebellion,\u201d \u201cPro-Slavery\nRevolution,\u201d \u201cThe War-Cloud.\u201d At length the issue of April 12, 1861, was\nheaded, \u201cThe War Commenced: The first Gun fired by Fort Moultrie against\nFort Sumter\u201d; the next day, \u201cFort Sumter Fallen.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher was lecturing in Cincinnati when the tidings came North of\nthe bombardment of Fort Sumter. The committee who had charge of the\nlecture were alarmed, and, remembering the old pro-slavery riots of\nthirty years before, declared that it would be unsafe for him to deliver\nhis lecture. He told them that to give that lecture was his object in\ncoming to Cincinnati, and do it he should; if not in a hall, then on the\npublic street. With many misgivings on their part, he was permitted to\ngo ahead, but so great was the fear of a riot that few attended. That\nnight he turned his steps homeward. Eager to learn his opinion of the\nmatter, we met him on the doorsteps. His oldest son, having left his\nposition up the river, had stopped at a recruiting station on Broadway,\nalready opened, and enlisted, and had then come home. Fearing something\nof the kind, the mother gave strict commands that he should not leave\nthe house until his father\u2019s return\u2014a command which he was the more\nready to obey since the business had already been attended to. Naturally\nhe felt some little solicitude as to what his father should say, and his\nfirst words were: \u201cFather, may I enlist?\u201d and was answered: \u201cIf you\ndon\u2019t I\u2019ll disown you.\u201d\n\nThe next day was Sunday. The report of his sermon was headed thus:\n\u201cHenry Ward Beecher on the Crisis: \u2018What will you do, stand still or go\nforward?\u2019\n\n\u201cThe good people of Brooklyn have shared with us all the fears and\nanxiety of the past weeks. Yesterday there was, if possible, a more\ndense mass of human beings than usual packed within the walls of\nPlymouth Church, and a more than ordinary curiosity on the part of\nstrangers, and a more than customary solemnity pervading the\ncongregation. It was manifestly the belief of all there that the pastor\nwould not fail to improve the occasion by preaching to the people of\nthis age upon the duties of the present trying hour, and that he would\ndeal with so grand a subject in a manner befitting its character, its\nimportance, and its universal occupation of the American mind. Nor were\nthey disappointed. Mr. Beecher delivered a sermon from the text, \u2018Speak\nto the children of Israel that they go forward.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe above appeared in one of the daily papers. We have not time to give\nthe synopsis of the reporter. The sermon was a careful review of the\npresent condition of affairs and a sober counting the cost of both\nadvance and retreat.\n\n\u201cPeace can be had by two-thirds of the nation yielding to the one-third;\nby legalizing the right of any discontented community to rebel; by\nchanging our charter of universal freedom into a charter of deliberate\noppression; by becoming partners in slavery and ratifying this gigantic\nevil; by surrendering all right of discussion, of debate or criticism.\nOn these terms,\u201d he said, \u201cwe may have peace.\n\n\u201cYou can have your American eagle as you want it. If, with the South,\nyou will strike out his eyes, then you shall stand well with Mr. Davis\nand Mr. Stephens, of the Confederate States; if, with the Christians of\nthe South, you will pluck off his wings, you shall stand well with the\nSouthern churches; and if, with the new peacemakers that have risen up\nin the North, you will pull out his tail-feathers, you shall stand well\nwith the Society for the Promotion of National Unity! But when you have\nstricken out his eyes, so that he can no longer see; when you have\nplucked off his wings, so that he can no longer fly; and when you have\npulled out his guiding tail-feathers, so that he can no longer steer\nhimself, but rolls in the dirt, a mere buzzard\u2014then will he be worth\npreserving? Such an eagle it is that they mean to depict upon the banner\nof America.\n\n\u201d... So far as I myself am concerned, I utterly abhor peace on any such\ngrounds. Give me war redder than blood and fiercer than fire, if this\nterrific infliction is necessary that I may maintain my faith in God, in\nhuman liberty, my faith of the fathers in the instruments of liberty, my\nfaith in this land as the appointed abode and chosen refuge of liberty\nfor all the earth! War is terrible, but that abyss of ignominy is yet\nmore terrible!\u201c\n\nHe then pointed out the steps that must be taken in the going forward.\nThey were, deepening and cleansing our convictions, making them more\nearnest and religious; drawing the lines; cherishing feelings of\nbenevolence, and aiming at a peace built on foundations of God\u2019s\nimmutable truth, so solid that nothing can reach to unsettle it.\n\nTo show the spirit which he cherished in those days, we cannot do better\nthan give one of the familiar lecture-room discussions which were so\nfrequent between him and his people. It was immediately after the death\nof Colonel Ellsworth, which took place May 21, 1861:\n\n\u201d_Ques._ Will you please explain one point? I am so much a natural man\nas not to be able to obey the injunction which calls upon me to love my\nenemies; and when I stand on Broadway in New York, and see men in\nregiments which are bound for the field of battle, having been taken\nfrom their homes, their wives, their children, and all that is dear to\nthem on earth, by the conduct of miscreants, I cannot understand how you\ncan have such feelings as you express. I wish you would speak on that\nsubject.\u201d\n\n\u201cI have no doubt that the brother feels just as he says he does, and I\nhave no doubt that I do not feel a bit so. When I consider the interests\nof God\u2019s advancing kingdom of justice, and judgment, and mercy, and\npurity, and truth, and liberty, I think that all the things in the earth\nare of no value at all in the comparison, and that the earth might melt\nwith fervent heat, the elements dissolve, and the globe vanish away\nrather than that this kingdom should not prevail. \u2018Let God be true, but\nevery man a liar.\u2019 Let the nations perish, let everything go, but let\nthe eternal treasures of God\u2014truth, liberty, mercy, judgment, and\npurity\u2014be preserved. I feel lifted up to a sovereign height of\ninspiration when I conceive of the majesty of these treasures, effluent\nfrom the heart of God, which He is seeking to embody in our time, in our\nearth, in this nation. Therefore, when I see justice put down I feel\nlike a lion. When I see a great moral principle overborne there are no\nbounds to my indignation. When I see a great humanity trodden under foot\nI long to be a champion for it. And when I look on the face of an\nignorant, erring, wicked multitude, I think of a great many things\nbesides....\n\n\u201cFor the sake of these great principles I would give my life as quick as\nI would pour out a glass of water; or I will do what is harder than\nthat\u2014I will keep it and use it for forty years, if God spares it,\nincreasing its toil every year. I will make any sacrifice or perform any\nlabor for the sake of a moral principle. But when I look at the South,\nother feelings besides those of vengeance are excited in me. Every one\nof those traitors is as wicked as you think, and more. The Floyds, the\nDavises, the Toombses, the Rhetts, and all such as they, are more wicked\nthan we know; and yet the Lord Jesus Christ is the Saviour held up for\nevery such one. They are all immortal, they are all, like myself,\npilgrims toward the bourne of the eternal. And when I think how many\nignorant creatures are led by those base men to do wicked things, half\nof the wickedness of which they do not know, I feel compassion for them\nand am sorry for them. If they array themselves against justice it is\nnecessary that they should be overborne; but not one blow more than is\nnecessary for the defence of the principle assailed should be struck. We\nare not authorized to inflict vengeance. \u2018Vengeance is mine, I will\nrepay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he\nthirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on\nhis head.\u2019 About the use of every single sword and spear and ball\nneedful to assert a divine principle there should be no squeamishness. I\nam for war just so far as it is necessary to vindicate a great moral\ntruth. But one particle of violence beyond that is a flagrant treason\nagainst the law of love. And I can say to-night that I would go to war\nwith every State in the Southern Confederacy, if called of God to join\nthe army, and would hold them to the conflict till the cause of right\nwas vindicated; and that I could, at the same time, pray for those\nmisguided men as easily as to-night I can pray for my own babes. I am as\nsorry for them as for any set of men in the world. I do not think I\nutter a prayer on any morning that I do not pray for them, and that God\ndoes not see my feeling of tenderness and sorrow toward them. And that\nis not all. I regard them as citizens yet. I love this whole country. I\nlove its past and its prospective history. God do so to me, and more\nalso, if I ever cease to feel for them all, misguided though they be, as\nanxiously as for my own kin and brethren. We cannot afford to be very\ncritical with wickedness.\n\n\u201cHowever, there are some difficulties involved in this question. Colonel\nEllsworth, who has just been murdered by one of these \u2018miscreants\u2019 of\nwhom you speak, I knew well. I was thinking of my own sensations when I\nwalked over from New York after hearing the sad news. Why, I was forty\nfeet high! I was scared, I grew so fast. I walked so lordly that every\nstep seemed to have the weight of a mountain; yet I did not feel the\ntouch of the earth. For one hour I think I had enough volume of feeling\nto have swept away a continent. I was almost frightened at the turbulent\nand swelling tide within me, and I said: \u2018Suppose my Master should come\nand say: My child, what are you doing with such feelings? Where is My\nteaching? What are you taking on yourself My supreme attribute for?\n\u201cVengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.\u201d\u2019 Is it not charming\nhow these texts will exorcise the devil? I put that passage on my head\nas a crown, and I have felt as peaceful as a lamb ever since. And\nalthough it was very base and wicked for that man to murder Colonel\nEllsworth as he did, I can say that had he not expiated his crime, and\nhad the victim been my brother, I could still have forgiven him and\nprayed for him.\n\n\u201cNow, my brethren, I am going to fight this battle right straight\nthrough from beginning to end, and not lose my Christian feelings\neither. I am going to stick close to my Saviour. And, with regard to the\npast, I am not sorry for one sermon that I have preached among you, or\nthat I have preached during the last twenty years of my life. If the\nquestion were put to me to-night, \u2018When you look back upon your public\nlife and see what you have done to bring about the present issue, are\nyou not sorry for the ground you have taken?\u2019 I would say, _No_. I bless\nGod for every word I have spoken and every influence I have exerted in\nthat direction. Knowing all that was to be, I would do over again all\nthat I have done if the same state of things existed, only my little\nfinger should be as heavy as my loins have been.\n\n\u201cNow that the time of conflict has come, we must accept it. I mean to go\nthrough it, and you shall; and I pray God that the whole anointed Church\nat the North may, bearing the banner of Christ along with the banner of\nour country. The stars over us shall not be brighter and purer than\nthose that we carry into this very conflict. We have had examples enough\nto know that even in such a desperate case as civil war a man may be a\nChristian. I thank God that praying men have gone into the army from\nthis church. Every day and night there is a prayer-meeting in our camp,\nand there will be to the end. And I believe that among our soldiers are\nthose who, if they saw the bitterest and most blasphemous of the enemy\nsuffering and dying, would relieve their sufferings by kind offices and\nsoothe their last moments by comforting words. God grant that it may be\nso, and that, both in the service of the country and in the service of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, they may be true soldiers!\u201d\n\nIt is impossible to describe, or even, in our time, to conceive, the\nfervor of patriotism that followed the firing upon Fort Sumter.\nPatriotic meetings were held in nearly every village of the North, and\nthe raising of flag-poles with their accompanying exercises was the\norder of the day. A monster mass-meeting was held in Union Square, New\nYork, over which John A. Dix presided, and where the flag which had been\nlowered at Sumter was displayed. The attack on the Massachusetts\nregiment in Baltimore as it hastened to the defence of Washington\ndeepened and increased the excitement. The ranks of military companies\nalready organized were speedily filled, and the young men met, in most\nof our Northern cities, week by week for military drill. A squad of\nthese was formed in Brooklyn. Some fifteen of us wanted to go to the\nfront, and offered ourselves to one of the New York regiments, but the\noffer was refused with thanks. Their ranks were full and they had no\nplace for us. Hearing of this, Mr. Beecher, who took a deep interest in\nthis whole matter and used to attend our drills, proposed that two of\nus, his own son and one who expected to belong to his family, should\njoin a cavalry regiment then being enlisted in New York. He gave us each\na horse, brought us home our equipment of pistols, bowie-knives, etc.,\nand, the next day, went with us to New York to see us enlist; but the\nenlisting officer had received notice from Washington the day before to\naccept no more recruits\u2014cavalry regiments were not thought to be\nnecessary for the ninety days\u2019 struggle; and so we were refused. One of\nus went to Riker\u2019s Island, and, after a month of waiting, was able to\nget into service; the other, having just finished his theological\ncourse, and having for weeks been importuned by a church to become its\npastor, concluded that it was God\u2019s will that he should preach, left the\ncity, and went to work.\n\nThere was great variety of work to be done. No need now of efforts to\narouse the public mind\u2014the firing upon Fort Sumter had done that; no\nneed now of urging men to the front\u2014the young men of the nation had\nformed into companies and regiments faster than the government was\nwilling to accept them. Illinois asked permission to furnish all the men\nthat were required. But another work pressed upon heart and hand. Homes\nat the North were being made desolate, not only by the absence but by\nthe death of their loved ones. Tidings began to reach us of what\nafterwards seemed skirmishes, but were important battles in those\ndays\u2014Big Bethel, Newport News, and others; and the list of the dead,\nsmall to what it afterwards became, carried with it then, as always,\nsorrow and heart-break. The bodies of fallen sons and brothers, picked\nup on the battle-field or gathered from the hospitals, covered with the\nstars and stripes, were being borne through the streets of our cities on\nthe way to bereaved homes, and the people needed comforting. Then it was\nthat the words of one perfectly assured of the justice of the cause,\nthat it was of God, and that those who upheld their country\u2019s flag were\ndoing His work, and who viewed life and death as only and equally\ndesirable when they accomplished His will, rang out like the\nresurrection challenge of St. Paul: \u201cO death! where is thy sting? O\ngrave! where is thy victory?\u201d\n\nIn a sermon preached May 26, 1861, when but the first mutterings of the\nstorm had been heard and the first splashes of rain were felt, he says:\n\u201cHe whose remains are to pass to-day, amid many tears, through yonder\ncity, lived long though he died early. Why? Because he lived to a moral\npurpose. Because he has given his name to patriotism. Millions of men\nshall live four-score years and shall not leave any such memorial as he\nhas left. He had lived long enough. Any man that can give the whole\nweight of his being and his heart-life to a great truth or cause has\nlived long enough. Measure him by the higher and not by the lower\nstandard. Do not say that he has lost days, that he has lost coming\nhonors, that he lost pleasure. He lost nothing. He gained everything. He\ngained glory, and paid his life for it in such a way as to take on\nimmortality.\u201d\n\nOne very intimate with him in those days says: \u201cI do not think that he\nspent a moment in solicitude for the fate of those who were at the\nfront, not even of his own flesh and blood. Everything seemed swallowed\nup in his zeal for his country, and for her he was ready to sacrifice\neverything without complaint or hesitation.\u201d\n\n\u201cMy oldest son is in the army, and shall I read with trembling anxiety\nthe account of every battle to see if he is slain? I gave him to the\nLord, and I shall not take him back and I will not worry and fret myself\nabout him. I will trust in God though He slay not only him but me also;\nand all I have I put on the same ground\u2014I try to, sometimes not\nsucceeding and sometimes succeeding a little. My God, this Christ\nEmmanuel\u2014God with me\u2014has sustained and comforted me in care and trouble,\nand taken away my fear and put hope in its place, and I will look to Him\nstill; and if there are any here that have carried burdens, and whose\nfaces are wrinkled with care, I beseech of you to try living by faith in\na present Saviour that loves you and ordains all things, and says that\neverything shall work for your good if you love God.\u201d\n\nAmong the things that occupied his time and called forth all his\nenergies was the equipment of the Fourteenth Long Island Regiment. His\nhome at 124 Columbia Heights became a store-house of military goods and\na place of consultation for men interested in the events that were\ntaking place; Plymouth Church became a rendezvous for regiments passing\nto the front, and the church parlors a workshop where the women and\nmaidens of the church, under the direction of Mrs. Beecher, met daily to\nsew and knit and pack for the soldiers. He told Mrs. Beecher to use all\nhis salary in this direction, except such as was absolutely necessary\nfor running the household. She did this, and added to the amount by\npersonal solicitation from families and merchants, until an immense sum\nwas raised and expended.\n\nWhile many men sent single substitutes, Mr. Beecher determined to be\nrepresented in the war by a whole regiment; and so, after helping to fit\nout two regiments, he took upon himself the entire burden of equipping a\nnew one, called \u201cThe Long Island Volunteers,\u201d afterwards the\nSixty-seventh New York. This regiment would never have had any existence\nbut for the labors of Mr. and Mrs. Beecher, and the members of the\nchurch whom they interested in it. Their eldest son, Henry Barton\nBeecher, joined it and was made a lieutenant. In those days the\ngovernment had plenty of men and very little money, and therefore\ndeclined to accept this regiment for many weeks after it was organized,\nduring which time the entire expense of feeding and clothing the men was\nborne by subscriptions raised by Mr. Beecher. It was not until after the\nbattle of Bull Run, at the end of July, 1861, that the regiment was even\nin form accepted, and not until much later that it was actually mustered\ninto the national service.\n\nIn those days of multiplied and harassing labors Mr. Beecher did not\nlose his hope, his cheerfulness, nor even his mirthfulness. He had a\nrefuge to which he constantly fled when the pressure became too heavy.\nHe had also the power of seeing the humorous side of many common or even\ntragic events, and drawing from them laughter as well as tears. The\nflowers, too, and the clouds had their message for him. He kept the\nchannels of his soul wide open on every side to receive, and became a\nfountain of perpetual inspiration to others.\n\nAt this time, while the route through Baltimore was closed against our\ntroops on their way to Washington, he preached to the \u201cBrooklyn\nFourteenth,\u201d on the eve of their departure to the front, upon \u201cOur\nNational Flag.\u201d After giving the history of our banner he more\nparticularly addressed the soldiers before him:\n\n\u201cAnd now God speaks by the voice of His providence, saying, \u2018Lift again\nthat banner! Advance it full and high!\u2019 To your hands God and your\ncountry commit that imperishable trust. You go forth self-called, or\nrather called by the trust of your countrymen and by the Spirit of your\nGod, to take that trailing banner out of the dust and out of the mire,\nand lift it again where God\u2019s rains can cleanse it, and where God\u2019s free\nair can cause it to unfold and stream as it has always floated before\nthe wind. God bless the men that go forth to save from disgrace the\nAmerican flag!\n\n\u201cAccept it, then, in all its fulness of meaning. It is not a painted\nrag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the\ngovernment. It is the free people that stand in the government on the\nConstitution. Forget not what it means; and, for the sake of its ideas\nrather than its mere emblazonry, be true to your country\u2019s flag. By your\nhands lift it; but let your lifting it be no holiday display. It must be\nadvanced \u2018_because of the truth_.\u2019\n\n\u201cThat flag must go to the capital of this nation; and it must not go\nhidden, not secreted, not in a case or covering, but full high\ndisplayed, bright as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army\nwith banners! For a single week that disgraceful work, that shameful\ncircuit, may be needful; but the way from New England, the way from New\nYork, the way from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to Washington, _lies\nright through Baltimore_, and that is the way the flag must and shall\ngo! [Enthusiastic cheers.] But that flag, borne by ten thousand and\nthrice ten thousand hands, from Connecticut, from Massachusetts (God\nbless the State and all her men!), from shipbuilding Maine, from old\ngranite New Hampshire, from Vermont of Bennington and Green-Mountain-Boy\npatriotism, from Rhode Island, not behind any in zeal and patriotism,\nfrom New York, from Ohio, from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and Delaware,\nand the other loyal States\u2014that flag must be carried, bearing every one\nof its insignia, to the sound of the drum and the fife, into our\nnational capital, until Washington shall seem to be a forest in which\nevery tree supports the American banner!\n\n\u201cAnd it must not stop there. The country does not belong to us from the\nLakes only to Washington, but from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The\nflag must go on. The land of Washington shall see Washington\u2019s flag\nagain. The land that sits in darkness, and in which the people see no\nlight, shall yet see light dawn and liberty flash from the old American\nbanner! It must see Charleston again, and float again over every fort in\nCharleston harbor. It must go further, to the Alligator State, and stand\nthere again. And sweeping up through all plantations and over all fields\nof sugar and rice and tobacco, and every other thing, it must be found\nin every State till you touch the Mississippi; and, bathing in its\nwaters, it must go across and fill Texas with its sacred light. Nor must\nit stop when it floats over every one of the States. That flag must\nstand, bearing its whole historic spirit and original meaning, in every\nTerritory of this nation!\u201d\n\nOther sermons of similar character followed. \u201cThe Camp, its Dangers and\nDuties,\u201d was one:\n\n\u201cFor any one that is going forth to meet the temptations of camp life I\nhad almost said I would sum up in one single word of remembrance a\ntalisman of safety\u2014temperance, absolute temperance.... The men that are\ndangerous in camps are not bloated drunkards, shameless gamblers, and\nsuch as they. But an accomplished officer, a brilliant fellow, who knows\nthe world, who is gentle in language, who understands all the etiquettes\nof society, who is fearless of God, who believes nothing in religion,\nwho does not hesitate, with wit and humor, to jeer at sacred things, who\ntakes an infernal pleasure in winding around his finger the young about\nhim, who is polished and wicked, and walks as an angel of light to tempt\nhis fellow-men, as Satan did to tempt our first parents\u2014if there be in\ncamp such a one, he is the dangerous man.\n\n\u201cThere ought to be a bold stand taken in favor of virtue by the good in\neach one of the various companies. If there is not such a stand taken in\nCompany C of the Fourteenth Regiment, I shall be ashamed of my\npreaching.\u201d\n\nHe was constantly invited to lecture, and almost any sum was offered to\nsecure his services. These, as we may well conceive, were mostly\npatriotic addresses upon the great subjects that were then burning in\nthe minds of the American people.\n\nWe remember well his having a course at Providence, Rhode Island, the\nthird of which was delivered Monday, after the heavy work of the day\nprevious, and when he took the train he had not touched pen to paper nor\ngiven it a moment\u2019s thought; but his mind and heart were fully awake,\nand the resources of a lifetime of thought and labor were at his\ncommand.\n\nThe battle of Bull Run, which was fought in July, as is well known, was\nthe first battle of the war of really national importance. The result\nwas sobering and humiliating to the North. On the following Sunday\nevening Mr. Beecher preached a sermon upon \u201cGod in National Affairs.\u201d\nAfter tracing His way in the history of the nation, he says:\n\n\u201cThe battle is well begun. If I consult my pride, if I consult my\nvanity, I fain would never have seen our banners dip; and yet, if I\nconsult a larger wisdom, I know not but that the best thing that can\nbefall us is that humiliation which shall teach us not to rely so much\non words and cheers and newspaper campaigns. A defeat just sufficient to\nmake us feel that we must fall upon the interior stores of manhood, that\nwe must have faith in God, that we must set aside everything but a\nsolemn purpose and an earnest consecration of ourselves to this work\nwhich God has given us to do\u2014such a defeat cannot but be beneficial.\u201d\n\nAnd so it proved. The battle of Bull Run awoke the North from its dream\nof easy conquest, and thenceforth she took up the war in earnest.\n\nIn his Thanksgiving sermon in November of that year, upon \u201cModes and\nDuties of Emancipation,\u201d he shows the conservatism of his belief and his\nconfidence in the national authority if rightly used\u2014\u201cThis conflict must\nbe carried on through our institutions, not over them\u201d\u2014and his view of\nthe great forces engaged\u2014\u201cWhile preparations for this conflict have been\ngoing on God has poured money into our coffers and taken it away from\nthose who might use it to our harm. He is holding back France and\nEngland, and saying to all nations, \u2018Appoint the bounds! Let none enter\nthe lists to interfere while those gigantic warriors battle for victory!\nLiberty and God, and slavery and the devil, stand over against each\nother, and let no man put hand or foot into the ring till they have done\nbattle unto death!\u2019 Amen! Even so, Lord Almighty. It is Thy decree, and\nit shall stand! And when the victory shall come, not unto us, not unto\nus, but\u2014in the voice of thrice ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,\nof ransomed ones, mingled with Thine earthly children\u2019s gladness\u2014unto\nThee shall be the praise and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.\u201d\n\nDuring all these years, almost from the time he came to Brooklyn, Mr.\nBeecher had been fortunate in having a channel of communication with the\npublic, in general so in harmony with his own views and spirit as the\nNew York _Independent_. In its second number appears an extract from a\nsermon of his, followed by frequent contributions from his pen called\n\u201cStar Papers,\u201d and for the last three years a sermon in full upon the\nsecond page. He is now called to its head. In the issue of December 19,\n1861, appears his \u201cSalutatory.\u201d Since in this he gives, in brief, his\nconception of the office and importance of the religious newspaper, it\nis given in full:\n\n\u201cThe undersigned has to-day assumed the editorial management of the\n_Independent_. This will not involve any change in the principles, the\npurposes, or general spirit of the paper. The _Independent_ was founded\nto illustrate and to defend the truths and doctrines of the Christian\nreligion; to employ them as the authoritative standards by which to\nestimate and influence events, measures, and men; to infuse a spirit of\ntruth and humanity into the affairs of this nation; to give aid and\nencouragement to every judicious scheme of Christian benevolence. It has\nsought to leaven with the Christian spirit all the great elements of our\ncivilization. These were the aims. The results are upon record.\n\n\u201cFor the future, studying a catholic sympathy with all who love our Lord\nJesus Christ, and seeking to promote concord among all Christians of\nevery name, the _Independent_ will still continue explicitly and firmly\nto hold and to teach those great cardinal doctrines of religion that are\nsubstantially held in common by the Congregational orthodox churches of\nNew England and by the Presbyterian churches of our whole land. But, as\nheretofore, this will be done for the promotion of vital godliness\nrather than for sectarianism.\n\n\u201cThe _Independent_ will not deviate from that application of Christian\ntruth to all public questions which has thus far characterized its\ncourse. While seeking to promote religious feeling, as such, and to\nincite and supply devotional wants, it will not forget that there is an\nethical as well as an emotive life in true religion. We shall therefore\nassume the liberty of meddling with every question which agitates the\ncivil or Christian community, according to our own best discretion.\n\n\u201cThe editorial profession, with the progress of popular intelligence,\nhas assumed an importance second to no other. It may unite in it the\nelements of power hitherto distributed in the several professions, and\nadd, besides, many that have belonged to no other calling. He who knows\nthe scope and power of the press need desire no higher office than the\neditorial.\n\n\u201cIn that silent realm of influences out of which proceed the actions of\nmen and the events of history, the editor is the invisible leader. Votes\ncannot raise him higher. His pen is more than a sceptre. Profoundly\nimpressed with such a responsibility, desiring to honor God in the\nwelfare of men, we ask the sympathy of good men and the remembrance of\nall who pray.\n\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\nAt this time the excitement growing out of the capture of Mason and\nSlidell on board the British steamer _Trent_, by Commodore Wilkes on the\n_San Jacinto_, was at its height. News had just reached this country of\nthe bitter feeling awakened by \u201cthe outrage,\u201d of the shipment of troops\nto Canada, and other hasty preparations by Great Britain to avenge the\ninsult to her flag. And Mr. Beecher\u2019s first editorial bears the somewhat\nominous title of \u201cWar with England.\u201d\n\nAs we might expect, it is both temperate and defiant in language and\ntone:\n\n\u201cWe have no idea that there will be any war with that power. England has\na peculiar practical wisdom in affairs which touch her own material\ninterests. Her folly will be expended in words; her wisdom reserved for\nactions. It is not her interest to go to war with the Northern States in\nthe interest of the Southern States. There is no probability that she\nwill allow herself, whatever she has done in other days, to be found\nfighting for slavery against freedom....\n\n\u201cThere is no desire on our part for so unnatural a war. To avert it we\nshall be willing to yield anything but honor. Our hands are sufficiently\nfull. To have a British fleet thundering at our sea-doors, while the\nvolcano was yet pouring lava through our Southern States, would be a\nlittle more business on hand than could be attended to with that\nthoroughness which our people desire in all warlike enterprises.\n\n\u201cYet should England force us into war, terrible and atrocious as that\nwould be, America is determined to put her in the wrong before the\nworld. If we have transgressed any law of nations; if we have, indeed,\nviolated any right of England; if we have, to the width of a hair,\npassed beyond the line of our own proper duty and right, we shall, upon\nsuitable showing, need no menace to make ample reparation. We shall do\nit for the satisfaction of our own sense of justice. But if we are\nright, if we have done right, all the threatenings in the world will not\nmove this people from their steadfastness....\n\n\u201cOur wish is to unite with England in a race of civilization. But if she\n_will_ fight, we _must_.\u201d\n\nSome idea of the variety and character of the work he did at this time\nmay be gained by a look at his editorials found in the _Independent_ of\nJanuary 16, 1862, the third week of his administration as editor. The\nfirst is \u201cOur Help from Above,\u201d in which he directs all burdened hearts\nto the great sources and divine methods of consolation. \u201cThe nearer our\nthoughts come to the infinite and the divine the more power have we over\nour troubles. The act of consolation is, to a great degree, the act of\ninspiration.\u201d\n\nThe raising, equipping, and feeding such vast armies as, it was now\nseen, would be required for the prosecution of the war, awakened in the\nminds of thoughtful men a question scarcely second in importance to any.\nBy what plan or on what system shall the money required for these large\nand expensive enterprises be secured? His second editorial upon this\npage takes up this matter under the head of \u201cA Word from the People to\nCongress,\u201d in which he urges the fearless imposition of taxes sufficient\nto carry on the war, and justifies such a course upon the simple basis\nof honesty. The article opens with this sentence, \u201cTaxation and national\nhonesty are now synonymous,\u201d and closes with this, \u201cEvery honest man in\nAmerica ought to send to Washington one message in two words, _Fight_,\n_Tax_.\u201d\n\nHow to treat the black men that came into our lines, or were liberated\nby the advance of our armies, was another of the pressing questions at\nthis time, and one concerning which there was a great difference of\nopinion. He treated this subject in a column article on this page,\nentitled \u201c_Men_, not _Slaves_.\u201d The position which he held, and\nadvocated with great force and clearness, is given in this sentence:\n\u201cOne thing is plain\u2014one thing as a starting-point admits of no doubt,\nneeds no hesitation: let us forget that these blacks ever were _slaves_,\nand remember only that they are _men_. With this as our first principle\nwe cannot go far wrong.\u201d\n\nThis money-raising was a matter of so great importance that he devoted\nanother column to it on this same page, on the \u201cDuty of the Hour.\u201d In\nthe first article he sent a message to Congress; in this he speaks to\nthe Christian public: \u201cWhether the great impending patriotic tax shall\nbe a moral triumph and a testimony to the religious life of this people\nwill depend largely upon the conduct of Christian men and the action of\nChristian teachers.... There seems to have been very _little education\nof the consciences of Christian men to the duty of a cheerful support of\ngovernment by their property_. Even Christian men are tempted to give\ngrudgingly, selfishly, meanly. The nobler sentiments of the heart have\nbeen allowed but little scope in this part of citizen duty.\n\n\u201cIs the Gospel worn out? Are ministers of the Gospel less manly and\nChristian than in the days of the fathers? Has the American pulpit\nforgotten that its place is in the van\u2014that it leads, not follows, the\ncamp?\n\n\u201cEvery church should have a public sentiment developed within it which\nshall make this national tax almost a free-will offering. Let Christian\nlaymen take counsel together. Let the leading men of towns and\nneighborhoods not only set a good example, but make it their duty to\ncheer and inspirit the slow and reluctant. Let Christian men everywhere,\nand in all things, seek to inspire the public mind with an earnest\nwillingness to discharge this great debt which we are called to pay for\n_national unity, national safety, and national glory_.\u201d\n\nIn those days of dress-parades in our largest army, and \u201call quiet on\nthe Potomac,\u201d men chafed continually over what appeared to be inaction\nand timidity on the part of the government at Washington. This found\nexpression in still another article by this same pen upon this same\npage, \u201cCourage and Enterprise\u201d:\n\n\u201cThere was never a time when timidity was so nearly allied to rashness,\nand courage to the highest prudence, as now. We have every element of\nnational prosperity except the courage to use our power. Standing on a\ncentre and whirling around with sound and celerity may make a _top_, but\nnever an administration. Courage to see and accept the whole national\ndanger; courage to see and to accept the thoroughest remedy; courage to\nask the people for all that is needed, without a thought of refusal;\ncourage to use the means, willingly afforded, so as to put the whole\nstrength of this nation into every blow; courage to dash in pieces every\nenemy, without stopping to consider just how we shall mend the pieces\nafterward\u2014this is the very critical prudence of good administration.\n\n\u201cSince war is upon us, let us have courage to make war.\n\n\u201cThere is no money needed, there are no men wanted, there is no\nenthusiasm that the North will not give with eager gladness, if only\nSOMEBODY will speak to the nation such words as the fathers spoke! Then\nmen LOVED liberty! The nation suffered for a principle! What are we\ndoing now? Are we raising moss on cannon-wheels, or are we fighting? Is\nit husbandry or war that is going on? Are we to starve Southern armies\nor conquer them? Do we mean to put down rebellion by _soldiers_ or\n_ferrets_?\u201d\n\nThese editorials showed certain features which were as characteristic of\nhis work in the editor\u2019s chair as they were in the pulpit and upon the\nplatform; the first of these was this: he chose his subjects from among\nthe things which at that time affected and interested the people. This\nhe did, not simply because he could then get the ear of the public, nor\nbecause these were in themselves the largest or most important matters,\nbut from a deep religious conviction that these present questions and\npresent interests were a part of God\u2019s providence, by which and through\nwhich He was accomplishing His purposes; and that in treating these\nmatters he was working together with Him. He believed thoroughly in\nGod\u2019s action in common affairs and through the impulses given to common\nmen. This conviction made him a leader of the people without bringing\nhim into bondage to them. It gave him the kind of leadership to which he\nattained: not of the abstract thinker in the movements of a hundred\nyears hence, but of the practical man of affairs in the battles of\nto-day. This gave him the boldness that he never failed to display.\nConfident that he was moving in harmony with God\u2019s purpose and at His\nown appointed time, he waited for no gathering of numbers, but pushed on\nalone, if necessary, with an assurance born of faith. Storms and\nconfusion did not daunt him, because he recognized in these but the\nnecessary methods by which the Almighty carries out His designs in the\nmoral and spiritual as in the material world.\n\nAnother characteristic feature was seen in his treatment of the subject\nin hand. He uniformly regarded it from the standpoint of the law of\nChrist\u2019s kingdom on the earth\u2014\u201cBear ye one another\u2019s burdens.\u201d This\ninsured harmony in his policy through all changes of events around him,\nand ultimately secured success. All the forces of the universe, because\ncreated and administered by the Saviour of mankind, were on the side not\nonly of justice and truth but of kindness, forbearance, and helpfulness,\nand must in time prevail. So deep was his conviction of the direct and\nuniversal application of the law of this kingdom that he instinctively\ntook this side, and linked his action and his destiny with its fortunes,\nwhen prudence and policy would seem to dictate a different course, with\na sublime confidence in its final victory.\n\nA third characteristic was this: He wrote so as to awaken inspiration,\nto stir men\u2019s hearts to feel. It was not enough that men believed a\ntruth; that was nothing unless they felt it. His words must take hold,\nthey must excite the emotions and move men to action, or they were a\nfailure.\n\nBesides the editorial articles referred to on this one page, there was\nhis sermon in this same issue occupying more than four columns of the\nsecond page of the paper. It was upon the Divine Government, and moved\nalong on these lofty heights: \u201cWe believe that God is in His own world\nand that He governs it by His personal will; that this government\nincludes nations, families, and individuals; that it aims at the highest\ngood and the everlasting good of sentient and intelligent creatures;\nthat it is one which admits the action of our minds upon God\u2019s and the\naction of God\u2019s upon ours; that it has in it a place for all human\nyearnings and strivings and longings.\u201d \u201cI bring you a Gospel that will\nnever wear out, a Gospel which is for ever fresh, and that is,\nEmmanuel\u2014God with us: God with you, in you, around you, loving you,\nbearing with you, forgiving you, helping you, watching over you, taking\nyou up and carrying you as the parent takes up and carries the little\nchild.\u201d\n\nThe first anniversary Sunday of the attack on Fort Sumter was marked by\na sermon on the \u201cSuccess of American Democracy,\u201d the tone of which may\nbe judged by the following passage:\n\n\u201c\u2018We will give every dollar that we are worth, every child that we have,\nand our own selves; we will bring all that we are and all that we have,\nand offer them up freely\u2014but this country shall be one and undivided. We\nwill have one Constitution and one liberty, and that universal.\u2019 The\nAtlantic shall sound it and the Pacific shall echo it back, deep\nanswering to deep, and it shall reverberate from the Lakes on the North\nto the unfrozen Gulf on the South\u2014\u2018One nation, one Constitution, one\nstarry banner!\u2019 Hear it, England!\u2014one country, and indivisible. Hear it,\nEurope!\u2014one people, and inseparable. One God; one hope; one baptism; one\nConstitution; one government; one nation; one country; one people\u2014cost\nwhat it may, we will have it!\u201d\n\nThe summer of 1862 was, perhaps, a period of as great discouragement to\nthe North as any during the war. After months of preparation and\nwearisome delays, with the grandest army that had ever been gathered on\nthis continent, McClellan had made his advance against Richmond, only to\nentrench, retreat, and at last to be hurled back defeated and shattered.\nIt was when these terrible disasters were beginning to be understood and\ntheir true significance appreciated that Mr. Beecher\u2019s editorials in the\n_Independent_ rose to their highest point of power and influence. They\nwere directed to the people and to the government as occasion demanded,\nbut always with such a grouping of facts, with so clear an appreciation\nof the situation, and with so great earnestness of appeal and power of\ndenunciation that they must be reckoned among the loyal forces. We give\nthe titles and a few sentences from several of that time, that their\ngeneral character may be understood. On July 3, 1862, we have one upon\n\u201cThe Great Duty\u201d:\n\n\u201cIn another column will be found the President\u2019s call for 300,000 more\nsoldiers. These, and as many more if needed, can be raised. The North\nhas not changed her mind. The integrity of this nation, the authority of\nits Constitution over all its original territory, will be maintained at\nevery hazard and at whatever expense.\n\n\u201cIt is our duty to the nation and to the family of nations to make a\nslaveholders\u2019 rebellion so odious and disastrous that it shall stand to\nall ages like Sodom and Gomorrah. Whatever it may cost in men and money,\nthe North is fully assured that for nothing else can money be so well\nspent, and for nothing nobler can men live, or, if need be, lay down\ntheir lives!\n\n\u201cThe great duty now is to maintain a united North. No event can be more\nsure than the victory of this government over the slaveholders\u2019\nconspiracy, if the loyal States are united. But if secret feuds or open\nfactions shall divide and paralyze the popular feeling, the cause will\nfail, or succeed only after long, wasting, and useless expenditures.\u201d\n\nIn the next issue, July 10, he has an equally strong editorial upon \u201cThe\nCountry\u2019s Need.\u201d The suppression of news, the failure to trust the\npeople, the political intrigues at the capital, moved him to righteous\nand sorrowful indignation:\n\n\u201cDid the government frankly say to this nation, We are defeated? To this\nhour it has not trusted the people. It held back the news for days. Nor\nwas the truth honestly told when outside information compelled it to say\nsomething. It is even to this hour permitting McClellan\u2019s disaster to be\nrepresented as a piece of skilfully planned strategy! After the labor of\ntwo months, the horrible sickness of thousands of men poisoned in the\nswamps of the Chickahominy, the loss of probably more than ten thousand\nas noble fellows as ever lifted a hand to defend their country,\nMcClellan, who was four miles from Richmond, finds himself twenty-five\nmiles from the city, wagons burned, ammunition-trains blown up, parks of\nartillery captured, no entrenchments, and with an army so small that it\nis not pretended that he can reach Richmond! The public are infatuated.\nThe papers that regaled us two weeks ago with visions of a Fourth of\nJuly in Richmond are now asking us to rejoice and acclaim\u2014not at\nvictory\u2014but that we have just saved the army! McClellan is safe!\u2014and\nRichmond too!\n\n\u201cThe government, upon this disaster, procures the governors of the\nStates to _ask it_ to call for 300,000 more men. Why did not the\nPresident take the responsibility, plainly confess our disaster, say\nthat we were within a hand-breadth of ruin, throw himself on the people?\nNo. The people pay taxes, give their sons and brothers\u2014but that is all.\nWe are sick and weary of this conduct. We have a sacred cause, a noble\narmy, good officers, and a heroic common people. But we are like to be\nruined by an administration that will not tell the truth; that spends\nprecious time in playing at President-making; that is cutting and\nshuffling the cards for the next great political campaign. Unless good\nmen awake, unless the accursed silence is broken that has fallen on the\npeople, unless the government is held sternly to its responsibility to\nthe people, we shall dally through the summer, make brigadier-generals\nuntil autumn, build huge entrenchments, but fight no battles till they\nare forced upon us, and then we shall be called upon to celebrate our\ndefeats or retreats as masterly strategies!\n\n\u201cWe have a country. We have a cause. We have a people. Let all good men\npray that God would give us a government!\u201d\n\nThis is followed by one, July 17, on the \u201cPatriotism of the People.\u201d Its\ntone will be understood by these few sentences:\n\n\u201cThere is no need of rousing the patriotism of the people. It is an\ninexhaustible quality. It underlies their very life. The government\nitself is buoyed up by it, and rides upon it, like a ship upon the\nfathomless ocean.\n\n\u201cNo. It is the government that needs rousing. We do not need meetings on\nthe Hudson, but motion on the Potomac. It is not in Boston, or Buffalo,\nor Cincinnati, or New York that this case is to be settled, but in\nWashington. There is no use of concealing it. The people are beginning\nto distrust their rulers\u2014not their good nature, their patriotism, their\nhonesty, but their capacity for the exigency of military affairs. They\nknow that in war an hour often carries a campaign in its hand. A day is\na year. The President seems to be a man without any sense of the value\nof time. The people admire his disinterestedness. They believe him firm\nwhen he reaches decisions. But they perceive how long a period he\nrequires to form judgments; how wide a circuit he takes of uncertainty\nand vacillation before he determines. In civil affairs, that can bear to\nwait, the people deem him among the best of our long line of Presidents.\nBut it is war! Armies are perishing. Months are wasting. We are in the\nsecond year of rebellion. We have been just on the eve of doing\nsomething for sixteen months!\n\n\u201cThe nation rose up in its majesty to punish rebellion. It put a\nmagnificent army into the President\u2019s hand. For one year that army was\n_besieged_ in the capital!\n\n\u201cAt length, this past spring, began the campaign in Virginia. The people\ngloried in the belief that the majesty of the government would be\nasserted. After four months\u2019 campaign the armies of the United States\nare on the _defensive_! Not less than a hundred thousand men have been\nlost by death, wounds, sickness, and captivity; McClellan is cooped up\non James River; Pope is collecting an army; and the country is to-day\nactually debating whether the enemy cannot strike a blow at Washington!\nIs this such a management as will confirm the confidence of the country\nin Mr. Lincoln\u2019s conduct of the war? Do we need to ask why men are slow\nto volunteer? Does any man need to be told what the end of such things\nmust be? This is not punishing rebellion; it is helping it....\n\n\u201cWe speak plainly, sorrowfully, earnestly. An enemy of the\nAdministration would have no right to speak so. We are friends\u2014all the\nmore because we speak out what millions think but do not utter, lest it\nmight hinder the cause. But, unless some one speaks, there will soon be\nlittle cause left to hinder or to help.\u201d\n\nIn the next issue, that of July 24, he has another two-column editorial\nupon \u201cThe Duty of To-day\u201d:\n\n\u201cIn the beginning of this great struggle the question among loyal men\nwas, _How_ shall we save this nation? One year of fighting and the\nquestion is, WHETHER we can save it? That is the question of to-day....\n\n\u201cThe South has simplicity and unity of purpose. The North is uncertain\nwhich she wishes most\u2014to subdue the rebellion, to leave slavery\nunharmed, or to have the right President at the next election!\n\n\u201cThe South adjourns every question and postpones every interest in favor\nof arms. The North is busy with conflicting schemes and interests\u2014and is\nalso mildly carrying on war.\n\n\u201cDoes anybody doubt the result of such a course? It is so certain that\nit is not worth our while to waste another man or another dollar! Either\nthe Administration policy should instantly change or the war cease! It\nis not more vigor so much as a different _internal idea_. If the\nAdministration cannot be disenchanted of the traditional policy that has\ngrown up during the heartless, timid, compromising era of the last\nhalf-century, and adopt the simple and straightforward policy that\nbecomes a people striving for liberty and free institutions upon the\nAmerican continent, then we are doomed! It is war that we are making\u2014war\nfirst, war second, war wholly! It is not politics. It is not\nConstitution-making. It is not the decision of legal niceties. These are\nnot the business of government, as toward the South. It is war,\nabsolute, terrible, and immeasurable war!\n\n\u201cThe South has organized on the fact of slavery, and fights on that\nissue, pure and simple. The North must organize on the doctrine of\nliberty, and fight right through on that issue, pure and simple.\n\n\u201cThe South sacrifices everything that conflicts with her central idea.\nThe North must do the same. The South is not ashamed of slavery. The\nNorth must not be ashamed of liberty!\n\n\u201d... The government cannot any longer avoid choosing the issue that has\nbeen made up and thrust upon it\u2014_freedom or slavery_. The time has come.\nSo long as there was a chance of solving this question _as a civil\nquestion_ it was wise to leave it, as far as possible, to the States\nconcerned, and to employ the moral influences which change men\u2019s minds.\n_But slavery has become a military question._ One year has changed all\nthings. A remiss and vacillating policy of the Administration; the\ncommitting of the armies of the United States for a whole year to a man\nwho thought he was at West Point giving a four years\u2019 course of\ninstruction to five hundred thousand men infinitely at leisure, has\nchanged the relations and possibilities of things. It has taken slavery\nout of the realm of discussion and placed it in the arena of war. It\nmust be settled by force....\n\n\u201cNothing will unite this people like a bold annunciation of a moral\nprinciple. Let the American flag be lifted up by Mr. Lincoln, as was the\nbrazen serpent, and let it be known that every man who looks upon it on\nthis continent shall be free, and a tide of joy and irresistible\nenthusiasm will sweep away every obstacle. Let Mr. Lincoln decree it.\nThe nation will do it!\n\n\u201cSuch a policy would carry the conscience of the North; would kindle the\nenthusiasm for liberty, which is always the most potent of influences;\nwould bring all the historic traditions of the old American struggle to\nenkindle the ardor of the young, who are to form our armies. It would\nbrush away at one stroke a thousand hindrances, give simplicity and\nunity to our plans, and distinctness to our policy. It would end all\nthreat of foreign intervention. Above all, it would give to the American\narmies that pillar of smoke by day and fire by night by which God the\nEmancipator led forth His people from bondage into liberty!\u201d\n\nIn the next issue, July 31, he writes a two-column editorial upon \u201cThe\nRoot of the Matter\u201d:\n\n\u201cIt is not enough that we increase our men and means. We shall never\nsucceed until we accept the _idea_ latent in this conflict. Slavery must\nbe crushed. Liberty must have absolute and unquestioned dominion on this\ncontinent. We will not have oppression under the symbol of a sceptre or\nof a whip\u2014neither exported from abroad nor sprouting from our own soil!\nThis continent is dedicated to Liberty. It is the mission of this\ngeneration of men to establish free institutions from ocean to ocean. We\nsought to do it in peace. Since war has come, we will seek to take from\nits repulsiveness and horror by making it serve the noblest ends of\nhuman liberty. If it is for liberty upon a whole continent that we\nfight, then every son or brother that falls is a sacrificial victim. By\nhis blood we ransom generations of men!\n\n\u201cThe way to make the Administration see this truth is to see it\nourselves. There is a kind of political mesmerism. Our rulers will\npartake of our sensations. What the people see the President will see.\nWhat the people taste will repeat itself on the President\u2019s tongue.\n\n\u201cLet the sentence be spoken. Let all hindrances and hesitations end.\nLift up the banner! And as the winds of war roll out its folds, let\nthose letters shine out as if God had written them with heavenly light,\n\u2018UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe next editorial, August 7, is upon \u201cA Leader for the People.\u201d These\nwere the days of Pope and the disasters of the army, and the uncertainty\nand terror at Washington. Two columns of argument and appeal for more\ngenuine enthusiasm for the great doctrines on which this government was\nfounded close with a prayer, the only relief of a heart bursting with a\nmighty passion of sorrow and impatience:\n\n\u201cGreat God, what a people hast Thou brought forth upon this continent!\nWhat love of liberty; what heroic love of law and institution; what\ncourage, and constancy, and self-sacrifice hast Thou given them! And no\nman is found to lead this so great a nation! Be Thou Leader! Lord God of\nHosts, hast Thou forgotten how to lead a people? There are no ages on\nThy head! Years make Thee neither old nor weary! Behind Thy unwrinkled\nbrow no care dwells! Teach this people to need no other leader but\nThyself! Then, led by Thee, teach them to be all-sufficient for every\ndeed of justice, and omnipotent for liberty!\u201d\n\nThese are followed, August 14, by a three-column editorial upon \u201cThe\nTime has Come\u201d:\n\n\u201cWe have been made irresolute, indecisive, and weak by the President\u2019s\nattempt to unite impossibilities; to make war and keep the peace; to\nstrike hard and not hurt; to invade sovereign States and not meddle with\ntheir sovereignty; to put down rebellion without touching its cause; to\nbring an infuriated people into enforced union with their enemies, and\nto leave all their causes of quarrels unsettled and vigorous, and yet\nhope for future concord.\n\n\u201cThus far the conservative North has been striving to conduct this war\nso as not to meddle with the so-called Southern right of slavery. But,\nin spite of every scruple, events have crowded men to the necessity of\nconfiscation and emancipation. There is one more step. It is the last\nsublime step toward national safety and national Christian glory. It is\n_immediate and universal emancipation_!\u201d\n\nIn the next issue, August 21, is another article, upon \u201cThe Only\nGround,\u201d of the same temper, urging the same plea:\n\n\u201cThe President has the right and power to destroy slavery. Let him\naccount to the civilized world for not doing it.\u201d\n\nAnd another August 28, upon \u201cReconstruction\u201d:\n\n\u201cSince, then, the old Union is _de facto_ ceased, and all the local\nrights lapsed by rebellion to the hands of the government, and it is to\nreconstruct the Union, would it be a stretch of authority in the\ngovernment so to reconstruct it as to insure its perpetuity by purging\nout all possible cause of future discord? The President has the\nauthority. He is exercising it every day. All that we ask is that he\nwill look _forward_ and not _backward_; that he will consider the nation\nof the future, and not mere precedents in the past.... To put down\nrebellion first, and attend to slavery afterwards, is letting two\nserpents uncoil that may as well be stricken through with one blow.\u201d\n\nThe preacher\u2019s pulpit is in perfect accord with the editor\u2019s chair. In a\nsermon of July 27, 1862, he says: \u201cGod has been pleased to bring this\nnation at this time into great trials that are to test the faith of all\ntrue men. I think that we have not by a long way touched bottom yet. I\nthink that the wind has not yet blown its fiercest. There are blacker\nclouds than those that have yet expended their fury. I cast no\nconfidence away. I do not know that we are to succeed to-day or\nto-morrow; but we are going to succeed. I do not know that we are going\nto succeed in Virginia for the present, but we are a-going to succeed in\nAmerica.\n\n\u201cWhen I die there will be a great many things that, if I have time to\nthink of them, I may be sorry for. After I die there may be a great many\ninconsistencies, a great many sins, a great many unperformed duties\nthat, when I behold them in retrospect, I shall regret. But I tell you\nthat, whether in the passage of death, or at the gate of heaven, or\nbefore God\u2019s eternal throne, I never expect to be sorry that I have\npreached so often and so strongly in behalf of those that were in bonds;\nthat I have spoken, as I have had opportunity, for those that could not\nspeak for themselves; that I have roused up, according to the measure of\nmy influence, the whole community to vindicate the cause of God toward\nHis oppressed ones. I shall not be sorry for that. I shall be sorry that\nI have not done more; but I never shall be sorry that I have done so\nmuch.\n\n\u201cAnd my faith in this cause was never so strong as it is now. I do not\nthrow it away. I feel certain that if the will of God is done in this\nmatter, though we may have to wait, we shall have great recompense of\nreward in waiting.\n\n\u201cMay God inspire the hearts of our rulers by the right things! May God\nunite the hearts of this great people in right counsels and in right\nfeelings! May God accept the offerings that we make of our children, of\nour brothers, of our neighbors, of everything that we have! Let us put\nthem all on the altar of patriotism, knowing that in this case the altar\nof patriotism is the altar of God. He will accept the offering, and in\nHis own time, by tokens infallible, He will reward our faith and bring\nus forth purged, purified, strengthened by the things which we have\nsuffered.\u201d\n\nWith all his earnestness he must have his laugh at a contemporary, \u201cA\nQueer Pulpit\u201d:\n\n\u201cWe knew that the _Journal of Commerce_ was famous upon statistics and\nprided itself upon its good literary taste. But we had no idea before of\nthe powers of its rhetoric. We extract a figure from its issue of August\n27 that should be commended to the directors of the New York Hospital:\n\n\u201c\u2018It is the voice of a glorious past which speaks to him, in the tones\nof the fathers whose graves are with us. It is the voice of the living\nnation, millions on millions of whom utter the same words we utter\nto-day. It is the _voice of posterity, speaking from the womb of time,\nthat calls on him to save the Constitution_, which was made, not for the\nduration of a human life, but to be the blessing of all men and all\nnations until the end of thrones and earthly powers. That he will be\nfaithful we do not for one instant doubt.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis is taking part in politics rather early. Constitutional studies\nmust be pursued under difficulties in this case. But if posterity are so\ngreatly stirred in their minds, there is nothing for it but for the\nPresident to write them a letter. He answered Horace Greeley. Surely he\nwill heed the sufferings of posterity in such uncomfortable quarters.\n\n\u201cFor ourselves, we cannot be too thankful that we are already born. We\nprefer open-air speaking. If the President don\u2019t save the Constitution\nnow, it is a hopeless case!\u201d\n\nIn an editorial, September 11, upon \u201cThe Contrast,\u201d he sums up the\ndifference in sentences like these:\n\n\u201cRichmond determines, Washington reasons; Richmond is inflexible,\nWashington vacillates; Richmond knows what it wants to do, Washington\nwishes that it knew; Richmond loves slavery and hates liberty,\nWashington is somewhat partial to liberty and rather dislikes slavery;\nRebellion is wise and sinful, Government is foolish.\u201d\n\nUpon a report that a member of the Cabinet had said \u201cthat nations often\nlose their institutions, their liberties, and yet preserve their\nnational life, and that in our case we must aim to preserve the national\nlife,\u201d he writes an editorial (September 18, 1862) which he properly\nentitled \u201cThe Trumpet\u201d:\n\n\u201c... Let other people imagine as they may a national life, like a\ndisembodied spirit, wandering over the continent seeking rest and\nfinding none. We propose no such issue to this struggle. The nation must\nemerge from war shorn of no attribute and mutilated in none of its\nmembers. We claim this continent for liberty. We demand the execution of\nslavery for treason. We arraign this arch-conspirator, arrested with a\ndagger in its hand aimed at the life of this government and the\nliberties of the people, and in the name of mankind and before Almighty\nGod we demand that its life be forfeited. Let the trumpet sound!\u201d\n\nThese are but samples of the editorials that were sent out from his pen\nthrough the columns of the _Independent_. Week after week they\ncontinued, pleading for vigor, denouncing inaction, urging that liberty\nbe recognized as the great issue at stake, and demanding immediate\nemancipation of the slave.\n\nAt last, after this long, weary, heart-breaking delay, he publishes,\nSeptember 25, \u201cThe Proclamation\u201d of the President announcing \u201cthat on\nthe first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight\nhundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State, or\nany designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in\nrebellion against the United States, shall be thenceforward and for ever\nfree.\u201d Mr. Beecher says of it:\n\n\u201cWe send forth to-day the most important paper ever published in the\n_Independent_, the most extraordinary document ever proceeding from this\ngovernment....\n\n\u201cNo more guises and veils. No more side-issues. No more deceitful\ncompromises. The government has taken ground, and every man in the\nnation must take ground. You are for or against this government, and\nthis government is declared to mean liberty to the slave! There is no\nneutral ground for traitors to hide in, playing wolf at night and sheep\nby day. The President\u2019s proclamation will sift the North, give unity to\nits people, simplicity to its policy, liberty to its army! That whole\narmy is no longer a mongrel something between a police force and a\npolitical caucus. It is an _army_ organized to strike where blows will\nbe most felt.\n\n\u201cThe Proclamation emancipates slaves in thrice thirty days. But it\nemancipates the government and the army to-day. The nation is freer than\nit was on the 21st. We have a policy. The people will base it upon a\nprinciple. It is the policy of liberty upon the principle of justice.\nThe future is before us! Through what dark days we must pass we know\nnot. What battles and what reverses are in store we do not inquire. At\nlast we have a right to believe that God is leading us. He who carried\nHis people from bondage through the wilderness, and established them in\nthe promised land, can surely guide us!\n\n\u201cLet sorrows fall fast; there is joy before us! We behold upon the\ntroubled sea a Christ coming to us, walking on the waves! In His hand\nare winds and storms. Every hour now moves toward the great day of\nEmancipation. At length the dawn shall bring that day most eminent in\nour national calendar. Amid all the festivities that usher in the year,\nthere shall be a great joy, deeper, purer, holier than ever came to us\nwith the New Year\u2014the joy of a nation that, after long sorrow and shame,\nshall cast off from itself the guilt of slavery, and stand erect before\nthe world a consistent witness for liberty!\u201d\n\nHe looks upon it as the beginning of the end, and is satisfied if it be\nGod\u2019s will that his work should now cease. On the evening of the last\nday of slavery in America\u2014Wednesday evening, December 31\u2014he says in his\nlecture-room talk:\n\n\u201cAs for myself, let come what will come, I care not. God may peel me,\nand bark me, and strip me of my leaves, and do as He chooses with my\nearthly estate. I have lived long enough; I have had a good time. You\ncannot take back the blows I have given the devil right in the face. I\nhave uttered some words that will not die, because they are incorporated\ninto the lives of men that will not die. Through my instrumentality,\naided by God\u2019s providence, many souls have been converted and gone\nsinging home to their eternal abode. I think I have a larger church in\nheaven than I have on earth, and I think they love me and want me there.\nI have no reason to ask for longer life. If my work is done, and God\ndoes not want me here, and this is my last night of labor on earth,\nought I to be sorry? Ought I not to be the most grateful man that ever\nlived that I have had such health, that I have had such an open field,\nthat I have had the privilege of speaking the truth right straight along\nfor fifteen years, whether men would hear or whether they would forbear,\nand that I have been borne up, in doing this, by so large a church,\ncomposed of such an enthusiastic body of God\u2019s people?\n\n\u201cAnd to-night the shadows of the past come over me. I remember when I\nfirst stood, in about this place, in the old church. I remember the\nsermon that I preached to you on the first Sunday night after I came\namong you, as if it were but an hour ago. I then declared to the\ninchoate congregation gathered here that it was my purpose to preach the\nGospel in its applications to slavery, and peace, and war, and moral\npurity, and every Christian reform, and that I would do it whether you\nheard it or not, and whether you stood by me or forsook me. I recollect\nthose times perfectly well.\n\n\u201cFifteen years have passed since then, and here we are talking about the\nPresident of the United States emancipating four million slaves. Here we\nare in the midst of a war whose inevitable outcome from this time must\nbe to make war on slavery. Mightier than Congress now is the arm for\nemancipation\u2014mightier than all things! In the providence of God what\nwonderful revolutions and changes have taken place in fifteen years! I\nam willing to live fifteen years more, if God wishes it, if I may renew\nmy youth and work on. I should dread to find now that there were no more\nlocks to get up, and that I must henceforth travel on a dead level. I\nwould try and pull with my freight-boat on a level, if God wished me to,\nthough I would like here and there to rise. It would be a pleasure to\nlive, if it were God\u2019s will, till the day-star dawned, for I know it\nwill dawn, but I am willing to lay down my burden at any time, if it\nplease God. If He will accept the thanks that I give Him for all that He\nhas permitted me to do, to say, and experience in days past, then, as to\nthe future, let His will be done. I ask neither to live nor to die.\u201d\n\nThis closes the third era of his work in the great anti-slavery contest.\nWe now turn back to glance over the same period and note some of the\nmore important events aside from this struggle, public, domestic, and\nprivate, that marked the years from 1850 to January, 1863.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XVII.\n\nFirst Voyage to England\u2014Extracts from Diary\u2014Warwick\n    Castle\u2014Stratford-on-Avon\u2014The Skylark\u2014Oxford\u2014Bodleian\n    Library\u2014London\u2014Old-time Sadness\u2014Paris\u2014Catch-Words from Diary\u2014Effect\n    of Picture-Gallery\u2014The Louvre\u2014His Return.\n\n\nIn the middle of the year 1850 his labors were interrupted.\n\n\u201cHenry Ward Beecher, our esteemed brother, sailed for Europe on Tuesday,\nJuly 9, in the ship _New World_, Captain Knight. It was a sudden move,\nbut having received a friendly invitation from the captain, and taking\nthe advice of his friends that a voyage out and back would be of\nessential benefit to his health, which has been considerably shattered\nby repeated attacks of illness, he accepted the invitation, but expects\nto return with the vessel. During his absence the pulpit of Plymouth\nChurch will be supplied by the pastor\u2019s younger brother, Rev. Charles\nBeecher, of Indiana.\u201d This item we find in the _Independent_ of that\nweek:\n\n\u201c_Journal._\u2014Landed from _New World_ July 30, 1850. Waterloo Inn.\u201d\n\nThis is the first entry in a memorandum-book now in our hands, and it\ntells its own story. He is in Liverpool, England.\n\nWe have spoken of Mr. Beecher\u2019s perfect health, and such he enjoyed, for\nthe most part, through life. But it was only retained, after he came to\nBrooklyn, by great care on his part. Before he had learned the necessity\nof this there had been several failures. One was an attack of\nerysiphaltic fever, in the spring of 1849, which kept him out of his\npulpit for several months. During the following winter he had a severe\nattack of quinsy, from the exhaustion of which it seemed to his friends\nthat he was breaking down, and they procured passage for him to Europe,\nas has just been stated, and gave him a three months\u2019 leave of absence.\n\nAnother experience now opened to him. The sea, out upon which he had so\noften looked with longing eyes, in boyhood, from the wharves of Boston,\nand across whose waters he had often sailed in imagination, he now, for\nthe first time, traversed in reality. He found it far less agreeable\nthan he expected, and learned on this his first voyage, what no\nafter-experience ever contradicted, that for him \u201cthe only pleasant\nthing about going to sea was the going ashore.\u201d\n\nFrom his note-book and diary we can follow him, step by step, and from\nhis letters to friends can learn of some of those experiences that made\nthis trip memorable in its impressions and influence. The next entry in\nhis journal reads:\n\n\u201cJuly 31, Manchester and back. Hedges same as combed and uncombed hair.\nRailroad mile-posts subdivided; grading in manufacturing villages. Go\nout from London under ground, come into Manchester over tops of houses.\nClothes-line across streets.\n\n\u201cAugust 3, Birmingham; railroad stations. Knight says thirty-three ocean\nsteamers have been put afloat in eighteen months; only the Bremen\nsteamers before afloat.\n\n\u201d_Plated Ware._\u2014Pattern dies, stamping, handles, etc.; spoons, forks,\nplain piece, cut shape, then slit tines, stamp shape; filing-room,\npolishing, chasing or fretting, plating, brushing. Designer gets \u00a32 to\n\u00a32 10/per week.\u201d\n\nThis is the first page of his note-book, and is given entire, not\nbecause there is anything remarkable about it, but because it is a\nsample of his note-books in general. They are full of facts, and facts\nof every description. He seldom gives impressions or sentiments. He has\na hunger for all kinds of items; give him these and the sentiments will\ntake care of themselves. Occasionally he concludes with a description\nthat sets the items in some higher relation and shows the processes that\nare going on in his own mind; as when, after giving some dozen\nparticulars in the process of manufacturing papier-mach\u00e9, he closes the\nlist of catch-words with this: \u201cIt is the art of creating plastic wood.\nIt grows by hand and not by vegetable vitality, then hardens and\nreceives _Art_.\u201d\n\nBut it was not items alone that he learned in his travels; he became\nfamiliar with objects of which he had read, and gained inspiration from\na more intimate acquaintance. In Warwick Castle and Kenilworth he walked\namong scenes made vivid to him in his youth in the pages of Sir Walter\nScott. He entered, as he said, \u201cinto the very life of that olden time,\nand took from it its good without tasting its evil.\u201d\n\nC\u00e6sar\u2019s Tower, which had stood for eight hundred years, co-eval with the\nNorman Conquest, especially aroused his imagination:\n\n\u201cI stood upon its mute stones and imagined the ring of the hammer upon\nthem when the mason was laying them to their bed of ages. What were the\nthoughts, the fancies, the conversations of these rude fellows at that\nage of the world? I was wafted backward, and backward, until I stood on\nthe foundations upon which old England herself was builded, when as yet\nthere was none of her. There, far back of all literature, before the\nEnglish tongue itself was formed, earlier than her jurisprudence and\nthan all modern civilization, I stood in imagination, and, reversing my\nvision, looked down into a far future to search for the men and deeds\nwhich had been, as if they were yet to be; thus making a prophecy of\nhistory, and changing memory into a dreamy foresight.\n\n\u201cAgainst these stones, on which I lay my hand, have rung the sounds of\nbattle. Yonder, on these very grounds, there raged, in sight of men that\nstand where I do, fiercest and deadliest conflicts. All this ground has\nfed on blood....\n\n\u201cI walked across to Guy\u2019s Tower, up its long stone stairway, into some\nof its old soldiers\u2019 rooms. The pavements were worn, though of stone,\nwith the heavy, grinding feet of men-at-arms. I heard them laugh between\ntheir cups, I saw them devouring their gross food, I heard them recite\ntheir feats, or tell the last news of some knightly outrage or cruel\noppression of the despised laborer. I stood by the window out of which\nthe archer sent his whistling arrows. I stood by the openings through\nwhich scalding water or molten lead was poured upon the heads of the\nassailants, and heard the hoarse shriek of the wretched fellows who got\nthe shocking baptism. I ascended to the roof of the tower, and looked\nover the wide glory of the scene, still haunted with the same\nimaginations of olden time. How many thoughts had flown hence besides\nmine!\u2014here where warriors looked out or ladies watched for their\nknights\u2019 return. How did I long to stand for one hour, really, in their\nposition and in their consciousness who lived in those days; and then to\ncome back, with the new experience, to my modern self!\u201d\n\nIn this is shown his sympathy with the old Saxon yeomanry, and was his\nSaxon ancestry taking voice; all the romantic, picturesque elements of\nhis nature were fed, and ran, like the streams of springtide,\nfull-banked to the sea.\n\nWe next find in his note-book these items and references:\n\n\u201cApproach to Stratford-on-Avon. How peaceful the associations in\ncontrast with those of Warwick and Kenilworth!\u201d\n\n\u201cThe place: old English houses; Red Horse Inn.\u201d\n\n\u201cBirds: thrush, lark, nightingale, sparrow, robin, starling, rooks,\ncuckoo.\u201d\n\n\u201cA different but, to me, even greater interest attaches to Avon from the\nthrongs from every nation that have visited it.\u201d\n\n\u201cShakspere: eleven years old when Elizabeth visited Kenilworth.\u201d\n\n\u201cNo greater change can be imagined than from the warlike towers of Guy\nof Warwick to the quiet home of Shakspere, Stratford-on-Avon.\u201d The\nchange in his experience was equally marked. In the one the martial\nspirit of the warrior, in the other the loving, receptive spirit of the\nprophet and poet, were aroused and fed. In Stratford-on-Avon he had one\nof those luminous hours which were, in his experience, like Mountains of\nTransfiguration.\n\nIn a letter to a friend describing a Sabbath here, written at this time,\nhe says:\n\n\u201cThe scenes of Saturday had fired me; every visit to various points in\nStratford-on-Avon added to the inspiration, until, as I sallied forth to\nchurch, I seemed not to have a body. I could hardly feel my feet\nstriking against the ground; it was as if I were numb. But my soul was\nclear, penetrating, and exquisitely susceptible....\n\n\u201cI had been anxious lest some Cowper\u2019s ministerial fop should officiate,\nand the sight of this aged man was good. The form of his face and head\nindicated firmness, but his features were suffused with an expression of\nbenevolence.\n\n\u201cHe ascended the reading-desk and the services began. You know my mother\nwas, until her marriage, in the communion of the Episcopal Church. This\nthought hardly left me while I sat, grateful for the privilege of\nworshipping God through a service that had expressed so often her\ndevotions. I cannot tell you how much I was affected. I had never had\nsuch a trance of worship, and I shall never have such another view until\nI gain the Gate.\n\n\u201cI am so ignorant of the church service that I cannot call the various\nparts by their right names, but the portions which most affected me were\nthe prayers and responses which the choir sang. I had never heard any\npart of a supplication, a direct prayer, chanted by a choir, and it\nseemed as though I heard not with my ear but with my soul. I was\ndissolved; my whole being seemed to me like an incense wafted gratefully\ntoward God. The divine presence rose before me in wondrous majesty, but\nof ineffable gentleness and goodness, and I could not stay away from\nmore familiar approach, but seemed irresistibly yet gently drawn toward\nGod. My soul, then thou didst magnify the Lord and rejoice in the God of\nthy salvation! And then came to my mind the many exultations of the\nPsalms of David, and never before were the expressions and figures so\nnoble and so necessary to express what I felt. I had risen, it seemed to\nme, so high as to be where David was when his soul conceived the things\nwhich he wrote. Throughout the service\u2014and it was an hour and a quarter\nlong\u2014whenever an \u2018Amen!\u2019 occurred it was given by the choir accompanied\nby the organ and the congregation. Oh! that swell and solemn cadence\nrings in my ear yet!\n\n\u201cNot once, not a single time, did it occur in that service without\nbringing tears from my eyes. I stood like a shrub on a spring\nmorning\u2014every leaf covered with dew, and every breeze shook down some\ndrops. I trembled so much at times that I was obliged to sit down. Oh!\nwhen in the prayers, breathed forth in strains of sweet, simple, solemn\nmusic, the love of Christ was recognized, how I longed then to give\nutterance to what that love seemed to me. There was a moment in which\nthe heavens seemed opened to me and I saw the glory of God! All the\nearth seemed to me a store-house of images made to set forth the\nRedeemer, and I could scarcely be still from crying out. I never knew, I\nnever dreamed before of what heart there was in that word _amen_. Every\ntime it swelled forth and died away solemnly, not my lips, not my mind,\nbut my whole being said: \u2018Saviour, so let it be.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe sermon was preparatory to the communion, which I then first learned\nwas to be celebrated. It was plain and good; and although the rector had\ndone many things in a way that led me to suppose that he sympathized\nwith over-much ceremony, yet in his sermon he seemed evangelical and\ngave a right view of the Lord\u2019s Supper.\n\n\u201cFor the first time in my life I went forward to commune in an Episcopal\nchurch. Without any intent of my own, but because from my seat it was\nnearest, I knelt down at the altar, with the dust of Shakspere beneath\nmy feet. I thought of it as I thought of ten thousand other things,\nwithout the least disturbance of devotion. It seemed as if I stood upon\na place so high that, like one looking over a wide valley, all objects\nconspired to make but one view. I thought of the General Assembly and\nChurch of the First-Born, of my mother and brother and children in\nheaven, of my living family on earth, of you, of the whole church\nentrusted to my hands\u2014they afar off, I upon the banks of the Avon.\u201d\n\nHe did not forget his old friends, birds and trees. From\nStratford-on-Avon he writes:\n\n\u201cAs I stood looking over on the masses of foliage and the single trees\ndotted in here and there, I could see every shade of green, and all of\nthem most beautiful, and as refreshing to me as old friends. After\nstanding awhile to take a last view of Stratford-on-Avon from this high\nground and the beautiful slopes around it, and of the meadows of the\nAvon, I began to walk homeward, when I heard such an outbreak behind me\nas wheeled me about quick enough. There he flew, singing as he rose, and\nrising gradually, not directly up, but with gentle slope\u2014there was the\nfree-singing lark, not half so happy to sing as I was to hear. In a\nmoment more he had reached the summit of his ambition and suddenly fell\nback to the grass again. And now if you laugh at my enthusiasm I will\npity you for the want of it. I have heard one poet\u2019s lark, if I never\nhear another, and am much happier for it.\u201d\n\nAt Oxford a new world opened to him\u2014that of an English university town\nenriched with the growth and associations of seven hundred years. The\nbeauty of its architecture, its cloistered quiet, its galleries, and,\nmost of all, its libraries, impressed him.\n\n\u201cFew places affect me more than libraries, and especially the Bodleian\nLibrary, reputed to have half a million printed books and manuscripts. I\nwalked solemnly and reverently among the alcoves and through the halls,\nas if in the pyramid of embalmed souls. It was their life, their heart,\ntheir mind, that they treasured in these book-urns. Silent as they are,\nshould all the emotions that went to their creation have utterance,\ncould the world itself contain the various sounds? They longed for fame!\nHere it is\u2014to stand silently for ages, moved only to be dusted and\ncatalogued, valued only as units in the ambitious total, and gazed at\noccasionally by men ignorant as I am of their name, their place, their\nlanguage, and their worth. Indeed, unless a man can link his written\nthoughts with the everlasting wants of men, so that they shall draw from\nthem as from wells, there is no more immortality to the thoughts and\nfeelings of the soul than to the muscles and the bones. A library is but\nthe soul\u2019s burial-ground. It is the land of shadows.\u201d\n\nIt was, however, not all shadowy.\n\n\u201c_Noon Refection._\u2014\u2018What will you take to drink, Oxford ale or a little\nwine?\u2019 Cold water. \u2018Oh! not cold water, surely? A little sherry and\nwater?\u2019 \u2018Surely you will not come to England to drink cold water?\u2019 My\ndear sir, I am a thorough-going teetotaler, and you surely would not\nhave me come to England to lose my good principles? \u2018Why, sir, I am not\na teetotaler, but I am a temperance man\u2014was never drunk in my life\u2014but\nyou surprise me!\u2019\n\n\u201cDining and tea-room of Fellows. Elaborate carved oak\u2014no sham. In all\nrespects college in quadrangle proposes to take care of its students,\nhead and stomach, soul, intellect, and body, and therefore has added\nkitchen to library.\u201d\n\n\u201c_London, August 9._\u2014Arrived last night. Old Bell. Visited Trafalgar\nSquare and Westminster Abbey, Guildhall, Bank of England, Tower, Tunnel,\netc.\u201d\n\nIn London something of the old-time sadness came over him, with the\nold-time sources of relief:\n\n\u201cNow, too, I am apt, if I do not fall asleep soon enough\u2014or more\nfrequently when I awake, hours before it is the fashion here to get\nup\u2014to lie and think over my way of life hitherto; and my life-work seems\nto me to be so little, and so poorly done, that I feel discouraged at\nthe thought of resuming it! I have everywhere in my travelling\u2014at the\nshrine of the martyrs in Oxford, at the graves of Bunyan and Wesley in\nLondon, at the vault in which Raleigh was for twelve years confined in\nthe Tower\u2014asked myself whether I could have done and endured what they\ndid, and _as_ they did! It is enough to make one tremble for himself to\nhave such a heart-sounding as this gives him. I cast the lead for the\ndepth of my soul, and it strikes so soon that I have little reason for\npride.\n\n\u201cHad it not been for paintings, and flowers, and trees, and the\nlandscapes, I do not know what I should have done with myself. Often\nwhen extremely distressed I have gone to the parks or out of the city to\nsome quiet ground where I could find a wooded stream, and the woods\nfilled with birds, and found, almost in a moment, a new spirit coming\nover me. I was rid of _men_, almost of myself. I seemed to find a sacred\nsweetness and calmness, not coming over me, but into me. I seemed nearer\nto heaven. I felt less sadness about life, for God would take care of\nit; and my own worthlessness, too, became a source of composure, for on\nthat very account it made little difference in the world\u2019s history\nwhether I lived or died. God worked, it seemed to me, upon a scale so\nvast and rich in details that anything and anybody could be spared and\nnot affect the results of life.\u201d\n\nHe crossed over to Paris in August, and his note-book gives us\ncatch-words and sentences evidently intended for reminders of sights,\nincidents, and adventures that he wished to remember. So disconnected\nare they that they are of little worth except as showing what interested\nhim in this great city on this his first visit, and as affording the raw\nmaterials out of which grew his letters and more finished descriptions.\n\n_When_ he arrived, by what route, at what hotel he stopped, he\napparently did not think worth noting; but what he saw in the life of\nthe people he wished to remember, and the first few pages of his diary\nare filled with items like these: \u201cThree mothers with their babies.\u201d\n\u201cBoy and sister frolicking, six or seven years old.\u201d \u201cFamily on seat;\nlittle thing talking, about three years old.\u201d \u201cTwelve soldiers going to\nrelieve sentinels.\u201d \u201cStand for flowers,\u201d etc.\n\nNext to the life of the common people the largest space in his diary is\ngiven to the art-galleries. On two pages he jots down \u201cEffect of Gallery\non my Mind\u201d:\n\n\u201c1st. Astonishment, at number and exquisite character, beyond what had\nexpected\u2014not of something finer, but such as to make me feel that before\nI had not seen anything.\n\n\u201c2d. Then sense of intense pleasure, from _what_ do not stop to inquire.\nIt is not color, form, composition, nor mere sympathy with thing\nexpressed. _It is the whole._ The walls flame out as if the hall was a\n_summer_ and all shining in concentration upon you. I see all that is\npainted\u2014and _more_. I see, beyond, other visions, the mute figures\nspeak. I imagine the scene before the time chosen and afterwards.\n\n\u201c3d. Then comes sense of _beauty_, complex, of rich and exquisite\n_coloring_; also the beauty of the scenes. The objects, in other words,\nand the instrument of their manifestation.\n\n\u201c4th. Then you begin to select and to hang in a dreamy review over one\nor another. _Time_ is not known; you wake by some footfall. Whether you\nhave been here an hour or four you cannot tell; it seems by the populous\nexperience a long time. You do not _weary_, but you _exhale_\u2014_i.e._, the\nsenses seem to flag, while mind is keener than ever, and you _imagine_\nrather than see; as one who is exhilarated by wine _sees_, to be sure,\nbut his own mind affords the color and\u2014\u201d\n\nIn his letters he afterwards enlarged upon this topic: \u201cAh! what a new\nworld has been opened to me, and what a new sense within myself! I knew\nthat I had gradually grown fond of pictures from my boyhood. I had felt\nthe power of some few. But nothing had ever come up to a certain ideal\nthat had hovered in my mind, and I supposed I was not fine enough to\nappreciate with discrimination the works of masters. To find myself\nabsolutely intoxicated; to find my system so much affected that I could\nnot control my nerves; to find myself trembling, and laughing, and\nweeping, and almost hysterical, and that in spite of my shame and\ndetermination to behave better\u2014such a power of these galleries over me I\nhad not expected. I have lived for two days in fairyland, wakened out of\nit by some few sights which I have mechanically visited, more for the\nsake of pleasing friends at home, when I return, than for a present\npleasure to myself, but relapsing again into the golden vision....\n\n\u201cI could not tell whether hours or minutes were passing. It was a\nblessed exhalation of soul, in which I seemed freed from matter, and, as\na diffused intelligence, to float in the atmosphere. I could not believe\nthat a dull body was the centre from which thought and emotion radiated.\nI had a sense of expansion, of etherealization, which gave me some faint\nsense of a spiritual state. Nor was I in a place altogether unfitted for\nsuch a state. The subject of many of the works\u2014suffering, heroic\nresistance, angels, Arcadian scenes, especially the scenes of Christ\u2019s\nlife and death\u2014seemed not unfitting accompaniment to my mind, and\nsuggested to me, in a glorious vision, the drawing near of a redeemed\nsoul to the precincts of heaven! Oh! with what an outburst of soul did I\nimplore Christ to wash me, and all whom I loved, in His precious blood,\nthat we might not fail of entering the glorious city whose builder and\nmaker is God! All my sins seemed not only _sins_ but great deformities.\nThey seemed not merely affronts against God but insults to my own\nnature! My soul snuffed at them and trod them down as the mire in the\nstreet. Then, holy and loving thoughts toward God or toward man seemed\nto me to be as beautiful as those fleecy islets along the west at\nsunset, crowned with glory; and the gentler aspirations for goodness and\nnobleness and knowledge seemed to me like silver mists through which the\nmorning is striking, wafting them gently and in wreaths and films\nheavenward. Great deeds, heroism for worthy objects, for God, or for\none\u2019s fellows, or for one\u2019s own purity, seemed not only natural but as\nthings without which a soul could not live.\n\n\u201cBut at length I perceived myself exhausted, not by any sense of fatigue\n(I had no sense or body), but by perceiving that my mind would not fix\nupon material objects, but strove to act by itself. Thus a new picture\nwas examined only for an instant, and then I exhaled into all kinds of\ngolden dreams and visions.\n\n\u201cI left the gallery, and in this mood, as I threaded my way back, how\nbeautiful did everything and everybody seem! The narrow streets were\nbeautiful for being narrow, and the broad ones for being broad; old\nbuildings had their glory, and new structures had theirs; children were\nall glorified children; I loved the poor workmen that I saw in the\nconfined and narrow shops; the various women, young and old, with huge\nbuck-baskets, or skipping hither and thither on errands, all seemed\nhappy, and my soul blessed them as I passed.\n\n\u201cMy own joy of being overflowed upon everything which I met. Sometimes\nsinging to myself, or smiling to others so as to make men think,\ndoubtless, that I had met some good luck or was on some prosperous\nerrand of love, I walked on through street after street, turning\nwhichever corner, to the right or left, happened to please the moment,\nneither knowing or caring where I went, but always finding something to\nsee and enjoying all things. Nor do I know yet by what instinct I\nrounded up my journeyings by finding my proper lodging. That night I\nslept, as to my body, but felt little difference between dreaming asleep\nand dreaming awake.\u201d\n\nWe turn from his note-book and letters to one of the papers of the day,\nand read: \u201cRev. H. W. Beecher, our esteemed brother, has returned from\nhis transatlantic trip with improved health. He reached New York\nyesterday (evening) in the _Asia_, September 11.\u201d\n\nHe arrived unexpectedly and found his family, which had been spending\nthe summer at Sutton, Mass., with the grandmother, awaiting him. His\ntrip had been a success in every particular. Not only was his health\nrestored, but his field of observation had been vastly broadened and his\nexperiences greatly deepened. England, the home of his race, had been\nseen and touched; he had visited her castles, colleges, and churches;\nwalked among her fields, become acquainted with her people; and\nhenceforth her noble history, great achievements, and mighty names\nseemed more real to him, and she was more admired and beloved than ever.\n\nIn Paris he became conscious for the first time of the power of true\nart, and began that study of it which only ended with his life.\n\nBut, whether in England or France, so well read was he in the history of\nthe places visited, and so vivid was his imagination to bring back the\nscenes and men that made these places memorable, that his journey was as\na sojourn with the wisest and best of our race, and he returned from it\nrefreshed and enlarged for the work that, for a few weeks, had been laid\naside.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XVIII.\n\nChurch and Steamboat\u2014Jenny Lind\u2014Hospitality\u2014Colonel Pertzel\u2014The\n    Family\u2014Twins\u2014Medicine\u2014Giving Counsel\u2014For the Sailor\u2014An Absurd Story\n    Contradicted\u2014Salisbury\u2014Trouting\u2014Death of Alfred and Arthur\u2014Letters\n    to his Daughter at School\u2014Lenox\u2014Equivocal Honors Declined\u2014The\n    Pulpit\u2014\u201cPlymouth Collection\u201d\u2014\u201cShining Shore.\u201d A Church\n    Liturgy\u2014Courting with his Father\u2019s old Love-letters\u20141857 a Year of\n    Trial\u2014Matteawan\u2014Visit to Litchfield\u20141858 a Year of Harvest\u2014Revival\n    Meetings\u2014Hospitality of Plymouth Church\u2014Courtesy to Errorists\u2014New\n    Organ\u2014Peekskill\u2014Letters to his Daughter abroad\u2014Marriage of his\n    Daughter\u2014Lecturing\u2014Title of D.D. declined\u2014Flowers in\n    Church\u2014Christian Liberty in the Use of the Beautiful\u2014His two Lines\n    of Labor.\n\n\nNo sooner has he put his foot on shore than he is engaged in battle.\nThis time it is against religious bigotry and intolerance upon the seas.\nA Star article from his pen appeared September 19 upon \u201cChurch and\nSteamboat\u2014Cunard Line\u201d:\n\nNo religious service was allowed on the steamers except that which was\nappointed for the crew, at which the passengers were _permitted_ to be\npresent. No one was allowed to read the service there except the\ncaptain, who, having been playing cards late Saturday night, and being\naddicted to the sailor habit of profanity, was not considered fit for\nthe office. No one at all was permitted to preach, or, if the rule were\never varied, only a clergyman of Episcopal ordination. One of the\nowners, who happened to be on the ship, when courteously asked to allow\nsome one of the nine clergymen on board to preach, and to give the use\nof one of the several cabins to those who chose to have service of their\nown, lost his temper and said that if Americans did not choose to go on\nhis line, \u201cd\u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2019em! they may go to h\u2014\u2014\u2014.\u201d All this appeared to Mr.\nBeecher as rank injustice and an interference with the freedom of\nworship of multitudes of travellers. Humorously, yet with good, solid,\nset phrase, he denounces this bigotry in the article above mentioned.\nLike most of his articles, it was strong enough to draw the fire of the\nenemy.\n\nThe captain and the son of this owner reply in letters which partly\nexplain, partly deny, but wholly charge Mr. Beecher with falsehood. This\nbrings another article from him in the next issue, September 26:\n\n\u201cIt is not to be supposed, gentlemen, that either of you can sympathize\nfully with me in an inveterate prejudice which I have contracted against\nlying in all its moods and tenses. But, really, I feel hurt that you\nhave so low an opinion of my ingenuity as to suppose that, if I set out\nto tell lies, I should tell such poor and graceless ones.\n\n\u201cAllow me to assure you, gentlemen, that while my principles forbid me\nto employ falsehood, yet should I attempt it I should conscientiously\nendeavor to lie well.\u201d\n\nHe reiterates his charges, adds to them some further remarks upon the\ngambling habits of the captain, which unfit him to act as conductor of\npublic worship, procures affidavits from responsible parties to\nsubstantiate his charges, and refers them to the courts for redress, if\nthey think themselves aggrieved.\n\nThe first battle upon his return to his native land was waged for\nfreedom of worship upon the high seas!\n\nIn this same month of September, Jenny Lind came to this country and\nbegan that series of concerts which have never been surpassed. Her first\nconcert in Castle Garden, September 11, netted $30,000. Some of the\npapers having criticised her and her manager for the high price of\ntickets, and the community for paying it, Mr. Beecher takes up the\ncudgels in her behalf:\n\n\u201cJenny Lind, if we understand her desires and aims, is employing a\nresplendent musical genius in the most noble accordance with the spirit\nof the Gospel. In her we behold a spectacle of eminent genius employing\nits magic power in the elevation of the human race.\n\n\u201cIf men would spare from the disgusting weed and poisonous liquors\none-half of what they spend every month, there are few so poor as not to\nbe able to hear Jenny Lind.        *\u201d\n\nOne of his children gives this incident:\n\n\u201cIn those early days father always had a flower-garden in the back-yard\nof our city homes. I remember when we lived in the little, brown wooden\nhouse on Columbia Heights, Jenny Lind came to board near us for a short\ntime. All the neighboring children used to gather round her door to see\nher start for her drive; and one day when we saw the carriage in front\nof her house, I ran in to ask father if H\u2014\u2014\u2014 and I could go and see her\ncome out. He was at work in the garden among his flowers, and, after\ngiving his consent, called me back, cut a handful of roses, and told me\nI could take those and give them to her. So off H\u2014\u2014\u2014 and I went, but I\nbelieve, after all, my courage failed, and I brought them home again,\nvery much ashamed. Father laughed, but comforted me by saying he\u2019d\nrather I would be too shy than too bold.\u201d\n\nHe closes this eventful year (1850) with two Star articles\u2014the one\n(December 12), \u201cRemember the Poor\u201d: \u201cUpon the whole, we doubt if there\nis any other means of grace so profitable to a Christian as the _whole_\nduty of relieving the poor; for giving money is but a small part, and\noften the least effective part, of duty to them. Every man ought to take\na single case or family, and look after them through the winter.\u201d\nAnother (December 19) upon \u201cDifferent Ways of Giving\u201d: \u201cNow and then you\nwill find a man whose face is March but whose pocket is June. He will\nstorm and scold at you, but send you away with ten times as much as you\nasked.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher was very hospitable, and kept open house for friends, and\neven for such chance acquaintance as came to be associated with him.\n\u201cWhen Kossuth was in this country, Colonel Pertzel, his chief of staff,\nwith his wife, stopped with us for several weeks. When they went away\nshe gave me her bracelet of national coins, which, she said, was prized\nby the Hungarian women in their exile above all their possessions.\n\n\u201cOur own family circle at this time consisted of father, mother, and\nthree children\u2014two boys and a girl. Besides these Aunt Esther was with\nus, whom I remember as little and round, straight and precise, with\nsnapping black eyes, looking after the second generation of nephews and\nnieces, and telling us stories; and also Grandma Bullard, doing the\nmending and cosseting while she sang \u2018Bounding Billow\u2019 and \u2018Like the\nHart and the Roe.\u2019 Dear, ideal old grandmother!\u201d\n\nDecember 20, 1852, there was an addition to this circle. \u201cI can remember\nsitting in the parlor one evening with Aunt Esther, and father\u2019s coming\nin, going up to her, and kissing her first on one cheek and then on the\nother, and her giving a little jump, saying, \u2018Not two, Henry!\u2019 and his\nanswering, \u2018Yes, two.\u2019 Then he told me that I had two little new\nbrothers up-stairs.\n\n\u201cFather was so proud of these twins that I remember on New Year\u2019s day he\ntook fifteen or twenty of the Hungarians who were making New Year\u2019s\ncalls up into mother\u2019s room to see them.\u201d\n\nAt the Thanksgiving service of this year Mr. Beecher had announced that\nan effort would be made to raise by subscription the sum of $13,000 to\npay off the floating debt of the church before January 1, and the papers\nof a later date contain the announcement that the sum was promptly\nsubscribed, \u201cand Plymouth Church may now be considered on a firm\nfoundation in temporal matters, and is in every way in a prosperous\ncondition.\u201d\n\nThe church entered the new year, 1852, without debt, and more than ten\nthousand dollars were realized from the rent of the pews.\n\nEvidently he begins the year with especial effort to overcome spiritual\ncoldness among the people, and bring in the summer of Christian life and\ngrowth, for his Star Papers are upon subjects like these: \u201cIce in the\nChurch,\u201d \u201cVarious Convictions of Sin,\u201d and later are announcements in\nthe papers of morning prayer-meetings in \u201cPlymouth Church,\u201d \u201cPreaching\nEvery Evening.\u201d\n\nIn due time the announcement is made that \u201csixty persons were last\nSabbath morning received into the church, fifty upon profession of\nfaith.\u201d\n\nHe is experiencing one of the evils to which religious meetings are\nprone, and concerning it he sends out a note of warning, \u201cOne Cause of\nDull Meetings\u201d:\n\n\u201cWe hardly know of a more unprofitable exercise for social meetings than\nwhat is called exhortation. Men impose upon themselves and social\nmeetings degenerate into absurd formalities\u2014a pretence of caring for\nwhat they do not care for, of renouncing what all the world knows they\ndo not renounce, of asking for what they do not desire and desiring what\nthey dare not ask.\u201d\n\nThrough life Mr. Beecher was as free with pathies in medicine as of isms\nin religion, and used allopathy, hom\u0153opathy, hydropathy, electricity,\nor hand-rubbing, as seemed to him at the time most likely to secure the\ncoveted result. In general he trusted more to the man than to the\nsystem. His position on this matter, which he held substantially for\nyears, is given in a review of a medical work:\n\n\u201cIn good earnest, we regard medicine with little favor. Our first recipe\nfor sickness is, not to get sick. Our second is reliance upon a\nwell-bred, sensible doctor. _We_ select the doctor. It is his business\nto select the medicine, and we do not care a pin what it is. To all who\nask us, therefore, what school we belong to, we reply: \u2018We are firmly\npersuaded of Dr. \u2014\u2014\u2014.\u2019 This is the sum of our present creed.\u201d\n\nHis interest in common men and their affairs brought many to him by\nletter or in personal conversation for advice in their difficulties.\nProbably few physicians or lawyers in good practice were consulted by\nmore people than came daily to Mr. Beecher. So practical were his\nprinciples of action, so great his sympathy with men in trouble, and\nsuch his ability to see through the difficulty, that men came to him for\ncounsel from far and near.\n\nA man asks him as to his duty to his creditors under certain peculiar\ncircumstances which he mentions. Mr. Beecher goes over the matter in\ndetail, states the ground of difficulty in that and all similar cases,\nand points out the way of relief in this fruitful sentence: \u201cSelfishness\nis the great mischief-maker in settlements. Men think of their own\nrights first and their creditors\u2019 afterwards. Reverse this. Be careful\nfirst that no man suffer by you.\u201d\n\nAgain, at this time a man writes asking as to the duty of a temperance\nman and a professor of religion in regard to selling liquor as an agent.\n\n\u201c... He, therefore, who loves his situation or his pocket more than his\nreligion can expect but little sympathy from robust Christians, and\nlittle favor from that Christ of the cross who has ordered a church of\ncross-bearing disciples. But we will turn our friend in such a dilemma\nover to our friend Hall, a drayman in New York, who utterly refuses to\ncart liquor, who will not unload a ship if in so doing he must cart\nbrandy. For he says he will not disgrace any horse that he owns by\nletting him be seen with a load of liquor behind him.\u201d\n\nWhile carrying a free lance ready as any knight of old to champion every\ncause that was suffering injustice, we want to emphasize the fact that\nhe had none of that small, truculent spirit that leads to personal\nattacks. He was very lenient to individual human failures, charitable in\nhis judgments, and would rather attempt to save by hiding than to punish\nby exposing them. In answer to a question which we once asked concerning\na man who, to our mind, had greatly transgressed the limits of public\npropriety, if not of morality, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you pitch in and show up this\nmatter?\u201d this man of a thousand battles said quietly, with just a shade\nof rebuke for the spirit we had shown in his tone: \u201cI don\u2019t like to\npitch into folks as much as some do.\u201d But when wrong or injustice had\nwrought itself into a system, it made no difference to him how high in\nposition they were who upheld it, or how low in the scale were the\nsufferers, or how securely entrenched was the wrong; he waited for no\ninvitation, he asked no permission, he sought for no support, but\nattacked it at once, aiming to expose and remove the root element of the\nevil.\n\nAn illustration of this characteristic of Mr. Beecher is afforded by an\narticle written by him at this time upon \u201cNaval Discipline,\u201d in which he\nbrings to the sailor the same broad sympathy, established principles,\nand clear reasoning that he was accustomed to employ in the case of\nanother and very different class:\n\n\u201c... It is of little use to cobble a system whose radical idea is wrong.\nThis is our judgment in the case of the American navy. The republican\ninstitutions of America, slavery always excepted, contemplate the\nimprovement and elevation of the masses. Government does not undertake\nto educate the citizen, but it contemplates, it is obliged from its\norigin to accommodate itself to the radical idea of, the liberty of the\npeople to move among themselves, to guide, to change, to advance freely\nin any direction. The American navy is a monarchy. Its subjects are\nregarded in but one light\u2014_they are to be under service_. More than this\nnothing is thought of. Sailors have no liberty. There is neither\nprovision for, nor expectation of, improvement.... There must be an\nentirely new spirit infused into the whole system of such service.\n\n\u201d... In short, the naval system must address the social and moral need\nof the sailor. They must be allowed to act under all those high motives\nwhich develop men on shore.\u201d\n\nWhile moved by these world-wide sympathies, he was in no mood to submit\nwith patience to bigotry nearer home, and utters a very strong protest\nagainst the ostracizing of certain Sabbath-schools by the orthodox\nschools of Brooklyn in their yearly parade:\n\n\u201cWe ought to seize such an occasion to promote kindly feelings and\ncultivate such sympathy as differing sects might lawfully have in\ncommon. There is no liberality in urging this matter; it is simply\ncommon sense and common decency....\n\n\u201cDoes the \u2014\u2014\u2014 (paper) regard it as dangerous to walk the streets with a\nUnitarian? Is heresy like smallpox, so contagious that one school will\ngive it to another by sitting for an hour in the same audience-room with\nit?... We shall pray more earnestly than ever for the advance of that\nday when the love of God shall abound in the hearts of men and inspire\nmen to love each other.\u201d\n\nHis Star Papers of 1852 close with this, which will at once be\nrecognized as eminently characteristic:\n\n\u201cWe had always supposed that absurd stories grew in this vicinity like\nweeds in the tropics or trees planted by rivers. For once, however, the\ncountry newspapers have got ahead of our neighborhood.\n\n\u201cWe have made diligent search, taken the census, examined every cradle,\ndrawer, closet, crib, nook, and corner, and are prepared to affirm the\nfollowing story, which was born in the _Windham County Telegraph_, the\nNorwich _Tribune_, Springfield _Republican_, Boston _Chronicle_, and\nother papers, to be _exaggerated_:\n\n\u201c\u2018Rev. H. W. Beecher\u2019s lady has presented him with five little\nresponsibilities in a little better than one year: two soon after the\narrival of Kossuth and three the other day.\u2019\n\n\u201cTwins there were a year ago whose blessed faces fill the house with\nlight, but the _three above-mentioned_ were born of those maternal\neditors whose brains fulfil the prophet\u2019s word, \u2018Ye shall consume chaff;\nye shall bring forth stubble.\u2019\n\n\u201cWe turn these mousing, mongering editors over to the next\nwoman\u2019s-rights convention; or, if they are not fit for a seat there,\nthey may amuse the children with nursery tales while the mothers are at\ndiscussion; or, if not fit for that, let them in mercy be bound out as\nvery dry nurses at some foundling hospital.\u201d\n\nHe spends the summer of 1853, as he had the one preceding, at Salisbury,\nConnecticut.\n\n\u201cOnce more we find ourselves at home among lucid green trees, among\nhills and mountains, with lakes and brooks on every side, and country\nroads threading their way in curious circuits among them. All day long\nwe have moved about with dreamy newness of life. Birds, crickets, and\ngrasshoppers are the only players upon instruments that molest the air.\nChanticleer is at this instant proclaiming over the whole valley that\nthe above declaration is a slander on his musical gifts. Very well; add\nchanticleer to cricket, grasshopper, and bird. Add, also, a cow, for I\nhear her distant low melodious through the valley, with all roughness\nstrained out by the trees through which it comes hitherward. O this\nsilence in the air, this silence on the mountains, this silence on the\nlakes!\u201d\n\nHe closes a long letter upon trouting in this fashion:\n\n\u201cYou forget your errand. You select a dry, tufty knoll, and, lying down,\nyou gaze up into the sky. O those depths! Something in you reaches out\nand yearns. You have a vague sense of infinity, of vastness, of the\nlittleness of human life, and the sweetness and grandeur of divine life\nand of eternity. You people that vast ether. You stretch away through it\nand find that celestial city beyond, and therein dwell oh! how many that\nare yours! Tears come unbidden. You begin to long for release. You pray.\nWas there ever a better closet? Under the shadow of the mountain, the\nheavens full of cloudy cohorts, like armies of horsemen and chariots,\nyour soul is loosened from the narrow judgments of human life, and\ntouched with a full sense of immortality and the liberty of a spiritual\nstate. An hour goes past. How full has it been of feelings struggling to\nbe thoughts, and thoughts deliquescing into feeling! Twilight is coming.\nYou have miles to ride home. Not a trout in your basket! Never mind; you\nhave fished in the heavens and taken great store of prey. Let them laugh\nat your empty basket. Take their raillery good-naturedly; you have\ncertainly had good luck.\u201d\n\nThe sadness which is plainly visible in the passage quoted is an old\nacquaintance. We have learned to expect its appearance somewhere at\nevery feast. At this time undoubtedly it comes the oftener because of\nthe sorrowful experiences of the early summer. The twins, Alfred and\nArthur, \u201cwhose blessed faces fill the house with light,\u201d had both died\non the fourth of July of this year, and been buried in the same grave.\n\nIt was one of the deep sorrows of his life, seldom mentioned save when\nattempting by his sympathy to comfort others in like affliction; it\nbecame a fountain of deep and tender feeling for all in distress, and of\nearnest longings for the rest and the reunions of heaven.\n\nThe going away of his daughter to boarding-school during the autumn\nmakes another break in the family, to which he refers in a letter in\nNovember:\n\n\u201c... This is the first departure of any of my children from home, and it\nis an experience which testifies to my affection for you and my\nsolicitude; yet I do not in the least doubt that you will do well....\n\n\u201cThere is little news at home. Your room is occupied by E\u2014\u2014\u2014 B\u2014\u2014\u2014, who\nnow lives with us and takes care of W\u2014\u2014\u2014. She seems a very good girl,\nand W\u2014\u2014\u2014 is getting very fond of her. He makes no resistance to her\ndressing him, and submits even to having his hair curled with great\npeace. The rogue is fat and happy, and opens his big eyes with a\nhalf-tearful, dreamy look when we ask him: _Where is Sister H\u2014\u2014\u2014?_...\n\n\u201cWe are all going to Aunty H\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2019s to dinner, and in the evening Mrs.\nH\u2014\u2014\u2014 and family will come round there too. As for me, I am in the agony\nof writing my Thanksgiving sermon....\n\n\u201cThere, H\u2014\u2014\u2014, I have made quite an effort, for me, at letter-writing and\nnews-telling. Let me hear from you.\n\n                                        \u201cYour loving father,\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\nIn a letter to her the following June he mentions an important domestic\nevent:\n\n                                           \u201cBROOKLYN, June 24, 1854.\n\n\u201d_My dear H\u2014\u2014\u2014_:\n\n\u201cI must answer your last letter to me before you leave, lest I lose my\nrepute as a good and frequent correspondent; and I am the more willing\nto do it as I have very agreeable tidings to communicate to you.\n\n\u201cYou will receive a visit from W\u2014\u2014\u2014 A\u2014\u2014\u2014, of our church, whom I presume\nyou remember. Well, it has been thought best, after consultation, and\nsome mysterious correspondence with your Aunt S\u2014\u2014\u2014 which you may have\nnoticed, that you should meet me at Cleveland and spend the next Sabbath\nthere, July 2; go to Painesville and spend _July 4_ with me there; and\nthen come back at our leisure to see your mother and a new little\nbrother who was safely born into this world on last Thursday, June 22,\nat three o\u2019clock in the afternoon, weighing ten pounds, and filling all\npeople\u2019s hearts with joy at his health and general peaceable qualities.\nAs yet we have fallen upon no name....\n\n\u201d... Meanwhile young Master Nameless is sleeping off all traces of\nremembrance of that former state of existence from which Edward supposes\nhim to be an emigrant to this world....\n\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\nThis year he spent the summer in Lenox, Berkshire County, Massachusetts,\nwhere a few friends have aided him to purchase a farm, \u201cwhich the deeds,\nwith great definiteness, say contains ninety-six acres, more or less.\u201d\nAnnoyed by the inquisitiveness of certain newspapers, he goes on to say:\n\n\u201cWe gave for farm and farm-buildings $4,500; for the crops, stock,\nimplements, etc., $1,000 more; total, $5,500. Any person in search of\nuseful information can have further particulars as to terms of payment\nand any other private publicities by personal application to us.\u201d\n\nHis emotions upon taking possession are described in a letter of that\ndate:\n\n\u201cIt was in the presence of this pasture elm, which we name the Queen,\nthat we first felt to our very marrow that we had indeed become owners\nof the soil! It was with a feeling of awe that we looked up into its\nface, and when I whispered to myself, \u2018This is mine,\u2019 there was a\nshrinking, as if there were sacrilege in the very thought of _property_\nin such a creature of God as this cathedral-topped tree! Does a man bare\nhis head in some old church? So did I, standing in the shadow of this\nregal tree, and looking up into that completed glory at which three\nhundred years have been at work with noiseless fingers! What was I in\nits presence but a grasshopper? My heart said, \u2018I may not call thee\nproperty, and that property of mine! Thou belongest to the air. Thou art\nthe child of summer. Thou art the mighty temple where birds praise God.\nThou belongest to no man\u2019s hand, but to all men\u2019s eyes that do love\nbeauty, and that have learned through beauty to behold God! Stand, then,\nin thine own beauty and grandeur! I shall be a lover and a protector, to\nkeep drought from thy roots and the axe from thy trunk.\u2019\u201d\n\nAlthough the owner of the farm, we are not to suppose that he took hold\nof work as the neighboring farmers did. We fancy that his love of\ndownright hard work exhausted itself in the West.\n\n\u201cThe chief use of a farm, if it be well selected and of a proper soil,\nis to lie down upon. Mine is an excellent farm for such uses, and I thus\ncultivate it every day. Large crops are the consequence, of great\ndelight and fancies more than the brain can hold. My industry is\nexemplary. Though but a week here, I have lain down more hours and in\nmore places than that hard-working brother of mine in the whole year\nthat he has dwelt here. Strange that industrious lying down should come\nso naturally to me, and standing up and lazing about after the plough or\nbehind the scythe so naturally to him!\u201d\n\nWhen we remember how many ministers who take an interest in public\naffairs find themselves elected to some town or village office, made\nmayor of a city, sent to the State Legislature or even to Congress, we\nare surprised that Mr. Beecher was never elected, so far as we remember,\nto the smallest public office. This was largely owing to the fact that\nhe looked upon the work of a preacher, to inspire men to right conduct\nin public affairs, as more important than filling any official position,\nhowever high.\n\nHe declares this opinion facetiously, but none the less as a matter of\ndeliberate judgment, in a letter:\n\n                       EQUIVOCAL HONORS DECLINED.\n\n\u201cThe _Tribune_ last Saturday, in reply to a private letter asking its\nadvice on the matter, recommends that we be nominated for Congress,\nelected and sent, and, when that shall be done, that we _go_....\n\n\u201cHad the proposal to go to Congress proceeded from the American Board of\nMissions there would have been grave reasons for considering it. We\ndoubt whether they have a harder field in all heathendom, nor yet a\nfield where the Gospel is more needed. But, for mere political reasons,\nto backslide from the pulpit into Congress is a little too long a slide\nfor the first venture. We beg to decline in advance.\u201d\n\nIn some of the sharp discussions of this year, 1854, the ministry have\nbeen bitterly criticised by papers who opposed politics in public, and a\ngreat deal of advice has been given to ministers concerning preaching.\nThis receives his attention in this fashion:\n\n\u201cWhen one considers the amount of advice given to ministers about\npreaching, it is surprising that there should ever be again a dull or\nimproper sermon.\n\n\u201d... We have no doubt that a rigorous landlord, having sharked it all\nthe week, screwing and gripping among his tenants, would be better\npleased on Sunday to doze through an able Gospel sermon on divine\nmysteries than be kept awake by a practical sermon that, among other\nthings, set forth the duties of a Christian landlord. A broker who has\ngambled on a magnificent scale all the week does not go to church to\nhave his practical swindlings analyzed and measured by the \u2018New\nTestament spirit.\u2019 Catechism is what he wants; doctrine is to his taste.\nA merchant whose last bale of smuggled goods was safely stored on\nSaturday night, and his brother-merchant who on the same day swore a\nfalse invoice through the custom-house\u2014they go to church to hear a\nsermon on faith, on angels, on resurrection. As they have nothing\ninvested in those subjects, they expect the minister to be bold and\northodox. But if he wants respectable merchants to pay ample pew-rents,\nlet him not vulgarize the pulpit by introducing commercial questions. A\nrich Christian brother owns largely in a distillery, and is clamorous\nagainst letting down to the vulgarity of temperance sermons. Another man\nbuys tax-titles and noses around all the week to see who can be slipped\nout of a vacant lot. On Sunday he naturally wants us to preach about\neternity, or moral ability and inability. A mechanic that plies his\ncraft with the unscrupulous appliance of every means that will win, he,\ntoo, wants \u201cdoctrine\u201d on the Sabbath\u2014not these secular questions. Men\nwish two departments in life\u2014the secular and the religious. Between them\na high and opaque wall is to be built. They wish to do just what they\nplease for six long days. Then, stepping the other side of the wall,\nthey wish the minister to assuage their fears, to comfort their\nconscience, and furnish them a clear ticket and insurance for heaven. By\nsuch a shrewd management our modern financiers are determined to show\nthat a Christian _can_ serve two masters, both God and Mammon, at the\nsame time.\u201d\n\nWhile fully alive to all the advantages of natural forces, the Sabbath,\nthe pulpit, and a spiritual church-membership always held the highest\nplace in his regard.\n\n\u201cIt is no small thing, as it regards the education of the community,\nthat from their youth up they have been taught to discuss all questions\nfrom ascertained and authoritative moral grounds....\n\n\u201cThe pulpit is the popular religious educator. Its object is to\nstimulate and develop the religious feelings....\n\n\u201cWhen a whole community are wont to have their social life, their\nsecular business, their public duties taken out of their low and selfish\nattitudes, and lifted up into the light of God\u2019s countenance, and there\nmeasured, judged, repressed, or developed, and wholly bathed or inspired\nby the spirit of conscience and of love, then they are receiving a moral\neducation for which there is no other provision except the Sabbath and\nthe pulpit.\n\n\u201cSuch are the members that make a church rich\u2014poor in this world\u2019s\ngoods, but rich toward God\u2014rich in faith, in hope, in meekness, in\npatience, in prayer, and, according to the feeble measure of their\nability, in good works. Many a church is destroyed through an ambition\nof having strong and wealthy men, only rich, not holy....\n\n\u201cIt may be very easy to sustain a church that has great wealth and\nlittle piety, but it is not worth sustaining. It is not a moral power.\u201d\n\nHe had no confidence in secret political organizations. \u201cOne might as\nwell study optics in the pyramids of Egypt or the subterranean tombs of\nRome, as liberty in secret conclaves controlled by hoary knaves versed\nin political intrigue, who can hardly enough express their surprise and\ndelight to find honest men going into a wide-spread system of secret\ncaucuses. Honest men in such places have the peculiar advantage that\nflies have in a spider\u2019s web\u2014the privilege of losing their legs, of\nbuzzing without flying, and of being eaten up at leisure by big-bellied\nspiders!...\n\n\u201cWhen will men understand that simple, open integrity, an unflinching\nadhesion to PRINCIPLE, is the peculiar advantage of truth and liberty?\nAll that the Right asks is air, light, an open enemy, and room to\nstrike. It is Wrong that sneaks in the dark and gains by the\nstiletto.       *\u201d\n\nFrom time to time he gave examination to modern spiritualism, with this\nresult:\n\n\u201cI am a stout unbeliever in the spiritual origin of this phenomenon,\neither by good spirits, bad spirits, or any spirits whatever.\n\n\u201cA belief in modern spiritualism seems to weaken the hold of the Bible\nupon conscience, the affections, and to substitute diluted\nsentimentalism and tedious platitudes instead of inspired truth.\u201d\n\nIn 1855 Mr. Beecher published the \u201cPlymouth Collection.\u201d Of its history\nhe has spoken somewhat at length:\n\n\u201cSoon after I came to Brooklyn from the West the conductor of music in\nthis church was a Mr. Jones. He was intimately associated with the house\nof Mason Bros., publishers of music in New York, and sons of Lowell\nMason, of honored and revered memory. I desired very much to inaugurate\na new day in music\u2014that is to say, to transfer to the great congregation\non Sunday the same methods, so far as singing was concerned, that we had\nalready instituted in our evening meetings, our conference meetings, and\nour revival meetings\u2014namely, that of having both the hymns and the music\nbefore them at the same time.\n\n\u201cI can go back in my memory, easily, to the time when there was no\nhymn-book with notes for church use. The \u2018Christian Lyre,\u2019 edited by\nJoshua Leavitt, was largely used in the revivals under Dr. Finney, and\n\u2018Christian Songs,\u2019 by Mr. Hastings (the sweet singer of Israel, whose\nservice to the church was never adequately recognized), were also used\nin revivals. When these books came they brought a progeny with them; but\nstill there was nothing of the kind for the great congregation. The\nmusic-books for choirs were those long, narrow, inconvenient ones which\ncould not well be held in the hand, but must always needs be laid upon a\nshelf. These were granted to the choir only, and the congregation had to\nsing from memory or not at all. It seemed to me that it would be a step\nin the right direction to put the tunes and hymns together, so that\neverybody who had the one should also have the other.\n\n\u201cWith this end in view I asked the trustees of this church to agree to\npurchase a few copies of the \u2018Temple Melodies,\u2019 a small book of hymns,\nthe music for which was to be selected by Mr. Jones and myself, and in\nwhich I interested the publishing house of Mason Bros.\n\n\u201cConnected with this was a curious incident. Mason Bros. would not\npublish the book unless we would pay for the stereotype plates; and the\ntrustees agreed to take a certain number of copies of the book\u2014enough to\ncover the cost of the plates\u2014so that the publishers should suffer no\nloss. When the book came to be published there was an acknowledgment of\nthe services of Mr. Jones, but my name was not mentioned. Although I did\nnot care particularly about that, I was curious to know how it should\nhappen that Mr. Jones, conductor of music in my church, was personally\nmentioned, and I, who had given to the work time and influence, and who\nhad obtained means with which to pay for the plates, was not mentioned\nat all. Though I was the father of the book, everybody else got a slice\nof the credit, and I was left without a crumb. I asked Jones how it was,\nand, blushing up to his ears, he said (if you will pardon the adjective)\nthat the publishers said that they would not have the name of a d\u2014d\nabolitionist in their book.\n\n\u201cThis was the first step in that direction. The success of the\nundertaking was such as to satisfy me that a larger endeavor of the same\nsort would be successful also; and I went to work and laid the\nfoundation for the \u2018Plymouth Collection.\u2019 It was to be published by Mr.\nA. S. Barnes, but it was necessary that there should be a guarantee in\nthe form of an advance sufficiently large to pay for the plates, that\nthe publishers might run no risk in issuing the book. Mr. Henry C. Bowen\nand Mr. James Freeland agreed to furnish the money, with the\nunderstanding that when the income, if there was one, from our copyright\nshould equal the amount they had advanced, with interest, all further\nprofits from the copyright should inure to the benefit of the choir of\nthis church.\n\n\u201cThe book has been a profitable one on the whole; but I know not how\nmuch the choir has ever received from it. There was no written\nagreement, and the memorandum lapsed. I forgot to make any arrangement\nfor myself. The consequence was that I was left out in the cold, and\nnever got a penny for my services in the matter. I do not care for that.\nThe object for which I was eager and earnest was to procure for the\nchurches a book of hymns and tunes, so that they should have both before\nthem at the same time.\n\n\u201cThe book was assailed, but was defended, and it made its way.\n\n\u201cSince that time there have been eight or ten books of the same general\ncharacter adopted, and they have so exactly copied the \u2018Plymouth\nCollection\u2019 as to size, type, and form that you may take the eight or\nten volumes and set them on a shelf, and unless a man stood close to\nthem he could not tell one from the other. So that the \u2018Plymouth\nCollection\u2019 not only has been a good book for this church, but has been\na good pattern for other churches to follow. Although it was the first\none of its kind, it was so well adapted to the want of the community\nthat it has not been deemed expedient to change in the least degree its\nform, nor to change, except to a very small extent, its method. It has\ninvariably proved to be a book acceptable and well suited to the purpose\nfor which it was designed. It was made on a theory of my own, or rather\nit was the result of my observation and experience. I had observed what\nhymns appealed to the imagination and the affections of the people; and\nI did not believe that any hymn-book would ever be popular which had not\nin it hymns the elements of which appealed to these faculties. I had\nobserved, also, what tunes the people loved. I had observed that any\nmusic, however irregular or grotesque, that appealed to their\nimagination and affection, they would adopt and make their own. Guided\nby that observation, I introduced into the book a great many melodies of\na kind that were unknown in the sobriety of the old-fashioned psalmody,\nbut that have been developed more fully and skilfully in subsequent\nbooks.\n\n\u201cWith that conception of what a hymn-book should be, I was very much\nshocked in a conversation with Mr. Lowell Mason, whose services to\nAmerican music cannot be over-estimated, and who has gone to a higher\nchoir, but who in his old age fell upon a theory that I thought to be as\nvicious as it could possibly be\u2014the theory, namely, that all music\nshould be of one character, and that the tune should be the main thing.\nHe said to me one day: \u2018I think a perfect hymn-tune is one to which you\nought to be able to sing every psalm in the whole collection.\u2019 I\nconsidered that simply monstrous, literalizing and Platonizing\neverything. His late books lost ground a great deal because they were so\ninsuperably flat. A man might sing them to all eternity and not find in\nthem anything which hooked on to his memory or affections, or anything\nthat had a tendency to develop his higher nature.\n\n\u201cAbout twenty years ago Mr. Love, of Chicago\u2014who has conferred great\nbenefit upon churches and schools by his compositions\u2014and I were riding\ntogether from Brooklyn to Boston, and we discussed this question of\nmusic. He was under the influence of Mr. Mason, and partook of his views\non the subject, and I blew him up soundly and told him how preposterous\nI thought they were. He went home pondering what I said, and\nsubsequently, as I afterward heard, cut out from a newspaper the verses\nbeginning \u2018My days are gliding swiftly by,\u2019 and with that conversation\nin his mind he sat down and wrote the \u2018Shining Shore\u2019 to go with them.\nWhether this tune has justified my idea or not, it has been employed in\nthis congregation for many years. Moreover, it was taken by the Brooklyn\nFourteenth Regiment to the war, it was performed by their band, and\nwhenever they gave anything like a serenade in the army the \u2018Shining\nShore\u2019 was called for. Since that time this tune has been played and\nsung all over the continent. How great a favorite it has been here you\nknow.\u201d\n\nThis collection was vehemently attacked by one of the religious papers\nof the day in the lead, several others following, and was vigorously\ndefended by Mr. Beecher in a series of articles in the _Independent_\nover his well-known signature, the *. So simple a matter as bringing out\na hymn-book for the use of his own church, and only for others so far as\nthey chose, would hardly seem likely to call out so strong a protest,\nbut it shows the position that he had already come to occupy in the\npublic mind. With his advanced views and strong following, everything\nthat he did demanded examination, must be sifted and probably marked\ndangerous. In the vigorous defence of this child of his heart he\ndiscourses at length upon hymns. We have room for only two or three\nextracts:\n\n\u201cHymns are the exponents of the inmost piety of the Church. They are\ncrystalline tears, or blossoms of joy, or holy prayers, or incarnated\nraptures. They are the jewels which the Church has worn; the pearls, the\ndiamonds, and precious stones formed into amulets more potent against\nsorrow and sadness than the most famous charms of wizard or magician.\nAnd he who knows the way that hymns flowed knows where the blood of\npiety ran, and can trace its veins and arteries to the very heart.\n\n[Illustration: Henry Ward Beecher in 1850.]\n\n\u201cOftentimes when, in the mountain country, far from noise and\ninterruption, we wrought upon these hymns for our vacation tasks, we\nalmost forgot the living world, and were lifted up by noble lyrics as\nupon mighty wings, and went back to the days when Christ sang with His\ndisciples, when the disciples sang too, as in our churches they have\nalmost ceased to do. Oh! but for one moment, even, to have sat\ntransfixed and to have listened to the hymn that Christ sang and to the\nsinging! But the olive-trees did not hear His murmured notes more\nclearly than, rapt in imagination, we have heard them!\n\n\u201cThere, too, are the hymns of St. Ambrose and many others, that rose up\nlike birds in the early centuries, and have come flying and singing all\nthe way down to us. Their wing is untired yet, nor is the voice less\nsweet now than it was a thousand years ago.\n\n\u201cThere are Crusaders\u2019 hymns, that rolled forth their truths upon the\nOriental air, while a thousand horses\u2019 hoofs kept time below and ten\nthousand palm-leaves whispered and kept time above! Other hymns,\nfulfilling the promise of God that His saints should mount up with wings\nas eagles, have borne up the sorrows, the desires, and the aspirations\nof the poor, the oppressed, and the persecuted, of Huguenots, of\nCovenanters, and of Puritans, and winged them to the bosom of God.\n\n\u201cIn our own time, and in the familiar experiences of daily life how are\nhymns mossed over and vine-clad with domestic associations!\n\n\u201cOne hymn hath opened the morning in ten thousand families, and dear\nchildren with sweet voices have charmed the evening in a thousand places\nwith the utterance of another. Nor do I know of any steps now left on\nearth by which one may so soon rise above trouble or weariness as the\nverses of a hymn and the notes of a tune. And if the angels that Jacob\nsaw sang when they appeared, then I know that the ladder which he beheld\nwas but the scale of divine music let down from heaven to earth.\u201d\n\nWe must find room for his answer to the charge of having left out from\nWatts \u201cfifteen splendid hymns,\u201d whose first lines are mentioned. After\naccounting for five of them by showing that they were left out because\nothers of Watts\u2019s versions of the same Psalms, and better ones, have\nbeen selected, he goes on to say: \u201cNext in the list the \u2014\u2014\u2014 charges that\nwe have omitted Watts\u2019s hymn, \u2018Glory to Thee, my God, this night.\u2019 This\nevening hymn, dear to thousands of hearts, was probably written before\nWatts was born, certainly before he had written his psalms and hymns, by\nBishop Ken, who was thirty-seven years old when Watts was born, and who\ndied when Watts was but thirty-six years old. There is not, perhaps,\nanother hymn in the language which it would require such ignorance to\nascribe to Dr. Watts. To make the blunder full-orbed, it turns out that\nthe hymn is _not_ omitted, after all, from \u2018Plymouth Collection,\u2019 but\nmay be found at page 416, hymn 1287.\n\n\u201cThe next omission from Watts charged by the \u2014\u2014\u2014 is the hymn \u2018While my\nRedeemer\u2019s near.\u2019 We left that hymn out from Watts because Dr. Watts\nleft it out himself, not thinking it honest, we suppose, to insert a\nhymn before it was written, or to appropriate another author\u2019s labors as\nhis own. For this hymn was written by Mrs. Steele, I know not how many\nyears after Watts\u2019s death. How dearly this critic must have loved Watts!\n\n\u201cWe are next charged with excluding from \u2018Plymouth Collection\u2019 the hymn\nof Watts, \u2018God is our Refuge and Defence.\u2019 Alas! this hymn is by\nMontgomery, and not by Watts at all.\n\n\u201cHow precious Watts\u2019s hymns must be to a man who cannot tell a Steele or\na Montgomery from a Watts! With what grief must one be afflicted at the\ninjury done to Watts by not ascribing to him Bishop Ken\u2019s hymns? Why did\nnot the \u2014\u2014\u2014 go on and mention the even more glaring omissions from Watts\nin the \u2018Plymouth Collection,\u2019 such as \u2018Ye Mariners of England, \u2018Drink to\nme only with thine eyes,\u2019 \u2018To be or not to be\u2019\u2014all of which are left out\nof Watts and the \u2018Plymouth Collection,\u2019 and which should have attracted\nthe learned attention of the critic of the \u2014\u2014\u2014.\n\n\u201cIt is rumored that the Psalm-Book of the New School Assembly is to be\nrevised. If so, the interests of the Church require that the editor of\nthe \u2014\u2014\u2014 should be put on the committee. His accuracy, his carefulness,\nhis profound knowledge of hymns, and especially his intelligent\nadmiration of Dr. Watts, cannot be spared in such a labor.\u201d\n\nIn this discussion his adversaries found out, what to this day, we\nthink, is not well understood, that his action, however impulsive it\nmight appear, really sprang from very clearly defined principles, which\ncould be justified whenever, wherever, and by whom attacked, and that,\nhowever careless he seemed, he had a habit of making himself thoroughly\nacquainted with the matter in hand, and was prepared to meet any\nantagonist. Mr. Beecher had great boldness and perfect confidence in his\nconclusions, and was willing to stand alone upon them, because he had\nthought them out and settled the matter once for all.\n\nFrom the kindly manner in which he had often spoken of the Episcopal\nChurch, his mother\u2019s communion, and in his account of the effect which\nthe service had upon him at Stratford-on-Avon, it might seem that he\nwould attempt to bring some form of it into use in Plymouth Church; but\nno movement in that direction was ever made, and he appears to have been\nwell satisfied with the possibilities that lay in the simple forms of\nhis own order. He has several articles at different times upon a\nproposed \u201cCongregational Liturgy,\u201d but advocates no change of method,\nonly an improvement of spirit. \u201cOur services are barren, not from any\nwant of common forms of devotion, but from the want of common sympathy.\n_A church has a right to the gifts of every one of its members, and the\nminister is set to disclose and develop them._ He is not to lean upon\nthe strong, or avail himself alone of the services of those already\ndeveloped. It is his office to take hold of every individual man, and to\neducate him, so that he may bring forth the one, or five, or ten talents\nwhich are committed to him for the use and profit of all his brothers. A\nman of books, a man of ideas, a man of sermons, is not Christ\u2019s idea of\na minister. \u2018Follow me and I will make _you fishers of men_.\u2019 A minister\nis a man of men. He is an inspirer and driller of men.... But a dead\nchurch with a liturgy on top is like a sand desert covered with\nartificial bouquets. It is bright for the moment. But it is fictitious\nand fruitless. There are no roots to the flowers. There is no soil for\nthe roots. The utmost that a liturgy can do upon the chilly bosom of an\nundeveloped, untrained church is to cover its nakedness with a faint\nshadow of what they fain would have but cannot get....\n\n\u201cAs to \u2018surpliced boys,\u2019 we have them already. The whole congregation is\na choir, and our boys, bright and happy, unite and respond with the\nelders; so the surplice which they wear is just that thing which the\ndear mother threw over them when they left her.\n\n\u201cIf we were disposed to use any liturgy, we know of no one which we\nshould sooner employ than that which expressed the earliest religious\nfeelings of our own mother, now in heaven. The mere fact that she had\nused and loved it would for ever make it sacred to us. We never hear it\npronounced by a sincere and earnest man without deriving profit from it\nourselves; and we have no doubt that others are benefited by its use. We\ndo not, however, believe that its continual use as the only vehicle of\nexpression of the religious feeling of the congregation would be as\nprofitable, on the whole, as an extemporaneous worship. If we did we\nshould use a liturgy. While, then, we decline to use it in public,\nbecause we think it, on the whole, less edifying than the usage of\nCongregational churches, we do it without wishing to detract from its\nintrinsic excellence, and without wounding the feelings of those who\ndelight to use it.\u201d\n\nAt this time he takes pains to contradict the report that he had spoken\nslightingly of the Episcopalian forms in saying that \u201che would as soon\ngo a-courting with his father\u2019s old love-letters as to go to church and\ncarry a book to pray out of\u201d:\n\n\u201cSo far from its being true that the remark in this story was applied to\nthe Episcopal or any other liturgy, it was applied to what are called\nextemporaneous prayers in Congregational and Presbyterian\nprayer-meetings. We were reprehending the practice of praying without\nsincerity or real religious feeling. We said that when men began to lead\nin public prayer they should be simple, truthful, and strictly\nindividual, expressing their own wants or feelings with child-like\ntruthfulness. We commented upon the undeniable fact that men too often\nborrowed their prayers, copying the elder or deacon or minister, not to\nexpress real feelings, but as forms. Thus extemporaneous prayers became\nhereditary. And it was in reference to these unwritten forms of prayer,\nin our own Congregational churches, that the remark imputed to us was\nmade. It was not a fling at the Episcopal service. We never indulge in\nsuch remarks at the expense of other denominations, and never intend to\ndo it. We regard the whole practice of railing at other sects or their\nreligious usages, from the pulpit, as not only unchristian but\ndiscourteous and ungentlemanly.\u201d\n\nThe year 1857 was one of great commercial trouble through the country.\nMany of his people were involved and became bankrupt. This gave him much\nuneasiness from his sympathy with them, and to some extent affected his\nhealth, which he alludes to in a letter to his brother later in the\nyear:\n\n\u201cI do not think it safe for me to undertake so much work this winter. My\nhead is already suffering from overwork and anxiety induced by\ncommercial troubles among my people. God will in the end make it a\ngreater blessing than their prosperity.\u201d\n\nA family affliction which he felt very keenly, both in his personal\naffection and in sympathy with those who were bereaved, added to his\nburden. In a letter to the _Independent_, July 16, 1857, he says:\n\n\u201cThe writer has been called by the stroke of violence to part with three\nnephews within two weeks\u2014two of them of one age\u2014dying, one in New\nHampshire, and the others in Ohio.\n\n\u201cTwo sons of Dr. Talbot Bullard, of Indianapolis, Ind.\u2014Henry, aged\nthirteen, and Frank, aged eighteen\u2014were thrown with the cars over an\nembankment, and died the same day.\n\n\u201cNobler, truer, more gentle, and more amiable natures never were. Just a\nmoment before the accident one of them said to a gentleman by their\nside: \u2018In a few moments we shall be at home.\u2019 They were indeed nearer\nhome than they thought.\n\n\u201cHenry E. B. Stowe was the eldest son of his father\u2019s family. On the 9th\nof July, while bathing in the Connecticut River, he was drowned. But we\nsorrow not as those without hope: his race was quickly run.\u201d\n\nWe are not surprised, therefore, that we detect in most of the letters\nof this year a tinge of sadness accompanied with increased spiritual\ntenderness, as if he were finding the sources of consolation for\nhimself, that he might lead others to them.\n\nLenox was found to be so far from Brooklyn that it was given up as a\nsummer home, and this year, 1857, he spends his vacation at Matteawan,\non the Hudson. His first letter gives us this bit of characteristic\ndescription:\n\n\u201cWe are living in a pleasant old house, around which fruit-trees have\ngrown in which birds have bred and lived unmolested from year to year.\nIt is but a dozen wing-beats from the trees to the mountain woods.\nNothing can please a meditative bird better than to have domestic scenes\non one side and the seclusion of the wilderness on the other. A bird\nloves a kind of shy familiarity. Here we have a garden, a door-yard, an\norchard, and a barn grouped together; and they on the other side have\nthe young forests of scooped mountain-side. So the birds come down here\nfor fun and go up there for reflection. This is their world; that is\ntheir cathedral.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn the Mountain and the Closet\u201d he is speaking out of his own\nexperience:\n\n\u201cThe influences which brood upon the soul in such a covert as the closet\nare not like the coarse stimulants of earthly thought. The soul rises to\nits highest nature and meets the influences that rest upon it from\nabove. What are its depths of calmness, what is the vision of faith,\nwhat is the rapture, the ecstasy of love, the closet knows more grandly\nthan all other places of human experience.\u201d\n\nIt is not all sadness even in this year of the minor key. In August we\nhave a long article upon \u201cHours of Exaltation,\u201d in which he gives us\nsome of those higher experiences which were common to him:\n\n\u201c... We are filled with the very affluence of peacefulness and joy.\nThere is neither sorrow, nor want, nor madness, nor trouble in the wide\nworld. The glory of the Lord, that at other times hangs upon the horizon\nlike embattled clouds full gorgeous with the sun, on such days as we\nhave described descends and fills the whole earth. The impassioned\nlanguage of the psalmists and prophets, which on other days is lifted up\nso high above our imaginations that we can scarcely hear it, now comes\ndown and sounds all its grandeur in our ears. The mountains do praise\nthe Lord; the trees clap their hands. The clouds are His chariot and\nbear Him through the air, leaving brightness and joy along their path.\nThe birds know their King. The flowers lift up their hands, and with the\nsilent tongue of perfume praise God with choice odors. The whole earth\ndoth praise _Thee_.\u201d\n\nIn September of this year he visits Litchfield with his father\u2014the\nlatter for the first time since he had moved to Boston\u2014and writes a\nletter upon \u201cAn Aged Pastor\u2019s Return\u201d:\n\n\u201cA man past eighty going through the streets, to visit all the fathers\nand mothers in Israel that had been young in his ministry there, was a\nscene not a little memorable. One patriarch in his ninety-ninth year,\nwhen his former pastor came into the room, spoke not a word, but rose up\nand, putting his trembling arms around his neck, burst into tears....\u201d\n\n\u201cThe particular errand that brought us hither was a lecture. A new organ\nwas to be bought. All Litchfield boys were permitted to help. Our\ncontribution was asked in the shape of a lecture. My part was soon done.\nThen the aged pastor came forward. A crowd of old and young gathered at\nthe pulpit-stairs to greet the hand that had baptized them or had broken\nto them the bread of life. It was a scene of few words. One woman gave\nher name, but was not recognized in her married name. She then mentioned\nher maiden name. That touched a hidden spring. Both burst into tears,\nbut spoke no words. The history came up instantly before both, but\nsilently, which had occasioned the preaching of those sermons upon\nintemperance whose influence for good will never cease.\u201d\n\nAnd now he points to one of the dangers which he has learned to avoid,\nand opens to us some of the lessons which he has himself learned from\nthe experiences of this year:\n\n\u201cMany troubles in life cease when we cease to nurse them.\n\n\u201cMany troubles are but the strain which we endure when God would carry\nus the right way and we insist upon going the wrong. Troubles come to us\nlike mire and filth, but when well mingled they change to flower and\nfruit.\n\n\u201cIt should be borne in mind and thought of with thankfulness that\nalthough a heavy pecuniary pressure has been resting on the community,\n_nothing perishes_. No ships will rot, as under embargo; stores will not\ngo down; not a wheel will rust, but only rest; the railroads, whose\ncreation has cost us so much, are created, and will not go back but\nthunder on. Not an acre will go again to the forest; not a seed will\nrot.\n\n\u201cWe shall hold the substantial elements gained, losing no art, no\nscience, no ideas, no habits, no skill, no industry, nothing but a\nlittle temporary comfort; and for that we shall receive back steadiness,\nsafety, reality, and consolation worth a thousand-fold.\u201d\n\nThat there had been no diminution of the prosperity of the church\nappears from an announcement in one of the New York papers of the annual\npew-renting, which took place January 7 of the following year:\n\n\u201cThe membership of Plymouth Church was never so large as at present, and\nthe size of the congregation is undiminished. The building admits of an\naudience of about three thousand persons, and it is not an uncommon\noccurrence on a pleasant Sunday evening for fully as great a number as\nthis to go away from the church-doors, unable to get even standing-room\nwithin the walls.\u201d\n\nIf the year 1857 was one of sadness, that of 1858 was one of rejoicing.\nThe sowing with tears was followed by the reaping with joy. Never in the\nhistory of our country were revivals of religion so frequent, so deep\nand wide-spread, as in the year that followed the great financial\ndisasters of 1857. The shattering of men\u2019s hopes of wealth, the\ndisturbance and destruction of their confidence in material things, was\nfollowed by a very general turning to those things that endure. From a\nlittle book entitled \u201cThe Revival in Plymouth Church,\u201d published\nanonymously, from the testimony of those who were active at that time,\nand from letters and sermons besides, we get a very clear idea of the\npart which Mr. Beecher took in this great work and the methods he\npursued. Near the close of the year preceding he had received a letter\nfrom a young man in New York, who described himself as slowly but surely\nsinking beneath the temptations which he could not escape, and who\nimplored help from the destruction that hung over him. He said, \u201cPreach\nto me the terrors of the law, anything to arouse me from this fearful\nlethargy.\u201d Mr. Beecher read the appeal to his audience, and answered it\nby preaching on the love of God in Jesus Christ as the only remedy for\nman\u2019s sin and the only power for his salvation, and said: \u201cIf this\nremedy fails I know of no other. If love will not save you, fear will be\nof no avail.\u201d He then led the congregation in a most earnest and tender\nprayer for that young man and for the great multitude which he\nrepresented.\n\nIt was by such means as this, enlisting the feeling of his audience in\nspecific cases, awakening and directing the sympathies of the church,\nthat the work began. He disclaimed any confidence in a revival, born of\nmere excitement, carefully explained God\u2019s methods in saving men, and\nthrew the whole responsibility for success upon Christians. If their\nhearts were filled with the love of God the influence would be felt with\npower by those around them.\n\nOn the last Sabbath in February he preached upon the reasonableness,\nusefulness, and Scriptural nature of revivals, combated objections\nagainst them, and finally brought it home to the conscience of his\npeople: \u201cOught you not to have a revival?\u201d\n\nOn the next Sabbath, at the communion season, he preached upon the\nwords, \u201cFor so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into\nthe everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,\u201d holding\nup before his people with great clearness and tenderness the privileges\nand the infinite rewards of patient, Christian following and labor. The\nfather, who assisted at the service which followed, expressed the\nfeeling of many hearts when, in his prayer, he said: \u201cLord, we thank\nThee for the opening out of Thy word this morning; we have been brought\nvery near heaven; we see not how we can be any nearer till we stand\nwithin the very gates.\u201d\n\nOn the Wednesday evening following, at the usual weekly lecture, he\nspoke to a crowded audience upon the conversion of the Philippian\njailer. It was a service of confession of the lack of faith in the\never-present grace of God, of instruction concerning the spirit and\nmethods of the apostles, and of guidance to any who were seeking light\nand peace. A prayer-meeting followed, at which any who desired prayers\nfor themselves or others were given opportunity to make their desire\nknown, and the work was begun.\n\n\u201cMorning meetings were opened daily, and were attended by\never-increasing numbers, while so many remained afterward for\ninstruction that the pastor\u2019s work was rarely over before eleven or\ntwelve o\u2019clock. He called in lieutenants of both sexes, who helped him\nin the work. No one who attended on those occasions can ever forget the\nfascinating mixture of tenderness, earnestness, pathos, dry humor, quick\nwit, and sound common sense that ran through all the instruction of\nthose meetings. One would be told to pray; another, whose knees were\nalmost worn out and whose mind was diseased with useless anxiety, was\ntold in the next breath to stop praying and go to sweeping; the many\ntimid and shrinking ones were encouraged into freedom, while one or two,\nwho thought that all the angels were anxiously awaiting the news of\ntheir conversion before the business of heaven could proceed, were taken\ndown by a little quiet humor that cured yet did not wound; and all alike\nwere brought into the one fold. Under such influences and instructions\nthree hundred and thirty-five persons united with the church this\nseason.\n\n\u201cThe morning prayer-meeting has been in Plymouth Church emphatically a\n\u2018love-feast,\u2019 the attractive influences being love to Christ, to the\npastor, and to one another in full and lively exercise. No better\ndescription of these meetings can be given than that of a happy and\nunited family gathering together, under the guidance of a beloved and\nhonored father, for morning worship. No wonder that men as they passed\nalong the street, though unused to a prayer-meeting, could not resist\nthe voice of song which fell on their ear daily in the sweet morning\nhour; and no wonder that, once having entered, they should be fascinated\nby the scene which met their eye and warmed by the atmosphere of love\nwhich they breathed, and should return saying: \u2018Surely God is in this\nplace, though we knew it not; this is indeed the house of God, and this\nis none other than the gate of heaven.\u2019 There was no such feeling as\nthat smiles, or even an honest laugh, were sinful; smiles and tears\nmingled in curious proximity, without any attempt at restraint; in\nshort, everything was natural.\n\n\u201cAt the close of a meeting, when, owing to the quaintness of speech of\nsome of the brethren, especially the newly-awakened ones, in the\nrelation of their varied experiences, we had laughed and cried\nalternately, the one as heartily as the other, Mr. Beecher said: \u2018I call\nyou to witness whether this has not been a good meeting, whether there\nhas not been a tender spirit among us, and whether the influence of the\nHoly Ghost has not been here? I say this because, as you know, many\npersons entertain the opinion that laughing is quite inexpedient on such\noccasions as these and a sure means of grieving away the Spirit. Bear\nthis meeting in mind, and let it be your answer to the charge of\nirreverence whenever it may be brought against us on this score.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe gave one of his own experiences:\n\n\u201cYou know that my usual frame of mind is hopefulness. I am apt to look\nat the bright side of things and take cheerful views of life. On this\nvery account an occasional experience of sadness is an inexpressible\nluxury to me. Last night, I know not why, but I could not sleep for some\nhours. I lay restlessly, turning from side to side, till this morning\nbetween one and two. No sooner was I asleep than it seemed to me I was\nin an Episcopal church, robed in black, where a clergyman was\ncelebrating the Lent service. By and by he ascended the pulpit and began\nto speak. There was no eloquence in his language, nor anything\nparticularly striking in his mode of dealing with his subject, but his\nheart was evidently in it. He was setting forth in simple language the\nsufferings of Jesus, and as I listened there seemed to rise up before me\na vivid conception of the Saviour in His last agony on Calvary. I gazed\ntill the tears gushed from my eyes, and I awoke to find my pillow\nsoaking wet. I composed myself again to sleep, and my imagination took\nup the stitch just where I had dropped it, and knitted on. I beheld the\nsame vision, and again the tears flowed. I gazed and wept until it\nseemed to me as if my very soul would dissolve and the fountain of tears\nbe itself exhausted. Again I awoke, and, again falling asleep, the\nvision was for the third time repeated, and I seemed to weep my very\nlife away. I know not when I had before such a sweet, rich experience of\nthe love of my Saviour; and when I awoke finally this morning, it was\nwith a tenderness of soul I cannot well describe. I was thankful I did\nnot sleep sooner, and that when I did sleep I made such good use of my\ntime.\u201d\n\nOpportunity was given at these meetings to any who wished to ask the\nbrethren to pray for themselves or for others, and was largely used. A\nlittle before the close of the meeting Mr. Beecher would rise, and,\ntaking the slips of paper that covered his table, read from them aloud.\nAfter reading these he would ask, \u201cAre there any here who desire to make\nrequests on behalf of their friends?\u201d And then when these had all been\nmade he would say, \u201cAre there any who desire to ask on their own\naccount?\u201d Then having caught the eye of each as they arose, and\nacknowledged the request by a slight inclination of the head, in token\nof recognition, until they ceased rising, \u201cin a low, soft tone would\ncome the words, \u2018Let us unite in prayer,\u2019 and instantly every head was\nbowed. The prayers which followed these scenes were the most precious\nopportunities of communion with the Lord Jesus Christ which we were ever\npermitted to enjoy. We believe that he who uttered them was taught of\nthe Holy Ghost, and that he spake as the Spirit gave him utterance.\nThere was an exuberance of faith and love in these utterances not\nusually found in prayer; a gladness on the part of the speaker, and a\nrecognized consciousness of gladness on the part of Christ. They were\nthe breathings of love into a loving ear.\u201d \u201cWe always concluded with a\nhymn, for Mr. Beecher was wont to say that he liked to send us away with\na full tide of song, and for a long time our choice for concluding hymns\nlay between \u2018Shining Shore\u2019 and \u2018Homeward Bound.\u2019\u201d\n\nMarch 27, 1858, Mr. Beecher gave a twenty-minute address in Burton\u2019s old\ntheatre in Chambers Street at the noon prayer-meeting. \u201cI wish to leave\nthe impression that the matter of salvation is a matter between your own\nheart and the Lord Jesus Christ; that there is between you a sympathy so\nplain that there is no need of any interference. You may become a\nChristian _now_, and go home to your household and be enabled to ask a\nblessing at your table to-day.\u201d\n\nLetters are frequent this year upon subjects like this, \u201cTrust in God\u201d:\n\n\u201cWe ought not to forget that an affectionate, confiding, tender faith,\nhabitually exercised, would save us half the annoyances of life, for it\nwould lift us above the reach of them. If an eagle were to fly low along\nthe ground every man might aim a dart at it; but when it soars into the\nclouds it is above every arrow\u2019s reach. And they that trust in God\n\u2018shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary;\nthey shall walk and not faint.\u2019\u201d\n\nAbout this time he answers a criticism that appeared in several papers\nupon the extravagant income of Plymouth Church:\n\n\u201cIt is easy to stand off and rail. Will any one suggest a plan by which\nfive thousand men can be put into a church that can hold only three\nthousand?\n\n\u201cThe poor should be held in lively remembrance. But ought we to provide\nfor the poor in a way that shall punish those who are not poor?...\n\n\u201cIn closing we will only say that from the beginning no church ever more\nconscientiously endeavored to give the Gospel to all classes, rich and\npoor, resident or strangers. For ten years the members of this society\nhave cheerfully submitted to an inconvenience, for the sake of the poor\nand of strangers, such as has rarely had a parallel. Gentlemen have paid\nhundreds of dollars for pews which were, with the exception of a single\nSabbath in the year, more or less filled with the poor.\n\n\u201cEvery Sabbath day families who have paid hundreds of dollars for a pew,\ncoming to church, find it pre-occupied by the poor and the stranger, and\nit is a rare exception that in such cases there is any irritation.\n\n\u201cGenerally the owner, distributing his family as best he can, takes a\nseat in the aisle or stands in the entry. And this is not an occasional\nthing. It is the regular experience of the congregation, year after\nyear.\u201d\n\nThe year 1859 opens with some very characteristic letters from Mr.\nBeecher. He had been charged with having held the doctrine of total\ndepravity up to ridicule in a lecture which he delivered in Boston. This\nbrings from him a letter, two or three passages of which we here\ntranscribe:\n\n\u201cBut although we did not employ the phrase total depravity in any\nopprobrious sense at the time mentioned, we do not hesitate to say that\nwe regard it as one of the most unfortunate and misleading terms that\never afflicted theology....\n\n\u201cOn the other hand, we do believe, with continual sorrow of heart and\ndaily overflowing evidence, in the deep sinfulness of universal man....\nWe heartily hate the phrase total depravity, and never feel inclined to\nuse it except when reading the ethics of \u2014\u2014\u2014 or the religious editorials\nof \u2014\u2014\u2014.\u201d\n\nHe was shortly after this attacked for lecturing in a \u201cFraternity\nCourse\u201d in the same city. This calls out a long answer upon \u201cWorking\nwith Errorists,\u201d in which he says:\n\n\u201cI have long ago been convinced that it was better to love men than to\nhate them, that one would be more likely to convince them of wrong\nbelief by showing a cordial sympathy with their welfare than by nipping\nand pinching them with logic. And although I do not disdain but honor\nphilosophy applied to religion, I think that the world just now needs\nthe Christian heart more than anything else. And even if the only and\ngreatest question were the propagation of the right theology, I am\nconfident that right speculative views will grow up faster and firmer in\nthe summer of true Christian loving than in the rigorous winter of\nsolid, congealed orthodoxy or the blustering March of controversy....\n\n\u201cIf tears could wash away from Mr. Parker\u2019s eyes the hindrances, that he\nmight behold Christ as I behold and adore Him, I would shed them without\nreserve. If prayers could bring to him this vision of glory, beyond\nsight of philosophy, I would for him besiege the audience-chamber of\nheaven with an endless procession of prayers, until another voice,\nsounding forth from another light brighter than the noonday sun, should\ncast down another blinded man, to be lifted up an apostle with inspired\nvision.\n\n\u201cBut since I may not hope so to prevail, I at least will carry him in my\nheart; I will cordially work with him when I can, and be heartily sorry\nwhen I cannot.\n\n\u201cWhile we yet write word comes that Mr. Parker, broken down by\nover-labor, seeks rest and restoration in a warmer climate. Should these\nlines reach his eyes let him know that one heart at least remembers his\nfidelity to man in great public exigencies, when so many swerved of whom\nwe had a right to expect better things. God shield him from the ocean,\nthe storm, the pestilence, and heal him of lurking disease! And there\nshall be one Christian who will daily speak his name to the heart of God\nin earnest prayer, that with health of body he may receive upon his soul\nthe greatest gift of God\u2014faith in Jesus Christ as the Divine Saviour of\nthe world.\u201d\n\nAnother incident calls forth a similar response:\n\n\u201cAt the recent celebration of Tom Paine\u2019s birthday at Cincinnati the\ninfidels present toasted: \u2018The heretic clergy, Parker, Emerson, Conway,\nChapin, Beecher, and all who love man above all creeds, and sects, and\nrituals, and observances, who regard man as the highest and holiest and\nmost sacred of all in the universe\u2014may their motto be: Ever onward,\ngreater freedom, and clearer light.\u2019\u201d Having disclaimed any distinction\nas one who loves man more than creeds, since this is \u201ctrue of all\nChristians when they are in their most Christian disposition,\u201d and\nhaving accepted their motto as being in line with sundry passages of\nScripture, he gives his true and honest feeling towards them in these\nwords:\n\n\u201cLet no man think that we despise the sympathy and well-wishing of a\nconvention of infidels. We thank them for their kind feelings. Like our\nMaster, we had rather discourse with publicans and sinners than dine\nwith the most select and eminent Pharisee. But we _love_ a true\nChristian better than either. But, infidel or Pharisee, all need the\ngrace of God, and all, by repentance of sin and faith in Christ, the\nSaviour of sinners, may yet meet in heaven.\n\n\u201cGentlemen of the Cincinnati convention of infidels! we should be\nashamed to be less kind and courteous than you have been, and in\nconcluding we take leave of you kindly, saying, in the words of Inspired\nWrit:\n\n\u201c\u2018Now may the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord\nJesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the\neverlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do His\nwill, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through\nJesus Christ. To whom be glory for ever and ever.\u2019         *\u201d\n\nThe setting up of a new organ in Plymouth Church this winter is thus\nduly announced:\n\n\u201cThe organ long expected has arrived, been unpacked, set up, and\nglorified over. It has piped, fluted, trumpeted, brayed, thundered. It\nhas played so loud that everybody was deafened, and so softly that\nnobody could hear.\u201d\n\nAfter speaking of the characteristics of the many organists who have\ntried it, and of one who was an especially brilliant player, he says:\n\u201cBut he was not a Christian man, and the organ was not to him a\nChristian instrument, but simply a grand Gothic instrument, to be\nstudied just as a mere Protestant would study a cathedral, in the mere\nspirit of architecture and not at all in sympathy with its religious\nsignification or uses. And before long he went abroad to perfect himself\nin his musical studies, but not till a most ludicrous event befell him.\nOn a Christmas day a great performance was to be given. The church was\nfull; all were musically expectant. It had been given out that something\nmight be expected. And surely something was had a little more than was\nexpected. For when every stop was drawn, that the opening might be with\na grand choral effect, the down-pressing of his hands brought forth not\nonly the full expected chord, but also a cat that by some strange chance\nhad got into the organ. She went up over the top as if gunpowder had\nhelped her. Down she plunged into the choir, to the track around the\nfront bulwark of the gallery, until opposite the pulpit, when she dashed\ndown one of the supporting columns, made for the broad aisle, when a\nlittle dog joined in the affray, and both went down toward the\nstreet-door at an astonishing pace. Our organist, who, on the first\nappearance of this element in his piece, snatched back his hands, had\nforgotten to relax his muscles, and was to be seen following the cat\nwith his eyes, with his head turned, while his astonished hands stood\nstraight out before him, rigid as marble!\u201d\n\nIn the spring of this year he purchased a farm in Peekskill, and\nexplains his object as follows:\n\n\u201cI knew that the place was good for grass, for grain, and for fruits, of\nall which I talked a good deal during the preliminary approaches to a\npurchase, but for which I cared about as much as I should whether the\ninside of my boots were red or yellow.\n\n\u201cIf the thing must be told\u2014and I mention it to you, Mr. Bonner,\nconfidentially\u2014it was the remarkable aptitude of the place for\n_eye-crops_ that caught my fancy. It was not so much what grew upon the\nplace, as what you could see off from it, that won me. It is a great\nstand for the eye. If a man can get rich by _looking_, I am on the royal\nroad to wealth. And, indeed, it is true wealth that the eye gets, and\nthe ear and all the finer senses; riches that cannot be hoarded or\nsquandered; that all may have in common; that come without meanness and\nabide without corrupting. So long as it remains true that the heavens\ndeclare the glory of God, and the earth His handiwork, so long will men\nfind both heart wealth and strength by a reverent admiration of the one\nand a sympathetic familiarity with the other.\u201d\n\nIn a letter to his daughter he describes the new home:\n\n\u201c... _Farm_\u2014I wrote so far at home, but being interrupted have brought\nit up to the green hills. You will be quite ashamed to think that\nMatteawan ever seemed beautiful to you when you shall have seen this\nplace. It has no wild or romantic features, but it is full of soft,\nnice, beautiful views. No barren fields are seen, no brown\npasture-lands, no rugged hills\u2014the very mountains in the horizon are\ncarved into round and graceful shapes. The near hills are round, gentle,\nsmooth, and verduous to the very top. Only one summit is rugged and\nwild, and we keep that in the distant foreground as a contrast to all\nthe other graceful shapes. The river in the distance is like a _lake_,\nexcept the fleets of sloops and schooners give it a sense of navigation.\nFrom the _top_ hill of the farm you can see almost as wide a prospect as\nfrom Bald Mountain in Salisbury\u2014on the north and east, wild,\nmountainous, solitary; but all the rest beautiful and cultivated, with\nthe Hudson rolling along the west. I have traced a rude diagram[6] on\nthe opposite page, but it will be only just better than nothing, though\nyou must confess that it is exceedingly well drawn for me!\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n  The Publishers regret that the diagram could not be given.\n\n-----\n\n\u201d... I heard from H\u2014\u2014\u2014 yesterday. He is well and lively, and wrote me\nquite a sprightly and witty letter. W\u2014\u2014\u2014 is round, rosy, curly, and\nloving as usual. B\u2014\u2014\u2014, the rogue, is fairly recovering from a double\ncharge of scarlet-fever and whooping-cough, and is becoming most\nhealthfully saucy.\u201c\n\nEarly in the autumn they returned from the country and began life again\nin the city. We give copies of several letters written to his daughter:\n\n                                           \u201dBROOKLYN, Sept. 4, 1859.\n\n\u201c... In the beginning let me say, my dear child, that I heartily approve\nof all that you have done. I am not a superstitious observer of the\nSabbath, nor do I hold to the rigor either of the Jewish or the Puritan\nSabbath. But I _do_ believe that one-seventh part of our time was\noriginally appointed for rest, for home-society, and for religious\nculture....\n\n\u201cWhen I was myself in Paris I acted just as I do in Brooklyn. I took no\nmore liberties, and was quite as observant of my home proprieties. And I\nmust say that I do not relish the idea of our young countrymen going to\nEurope to learn how to get rid of religious habits. Foreign travel\nshould improve our manners, increase our information, enlarge our\nexperience of men, enrich our imagination, cultivate our tastes, but\n_not_ enervate our conscience....\n\n\u201cEverything is going well at the farm. I have bought a yoke of cattle,\nwhite with mottled necks and red heads; also two Ayrshire calves, and a\nlittle bull calf of the same breed. Your mother is driving away at her\ncheeses in the most housewifely style. She has already made, eaten, and\ngiven away two or three, and she has four or five on hand, good large\nones, which are to grow old for city use. Already I imagine myself a\nnimble little maggot making the cheese fly. The pet ponies do bravely,\nthe pigs are fat and flourishing, the chickens comely, and the ducks\nnoisy but drawing very near to doom and dinner.\n\n\u201cI would not advise you to use wine unless you are weak and it is\nrecommended by judicious advisers for real reasons of health; and then I\nshould take it frankly and without hesitation. But while you do not use\nit, you are not bound to take it on any occasion for _others\u2019_ sake. If\nthe occasion comes, call for a glass of water and calmly lift that to\nyour lips. But more of this by and by. I have no objection to your\nlearning to _dance_ as a part of physical education.\u201d\n\nThe home life in Brooklyn ran undisturbed through the autumn, until,\nearly in 1860, a serious accident befell Mrs. Beecher, which Mr. Beecher\ndescribes in the following letter:\n\n                                                 \u201cFEBRUARY 11, 1860.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR CHILD H\u2014\u2014\u2014:\n\n\u201cI suppose you will not scold me if I relieve your mother of\nletter-writing this steamer; it is, I think, the first time she has\nmissed. But she is too lame to write to-day, having had an accident that\n_ought_ to have killed her, and that _would_ have killed anybody else.\nAnd that your fears may not magnify the matter, I shall go back and\ndescribe it all to you.\n\n\u201cOn Wednesday last, February 8, she took the horse and chaise (a\n_two_-wheeled chaise, which we have bought of Mr. M\u2014\u2014\u2014), and started to\ngo to New York and meet and bring me home from the New Haven depot.\nEliza and Bertie were taken in, the former to go over to the Hudson\nRiver Railroad for milk, and Bertie for the ride. The horse was spirited\nand soon got under way beyond control, but did not run till, turning\ninto Hicks Street from Orange, she dashed off like lightning, ran to\nFulton Street and right across it, up on to the pavement and headlong on\nto the Brooklyn Bank steps. The carriage was broken and turned over, and\nall, of course, heaped up together\u2014horse, chaise, and people. Men sprang\nto the horse, held and detached her; others succored the party. Bertie\nhad a smart thump on his right eye, or above it, which has done him no\nharm, and he has not been kept in from his play, though made a little\nhomelier than he was before. Eliza was thrown against the stone and a\nsmart slit cut in her head, which bled profusely, and though she has\nkept her bed by the doctor\u2019s orders, she expects to be about to-day.\nYour mother, as usual, took everybody\u2019s share on herself. She was shot\nout apparently head-first, and fell upon the right side of her head,\nneck, and shoulder, bruising her, but breaking nothing. She was\ninsensible when taken into the drug-store close by. I know not how H\u2014\u2014\u2014\nwas notified so soon, but he seems to have been on the spot within five\nminutes, and manifested as much self-possession and decisive wisdom as\nwould have done credit to a much older head. He gave orders to have his\nmother taken home, sent for Dr. Adams to come to the drug-store, sent\nanother messenger to the stableman to look after the carriage and horse\n(who, confound her homely self! was but little hurt), and then took a\nhack to meet me at the New Haven depot and bring me home.\n\n\u201cI reached the house very nearly as soon as your mother did. Found Mrs.\nE\u2014\u2014\u2014 B\u2014\u2014\u2014, Mrs. L\u2014\u2014\u2014, Mrs. B\u2014\u2014\u2014, Mrs. E\u2014\u2014\u2014, and one or two strange\nladies present, the doctor, a policeman or two, and scores of people\nrunning to and fro; yet, in the main, there was order and good sense.\n\n\u201d... The doctors regard her as out of danger, but she will be a sufferer\nfor a week or more. Everything is going on regularly in the house,\nexcept that I am at home all the time, which is very irregular in my\nhabits.\n\n\u201c... And so when you read this you must remember that though it seems to\nyou as if it had just happened, it will have been all past, and your\nmother doubtless, while you read, will be marching forth in full\nauthority. Everybody who saw the scene speaks in admiration of her\ncourage and skill. She guided the horse to the last, though she could\nnot control her, and was game to the end. But _that_ we should all\n_expect_. Nor does her courage flinch yet. Some one said to her\nyesterday: \u2018Well, I suppose you will never drive that horse again.\u2019\n\u2018Yes, _I shall too_,\u2019 said she; and _she shall_. We are very grateful\nfor her safety and merciful deliverance, and although she will suffer\nfrom twinges, yet, as there are no internal injuries, no bones\nfractured, it is only a matter of patience.... Slept very well and has\nthe beginning of an appetite, although I am constrained to say that when\nI mentioned the little luxury of _gruel_ as something appetizing and\nexcellent for her, she turned up her nose (I could not be mistaken) at\nthe suggestion, so that she is evidently not quite settled yet in her\nmind. She can walk slowly, takes her bath, submits to packs, and has\nrefreshed herself once or twice with a hand-glass, looking at the recent\nimprovements about her countenance.\n\n\u201d... Love to all. I shall keep you faithfully apprised of her health,\nand you need not fear that anything is a bit worse than I say. I shall\ntell the truth. Good-by.\n\n\u201cMay God have you in His care!\n\n                                  \u201cYour affectionate father,\n                                                     H. W. BEECHER.\u201d\n\n                                                       \u201cFEBRUARY 14.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR H\u2014\u2014\u2014:\n\n\u201cYour aunt has told you of your mother, and little is to be added on\nthat score.... I wish you would take all your gauze paper and send it to\nCardinal Antonelli, or the pope, or the\u2014that is, burn it up, tear it up,\ncrumple it, throw it away, do anything with it except sending it to me.\nGo forth and search and buy some that is respectable, for I wow a wow\nthat I will vex my eyes no more with such intolerable stuff. I feel as\nthough I could say a little more with great comfort to myself, but, as I\nmust receive several letters before this reaches you and reforms your\nwriting materials, I reserve a stock of wrath for those several\noccasions.\n\n\u201d_Wednesday, Feb. 15._\u2014Your mother this morning is generally better,\nthough suffering from cramps. She is now lying in a _pack_. Mrs. F\u2014\u2014\u2014\nhas been as good as an angel, and a great deal more useful. Indeed, I do\nnot think much of angels, unless they have a good serviceable body on.\nOf course Auntie B\u2014\u2014\u2014 is on hand kindly and constantly. Everybody is\nkind. Mrs. G\u2014\u2014\u2014 has spent four days here, two in the parlors to receive\ncompany, etc., and two with your mother. Mrs. L\u2014\u2014\u2014 has been incessantly\nhere, and has both watched, waited, and run for watchers and nurses\nwithout tire or fatigue. We had a meeting on Monday night for new\nchurch. The action of the trustees was confirmed, and they were\nrequested to go ahead immediately and raise the necessary funds, and as\nsoon as $100,000 were secured to proceed to lay the foundations. I do\nnot regard the enterprise as _quite_ sure yet, though looking favorably.\nGive my love to the pope. I am sorry for his situation. If he only sat\nunder my preaching how much his eyes might be opened! As it is, if he\nchooses to write to me in regard to any of his little difficulties, I\nhope he will allow no delicacy to restrain him. I will do the best I can\nfor him. Ditto Antonelli.\n\n\u201cI am now the holder of _your_ room. There nap I, and there sleep I, and\nseldom either without a faint shadow of a rosy-cheeked, Minerva-eyed\ngirl that whilom tenanted it. I have removed the boys, W\u2014\u2014\u2014 and B\u2014\u2014\u2014,\ninto the room next it, formerly H\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2019s, while he holds the front large\nroom, now pink-papered and famously carpeted and furnished. Eliza is\nquite well and trots about the house with a diligence that shows how\nwholesome it is for an Irishwoman to have her head broke. I have\npromised her, whenever she is sick, to give her a granite-steps course,\ninstead of water, as being much better adapted to her wants and\nnationality. Give my love to all the great American family.... Remember\nthat _paper_, THAT PAPER, THAT PAPER!\n\n                                \u201cYour loving and longing father,\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\n\u201cGood-by, old fellow. Give my love to Hattie, and tell her that her\nfather hasn\u2019t forgotten her,\u201d were the first words of Mr. Beecher to me\nthat I remember. I had been introduced to him the evening before, but he\nhad just returned from a lecturing tour, tired and sleepy, and if he\nsaid anything brilliant it has entirely escaped my memory. I was going,\nin company with Mrs. Stowe\u2019s son, to take a pedestrian tour in Europe.\nWe expected, in time, to join her party, who were then on the Continent,\nand were busy getting ready to go on board ship that day. It was a\nhearty send off to one who was comparatively a stranger, that was very\ncharacteristic of the man.\n\nOf course I remembered the message and gave it faithfully; and after\nseveral months\u2019 acquaintance, travelling in Switzerland and Italy, made\nan addition of the same in kind on my own account, which being accepted\nand reciprocated, we were married September 25, 1861.\n\n\u201cThe innumerable friends of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher would hardly\nforgive us if we were to omit mentioning the pleasing incident that\noccurred at his country residence at Peekskill last week. On Wednesday\nmorning, after the dew was dry, Mr. Beecher chose a spot under the\nshadows of the trees near his garden, where, in the presence of a fit\ncircle of friends and neighbors, he gave away his only daughter in a\nnovel ceremony of marriage. The beauty of the day and the beauty of the\nceremony together rendered the scene singularly charming, tender, and\nimpressive.\u201d\n\nOf his method of making himself acquainted with the peculiar features of\nthe villages in which he lectured, and his pleasant words concerning the\npeople he met, the following letter is a good illustration:\n\n\u201cMY DEAR DOCTOR:\n\n\u201cI sent you a scrap from the goodly town of Norwich, N. Y., in which I\nhave most pleasantly spent a portion of three days, and would fain have\nadded as many more. It is one of the many towns in this Chenango Valley\nof which Dr. Dwight said that the time would come when men of wealth\nwould leave the seaboard cities and retire to it as a place of rare\nrepose.\n\n\u201cThe great hammer manufactory of the New World is also located here.\nWhat hardware man has not seen David Maydole\u2019s name? Many of the best\nimprovements in the hammer have sprung from his ingenious skill. But\nthere is room for improvement still. Thus our hammers have the power of\n_hiding_ themselves.\n\n\u201cAfter investigating many cases it becomes plain that hammers have a\npower of locomotion, and that when we are asleep they crawl off. We have\nnever seen them actually move, but we have _almost_. We have found them\non the ground or floor, and they were probably on their way somewhere\nwhen we surprised them, and then, like many insects, they feigned\ndead.... We should be glad to listen every night to as sweet music as\nthat which rose up before our window in Hamilton and in Norwich.\u201d\n\nAs a complement to the above an experience in _not_ lecturing is here\ngiven in full:\n\n                                              \u201cST. LOUIS, \u2014\u2014\u2014, 1859.\n\n\u201dREV. HENRY WARD BEECHER, _Brooklyn_:\n\n\u201cDEAR SIR: On behalf of the Mercantile Library Association of this city,\nit is my pleasant duty to address you. We are now endeavoring to form\nthe lecture programme for our association for the coming season, and we\nwish to do so as early as possible. Fully appreciating your well-known\nreputation as a lecturer and an orator, we should be pleased to make an\nengagement with you for two or three lectures the coming fall and\nwinter. If you can serve us, will you be so kind as to give us your\n_terms_, _time_, and _subject_ as soon as possible?\n\n\u201cAs our Association may not be well known to you, permit me to say one\nword in regard to it. We think that there is no library association in\nthis country that is in a more prosperous condition than ours. It has\nsome eighteen hundred members, and is rapidly increasing. Its members\nare merchants, clerks, and members from the several professions. As a\nmatter of course these members come from all parts of our country, and\nnaturally entertain a variety of views, both as to politics and\nreligion. Hence it becomes our Association to be very careful to eschew\nall matters pertaining to either of these subjects in its lectures.\nShould you be so kind as to favor us with a course of lectures\u2014and we\nsincerely hope you will do so\u2014you will please bear the above facts in\nmind. Hoping to hear from you at your earliest convenience, I remain,\nYours truly,\n\n                                      \u201cR. H. D\u2014\u2014\u2014,\n                            \u201d_Chairman Lecture Committee, M. L. A._\u201c\n\nThey heard from him at once as requested, and this was the answer:\n\n                         MR. BEECHER\u2019S REPLY.\n\n                                               \u201dBROOKLYN, \u2014\u2014\u2014, 1859.\n\n\u201cDEAR SIR: I have received your letter politely inviting me to give one\nor more lectures before the St. Louis Mercantile Library Association\nnext fall or winter. But you ask, in consequence of the diversity of\nopinions among your members, that I should, if I accepted your\ninvitation, \u2018_eschew all matters pertaining to politics and religion_.\u2019\nI am too much of a patriot to eschew the one, and too good a Christian\nto neglect the other. Indeed, the only motive that I have for lecturing\nat all is the hope that I may make better citizens and better Christians\nof my fellow-men. And it seems to me that a course of lectures from\nwhich have been strained out \u2018all matters pertaining to politics and\nreligion,\u2019 must afford but a very meagre diet to the young people of St.\nLouis.\n\n\u201cNor can I imagine why you should, under the circumstances, have wished\nme to visit you. If I have ever been of any service to my fellow-men, it\nhas been because I never would eschew any topic which I thought it\nneedful for them to hear. Nor have I ever allowed myself to stand on any\nplatform where I could not follow my own judgment as to what should be\nsaid with the most unlimited freedom. And it is too late in my life for\nme to yield up my sense of self-respect and come under a censorship.\n\n\u201cI hope I have not taken seriously a matter which, perhaps, you meant\nonly as a pleasant jest. For, on reading your letter again, I hardly\nrepress the conviction that you deemed it a pleasant jest to ask me to\ncome all the way to St. Louis to give lectures, under an implied\nagreement that I should \u2018_eschew all matters pertaining to politics and\nreligion_!\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen the title of Doctor of Divinity was offered him he declined it, as\nfollows:\n\n                                        \u201cPEEKSKILL, August 21, 1860.\n\n\u201d_To President and Board of Trustees of Amherst College_:\n\n\u201cGENTLEMEN: I have been duly notified that at the last meeting of the\nBoard of Trustees the title of D.D. was conferred upon me. It would\ncertainly give me pleasure should any respectable institution bear such\na testimony of good will, but that Amherst College, my own mother,\nshould so kindly remember a son is a peculiar gratification. But all the\nuse of such a title ends with the public expression. If the wish to\nconfer it be accepted, for the rest it would be but an encumbrance and\nfurnish an address by no means agreeable to my taste. I greatly prefer\nthe simplicity of that name which my mother uttered over me in the holy\nhour of infant consecration and baptism.\n\n\u201cMay I be permitted, without seeming to undervalue your kindness or\ndisesteeming the honor meant, to return it to your hands, that I may to\nthe end of my life be, as thus far I have been, simply\n\n                                                HENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\nOne of the peculiar features of Mr. Beecher\u2019s work in those days of\n1861-63 was the revival interest that continued, with variations of\nintensity, it is true, but with no substantial interruption, for years.\nThe revival of 1858 had not entirely ceased at that time, and although\nthose days of war, especially since he gave himself so intensely to\npublic matters, would naturally be regarded as unfavorable to any marked\nreligious interest, yet it continued notwithstanding, as is shown by the\nnumbers that constantly sought admission to the church upon profession\nof faith. This was owing, we doubt not, to the perfect conviction of Mr.\nBeecher that the whole work of that time was the Lord\u2019s, and to his\nentering upon it with such consecration that he was continually shielded\nand refreshed by experiences of the divine presence. This gave a deep\npractical spirituality to his preaching, which was appropriated and\nreflected by his church, making the Gospel attractive, in those days of\ntrouble, as never before. Men turned to the refuge which they saw he had\nfound, and which, with deepest sympathy and with abundant hopefulness,\nhe was pointing out to them. He himself says: \u201cIt is a mistake to\nsuppose that the preoccupation of the public mind with the war, and the\ngreat excitements which are fed by the ever-changing rumors and news,\nare unfavorable to the work of a true minister of the Gospel.\u201d\n\nThe continued ingathering into Plymouth Church during all those years of\nthe war was something almost phenomenal. One marked occasion, the May\ncommunion of 1862, was described in a newspaper of that day: \u201cEvery part\nof the house was densely packed. The platform and desk were decorated\nwith vases of flowers, while banks of azaleas, magnolias, carnations,\nfuchsias, white lilies, roses, and other plants in blossom reached from\nthe pulpit floor to the orchestra. After the usual exercises of singing,\nreading, and prayer, Mr. Beecher read a list of about eighty names of\npersons who were to unite with the church. Many of them were members of\nthe Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes. Some were persons of middle age;\na few were persons of advanced years. After a brief address Mr. Beecher\nread the articles of faith, to which the parties gave their assent. The\nordinance of baptism was then administered to those who had never before\nreceived it; after which the members of the church arose and received\nthe new members into full and cordial communion. Mr. Beecher took his\ntext from John x. 3, 4. There had been provided memorial bouquets for\neach new communicant, which were distributed at the close of the\nservices.\u201d\n\nThese floral decorations may almost be said to have been introduced by\nPlymouth Church, and were justified by Mr. Beecher upon the highest\nmoral and religious grounds. He says of \u201cFlowers in Church\u201d:\n\n\u201cThey are simply the signs of gladness. They are offerings of joyful\nhearts to God.\n\n\u201cFlowers are not of man. They are divine. Man can, by culture, develop\nall that God has hidden in them, but can add nothing to them, nor can he\ninvent or build them.\n\n\u201cGod has made flowers for everybody. They are next in abundance to the\ngreat elements\u2014air, light, water. The poorest man has a roadside\nflower-garden. No mission-church is so poor that it cannot afford wild\nflowers upon the altar and a few assorted leaves in the windows. How\nbeautifully would woman\u2019s hand light up the dreary plaster wall and\nfrigid seats of many a church room, if permitted to garnish them with\nthese field-thoughts of God!\n\n\u201cThe effect upon children is well worth our thought. To teach a child to\nlove flowers is to give him riches that no bankruptcy can reach. This is\nthe wisdom of finding our pleasures, not in conventional arrangements,\nbut in sympathy with nature, which never is confiscated, or goes out of\nfashion, or becomes old and exhausted. There is a new heaven and a new\nearth every day, as if suggesting that grand and final event of\nprophecy.\n\n\u201cThe use of flowers on social and religious occasions soon gives to them\nmeanings which they had not to us before. We read nature more\nthoughtfully and lovingly.\n\n\u201cWeeds change to flowers. The moment a plant inspires intelligent\nemotion in us it ceases to be a weed and becomes a flower. The natural\nworld is not any longer godless or commercial and mechanical. It has a\nmoral power.\n\n\u201cAt first many will shrink at seeing flowers upon the speaker\u2019s desk or\non the pulpit. But why? Is the place too holy? But is it holier than\nGod? And are not flowers His peculiar workmanship? If God deemed it\nsuitable to His dignity and glory to occupy His mind with making and\npreserving such innumerable flowers, are we wise in disdaining them or\nconsidering the place too sacred for God\u2019s favorites? Do men reflect\nthat God has been pleased to name Himself from flowers? \u2018_I am the Rose\nof Sharon and the Lily of the Valley._\u2019\u201d\n\nIn line with this are his views upon \u201cChristian Liberty in the Use of\nthe Beautiful\u201d:\n\n\u201cI cannot but think Christian men have not only a right of enjoyment in\nthe beautiful, but a duty, in some measure, of producing it, or\npropagating it, or diffusing it abroad through the community.\n\n\u201cBut in all your labors for the beautiful, remember that its mission is\nnot of corruption, nor of pride, nor of selfishness, but of\n_benevolence_! And as God hath created beauty, not for a few, but hath\nfurnished it for the whole earth, multiplying it until, like drops of\nwater and particles of air, it abounds for every living thing, and in\nmeasure far transcending human want, until the world is a running-over\ncup, so let thine heart understand both the glory of God\u2019s beauty and\nthe generosity of its distribution. So living, life shall be a glory,\nand death a passing from glory to glory.\u201d\n\nIf we have supposed that his love for nature was intuitive or came to\nits fulness without effort or study, the following letter will correct\nthat impression:\n\n\u201cWe are performing not alone a work of love in commending Ruskin, but\npaying a small part of a debt that can never be discharged. We are more\nindebted to him for the blessings of sight than to all other men. We\nwere, in respect to nature, of the number of those who, having eyes, saw\nnot; and ears, heard not. He taught us what to see and how to see.\nThousands of golden hours and materials both for self-enjoyment and the\ninstruction of others, enough to fill up our whole life, we owe to the\nspirit excited in us by the reading of Ruskin\u2019s early works.\n\n\u201cThe sky, the earth, and the waters are no longer what they were to us.\n\n\u201cWe have learned a language and come to a sympathy in them more through\nthe instrumentality of Ruskin\u2019s works than by all other\ninstrumentalities on earth, excepting always the nature which my mother\ngave me\u2014sainted be her name!\u201d\n\nWe have again come to the point, 1863, which we once before reached in\nthis biography, but this time upon entirely different lines. In our\nfirst examination, for the sake of unity of impression, we confined\nourselves to the events of the great anti-slavery conflict. In this\nwhich we have just completed we have sketched the outline of other\nlabors and the events of his home life during this period. No one, we\nsuspect, reading the first record, the record of strife and battle,\nwould conceive it possible that a life so full of all manner of peaceful\npursuits and home labors was being lived; nor, on the other hand, would\nany one going over his work of preaching, lecturing, writing helpful\nStar articles upon all manner of common subjects, imagine that he had\nthe time or the spirit for the former work. But, in fact, in his case\nthey were each the necessary complement of the other.\n\nWe have seen how, at the West in the midst of continued revival efforts,\nhe took up the study of landscape-gardening as an alterative. This was\nan illustration of his habit through life. In the midst of the most\nexciting events he would escape and go apart from them all, if possible,\nto some point where he could look out upon the landscape or up to the\nclear heavens. Such places at such times seemed to become Mountains of\nTransfiguration, where he would meet the Master and be refreshed by His\npresence, and whence returning he would bring back a store of beautiful\nexperiences that enabled him to give cheer and inspiration to his\nfellow-toilers, who had not, perhaps, noted his absence from their side.\nOr he would escape to some quiet nook and hold converse with birds and\nflowers, delight himself in quaint and pleasant fancies, look at life\nfrom a new standpoint, until he was able again to take up the burden\nwithout weariness; or he would sit down with his boxes of seeds or\ncatalogues of plants, and lose himself in their imagined growth and\nbeauty; or, drawing from his pocket some one of the precious stones he\nalways carried with him, gather rest and inspiration as he watched its\nchanging hues.\n\nIn this way he was enabled to carry on the most various and exhaustive\nlabors, and at the same time to preserve that mental health and good\ncheer for which he was remarkable.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XIX.\n\nVisit to England in 1863\u2014The Need of Rest\u2014Condition of Affairs at\n    Home\u2014Arrival at Liverpool\u2014Refusal to Speak\u2014Visit to the\n    Continent\u2014Reception by the King of Belgium\u2014Civil War Discussed\u2014News\n    of Victories\u2014Return to England.\n\n\nThe spring of 1863 found Mr. Beecher thoroughly exhausted and greatly in\nneed of both mental and physical rest. The past twelve years had been a\nseason of unremitting care and toil. In addition to the regular duties\nof his new and growing church, and the active revival work carried on at\nthis period, which were quite enough to task the energies of any one\nless fortunately endowed with mental and vital energy, he had taken a\nvery active part in the anti-slavery agitation, and from the pulpit, the\nlecture platform, and the columns of the _Independent_ kept up a\nconstant fire upon this national evil. In 1856, as we have seen, he had\nthrown himself heart and soul into the Fremont campaign, well-nigh\ndestroying his health. From 1860 he had been laboring, without rest, to\nuphold the government, to rouse and maintain the patriotic confidence of\nthe North, and through all of this time was a contributor to the New\nYork _Independent_, and since 1861 its editor-in-chief. Fagged out and\ndespondent from exhaustion, rest was imperative.\n\nHis church, with that generous love which has always characterized it,\nvoted him a four months\u2019 leave of absence with expenses paid.\n\nIn company with Dr. John Raymond, then the president of Vassar College,\na warm personal friend, he set sail early in June for a holiday, making\nhis second trip across the water.\n\nFortunately we are able to give almost wholly in his own words the\nhistory of this trip:\n\n\u201cI left New York in June, 1863, for a tour through Europe during the\nsummer vacation. I was not requested, either by President Lincoln nor by\nany member of the Cabinet, to act in behalf of this government; it was\npurely a personal arrangement. The government took no stock in me at\nthat time. Seward was in the ascendency, and, as I had been pounding\nLincoln during the early years of the war, I don\u2019t believe there was a\nman in Washington, excepting perhaps Mr. Chase, who would have trusted\nme with anything; at any rate, I went on my own responsibility, with no\none behind me except my church. They told me they would pay my expenses\nand sent me off. I went away wholly for the sake of rest and\nrecuperation. I went simply as a private citizen, and I went with a\ndetermination not to speak in Great Britain.\n\n\u201cIt was perhaps the dreariest period in the whole war. One after another\nof our generals had been sent to school in the field to learn the art of\ngeneralship. The task was too large for most of them, and they took a\nsecondary rank. At that time, up to the date of my departure, we had\nmade a stand and maintained it, but had gained but very little. The most\ndefensible country, perhaps, on earth is our own in its southern\nportion; and the line that ran two thousand miles of active warfare\nthrough our middle had been so fortified, and was defended with such\nskill and unquestionable bravery, that our forces had not been able to\npush back the line of rebellion much, and there had been nothing to\nencourage the hearts of our people beyond their faith\u2014for we lived by\nfaith and not by sight in those days.\n\n\u201cI had not, except in times of sickness, when the whole tone of my\nnervous system was lowered, had an hour of doubt. I was sure of victory.\nThere were some sick hours in which I remember distinctly thinking, \u2018One\nnation is ground to make soil for another, and it may be that this\nnation will be ground up in order that another one may grow up on its\nruins\u2019; but ordinarily I was full of courage and hope, not unfounded I\nthink now in review; and it stood me in good stead abroad.\n\n\u201cAt that time Grant had not emerged. McClellan had, and had retired\nagain. Burnside had briefly shown that he was too modest and not strong\nenough to take McClellan\u2019s place. Hooker, who had lost his head in the\ngreat battle which he fought, was at the head of affairs, and we were on\nthe eve of one more change\u2014a change which has surrounded the name of\nMeade with lustre. Grant was at the time besieging Vicksburg. Lee had\nnot yet ventured into Pennsylvania, out of which he never ought to have\nbeen permitted to go.\n\n\u201cIt was at about that stage of things that I left. The political\ncondition of the country, and also its civic and secular condition, will\njustify a word or two. There was a great party of the Union, made up of\nmen indifferently from all foregoing parties. Old lines were effaced,\nold questions sank to the bottom, and the one question that united the\nstrangest elements, discordant in every other respect, was the wise\ndetermination to maintain intact the union of this whole country. That\nformed the band and belt that gave unity to the party of war. The great\nDemocratic party was divided into three ranks. The largest part, and the\nnoblest, joined themselves to the party of the Union; and better men\nnever came from any party than those that formed under our banner,\nbearing briefly and for a time the name of Republicans, but very largely\ngoing back again, after the war was over, to the Democratic party. There\nwas a second division of lukewarm Unionists in the Democratic party,\nthat were always hoping the war would be compromised\u2014men of great\npatriotism, who could not forbear to ask: \u2018What will be my position\npolitically when we shall have secured peace again?\u2019 They were for\ncompromise and for easy adjustment.\n\n\u201cNow, war is good for nothing if it is not intense and cruel. It means\norganized force; and it is nonsense to go into the field with anything\nelse except guns in your hands and swords at your side. The attempt so\nto fight, as in the earlier periods of our struggle, as not to hurt\nanybody, is most disastrous, whether in prudence or in civil successes.\nThe South never did make war except to hurt somebody; and in the earlier\nday the vehemence, the courage, and the convictions which they brought\ninto the field, made them more than a match for our Northern soldiers.\nVery largely our generals had anticipations of Congress, or the\nPresidency, or what not, before them; and such political anticipations\nnever whet anybody\u2019s sword.\n\n\u201cThere was a third section, and that was the least\u2014those that were\ndirectly in league with the Southern and slavery element. Of them it is\nnot necessary that anything should be said. They are wiped out, and that\nis fulfilled in regard to them which the Scriptures hath spoken: \u2018The\nname of the wicked shall rot.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn that divided state Lincoln was under great discouragements, yet\nmaintaining invincible his purpose, without compromise, to destroy all\noppositions to this Union. Meanwhile we were maintaining a blockade of\nabout three thousand miles\u2014an unexampled blockade. We had to extemporize\na navy, as we shall again if we have any war. We are always wise\n_afterward_. For the sake of economy we are the most wasteful of all\nnations, without foresight in such matters; too confiding. There is not\na ship in the American navy to-day that could not be blown out of the\nwater in a ten minutes\u2019 conflict with the best-armored ships of Europe;\nand Congress, that has no end of money for votes, through pensions and\nvarious other channels of distributing, cannot be persuaded to do\nanything for stability and inexorable defence against foreign invasion\nand warfare.\n\n\u201cWe had at that time converted almost every sea-going craft into a\nman-of-war; and this extended blockade was in the main well served.\nEurope stood watching as a vulture does to see the sick lamb or kine\nstagger to fall, and from her dried branch of observation she was ready\nto plunge down. Napoleon did. He already had sent French armies into\nMexico. That was a mere preface. Mexico was not his final object. The\nrecovering again of territory that once had belonged to France lay in\nthe achievements or the expectations of this weak and wicked potentate\nin the future.\n\n\u201cIn this condition of things we were hovering on the very edge of\nintervention. It was well known to those acquainted with the condition\nof affairs in other lands that Napoleon was disposed by every art and\nintrigue to persuade the government of Great Britain to interpose, to\nbreak the blockade, and to give its moral support to the rebellion of\nthe South.\n\n\u201cI found in England the utmost scepticism prevailing as to our success,\nand an exaggerated conception of the endurance and courage of the South;\nand no sentence was more frequently uttered in my hearing than this,\n\u2018You will never subdue the South\u2019; to which I invariably replied, \u2018We\n_shall_ subdue the South.\u2019\n\n\u201cI found that, with a few noble exceptions\u2014Mr. John Bright, Richard\nCobden, Mr. Forster, and such like\u2014that the statesmen of Great Britain\nwere either lukewarm or in avowed sympathy with the South. The\nmiddle-class and laboring people of Great Britain were in sympathy, on\nthe whole, with the North; but they had no votes. As a general thing,\nthe officeholders under the government, the rich families, the\nmanufacturing interests, the educated and professional men of Great\nBritain, believed that our Union had been or would soon be dissolved.\nSome one said to me at that time, \u2018All men who ride in first-class cars,\nand put up at first-class hotels, and live upon intellectual\nprofessions, together with most of the clergymen, even of the dissenting\nbodies of England, are adverse to the Northern cause.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe conduct of the laboring classes in Great Britain was admirable.\nWhile they were on the verge of starvation in the cotton districts, they\npatiently endured their sufferings without retracting their sympathy for\nthe Northern cause. As a body, the Quakers, whose testimony against\nslavery had been continuous and unswerving, were in sympathy with the\nNorth. The Congregational churches of Great Britain, with few\nexceptions, were adverse to the North. The Congregational churches of\nWales were almost wholly in sympathy with the North.\n\n\u201cAll the world looked upon America as about to be split asunder. Here\nand there was a faithful witness and a faithful friend. The civilized\nnations of Europe looked with varying emotions upon our conflict, but\nagreed generally that it was an impossible task that the North had\nundertaken; and everywhere I felt the numbness that that produced.\n\n\u201cIt was at just that period that I left our shores and was in Great\nBritain.\u201d\n\nFrom his letters home we have gathered something of an outline of his\nexperience and first impressions:\n\n\u201cI reached the mouth of the Mersey, seven miles from Liverpool, on\nWednesday night. The tide would not let us across till five the next\nmorning.... Duncan was on the tug when we reached the city\u2014for there are\nno wharves at Liverpool, and we lay in the middle of the stream and\nlanded passengers by means of a little steam-tug.... Before leaving the\nboat a Mr. Estcourt, of Manchester, was at hand to invite me to have a\nreception and speech at Manchester. The same happened for Liverpool\nwithin a few hours, and letters from London, from two committees, came\nwithin a day, soliciting the same. I declined them all and declared my\nintention not to speak anywhere at present, and until I had had time to\nform some judgment of things. I find that all our American friends at\nLiverpool approve highly of my decision. And even those who most\nsolicited speeches admit that they think my decision the wiser one. I\nwill not trouble you with any description of the state of the English\nmind toward our country. We have nothing to hope from it when it might\nbe of use to us, and we shall not by and by care a pin whether they\nthink ill or well.\u201d After a week\u2019s run in the country he returned to\nLiverpool and \u201cwent to meet some friends at the _parlor_ of a _store_.\nThe great stores here have parlors, in which the heads of departments\ndine every day. Gave them a plain talk about America. At the end, as we\ngot familiar, they confessed that America _had_ sufficient reason for\nher complaints against Great Britain.\u201d\n\nWriting from London a week later:\n\n\u201cEvery man I meet who is on our side commends my determination to keep\nquiet for the present. I do not mean in preaching, but public addresses\nand public receptions. There _is_ but little favor for the North.\nWhatever may be said, a narrow but intense jealousy is felt, and fear of\nfuture rivalry....\n\n\u201d_London, July 7._\u2014On Monday of this week (yesterday) I met a circle of\ntemperance men at a breakfast. It was private in this, that no reports\nwere to be made or published. I gave them a good talk on our affairs....\nTo-day a like meeting with a section of anti-slavery men.\u201d\n\nHe attended the meeting. Of course he was expected to make some remarks,\nand he did. He says, speaking of this incident: \u201cSeveral speeches had\nbeen made when I was called upon, and made a statement expressing my\nindignation at the position of the Congregational clergy of England in\nview of this war. They were men who were seeking to know the signs of\nthe times, and had as a whole body gone wrong and had virtually arrayed\nthemselves on the side of slavery and against liberty. I put my best leg\nforemost, and, although I succeeded in making a favorable impression, I\nsaw that I was likely to be regarded as an enthusiast, and so determined\nthat I should clinch the arguments I had advanced with a speech from a\ncalm-minded man, and accordingly when I had concluded I said:\n\u2018Gentlemen, Dr. John Raymond, president of Vassar College, is present\nand will add a few views of his own.\u2019 He was a cool man and not easily\nexcited, but his sympathies were with the Union, and when he had kindled\nup to his work I sat and looked at him in perfect amazement. He went at\nthem like a hundred earthquakes, with a whirlwind thrown in. He made a\nmagnificent speech, of such towering indignation as I never have heard\nbefore or since.\u201d\n\nThe expectation that the speeches would not be reported was misplaced;\nthere appears to have been \u201ca chiel amang us takin\u2019 notes,\u201d and the\nsubstance of the speeches was quite fully reported the next day.\n\nAlmost immediately thereafter he crossed over to the Continent, and did\nnot return to England until the following September.\n\nHe remained strongly disinclined to make any formal addresses, though he\nhad been urged to speak in London, Liverpool, and Manchester on his\nreturn.\n\nWriting from Switzerland, July 28, to Mrs. Stowe, he refers to the two\nmeetings in London, and his views regarding his return in the fall:\n\n\u201cMy time in London, where I spent ten days, was, for the last six or\neight, spent in meeting private circles of gentlemen, and talking to\nthem like a father. I breakfasted with almost a hundred from the\nTemperance Alliance, with seventy-five of the Congregational Liberty\nAssociation, with forty or fifty at a soir\u00e9e at Mr. Evans\u2019s, president\nof the Emancipation League, where Baptist Noel was the questioner, and I\nresponded for two hours. I hear since that great good was done, and at\nthe time there was elicited a great deal of confession from many that\nthey had been both ignorant and wrong. There was a universal and\nvehement desire that I should arrange to speak in London, and elsewhere,\nwhen I return to England in the autumn. If I see the way clear to do so,\nthese conferences will have opened the door effectually. Meanwhile I\nshall wait and watch the development of things.... But let me tell you\nthat the root of all the conduct of England is simple and absolute\n_fear_. I do not mean fear of a narrow and technical kind. But the\nshadow that the future of our nation already casts is so vast that they\nforesee they are falling into the second rank\u2014that the will of the\nRepublic is to be the _law of the world_. There is no disguising of this\namong Englishmen.\n\n\u201cI was told by Rev. Henry Allen, of London, eminent among the\nCongregationalists, that they had long felt that a time must come when\nEngland would have to take hold of us and curb our power, and that, now\nthat we were divided against ourselves, they rejoice to see their work\ndone for them. The Duke of Argyle distinctly recognized this feeling,\nnot in himself but in others. Roebuck openly avowed it in the House of\nCommons. The papers on all hands abused him for it. But, in fact, it was\nbecause _he spoke the truth_, which they were ashamed to have spoken so\nboldly and openly. I met at Yungfrau a young Irishman, friendly, who\ngave the same view of English feeling. Indeed, I have searched into it\nand am thoroughly satisfied that it is mainly and deeply the dread of\nour gigantic national development in the future, that has been coiled up\nas the main-spring under all the other reasons, excuses, and\npretendings, and that has, consciously or unconsciously, moved the whole\nmind of England. Against this what will reasoning or exposition avail?\nIs there any _explanation_ that will make England ready to stand\n_second_? Is there any way of stating our gigantic power that would lead\nher to rejoice in it? I do not propose to pull wool over their eyes, nor\nto play the sheep in any way. For I distinctly see the difficulty. I\nknow it to be unremovable, and all that can be done is to appeal to the\nhigher feelings of the Christian part of England, that the elect few, in\nboth countries, may hold fast the golden cords of love till God in His\nown way shall have settled the future.\u201d\n\nAs late as August 27 we find him still in doubt as to what he will do in\nEngland; at that date he writes:\n\n\u201cWhen you read this, therefore, I shall probably be in London. I cannot\nyet decide anything about my course in England. From a distance I do not\nsee any occasion or necessity for my squandering time there in\nspeaking....\u201d\n\nOn his way back to England he passed through Brussels; while there he\npaid his respects to the United States minister, Mr. Sandford. We give\nhis experience in his own words:\n\n\u201cIn drawing near to England I went to Brussels, and at a dinner by our\nAmerican minister there, found him very much wavering as to our final\nsuccess. I expressed such sentiments, and expressed them so firmly, as\nto lead him to wish that I should see King Leopold of Belgium, who was\nconsidered the wisest sovereign in Europe, and to whom Queen Victoria\nand others were accustomed to refer many questions for judgment or\narbitration.\n\n\u201cFor the first and only time in my life I prepared myself for the\nordeal. But oh! consider it, ye that dwell at home, ye that sit at ease\namong flowers and all pleasant things\u2014consider my sufferings in a\n_fashionable hat_, a white cravat, and a pair of white gloves! Yes, it\nwas even so! I reluctated, but Sandford plead; and as it was more for\nhis sake than my own that I consented to the interview at all, and also\nbecause the king was very influential with all the sovereigns of Europe,\nand especially with Victoria, and was pleased with attentions from\nAmericans, I took to myself a hat, cravat, and gloves, and in an open\nbarouche with two white horses, and Mr. Simmonds sitting by the side of\nthe driver, large as life, and most happy to be the courier of a party\ncalled on in all the capitals by American ministers and consuls, and\n_now_ going actually to see the king! Happy, happy Simmonds! The crowd\nstared; the people gave way right and left; the royal guard at the\nGovernor\u2019s House opened; we dismounted just at eleven (hat, cravat,\ngloves, and all). A golden-laced official received us at the lower door\nand jabbered French in our faces, which we answered by making for the\nstairs beyond him. At the top two officers, much dressed, bowed and\nseemed to be expecting us, showing us toward a pair of folding-doors\nwhich, opening into the ante-room, revealed to us an aide-de-camp in\nwaiting, who took my card, walked softly to the next door, communed with\nsome one within, returned, and said that in a moment the king would\nreceive us.\n\n\u201cIn a moment the door opened, a servant beckoned us, and we entered. A\ntall man in full military uniform, blue, with eleven orders, crosses,\netc., on his left breast, with hair black (not his own), of a face quite\nreverend, long, thin, somewhat corrugated, came towards us graciously\nand paternally, bowed gently, and began a conversation of our travels,\nof Europe, of America a _little_. Well, it was my duty, of course,\nalways to address him as \u2018Sire,\u2019 but I generally managed to call him\n\u2018Sir\u2019 with a hasty correction to \u2018Sire.\u2019\n\n\u201cAfter some conversation, in which he plainly intimated to me that he\nwould rejoice in bringing us to terms and peace again, all the while\nintimating that the South could not be overcome, and that it would be\nvery wise for us to make a compromise, and that he would be entirely\nwilling to render service in that direction, I said to him: \u2018Your\nmajesty\u2019\u2014I got it out once or twice right\u2014\u2018if there were any ruling\nsovereign in Europe to whom more than to another we should be glad to\nrefer this question, it would be to the king of Belgium, a judge among\nnations and adviser among kings; but we do not propose to refer it to\nany one. We are going to fight it out ourselves; the strongest will win\nin our conflict, and so it must be settled.\u2019\n\n\u201cTurning from that, he asked me what I thought of sending Maximilian to\nMexico\u2014for at that time he had not been sent to be the emperor of this\nnew nation the Latins had established there; and, without suitable\ndiplomacy, I said to him: \u2018Your majesty, any man that wants to sit upon\na throne in Mexico, I would advise to try Vesuvius first; if he can sit\nthere for a while, then he might go and try it in Mexico.\u2019\n\n\u201cThis very soon brought our conversation to a close. He bowed, we bowed.\nHe stepped back a step, we two, and, repeating the operation, we were\nsoon at the door and out of it.\u201d\n\nThe next day finds Mr. Beecher at London. But a short time before, and\nwhile in Paris, an event occurred that had a marked effect upon his\nsubsequent course in England and the results which he achieved. The news\ncame to him of the fall of Vicksburg and the repulse of Lee at\nGettysburg:\n\n\u201cSuch a revulsion of feeling as I experienced myself, and such a\nrevulsion and intoning as all patriotic Americans experienced (for all\nAmericans were not patriotic; very largely they were commercial\ncowards), from those tidings, one can scarcely imagine who was not there\nto see. At this time I was staying in Paris at the Grand Hotel. It was\non a radiant Sunday, as I wended my way from the hotel to the church,\nthat the news came of the surrender of Vicksburg. No words can tell the\nbuoyancy, the awful sense of gladness that I had. I went into the house\nof God and sat down in the pew of our minister to France, Mr. Dayton. By\nmy side sat his daughter. In a pause in the service I turned to Miss\nDayton and asked, \u2018Have you heard the news?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 said she, looking\nearnestly at me. \u2018_Vicksburg has fallen!_\u2019 \u2018_Is it true?_\u2019 \u2018Yes, be\nsure.\u2019 She answered me not a word, but turning to her companion, another\nyoung lady, she whispered it to her, and both sat still as statues. The\nhymn was given out, the music sounded, and she began to sing; but no\nsooner had she opened her lips than, in a flood of tears, she buried her\nface in her hands and wept for gladness and triumph. It overwhelmed her,\nand it overwhelmed me too. And before the sun went down, yea, before the\nsun was at noon, the other tidings came of the victory at Gettysburg;\nand then my cup ran over. No man can tell how victoriously I walked. In\nthe ample court of the Grand Hotel there usually gathered a very large\ncompany of Southern men, to whom my name was not savory; and day after\nday, as I went out, they were wont to collect in one corner, and with\nsneers and undisguised attempts at insult they met me as I came in and\nwent out, even sending contemptible messages to me by the servants\n(which I never received, being intercepted at the office, although I\nheard of them afterwards). But on that day when I heard that Lee had\nbeen driven out of Pennsylvania and that Vicksburg had surrendered to\nGrant, I put on my best coat, walked down-stairs and out into that court\nto see how it fared with my brethren of the South; but, alas! they were\nnot there, not one of them. They, too, had heard something!\n\n\u201cThe effect which these tidings produced throughout Great Britain was\nimmense. Before this no avowed friend of the North could go through the\nExchange in Liverpool without being looked at and watched, largely as\none would look at a bear escaped from a menagerie. My friend Charles\nDuncan had scarcely been able to transact business without being\ninsulted at every step; when the good news came he went down into the\nExchange to look into the faces of these men that had been so insulting,\nbut there was not a man in the whole Exchange who had not been on our\nside from the very beginning, and who had not always believed in us, in\nour cause, and in our final victory! How wonderful are the workings of\nProvidence!\n\n\u201cOn returning to England representations were made to me which compelled\nme to consent to a series of public speeches. Our friends said: \u2018We have\nsacrificed ourselves in your behalf, and have been counted as the\noffscouring, because we had championed the cause of the North; and now\nif you go home without making a recognition of our efforts we will be\noverwhelmed.\u2019 Aside from other considerations, I found that a movement\nwas on foot to induce Parliament to declare for the Southern\nConfederacy. This they were very willing to do, but did not dare to\nwithout the approval of the unvoting English, who held great power.\nSteps had been taken by friends of the Southern cause to have orators go\nthrough the manufacturing districts for the purpose of enlisting the\nsympathies of the laboring classes.\n\n\u201cBy projecting a series of meetings on the other side it was hoped that\nthis mischievous course might be baffled and forestalled. At first there\nwas thought of but a single speech, and that at Manchester. So soon as\nit was known that there was to be such a meeting applications were made\nfrom Glasgow, from Edinburgh, from Liverpool and London, for like\nmeetings in these places.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XX.\n\nFacing the Mob in Manchester\u2014Glasgow\u2014Edinburgh\u2014Desperate Attempts to\n    break Mr. Beecher down at Liverpool\u2014Victory in London.\n\n\n\u201cAfter spending some days in the Lake district I went to Manchester to\nmeet the engagement there for October 9th. Great excitement existed; the\nstreets were placarded with vast posters, printed in blood-red,\nappealing to the passions and even to the spirit of violence on the part\nof the people. Threats resounded on every side. Both there and at\nLiverpool afterwards it was declared that I should never come out of the\naudience alive.\n\n\u201cI was met at the station by John Estcourt and young Watts, whose father\nwas Sir Something Watts and had the largest business house in Central\nEngland. When they approached me I saw that there was something amiss,\nand before I had proceeded twenty steps they let the cat out of the bag:\n\u2018Of course you know there is a great deal of excitement here\u2019\u2014at the\nsame time pointing to placards printed in red letters, with which the\nstreets were flooded, denouncing the Northern cause and all its\nadvocates. I always feel happy when I hear of a storm, and I looked at\nthem and said: \u2018Well, are you going to back down?\u2019 \u2018No,\u2019 said they, \u2018but\nwe didn\u2019t know how you would feel.\u2019 \u2018Well,\u2019 said I, \u2018you\u2019ll find out how\nI\u2019m going to feel. I\u2019m going to be heard. I won\u2019t leave England until I\nhave been heard.\u2019\n\n\u201cThe Free Trade Hall, I was informed, held from five to six thousand. It\nwas the purpose of our adversaries to break down my first speech in\nEngland there, and prevent my being heard thereafter. All the great\npapers of London and of the kingdom were represented. The tumult defies\ndescription. No American audience, under any amount of excitement that I\nhave ever known, could be compared for one moment with the condition of\nthe audience at Manchester; and that was equalled, and surpassed even,\nby the one subsequently at Liverpool. If one can imagine a shipmaster\ngiving orders to a mutinous crew in the midst of a tropical\nthunder-storm, he will have some faint idea of the task that was on my\nhands.\n\n\u201cAlthough in every speech I was obliged to rehearse substantially the\nsame general facts in regard to the questions at issue in America, yet\neach speech had a field peculiar to itself. In Manchester I discussed\nthe effect of slavery upon manufacturing interests of the world, and\ngave a history of the external political movement for fifty years past,\nso far as it was necessary to illustrate the fact that the American war\nwas only an overt and warlike form of a contest between liberty and\nslavery that had been going on politically for over half a century.\u201d\n\nAfter Mr. Beecher was introduced, and before he had fairly entered upon\nhis speech, the mob began to show its teeth, and in a few seconds there\nwas one unparalleled scene of riot and confusion. Mr. Beecher took the\nmeasure of his audience, about one-fourth of whom only were against him,\nbut they made up in noise and tumult what they lacked in numbers. They\nhad been systematically bunched about the house, so as to make their\ninterruptions the more effective. He had come with his speech carefully\nprepared in manuscript, but when the interruptions began he tossed the\npaper to one side, and, stepping forward, with head erect, said: \u201cMy\nfriends, we will have a whole night\u2019s session, but we will be heard.\u201d It\nwas like attempting to preach a sermon through a trumpet in a howling\ngale; but the press was well represented, and, bending forward, he said\nto the reporters: \u201cGentlemen, be kind enough to take down what I say. It\nwill be in sections, but I will have it connected by and by.\u201d The uproar\ncontinued, and all sorts of insulting questions were hurled at the\nspeaker. The latter, however, had made up his mind to be heard, and he\nwas. He would wait until the noise had somewhat subsided, then,\narresting the attention of the audience by some witticism, he would take\nadvantage of the lull to give them some telling sentences. Finally,\nafter about an hour of speaking by fits and starts, the audience became\nmanageable. The English admire pluck, and they had an excellent example\nof the article before them, and finally could not fail to show their\nappreciation. His cool, determined appearance as he said, \u201cI have many\ntimes encountered similar opposition, and afterwards been heard; _I\nshall be heard to-night_,\u201d produced a marked effect, and in a short time\nthereafter the vast assemblage was brought in perfect silence and into\nfull sympathy with the speaker. They listened during the remaining hour,\nand were convinced; the next morning every paper in England printed the\nentire speech.\n\nJust as the speaker was drawing to a close, occurred a stirring incident\nthat strongly emphasized the effect of this speech. The chairman, taking\nadvantage of a slight pause, touched Mr. Beecher on the shoulder and\nwhispered a few words to him. The latter retired sufficiently to give\nhis place to the chairman, who, raising a paper which he held, said in a\ndistinct voice: \u201cI hold in my hand a telegram just received from London,\nstating that her Majesty has to-night caused the \u2018broad arrow\u2019 to be\nplaced on the rams in Mr. Laird\u2019s yard at Birkenhead.\u201d This meant the\nstoppage of the ships which were being built for Confederate cruisers.\nThe effect was startling. The whole audience rose to its feet. Men\ncheered and waved their hats, while women waved their handkerchiefs and\nwept.\n\nAt the conclusion of his address the feeling of the audience, which a\nshort time previous had been a howling mob, can be best portrayed by the\nfollowing incident: A big, burly Englishman who was sitting in the\ngallery, seeing that it would be impossible to reach Mr. Beecher to\nshake hands with him, cried, \u201cShake my umbrella,\u201d at the same time\nreaching it down to him. Mr. Beecher complied with the request, and as\nhe did so the enthusiastic Englishman cried, \u201cBy Jocks! nobody sha\u2019n\u2019t\ntouch that umbrella again!\u201d Hundreds of others, more fortunate, crowded\nin to shake the speaker\u2019s hand.\n\nOf course it will be impossible, within our space, to give the speeches\nentire, whilst an attempt at analysis would be like presenting a bony\nskeleton bared of its flesh, omitting all that gave them life and\nstrength. But a few of the more striking passages from each speech may\nnot be uninteresting:[7]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n  These speeches have been reprinted in full in \u201cPatriotic Addresses,\u201d\n  by Messrs. Ford, Howard & Hulburt, of New York.\n\n-----\n\n\u201cI have not come to England to be surprised that those men whose cause\ncannot bear the light are afraid of free speech. I have had practice of\nmore than twenty-five years, in the presence of tumultuous assemblies,\nopposing those very men whose representatives now attempt to forestall\nfree speech. Little by little, I doubt not, I shall be permitted to\nspeak to-night. Little by little I have been permitted in my own country\nto speak, until at last the day has come there, when nothing but the\nutterance of speech for freedom is popular. You have been pleased to\nspeak of me as one connected with the great cause of civil and religious\nliberty. I covet no higher honor than to have my name joined to the list\nof that great company of noble Englishmen from whom we derived our\ndoctrines of liberty. For although there is some opposition to what are\nhere called American ideas, what are these American ideas? They are\nsimply English ideas bearing fruit in America. We bring back American\nsheaves, but the seed corn we got in England; and if, on a larger sphere\nand under circumstances of unobstruction, we have reared mightier\nharvests, every sheaf contains the grain that has made Old England rich\nfor a hundred years....\n\n\u201cAllusion has been made by one of the gentlemen to words or deeds of\nmine that might be supposed to be offensive to Englishmen. I am sure\nthat in the midst of this mighty struggle at home, which has taxed every\npower and energy of our people, I have never stopped to measure and to\nthink whether my words, spoken in truth and with fidelity to duty, would\nbe liked in this shape or in that shape, by one or another person,\neither in England or America. I have had one simple, honest purpose,\nwhich I have pursued ever since I have been in public life, and that\nwas, with all the strength that God has given to me, to maintain the\ncause of the poor and of the weak in my own country. And if, in the\nheight and heat of conflict, some words have been over-sharp and some\npositions have been taken heedlessly, are you the men to call one to\naccount? What if some exquisite dancing-master, standing on the edge of\na battle where Richard C\u0153ur de Lion swung his axe, criticised him by\nsaying that \u2018his gestures and postures violated the proprieties of\npolite life\u2019? When dandies fight they think how they _look_, but when\n_men_ fight they think only of _deeds_. But I am not here either on\ntrial or on defence. Here I am before you, willing to tell you what I\nthink about England or any person in it. The same agencies which have\nbeen at work to misrepresent good men in our country to you, have been\nat work to misrepresent to us good men here; and when I say to my\nfriends in America that I have attended such a meeting as this, received\nsuch an address, and beheld such enthusiasm, it will be a renewed pledge\nof amity. I have never ceased to feel that war, or even unkind feelings\nbetween two such great nations, would be one of the most unpardonable\nand atrocious offences that the world ever beheld, and I have regarded\neverything, therefore, which needlessly led to those feelings out of\nwhich war comes, as being in itself wicked. The same blood is in us. We\nhold the same substantial doctrines. We have the same mission amongst\nthe nations of the earth. Never were mother and daughter set forth to do\nso queenly a thing in the kingdom of God\u2019s glory as England and America.\nDo you ask why we are so sensitive, and why have we hewn England with\nour tongue as we have? I will tell you why. There is no man who can\noffend you so deeply as the one you love most.... Now (whether we\ninterpreted it aright or not is not the question), when we thought\nEngland was seeking opportunity to go with the South against us of the\nNorth, it hurt us as no other nation\u2019s conduct could hurt us on the face\nof the globe; and if we spoke some words of intemperate heat, we spoke\nthem in the mortification of disappointed affection. It has been\nsupposed that I have aforetime urged or threatened war with England.\nNever! This I have said\u2014and this I repeat now and here\u2014that the cause of\nconstitutional government, and of universal liberty as associated with\nit, in our country, was so dear, so sacred that, rather than betray it,\nwe would give the last child we had; that we would not relinquish this\nconflict though other States rose and entered into a league with the\nSouth; and that, if it were necessary, we would maintain this great\ndoctrine of representative government in America against the armed\nworld\u2014against England and France.... We ask no help and no hindrance. We\ndo not ask for material aid. We shall be grateful for moral sympathy;\nbut if you cannot give us moral sympathy we shall still endeavor to do\nwithout it. All that we say is, Let France keep away, let England keep\nhands off; if we cannot manage this rebellion by ourselves, then let it\nnot be managed at all. We do not allow ourselves to doubt the issue of\nthis conflict. It is only a question of time. For such inestimable\nprinciples as are at stake\u2014of self-government, of representative\ngovernment, of any government at all, of free institutions rejected\nbecause they inevitably will bring liberty to slaves unless subverted,\nof national honor, and fidelity to solemn national trusts\u2014for all these\nwar is waged; and if by war these shall be secured, not one drop of\nblood will be wasted, not one life squandered. The suffering will have\npurchased a glorious future of inconceivable peace and happiness! Nor do\nwe deem the result doubtful. The population is in the North and West.\nThe wealth is there. The popular intelligence of the country is there.\nTHERE _only_ is there an educated _common people_. The right doctrines\nof civil government are with the North. It will not be long before one\nthing more will be with the North\u2014victory. Men on this side are\nimpatient at the long delay; but if we can bear it, can\u2019t you? You are\nquite at ease; we are not. You are not materially affected in any such\ndegree as many parts of our own land are. But if the day shall come in\none year, in two years, or in ten years hence, when the old stars and\nstripes shall float over every State of America; if the day shall come\nwhen that which was the accursed cause of this dire and atrocious\nwar\u2014slavery\u2014shall be done away; if the day shall have come when through\nall the Gulf States there shall be liberty of speech, as there never has\nbeen; when there shall be liberty of the press, as there never has been;\nwhen men shall have common schools to send their children to, which they\nnever have had in the South; in short, if the day shall come when the\nsimple ordinances, the fruition and privileges, of civil liberty, shall\nprevail in every part of the United States\u2014it will be worth all the\ndreadful blood and tears and woe. You are impatient; and yet God\ndwelleth in eternity, and has an infinite leisure to roll forward the\naffairs of men, not to suit the hot impatience of those who are but\nchildren of a day and cannot wait or linger long, but according to the\ninfinite circle on which He measures time and events!...\n\n\u201cThe institutions of America were shaped by the North; but the _policy_\nof her government, for half a hundred years, by the South. All the\naggression and filibustering, all the threats to England and tauntings\nof Europe, all the bluster of war which our government has assumed, have\nbeen under the inspiration and under the almost monarchical sway of the\nSouthern oligarchy. And now, since Britain has in the past been snubbed\nby the Southerners, and threatened by the Southerners, and domineered\nover by the Southerners\u2014yet now Great Britain has thrown her arms of\nlove around the Southerners, and turns from the Northerners. [A voice,\n\u2018No.\u2019] She don\u2019t? I have only to say that she has been caught in very\nsuspicious circumstances. I speak as I have, perhaps as much as anything\nelse, to bring out from you this expression; to let _you_ know, what\n_we_ know, that all the hostility felt in my country towards Great\nBritain has been sudden, and from supposing that you sided with the\nSouth and sought the breaking up of our country; and I want you to say\nto me, and through me to my countrymen, that those irritations against\nthe North, and those likings for the South, that have been expressed in\nyour papers, are not the feelings of the great mass of your nation.\n[Great cheering, the audience rising.] Those cheers already sound in my\nears as the coming acclamations of friendly nations; those waving\nhandkerchiefs are the white banners that symbolize peace for all\ncountries. Join with us, then, Britons. From you we learnt the doctrine\nof what a man was worth; from you we learnt to detest all oppressions;\nfrom you we learnt that it was the noblest thing a man could do TO DIE\nFOR A RIGHT PRINCIPLE. And now, when we are set in that very course, and\nare giving our best blood for these most sacred principles, let the\nworld understand that the common people of Great Britain support us....\u201d\n\nThe attempt to \u201cbreak Beecher down at his first speech\u201d signally failed.\nHe had beaten the mob. He had made himself heard, and the full reports\nof his speech were scattered throughout the entire kingdom. Many crude\nmisconceptions were corrected, not a few of his opponents were\nconverted, while many others were forced to admit that they had received\nsome new ideas respecting the North and the United States government. On\nthe 13th he spoke in Glasgow, where the blockade-runners were being\nbuilt, and where the laboring-classes were in some sense bribed by their\noccupation in the shipyards. Here were discussed the effects of slavery\nupon the welfare of the working-classes the world over, showing the\ncondition of work or labor necessitated by any profitable system of\nslavery, demonstrating that it brought labor into contempt, affixing to\nit the badge of degradation; that a struggle to extend servile labor\nacross the American continent interests every free workingman on the\nglobe, and that the Southern cause was the natural enemy of free labor\nand the free laborer all the world over.\n\nA strong Southern sentiment existed here, and the same attempt was made\nas in Manchester to break the speaker down. The City Hall was crowded to\nits utmost limits with friends and opponents. The opposition here was\nneither so determined nor prolonged as at Manchester. His success there\nhad encouraged him while it discouraged them.\n\nHis opening sentences established a kindly bond between the hearers, so\ndevotedly attached to their own country, and the speaker. Their kindly\ninterest once aroused, it was not difficult to gain and keep their\nsympathy throughout the speech. The unruly element was soon put down,\nbut little disturbance occurring after the first half-hour.\n\n\u201cNo one who has been born and reared in Scotland can know the feeling\nwith which, for the first time, such a one as I have visited this land,\nclassic in song and in history. I have been reared in a country whose\nhistory is brief. So vast is it that one might travel night and day for\nall the week, and yet scarcely touch historic ground. Its history is yet\nto be written; it is yet to be acted. But I come to this land, which,\nthough small, is as full of memories as the heaven is of stars, and\nalmost as bright. There is not the most insignificant piece of water\nthat does not make my heart thrill with some story of heroism or some\nremembered poem; for not only has Scotland had the good fortune to have\nhad men that knew how to make heroic history, but she has reared those\nbards who have known how to sing her histories.... I come to Scotland,\nalmost as a pilgrim would go to Jerusalem, to see those scenes whose\nstories had stirred my imagination from my earliest youth; and I can pay\nno higher compliment than to say that, having seen some part of\nScotland, I am satisfied; and permit me to say that if, when you know\nme, you are a thousandth part as satisfied with me as I am with you, we\nshall get along very well together. And yet, although I am not of a\nyielding mood nor easily daunted, I have some embarrassment in speaking\nto you to-night. I know very well that there are not a few things which\nprevent my doing good work among you. I differ greatly from many of you.\nI respect, although I will not adopt, your opinions. I can only ask as\nmuch from you for myself. I am aware that a personal prejudice has been\ndiligently excited against me.... It is not a pleasant avenue to a\nspeech for a man to walk through himself. But since every pains is taken\nto misrepresent me, let me once for all deal with that matter. In my own\nland I have been the subject of misrepresentation and abuse so long that\nwhen I did not receive it I felt as though something was wanting in the\natmosphere. I have been the object of misrepresentation at home simply\nand only because I have been arrayed, ever since I had a voice to speak\nand a heart to feel\u2014body and soul I have been arrayed, without regard to\nconsequences, and to my own reputation or my own ease, against that\nwhich I consider the damning sin of my country and the shame of human\nnature\u2014slavery. I thought I had a right, when I came to Great Britain,\nto expect a different reception; but I found that the insidious\ncorrespondence of men in America had poisoned the British mind, and that\nrepresentations had been made that I had indulged in the most offensive\nlanguage and had threatened all sorts of things against Great Britain.\nNow, allow me to say that, having examined that interesting literature,\nso far as I have seen it published in British newspapers, I here declare\nthat ninety-nine out of one hundred parts of those things that I am\ncharged with saying I never said and never thought\u2014they are falsehoods\nwholly and in particular. Allow me next to say that I have been\naccustomed freely and at all times, at home, to speak what I thought to\nbe sober truth both of blame and of praise of Great Britain, and if you\ndo not want to hear a man express his honest sentiments fearlessly, then\nI do not want to speak to you. If I never spared my own country, if I\nnever spared the American Church, nor the government, nor my own party,\nnor my personal friends, did you expect I would spare you?... I have\nheard the voice of my Master, saying, \u2018If any man come unto Me and hate\nnot father, and mother, and brother, and sister, yea, and his own life\nalso, he is not worthy of Me.\u2019 When, therefore, the cause of truth and\njustice is put in the scale against my own country, I would disown\ncountry for the sake of truth; and when the cause of truth and justice\nis put in the scale against Great Britain, I would disown her rather\nthan betray what I understood to be the truth. _We are bound to\nestablish liberty_, regulated Christian liberty, _as the law of the\nAmerican Continent_. This is our destiny, this is that towards which the\neducation of the rising generation has been more and more assiduously\ndirected as the peculiar glory of America\u2014to destroy slavery and root it\nout of our land, and to establish in its place a discreet, intelligent,\nconstitutional, regulated Christian liberty.... I call your attention to\na few propositions, then, in reference to slavery as it exists in the\nextreme Southern States. And, first, the system of slavery requires\nignorance in the slave, and not alone intellectual but moral and social\nignorance. Anybody who is a slaveholder will find that there are reasons\nwhich will compel him to keep slaves in ignorance, if he is going to\nkeep them at all. Not because intelligence is more difficult to govern;\nfor with an intelligent people government is easier.... The slave would\nnot be less easily governed if he were educated. If the slaveholder\ntaught him to read and write, if he made him to know what he ought to\nknow as one of God\u2019s dear children, the South would not be so much\nendangered by insurrection as she is now. There is nothing so terrible\nas explosive ignorance. Men without an idea, striking blindly and\npassionately, are the men to be feared. Even if the slaves were educated\nthey would be better slaves. What is the reason, then, that slaves must\nbe kept in ignorance? The real reason is one of _expense_. In order to\nmake slave labor profitable you must reduce the cost of the slave; for\nthe difference between the profit and the loss turns upon the halfpenny\nper pound. If the price of slaves goes up and cotton goes down a shade\nin price, in ordinary times, the planters lose. The rule is, therefore,\nto reduce the cost of the man; and the slave, to be profitable, must be\nsimply a working creature. What does a man cost that is a slave? Just a\nlittle meal and a little pork, a small measure of the coarsest cloth and\nleather\u2014that is all he costs. Because that is all he needs\u2014the lowest\nfare and the scantiest clothing. He is a man with two hands, and two\nfeet, and a belly. That is all there is of a profitable slave. But every\nnew development within him which religion shall make\u2014the sense of\nfatherhood, the wish for a home, the desire to rear his children well,\nthe wish to honor and comfort his wife, every taste, every sentiment,\nevery aspiration\u2014will demand some external thing to satisfy it. His\nbeing augments. He demands more time.... Profitable slaveholding\nrequires only so much intelligence as will work well, and only so much\nreligion as will make men patient under suffering and abuse. More than\nthat\u2014more conscience, more ambition, more divine ideas of human nature,\nof men\u2019s dignity, of household virtue, of Christian refinement\u2014only\nmakes the slave too costly in his tastes. Not only does the degradation\nof the slave pass over to his work, but it affects all labor, even when\nperformed by free white men. Throughout the South there is the most\nmarked public disesteem of honest homely industry.... But even in the\nmost favored portions of the South manual labor is but barely redeemed\nfrom the taint of being a slave\u2019s business, and nowhere is it honored as\nit is in the great and free North. Whereas, in the richer and more\ninfluential portions of the South, labor is so degraded that men are\nashamed of it. It is a badge of dishonor. The poor and shiftless whites,\nunable to own slaves, unwilling to work themselves, live in a precarious\nand wretched manner but a little removed from barbarism, relying upon\nthe chase for much of their subsistence, and affording a melancholy\nspectacle of the condition into which the reflex influence of slavery\nthrows the neighboring poor whites. Having turned their own industry\nover to slaves, and established the province and duties of a gentleman\nto consist of indolence and politics, it is not strange that they hold\nthe people of the North in great contempt. The North is a vast hive of\nuniversal industry. Idleness there is as disreputable as is labor in the\nSouth. The child\u2019s earliest lesson is faithful industry. The boy works,\nthe man works. Everywhere through all the North men earn their own\nliving by their own industry and ingenuity. They scorn to be dependent.\nThey revolt at the dishonor of living upon the unrequited labor of\nothers. Honest labor is that highway along which the whole body of the\nNorthern people travel towards wealth and usefulness. From Northern\nlooms the South is clothed, from their anvils come all Southern\nimplements of labor, from their shops all modern ware, from their lasts\nSouthern shoes. The North is growing rich by its own industry. No\nwonder, then, that Southerners have been wont to deride the free workmen\nof the North. Governor Hammond only gave expression to the universal\ncontempt of Southern slaveholders for _work_ and workmen when he called\nthe Northern laborer the \u2018_mudsill of society_,\u2019 and stigmatized the\nartisan as the \u2018greasy mechanic.\u2019 The North and South alike live by\nwork: the North by their own work, the South by that of their slaves!\nWhich is the more honorable? I have a right to demand of the workmen of\nGlasgow that they should refuse their sympathy to the South, and should\ngive their hearty sympathy to those who are, like themselves, seeking to\nmake work honorable and to give to the workman his true place in\nsociety. Disguise it as they will, distract your attention from it as\nthey may, it cannot be concealed that the American question is the\n_workingman\u2019s question_ all over the world! The slavemaster\u2019s doctrine\nis _that capital should own labor_\u2014that the employers should own the\nemployed. This is Southern doctrine and Southern practice. Northern\ndoctrine and Northern practice is that the laborer should be free,\nintelligent, clothed with full citizen\u2019s rights, with a share of the\npolitical duties and honors. The North has from the beginning crowned\nlabor with honor. Nowhere else on earth is it so honorable.\u201d\n\nOn the following evening, October 14, he spoke in Edinburgh. The crowd,\nthat packed the hall and completely blocked the entrances, was so vast\nthat it very nearly deprived the meeting of both chairman and speaker.\nWith great difficulty they managed to struggle through and finally\nreached the platform. Edinburgh being a centre of refinement and\nlearning, Mr. Beecher aimed to give some idea of the philosophy of\nslavery, showing, how, out of separate colonies and States intensely\njealous of their individual sovereignty, there grew up and was finally\nestablished a nation; and how, in that nation of united States, the\ndistinct and antagonistic systems were developed and strove for the\nguidance of the national policy, which struggle at length passed and the\nNorth gained the control. Thereupon the South abandoned the Union,\nsimply and solely because the government was in future to be\nadministered by men who would give their whole influence to freedom.\nComparatively speaking, but little opposition was encountered at this\nmeeting. At the outset some disturbance was attempted, but the temper of\nthe audience was opposed to the unruly ones and they were soon quieted.\nThe speech produced a marked impression, the resolution and vote of\nthanks being carried with \u201cloud and prolonged applause.\u201d We give a few\nextracts from it:\n\n\u201cDuring the last fifteen years I believe you cannot find a voice,\nprinted or uttered, in the cotton States of the South, which deplored\nslavery. All believed in and praised it, and found authority for it in\nGod\u2019s Word. Politicians admired it, merchants appreciated it, the whole\nSouth sang p\u00e6ans to the newfound truth that man was born to be owned by\nman. This change of doctrine made it certain that the South would be\nannoyed and irritated by a Constitution which, with all its faults,\nstill carried the God-given principle of human rights, which were not to\nbe taken by man except in punishment for crime. That Constitution, and\nthe policy which went with it at first, began to gnaw at, and irritate,\nand fret the South when they had adopted slavery as a doctrine. How\ncould they live in peace under a Constitution that all the time declared\nthe manhood of men and the dignity of freedom? It became necessary that\nthey should do one of two things, either give up slavery or appropriate\nthe government to themselves, and in some way or other drain out of the\nConstitution this venom of liberty and infuse a policy more in harmony\nwith Southern ideas. They took the latter course. They contrived to\npossess themselves of the government; and for the last fifty years the\npolicy of the country has been Southern. Was a tariff wanted? It was\nmade a Southern tariff. Was a tariff oppressive? The Southerners\noverthrew it. Was a tariff wanted again? The Southern policy declared it\nto be necessary, and it was passed. Was more territory wanted? The South\nmust have its way. Was any man to obtain a place? If the South opposed\nit he had no chance whatever. For fifty years most of the men who became\njudges, who sat in the presidential chair and in the courts, had to base\ntheir opinions on slavery or on Southern views. All the filibustering,\nall the intimidations of foreign powers, all the so-called snubbing of\nEuropean powers, happened during the period in which the policy of the\ncountry was controlled by the South. May I be permitted to look on it as\na mark of victorious Christianity that England now loves her worst\nenemy, and is sitting with arms of sympathy round her neck? The man who\nwas an Abolitionist when I was twenty-one years of age might bid\nfarewell to any hopes of political advancement; and the merchant who\nheld these opinions was soon robbed of customers. As far as I remember,\nthere was nothing in the world that so ruined a man\u2014not crime itself was\nso fatal to a man\u2019s standing in the country\u2014as to be known to hold\nabolition sentiments. The churches sought to keep the question of\nslavery out; so did the schools and colleges; so did synods and\nconventions. But still the cause of abolition progressed; and still, as\nis always the case with everything that is right, though the men who\nheld those sentiments were scoffed at, though such men as Garrison were\ndragged through the streets with halters round their necks, yet the more\nit was spoken of and canvassed the more the cause prospered, because it\nwas true. The insanity at last abated; for the command came from on High\nsaying to the evil spirit concerning the North: \u2018I command thee to come\nout of her.\u2019 Then the nation wallowed on the ground and foamed at the\nmouth; but the unclean spirit passed out, and she became clean. The more\nsome people wanted to keep down this subject and keep out the air, the\nmore God forced the subject on their minds. When Missouri knocked at the\ndoor there were those who opposed its admission as a slave State, but by\nSouthern management and intimidation Henry Clay persuaded the North to a\ncompromise. Now, when there is no difference in principle, but only\nconflicting interests, a compromise is honorable and right; but when\nantagonistic principles are in question I believe compromises to be\nbargains with the devil, who is never cheated.... We do not want to\nquarrel; we do not want animosity between Great Britain and America. No\nman has spoken of Great Britain words of praise and blame with more\nhonest heart than I have. That man is not your friend who dares not\nspeak of your faults to your face. The man that is your friend, tells\nyou when he thinks you are wrong; and whether I am right or wrong, I\nassert that in giving moral sympathy largely to the South, and, above\nall, in allowing the infamous traffic of your ports with the rebels,\nthus strengthening the hands of the slaveholders\u2014and that without public\nrebuke\u2014you have done wrong. I have said this because, dear as your\ncountry is to us, precious as were the legacies given to us of learning\nand religion, and proud as we have been for years past to think of our\nancestry and common relationship to you, yet so much dearer to us than\nkindred is the cause of God that, if Great Britain sets herself against\nus, we shall not hesitate one moment on her account, but shall fulfil\nour mission! ... I have a closing word to speak. It is our duty in\nAmerica, by every means in our power, to avoid all cause of irritation\nwith every foreign nation, and with the English nation most especially.\nOn your side it is your duty to avoid all irritating interference, and\nall speech that tends to irritate. Brothers should be brothers all the\nworld over, and you are of our blood, and we are of your lineage. May\nthat day be far distant when Great Britain and America shall turn their\nbacks on each other and seek an alliance with other nations! The day is\ncoming when the foundations of the earth will be lifted out of their\nplaces; and there are two nations that ought to be found shoulder to\nshoulder and hand in hand for the sake of Christianity and universal\nliberty, and these nations are Great Britain and America.\u201d\n\nThe effect of these three speeches was being very widely felt. It looked\nat first as though the backbone of opposition had been broken.\n\nThis pleasant impression was soon dispelled. The mob spirit was not\ndead; it was only resting and gaining breath for a final and more\ndesperate effort.\n\nThe next speech was to be in Liverpool on the 16th, at the great\nPhilharmonic Hall.\n\nLiverpool was the headquarters of the Southern sympathizers. A great\nmany Southern men were there.\n\nThe feeling was very strong that if Mr. Beecher should succeed there he\nwould carry the day. A determined and desperate effort was to be made,\nat any cost, to prevent the delivery of the speech.\n\nThe streets were placarded with abusive and scurrilous placards, often\nposted over the notices of the meeting, couched in the most inflammatory\nlanguage, urging that \u201cEnglishmen see that he gets the welcome he\ndeserves.\u201d On the morning of the 16th the leading papers came out with\nviolent editorials against Mr. Beecher, full of falsehoods and\nmisquotations from his speeches. Every art was resorted to to work the\npassion of the mob up to the point of violence.\n\nWe quote a brief extract from the Liverpool _Courier_ of that date:\n\n\u201cThe visit of Mr. Henry Ward Beecher to Liverpool to-night is not likely\nto do the Federal cause much service in this neighborhood. His views on\nslavery are too violent and unreasonable to meet with much favor from\nthoughtful people; and even those who earnestly desire the freedom of\nthe Southern slaves would not consent to adopt the extreme, sanguinary\nprinciples enunciated by Mr. Beecher.... But, apart from his abolition\ndoctrines, Mr. Beecher, unless he has been greatly misrepresented, has\ndisplayed the most intense hatred of Great Britain, and has vilified the\nBritish people in a disgraceful manner. He was most violent in his\ndenunciations of England during the never-to-be-forgotten _Trent_\naffair, and if his views had been adopted the two great Anglo-Saxon\npeoples would have been plunged into war. When he said, \u2018The best blood\nof England must flow for the outrage England had perpetrated upon\nAmerica,\u2019 he used language unbecoming a man, still more a professing\npreacher of the Gospel. Yet the person who could thus insult the British\nnation has now the audacity to come amongst us to lecture us on American\npolitics. Such conduct evidences unbounded impudence and little\ndiscretion, and can only be explained by the assumption that he is the\naccredited emissary of the Federal government.\u201d\n\nIt was openly declared that if he should dare to address the meeting he\nwould never leave the hall alive\u2014a threat believed to have been\nsincerely made, with the fullest intention of fulfilment. The friends of\nMr. Beecher were greatly alarmed, many advising him not to attend the\nmeeting.\n\nHe was fully conscious of the risk that he ran, and knew that to be\npresent was to carry his life in his hand. During the whole day he was\nunder the shadow of a black cloud. He was plunged into the depths of\ndespondency. _He was going to the meeting_, but would he leave it alive?\nCould he make himself heard? Must he fail now that he was on the very\nverge of success? These and similarly anxious thoughts tormented him\nthroughout the day. No light illumined the darkness of his soul until,\nhaving left the hotel, he was on his way to the hall; then, he says,\nsuddenly a great light burst in upon him, and, night though it was, it\nseemed as if the whole heavens blazed with light like the noonday. Fears\nand anxious doubts disappeared like mists before the morning sun. A\ngreat peace settled down upon him, and as he entered the hall he was\nfilled with the certainty of succeeding.\n\nIt was well known that the mob was armed; it was not so well known that\na small but determined band of young men, occupying a commanding\nposition to the right of the platform, were also armed, determined, if\nany dangerous outbreak occurred, to protect Mr. Beecher at all hazards.\nMr. Beecher himself was in ignorance of the fact until some days later.\nHappily nothing more serious than noise was developed, the cool and\ndetermined appearance of the speaker and the earnest demonstration by\nthe majority present seeming to discourage a resort to violence.\n\nThe speech was devoted to a discussion of the relation of slavery to\ncommerce, showing that, in the long run, it was as hostile both to\ncommerce and manufactures the world over as it was to free interests in\nhuman society; that a slave nation must be a poor customer, buying the\npoorest and fewest goods, and the least profitable to the producers;\nthat it was the interest of every manufacturing country to promote\nfreedom, intelligence, and wealth amongst all nations; that the attempt\nto cover the fairest portion of the globe with a slave population that\nbuys nothing, and a degraded white population that buys next to nothing,\nshould array against it every political economist and every thoughtful\nand far-seeing manufacturer, as tending to strike at the vital wants of\ncommerce, which was not cotton but rich customers.\n\nIt would be impossible for tongue or pen adequately to describe the\nscenes at the meeting. The great hall was packed to the crushing point.\nThe mob was out in force, with lungs in good working order and a\ndisposition to use them to the best advantage.\n\nManchester and Glasgow were love-feasts in comparison.\n\nWe give an attempt at description from one of the Liverpool papers:\n\n\u201cFor several days before the meeting it was understood that efforts\nwould be made to create a disturbance.\n\n\u201cFor some moments before the time fixed for the commencement of the\nproceedings, cat-calls, groans, cheers, hisses, etc., were freely\nindulged in, and it was evident that a strong force of the pro-Southern\n(or at least of the anti-Beecher) party had congregated in front of the\ngallery and at the lower end of the body of the hall. The _d\u00e9but_ of the\nRev. Mr. Beecher was, judging from the frequently manifested impatience\nof the audience, awaited with intense interest. Several occupants of\nseats in the upper gallery loudly insisted upon somebody bringing him\nout; and when the reverend gentleman did step on the platform, the\nenthusiasm of his friends and the indignation of his opponents were\nalmost indescribable. Cheer rolled after cheer with deafening effect,\nand, in the brief pauses between each hurrah, hisses fell upon the ear\nwith a sound like that of a falling torrent. The uproar was maintained\nso long that the chairman, Mr. Robertson, determined not to await the\nabatement of the storm, but to try to subdue it by a few judicious\nwords. He was only partly successful until he appealed to the audience\nas Englishmen to stand up for fair play and not to withhold justice from\na stranger.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher\u2019s introduction surprised though it did not disconcert that\ngentleman. He was evidently prepared for some opposition; but he could\nhardly have expected that his appearance at the front of the platform,\nwould rouse one portion of the audience to a high state of enthusiasm,\nand cause the other portion to approach almost a state of frenzy. For\nsome time it was doubtful whether the celebrated Abolitionist would be\nallowed to speak; but those who sat near the reverend gentleman, and\nobserved his firmly-compressed lips and imperturbable demeanor, saw at\nonce that it would require something more than noise and spasmodic\nhisses to cause Mr. Beecher to lose heart. He stood calmly at the edge\nof the platform, a representation of \u2018patience smiling at grief,\u2019 and a\nsimile of sincerity, battling tacitly but successfully with opposition.\nOne of the two must sooner or later give way, and no one who scrutinized\nMr. Beecher\u2019s features could imagine that he would be the first to\nbecome tired. At last there was a lull; clergymen and ladies ceased to\nwave their umbrellas and handkerchiefs, the torrent of hisses became\nless perceptible, and the chairman made another appeal to the meeting\nfor fair play to Mr. Beecher. His assurance that an opportunity would be\noffered, after Mr. Beecher had concluded his address, to persons who\nwished to ask the reverend gentleman questions, was not very favorably\nreceived, and a series of disturbances ensued. Cries of \u2018Turn him out!\u2019\nwere heard in various parts of the hall, and efforts were made to eject\nsome members of the unruly party. When the scuffling had partly\nsubsided, the chairman expressed his determination to preserve order by\ncalling in, if necessary, the aid of the police. This announcement\nproduced something like order, and Mr. Beecher took up the advantage and\ncommenced his address. The interruptions were incessant, while a scene\nprevailed the equal of which has seldom been witnessed in Liverpool.\n\u2018Three cheers for Jeff. Davis!\u2019 was a proposal which once more met with\na hearty response from a portion of the audience; and as the admirers of\nthe Confederate President were loath to cease their expressions of\napproval, Mr. Beecher composedly sat down on the low parapet of the\nplatform and awaited a calm, at the same time apologizing to the\nreporters for causing them to be so long detained. At one time, about a\nscore of persons were speaking in various parts of the hall, and Mr.\nBeecher, as a last resource, said that if the meeting would not hear him\nhe would address the reporters. From the gallery were suspended placards\non which the words, \u2018Who is Henry Ward Beecher?\u2019 were conspicuous; and,\ntaken all in all, the scene was one of complete disorder. Mr. Beecher\nrepeatedly declared that it was not new to him; but he admitted that his\nstruggle for an hour and a half against the prevailing disorder had\ncaused his voice to fail. So far, indeed, had his voice suffered that he\nwas compelled, in concluding, to declare that he could not answer any\nquestions unless perfect order prevailed. He did reply, in comparative\npeace, to one or two written interrogatories; but, the disturbance being\nrenewed, Mr. Beecher sat down.\u201d\n\nA few quotations from this speech will not only give an idea of the line\nof Mr. Beecher\u2019s argument, but, by retaining the interruptions as\nindicated by the reports in the next day\u2019s papers, will also to some\nextent show the conditions under which the speech was delivered.\n\n\u201cFor more than twenty-five years I have been made perfectly familiar\nwith popular assemblies in all parts of my country except the extreme\nSouth. There has not for the whole of that time been a single day of my\nlife when it would have been safe for me to go south of Mason and\nDixon\u2019s line in my own country, and all for one reason: my solemn,\nearnest, persistent testimony against that which I consider to be the\nmost atrocious thing under the sun\u2014the system of American slavery in a\ngreat, free republic. [Cheers.] I have passed through that early period\nwhen right of free speech was denied to me. Again and again I have\nattempted to address audiences that, for no other crime than that of\nfree speech, visited me with all manner of contumelious epithets; and\nnow since I have been in England, although I have met with greater\nkindness and courtesy on the part of most than I deserved, yet, on the\nother hand, I perceive that the Southern influence prevails to some\nextent in England. [Applause and uproar.] It is my old acquaintance; I\nunderstand it perfectly [laughter], and I have always held it to be an\nunfailing truth that where a man had a cause that would bear examination\nhe was perfectly willing to have it spoken about. [Applause.] And when\nin Manchester I saw those huge placards, \u2018Who is Henry Ward Beecher?\u2019\n[laughter, cries of \u2018Quite right,\u2019 and applause], and when in Liverpool\nI was told that there were those blood-red placards, purporting to say\nwhat Henry Ward Beecher had said, and calling upon Englishmen to\nsuppress free speech\u2014I tell you what I thought; I thought simply this:\n\u2018I am glad of it.\u2019 [Laughter.] Why? Because if they had felt perfectly\nsecure that _you_ are the minions of the South and the slaves of\nslavery, they would have been perfectly still. [Applause and uproar.]\n... And, therefore, when I saw so much nervous apprehension that if I\nwere permitted to speak [hisses and applause]\u2014when I found they were\nafraid to have me speak [hisses, laughter, and \u2018No, no\u2019]; when I found\nthat they considered my speaking damaging to their cause [applause];\nwhen I found that they appealed from facts and reasonings to mob law\n[applause and uproar], I said: No man need tell me what the heart and\nsecret counsel of these men are. They tremble and are afraid. [Applause,\nlaughter, hisses, \u2018No, no,\u2019 and a voice: \u2018New York mob.\u2019] Now,\npersonally, it is a matter of very little consequence to me whether I\nspeak here to-night or not. [Laughter and cheers.] But one thing is very\ncertain\u2014if you do permit me to speak here to-night you will hear very\nplain talking. [Applause and hisses.] You will not find a man\n[interruption]\u2014you will not find me to be a man that dared to speak\nabout Great Britain 3,000 miles off, and then is afraid to speak to\nGreat Britain when he stands on her shores. [Immense applause and\nhisses.] And if I do not mistake the tone and the temper of Englishmen,\nthey had rather have a man who opposes them in a manly way [applause\nfrom all parts of the hall] than a sneak that agrees with them in an\nunmanly way. [Applause and \u2018Bravo.\u2019] Now, if I can carry you with me by\nsound convictions, I shall be immensely glad [applause]; but if I cannot\ncarry you with me by facts and sound arguments, I do not wish you to go\nwith me at all; and all that I ask is simply FAIR PLAY. [Applause, and a\nvoice: \u2018You shall have it, too.\u2019] Those of you who are kind enough to\nwish to favor my speaking\u2014and you will observe that my voice is slightly\nhusky, from having spoken almost every night in succession for some time\npast\u2014those who wish to hear me will do me the kindness simply to sit\nstill and to keep still; and I and my friends the Secessionists will\nmake all the noise. It is just as important to have customers educated,\nintelligent, moral, and rich out of Liverpool as it is in Liverpool.\n[Applause.] They are able to buy; they want variety, they want the very\nbest; and those are the customers you want. That nation is the best\ncustomer that is freest, because freedom works prosperity, industry, and\nwealth. Great Britain, then, aside from moral considerations, has a\ndirect commercial and pecuniary interest in the liberty, civilization,\nand wealth of every people and every nation on the globe. [Loud\napplause.] You have also an interest in this, because you are a moral\nand a religious people. [\u2018Oh! oh!\u2019 laughter, and applause.] You desire\nit from the highest motives; and godliness is profitable in all things,\nhaving the promise of the life that is, as well as of that which is to\ncome; but if there were no hereafter, and if man had no progress in this\nlife, and if there were no question of civilization at all, it would be\nworth your while to protect civilization and liberty, merely as a\ncommercial speculation. To evangelize has more than a moral and\nreligious import\u2014it comes back to temporal relations. Wherever a nation\nthat is crushed, cramped, degraded under despotism is struggling to be\nfree, you, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Paisley, all have an interest\nthat that nation should be free. When depressed and backward people\ndemand that they may have a chance to rise\u2014Hungary, Italy, Poland\u2014it is\na duty for humanity\u2019s sake, it is a duty for the highest moral motives,\nto sympathize with them; but beside all these there is a material and\ninterested reason why you should sympathize with them. Pounds and pence\njoin with conscience and with honor in this design. Now, Great Britain\u2019s\nchief want is\u2014what? They have said that your chief want is cotton. I\ndeny it. Your chief want is consumers. [Applause and hisses.] ... Now,\nthere is in this a great and sound principle of political economy.\n[\u2018Yah! yah!\u2019 from the passage outside the hall, and loud laughter.] If\nthe South should be rendered independent\u2014[at this juncture mingled\ncheering and hisses became immense; half the audience rose to their\nfeet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there\nwas the greatest commotion and uproar.] You have had your turn now; now\nlet me have mine again. [Loud applause and laughter.] It is a little\ninconvenient to talk against the wind; but, after all, if you will just\nkeep good-natured\u2014I am not going to lose my temper; will you watch\nyours? [Applause.] Besides all that, it rests me, and gives me a chance,\nyou know, to get my breath. [Applause and hisses.] And I think that the\nbark of those men is worse than their bite. They do not mean any\nharm\u2014they don\u2019t know any better. [Loud laughter, applause, hisses, and\ncontinued uproar.] What will be the result if this present struggle\nshall eventuate in the separation of America, and making the South [loud\napplause, hisses, hooting, and cries of \u2018Bravo!\u2019] a slave territory\nexclusively [cries of \u2018No, no,\u2019 and laughter], and the North a free\nterritory\u2014what will be the first result? You will lay the foundation for\ncarrying the slave population clear through to the Pacific Ocean. There\nis not a man that has been a leader of the South any time within these\ntwenty years that has not had this for a plan. Never have they for a\nmoment given up the plan of spreading the American institutions, as they\ncall them, straight through towards the West, until the slave who has\nwashed his feet in the Atlantic shall be carried to wash them in the\nPacific. [Cries of \u2018Question!\u2019 and uproar.] There! I have got that\nstatement out, and you cannot put it back. [Laughter and applause.] ...\nNow, here are twelve millions of people, and only one-third of them are\ncustomers that can afford to buy the kind of goods that you bring to\nmarket. [Interruption and uproar.] My friends, I saw a man once, who was\na little late at a railway station, chase an express-train. He did not\ncatch it. [Laughter.] If you are going to stop this meeting you have got\nto stop it before I speak; for after I have got the things out you may\nchase as long as you please\u2014you will not catch them. [Laughter and\ninterruption.] But there is luck in leisure; I\u2019m going to take it easy.\n[Laughter.] Two-thirds of the population of the Southern States to-day\nare non-purchasers of English goods. [A voice, \u2018No, they are not,\u2019 \u2018No,\nno,\u2019 and uproar.] And if by sympathy or help you establish a slave\nempire, you sagacious Britons [\u2018Oh! oh!\u2019 and hooting]\u2014if you like it\nbetter, then, I will leave the adjective out [laughter, hear, and\napplause]\u2014you will be busy in favoring the establishment of an empire\nfrom ocean to ocean that should have fewest customers and the largest\nnon-buying population. [Applause; \u2018No, no.\u2019] ... It was the South that\nobliged the North to put the tariff on. [Applause and uproar.] Just as\nsoon as we begin to have peace again and can get our national debt into\na proper shape, as you have got yours [laughter], the same cause that\nworked before will begin to work again; and there is nothing more\ncertain in the future than that the American is bound to join with Great\nBritain in the world-wide doctrine of free-trade. [Applause and\ninterruption.] Here, then, so far as _this_ argument is concerned, I\nrest my case, saying that it seems to me that in an argument addressed\nto a commercial people it was perfectly fair to represent that their\ncommercial and manufacturing interests tallied with their moral\nsentiments; and as by birth, by blood, by history, by moral feeling, and\nby everything, Great Britain is connected with the liberty of the world,\nGod has joined interest and conscience, head and heart, so that you\nought to be in favor of liberty everywhere. [Great applause.] There! I\nhave got quite a speech out already, if I do not get any more. [Hisses\nand applause.] ...\n\n\u201cIt is said that the North is fighting for Union, and not for\nemancipation. The North is fighting for Union, because we never shall\nforget the testimony of our enemies. They have gone off declaring that\nthe Union in the hands of the North was fatal to slavery. [Loud\napplause.] There is testimony in court for you. [A voice, \u2018See that,\u2019\nand laughter.] We are fighting for the Union, because we believe that\npreamble which explains the very reason for which the Union was\nconstituted. I will read it. \u2018We\u2019\u2014not the States\u2014\u2018We, the people of the\nUnited States, in order to form a more perfect NATION\u2019 [uproar]\u2014I don\u2019t\nwonder you don\u2019t want to hear it [laughter]\u2014\u2018in order to form a more\nperfect NATION, establish justice, assure domestic tranquillity\n[uproar], provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare,\nand secure the blessings of LIBERTY [\u2018oh! oh!\u2019] to ourselves and our\nposterity, ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States\nof America.\u2019 [A voice: \u2018How many States?\u2019] It is for the sake of that\njustice, that common welfare, and that liberty for which the National\nUnion was established, that we fight for the Union. [Interruption.]\nBecause the South believed that the Union was against slavery, they left\nit. [Renewed interruption.] Gentlemen, I have travelled in the West ten\nor twelve hours at a time in the mud knee-deep. It was hard toiling my\nway, but I always got through my journey. I feel to-night as though I\nwere travelling over a very muddy road; but I think I shall get through.\n[Cheers.] ... In the first place, I am ashamed to confess that such was\nthe thoughtlessness [interruption], such was the stupor of the North\n[renewed interruption]\u2014you will get a word at a time; to-morrow will let\nfolks see what it is you don\u2019t want to hear\u2014that for a period of\ntwenty-five years she went to sleep, and permitted herself to be drugged\nand poisoned with the Southern prejudice against black men. [Applause\nand uproar.] ... When I was twelve years old my father hired Charles\nSmith, a man as black as lampblack, to work on his farm. I slept with\nhim in the same room. [\u2018Oh! oh!\u2019] Ah! that don\u2019t suit you. [Uproar.]\nNow, you see, the South comes out. [Loud laughter.] I ate with him at\nthe same table; I sang with him out of the same hymn-book [\u2018Good\u2019]; I\ncried when he prayed over me at night; and if I had serious impressions\nof religion early in life, they were due to the fidelity and example of\nthat poor humble farm-laborer, black Charles Smith. [Tremendous uproar\nand cheers.] ... There is another fact that I wish to allude to\u2014not for\nthe sake of reproach or blame, but by way of claiming your more lenient\nconsideration\u2014and that is, that slavery was entailed upon us by your\naction. [Hear, hear.] Against the earnest protests of the colonists the\nthen government of Great Britain\u2014I will concede not knowing what were\nthe mischiefs\u2014ignorantly, but in point of fact, forced slave-traffic on\nthe unwilling colonists. [Great uproar, in the midst of which one\nindividual was lifted up and carried out of the room amidst cheers and\nhisses.] ... We do not agree with the recent doctrine of neutrality as a\nquestion of law. But it is past, and we are not disposed to raise that\nquestion. We accept it now as a fact, and we say that the utterance of\nLord Russell at Blairgowrie [applause, hisses, and a voice, \u2018What about\nLord Brougham?\u2019], together with the declaration of the government in\nstopping war-steamers here [great uproar and applause], has gone far\ntowards quieting every fear and removing every apprehension from our\nminds. [Uproar and shouts of applause.] And now in the future it is the\nwork of every good man and patriot not to create divisions, but to do\nthe things that will make for peace. [\u2018Oh! oh!\u2019 and laughter.] On our\npart it shall be done. [Applause and hisses, and \u2018No, no.\u2019] On your part\nit ought to be done; and when, in any of the convulsions that come upon\nthe world, Great Britain finds herself struggling single-handed against\nthe gigantic powers that spread oppression and darkness [applause,\nhisses, and uproar], there ought to be such cordiality that she can turn\nand say to her first-born and most illustrious child, \u2018Come!\u2019 [Hear,\nhear, applause, tremendous cheers, and uproar.] I will not say that\nEngland cannot again, as hitherto, single-handed manage any power\n[applause and uproar]; but I will say that England and America together\nfor religion and liberty [a voice, \u2018Soap, soap,\u2019 uproar, and great\napplause] are a match for the world. [Applause; a voice, \u2018They don\u2019t\nwant any more soft soap.\u2019]\u201d\n\nThus in the wildest confusion, little by little, a few sentences at a\ntime, the speech was delivered. For nearly three hours the fight was\nkept up, until at last the speech was done. Although the mob was not\nquieted\u2014it did not come there for that purpose\u2014yet the speech _was_\ndelivered, and, what was more to the point, was printed verbatim in the\nmorning\u2019s papers. The mob wholly failed to accomplish their object. It\ndid not break down Mr. Beecher.\n\nFour days later the concluding speech of the series was to be delivered\nat Exeter Hall, London. The great metropolis was the centre of political\nthought and influence. It was of great importance that the London speech\nshould be a success, and to that end that the speaker should be in good\ncondition himself.\n\nBut the constant strain upon his voice in his efforts to be heard in the\nfirst three speeches, culminating in the prolonged struggle at\nLiverpool, where his strength had been taxed to the uttermost, had at\nlast gone beyond even his powers of endurance. The day before the London\nspeech his voice failed him; by night he could not speak above a\nwhisper. Voiceless, he was helpless. When he first realized the truth he\nwas for a moment overwhelmed. To fail in London was, in very large\nmeasure, to lose the ground so hardly gained.\n\n\u201cI felt all day Monday that I was coming to London to speak to a public\naudience, but my voice was gone; and I felt as though about to be made a\nderision to my enemies, to stand up before a multitude and be unable to\nsay a word. It would have been a mortification to any one\u2019s natural\npride. I asked God to restore me my voice, as a child would ask its\nfather to grant it a favor. But I hoped that God would grant me His\ngrace to enable me, if it was necessary for the cause that I should be\nput to open shame, to stand up as a fool before the audience. I said:\n\u2018Lord, Thou knowest this. Let it be as Thou wilt.\u2019\u201d\n\nRest being of the first importance, he retired early, and, having\nwrapped his throat in wet bandages, dismissed all further thought of the\nmorrow and slept.\n\nIn the morning waking refreshed, the first thought that came to him was,\n\u201cCan I speak?\u201d For a while he lay silent, fearing the attempt. First he\ntried a low whisper, then louder, finally spoke out. His voice had\nreturned, not in its old strength, yet strong enough to use. Now his\nexaltation was as great as twelve hours before had been his depression.\n\nThe night came, and with it increased strength, fully sufficient for the\nwork before him.\n\nIn this speech slavery was discussed in its moral relations. Of the\nmeeting we quote briefly from the published account of an eye-witness:\n\n\u201cIn the five great speeches which Mr. Beecher has made in England and\nScotland on the American question, before vast audiences, he has taken\ncare to observe a system of selection which has brought before the\ncountry all the great salient points of the American war. He has not\nrepeated himself, but met the Confederate sympathizers here, upon every\nfield which they had chosen for their own advantage. But the grand\nclimax of all his efforts was that which was made at Exeter Hall last\nnight, before a crowd as great as ever gathered into that immense hall,\nand which, despite the persistent efforts of the opposition to destroy\nthe meeting and its effect, made a mark upon English opinion which must\nprove of the utmost importance.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher\u2019s strokes in other cities of the kingdom having invariably\ndrawn blood from the hides of the Confederate sympathizers here, it was\nplain that they had determined to meet with yells and uproar what they\ncould not meet with argument. That an organized opposition was\ncontemplated was not concealed. During all yesterday, posters were\nscattered through the length and breadth of the city, making all kinds\nof charges of a personal character against him, abounding in fictitious\nand distorted quotations from discourses and lectures delivered by him\nin old times. It had been considered of prime importance to the\nConfederate cause here that Lord Russell\u2019s assertion at Blairgowrie,\nthat the moral sympathies of the English people were adverse to the\nSouthern cause, should be disproved; and it was hoped, through personal\nassaults upon Mr. Beecher, to injure the effect of the meeting, and then\nclaim it in as the verdict of London in favor of the Southern\nConfederacy.\n\n\u201cAt an early hour the hall was crowded to overflowing, and there was\nevidence, too, that they were orderly men and women, who, whether\nsympathizing with the North or not, had come to hear a fair discussion\nof the question which concerns all, and were determined to secure fair\nplay. The crowd outside in the Strand and Exeter Street was enormous,\nand consisted chiefly of the opposition. One of the committee came in\nsmilingly, and said: \u2018Our shilling admission-fee has filtered the crowd.\nThe Southern sympathizer is always a man who looks hard at a shilling\nbefore he parts with it, and then don\u2019t part with it.\u2019 Yet it was known\nthat in two or three sections of the house there were parties who meant\nmischief.\n\n\u201cWhen Beecher arose there were five minutes of the most tremendous\ncheering that I have ever witnessed. Wave after wave, as of a tumultuous\nsea of sound, came thundering up from the gallery at one end to the\norgan at the other, in the midst of which stood Mr. Beecher, calm as a\nrock in the midst of the surges. A hiss was then begun, but at his first\nword it sank back into the diaphragms of those who uttered or meant to\nutter it. The first glance and the self-possessed manner of the man told\nplainly that he had something to say in Exeter Hall that night, and that\nhe meant to be heard.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher\u2019s voice was scarcely as sonorous and clear as it usually\nis, and all recognized that this was natural after the many speeches in\nimmense halls which he had given during the week. \u2018I expect to be\nhoarse,\u2019 he said, \u2018and I am willing to be hoarse if I can in any way\nassist to bring the mother and daughter heart to heart and hand to hand\ntogether.\u2019 This sentiment was received with great applause; and\nBeecher\u2019s hoarseness was thus impressed to the service of his cause. But\nhe so economized his voice that every word was distinctly heard by the\nvast assembly. And I assure you that every word was freighted; in the\nday when men are called to give an account for every idle word spoken,\nMr. Beecher will not be confronted by any one uttered last night at\nExeter Hall. At one time, when there was an interval of a few moments\narising from the effort of the hisses to triumph over the cheers, Mr.\nBeecher, with a quiet smile, said: \u2018Friends, I thank you for this\ninterruption; it gives me a chance to rest.\u2019 The hisses thereupon died\naway, and had no resurrection during the evening. It was evident,\nindeed, that the speaker, who knows a thing or two about audiences, felt\nthat the meeting was his and that no interruption would succeed. But\nmany of his friends had serious apprehensions. One of the editors of the\n_Star_, himself a distinguished speaker, and thoroughly acquainted with\nEnglish audiences, who sat near to me, whispered in my ear: \u2018There are a\ngreat many here who do not cheer; there is a strong chance of a row yet;\nbut the meeting is just in such a condition that its result will depend\nupon the power and equanimity of the speaker.\u2019 \u2018Then,\u2019 I replied, \u2018you\nneedn\u2019t fear.\u2019 If Mr. Beecher had heard our brief whispers he could not\nhave more distinctly appreciated the remark of the editor. At that\nmoment, although he had been interesting all along, he suddenly stepped\none side from the desk upon which his notes lay, and his face gleamed\nlike a sword leaping from a scabbard. No more hisses, no more cheers,\nnow for half an hour; the audience is magnetized, breathless; when the\nfirst pause came, a Sir Somebody, sitting behind me, said, \u2018Why, he\nlooked at first like a heavy man, but he\u2019s got wings\u2019; whilst a reporter\nnear our feet whispered audibly to a brother writer, \u2018Oh! but he _can_\nput things!\u2019 Mr. Beecher forgot all things but his subject; his tongue\nburned with living coals; his arm pointed like a prophet\u2019s rod. The\nshams of our enemies in England; their talk of peace when they mean\nevery kind of bloodshed except that which is for justice\u2014\u2018the aspect of\na lamb with the voice of a dragon,\u2019 as St. John saw it; their cant about\nemancipation being not a principle with Mr. Lincoln, but only an\nexpedient, as if that would make liberty any less a prize to the slave\nand humanity if they got it\u2014all these collapsed palpably before the\nmasses then gathered, and all the fine points of Roebuck and Lindsay\nbecame toads under the touch of his flame-tipped spear.\n\n\u201c\u2018This cannot go on,\u2019 whispered a clergyman near; \u2018these strokes draw\ntoo much blood; the victim is writhing in pain now.\u2019\n\n\u201cAgain did Mr. Beecher level his lance; it was at those who were making\ncapital out of what they call \u2018American sympathy with the oppressor of\nPoland.\u2019 Nothing could exceed the drollery with which, almost blushing,\nhe presented the loving and jealous maiden who, when her suitor is not\nattentive enough, gets up a flirtation with some other man. \u2018America\nflirts with Russia, but has her eye on England.\u2019 Now, the presence of\nwarships from Russia at New York has been the leading card of the\nConfederates here in their game to win popular sympathy for the South;\nfor our friends among the English people are also the friends of the\nPoles. It was plain that the opposition in the meeting did not mean to\nlet this matter pass without trying to get some capital. Consequently,\nwhen Mr. Beecher said, \u2018But it is said it is very unworthy that America\nshould be flirting with the oppressor of Poland,\u2019 there were violent\nshouts, \u2018Yes, yes,\u2019 \u2018Certainly it is,\u2019 etc. Mr. Beecher waited until the\ncries had entirely subsided, and a little time had been allowed for\nfriend and foe to speculate as to his reply; then, leaning a little\nforward, he put on an indescribably simple expression, and said mildly:\n\u2018_I think so, too. And now you know exactly how we felt when you flirted\nwith Mason at the lord-mayor\u2019s banquet._\u2019 I cannot attempt to describe\nthe effect of these words on the throng. The people arose with a shout\nthat began to be applause, but became a shout of laughter. The hit was\nso perfect and felicitous that roars of hearty laughter told that that\ntopic was summed up for ever. Three loud groans given for the late\nlord-mayor\u2014his place is now filled with a much better man\u2014ended that\nscene, and the drama proceeded.\n\n\u201cIn the heart of Mr. Beecher\u2019s oration was given a denunciation of\nslavery more powerful than I have ever heard from his lips. He scored\nand scourged it until it seemed to stand before us a hideous monster,\nbloated with human blood and writhing under his goads.\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher, having sustained himself throughout better than I had ever\nknown him to do before\u2014and I am pretty familiar with his grand successes\nin our own country\u2014having carried the meeting entirely and evoked the\nwarmest expressions of good-will to America, sat down, leaving the\naudience hungry and shouting \u2018Go on, go on!\u2019\u201d\n\nLondon was captured; the speech was discussed in every parlor and in\nevery club. It was the topic of the day. Farewell meetings, veritable\nlove-feasts, were held in London, Manchester, and Liverpool on the 23d,\n24th, and 30th of October, and then Mr. Beecher sailed for home.\n\nThat these speeches, delivered just at this time, in connection with the\nevents at home, produced a marked effect cannot be doubted. They\ncertainly cleared up many gross misconceptions that filled the English\nmind, and gave the English people a clearer insight into the real\npurpose of our government and the true object of the South. This seems\nto have been the judgment of contemporaneous opinion. A prominent\nEnglish paper said:\n\n\u201cBefore he left England he had thoroughly enlisted the sympathies of the\npeople with the cause of the North; and he had no small share in\naverting a collision, which at one period of the Civil War threatened\nominously, between this country and the United States.\u201d\n\nOn his return to Brooklyn he was called to address two monster meetings\non his English experiences, one in Brooklyn in aid of the War Fund\nCommittee, and one in New York in aid of the United States Sanitary\nCommission. In his introductory speech at the former, Dr. R. S. Storrs\nthus eloquently summarizes Mr. Beecher\u2019s work abroad:\n\n\u201cWe are here as American citizens all, to welcome one who has done to\nour country on foreign shores a signal service! The rapid and private\ntrip which he undertook, simply for the purposes of rest and recreation,\nwas transformed, not so much by his own device or desire or will as by\nthe persistent urgency of Englishmen, into a real international embassy\nof peace and good-will. And by consent of all who know, of all the\ninterpreters, the advocates, the champions of our great national cause\nin England\u2014of whom there have been not a few able and eloquent\u2014no one\nhas labored more faithfully, zealously, and effectively than he....\n\n\u201cWe may gratefully recognize the kindness and the wisdom of that\npreceding preparation of both body and mind which fitted him for this\nwork. The rest and leisure of those weeks upon the Continent prepared\nhim not only to face the rough seas that have delayed his return, but to\nmeet and master the more tempestuous savagery of the Liverpool mob. The\nAlpine peaks to whose summit he climbed contributed, no doubt, to lift\nhim afterwards to the climax of his eloquence at London and at\nManchester. And so it has come to pass that to him it is owing, as much,\nperhaps, as to any other one man on either hemisphere, that the mind of\nthe great middle class in England\u2014which is the mind that in the last\nanalysis moulds and governs the government of Great Britain\u2014is at least\nnow partially informed concerning the principles and the history of our\nstruggle; that the warships framed by Confederate malice and commercial\ncupidity to harass our commerce, break our blockade, or desolate our\ncities, are not to be left to step out to sea through any loose\ninterpretation of the law, but are to be kept chained to the docks and\nheld there by the strong arm of the government, and that stars of\npromise are shining in the east, where lately the thunderbolts of war\nseemed to gather.\u201d\n\nAt this same meeting Mr. Beecher himself gave an outline of the state of\npublic opinion when he reached England, and some estimate of his own\nwork in changing this public opinion:\n\n\u201cI desire this evening to speak upon that which you all have come to\nhear\u2014namely, my impressions and experiences in respect to the condition\nof things in Great Britain, as they relate to this struggle and this\ncountry.\n\n\u201cThere are many reasons why an American would have presumed it easy to\nunderstand British feeling and British policy. There was a similarity of\ninstitutions in England and America and a sameness of radical\nprinciples; but that very similarity, since it begets, through different\ninstitutions and different vehicles, different policies, is liable to\ndeceive us. If I had judged of the condition of England from the\nimpressions produced upon me by my first four weeks\u2019 tarry there in the\nsummer, I should have judged very wrongly. You are aware that the\noriginal expectation of our people was almost universal that in Great\nBritain we should find a sympathizer. One thing we counted sure, and\nthat was that, if all the other nations stood aloof, there was one which\nwould stand by us in the hour of our peril, and that one was Great\nBritain. And the sharpness of our retaliatory complaints was acuminated\nby that very disappointment of a very confident conviction. We never\nasked for help. We never asked that she should lend us anything, or\nstretch out so much as the little finger of her right hand. We did ask\nsimply a generous confidence and a generous moral sympathy, and that was\nall. I found, in the first place, on going there, that every man I met\nwas a Southern man\u2014not literally born in the South, but this is the\ndesignation they have themselves made. They are Southerners and\nNortherners even more than we are here. I found that on the railways, on\nthe boats, in the hotels, and wherever there was a travelling public,\nthere was a public that sympathized with the South and adverse to the\nNorth.\n\n\u201cThe nobility as a class are also against us, though there are some very\nnoble exceptions.\n\n\u201cIn Parliament, if a vote were taken to-day according to the private\nthoughts, sympathies, and wishes among its members, I suppose they would\nvote five to one against the North and in favor of the South. It is\nbelieved, too, by those well informed, that at least a portion of the\ngovernment have been entirely willing to go into a rupture with the\nNorth, and that but for the unflinching restraints they would have done\nso long ago. But it is the impression throughout the realm that the\nsovereign of Great Britain has been from the first our judicious but our\nsteadfast friend. It is believed, and so represented to me, that her\nnever-rightly-estimated and lamented consort was our fast friend, and\nthat among the last acts of his life were those which erased from\ndocuments presented to him sentences that would have inflamed the\ngrowing anger. And if you ask me what is the great underlying influence\nthat has been at work upon the upper class of England, I answer thus:\n\n\u201c1. Commercial interest and rivalry therein.\n\n\u201c2. Class-power and the fear of contagion from American ideas.\n\n\u201c3. (I know not how I shall say it so that it shall be the least\noffensive to our friends on the other side, but neither they nor you\nhave come to the bottom of the conduct of Great Britain until you have\ntouched that delicate and real foundation cause.) We are too large and\nstrong a nation.\n\n\u201cWith this state of facts you will ask how it is that the English people\nhave been restrained? How is it that they have not gone into overt\nbelligerency? That is the very question that I propose to answer, and in\nthe statement that the English heart is on our side. The nobility is\nagainst us; the government is divided and a part is against us. I think\nI may say that while the brains that represent progress in Great Britain\nare in our favor, yet the conservative intelligence of Great Britain is\nagainst us, and that all there is on the surface of society,\nrepresenting its dignities, its power and intelligence, is\nanti-American. And the question I propose to you is, How, with the\npapers, magazines, and universities, how with their titled estates\nopposed to us, that they have been restrained from manifesting this in\nopen hostility? It is because there is a great underlying influence that\nrestrains them\u2014it is the influence of that under-life, and to a very\ngreat extent of the non-voting English, which has produced this effect,\nIt is a thing I could not understand at first, and which it is very\ndifficult for us to understand; for wherever in our country there is a\nmajority of the votes there is sure to be a direction of affairs. But it\nis not so in England. I learned that the men who could not vote, where\nthey were united and determined, had the power to control the men who do\nvote. I hold in my hand a letter from Richard Cobden. He says: \u2018You will\ncarry back an intimate acquaintance with a state of feeling in this\ncountry among what, for a better name, I call the ruling class. Their\nsympathy is undoubtedly strongly for the South, with the instinctive\nsatisfaction at the prospect of the disruption of the great Republic. It\nis natural enough. But do not forget that we have in this case, for the\nfirst time in our history, seen the masses of the British people taking\nsides for a foreign government against its rebellious citizens. In every\nother instance, whether in the case of the Poles, Italians, Hungarians\nand Corsicans, Greeks, or South Americans, the popular sympathy of this\ncountry has always leaped to the side of the insurgents the moment the\nrebellion has broken out. In the present case our masses have an\ninstinctive feeling that their cause is bound up in the prosperity of\nthe States\u2014the United States. It is true that they have not a particle\nof power in the direct form of a vote, but, when millions in this\ncountry are led by the religious middle class, they can go and prevent\nthe governing class from pursuing a policy hostile to their sympathies.\u2019\n\n\u201cInto such an atmosphere and among such a people I went. And when,\nunsought, and indeed against my feelings if not against my judgment, I\nentered upon the labor of the past few weeks of my sojourn in England, I\nassumed the responsibility, I cannot say with trembling\u2014for I am not\naccustomed much to tremble\u2014but I assumed the responsibility with the\ngravest sense of what it was. I have felt the inspiration of nationality\noften, but I never before was placed between two such great peoples,\nwhere I saw them both in prospective, both in their present relations\nand in their future. I never before felt so much as I felt all the time,\nwaking or dreaming, night or day, what it was to stand and plead for the\nunity of these two great nations, for the sake of struggling mankind;\nand it was at once an excitement to me and a support. But, after all, I\ndid not know how my countrymen would regard my efforts. If you had\ndisapproved I should have been sorry that you disapproved, but not sorry\nfor what I had done. I did the best I knew how to do, every time,\neverywhere disinterestedly, for the love I bear to the cause and to the\nprinciples which underlie it. I did not hear from home whether my\nrepresentations of policy, of fact, of history, and of the tendencies of\nthings would accord with yours, or whether I should not be caught up in\nthe whirl of conflicting parties, my reasonings traversed, and my\narguments denied. When I landed in Boston I learned for the first time\nthat my services had been accepted by my countrymen....\n\n\u201cThat to a certain extent my speeches produced among the common people\nbeneficial results there can be no doubt; but how far that extended, or\nwhether they had influence upon the thinking classes, others could say\nbetter than I. They were certainly greatly aided by the fact that Lee\nwas defeated at Gettysburg and driven back to Virginia, and that at the\nsame time Grant received the surrender of Vicksburg. Those timely\nvictories, together with other causes, held in check the man\u0153uvres\nand diplomacy of crowned heads and made intervention less certain and\nmore remote; and gave time for Grant\u2019s success at Chattanooga, and his\ntransfer to the Army of the Potomac, and in turn his promotion to\ngeneral-in-chief of the operations in the field.\n\n\u201cI put no immoderate estimate on my services. I believe I did some good\nwherever I spoke. But it should be remembered that a single man, a\nstranger in the community, would be eaten up by vanity if he said or\nsupposed, that he had done all the good that had been accomplished.\nThere must have been preparation. He merely came to touch the train that\nhad already been laid. When, in October, you go to the tree and give it\na jar, and the fruit comes down all around you, it is not you that\nripens it. A whole summer has been doing that. You merely brought down\nthe fruit prepared. It was my happy fortune to be there to jar the tree.\nThe fruit that fell was not of my ripening.\u201d\n\nA few brief extracts from three of the leading papers in New York,\npublished at the time, are quoted as indications of the popular\nsentiment as to the value of his work:\n\n\u201cIt is plain, from the whole tone of the British press, that Mr. Beecher\nhas been instrumental in starting, or at least hastening, a complete\nrevolution of the popular feeling of the kingdom in favor of our\nNational cause. He is the man who ought to have been sent to England two\nyears ago to enlighten and rouse the people. Had this been done he could\nhave hardly failed of preventing a vast deal of that bitterness which\nhas since, all the while, been fermenting between the two nations.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Administration at Washington have sent abroad more than one man to\nrepresent the cause of the North and press it upon the minds of foreign\ncourts and citizens; but here is a person who goes abroad without\nofficial prestige, on a mere private mission to recruit his health, and\nyet we doubt whether his four or five speeches in England have not done\nmore for us, by their frank and manly exposition of our principles, our\npurpose, and our hopes, than all the other agencies employed.\u201d\n\n\u201cEvery loyal American, whatever his opinions respecting the past words\nand acts of Henry Ward Beecher, will thank him for his work across the\nwater. It is no exaggeration to affirm that the five speeches he has\ndelivered\u2014in Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London\u2014each\npursuing its own line of argument and appeal, have done more for our\ncause in England and Scotland than all that has been before said or\nwritten.\u201d\n\nWhatever may have been the causes, it is historical that the English\ngovernment, which had been trembling upon the very verge of\nintervention, withdrew from this project and began to entertain much\nmore peaceful and friendly feelings towards the United States\u2014feelings\nthat have grown stronger and deeper with each successive year.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XXI.\n\nClose of the War\u2014Distrust of the Administration\u2014Kindlier Feelings after\n    Mr. Beecher\u2019s Return from England\u2014Growing Confidence\u2014Intimacy with\n    Secretary Stanton\u2014Fort Sumter\u2014Lee\u2019s Surrender\u2014Lincoln\u2019s Death.\n\n\nOn his return home from England, Mr. Beecher found that there was a\nmarked change in the feelings of the Administration towards him. It was\nthe popular verdict, in which Washington concurred, that the series of\nspeeches just delivered, in conjunction with the successes of our armies\nin the field, had switched the English government off from the track\nleading to intervention and probably war, and had started it in the\ndirection of friendliness and peace. Before that time he had succeeded\nin creating in the minds of the President and his cabinet a feeling\nwhich, if not hostile, was at least not friendly. With many things that\nhad occurred or failed to occur during 1861-2 and early in 1863 he had\nfelt great impatience. He had had no sympathy with the feeling, that\nprevailed so generally during the first few months of the war, that it\nwould be an affair of but a few months, that 75,000 men would be more\nthan enough to end the rebellion. He felt that the proper policy was for\nthe government to crush the rebellion by the power of an enormous army,\nand that it was but poor economy to send forward troops by driblets. Nor\ndid he at all believe in the distinction that existed between the United\nStates regulars and the State troops. He thought that they ought to be\n_all_ United States troops. What he felt he was not slow to say. On June\n10, 1861, he wrote to the President, urging the government to accept a\nregiment raised by Colonel Stockton:\n\n\u201cOught not such a man as the one whom I send to you, Colonel T. B. W.\nStockton, of Michigan, _a West Point graduate_, a colonel in the\n_Mexican war_, to have a chance in this great war, with a thousand men\nat his back?\n\n\u201cDo we not need men that have seen fire?\n\n\u201cI am exceedingly desirous, _anxious_ even, that a large demonstration\nof power should be made, as a matter of _economy_, of _humanity_, and of\nexpedition.\n\n\u201cAre we not in danger of being injured by a _Northern_ misconstruction\nof State rights, which shall prevent government from taking troops where\nit pleases, without being obliged to _come to the people through_ the\nmachinery of State governments?\n\n\u201d_It is the people\u2019s war._ The people must be allowed to have a fair\nchance for the exertion of their will.\u201d\n\nAnd later, when political expediency was permitted to play so prominent\na part in the selection and action of our generals, his indignation was\nintense and outspoken. While he felt great admiration for President\nLincoln and great confidence in him, still he felt that he was making\nserious mistakes. As we have seen, Mr. Beecher was then the\neditor-in-chief of the New York _Independent_, and through its\neditorials he sought to rouse both the President and public sentiment.\nSpeaking of this time, he says:\n\n\u201cIn 1862 the great delay, the want of any success, the masterly\ninactivity of our leading generals, roused my indignation, and I wrote a\nseries of editorials addressed to the President\u201d [to which we have\nreferred and from which we have largely quoted in a previous chapter],\n\u201cand as near as I can recollect they were in the nature of a\nmowing-machine\u2014they cut at every revolution\u2014and I was told one day that\nthe President had received them and read them through with very serious\ncountenance, and that his only criticism was: \u2018Is thy servant a dog?\u2019\nThey bore down on him very hard.\u201d\n\nNot unnaturally, neither the President nor his cabinet felt especially\npleased at this. They looked upon it as a hostile attack, and did not\nregard him with any over-friendly feeling.\n\nBut in November, 1863, we find all this changed. The Administration now\ncould see in past criticism, not personal hostility, but an anxious\ndesire, through love of country, to prevent mistakes and secure the best\ncourse of action. A far more kindly and confidential relation was\nestablished, which continued through that Administration. When, in 1864,\nthere was so much talk about compromise, Mr. Beecher went direct to the\nPresident and had a confidential talk with him, which he describes in a\nbrief sketch (of Lincoln):\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher at the Close of the War.]\n\n\u201cThere was some talk early in 1864 of a sort of compromise with the\nSouth. Blair had told the President that he was satisfied, if he could\nbe put in communication with some of the leading men of the South in\nsome way or other, that some benefit would accrue. Lincoln had sent a\ndelegation to meet Alexander Stephens, and that was all the North knew.\nWe were all very much excited over that. The war lasted so long that I\nwas afraid Lincoln would be so anxious for peace, and I was afraid he\nwould accept something that would be of advantage to the South, so I\nwent to Washington and called upon him. We were alone in his\nreceiving-room. His hair was \u2018every way for Sunday.\u2019 It looked as though\nit was an abandoned stubble-field. He had on slippers, and his vest was\nwhat was called \u2018going free.\u2019 He looked wearied, and, when he sat down\nin a chair, looked as though every limb wanted to drop off his body. And\nI said to him: \u2018Mr. Lincoln, I come to you to know whether the public\ninterest will permit you to explain to me what this Southern commission\nmeans?\u2019 Well, he listened very patiently, and looked up to the ceiling\nfor a few moments, and said: \u2018Well, I am almost of a mind to show you\nall the documents.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well, Mr. Lincoln, I should like to see them if it is proper.\u2019 He went\nto his little secretary, and came out and handed me a little card as\nlong as my finger and an inch wide, and on that was written\u2014\n\n\u201c\u2018You will pass the bearer through the lines\u2019 (or something to that\neffect).\n\n                                                       \u2018A. LINCOLN.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018There,\u2019 he said, \u2018is all there is of it. Now, Blair thinks something\ncan be done, but I don\u2019t, but I have no objection to have him try his\nhand. He has no authority whatever, but to go and see what he can do.\u2019\n\n\u201c\u2018Well,\u2019 said I, \u2018you have lifted a great burden off my mind.\u2019\u201d\n\nDuring the last year of the President\u2019s life they became very intimate,\nand the respect and admiration which Mr. Beecher shared, in common with\nthe general feeling of the North, deepened into a strong personal love.\nIn one of his Friday night prayer-meetings, shortly after Mr. Lincoln\u2019s\ndeath, he refers to their intimacy:\n\n\u201cI am sure no one more than I, can feel the personal affliction, outside\nof those that were immediately associated with President Lincoln. I need\nnot say to you how my public relations have brought me, not only to the\nmost constant study of his course and of his character, but into some\npersonal relations with him that have given me more knowledge of him\nthan otherwise I should have had. I was reading to-night, before I came\nhere, the last letter that I received from him. It had reference to an\ninterview which I had had with him on a particular subject. It is a\nprecious letter to me. During the time that I was with him (it was\nbetween eleven and twelve o\u2019clock at night, in Washington) his great\nkindness, his great simplicity, and his great frankness opened him to\nme, and I saw him more fully than ever before, as very wise, as shrewd\nas well as wise, as far-reaching and sagacious as well as shrewd, and,\nabove all, as faithful to the great interests that were committed to\nhim. That interview has come up to me over and over and over again. It\nseemed as though it was but yesterday. And when the tidings that he was\ngone came to me, I know not how I shall describe the sense that I had of\na strange personal loss.\u201d\n\nDuring this period Mr. Beecher formed the acquaintance of Stanton, which\nspeedily ripened into a very strong friendship, largely through an\nimpulsive act of sympathy by Mr. Beecher:\n\n\u201cI came up Wall Street one day and met a friend, who said: \u2018I have just\ncome back from Washington. Stanton is breaking down; he won\u2019t hold out\nmuch longer.\u2019\n\n\u201cWell, it just struck me all into a heap. I walked into an office in\nWall Street and said, \u2018Will you allow me pen and ink?\u2019 and wrote to him\njust what I had heard\u2014that he was sick and broken down and desponding. I\nwrote that he need not despond, that the country was saved, and, if he\ndid not do another thing, he had done enough. I sent the letter, and in\nthe course of a few days I got back a letter, and if it had been a woman\nwriting in answer to a proposal it could not have been more tender. And\nwhen I went to Washington he treated me with great tenderness, as if I\nhad been his son.\u201d\n\nFrom this letter of Secretary Stanton, which is before us, we quote:\n\n\u201cHow deeply your kind note has affected me is beyond my power to\ntell.... The approbation, confidence, and sympathy of any man was never\nmore highly prized than yours is by me. Your friendly words are a\ncordial that strengthens me, and your kind sympathy will serve to dispel\nthe gloom and despondency that, as you rightly judged, does sometimes,\nin moments of physical weariness, gather upon my brain and press heavily\nupon my heart. Let me tell you that often and often, in dark hours, you\nhave come before me, and I have longed to hear your voice, feeling that\nabove all other men you could cheer, strengthen, guide, and uphold me in\nthis great battle, where, by God\u2019s Providence, it has fallen upon me to\nhold a post and perform a duty beyond my own strength. But, being a\nstranger, I had no right to claim your confidence or ask for help, and\nso have been forced to struggle on patiently as I might from day to day,\nsupported only by fervent faith in our sacred cause, and the\nconsciousness that prayers were being offered up by good people for aid.\nNow, my dear sir, your voice has reached me, and your hand is stretched\nforth as to a friend, and henceforth I shall look to you and lean upon\nyou with a sure and abiding trust. Already my heart feels renewed\nstrength and is inspired with fresh hope. There are some points involved\nin, or developed by, this present contest, on which I wish to commune\nwith you before long.\u201d\n\nEarly in 1865, and shortly after the surrender of Charleston, in reply\nto a letter received from Mr. Beecher making some suggestions, the\nSecretary wrote:\n\n\u201cIt will not be in my power to go to Charleston just now, but I would be\nglad to send you, and as many school-teachers as will go.... Your idea\nof raising the flag over a colored school and making our banner the\nbanner of civilization is indeed a noble one, and heartily my feelings\nrespond to the suggestion. Soon after the 4th of March I may be able to\ngo to South Carolina and do what may be done in that direction.... We\nreceived this morning the news of the capture of Wilmington yesterday.\nSurely the end cannot be afar off. The battle of physical force is\nnearly won, and now we must fight for civilization, including therein\nlegal protection to the rights of all, and universal education. What of\nstrength, heart, and hope is left to me I am willing to spend with you\nin that cause. Please let me know if you will go to Charleston without\nwaiting for me. The sooner you go the better.\u201d\n\nShortly after this it was decided to celebrate the anniversary of the\nfall of Fort Sumter (April 14) by an imposing military and naval\ndemonstration, and by raising again the old flag over its parapet, and\nthe project of sending to Charleston a delegation headed by Mr. Beecher\nwas abandoned.\n\nAs soon as the general plan of the Fort Sumter celebration had been\ndecided upon, the President invited Mr. Beecher to be present and\ndeliver the address.\n\nOn March 27, 1865, the following general order was issued:\n\n  \u201cGENERAL ORDERS,   }  WAR DEPARTMENT,\n        No. 50.      }    ADJUTANT-GENERAL\u2019S OFFICE,\n                     }      WASHINGTON, March 27, 1865.\n\n\u201cORDERED\u2014\n\n\u201d_First._ That at the hour of noon, on the 14th day of April, 1865,\nBrevet Major-General Anderson will raise and plant upon the ruins of\nFort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, the same United States flag which\nfloated over the battlements of that fort during the rebel assault, and\nwhich was lowered and saluted by him and the small force of his command\nwhen the works were evacuated on the 14th day of April, 1861.\n\n\u201c_Second._ That the flag, when raised, be saluted by one hundred guns\nfrom Fort Sumter, and by a national salute from every fort and rebel\nbattery that fired upon Fort Sumter.\n\n\u201d_Third._ That suitable ceremonies be had upon the occasion, under the\ndirection of Major-General William T. Sherman, whose military operations\ncompelled the rebels to evacuate Charleston, or, in his absence, under\nthe charge of Major-General Q. A. Gillmore, commanding the Department.\nAmong the ceremonies will be the delivery of a public address by the\nReverend Henry Ward Beecher.\n\n\u201c_Fourth._ That the naval forces at Charleston, and their commander on\nthat station, be invited to participate in the ceremonies of the\noccasion.\n\n\u201cBy order of the President of the United States.\n\n                                    \u201dEDWIN M. STANTON,\n                                               \u201c_Secretary of War_.\u201d\n\nThe steamer _Arago_ was sent by the government to New York to transport\nthe invited guests to Charleston. As soon as the formal invitations to\nthe guests of the government had been issued and accepted, Secretary\nStanton telegraphed Mr. Beecher:\n\n\u201cA list of the persons who have accepted invitations on the _Arago_ has\nbeen forwarded to General Van Vliet. I do not exactly understand the\nextent of the accommodations on the _Arago_, but think there may perhaps\nbe room for a few more; if you will see him and find that more can be\naccommodated, you are authorized to fill up the number with such persons\nas you may wish to accompany you. On presentation of this telegram he\nwill give them free transportation and subsistence as if this were a\nformal order....\n\n                                     \u201cEDWIN M. STANTON,\n                                               \u201c_Secretary of War_.\u201d\n\nDuring this spring the Secretary was in constant telegraphic\ncommunication with Mr. Beecher, keeping him informed of each victory or\nsuccessful move of our army as it occurred.\n\nThis led to a thrilling incident in Plymouth Church. During the month of\nMarch of this year it became very plain that the war was surely drawing\nto a close. Lee, hemmed in by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan, obviously\ncould not hold out very much longer.\n\nThe whole country watched and waited with almost breathless interest as\nslowly but surely the end drew on, the intensity of feeling growing\nstronger as the end seemed nearer. It was in this condition of the\npublic mind, and on Sunday, April 2, that, just after Mr. Beecher had\nfinished his sermon and had given out a hymn, a telegram was handed up\nto him on the platform.\n\nCatching the feeling in the air that something of importance had\nhappened, every eye was turned to the platform and a silence like death\nfell upon the three thousand gathered there. Eagerly the telegram was\nopened, and as the flash of joy lit up Mr. Beecher\u2019s face a thrill ran\nthrough the congregation, instantly hushed as he said:\n\n\u201cThe congregation will turn to \u2018America\u2019 while I read the following\ntelegram:\n\n                                       \u201c\u2018WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON,\n                                                  \u201c\u2018April 2, 1865.\n\n\u201c\u2018TO REV. H. W. BEECHER, _Brooklyn_:\n\n\u201c\u2018A despatch just received from General Grant\u2019s adjutant-general at City\nPoint announces the triumphant success of our armies after three days of\nhard fighting, during which the forces on both sides exhibited\nunsurpassed valor:\n\n                                   \u201c\u2018CITY POINT, VA., April 2, 1865,\n                                              \u201c\u20185.30 A.M.\n\n\u201c\u2018A despatch from General Grant states that General Sheridan, commanding\ncavalry and infantry, has carried everything before him. He captured\nthree brigades of infantry, a wagon-train, and several batteries of\nartillery. The prisoners captured will amount to several thousand.\n\n                                 \u201c\u2018(Signed) T. S. BOWERS, _A. A. G._\n\n                                       \u201c\u2018EDWIN M. STANTON,\n                                                 \u201c\u2018_Secretary of War_.\u2019\u201d\n\nAs he ceased speaking the great throng rose and, as one man, with\nstreaming eyes joined in the triumphant anthem,\n\n                      \u201cMy country, \u2019tis of thee!\u201d\n\nThe organist drew the trumpet stops, and turned the full power of the\ngreat organ into the hymn, but it was drowned by the voices raised in\nsolemn thanksgiving. Not a voice was silent, not an eye was dry. As the\nlast notes of the hymn died out many a strong man dropped into his seat\nand sobbed with thankfulness. The beginning of the end had come.\n\n                  *       *       *       *       *\n\nOn the 8th of April the _Arago_ sailed from New York for Charleston. The\nday after she sailed came the surrender of Lee\u2019s army.\n\nOf course no word of the news was received aboard the _Arago_ until she\narrived off Charleston Harbor.\n\n\u201cIt was when I was tossing upon the sea,\u201d said Mr. Beecher, \u201coff the\nharbor of Charleston, that we were spoken, and the tidings were\ncommunicated to us from another ship, \u2018Lee has surrendered!\u2019 And the\nwild outcry, the strange caprices and exultations of that moment, they\nnever will forget who were present. We were far off from the scene of\nwar; we saw no signs nor tokens; it was as if the heaven had imparted it\nto us; but oh! what gladness, what ecstasy there was in that news no man\ncan know but those who have suffered as we had suffered.\u201d\n\nOf his speech at the raising of the flag we can only quote a few brief\nextracts:\n\n\u201cOn this solemn and joyful day we again lift to the breeze our fathers\u2019\nflag, now again the banner of _the United States_, with the fervent\nprayer that God will crown it with honor, protect it from treason, and\nsend it down to our children with all the blessings of civilization,\nliberty, and religion. Terrible in battle, may it be beneficent in\npeace! Happily no bird or beast of prey has been inscribed upon it. The\nstars that redeem the night from darkness, and the beams of red light\nthat beautify the morning, have been united upon its folds. As long as\nthe sun or the stars endure may it wave over a nation neither enslaved,\nnor enslaving. Once, and but once, has treason dishonored it. In that\ninsane hour, when the guiltiest and bloodiest rebellion of time hurled\nits fires upon this fort, you, sir [turning to General Anderson], and a\nsmall heroic band, stood within these now crumbled walls, and did\ngallant and just battle for the honor and defence of the nation\u2019s\nbanner....\n\n\u201cAfter a vain resistance, with trembling hand and sad heart you withdrew\nthe banner from its height, closed its wings, and bore it far away to\nsleep amid the tumults of rebellion and the thunder of battle....\n\n\u201cTo-day you are returned again. The heavens over you are the same; the\nsame shores are here; morning and evening come as they did. All else how\nchanged! What grim batteries crowd the burdened shores! What scenes have\nfilled this air and disturbed these waters! These shattered heaps of\nshapeless stone are all that is left of Fort Sumter. Desolation broods\nin yonder sad city; solemn retribution hath avenged our dishonored\nbanner. You, who departed hence four years ago, leaving the air sultry\nwith fanaticism, have come back with honor. The surging crowds that\nrolled up their frenzied shouts, as the flag came down, are dead, or\nscattered, or silent, and their habitations are desolate. Ruin sits in\nthe cradle of treason. Rebellion has perished. But there flies the same\nflag that was insulted. With starry eyes it looks all over this bay for\nthat banner that supplanted it, and sees it not. You that then, for the\nday, were humbled, are here again, to triumph once and for ever. In the\nstorm of that assault this glorious ensign was often struck; but,\nmemorable fact, not one of its _stars_ was torn out by shot or shell. It\nwas a prophecy. It said, \u2018Not one State shall be struck from this nation\nby treason.\u2019 The fulfilment is at hand. Lifted to the air to-day, it\nproclaims that, after four years of war, \u2018not a State is blotted\nout!\u2019...\n\n\u201cWherefore have we come hither, pilgrims from distant places? Are we\ncome to exult that Northern hands are stronger than Southern? No; but to\nrejoice that the hands of those who defend a just and beneficent\ngovernment are mightier than the hands that assaulted it! Do we exult\nover fallen cities? We exult that a nation has not fallen. We sorrow\nwith the sorrowful. We sympathize with the desolate. We look upon this\nshattered fort and yonder dilapidated city, with sad eyes, grieved that\nmen should have committed such treason, and glad that God hath set such\na mark upon treason that all ages shall dread and abhor it.\n\n\u201cWe exult, not for a passion gratified, but for a sentiment victorious;\nnot for temper, but for conscience; not, as we devoutly believe, that\n_our_ will is done, but that God\u2019s will hath been done! We should be\nunworthy of that liberty entrusted to our care if, on such a day as\nthis, we sullied our hearts by feelings of aimless vengeance; and\nequally unworthy if we did not devoutly thank Him who hath said,\n\u2018Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord,\u2019 that He hath set a\nmark upon arrogant Rebellion, ineffaceable while time lasts!...\n\n\u201cThat long night is ended! And for this returning day we have come from\nafar, to rejoice and give thanks. No more war. No more accursed\nsecession! _No more slavery, that spawned them both!_\n\n\u201cLet no man misread the meaning of this unfolding flag! It says,\n\u2018Government hath returned hither.\u2019 It proclaims, in the name of\nvindicated government, peace and protection to loyalty, humiliation and\npains to traitors. This is the flag of sovereignty. The nation, _not the\nStates_, is sovereign. Restored to authority, this flag commands, not\nsupplicates.\n\n\u201cThere may be pardon, but no concession. There may be amnesty and\noblivion, but no honeyed compromises. The nation to-day has peace for\nthe peaceful, and war for the turbulent. The only condition of\nsubmission, is, _to submit_! There is the Constitution, there are the\nlaws, there is the government. They rise up like mountains of strength\nthat shall not be moved. _They are the conditions of peace._\n\n\u201d_One nation, under one government, without slavery_, has been ordained\nand shall stand. There can be peace on no other basis. On this basis\nreconstruction is easy, and needs neither architect nor engineer.\nWithout this basis no engineer or architect shall ever reconstruct these\nrebellious States....\n\n\u201cI charge the whole guilt of this war upon the ambitious, educated,\nplotting political leaders of the South. They have shed this ocean of\nblood. They have desolated the South. They have poured poverty through\nall her towns and cities. They have bewildered the imagination of the\npeople with phantasms, and led them to believe that they were fighting\nfor their homes and liberty, whose homes were unthreatened, and whose\nliberty was in no jeopardy....\n\n\u201d_But for the people misled_, for the multitudes drafted and driven into\nthis civil war, _let not a trace of animosity remain_. The moment their\nwilling hand drops the musket and they return to their allegiance, then\nstretch out your own honest right hand to greet them. Recall to them the\nold days of kindness. Our hearts wait for their redemption. All the\nresources of a renovated nation shall be applied to rebuild their\nprosperity and smooth down the furrows of war.\u201d\n\nAfter the ceremonies of the 14th Mr. Beecher and his party spent two\ndays in visiting the various historic points in the city and harbor of\nCharleston, then went to Hilton Head, where the steamer _Sua Nada_ was\nplaced at his disposal by the government.\n\nFrom Hilton Head Mr. Beecher and his party went on an excursion visit to\nBeaufort. The day, which opened so bright and beautiful, was to close in\nthe gloom which overshadowed the nation. The near points of interest\nabout Beaufort had all been seen, and the party, full of the joyous\nbrightness of the day, were sauntering back to the boat which was to\ntake them to Hilton Head, when a telegram was handed to Senator Wilson\nthat drove the smile from every lip. Lincoln had fallen, struck down by\nan assassin! Dazed and bewildered, for a few moments all stood silent;\nthen Mr. Beecher exclaimed, \u201cIt\u2019s time all good men were at home,\u201d and\nin mournful silence they hastened back to Hilton Head. The _Sua Nada_\nwas ordered to get under weigh at once. In sadness and gloom the party,\nthat but a few days before had left New York with hearts filled with joy\nand thankfulness, now hastened back through dreary rain-storms\u2014nature\u2019s\nsympathetic mourning.\n\nWe can best describe that awful sorrow by quoting from Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nsermon preached in memory of the martyr:\n\n\u201cNever did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere as the joy\nand the sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy was as sudden as\nif no man had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had fallen a\nsphere from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept business from\nits moorings, and ran down through the land in irresistible course. Men\nembraced each other in brotherhood that were strangers in the flesh.\nThey sang, or prayed, or, deeper yet, many could only think thanksgiving\nand weep gladness. That peace was sure; that government was firmer than\never; that the land was cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening\nto our footsteps, and we were to begin a march of blessings; that blood\nwas stanched, and scowling enmities were sinking like storms beneath the\nhorizon; that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was to\nrise up in unexampled honor among the nations of the earth\u2014these\nthoughts, and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and\ndesires, and yearnings that filled the soul with tremblings like the\nheated air of midsummer days, all these kindled up such a surge of joy\nas no words may describe.\n\n\u201cIn one hour joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam or breath. A\nsorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep through the\nforest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, dishevelling the\nflowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring\nblackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did ever so\nmany hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feelings? It\nwas the uttermost of joy: it was the uttermost of sorrow\u2014noon and\nmidnight, without a space between.\n\n\u201cThe blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that at first it\nstunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened at midnight by an\nearthquake, and bewildered to find everything that they were accustomed\nto trust wavering and falling. The very earth was no longer solid. The\nfirst feeling was the least. Men waited to get straight to feel. They\nwandered in the streets as if groping after some impending dread, or\nundeveloped sorrow, or some one to tell them what ailed them. They met\neach other as if each would ask the other, \u2018Am I awake, or do I dream?\u2019\nThere was a piteous helplessness. Strong men bowed down and wept. Other\nand common griefs belonged to some one in chief: this belonged to all.\nIt was each and every man\u2019s. Every virtuous household in the land felt\nas if its first-born were gone. Men were bereaved, and walked for days\nas if a corpse lay unburied in their dwellings. There was nothing else\nto think of. They could speak of nothing but that; and yet of that they\ncould speak only falteringly. All business was laid aside. Pleasure\nforgot to smile. The city for nearly a week ceased to roar. The great\nLeviathan lay down and was still. Even avarice stood still, and greed\nwas strangely moved to generous sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear to\nhis name monuments, found charitable institutions and write his name\nabove their lintels; but no monument will ever equal the universal,\nspontaneous, and sublime sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and\nparties, and covered up animosities, and in an hour brought a divided\npeople into unity of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXII.\n\nReconstruction\u2014Mr. Beecher favors speedy Readmission\u2014Soldiers\u2019 and\n    Sailors\u2019 Convention at Cleveland\u2014The \u201cCleveland Letters\u201d cause great\n    Excitement.\n\n\nWith President Lincoln\u2019s death the Rebellion died. A few fitful flames\nand a few smouldering coals here and there were all that was left of the\ngreat conflagration, but the Rebellion was broken and dead. In its\ndeath-struggles it struck one wicked, random blow, and left the victors\nmourning in the very hour of victory\u2014never was so great a victory so sad\nand joyless.\n\nBut the nation soon roused itself and turned to the solution of those\nnew problems which confronted it. Through four harsh and bitter years,\nyears of suffering, this peace-loving nation had been trained to war.\nEnergetic fighting men had been pushed forward, by the necessities of\nthe times, to the front, and put in command of national affairs. A vast\narmy, trained for fighting, was at hand. When suddenly the war was at an\nend, and he who with patient wisdom had stood at the helm, and guided\nthe nation through such troubled seas, was stricken down. A new and\nuntried man was, by virtue of his office, called to the head of the\ngovernment. Armies were to be disbanded. The credit of the nation was to\nbe sustained, and steps taken to meet the vast debt rolled up by the\nwar. The problem was changed: instead of war was peace, disarmament, and\nreconstruction. Most serious of all was this question of\nreconstruction\u2014what to do with the conquered States and conquered\npeople. Having rebelled and led armies against the national government,\nthe leaders had been guilty of high treason. What should be done to\nthem? Should they be punished, and, if so, how? What should be done with\nthe States? It had been determined that they should not depart from the\nUnion. They were not in, and how should they be received back?\n\nThey had submitted, offered anew their loyalty to the government of the\nNation, and asked to be taken back again. The passions of a four-years\nstrife, and such a strife, were slow to subside; boiling blood cools but\nslowly. At first a strong feeling of resentment set in, and it was\nearnestly proposed to hang out of hand the leading rebels. Then they\nproposed to hang Jefferson Davis as a symbol of defeated treason, and so\nvicariously punish the South. In time even that feeling passed away. But\non the question of reconstruction and readmission the feelings of the\nRepublican party leaders ran high.\n\nPresident Johnson, himself a loyal Southerner, was strongly in favor of\nreadmitting the Southern States to a participation in the government\n(upon such terms as might be just), and receiving Senators and\nCongressmen from the readmitted States. To this plan Congress, which was\noverwhelmingly Republican, was bitterly opposed, and the result was the\nexecutive and legislative branches of the government divided one over\nagainst the other, waging a fierce and disgraceful fight\u2014disgraceful\nalike to each. As in all other matters that affected the welfare of the\ngovernment, Mr. Beecher was deeply interested in this, and lost no\nopportunity to express his views from the pulpit and the platform.\n\nHe was strongly opposed to any vindictive course, and when it was\nproposed to make an example of Jeff Davis he declared:\n\n\u201cThe war is itself the most terrific warning that could be set up, and\nto attempt, by erecting against this lurid background the petty figure\nof a gallows with a man dangling at it, to heighten the effect, would be\nlike lighting tapers when God\u2019s lightnings are flashing across the\nheavens to add to the grandeur of the storm.\u201d\n\nOn the 20th of February, 1866, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, in\nanswer to Wendell Phillips\u2019s lecture entitled \u201cThe South Victorious,\u201d\ngiven a short time previous, Mr. Beecher delivered a speech which he\ncalled \u201cThe North Victorious.\u201d In this he took a pronounced stand on the\nquestion of reconstruction:\n\n\u201cEach day will develop the prosperity of the South moving upon the new\nbasis, and each day will make it plainer and plainer to them that\nnationality is necessary for their prosperity. Old aspirations must die.\nThe war passion must cease. It is a new South we are talking about. It\nhas a new political economy. It has a new future. God has said by the\nside of the sepulchre, \u2018South, come forth!\u2019 and the South has come,\nthough bound hand and foot. Methinks I hear the Saviour say, \u2018Loose her\nand let her go.\u2019\n\n\u201cOn the other hand, look for one moment at the effects of a prolonged\nexclusion of the Southern States. It is weaning the citizens of those\nStates more and more from the national government. For five years they\nhave not thought of Washington except to curse her. They have not felt\nthe need of it. They have not felt any blood running through them that\ncame from the national heart. It is proposed to make them live five\nyears more out of the Union. Is that the way to make them love it? Is\nthat the way to make them feel their need of the government?\n\n\u201cThe utmost evil in admitting them that can result will be that we shall\nbe obliged to take a longer time to do some things which now we mean to\ndo by legislation. Many of the things which we seek to accomplish by\nlaws we shall be obliged to accomplish by moral means. I have seen this\nanxiety to do everything by legislation, legislation, legislation,\nwaiting for it, and I have seen the power of great moral causes.\nAlthough there is a wisdom in legislation which I would be far from\ninvalidating, the forms of wholesome legislation, still I would balance\nthat by the other consideration that it may take too long a time, and we\nmay rely too much upon legislation. I rely upon reason and conscience.\nChurches are my congresses, and school-houses are my legislators.\nKindness, equal, reciprocal, or identical interests\u2014these are renovating\ninfluences; and I would not wait too long for laws, which at best are\nbut as mills which must run by some external power. What is a windmill\nwithout wind, or a water-mill without a stream of water? Why put a mill\nupon the hill-top with a water-wheel, or in a valley if made with a\nsail? What are laws without public sentiment? They are water-mills\nwithout water, wind-mills without wind. We must fall back upon moral\nforce. It may take a little more time, but we shall do the work more\nthoroughly; and I believe we shall yet see the day when, throughout the\nSouth, they will show an enthusiasm for liberty, and schools, and\nchurches, and colleges, such as we have never seen even in the North;\nwhen every man shall sit under his own vine and fig-tree, blessed and\nblessing.\u201d\n\nShortly after the assassination of President Lincoln he said, referring\nto its effect upon the South:\n\n\u201cI know not how this may turn, so far as the South is concerned; I know\nnot but that the cords will be drawn tighter than they would have been\nif Mr. Lincoln had been spared; yet I am not without hope that those men\nwho have for four years learned almost nothing but to curse the name of\nour beloved and now martyred President, with the beginning of better\nthoughts and feelings may, by sorrow and by grief, be led back again\ntoward a national feeling. The North has been unified by a sorrow of one\nkind; and I would fain hope that God, in His providence, will make use\nof this great affliction to produce the beginnings of compunction and\nthe return of national feeling throughout the South. And so the death of\nMr. Lincoln may be blessed to them as well as to us.\n\n\u201cBut, brethren, my heart goes out toward my whole country. I mourn for\nthose outcast States. The bitterness of their destruction; the wrath\nthat has come upon them; their desolation\u2014you know nothing of these. The\nsublimest monument that has ever been reared in this world to testify\nGod\u2019s abhorrence of cruelty and rebellion has its base as broad as\nfifteen States. No pyramid was ever lifted up in such awful majesty as\nis the pyramidal overthrow of these fifteen States. And I pray God that\nthis last, cruelest, wickedest offspring of the Rebellion may be an\nexpiation through which they shall be redeemed. Christ, when He died,\nprayed for those that crucified Him, and instead of asking vengeance on\nthem, said: \u2018Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.\u2019\u201d\n\nJust before going to Fort Sumter in April, 1865, he said from his\npulpit:\n\n\u201cI would be no man\u2019s servant to go to add additional sorrows to those\nthat already press and weigh down the South.... I go to say to them,\n\u2018Sound government has come back; beneficent government has come back;\nthe day has dawned; and, as brethren to brethren, I come to bring you\ngood tidings of great joy\u2019\u201d\u2014a feeling that was more fully expressed in\nhis speech at the fort.\n\nShortly after Johnson had been called to the presidential chair, and\nbefore the open rupture with Congress and his subsequent extravagant\nfollies, Mr. Beecher wrote him:\n\n\u201cThe two points that have lain most at my heart are:\n\n\u201c1. That the government should not allow itself, by any temptation, to\ninvade the _true_ State rights. The temptation is strong. But the\nprecedent established might by and by plunge us again into great trials,\nand even conflicts.\n\n\u201c2. The other point is, the necessity of securing for freedmen the\nkindness and good-will of _Southern_ white men. Their fate will largely\ndepend upon their neighbors\u2019 dispositions toward them. Northern people\nnor the government can hold them up long if all the State populations\naround them are inimical.\n\n\u201cIn both these respects, as in others, I perceive that your sentiments\nare enlightened and statesmanlike.\n\n\u201cMay it please Almighty God to endue you with health and strength to\ncomplete the work which you have so auspiciously begun!\u201d\n\nBy the autumn of 1866 there had grown up in the Republican party quite a\nminority, called \u201cConservative Republicans,\u201d who were opposed to the\npolicy of exclusion; and an effort was made that fall to elect\nCongressmen who would be in favor of admitting the Southern States again\nunder such terms and restrictions as might be deemed necessary. This\nfeeling was quite marked among the soldiers themselves, who, with the\nchivalry natural to bravery, were opposed to humiliating a conquered\nenemy. In September a National Convention of Soldiers and Sailors was\ncalled to be held on the 17th in Cleveland, Ohio, to give expression to\nthis feeling. The preparatory committee sent to Mr. Beecher an\ninvitation to serve as chaplain to the convention, saying in it:\n\n\u201cYour name has been selected by the Executive Committee from sincere\nadmiration of your character, and as the only tribute within their power\nto pay in acknowledgment of your noble devotion to the cause of the\nUnion, and your earnest and unceasing efforts in behalf of our soldiers\nand sailors during the recent war.\n\n\u201cThe Executive Committee also find in your course since the termination\nof the struggle substantial harmony with the views to which they desire\nto give effect in the convention\u2014your eloquence and the just weight of\nyour name being employed to enforce upon the country a generous and\nmagnanimous policy toward the people of the lately rebellious States,\nand a prompt reconstruction of the Union under the Constitution as the\nbest means of regaining the national tranquillity which the country so\nmuch needs, and readjusting the rights of all sections, under the new\norder of things, on a basis of law, order, Christian brotherhood, and\njustice.\n\n\u201cIn the call for the convention, which the undersigned have the honor to\ntransmit herewith, you will see fully set forth the motives which\nactuate the military and naval defenders of the Union in their present\nunusual course of taking part in a political movement; and it is our\nhope\u2014as we have always looked to you in the darkest days of the war for\ninspiration, aid, and the cheering sympathy of a noble heart, never\nfailing to find them\u2014that you will consent to invoke the Divine Blessing\nupon the Convention of the Soldiers and Sailors of the United States who\nserved during the late Rebellion, and who approve the restoration policy\nof President Johnson and the principles announced by the recent national\nconvention of Philadelphia\u2014the first convention since 1860 in which all\nthe States of our beloved Union were represented.\u201d\n\nAs the convention was called for a time when he was prostrated by his\nannual \u201chay cold,\u201d he was obliged to decline, but wrote to them what has\nsince become famous as his first Cleveland letter.\n\nThis invitation, which seems so proper and natural to-day, and the\nletter in reply recapitulating the views which, as we have seen, had\nbeen expressed again and again in public, to the intense astonishment of\nMr. Beecher produced a perfect tornado, and for a few days he was in the\ncentre of a wild and furious whirlwind that threatened to destroy his\ninfluence in public affairs\u2014then very great\u2014and even to rend his church\nasunder. It seems impossible, as we look back twenty years, to believe\nthat such results could have followed such a cause.\n\nIt would seem, as we follow the exposition of his views almost daily on\nthis subject, as though the public, and certainly his friends, would\nhave become fully accustomed to them, and would have recognized the\nobject for which he strove; and the sudden, almost blind outburst of\nanger, indignation, and grief that followed the Cleveland letter, can\nonly be explained on the theory that the course of President Johnson had\nso exasperated the Northern feelings, that the people, fairly beside\nthemselves with anger, indignation, and suspicion, could see nothing\nright in what he did or advised, and would not permit any one to speak a\nkind word either for him or any of the views that he advocated.\n\nEighteen years later, looking back upon the accomplishment of that which\nhe had so strenuously advocated, and seeing men commending as wisdom\nthat which they had then condemned as folly, he recalls this incident in\nhis life, which, like many others before and since, awaked the mournful\nprophecies of timid friends. From his Thanksgiving sermon, November 27,\n1884, we quote:\n\n\u201cBut one thing more was needed, and that was to chase the scowl from the\nSouthern brow; to revive the old friendship; to clasp hands again in a\nvow of loving and patriotic zeal. It was given to us last, because it is\nthe greatest of God\u2019s gifts. There never has been such a scene since the\nearth was born; there never has been such a rupture, never such a\nconflict, never such a victory, never such a reconstruction, never such\nrestoration of integrity in business, never such a reconciliation and\ngladness between good men on both sides, as come to us to-day. As yet\nthe eyes of many are holden, and they cannot see how great a blessing\nGod has brought to our unbelieving eyes and timid hands. From the bottom\nof my soul I believe in the honor and integrity of thoughtful Southern\nmen; and when I get from them such letters as I do, and hear from their\nlips such declarations as I hear, that they feel at last that they are\nin and of the Union, as much as we, and point to the flag, declaring,\nwith tears, \u2018That is now my flag,\u2019 I believe it; I should be faithless\nto God and to Providence if I did not. I believe it with an enthusiasm\nof faith, and with a longing heart of love; for I think they are above\nhypocrisy or insincerity, and that, if we choose, the last cloud will\nrise from between us and then pass away for ever.\n\n\u201cMoses, after forty years of toil, was allowed to see the promised land\nfrom afar off only. Less worthy, yet more blessed, I am spared to go\nover with the rejoicing tribes into the land flowing with milk and\nhoney. What am I, or my father\u2019s house, that to me should be given the\nprivilege of laboring in all this drama, and seeing it end nobly thus?\nThe discipline is complete, and to the end of time this great epic of\nliberty, our struggle with slavery, will shine like the sun.\n\n\u201cNot the least joyful element in this reconciliation is the assured\nsafety and benefit which will accrue to the colored race. That has come\nto pass which was their only safety. Just as soon as the Southern\nstatesmen accept the perfect restoration of themselves to the great body\npolitic, and find that there is no division, as between Northern men and\nSouthern men, in any of the honors of government; just as soon as they\nare in and a part of every administration\u2014as, thank God! they will\nbe\u2014just so soon of necessity that will take place which has taken place\neverywhere, in every community: there will be the party of\nadministration, the \u2018ins,\u2019 and the party opposed to them, the\nopposition, the \u2018outs.\u2019 The moment you have these two parties, each\nparty has a sentinel watching it. In the South that will take place\nwhich is the salvation of the colored race. As long as they were a\nfringe upon a Northern party the South was condensed and solidified\nagainst it. As soon as they are divided at home between the\nadministrational party and the opposition party, they will be guarded\nand taken care of. The administration party will not allow its voters to\nbe injured; the opposition party will not allow its voters to be\ninjured. They will be distributed as they should be, and the strength of\neach party in the South will be the safeguard of the intermediate\nvoters. I regard this now, with schools and academies and various\nseminaries spread among them, as the final step of emancipation.\n\n\u201cIt is in these views that I have acted; and in the calmest retrospect I\nnow rejoice that I was able to act so.\n\n\u201cThe greatest mistake of my life has happened twice, as I have been\ninformed.\n\n\u201cI was in 1866 invited to act as chaplain to the convention called at\nthe city of Cleveland, Ohio, of the soldiers and sailors of our army and\nnavy. The object of that convention was to so shape our Northern\npolitics as to bring the Southern States back immediately, or as soon as\npossible; and in that general tendency I sympathized.\n\n\u201cThe question of reconstruction of the seceding States was under\ndiscussion, and feeling ran high, not alone on account of the nature of\nthe work to be done, but also by reason of the disturbed relations\nbetween President Johnson and Congress.\n\n\u201cPresident Lincoln had been assassinated, and Johnson had assumed his\nplace. The statesmen whose vigor and courage had carried the country\nthrough the civil war were less adapted to the delicate task of\nrestoring the discordant States to peace and unity than they had been to\nthe sudden duties of war.\n\n\u201cIn a general way there were two parties: one counselling a speedy\nreadjustment, and the other a longer probation.\n\n\u201cPresident Lincoln and Governor Andrew, of Massachusetts, in the last\nconversations which I had with them, inclined to the policy of immediate\nrestoration; and their views had great weight with me. It was in the\ninterest of such a policy that the Cleveland convention was called.\n\n\u201cMy first letter was in reply to the invitation from the convention:\n\n                                \u201c\u2018PEEKSKILL, N. Y., August 30, 1866.\n\n\u201c\u2018CHAS. G. HALPINE, _Brevet Brig.-Gen._; H. W. SLOCUM, _Major-Gen._;\n  GORDON GRANGER, _Major-Gen._, _Committee_:\n\n\u201c\u2018GENTLEMEN: I am obliged to you for the invitation which you have made\nto me to act as chaplain to the Convention of Sailors and Soldiers about\nto convene at Cleveland. I cannot attend it, but I heartily wish it and\nall other conventions, of what party soever, success, whose object is\nthe restoration of all the States late in rebellion to their federal\nrelations.\n\n\u201c\u2018Our theory of government has no place for a State except in the Union.\nIt is justly taken for granted that the duties and responsibilities of a\nState in federal relations tend to its political health and to that of\nthe whole nation. Even Territories are hastily brought in, often before\nthe prescribed conditions are fulfilled, as if it were dangerous to\nleave a community outside of the great body politic.\n\n\u201c\u2018Had the loyal senators and representatives of Tennessee been admitted\nat once on the assembling of Congress, and, in moderate succession,\nArkansas, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Virginia, the public\nmind of the South would have been far more healthy than it is, and those\nStates which lingered on probation to the last would have been under a\nmore salutary influence to good conduct than if a dozen armies had\nwatched over them.\n\n\u201c\u2018Every month that we delay this healthful step complicates the case.\nThe excluded population, enough unsettled before, grows more irritable;\nthe army becomes indispensable to local government and supersedes it;\nthe government at Washington is called to interfere in one and another\ndifficulty, and this will be done inaptly, and sometimes with great\ninjustice; for our government, wisely adapted to its own proper\nfunctions, is utterly devoid of those habits, and unequipped with the\ninstruments, which fit a centralized government to exercise authority in\nremote States over local affairs. Every attempt to perform such duties\nhas resulted in mistakes which have excited the nation. But whatever\nimprudence there may be in the method, the real criticism should be\nagainst the requisition of such duties of the general government.\n\n\u201c\u2018The federal government is unfit to exercise minor police and local\ngovernment, and will inevitably blunder when it attempts it. To keep a\nhalf-score of States under federal authority, but without national ties\nand responsibilities; to oblige the central authority to govern half of\nthe territory of the Union by federal civil officers and by the army, is\na policy not only uncongenial to our ideas and principles, but\npre-eminently dangerous to the spirit of our government. However humane\nthe ends sought and the motive, it is, in fact, a course of instruction\npreparing our government to be despotic, and familiarizing the people to\na stretch of authority which can never be other than dangerous to\nliberty.\n\n\u201c\u2018I am aware that good men are withheld from advocating the prompt and\nsuccessive admission of the exiled States by the fear, chiefly, of its\neffect upon the freedmen.\n\n\u201c\u2018It is said that, if admitted to Congress, the Southern senators and\nrepresentatives will coalesce with Northern Democrats and rule the\ncountry. Is this nation, then, to remain dismembered to serve the ends\nof parties? Have we learned no wisdom by the history of the past ten\nyears, in which just this course of sacrificing the nation to the\nexigencies of parties plunged us into rebellion and war?\n\n\u201c\u2018Even admit that the power would pass into the hands of a party made up\nof Southern men and the hitherto dishonored and misled Democracy of the\nNorth, that power could not be used just as they pleased. The war has\nchanged, not alone institutions, but ideas. The whole country has\nadvanced. Public sentiment is exalted far beyond what it has been at any\nformer period. A new party would, like a river, be obliged to seek out\nits channels in the already existing slopes and forms of the\ncontinent....\n\n\u201c\u2018I hear with wonder, and shame, and scorn the fear of a few that the\nSouth, once more in adjustment with the federal government, will rule\nthis nation! The North is rich, never so rich; the South is poor, never\nbefore so poor. The population of the North is nearly double that of the\nSouth. The industry of the North, in diversity, in forwardness and\nproductiveness, in all the machinery and education required for\nmanufacturing, is half a century in advance of the South. Churches in\nthe North crown every hill, and schools swarm in every neighborhood;\nwhile the South has but scattered lights, at long distances, like\nlight-houses twinkling along the edge of a continent of darkness. In the\npresence of such a contrast how mean and craven is the fear that the\nSouth will rule the policy of the land! That it will have an influence,\nthat it will contribute, in time, most important influences or\nrestraints, we are glad to believe. But if it rises at once to the\ncontrol of the government it will be because the North, demoralized by\nprosperity and besotted by grovelling interests, refuses to discharge\nits share of political duty. In such a case the South not only will\ncontrol the government, but ought to do it.\n\n\u201c\u2018It is feared, with more reason, that the restoration of the South to\nher full independence will be detrimental to the freedmen. The sooner we\ndismiss from our minds the idea that the freedmen can be classified and\nseparated from the white population, and nursed and defended by\nthemselves, the better it will be for them and us. The negro is part and\nparcel of Southern society. He cannot be prosperous while it is\nunprospered. Its evils will rebound upon him. Its happiness and\nreinvigoration cannot be kept from his participation. The restoration of\nthe South to amicable relations with the North, the reorganization of\nits industry, the reinspiration of its enterprise and thrift, will all\nredound to the freedman\u2019s benefit. Nothing is so dangerous to the\nfreedman as an unsettled state of society in the South. On him comes all\nthe spite, and anger, and caprice, and revenge. He will be made the\nscapegoat of lawless and heartless men. Unless we turn the government\ninto a vast military machine, there cannot be armies enough to protect\nthe freedmen while Southern society remains insurrectionary. If Southern\nsociety is calmed, settled, and occupied, and soothed with new hopes and\nprosperous industries, no armies will be needed. Riots will subside,\nlawless hangers-on will be driven off or better governed, and a way will\nbe gradually opened to the freedmen, through education and industry, to\nfull citizenship with all its honors and duties.\n\n\u201c\u2018Civilization is a growth. None can escape that forty years in the\nwilderness who travel from the Egypt of ignorance to the promised land\nof civilization. The freedmen must take their march. I have full faith\nin the results. If they have the stamina to undergo the hardships which\nevery uncivilized people has undergone in its upward progress, they will\nin due time take their place among us. That place cannot be bought, nor\nbequeathed, nor gained by sleight of hand. It will come to sobriety,\nvirtue, industry, and frugality. As the nation cannot be sound until the\nSouth is prosperous, so, on the other extreme, a healthy condition of\ncivil society in the South is indispensable to the welfare of the\nfreedmen.\n\n\u201c\u2018Refusing to admit loyal senators and representatives from the South to\nCongress will not help the freedmen. It will not secure for them the\nvote. It will not protect them. It will not secure any amendment of our\nConstitution, however just and wise. It will only increase the dangers\nand complicate the difficulties. Whether we regard the whole nation or\nany section of it or class in it, the first demand of our time is entire\nreunion!\n\n\u201c\u2018Once united, we can, by schools, churches, a free press, and\nincreasing free speech, attack every evil and secure every good.\nMeanwhile, the great chasm which rebellion has made is not filled up. It\ngrows deeper and stretches wider! Out of it rise dread spectres and\nthreatening sounds. Let that gulf be closed, and bury in it slavery,\nsectional animosity, and all strifes and hatreds!\n\n\u201c\u2018It is fit that the brave men who, on sea and land, faced death to save\nthis nation, should now, by their voice and vote, consummate what their\nswords rendered possible.\n\n\u201c\u2018For the sake of the freedmen, for the sake of the South and its\nmillions of our fellow-countrymen, for our own sake, and for the great\ncause of freedom and civilization, I urge the immediate reunion of all\nthe parts of this Union which rebellion and war have shattered.\n\n                                      I am, truly yours,\n                                             \u201c\u2018HENRY WARD BEECHER.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis letter was published by the convention in the hope that it would\nmake an impression on the public mind. It did. Their most sanguine\nexpectations were more than realized in that respect. But it was a step\nin advance of the prevailing public sentiment, and, like such steps, was\nlargely misunderstood or misrepresented.\n\nThe partisan Republican press at once assailed Mr. Beecher, some\nbitterly, some indignantly, and some compassionately. Read hastily, it\nwas construed as a declaration against the Republican party and in favor\nof President Johnson, who by this time had come in violent collision\nwith Congress and the general sentiment of the North. The President\u2019s\ncourse was regarded as treacherous, and a feeling of hatred was\nspreading through the North, so intense that it was only necessary for\nhim to advocate any measure to have it looked upon with suspicion and be\nbitterly opposed. Many of Mr. Beecher\u2019s personal friends were alarmed\nand distressed, fearing that he was giving aid and comfort to the enemy.\nHe was overwhelmed with letters full of fear\u2014fear for the country, fear\nfor the Republican party, fear for him and his future usefulness. Some\nwho had been among his intimate friends attacked him openly and fiercely\nin the public prints. The _Independent_, whose editorship he had but\nrecently resigned, and to which he was still a regular contributor, in\nits leading editorial, from the pen of Theodore Tilton, attacked him\nwith intense and persistent bitterness. Writing shortly afterwards to a\nfriend, he said:\n\n\u201cThe rage and abuse of excited men I have too long been used to, now to\nbe surprised or daunted.... I stood almost alone, my church, in my\nabsence, full of excitement; all my ministerial brethren, with a few\nhonorable exceptions, either aloof or in clamor against me; well-nigh\nthe whole religious press denouncing me, and the political press\nfurious.\u201d\n\nOn the other hand, many thoughtful, earnest men agreed with the letter\nand commended it most earnestly. We quote from a letter received from\nDr. Stephen H. Tyng as a type of this class:\n\n\u201cI have just read your admirable letter in the _Times_ of to-day. My\neyes are wet with tears of sympathy and thanksgiving. You have expressed\nin terms and with beauty peculiar to yourself precisely what I have in\nmy humble way thought and felt.... The recognition and establishment of\nour Union on the basis of undisputed loyalty to the national government,\nunlimited liberty to the people, universal fidelity in payment of our\nresponsibility, and generous reciprocation and acknowledgment of mutual\nkindness and confidence among all portions of our territory and all\nclasses of our people, is to me the one great immediate end for us to\nstrive for. I have not a doubt that all our interests and hopes, social,\nmoral, and economical, are far safer in the union of our States and the\ncomplete acknowledgment of them all, than they can be in its\nrefusal\u2014nay, that they are safe in no other course. I cannot justify the\npartisan and acrimonious action which resists and impedes this immediate\nunion.... The country has been much indebted to you for faithful and\npowerful defence, but it has never had more occasion to honor you than\nfor the letter which I have read this morning....\u201d\n\nThe reply to Dr. Tyng, written some days before the second letter, is\nvaluable as showing how little his critics understood Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nposition, and with what unreasonable and passion-blinded haste they\njumped to the conclusion that he had abandoned the Republican party,\nbecome a Johnson man, Copperhead, etc.:\n\n                                          \u201cPEEKSKILL, Sept. 6, 1866.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR DR. TYNG:\n\n\u201cYour kind letter surprised and delighted me, and has been a great\ncomfort withal. You perhaps are aware by this time that my letter has\nbeen excessively distasteful to the great body of men with whom I have\nacted, and to my own congregation. Nothing but a deep sense of public\ndanger, to which the eyes of our best men seem blind, induced me to\nwrite it. The sentiments contained in it I had, in speeches and\nlectures, openly declared in all the principal cities of the East during\nthe whole winter and spring, and I was therefore not a little surprised\nat the wonder and excitement with which they have now been received.\n\n\u201cI attribute it to the sharp issue made by Mr. Johnson and Congress, and\nto the exasperation of the public mind with the President, especially\nhis most unwise speeches made during his present tour. I am far from\nbeing a Johnson man. I am an advocate of the _principles_ of speedy\nreadjustment, without waiting for a greater but at present unattainable\ngood. I am, however, constrained to say that Mr. Johnson just now and\nfor some time past has been the greatest obstacle in the way of his own\nviews. The mere fact that he holds them is their condemnation with a\npublic utterly exasperated with his rudeness and violence. The TRUTH is,\nhowever, just as important as if it had a wiser advocate.\n\n\u201cThings may go so far that no choice will be left but between a\nCopperhead Johnson party and a radical Republican, and I cannot for a\nmoment hesitate on which side I shall be, or rather already am.\n\n\u201cThe moral sentiment of justice, liberty, and Christian progress is with\nthe Republican side. There are the men whom I most esteem, and with whom\nI have always acted, and for whom first and last I have wished success.\n\n\u201cFor that very reason I have desired and labored assiduously to secure\nto them more practical views than those at first peculiar to a few\nextreme men, but which, partly by the President\u2019s indiscretions, partly\nby the inflammation of the public mind and the adroitness with which\nthings have been managed by a few, seem likely to become the\nenthusiastic belief of the whole community, or of a large majority. I\nmust submit to things which I cannot control. Should things turn out\nbetter than my fears I shall be glad to find myself a false prophet. But\nI confess that the cause of the freedmen, which lies near my heart,\nlooks gloomy in the future. With a very Southern South and a very\nNorthern North I do not see but they will be ground to powder. But God\nrules\u2014that is my unfailing comfort. His cause gains as well by disaster\nas by success. Good and evil both serve Him....\u201d\n\nOn the 7th of September Mr. Beecher received a letter from Dr. R. S.\nStorrs, then an intimate friend, which expressed the feelings of not a\nfew of his friends. In this he urged Mr. Beecher to make a fuller and\nmore explicit statement of his position, and to show plainly that he was\nnot in sympathy with Johnson, Seward, etc., in their general attitude.\n\u201cA vast number of people who have loved and honored you for years are\nreally beginning to believe that you have gone over bodily; of course\nall those who know you as I do, know this to be an utter misapprehension\nof your position.\u201d\n\nMany of the members of Plymouth Church shared the common\nmisapprehension, while many saw plainly what Mr. Beecher was seeking,\nand sympathized with him. As a consequence the church was deeply stirred\nand in commotion.\n\nTo quote again from Mr. Beecher:\n\n\u201cNot many days after, President Johnson began that ill-favored journey,\nknown as \u2018swinging around the circle,\u2019 during the progress of which his\ntemper, attitude, and injudicious speeches thoroughly alarmed the\ncommunity.\n\n\u201cIt was believed that he was betraying the country, and that all that\nhad been gained by the war was about to be lost by the treachery of the\nPresident. The public mind was greatly inflamed, and my Cleveland letter\nwas received with violent protests. Many personal friends and members of\nPlymouth Church were greatly exercised.\n\n\u201cThere was a great pother made about that. My own friends were very hot.\nSome dove into the newspapers, some into letters. They flew thick and\nfast all around about me. Neighboring ministers thought that I was\nunseated and disrupted for ever. In the midst of it all I knew I was\nright, and that if I had patience others would know that I was right.\nAnd they did, though they still talk about that greatest blunder of my\nlife, \u2018the Cleveland letter.\u2019 I am going to send down that document to\nmy children as one of the most glorious things that I ever did in my\nlife. But such was the excitement and clamor that I thought it wise to\nalleviate the fear and trouble of my people by giving a fuller view of\nthe ground of my first letter and to confute the idea that I had\nabandoned the Republican party, so I wrote the second letter to a friend\nto read to the church, assuming the same position, but with explanatory\nreasoning.\u201d This was the second so-called \u201cCleveland Letter\u201d:\n\nWe give a few extracts from this letter, which was a very long one,\ncovering nearly the same ground as the first, only giving his reasons\nmore fully:\n\n                                \u201cPEEKSKILL, Saturday, Sept. 8, 1866.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR \u2014\u2014\u2014:\n\n\u201cI am obliged to you for your letter. I am sorry that my friends and my\ncongregation are grieved by my Cleveland letter.\n\n\u201cThis feeling, however, has no just grounds, whatever may be the\nseeming. I have not left, and do not propose to leave, or to be put out\nof, the Republican party. I am in sympathy with its aims, its great\nprinciples, and its army of noble men. But I took the liberty of\ncriticising its policy in a single respect, and to do what I could to\nsecure what I believed, and still believe, to be a better one.\n\n\u201cI am, and from the first have been, fully of opinion that the amendment\nof the Constitution proposed by Congress, equalizing representation in\nNorthern and Southern States, was intrinsically just and reasonable, and\nthat it should be sought by a wholesome and persistent moral agitation.\n\n\u201cBut, from the present condition of the public mind and from the\nPresident\u2019s attitude, I deemed such a change to be practically\nimpossible, in any near period, by political action. And a plan of\nreconstruction based upon that seems to me far more like a plan of\nadjourning reconstruction for years, at least, with all the liabilities\nof mischief which are always to be expected in the fluctuations of\npolitics in a free nation.\n\n\u201cIt is not the North that chiefly needs the restoration of government to\nits normal sphere and regular action. Either the advantages of Union are\nfallacious, or the continuous exclusion of the South from it will breed\ndisorder, make the future reunion more difficult, and especially subject\nthe freedmen to the very worst conditions of society that can well\nexist. No army, no government, and no earthly power can compel the South\nto treat four million men justly, if the inhabitants (whether rightly or\nwrongly) regard these men as the cause, or even the occasion, of their\nunhappiness and disfranchisement. But no army, or government, or power\nwill be required when Southern society is restored, occupied, and\nprospering in the renewed Union. Then the negro will be felt to be a\nnecessity to Southern industry, and interest will join with conscience\nand kindness in securing for him favorable treatment from his\nfellow-citizens....\n\n\u201cNeither am I a \u2018Johnson man\u2019 in any received meaning of that term. I\naccept that part of the policy which he favors, but with modification. I\nhave never thought that it would be wise to bring back all the States in\na body, and at once, any more than it would be to keep them all out\ntogether. One by one, in due succession, under a special judgment rather\nthan by a wholesale theoretic rule, I would have them readmitted. I\nstill think a middle course between the President\u2019s and that of Congress\nwould be wiser than either. But with this my agreement with the\nPresident ends.\n\n\u201cAnd now allow me to express some surprise at the turn which the public\nmind has taken on my letter. If I had never before spoken my sentiments,\nI could see how friends might now misapprehend my position. But for a\nyear past I have been advocating the very principles of the Cleveland\nletter in all the chief Eastern cities\u2014in Boston, Portland, Springfield,\nAlbany, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo, Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh,\nand Brooklyn (at the Academy of Music last winter). These views were\nreported, discussed, agreed to or differed from, praised and blamed\nabundantly. But no one thought, or at least said, that I remember, that\nI had forsaken the Republican party or had turned my back upon the\nfreedman. My recent letter but condenses those views which for twelve\nmonths I have been earnestly engaged in urging upon the attention of the\ncommunity. I am not surprised that men dissent. But this sudden\nconsternation and this late discovery of the nature of my opinions seem\nsufficiently surprising. I could not ask a better service than the\nreprinting of that sermon of last October, which first brought upon me\nthe criticisms of the _Tribune_ and _Independent_.\n\n\u201cI foresaw that, in the probable condition of parties and the country,\nwe could not carry suffrage for the freedman by immediate political\naction. When the ablest and most radical Congress of our history came\ntogether they refused to give suffrage to negroes, even in the District\nof Columbia; and only in an indirect way, not as a political right but\nas the hoped-for result of political selfishness, did they provide for\nit by an amendment of the Constitution. What was prophecy with me,\nCongress has made history. Relinquishing political instruments for\ngaining the full enfranchisement of men, I instantly turned to moral\nmeans; and enunciating the broadest doctrine of manhood suffrage, I gave\nthe widest latitude to that, advocating the rights of black and white,\nof men and women, to the vote. If any man has labored more openly, on a\nbroader principle, and with more assiduity, I do not know him. More\nability may have been shown, but not more directness of purpose or\nundeviating consistency....\n\n\u201cDeeming the speedy admission of the Southern States as necessary to\ntheir own health, as indirectly the best policy for the freedmen, as\npeculiarly needful to the safety of our government, which, for the sake\nof accomplishing a good end, incautious men are in danger of perverting,\nI favored, and do still favor, the election to Congress of Republicans\nwho will seek the early admission of the recusant States. Having urged\nit for a year past, I was more than ready to urge it again upon the\nrepresentatives to Congress this fall. In this spirit and for this end I\ndrew up my Cleveland letter. I deem its views sound; I am not sorry that\nI wrote it. I regret the misapprehension which it has caused, and yet\nmore any sorrow which it may have needlessly imposed upon dear friends.\nAs I look back upon my course, I see no deviation from the straight line\nwhich I have made, without wavering, for now thirty years in public\nlife, in favor of justice, liberty, and the elevation of the poor and\nignorant.\n\n\u201cThe attempt to class me with men whose course I have opposed all my\nlife long will utterly fail. I shall choose my own place, and shall not\nbe moved from it. I have been from my youth a firm, unwavering, avowed,\nand active friend of all that were oppressed. I have done nothing to\nforfeit that good name which I have earned. I am not going weakly to\nturn away from my settled convictions of the public weal for fear that\nbad men may praise me or good men blame. There is a serious difference\nof judgment between men as to the best policy. We must all remit to the\nfuture the decision of the question. Facts will soon judge us.\n\n\u201cI feel now profoundly how imperfect my services have been to my\ncountry, compared with its desert of noble services. But I am conscious\nthat I have given all that I had to give, without fear or favor. Above\nall earthly things is my country dear to me. The lips that taught me to\nsay \u2018Our Father\u2019 taught me to say \u2018Fatherland.\u2019 I have aimed to conceive\nof that land in the light of Christianity. God is my witness that with\nsingleness of heart I have given all my time, strength, and service to\nthat which shall make our whole nation truly prosperous and glorious.\nNot by the lustre of arms, even in a just cause, would I seek her glory,\nbut by a civilization that should carry its blessings down to the lowest\nclasses, and nourish the very roots of society by her moral power and\npurity, by her public conscience, her political justice, and by her\nintelligent homes, filling up a continent and rearing a virtuous and\nnoble citizenship.\n\n\u201cBy night and by day this is the vision and dream of my life, and\ninspires me as no personal ambition ever could. I am not discouraged at\nthe failure to do the good I meant, at the misapprehension of my course\nby my church, nor the severity of former friends. Just now those angry\nvoices come to me as rude winds roar through the trees. The winds will\ndie, the trees will live. As soon as my health is again restored I shall\ngo right on in the very course I have hitherto pursued. Who will follow\nor accompany it is for others to decide. I shall labor for the education\nof the whole people; for the enfranchisement of men without regard to\nclass, caste, or color; for full development, among all nations, of the\nliberty wherewith Christ makes men free. In doing this I will cheerfully\nwork with others, with parties\u2014any and all men that seek the same\nglorious ends. But I will not become a partisan. I will reserve my right\nto differ and dissent, and respect the same right in others. Seeking\nothers\u2019 full manhood and true personal liberty, I do not mean to forfeit\nmy own.\n\n\u201cBetter days are coming. These throes of our day are labor-pains. God\nwill bring forth ere long great blessings. In some moments which it\npleases God to give me I think I discern beyond the present troubles,\nand over the other side of the abyss in which the nation wallows, that\nfair form of Liberty\u2014God\u2019s dear child\u2014whose whole beauty was never yet\ndisclosed. I know her solemn face. That she is divine I know by her\npurity, by her sceptre of justice, and by that atmosphere of Love that,\nissuing from her, as light from a star, moves with her as a royal\natmosphere. In this, too, I know her divinity, that she shall bless both\nfriends and enemies, and yield the fullest fruition of liberty to those\nwho would have slain her, as once her Master gave His life for the\nsalvation of those who slew Him.\n\n\u201cI am, your true friend and pastor,\n\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\nAt the conclusion of his Thanksgiving sermon from which we have already\nquoted, after reviewing these letters, he summed up the subject:\n\n\u201cMy dear friends, if I had written that for to-day I could not have\nwritten it better, and I do not think it needs to be written any better.\nI stand on that, and I have read it this morning not only because\ninspired by the parallelism, but because it has been represented that my\nCleveland letter was the greatest blunder of the day; and then, worse\nthan that, that I backed down from it and retracted it. And I have read,\ntherefore, both of them, in parts, so far as bears more immediately on\nquestions of to-day, that you may know that God gave me the light to do\none of the best things I ever did when I wrote that letter; and that He\ngave me the grace to stand on it without turning back for one single\nmoment; and that He has given me grace to lay my path, by sight, along\nthose two letters\u2014hindsight and foresight\u2014from that day down to this;\nand that He has given me grace to withstand the impleadings of those\nthat I love dearly, not only of my immediate household but of my blood\nand kindred; of those that are in the church, that are to me as my own\nlife, and those that are of the political party with which I have\nlabored thus far.\n\n\u201cStill seeing that luminous light, as God reveals it to me, I have\nwalked in it and toward it, and abide in that same direction to-day;\nand, God helping me, so will I live to the end.\u201d\n\nTo most of his friends the second letter gave great relief. The\nexcitement in the church was quickly allayed, and, as it abated, the\ncalm second-sight of his people began to see more and more in the\nletters in which they could agree.\n\nAfter the second letter Dr. Storrs wrote again:\n\n                                          \u201cBROOKLYN, Sept. 10, 1866.\n\n\u201dDEAR BEECHER:\n\n\u201cYour letter is _admirable_ in _all_ respects, and must make precisely\nthe right impression of your position and views on every one who reads\nit. Now let the winds \u2018crack their cheeks.\u2019 All my solicitude is over,\nand Andy J. and Seward fully deserve what things they are going to get.\n\n                                 \u201cMost affectionately,\n                                                 \u201cR. S. STORRS, JR.\u201d\n\nIn letters to prominent public men and journalists Mr. Beecher urged\nthat the conservative Republicans should express themselves plainly and\nclearly for the speedy reunion of the loyal Southern States and\nrestoration of a more kindly feeling, but that this should be done, not\nin _opposition_ to the Republican party, but within it. He was emphatic\nthat the work of reconstruction could not then be safely left to the\nDemocratic party. As soon as the public began to understand, what one\nwould think had been plainly apparent at the start, that it was not, and\nhad not been, his intention to leave the Republican party, but to urge\nthe party to take up speedy reconstruction as its line of policy, and\nthat he was laboring to create a sentiment within the party in its\nfavor, the general excitement began to abate, and soon the bitterness,\nexcept with a few extremists, passed away.\n\nA few sparks which took their heat from this fierce excitement remained,\nhowever, smouldering unnoticed and unsuspected, to aid, a few years\nlater, in creating the most terrible and fiery ordeal that ever a good\nman was called to undergo, since the time of Him who came on earth to\ngive Himself a voluntary sacrifice, that through His death the world\nmight live; whose tender kindness, patient forgiveness, and generous\nself-sacrifice were made the guide and rule of life, so far as human\nnature could, by him whose life we seek to portray.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXIII.\n\nThe \u201cSilver Wedding\u201d of Plymouth Church\u2014Children\u2019s Day\u2014Services in the\n    Church\u2014Reunion of old Members\u2014Historical Reminiscences\u2014Dr. Storrs\u2019s\n    Tribute.\n\n\nAs in nature violent storms are often succeeded by peaceful calms, and\nas the sun shines brightest and the air seems clearest and most purified\nafter the thunder-storm has broken and passed away, so in Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nlife we find that the stormy trials that beset him, at different\nperiods, were followed by calms, in which the sun of popular favor shone\nthe brightest; by periods of peace, during which he seemed endowed with\nincreased power for useful work.\n\nIt was his lot to be generally a few years ahead of the times, but it\nwas his good fortune to live to see his views accepted, and to find his\nhottest critics standing on the very ground, that they had so fiercely\nassailed him for occupying, but just a short time before.\n\nSo, for some years after 1866, we find him working with increased power\nand usefulness in his church, from the lecture platform, and through the\ncolumns of the press. His church had never been more prosperous, his\npeople never more active in all departments of good work; never had he\nhad so wide a field in which to labor. His sermons, which at first had\nonly been printed in certain papers, were now issued in book-form, and\nwere read wherever the English tongue prevailed.\n\nFrom his pulpit went forth words of cheer, of hope and love, that lifted\nup weary hearts, that infused new life in desponding souls, that shed a\nnew light in upon spirits that had lived in the darkness of sin,\nthroughout the civilized globe. His sermons were translated into German,\nFrench, Spanish, and Italian. No four walls, no State boundaries, nor\nthe limits of any one nation, held his congregation.\n\nIn this period he undertook, in addition to his ordinary duties and\nlabors, the principal literary work of his life, writing \u201cNorwood,\u201d\ncompleting the first volume of \u201cThe Life of Christ,\u201d organizing and\ncarrying on the _Christian Union_ as its editor-in-chief.\n\nThough the shadows of the coming trouble began, during the later part of\nthis period, to fall across his path, at times darkening and oppressing\nhis inner life, yet to the world, to the church, and to his friends it\nseemed as if a lasting season of peace and prosperity had settled down\nupon Plymouth Church, and its pastor, promising many years of\nuninterrupted and blessed usefulness.\n\nOctober 10, 1872, completed the full quarter-century of Mr. Beecher\u2019s\npastorate at Plymouth Church. His people determined to celebrate in\nfitting manner this \u201cSilver Wedding,\u201d as it was called. It was decided\nto devote the week in which the anniversary occurred to the celebration\nof this jubilee.\n\nIn the minds of his people there might well have been some little\nfeeling of pride and triumphant jubilation. They had seen Plymouth, from\nthe little handful, twenty-one in all, whose organization had awakened\nprophecies of a speedy death, grow to the great church of over\ntwenty-seven hundred, with its three large Sunday-schools\u2014Plymouth,\nBethel, and Mayflower\u2014the nurseries of the church, where nearly three\nthousand scholars gathered every Sunday to learn the way of life. They\nhad seen its influence extended throughout the entire nation, throughout\nthe civilized globe, a power for good. They had seen churches by the\nscore spring from its loins, and not a few had they seen, in periods of\nweakness when liable to fail, kept alive, nourished, and sustained by\nits strong hand until strong enough to stand alone.\n\nIts history formed a part of the nation\u2019s history in the dark days of\nslavery, in the struggle for national existence, and the exciting period\nof reconstruction, as has been well said: \u201cFor the better part of a\ngeneration Plymouth Church, under the influence of Mr. Beecher, has been\na conspicuous light among the churches of the land. It has been the\nbirthplace of countless good works which have blessed the whole\ncommunity. It has been the nursery of noble impulses, of free thought,\nof patriotism, of generous and inspiriting actions. Its pupils have gone\nout into all parts of the country, carrying its fresh spirit with them,\nto infect other communities. Its influence is felt from Maine to the\nPacific, and its memory is to-day affectionately cherished by thousands\nwho were never within its walls and never saw its preacher.\u201d\n\nBut in Mr. Beecher\u2019s heart, while not forgetful of the glorious record\nof his church, the predominating feeling was one of profound gratitude\nto God.\n\nIn his Friday night prayer-meeting preceding the jubilee he expressed\nhis feelings to his people:\n\n\u201cIf I thought next week was to be a kind of historical glorification of\nthis church; still worse, if I thought it was to be a sort of personal\nglorification, I should shrink from it with more than dislike\u2014with\npositive loathing. It has pleased God to recognize the instrumentality\nof this church in the work it has done for the last quarter of a\ncentury; but, after all, the reason of its success, the absolute cause\nof its moral power, has been the presence of God, and the preaching of\nthe Lord Jesus Christ, here during the last quarter of a century; and if\nwe have a celebration, it ought to be a celebration of what the Lord has\ndone among us. The feeling ought to be that of gratitude, and of the\nmost profound recognition of the goodness and mercy and loving-kindness\nof our Lord and Saviour, who has walked in our households and in the\nmidst of this artificial Christian family, and has not ceased to do us\ngood, for the past twenty five years.\n\n\u201cSo, that all the services of the week may be infused with a more\nreverent and loving sense of the Lord\u2019s mercy to us, I hope you will\ngive yourselves to prayer in your closets and in your homes. May it be a\nweek, not for the laudation of men or of churches, but for a grateful\nrecognition of God\u2019s way with us, and of that dear name which should be\ndearer to us every day that we live, until we shall see Him in His glory\nfor ever.\u201d\n\nMonday, October 7th, was the first day of the jubilee. This was\n\u201cChildren\u2019s day,\u201d the exercises being devoted principally to the\nSunday-schools.\n\nIn the afternoon the three schools united in one column and marched past\nMr. Beecher\u2019s house; as they filed by, the schools gave their pastor, as\nhe stood upon his doorstep, a marching salute. Each child as it passed\ncast a flower at his feet, until he stood literally embanked in flowers.\nThe day was wondrously beautiful, sunny, clear, and crisp\u2014as though\nglorious October, nature\u2019s painter, catching the prevailing enthusiasm,\nwas consciously contributing its share to make the occasion a success.\nMr. Beecher was deeply touched. \u201cWe gave Monday to the children\u2014and a\nbeautiful day it was\u2014and a sight brighter than which I shall not see\nuntil I look in the New Jerusalem, and see all the children who have\nleft us for that better land.\u201d\n\nTuesday, as \u201cTeachers\u2019 day,\u201d was devoted to a reunion of the teachers\nand officers then serving or who had done duty in either of the three\nSunday-schools.\n\nWednesday, as \u201cMembers\u2019 day,\u201d was like a great family reunion: it was\nthe home day.\n\nThe church auditorium, the lecture-room and Sunday-school rooms,\ndecorated with flowers, were thrown open to the members. We quote a\ndescription of the decorations: \u201cWhat with the warbling of sweet-voiced\nbirds, the profusion of leafy and floral decorations artistically\narranged, the many beautiful paintings, the liquid, melodious strains\nfrom a band of musicians with stringed instruments stationed in the\ngallery, the picturesque though sober dresses of the lady-promenaders,\nbut, above all, the vocal sound of animated, sparkling conversation, a\nkaleidoscopic picture was presented which awakened and gratified all the\nsenses, and which, however, could only be appreciated by an\neye-witness.\u201d\n\nThe exercises were eminently social, a part of the evening being devoted\nto humorous reminiscences, by the older members, of the \u201cearly days.\u201d\nMusic and a lunch helped to increase the general enjoyment.\n\nThursday, \u201cHistorical day,\u201d was, more perhaps than any other, a public\nday. As the name indicates, it was devoted to a review of the church,\nits growth in size, in works, and its ever-extending influence for good.\nFrom Mr. Beecher\u2019s speech we give only the opening and closing\nparagraphs, which briefly review the beginning of his pastorate in\nPlymouth Church, his purpose in his work, and its continuance to that\ntime:\n\n\u201cAt my first coming I had no plans; I had marked out no future; I had no\ntheories to establish, no system to found, no doctrines to demolish, no\noppugnation of any kind. I remember distinctly that over and over again\nI held account with myself; and I came into this field simply and only\nto work for the awakening of men, for their conversion to Christ, and\nfor their upbuilding in a Christian life. I had almost a species of\nindifference as to means and measures. I cared little, and perhaps too\nlittle, whether I had or had not a church-building. I thought of one\nthing\u2014the love of Christ to men. This, to me, was a burning reality.\nLess clearly than now, perhaps, did I discern the whole circuit and orb\nof the nature of Christ; but with a burning intensity I realized the\nlove of God in Jesus Christ. I believed it to be the one transcendent\ninfluence in this world by which men should be roused to a higher\nmanhood, and should be translated into another and better kingdom. My\npurpose was to preach Christ to men for the sake of bringing them to a\nhigher life. And though I preferred the polity and economy of the\nCongregational Church, yet I also felt that God was in all the other\nchurches, and that it was no part of my ministry to build up sectarian\nwalls; that it was no part of my ministry to bombard and pull down\nsectarian structures; but that the work of my ministry was to find the\nway to the hearts of men, and to labor with them for their awakening,\nand conversion, and sanctification.\n\n\u201cI have said that I had no theory; but I had a very strong impression on\nmy mind that the first five years in the life of a church would\ndetermine the history of that church and give to it its position and\ngenius; that if the earliest years of a church were controversial or\nbarren it would take scores of years to right it, but that if a church\nwere consecrated, and active, and energetic during the first five years\nof its life, it would probably go on through generations developing the\nsame features. My supreme anxiety, therefore, in gathering a church, was\nto have all of its members united in a fervent, loving disposition; to\nhave them all in sympathy with men; and to have all of them desirous of\nbringing to bear the glorious truths of the Gospel upon the hearts and\nconsciences of those about them....\u201d\n\n\u201cI bless God when I look back. I have lived my life, and no man can take\nit from me. The mistakes that I have made\u2014and they are many\u2014none know so\nwell as I. My incapacity and insufficiency none can feel so profoundly\nas I.... And yet I have this witness: that for twenty-five years I have\nnot withheld my strength, and have labored in simplicity and with\nsincerity of motive for the honor of my God, and for the love that I\nbear to you, and for the ineradicable love that I have for my country\nand for the world.\n\n\u201cMy time is drawing near; but if I should fall to-morrow, I have lived.\nI have seen this land rise up from its drunkenness and its shame. I have\nseen the original principles of liberty, which had well-nigh been\nburied, come like Lazarus forth from the grave. What if, for the first\nfew steps of the new life\u2014bound hand and foot in grave-clothes, and with\na napkin about his head, staggering somewhat\u2014it knew not how to find the\nrightful path? Our country is free; and it has pleased God to give you\nand me some part in the work of enfranchisement and the settlement of\nthis land on the old foundation of truth and justice and universal\nliberty.\n\n\u201cI have lived through a quarter of a century, and had a free platform;\nand you have sustained me in speaking just what I thought to be true.\nYou have never servilely believed anything because I said it; for you\nhave maintained opinions different from mine from the beginning to the\nend....\n\n\u201cI am admonished that the best of my years are past and that my sun will\nsoon go down. Let it go down to-day, to-morrow, whenever it may please\nGod. I will not ask for the lengthening out of one single day. I have\nlived a happy life. I have been a happy pastor. I have loved you and\nbeen beloved by you. I have seen your children come up and walk in the\nways of life. I have gone down with hundreds to see the framework laid\nin the dust, believing that the spirit was above. We have come down\ntogether, without a quarrel, without a break, and without a shaking of\nconfidence, to this blessed hour. And now, in these closing words which\nI address to you and to all who are present, join with me, not in\nself-gratulation, nor in the interchange of compliments, but in\nthanksgiving to Christ that has loved us, to the Spirit of God that has\ninspired us, and to the dear Father that has kept us together in the one\nhousehold of faith, beloved and loving, thus far.\u201d\n\nTwenty-five years before Dr. Storrs gave the right hand of fellowship to\nMr. Beecher at his installation, then to encourage him to future labor.\nAgain he gives him the hand of fellowship, but now, in words tender and\neloquent, to dwell on the work done, to congratulate him on the rich and\nabundant harvest he had garnered, and to testify his brotherly love and\nadmiration. The scene was a solemnly touching one, as Dr. Storrs, in the\nwords we quote, closed his glowing tribute to the man who, for\ntwenty-five years, had stood by his side laboring for a common cause,\nand who had loved him as a brother:\n\n\u201cAt any rate, we have stood side by side in all these years; and they\nhave been wonderful and eventful years.\n\n   \u201c\u2018Our eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord,\n   When He loosed the fateful lightnings of His terrible swift sword,\n         And His truth went marching on!\u2019\n\n\u201cWe have differed many times, but two men so unlike never stood side by\nside with each other, for so long a time, in more perfect harmony,\nwithout a jealousy or a jar! Though we have differed in opinion, we have\nnever differed in feeling. We have walked to the graves of friends in\ncompany. We have sat at the table of the Lord in company. He knows, as\nhe has said, that when other voices were loud and fierce in hostility to\nhim mine never joined them. When other pens wrote his name, dropping\ngall and venom as they wrote it, my pen never touched the paper except\nin honor and admiration of him. And _I_ know that whenever I have wanted\ncounsel or courage given me from others, he has always been ready, from\nthe overflowing surplus of his surcharged mind, to give them to me.\n\n\u201cSo we have stood side by side\u2014blessed be God!\u2014in no spirit but of\nfraternal love, for that long space of twenty-five years which began\nwith the Right Hand of Fellowship then, and closes before you here\nto-night.\n\n\u201cI am not here, my friends, to repeat the service which then I\nperformed. It would be superfluous. When I think of the great assemblies\nthat have surged and thronged around this platform, when I think of the\ninfluences that have gone out from this pulpit into all the earth, I\nfeel that less than almost any other man on earth does he need the\nassurance of fellowship from any but the Son of God! But I am here\nto-night for another and a different service! On behalf of you who\ntarry, and of those who have ascended from this congregation; on behalf\nof Christians of every name throughout our city, who have had such joy\nand pride in him, and the name of whose town has, by him, been made\nfamous in the earth; on behalf of all our churches, now growing to be an\narmy; on behalf of those in every part of our land who have never seen\nhis face or heard his voice, but who have read and loved his sermons,\nand been quickened and blessed by them; on behalf of the great\nmultitudes who have gone up from every land which his sermons have\nreached\u2014never having touched his hand on earth, but waiting to greet him\nby and by\u2014I am here to-night [taking Mr. Beecher by the hand] to give\nhim the Right Hand of Congratulation, on the closing of this\ntwenty-fifth year of his ministry, and to say: God be praised for all\nthe work that you have done here! God be praised for the generous gifts\nwhich He has showered upon you, and the generous use which you have made\nof them, here and elsewhere, and everywhere in the land! God give you\nmany happy and glorious years of work and joy still to come in your\nministry on earth! May your soul, as the years go on, be whitened more\nand more in the radiance of God\u2019s light, and in the sunshine of His\nlove! And, when the end comes\u2014as it will\u2014may the gates of pearl swing\ninward for your entrance, before the hands of those who have gone up\nbefore you, and who now wait to welcome you thither; and then may there\nopen to you that vast and bright Eternity\u2014all vivid with God\u2019s love\u2014in\nwhich an instant vision shall be perfect joy, and an immortal labor\nshall be to you immortal rest!\u201d\n\n\u201cThis magnificent concluding passage,\u201d said the Brooklyn _Union_ of the\nnext day, \u201cwas uttered with an eloquence that defies description. At its\nconclusion Mr. Beecher, with tears, and trembling from head to foot,\narose, and, placing his hand on Dr. Storrs\u2019s shoulder, kissed him upon\nthe cheek. The congregation sat for a moment breathless and enraptured\nwith this simple and beautiful action. Then there broke from them such a\nburst of applause as never before was heard in an ecclesiastical\nedifice. There was not a dry eye in the house.\u201d\n\nFriday, \u201cCommunion day,\u201d ended the jubilee. After a brief season of\nprayer and remarks, the solemn service of the Lord\u2019s Supper closed the\nmeeting, over two thousand persons participating in the communion.\n\nThe week was a blessed one for pastor and people, making stronger the\nbonds of love, confidence, and mutual trust that united them into a\nsingle church, and, no doubt, helped and strengthened both in the\ncrossing of that stormy sea of trouble, at the very shore of which they\nwere then standing.\n\nLittle could the people of Plymouth Church foresee as they crowded\naround their pastor, striving, in loving emulation, to out-do each other\nin marks of affection and confidence, that the most infamous conspiracy\nof modern times was rapidly involving pastor and church in a network of\nwicked lies.\n\nNone would have believed in those happy days that the very men who owed\nmost to their pastor, who had received at his hands aid and comfort when\nmost needed, whom he had nurtured and strengthened by his love, were\nusing the very power they had derived through him, to destroy their\nbenefactor; with the malignant ingenuity of the fallen angel, were\nweaving webs of falsehood and misrepresentation about his feet, working\non his feelings, ever sensitive to any neglect of duty upon his part, by\nfalse statements of injury done by his thoughtlessness or neglect;\ncunningly interweaving his exaggerated outbursts of self-accusing grief\nwith their falsehoods, prepared by them, with cool deliberation, to fit\nhis words. They sought by his very horror of evil to give the appearance\nof evil. Closing his mouth by a pledge they well knew his honor would\nobserve, they, disregarding their pledges, by busy whisperings strove to\nfasten suspicion on him, who, they knew, would not speak in\nself-defence.\n\nThe warmth of that heart that loved all mankind, that bore malice to\nnone, but sought by greater loving-kindness to overcome enmity,\nreturning good for evil, fell upon a serpent\u2019s nest, warming into life\nthe malignant, venomous brood, the intensity of whose desire to injure\nseemed in the proportion that each had been benefited. The eggs had\nhatched, and the serpents were daily growing stronger and more\ndangerous.\n\nBut least of all did Plymouth Church suspect that those whose hands they\nhad just grasped in fraternal love, who, by their own teachings and\ntheir calling, should have been slow to believe evil of their brethren,\nwould in a few short weeks join hands with her bitterest enemies,\nlending to them the moral support of their own blameless lives and high\nreputations, giving them advice, aid, and comfort, opening their\nchurches as an asylum to the discontented and treacherous in Plymouth\nChurch; and, even while the words of brotherly love and deep, abiding\nconfidence, just flown from their lips, were ringing with joy and\ncomfort in the heart of their brother, would lend the ears of ready\nlisteners, to the base tales of baser men\u2014men whom they themselves knew\nto be tainted in honor and morals\u2014holding their cloaks to screen the\nwould-be assassins.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXIV.\n\nThe Conspiracy\u2014Relations with Mr. Bowen\u2014Disputes and\n    Arbitration\u2014Theodore Tilton\u2019s Early Promise and Intimacy with Mr.\n    Beecher\u2014Bowen\u2019s Ill-Will and Tilton\u2019s Malice\u2014Tilton discharged from\n    _Independent_ and Brooklyn _Union_\u2014Tripartite Agreement\u2014Moulton and\n    Tilton conspire to Blackmail Mr. Beecher\u2014Tilton consults Dr. Storrs.\n\n\nWhile it will not be possible in the space of a volume such as this, nor\nat all desirable if it were possible, to go to any considerable extent\ninto the details of that experience in Mr. Beecher\u2019s life, commonly\ncalled \u201cthe Scandal,\u201d yet no biography would be complete or truthful\nwhich ignored this period.\n\nTherefore, while we avoid all those details likely to offend against a\nrational public sentiment, we shall try to give such an outline of the\ngeneral facts as may be necessary for a clear understanding of this\nmonstrous conspiracy.\n\nTo do this we must necessarily go back to the beginnings, some of which\nexerted a powerful influence on subsequent events. In 1856 Mr. Beecher\nwas invited to become a contributor to the _Independent_, then published\nand controlled by Henry C. Bowen and his partner, Mr. McNamee. This was\naccepted, and in November of that year a contract was made between them\nto that effect.\n\nThis contract, with a few subsequent modifications, remained in force\nuntil the year 1860, when a new one was made by which Mr. Beecher became\nthe editor-in-chief, Theodore Tilton, his assistant, relieving him\nwholly of the office routine work. Mr. Tilton was at this time a young\nman with the promise of a brilliant future before him. Determining upon\njournalism and public speaking as his profession, he sought to\nfamiliarize himself with the speeches and writings of those most\nprominent in his chosen field. Early in the \u201cFifties\u201d he began reporting\nMr. Beecher\u2019s sermons for the _Observer_. This led to an acquaintance\nbetween them.\n\nTilton, though scarcely more than a boy, was even then very clever. His\nbright speeches, his boyish enthusiasm in following out the high\npurposes he had formed, the really manly aspirations he then felt, and,\nabove all, his sunny disposition, soon won for him a very warm place in\nMr. Beecher\u2019s heart, which he only lost years later, when his\nuncontrollable egotism and vanity\u2014the mildew of precocity\u2014worked his\ndestruction, wrecking his reputation, his morals, and his life.\n\nMr. Beecher delighted in aiding and promoting him, seeking by wise\ncounsels to strengthen every good quality and to hold in check every\nmalign tendency, advancing him as rapidly as possible in his profession.\nAll this Mr. Tilton fully recognized, writing Mr. Beecher, a short time\nbefore he began his plotting:\n\n\u201cMY FRIEND: From my boyhood up you have been to me what no other man has\nbeen, what no other man can be. While I was a student the influence of\nyour mind on mine was greater than all books and all teachers. The\nintimacy with which you honored me for twelve years has been, next to my\nwife and family, the chief affection of my life. By you I was baptized;\nby you married; you are my minister, teacher, father, brother, friend,\ncompanion. The debt I owe you I can never pay. My religious life, my\nintellectual development, my open door of opportunity for labor, my\npublic reputation\u2014all these, my dear friend, I owe in so great a degree\nto your own kindness that my gratitude cannot be written in words, but\nmust be expressed only in love.\u201d\n\nEarly in their intimacy Tilton left the _Observer_ and joined his\nfortunes to the _Independent_.\n\nThrough the affection and influence of his friend he was advanced\nsteadily, until, in the fall of 1860 or early 1861, he was made\nassistant editor. In the spring of 1861 occurred an incident that was to\nproduce ultimately no little trouble.\n\nMr. Beecher had from time to time bought, from Mr. Bowen\u2019s dry-goods\nstore, various articles to be sent to the Brooklyn Phalanx, a regiment\nlargely enrolled from the youths and friends of Plymouth Church, and in\nwhich Mr. Beecher\u2019s eldest son was an officer. These purchases were\ncharged against Mr. Beecher\u2019s salary account. In May, 1861, Mr. Bowen\nclaimed that Mr. Beecher\u2019s account had been very greatly overdrawn, by\ngoods purchased and money drawn out. The matter was finally arbitrated,\nthe arbitrator awarding Mr. Bowen $1,000, which was paid.\n\nWhether it was the failure to receive all that he expected, or some\nother and unknown grievance, we cannot say, but from about this time\nbegan a feeling of hostility on the part of Mr. Bowen, which a few years\nlater, after Mr. Beecher had finally left the _Independent_, took shape\nin scandalous whisperings behind Mr. Beecher\u2019s back, but always so\ncarefully guarded as not, at that time, to reach his ears.\n\nIn 1863 Mr. Beecher made his memorable visit to England. During his\nabsence he arranged to have Mr. Tilton take the entire editorial charge\nof the _Independent_. In this the latter did so well, that in February,\n1864, Mr. Beecher, being then in need of relief from the care and\nresponsibility of his position, made a new arrangement with Mr. Bowen,\nwhereby Mr. Tilton was to be retained as editor-in-chief, Mr. Beecher\ncontributing editorially and by \u201cStar articles\u201d (his articles were\nunsigned, but marked with * at the foot, hence the name); the\npublication of his sermons and lecture-room talks being continued, his\nname remaining for a year as one of the editors. After one year Tilton\nwas to be announced as the actual editor-in-chief.\n\nIn 1865, then, Theodore Tilton found himself at the head of one of the\nmost influential papers in the land; for the _Independent_, though a\nreligious paper, had, largely through the controversies on slavery, war,\nand other important topics carried on by Mr. Beecher in its columns,\nacquired a reputation and influence, in general public affairs, that was\nequalled by no other journal of its kind.\n\nSoon Mr. Tilton\u2019s inordinate conceit began to manifest itself. He was to\nsupersede, in influence, his patron. From his lofty pedestal he could\nlook down upon his old friend and adviser, dwarfed by comparison.\n\nAlready he had begun to entertain \u201cadvanced\u201d ideas, repudiating as\nold-fogy and behind the times the principles and beliefs which he had\nreceived from his former instructor. Not content with his fancied\novershadowing of Mr. Beecher, he began about this time to take part in\nBowen\u2019s campaign of scandalous whisperings; but when one of his tales\ncame to Mr. Beecher\u2019s ears he promptly denied it and assured Mr. Beecher\nthat he had never said anything of the kind, that it was wholly false.\nThis denial satisfied Mr. Beecher, who thought no more of the tale.\n\nWhen in 1866 Mr. Beecher wrote his \u201cCleveland letters,\u201d the\n_Independent_ assailed him so virulently, through its editorial columns,\nthat he felt he could no longer be connected with it, even as a\ncontributor, and thereupon terminated his contract and all further\nconnection with the paper. This was a further aggravation in Mr. Bowen\u2019s\neyes, as it was likely to be a pecuniary loss to the paper, and so to\nhim. Shortly after this Mr. Tilton began in the editorial columns of the\n_Independent_ to take a decidedly \u201cadvanced\u201d stand upon religious and\nethical subjects. His views began to savor very strongly of the\natheistic, and he more than intimated a belief in theories, on the\nsubject of marriage, that seemed hardly appropriate in the columns of a\nreligious newspaper; so that when he published his \u201cEditorial Soliloquy\u201d\nin 1867, there broke out an indignant protest both from the East and\nWest against such a use of the columns of the _Independent_. Tilton\u2019s\ncourse, together with Bowen\u2019s retention of certain objectionable\nadvertisements, threatened serious injury to the paper. Steps were taken\nto start a new religious paper in Chicago, to supersede the\n_Independent_ in the West; at about the same time overtures were made to\nMr. Beecher, to accept the control of a new paper to be started in New\nYork. This alarmed Mr. Bowen, who at once promised to muzzle Tilton and\nprevent the publication of any more objectionable \u201cviews.\u201d On this\nassurance the opposition to the _Independent_ was suspended. The\ncontract was a larger one, however, than Bowen had anticipated. Tilton\nsoon began anew ventilating his theories, and in December, 1870, wrote\nan editorial so pronounced in its advocacy of his peculiar views, that\nthe public patience was exhausted. The _Advance_ was at once established\nin Chicago and became a formidable rival to the _Independent_, Dr.\nEdward Beecher, the elder brother of Henry Ward, being one of its\npromoters.\n\nIn the fall of 1869 the _Christian Union_ was organized in New York\nCity, and in January, 1870, Mr. Beecher took control of it. Bowen was in\ndespair. Here were two dangerous rivals to his paper. He was afraid to\ndischarge Tilton; he had said too much in his presence to care to offend\nhim. He must in some way, however, get Tilton out of the editorial chair\nof the _Independent_. After some negotiation he arranged with Tilton\nthat he should resign the editorship of the _Independent_, and a new\ncontract was made by which he should take the editorship of the Brooklyn\n_Union_ for five years, at five thousand dollars a year, and should be\nthe chief contributor to the _Independent_, receiving a further five\nthousand dollars therefor. This change was effected on the 20th of\nDecember, 1870, and on the 22d his valedictory was published in the\n_Independent_. Up to the year 1870 Tilton could hardly be said to have\nbeen hostile to Mr. Beecher, certainly in no such sense as he was during\nthe following year. At this time he looked upon him as his mental and\nsocial inferior, and not infrequently spoke of him patronizingly, as one\nwhom he had outgrown, bestowing upon him a sort of affectionate pity\nbecause he had been cast in a mould so much smaller than his own. It is\ntrue that, in that kind of \u201cstrictest confidence\u201d which always insures a\nquiet circulation, he whispered stories, from time to time, derogatory\nto Mr. Beecher\u2019s reputation, but these were born of his vanity, rather\nthan of malice. He was still able to see that his own vagaries did not\nmeet with public favor. He felt that he was a little ahead of his times,\nand it might benefit him to saddle similar theories upon Mr. Beecher. He\nprobably had no intention of doing an injury, at least at that time.\nWith Mr. Bowen, however, it was different. Mr. Beecher\u2019s resignation\nfirst from the editorship, and then as contributor, and withdrawing his\nsermons from the _Independent_, was an injury in his eyes for which\nTilton\u2019s appointment did not compensate, and seemed to intensify that\nill-will which had its origin at the time of the pecuniary\nmisunderstanding, already referred to. And now, to have Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nbrother participate in starting the _Advance_ in Chicago, while he\nhimself accepted the management of the _Christian Union_ in New York\u2014a\npaper that sprang at once into a very large circulation, threatening to\ncrowd the _Independent_ in the East as the _Advance_ promised to do in\nthe West\u2014this capped the climax. Bowen\u2019s dislike was the more intense\nsince there seemed no way in which he could assail Mr. Beecher with any\nhope of success. His whisperings necessarily had to be guarded, and his\nconfidants did not seem inclined, or able, to give him much comfort.\n\nThis hostility Mr. Beecher was aware of, though little suspecting at the\ntime its extent, attributing it to the fact that he had been obliged to\nwithdraw from the _Independent_, and take a stand squarely opposed to\nits apparent policy. For he wrote to a friend: \u201cIt is well known that I\nam in a positive antagonism with the whole general drift of the paper.\nMr. Bowen will scarcely recognize me on the street, and feels bitterly\nmy withdrawal from all part or lot in the paper.\u201d\n\nBy December, 1870, Tilton\u2019s attitude had become decidedly hostile. His\npatronizing had now begun to change into fear. For he thought that Mr.\nBeecher might become a dangerous rival; and when finally he was retired\nfrom the editorship of the _Independent_ he felt sure that it was\nthrough some intentional and malign influence of Mr. Beecher. That his\nown conduct and expressed opinions were responsible for the change, his\nvanity would not permit him to think.\n\nAs soon as it was publicly known that Tilton had been deposed from the\neditorial chair of the _Independent_, the stories of his past life began\nto pour in on Mr. Bowen like a flood. The latter was alarmed and began\nto doubt the possibility of retaining him in any capacity.\n\nThe expression of this fear to mutual friends led to an interview\nbetween the two. Tilton characteristically mounted his high horse, and\nimperiously demanded an investigation and that he be confronted with his\naccusers. In a very few moments Mr. Bowen satisfied him that he was\nquite fully posted, and that an investigation was the last thing that he\nwould desire.\n\nTilton then struck out on a new line of operations. Knowing Mr. Bowen\u2019s\nfear and dislike of Mr. Beecher, intensified daily by the steadily\nincreasing circulation of the _Christian Union_, Tilton cunningly began\nto suggest the great danger that threatened the _Independent_ from the\n_Christian Union_.\n\nHe struck the keynote to Bowen\u2019s animosity, and, skilfully working on\nhis feelings, he suggested that their mutual welfare demanded the\noverthrow of Mr. Beecher. Bowen was all attention. To destroy Mr.\nBeecher, and cripple the _Christian Union_, would be a wonderful stroke\nof good-fortune.\n\nAfter referring to the injuries that Bowen had suffered at the hands of\nMr. Beecher, he suggested that he, too, had a grievance against him.\nThis was news to Bowen, who eagerly besought Tilton to tell him what it\nwas. He then stated that Beecher had been guilty of \u201c_improper\nproposals_\u201d to his wife. Bowen was quick to discover the situation. This\nwas the first tangible bit of evidence which had ever come to him\nagainst Mr. Beecher. He had never dared publicly father any of his own\nstories.\n\nNow, if Tilton would attack Mr. Beecher on such a charge, he could stand\nby and watch the fight without becoming involved himself, but would be\nready, from his safe point of vantage, to take profit by the result,\nwhichever way it ended. If Tilton succeeded, so much the better. If he\nfailed, he would be rid of him; and would not be responsible for the\nattack, which Tilton would both originate and carry on.\n\nMr. Bowen suggested to Tilton the writing of a letter to Mr. Beecher,\nwhich was written, calling on him to resign his pastorate, and leave\nBrooklyn. This Bowen was to carry to Mr. Beecher, which he did.[8]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n  We take the details of this interview from Tilton\u2019s sworn\n  testimony\u2014very poor evidence by itself, but, as it has never been\n  contradicted by Mr. Bowen, is consistent with many known facts; and as\n  the fact of the interview was admitted by Mr. Bowen, we have given it\n  place.\n\n-----\n\nMr. Tilton, returning home, reported to his friend Francis D. Moulton\nwhat he had done, and was informed that he had made \u201ca \u2014\u2014\u2014 fool\u201d of\nhimself, that he had put himself in Bowen\u2019s hands. At this point the\nconspiracy may be said to have been born. With the conspiracy proper,\nfrom this time out, Mr. Bowen seems to have had nothing to do. Both\nTilton and Moulton distrusted him. While his hostility towards Mr.\nBeecher did not abate, and he was soon afterwards clearly recognized as\na bitter enemy, yet we do not learn that he ever thereafter actively\nco-operated with the two arch-conspirators; for a short time after\nTilton\u2019s letter he professed to be friendly to Mr. Beecher.\n\nThe carrying of Tilton\u2019s letter to Mr. Beecher, and the calling in of\nMoulton, were the starting-point of this conspiracy.\n\nBowen, as we shall see later, discharged Tilton from both the\n_Independent_ and the _Union_.\n\nThe latter was in desperate straits, and then it was that he and Moulton\nseemed to have come to the determination to try through Mr. Beecher to\nbetter Tilton\u2019s fortunes. At the first it is highly improbable that\neither had any very definite plan of operations against Mr. Beecher, and\ncertainly not the faintest idea of the desperate step they would finally\nbe driven to by the logic of their own falsehoods. Little by little,\ndeeper and deeper, they worked themselves into the mud and mire, until,\nas a last desperate venture, they were compelled to make the final\nplunge in the hope of forcing through to a solid footing. With this\nintroduction we give Mr. Beecher\u2019s account of this trouble in his own\nwords, as written in 1874, when the facts were all fresh in his mind;\ncondensing it somewhat to meet the requirements of our space, and\nomitting details which, though necessary then, need not now be gone\ninto. This presents the history as he saw it, and shows how Moulton by\ncunning treachery wormed himself into Mr. Beecher\u2019s confidence for the\npurpose of destroying him:\n\n\u201cFour years ago Theodore Tilton fell from one of the proudest editorial\nchairs in America, where he represented the cause of religion, humanity,\nand patriotism, and in a few months thereafter became the associate and\nrepresentative of Victoria Woodhull and the priest of her strange cause.\nBy his follies he was bankrupt in reputation, in occupation, and in\nresources. The interior history, of which I now give a brief outline, is\nthe history of his attempts to so employ me as to reinstate himself in\nbusiness, restore his reputation, and place him again upon the eminence\nfrom which he had fallen. It is a sad history, to the full meaning of\nwhich I have but recently awaked. Entangled in a wilderness of\ncomplications, I followed until lately a false theory and a delusive\nhope, believing that the friend who assured me of his determination and\nability to control the vagaries of Mr. Tilton, to restore his household,\nto rebuild his fortunes, and to vindicate me, would be equal to that\npromise. This self-confessed failure has made clear to me what for a\nlong time I did not suspect\u2014the real motive of Mr. Tilton. My narrative\ndoes not represent a single standpoint only as regards my opinion of\nTheodore Tilton. It begins at my cordial intimacy with him in his\nearlier career, and shows my lamentation and sorrowful but hopeful\naffection for him during the period of his initial wanderings from truth\nand virtue. It describes my repentance over evils befalling him of which\nI was made to believe myself the cause; my persevering and finally\ndespairing efforts to save him and his family by any sacrifice of myself\nnot absolutely dishonorable; and my growing conviction that his\nperpetual follies and blunders rendered his recovery impossible. I can\nnow see that he is and has been from the beginning of this difficulty a\nselfish and reckless schemer, pursuing a plan of mingled greed and\nhatred, and weaving about me a network of suspicions, misunderstandings,\nplots, and lies, to which my own innocent words and acts, nay, even my\nthoughts of kindness toward him, have been made to contribute.\n\n\u201cThat I was blind so long to the real nature of the intrigue going on\naround me was due partly to my own overwhelming public engagements,\npartly to my complete surrender of this affair and all papers and\nquestions connected with it into the hands of Mr. Moulton, who was\nintensely confident that he could manage it successfully. I suffered\nmuch, but I inquired little. Mr. Moulton was chary to me of Mr. Tilton\u2019s\nconfidences to him, reporting to me occasionally in a general way Mr.\nTilton\u2019s moods and outbreaks of passion only as elements of trouble\nwhich he was able to control, and as additional proofs of the wisdom of\nleaving it to him. His comment of the situation seemed to me, at the\ntime, complete, immersed as I was in incessant cares and duties, and\nonly too glad to be relieved from considering the details of such\nwretched complications, the origin and the fact of which remain, in\nspite of all friendly intervention, a perpetual burden to my soul. I\nwould not read in the papers about it; I would not talk about it. I made\nMoulton for a long period my confidant and my only channel of\ninformation.\n\n\u201cFrom time to time suspicions were aroused in me by indications that Mr.\nTilton was acting the part of an enemy; but these suspicions were\nrepeatedly allayed by his own behavior towards me in other moods, and by\nthe assurances of Mr. Moulton, who ascribed the circumstances to\nmisunderstanding or to malice on the part of others. It is plain to me\nnow that it was not until Mr. Tilton had fallen into disgrace and lost\nhis salary that he thought it necessary to assail me with charges which\nhe pretended to have had in mind for six months. The domestic offence\nwhich he alleged was very quickly and easily put aside, but yet in such\na way as to keep my feelings stirred up, in order that I might, through\nmy friends, be used to extract from Mr. Bowen $7,000, the amount of a\nclaim in dispute between them. The check for that sum in hand, Mr.\nTilton signed an agreement of peace and concord\u2014not made by me, but\naccepted by me as sincere. The _Golden Age_ had been started. He had the\ncapital to carry it on for a while. He was sure that he was to lead a\ngreat social revolution. With returning prosperity he had apparently no\ngriefs which could not be covered by his signature to the articles of\npeace.[9] Yet the changes in that covenant, made by him before signing\nit, and represented to me as necessary merely to relieve him from the\nimputation of having originated and circulated certain old and shameless\nslanders about me, were really made, as now appears, to leave him free\nfor future operations upon me and against me.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n  Tripartite agreement.\n\n-----\n\n\u201cSo long as he was, or thought he was, on the road to a new success, his\nconduct toward me was as friendly as he knew how to make it. His\nassumption of superiority and magnanimity, and his patronizing manner,\nwere trifles at which I could afford to smile, and which I bore with the\ngreater humility since I still retained the profound impression made\nupon me as explained in the following narrative\u2014that I had been a cause\nof overwhelming disaster to him, and that his complete restoration to\npublic standing and household happiness was a reparation justly required\nof me, and the only one which I could make.\n\n\u201cBut, with a peculiar genius for blunders, he fell almost at every step\ninto new complications and difficulties, and in every such instance it\nwas his policy to bring coercion to bear upon my honor, my conscience,\nand my affections, for the purpose of procuring his extrication at my\nexpense. Theodore Tilton knew me well. He has said again and again to\nhis friends that if they wished to gain influence over me they must work\nupon the sympathetic side of my nature. To this he has addressed himself\nsteadily for four years, using as a lever, without scruple, my\nattachment to my friends, to my family, to his own household, and even\nmy old affection for himself.\n\n\u201cNot blind to his faults, but resolved to look on him as favorably and\nhopefully as possible, and ignorant of his deeper malice, I labored\nearnestly, even desperately, for his salvation. For four years I have\nbeen trying to feed his insatiable egotism, to make the man as great as\nhe conceived himself to be, to restore to popularity and public\nconfidence one who, in the midst of my efforts in his behalf, patronized\ndisreputable people and doctrines, refused when I besought him to\nseparate himself from them, and ascribed to my agency the increasing\nruin which he was persistently bringing upon himself, and which I was\ndoing my utmost to avert. It was hard to do anything for such a man. I\nmight as well have tried to fill a sieve with water. In the latter part\nof the history he actually incited and created difficulties, apparently\nfor no other purpose than to drive me to fresh exertions. I refused to\nendorse his wild views and associates. The best I could do was to speak\nwell of him, mention those good qualities and abilities which I believed\nhim to possess in his higher moods, and keeping silent concerning the\nevil things which, I was assured and believed, had been greatly\nexaggerated by public report. I could not think him so bad as my friends\ndid. I trusted to the germs of good which I thought still lived in him,\nto Mr. Moulton\u2019s apparent power over him, and to the power of my\npersistent self-sacrifice.\n\n\u201cMr. Moulton came to me at first as the schoolmate and friend of Mr.\nTilton, determined to reinstate him, I at first suspected, without\nregard to my interests, but on further acquaintance with me he undertook\nand promised to serve his friend without doing wrong to me. He said he\nsaw clearly how this was to be done, so as to restore peace and harmony\nto Mr. Tilton\u2019s home, and bring a happy end to all misunderstandings.\nMany things which he counselled I absolutely refused, but I never\ndoubted his professed friendship for me, after friendship had grown up\nbetween us; and whatever he wished me to do I did, unless it seemed to\nme wrong.\n\n\u201cMy confidence in him was the only element that seemed secure in that\nconfusion of tormenting perplexities. To him I wrote freely in that\ntroublous time, when I felt that secret machinations were going on\naround me, and echoes of the vilest slander concerning me were heard of\nin unexpected quarters; when some of my near relatives were set against\nme, and the tattle of a crowd of malicious women, hostile to me on other\ngrounds, was borne to my ears; when I had lost the last remnant of faith\nin Mr. Tilton or hope for him; when I heard with unspeakable remorse\nthat everything I had done to stay his destruction had made matters\nworse and worse; that my attempt to keep him from a public trial\n(involving such a flood of scandal as has now been let loose) had been\nused by him to bring up new troubles; that his unhappy wife was, under\nhis dictation, signing papers and recantations, and I knew not what;\nthat, in short, everything was breaking up, and the destruction from\nwhich I had sought to save the family was likely to be emptied on other\nfamilies, the church, the community, with infinite horrors of woe for\nme; that my own innocence was buried under heaps and heaps of rubbish,\nand nobody but my professed friend (if even he) could save us. To his\nassurances that he could still do so I gave at least so much faith as to\nmaintain under these terrible trials the silence which he enjoined. Not\nuntil Mr. Tilton, having attempted, through Frank Carpenter, to raise\nmoney from my friends, openly assailed me in his letter to Dr. Bacon,\ndid I break that silence, save my simple denial of the slanderous rumors\nagainst me a year before.\n\n\u201cOn the appearance of the first open attack from Mr. Tilton I\nimmediately, without consulting Mr. Moulton, called for a thorough\ninvestigation with a committee of my church. I am not responsible for\nthe delay, the publicity, or the details of that investigation. All the\nharm which I have so long dreaded and have so earnestly striven to avoid\nhas come to pass. I could not have further prevented it without a full\nsurrender of honor and truth. The time has arrived when I can freely\nspeak in vindication of myself. I labor under great disadvantages in\nmaking a statement. My memory of states of the mind is clear and\ntenacious, better than my memory of dates and details. During four\ntroubled years, in all of which I have been singularly burdened with\npublic labor, having established and conducted the _Christian Union_,\ndelivered courses of lectures, preaching before the Theological Seminary\nof Yale College, written the first volume of the \u2018Life of Christ,\u2019\ndelivered each winter Lyceum lectures in all the North and West\u2014all\nthese duties, with the care of the great church and its outlying schools\nand chapels, and the miscellaneous business which falls upon a clergyman\nmore than upon any other public man, I have kept in regard, and now,\nwith the necessity of explaining actions and letters resulting from\ncomplex influences apparent at the time, I find myself in a position\nwhere I know my innocence without being able to prove it with detailed\nexplanation. I am one upon whom trouble works inwardly, making me\noutwardly silent but reverberating in the chambers of my soul; and when\nat length I do speak it is a pent-up flood and pours without measure or\nmoderation. I inherit a tendency to sadness, the remains in me of\npositive hypochondria in my father and grandfather, and in certain moods\nof reaction the world becomes black and I see very despairingly.\n\n\u201cIf I were, in such moods, to speak as I feel, I should give false\ncolors and exaggerated proportions of everything. This manifestation is\nin such contrast to the hopefulness and courage which I experience in\nordinary times that none but those intimate with me would suspect one so\nfull of overflowing spirit and eager gladsomeness to have within him a\ncave of gloom and despondency. Some of my letters to Mr. Moulton reflect\nthis morbid feeling. He understood it, and at times reproved me for\nindulging in it. With this preliminary review I proceed to my narrative.\n\n\u201cMr. Tilton was first known to me as a reporter of my sermons. He was\nthen a youth just from school and working on the New York _Observer_.\nFrom this paper he passed to the _Independent_, and became a great\nfavorite with Mr. Bowen. When, about 1861, Drs. Bacon, Storrs, and\nThompson resigned their places, I became editor of the _Independent_, to\nwhich I had been from its start a contributor. One of the inducements\nheld out to me was that Mr. Tilton should be my assistant and relieve me\nwholly from routine office work. In this relation I became very much\nattached to him. We used to stroll the galleries and print-shops and\ndine often together. His mind was opening freshly and with enthusiasm\nupon all questions. I used to pour out my ideas of civil affairs, public\npolicy, religion, and philanthropy. Of this he often spoke with grateful\nappreciation, and mourned at a later day over its cessation.\n\n\u201cAugust was my vacation month, but my family repaired to my farm in June\nand July, and remained there during September and October. My labors\nconfining me to the city, I took my meals in the families of friends,\nand from year to year I became so familiar with their children and homes\nthat I went in and out daily almost as in my own house. Mr. Tilton often\nalluded to this habit, and urged me to do the same by his house. He used\nto often speak in extravagant terms of his wife\u2019s esteem and affection\nfor me. After I began to visit his house he sought to make it\nattractive. He urged me to bring my papers down there and use his study\nto do my writing in, as it was not pleasant to write in the office of\nthe _Independent_. When I went to England in 1863 Mr. Tilton took\ntemporary charge of the _Independent_. On my return I paved the way for\nhim to take sole charge of it, my name remaining for a year, and then he\nbecoming the responsible editor. Friendly relations continued until\n1866, when the violent assaults made upon me by Mr. Tilton in the\n_Independent_, on account of my Cleveland letter, and the temporary\ndiscontinuation of the publication of my sermons in that paper, broke\noff my connection with it. Although Mr. Tilton and I remained personally\non good terms, yet there was a coolness between us in all matters of\npolitics. During this whole period I never received from Mr. Tilton or\nany member of his family the slightest hint that there was any\ndissatisfaction with my familiar relations to his household. As late, I\nthink, as the winter of 1869, when going upon an extended lecturing\ntour, he said: \u2018I wish you would look in after, and see that Libby is\nnot lonesome or does not want anything,\u2019 or words to that effect. Never\nby sign or word did Mr. Tilton complain of my visits to his family until\nhe began to fear that the _Independent_ would be taken from him, nor did\nhe break out into violence until on the eve of dispossession from both\nthe papers\u2014the _Independent_ and the _Brooklyn Union_\u2014owned by Mr.\nBowen.\n\n\u201cIn the latter part of July, 1870, Mrs. Tilton was sick, and at her\nrequest I visited her. She seemed much depressed, but gave me no hint of\nany trouble having reference to me. I cheered her as best I could, and\nprayed with her just before leaving. This was our last interview before\ntrouble broke out in the family. I describe it because it was the last,\nand its character has a bearing upon a later part of my story.\nConcerning all my visits it is sufficient to say that _at no interview\nwhich ever took place between Mrs. Tilton and myself did anything occur\nwhich might not have occurred with perfect propriety between a brother\nand sister, between a father and child, or between a man of honor and\nthe wife of his dearest friend_; nor did anything ever happen which she\nor I sought to conceal from her husband.\n\n\u201cSome years before any open trouble between Mr. Tilton and myself, his\ndoctrines, as set forth in the leaders of the _Independent_, aroused a\nstorm of indignation among the representative Congregationalists in the\nWest; and as the paper was still very largely supposed to be my organ, I\nwas written to on the subject. In reply I indignantly disclaimed all\nresponsibility for the views expressed by Mr. Tilton. It was understood\nthat Mr. Bowen agreed, in consequence of proceedings arising out of this\nremonstrance, to remove Mr. Tilton or suppress his peculiar views, but\ninstead of that he seemed firmer in the saddle than before, and his\nloose notions of marriage and divorce began to be shadowed editorially.\nThis led to the starting of the _Advance_ in Chicago, to supersede the\n_Independent_ in the Northwest, and Mr. Bowen was made to feel that Mr.\nTilton\u2019s management was seriously injuring the business, and Mr. Tilton\nmay have felt that his position was being undermined by opponents of his\nviews with whom he subsequently pretended to believe I was in league.\nVague intimations of his \u2018feeling hard\u2019 toward me I ascribed to this\nmisconception. I had in reality taken no step to harm him.\n\n\u201cAfter Mr. Tilton\u2019s return from the West in December, 1870, a young girl\nwhom Mrs. Tilton had taken into the family, educated, and treated like\nan own child was sent to me with an urgent request that I would visit\nMrs. Tilton at her mother\u2019s. She said that Mrs. Tilton had left her home\nand gone to her mother\u2019s in consequence of ill-treatment of her husband.\nShe then gave an account of what she had seen of cruelty and abuse on\nthe part of the husband that shocked me; I immediately visited Mrs.\nTilton at her mother\u2019s, and received an account of her home life, and of\nthe despotism of her husband, and of the management of a woman whom he\nhad made housekeeper, which seemed like a nightmare dream. The question\nwas whether she should go back or separate for ever from her husband. I\nasked permission to bring my wife to see them, whose judgment in all\ndomestic relations I thought better than my own; and accordingly a\nsecond visit was made. The result of the interview was that my wife was\nextremely indignant toward Mr. Tilton, and declared that no\nconsideration on earth would induce her to remain an hour with a man who\nhad treated her with a hundredth part of such insult and cruelty. I felt\nas strongly as she did, but hesitated, as I always do, at giving advice\nin favor of a separation. It was agreed that my wife should give her\nfinal advice at another visit. The next day, when ready to go, she\nwished a final word; but there was company, and the children were\npresent, and so I wrote on a scrap of paper, \u2018I incline to think that\nyour view is right, and that a separation and a _settlement of support_\nwill be wisest, and that in his present desperate state her presence\nnear him is far more likely to produce hatred than her absence.\u2019\n\n\u201cMrs. Tilton did not tell me that my presence had anything to do with\nthis trouble, nor did she let me know that on the July previous he had\nextorted from her a confession of excessive affection for me.\n\n\u201cOn the evening of December 27, 1870, Mr. Bowen, on his way home, called\nat my house and handed me a letter from Mr. Tilton. It was, as nearly as\nI can remember, in the following terms:\n\n\u201c\u2018HENRY WARD BEECHER: For reasons which you explicitly know, and which I\nforbear to state, I demand that you withdraw from the pulpit and quit\nBrooklyn as a residence.\n\n                                                 \u201c\u2018THEODORE TILTON.\u2019\n\n\u201cI read it over twice, and turned to Bowen and said: \u2018This man is crazy;\nthis is sheer insanity,\u2019 and other like words. Mr. Bowen professed to be\nignorant of the contents, and I handed him the letter to read. We at\nonce fell into a conversation about Mr. Tilton. He gave me some account\nof the reasons why he had reduced him from the editorship of the\n_Independent_ to the subordinate position of contributor\u2014namely, that\nMr. Tilton\u2019s religious and social views were ruining the paper. But he\nsaid as soon as it was known that he had so far broken with Mr. Tilton,\nthere came pouring in upon him so many stories of Mr. Tilton\u2019s private\nlife and habits that he was overwhelmed, and that he was now considering\nwhether he could consistently retain him on the Brooklyn _Union_ or as\nchief contributor to the _Independent_. We conversed for some time, Mr.\nBowen wishing my opinion. It was frankly given. I did not see how he\ncould maintain his relations with Mr. Tilton. The substance of the\nconversation was that Tilton\u2019s inordinate vanity, his fatal facility for\nblundering (for which he had a genius), and ostentatious independence in\nhis own opinions, and general impracticableness, would keep the _Union_\nat disagreement with the political party for whose service it was\npublished; and now, added to all this, these revelations of these\npromiscuous immoralities would make his connection with either paper\nfatal to its interests. I spoke strongly and emphatically under the\ngreat provocation of his threatening letter to me and the revelation I\nhad just had concerning his domestic affairs.\n\n\u201cMr. Bowen derided this letter of Tilton\u2019s which he had brought to me,\nand said earnestly that if trouble came out of it I might rely upon his\nfriendship. I learned afterwards that in the further quarrel, ending in\nTilton\u2019s peremptory expulsion from Bowen\u2019s service, this conversation\nwas repeated to Mr. Tilton. Although I have no doubt that Mr. Tilton\nwould have lost his place at any rate, I have also no doubt that my\ninfluence was decisive and precipitated his final overthrow. When I came\nto think it all over, I felt very unhappy at the contemplation of Mr.\nTilton\u2019s impending disaster. I had loved him much, and at one time he\nhad seemed like a son to me.\n\n\u201cBut now all looked dark; he was to be cast forth from his eminent\nposition, and his affairs at home did not promise that sympathy and\nstrength which make one\u2019s house, as mine has been, in times of\nadversity, a refuge from the storm and a tower of defence.\n\n\u201cIt now appears that on the 29th of December, 1870, Mr. Tilton, having\nlearned that I had replied to his threatening letter, by expressing such\nan opinion of him as to set Mr. Bowen finally against him, and bring him\nface to face with immediate ruin, extorted from his wife, then suffering\nunder a severe illness, a document incriminating me, and prepared an\nelaborate attack upon me.\n\n\u201cIn my then morbid condition of mind I thought that this charge,\nalthough entirely untrue, might result in great disaster, if not\nabsolute ruin. The great interests which were entirely dependent on me,\nthe church which I had built up, the book which I was writing, my own\nimmediate family, my brother\u2019s name, now engaged in the ministry, my\nsisters, the name which I had hoped might live after me and be in some\nslight degree a source of strength and encouragement to those who should\nsucceed me, and, above all, the cause for which I had devoted my life,\nseemed imperilled. It seemed to me that my life-work was to end abruptly\nand in disaster. My earnest desire to avoid a public accusation, and the\nevils which must necessarily flow from it, and which now have resulted\nfrom it, has been one of the leading motives that must explain my action\nduring these four years with reference to this matter.\n\n\u201cIt was in such a sore and distressing condition that Mr. Moulton found\nme. His manner was kind and conciliatory; he seemed, however, to be\nconvinced that I had been seeking Tilton\u2019s downfall, that I had leagued\nwith Mr. Bowen against him, and that I had by my advice come near\ndestroying his family. I did not need any argument or persuasion to\ninduce me to do, and say, anything which would remedy the injury, of\nwhich I then believed, I had certainly been the occasion if not the\nactive cause. But Mr. Moulton urged that, having wronged so, the wrong\nmeant his means of support taken away, his reputation gone, his family\ndestroyed, and that I had done it. He assured me of his own knowledge\nthat the stories which I had heard against Mr. Tilton, and which I had\nbelieved and repeated to Mr. Bowen, were all false. I was persuaded into\nthe belief of what he had said, and felt convicted of slander in its\nmeanest form. He drew the picture of Mr. Tilton wronged in reputation,\nin position, wronged in purse, shattered in his family where he would\notherwise have found a refuge, and at the same time looking upon me out\nof his deep distress, while I was abounding in friends, most popular,\nand with ample means; he drew that picture\u2014my prosperity overflowing and\nabounding, and Tilton\u2019s utter degradation. I was most intensely excited.\nIndeed, I felt that my mind was in danger of giving way. I walked up and\ndown the room, pouring forth my heart in the most unrestrained grief and\nbitterness of self-accusation, telling what my ideas were of the\nobligation of friendship and of the sacredness of the household;\ndenying, however, an intentional wrong, saying that if I had been the\ncause, however remotely, of that which I then beheld, I never could\nforgive myself, and heaping all the blame on my own head. The case, as\nit then appeared to my eyes, was strongly against me. My old\nfellow-worker had been dispossessed of his eminent place and influence,\nand I had counselled it. His family had well-nigh been broken up, and I\nhad advised it; his wife had been long sick and broken in health and\nbody, and I, as I fully believed it, had been the cause of all this\nwreck by continuing that blind heedlessness and friendship which had\nbeguiled her heart and had roused her husband into a fury of jealousy,\nalthough not caused by any intentional act of mine. And should I coldly\ndefend myself? Should I pour indignation upon this lady? Should I hold\nher up to contempt as having thrust her affections upon me unsought?\nShould I tread upon the man and his household in their great adversity?\nI gave vent to my feelings without measure. I disclaimed with the\ngreatest earnestness all intent to harm Theodore in his home or his\nbusiness, and with inexplicable sorrow I both blamed and defended Mrs.\nTilton in one breath.\n\n\u201cI had not then the light that I now have. There was much then that\nweighed heavily upon my heart and conscience which now weighs only on my\nheart. I had not the light which analyzes and discriminates things. By\none blow there opened before me a revelation full of anguish: an\nagonized family, whose inmates had been my friends, greatly beloved; the\nhusband ruined in worldly prospects, the household crumbling to pieces,\nthe woman, by long sickness and suffering, either corrupted to deceit,\nas her husband alleged, or so broken in mind as to be irresponsible; and\neither way it was her enthusiasm for her pastor, as I was made to\nbelieve, that was the germ and beginning of the trouble. It was for me\nto have forestalled and prevented that mischief. My age and experience\nin the world should have put me more on my guard. I could not at that\ntime tell what was true, and what was not true, of all the\nconsiderations urged upon me by Mr. Tilton and Moulton. There was a gulf\nbefore me in which lay those who had been warm friends, and they alleged\nthat I had helped to plunge them therein. That seemed enough to fill my\nsoul with sorrow and anguish. No mother who has lost a child but will\nunderstand the wild self-accusation that grief produced, against all\nreason, blaming herself for what things she did do, and for what she\nneglected to do, and charging upon herself, her neglect or heedlessness,\nthe death of her child, while ordinarily every one knows that she had\nworn herself out with her assiduities.\n\n\u201cMr. Moulton and Mr. Tilton both strove to obliterate from my mind all\nbelief in the rumors that had been circulated about Mr. Tilton. There\nwas much going on in silencing, explaining, arranging, etc., that I did\nnot understand as well then as now. But of one thing I was then\nconvinced, viz., that Mr. Tilton had never strayed from the path of\nvirtue. I was glad to believe it true, and felt how hard it was that he\nshould be made to suffer by evil and slanderous foes. I could not\nexplain some testimony which had been laid before me; but, I said, there\nis undoubtedly some misunderstanding, and if I knew the whole I should\nfind Theodore, though with obvious faults, at heart sound and good.\nThese views I often expressed to intimate friends in spite of their\nmanifest incredulity, and what, in the light of the facts, I must now\ncall their well-deserved ridicule. Mr. Moulton lost no occasion of\npresenting to me the kindest view of Mr. Tilton\u2019s character and conduct.\nOn the other hand, he complained that Mrs. Tilton did not trust her\nhusband or him, and did not assist him in his effort to help Theodore. I\nknew that she distrusted Mr. Moulton, and felt bitterly hurt by the\ntreatment of her husband. I was urged to use my influence with her to\ninspire confidence in Moulton and to lead her to take a kinder view of\nTheodore. Accordingly, at the instance of Mr. Moulton, on February 7,\n1871, I wrote a letter to her of that date, designed for the purpose of\ngiving her confidence in Mr. Moulton.\n\n\u201cIn my letter to Mrs. Tilton I alluded to the fact that I did not\nexpect, when I saw her last, to be alive many days. That statement\nstands connected with a series of symptoms which I first experienced in\n1856. I went through the Fremont campaign, speaking in the open air\nthree hours at a time, three days in the week. On renewing my literary\nlabors I felt I must have given way; I very seriously thought that I was\ngoing to have apoplexy or paralysis, or something of the kind. On two or\nthree occasions, while preaching, I should have fallen in the pulpit if\nI had not held on to the table. Very often I came near falling in the\nstreets. During the last fifteen years I have gone into the pulpit, I\nsuppose a hundred times, with a very strong impression that I should\nnever come out of it alive. I have preached more sermons than any human\nbeing would believe, when I felt all the while, that whatever I had got\nto say to my people I must say then, or I never would have another\nchance to say it. If I had consulted a physician, his first advice would\nhave been, \u2018You must stop work.\u2019 But I was in such a situation that I\ncould not stop work. I read the best medical books on symptoms of\nnervous prostration, and overwork, and paralysis, and formed my own\njudgment of my case. The three points I marked were: I must have good\ndigestion, good sleep, and I must go on working. These three things were\nto be reconciled; and in regard to my diet, stimulants, and medicines I\nmade the most thorough and searching trial, and, as the result, managed\nmy body so that I could get the most work out of it without essentially\nimpairing it. If I had said a word about this to my family, it would\nhave brought such distress and anxiety on the part of my wife, as I\ncould not have borne. I have for many years so steadily taxed my mind to\nthe utmost that there have been periods when I could not afford to have\npeople express even sympathy with me. To have my wife or friends anxious\nabout my health, and showing it to me, would be just the drop too much.\n\n\u201cIn 1863 I came again into the same condition just before going to\nEngland, and that was one of the reasons why I wished to go. The war was\nat its height. I carried my country in my heart. I had the _Independent_\nin charge, and was working, preaching, and lecturing continually. I knew\nI was likely to be prostrated again.\n\n\u201cIn December, 1870, the sudden shock of these troubles brought on again\nthese symptoms in a more violent form. I was very much depressed in\nmind, and all the more, because it was one of those things that I could\nnot say anything about; I was silent with everybody. During the last\nfour years these symptoms had been repeatedly brought on by my intense\nwork, carried forward on the underlying basis of so much sorrow and\ntrouble.\n\n\u201cMy friends will bear witness, that in the pulpit, I have very\nfrequently alluded to my expectation of sudden death. I feel that I have\nmore than once, already, been near a stroke that would have killed or\nparalyzed me, and I carry with me now, as I have so often carried, in\nyears before this trouble began, the daily thought of death, as a door\nwhich might open for me, at any moment, out of all cares and labors into\nmost welcome rest.[10]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n  These impressions of impending death he carried with him constantly\n  during the year or two just preceding the final outbreak of this plot.\n\n  In the spring of 1873 he wrote to his wife:\n\n  \u201cMY DEAR WIFE: Thanks for your letter from Jacksonville. It cheered\n  me. God knows that I do not need any more loads; and a comforting\n  letter never could come to a better market.\n\n  \u201cMy life is almost over. I am like one waiting for the stage, his\n  things all packed. The world is bright enough and good enough, and I\n  enjoy a hundred things in it, and am neither moody nor morbid. Yet I\n  have an abiding sense that my work is almost done. Every new thing\n  done, lecture, sermon, or course of lectures, I count as clear gain\u2014so\n  much more than I expected, What the other life is I do not know, and\n  none know so little as those who pretend to know best. That it will be\n  bright and gladdening I am sure; that is all. That I have had success\n  and achieved something gives me pleasure, chiefly because my life has\n  been used for those who were weak and helpless. My lot has been cast\n  in a time when the rights of the under-classes were to be considered.\n  That I have been identified with that great movement of humanity is\n  reward enough, and is the chief satisfaction which I take in the\n  retrospect. But enough, enough.\u201d\n\n  In another letter:\n\n  \u201cI wish I were with you. When you are gone I feel how much you are to\n  me. May God keep you for me for many years to come, if many years are\n  in store for me.\n\n  \u201cYour loving but heavy-hearted husband,\n\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\n  In his private diary he wrote:\n\n  \u201cI have not lived for myself; all my force has been devoted to the\n  promotion of men\u2019s happiness\u2014happiness through justice, truth,\n  goodness. Whatever prosperity I have had came to me almost\n  unconsciously, certainly not by any wit or wisdom of my own. I am\n  grateful for having lived. I shall go without murmur or discontent.\n\n  \u201cI hope that there will be those who will be sorry when I leave, and\n  those beyond who will be glad when I arrive.\u201d\n\n  This same feeling remained with him, more or less, though not in so\n  pronounced a form, through the remainder of his life.\n\n-----\n\n\u201cDuring the whole of the year 1871 I was kept in a state of suspense and\ndoubt, not only as to the future of the family, for the reunion and\nhappiness of which I had striven so earnestly, but as to the degree to\nwhich I might be personally subject to attack and misconstruction, and\nthe trouble be brought into the church and magnified by publicity. The\nofficers of the church sought to investigate Mr. Tilton\u2019s religious\nviews and moral conduct. On the latter point I had been deceived into\nthe belief that he was not in fault. As to the religious views, I still\nhoped for a change for the better. It was proposed to drop him from the\nlist of members for non-attendance; and as he asserted to me his\nwithdrawal, this might have been done, but his wife still attended the\nchurch and hoped for his restoration. I recollect having with him a\nconversation in which he dimly hinted to me that he thought it not\nunlikely that he might go back into his old position. He seemed to be in\na mood to regret the past. And so, when I was urged by the Examining\nCommittee to take some steps, I said I was not without hopes that by\npatience and kindness Tilton might come back again into his old church\nworks and be one of us once more. I therefore delayed a decision upon\nthis point for a long time. Many of our members were anxious and\nimpatient, and there were many tokens of trouble from this quarter.\nMeanwhile one wing of the female-suffrage party, had got hold of his\nstory in a distorted and exaggerated form, such as had never been\nintimated to me by Mr. Tilton or his friends. I did not then suspect\nwhat I now know, that these atrociously false rumors originated with Mr.\nTilton himself. I only saw the evil growing instead of diminishing, and\nperceived that while I was pledged to silence, and therefore could not\nspeak in my own defence, some one was for ever persevering in falsehood,\ngrowing continually in dimensions, and these difficulties were immensely\nincreased by the affiliation of Mr. Tilton with the extremists in the\nfemale-suffrage party.\n\n\u201cThe winter following (1871-72) Mr. Tilton returned from the\nlecture-field in despair. Engagements had been cancelled, invitations\nwithdrawn, and he spoke of the prejudice and repugnance with which he\nwas everywhere met as indescribable. I urged him to make a prompt\nrepudiation of these women and their doctrines. I told him that no man\ncould rise against the public sentiment with such a load. Mr. Tilton\u2019s\nvanity seldom allowed him to regard himself as in the wrong or his\nactions faulty. He could never be made to believe that his failure to\nrise again was caused by his partnership with these women, and by his\nwant of sensible work, which work should make the public feel that he\nhad in him power for good. Instead of this he preferred, or professed,\nto think that I was using my influence against him, that I was allowing\nhim to be traduced without coming generously to the front to defend him,\nand that my friends were working against him; to which I replied that,\nunless the laws of mind were changed, not Almighty God Himself could\nlift him into favor if these women must be lifted with him. Nevertheless\nI sought in every way to restore peace and concord to the family which I\nwas made to feel had been injured by me and was dependent on my\ninfluence for recovery.\n\n\u201cBut one thing was constant and apparent\u2014when Tilton, by lecturing or\notherwise, was prosperous, he was very genial and affectionate to me.\nWhenever he met rebuffs and was in _pecuniary trouble_, he scowled\nthreateningly upon me as the author of his troubles, and Moulton himself\nseemed at times to accuse me of indifference to Tilton\u2019s misfortunes.\n\n\u201cI now come in my narrative to give an account of the origin of the\nsomewhat famous tripartite agreement. Early in February, 1872, Mr.\nTilton returned to the city thoroughly discouraged with the result of\nhis lecturing tour. The _Golden Age_ (a paper organized for Tilton by\nhis friends), which had then been established for about twelve months,\nhad not succeeded, and was understood to be losing money. His pecuniary\nobligations were pressing, and although his claim against Bowen for the\nviolation of his two contracts had a year previously been put under the\nexclusive control of Moulton with a view of settlement, it had not as\nyet been effected. About this time Mr. Moulton, who was sick, sent for\nme and showed me a galley-proof of an article, prepared by Mr. Tilton\nfor the _Golden Age_, in which he embodied a copy of a letter written by\nhim to Mr. Bowen, dated January 1, 1871, in which he charged Mr. Bowen\nwith making scandalous accusations against my character. This was the\nfirst time that I had ever seen these charges, and I had never heard of\nthem except by mere rumor, Mr. Bowen never having, at any time, said a\nword to me on the subject. I was amazed at the proposed publication. I\ndid not then understand the real object of giving circulation to such\nslanders. My first impression was that Mr. Tilton designed, under cover\nof an attack upon me in the name of another, to open the way for the\npublication of his own pretended personal grievances. I protested\nagainst the publication in the strongest terms, but was informed that it\nwas not intended as an hostile act to myself, but to Mr. Bowen. I did\nnot any the less insist upon my protest against this publication. On its\nbeing shown to Mr. Bowen he was thoroughly alarmed, and speedily\nconsented to the appointment of arbitrators to bring about an amicable\nsettlement. The result of this proceeding was that Mr. Bowen paid Mr.\nTilton over $7,000, and that a written agreement was entered into by\nBowen, Tilton, and myself of amnesty, concord, and future peace.[11] It\nwas agreed that the offensive article, the publication of which had\nproduced such an effect upon Mr. Bowen and secured a settlement, should\nbe destroyed without seeing the light. It was an act of treachery\npeculiarly base that this article was permitted to get into hands which\nwould insure its publication, and that it was published. I was assured\nthat every vestige of it had been destroyed, nor until a comparatively\nrecent period did I understand how Mr. Tilton secured its publication\nwithout seeming to be himself responsible for the deed.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n  \u201cWe three men, earnestly desiring to remove all causes of offence\n  existing between us, real or fancied, and to make Christian reparation\n  for injuries done, or supposed to have been done, and to efface the\n  disturbed past, and to provide concord, good-will, and love for the\n  future, do declare and covenant each to the others as follows:\n\n  \u201cI. I, Henry C. Bowen, having given credit, perhaps without due\n  consideration, to tales and innuendoes affecting Henry Ward Beecher,\n  and being influenced by them, as was natural to a man who receives\n  impressions suddenly, to the extent of repeating them (guardedly,\n  however, and within limitations, and not for the purpose of injuring\n  him, but strictly in the confidence of consultation), now feel therein\n  that I did him wrong.\n\n  \u201cTherefore I disavow all the charges and imputations that have been\n  attributed to me, as having been by me made against Henry Ward\n  Beecher, and I declare fully and without reserve that I know nothing\n  which should prevent me from extending to him my most cordial\n  friendship, confidence, and Christian fellowship; and I expressly\n  withdraw all the charges, imputations, and innuendoes imputed as\n  having been made and uttered by me, and set forth in a letter written\n  to me by Theodore Tilton on the 1st day of January, 1871; and I\n  sincerely regret having made any imputations, charges, or innuendoes\n  unfavorable to the Christian character of Mr. Beecher, and I covenant\n  and promise that for all future time I will never by word or deed\n  recur to, repeat, or allude to any or either of said charges,\n  imputations, and innuendoes.\n\n  \u201cII. And I, Theodore Tilton, do, of my own free will and friendly\n  spirit toward Henry C. Bowen and Henry Ward Beecher, hereby covenant\n  and agree that I will never again repeat, by word of mouth or\n  otherwise, any of the allegations, or imputations, or innuendoes\n  contained in my letter hereunto annexed, or any other injurious\n  imputations or allegations suggested by or growing out of these; and\n  that I will never again bring up or hint at any cause of difference or\n  ground of complaint heretofore existing between the said Henry C.\n  Bowen and myself or the said Henry Ward Beecher.\n\n  \u201cIII. And I, Henry Ward Beecher, put the past for ever out of sight\n  and out of memory. I deeply regret the causes of suspicion, jealousy,\n  and estrangement which have come between us. It is a joy to me to have\n  my old regard for Henry C. Bowen and Theodore Tilton restored, and a\n  happiness to me to resume the old relations of love, respect, and\n  reliance to each and both of them. If I have said anything injurious\n  to the reputation of either, or have detracted from their standing and\n  fame as Christian gentlemen and members of my church, I revoke it all,\n  and heartily covenant to repair and reinstate them to the extent of my\n  power.\n\n                                                \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\n                                                \u201cTHEODORE TILTON.\n                                                \u201cHENRY C. BOWEN.\u201d\n\n-----\n\n\u201cAfter vainly attempting to obtain money both from myself and my wife as\nthe price of its suppression, the Woodhull women published their version\nof the Tilton scandal in the November of 1872. The details given by them\nwere so minute, though so distorted, that suspicion was universally\ndirected toward Mr. Tilton as the real author of this, which he so\njustly calls \u2018a wicked and horrible scandal,\u2019 though it is not a whit\nmore horrible than that which he has now fathered, and not half so\nwicked, because they did not have personal knowledge of the falsity of\ntheir story, as Mr. Tilton has of his.\n\n\u201cTo rid himself of this incubus Mr. Tilton drew up a voluminous paper\ncalled \u2018A true statement,\u2019 but which was familiarly called \u2018Tilton\u2019s\ncase.\u2019 Tilton\u2019s furor for compiling statements was one of my familiar\nannoyances. Moulton used to tell me that the only way to manage him was\nto let him work off his periodical passion on some such document, and\nthen to pounce on the document and suppress it. This particular \u2018true\nstatement\u2019 was a special plea in abatement of the prejudices excited by\nhis Woodhull partnership. It was a muddle of garbled statements,\nmanufactured documents, and downright falsehoods. This paper I knew he\nread to many, and I am told that he read it to not less than fifty\npersons, in which he did not pretend to charge immorality upon his wife;\non the contrary, he explicitly denied it and asserted her purity, but\ncharged me with improper overtures to her. It was this paper which he\nread to Dr. Storrs, and poisoned therewith his mind, thus leading to the\nattempt to prosecute Tilton in Plymouth Church, the interference of\nneighboring churches, and the calling of the Congregational Council.\nAfter the Woodhull story was published, and while Mr. Tilton seemed\nreally desirous for a short time of protecting his wife, I sent through\nhim the following letter to her:\n\n\u201c\u2018MY DEAR MRS. TILTON: I hoped that you would be shielded from the\nknowledge of the great wrong that has been done to you, and through you\nto universal womanhood. I can hardly bear to speak of it or allude to a\nmatter than which nothing can be imagined more painful to a pure and\nwomanly nature. I pray daily for you \u201cthat your faith fail not.\u201d You\nyourself know the way and the power of prayer. God has been your refuge\nin many sorrows before. He will now hide you in His pavilion until the\nstorm be overpast. The rain that beats down the flower to the earth\nshall pass at length, and the stem bent but not broken will rise again\nand blossom as before. Every pure woman on earth will feel that this\nwanton and unprovoked assault is aimed at you, but reaches to universal\nwomanhood. Meantime your dear children will love you with double\ntenderness, and Theodore, at whom the shafts are hurled, will hide you\nin his heart of hearts. I am glad that revelation from the pit has given\nhim a sight of the danger that was before hidden by spurious appearances\nand promises of usefulness. May God keep him in courage in this arduous\nstruggle which he wages against adversity, and bring him out through\nmuch trial, like gold seven times fined! I have not spoken of myself. No\nwords could express the sharpness and depth of my sorrow in your behalf,\nmy dear and honored friend. God walks in the fire by the side of those\nHe loves, and in heaven neither you nor Theodore nor I shall regret the\ndiscipline, how hard soever it may seem now. May He restrain and turn\nthose poor creatures who have been given over to do all this sorrowful\nharm to those who have deserved no such treatment at their hands! I\ncommend you to my mother\u2019s God, my dear friend! May His smile bring\nlight in darkness, and His love be a perpetual summer to you!\n\n                               \u201cVery truly yours,\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe whole series of events, beginning with the outbreak of the Woodhull\nstory, brought upon me a terrible accumulation of anxieties. Everything\nthat had threatened before now started up again with new violence.\nTilton\u2019s behavior was at once inexplicable and uncontrollable. His card\n\u2018to a complaining friend\u2019 did not produce the effect he pretended to\nexpect from it, of convincing the public of his great magnanimity. Then\nhis infamous article and letter to Mr. Bowen made its appearance in the\n_Eagle_. It had been suggested that the publication of the \u2018tripartite\ncovenant\u2019 would have a good effect in counteracting the slanderous\nstories about Mrs. Tilton and myself, which Tilton professed to regard,\nbut which his foolish card and the publication of that article had done\nso much to revive and render mischievous. Mr. Moulton urged me to get\nfrom the gentleman who held the \u2018tripartite covenant\u2019 a copy of it for\nus, when suddenly Mr. Wilkeson came out with it on his own\nresponsibility. Its publication in this manner I made strenuous but\nunavailing efforts to prevent. He had originally kept a copy of it.\n(Everybody in this business seems to have copies of everything except\nmyself.) On the appearance of that paper Tilton went into a rage. It put\nhim, he said, in a \u2018false position\u2019 before the public, and he said he\nwould publish another card giving a statement something like what he\nafterward wrote to Dr. Bacon\u2014that is, as I recollect the matter,\ndeclaring that I had committed an offence, and that he had been the\nmagnanimous party in the business. It was necessary to decide what to do\nwith him. Moulton strongly urged a card from me exonerating Tilton (as I\ncould honestly do) from the authorship of the particular scandals\ndetailed in his article to Mr. Bowen and alluded to in the covenant.\n\n\u201cI said I would think it over, and perhaps write something. This was\nFriday or Saturday. The covenant appeared on Friday morning, and the\nalarm was sounded on me immediately that Tilton would do something\ndreadful if not restrained. On Sunday I had made up my mind to write to\nMr. Moulton the following letter, garbled extracts of which are given in\nMr. Tilton\u2019s statement:\n\n                                     \u201c\u2018SUNDAY MORNING, June 1, 1873.\n\n\u201c\u2018MY DEAR FRANK: The whole earth is tranquil and the heaven is serener,\nas befits one who has about finished this world-life.\n\n\u201c\u2018I could do nothing on Saturday. My head was confused.\n\n\u201c\u2018But a good sleep has made it like crystal. I have determined to make\nno more resistance. Theodore\u2019s temperament is such that the future, even\nif temporarily earned, would be absolutely worthless, filled with abrupt\nchanges, and rendering me liable at any hour or day to be obliged to\nstultify all the devices by which we saved ourselves.\n\n\u201c\u2018It is only fair that he should know that the publication of the card\nwhich he proposes would leave him far worse off than before. _The\nagreement_ was made after my letter through you was written. He had had\nit a year. He had condoned his wife\u2019s fault. He had enjoined upon me\nwith the utmost earnestness and solemnity not to betray his wife nor\nleave his children to a blight. I had honestly and earnestly joined in\nthe purpose.\n\n\u201c\u2018Then this settlement was made and signed by him [Tripartite]. It was\nnot my making. He revised his part so that it should wholly suit him,\nand signed it. It stood unquestioned and unblamed for more than a year.\n_Then it was published._ Nothing but that. That which he did in private,\nwhen made public excited him to fury, and he charges me with _making him\nappear_ as one _graciously pardoned by me_! It was his own deliberate\nact, with which he was perfectly content till others saw it, and then he\ncharges a grievous wrong home on me!\n\n\u201c\u2018My mind is clear; I am not in haste. I shall write for the public a\nstatement that will bear the light of the judgment day. God will take\ncare of me and mine. When I look on earth it is deep night. When I look\nto the heavens above I see the morning breaking. But, oh! that I could\nput in golden letters my deep sense of your faithful, earnest, undying\nfidelity, your disinterested friendship! Your noble wife, too, has been\none of God\u2019s comforters. It is such as she that renews a waning faith in\nwomanhood.\n\n\u201c\u2018Now, Frank, I would not have you waste any more energy on a hopeless\ntask. With such a man as T. T. there is no possible salvation for any\nthat depend on him. With a strong nature, he does not know how to govern\nit. With generous impulses, the undercurrent that rules him is self.\nWith ardent affections, he cannot love long that which does not repay\nbut with admiration and praise. With a strong theatric nature, he is\nconstantly imposed upon with the idea that a position, a great stroke\u2014a\n_coup d\u2019\u00e9tat_\u2014is the way to success. Besides these he has a hundred good\nthings about him, but these named traits make him _absolutely\nunreliable_. Therefore there is no use in further trying. I have a\nstrong feeling upon me, and it brings great peace with it, that I am\nspending my _last Sunday_ and preaching my last sermon. Dear, good God,\nI thank Thee! I am indeed beginning to see rest and triumph. The pain of\nlife is but a moment; the glory of the everlasting emancipation is\nwordless, inconceivable, full of breaking glory. O my beloved Frank! I\nshall know you then, and for ever hold fellowship with you, and look\nback and smile at the past. Your loving\n\n                                                           H. W. B.\u2019\n\n\u201cThere are intimations at the beginning and end of this letter that I\nfelt the approach of death. With regard to that I merely refer to my\nprevious statement concerning my bodily symptoms, and add that on this\nday I felt symptoms upon me. The main point is that I was worried out\nwith the whole business, and would have been glad to escape by death, of\nwhich I long had little dread. I could see no end but death to the\naccumulation of torture, but I resolved to stop short and waste no more\ntime in making matters worse. I felt that Mr. Moulton had better stop,\ntoo, and let the whole thing come out. I determined, then, to make a\nfull and true statement, which I now make, and to leave the result with\nGod. Mr. Tilton had repeatedly urged me, as stated in my letter, not to\nbetray his wife, and I felt bound by every sense of honor, in case I\nshould be pressed by inquiries from my church or family as to the\nfoundations of rumors which might reach them, to keep this promise. By\nthis promise I meant only that I would not betray the excessive\naffection which his wife, as I had been told, had conceived for me and\nhad confessed to him. In reply to this note, which was calm and reserved\nrather than gloomy, Mr. Moulton wrote that same day a letter of three\nand a half sheets of copy-paper. He began as follows:\n\n\u201c\u2018MY DEAR FRIEND: You know I have never been in sympathy with the mood\nout of which you have often spoken as you have written this morning. If\nthe truth must be spoken let it be. I know you can stand if the whole\ncase was published to-morrow, and in my opinion it shows a selfish faith\nin God.\u2019\n\n\u201cHaving proceeded thus far, Mr. Moulton seems to have perceived that the\ntone of this letter was rather likely to encourage me in my\ndetermination to publish the whole case than otherwise; and as this was\nopposed to the whole line of his policy, he crossed out with one dash of\nthe pencil the whole of this and commenced anew, writing the following\nletter:\n\n                                             \u201c\u2018SUNDAY, June 1, 1873.\n\n\u201c\u2018MY DEAR FRIEND: Your letter makes this first Sabbath of summer dark\nand cold like a vault. You have never inspired me with courage or hope,\nand if I had listened to you alone my hands would have dropped helpless\nlong ago. You don\u2019t begin to be in the danger to-day that has faced you\nmany times before. If you now look at it square in the eyes it will\ncower and slink away again. You know that I have never been in sympathy\nwith, but that I absolutely abhor, the unmanly mood out of which your\nletter of this morning came. This mood is a reservoir of mildew. _You_\ncan stand it if the _whole case_ were published to-morrow. In my opinion\nit shows only a selfish faith in God to go whining into heaven, if you\ncould, with a truth that you are not courageous enough, with God\u2019s help\nand faith in God, to try to live on earth. You know that I love you, and\nbecause I do I shall try and try and try as in the past. You are\nmistaken when you say that \u2018Theodore charges you with making him appear\nas one graciously pardoned by you.\u2019 He said the form in which it was\npublished in some of the papers made it so appear, and it was from this\nthat he asked relief. I do not think it impossible to frame a letter\nwhich will cover the case. May God bless you! I know He will protect\nyou.\n\n                                                             FRANK.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn the haste of writing Mr. Moulton apparently failed to perceive what\nhe had already written. In the first instance, he wrote on one side of a\nhalf-sheet of paper, then, turning it over, inadvertently used the clean\nside of that half-sheet for the purpose of the letter, which he sent in\nthe final shape above given. But it will be seen that he deliberately,\nand twice in succession, reaffirmed his main statement that there was\nnothing in the whole case on which I could not safely stand. He treats\nmy resolution as born of such morbid despair, as he had often reproached\nme for, and urged me strongly to maintain my faith in him. Tilton\nyielded to his persuasion, and graciously allowed himself to be soothed\nby the publication of a card exonerating him from the authorship of the\nbase lies to which the tripartite covenant referred. So once more, and\nthis time against my calmer judgment, I patched up a hollow peace with\nhim.\n\n\u201cThat I have grievously erred in judgment with this perplexed case no\none is more conscious than I am. I chose the wrong path, and accepted a\ndisastrous guidance in the beginning, and have indeed travelled on a\n\u2018rough and ragged edge\u2019 in my prolonged efforts to suppress this\nscandal, which has at last spread so much desolation through the land.\nBut I cannot admit that I erred in desiring to keep these matters out of\nsight. In this respect I appeal to all Christian men, to judge whether\nalmost any personal sacrifice ought not to have been made, rather than\nto suffer the morals of an entire community, and especially of the\nyoung, to be corrupted by the filthy details of scandalous falsehoods,\ndaily iterated and amplified, for the gratification of impure curiosity,\nand the demoralization of every child that is old enough to read.\n\n\u201cThe full truth of this history requires that one more fact should be\ntold, especially as Mr. Tilton has invited it. Money has been obtained\nfrom me in the course of these affairs, in considerable sums; but I did\nnot, at first, look upon the suggestions that I should contribute to Mr.\nTilton\u2019s pecuniary wants, as savoring of blackmail. Afterward I\ncontributed at one time $5,000, which I came to do in this way: There\nwas a discussion about the _Golden Age_. Moulton was constantly\nadvancing money, as he said to me, to help Tilton. The paper was needy.\nOne evening I was at his house. We were alone together in the back\nparlor, and Moulton took out of his pocket a letter from \u2014\u2014\u2014. It was\nread to me, in which the writer mentioned contributions which he had\nmade to Theodore. I understood from him, that the writer of this letter\nhad given him some thousands of dollars down in cash, and then taking\nout two time-checks or drafts, which, as I recollected, were on bluish\npaper\u2014although I am not sure of that. There were two checks, each of\nthem amounting to one or two thousand dollars more, and I should think\nit amounted in all to about six thousand dollars, although my memory\nabout quantities and figures is to be taken with great allowance; but it\nproduced the impression in me, that the writer had given him one or two\nthousand dollars in cash down, and, as the writer explained in the\nletter, it was not convenient to give the balance in money at that time,\nbut had drawn time-drafts, which would be just as useful as money; and\nMoulton slapped the table and said, \u2018_That_ is what I call friendship,\u2019\nand I was stupid, and said, \u2018Yes, it was.\u2019 Afterward, when I got home, I\ngot to thinking about it. \u2018Why,\u2019 said I, \u2018what a fool! I never dreamed\nwhat he meant.\u2019 Then I went to him and said to him, \u2018I am willing to\nmake a contribution and put the thing beyond a controversy.\u2019 Well, he\nsaid something like this: \u2018That he thought it would be the best\ninvestment that ever I made in my life.\u2019 I then went to the savings-bank\nand put a mortgage of five thousand dollars on my house. I took a check\nwhich was given me by the bank\u2019s lawyer, and put it into the bank, and,\non Moulton\u2019s suggestion that it would be better than to have a check\ndrawn to his order, I drew the money in five-hundred-dollar or\none-thousand-dollar bills\u2014I have forgotten which, but I know that they\nwere large, for I carried the roll in my hand\u2014and these I gave into his\nhands. After the money had been given to Mr. Moulton, I felt very much\ndissatisfied. Finally a square demand and a threat was made to one of my\nconfidential friends, that if $5,000 more were not paid, Tilton\u2019s\ncharges would be laid before the public. This I saw at once was\nblackmail in its boldest form, and I never paid a cent of it, but\nchallenged and requested the fullest exposure.\u201d\n\nAs we have seen, the \u201cWoodhull scandal,\u201d at the secret instigation of\nTilton, was published late in October, 1872.\n\nOn the 2d of November Dr. Storrs wrote to Mr. Beecher:\n\n\u201cMY DEAR BEECHER: I hear from different quarters that scandalous and\nannoying publications have been made about you.\n\n\u201cIf they are such as to trouble you, and if I can at any time be of any\nservice to you, you know, of course, that you have only to intimate the\nwish to get all the help that I can give, on any occasion or in any way.\nEver affectionately yours,\n\n                                                 \u201cR. S. STORRS, JR.\u201d\n\nAt this time Mr. Beecher felt that he was bound in honor to be silent.\nIt was not until the spring of 1873, when realizing that Tilton was\nindustriously, in person, and through his friends, whispering tales\nagainst his character, and stimulating the publication of the scandal,\nthat he felt himself relieved from this obligation. Then he published a\ncard in the Brooklyn _Eagle_, emphatically branding the stories as false\nand challenging the production of any evidence against him.\n\nBut, at the time of Dr. Storrs\u2019s letter, to say a little and not say\nall, would be worse than silence, while to confide the whole matter to\nDr. Storrs would necessitate repeating the statements against Tilton and\nBowen, which would be a breach of the tripartite agreement (a pledge\nwhich he alone had observed). He did not call on the doctor or answer\nthe letter. He kept silent. A short time later (December 16) Tilton\ncalled upon Dr. Storrs with a friend, and read to him his so-called\n\u201ctrue statement,\u201d which, as we have seen, he had drawn up to counteract,\nas he pretended, the Woodhull scandal. In this he asserted most\npositively his wife\u2019s innocence, and charged Mr. Beecher with \u201cimproper\nproposals.\u201d\n\nThe effect of this interview played an important part in the subsequent\nevents. We are not aware that Dr. Storrs ever went directly to his old\nfriend and laid what he had heard before him, or indignantly denied the\ncharges as a slander; but, on the contrary, almost in the face of his\nletter of November 2d proffering aid, he lent his ear to tales, carried\nby such a man as he knew Tilton to be; and we very soon find him acting,\nin conjunction with Dr. Budington, as the recognized champion and\nadviser of Mr. Beecher\u2019s enemies; his hostility, later on, ripening into\nthe most intense personal bitterness, the fierce heat of which seemed to\ngrow stronger rather than weaker as years rolled by, and did not seem to\nabate even when the cold hand of death fell upon his former friend. We\nhave searched in vain for any reasonable justification for this sudden\nchange, from the most glowing friendship, to the most scorching enmity.\nWe feel unwilling to believe the commonly accepted theory of jealousy,\nwhile the doctor\u2019s own suggestion that his feelings were hurt by Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s neglect of his friendly overtures, seems belittling to a man\nso gifted and refined, and one cast in so large an intellectual mould.\n\nWe say that injured feelings were the reason suggested; for when, about\na year later, he appeared in open hostility to Mr. Beecher, and\nwondering friends inquired the reason, he stated in effect that he felt\nhurt by Mr. Beecher\u2019s neglect to even answer his friendly letter (of\nNovember 2, 1872), though admitting that it did not necessarily call for\nan answer. Later, after the publication of the scandal, Mr. Beecher\nexplained to both Drs. Storrs and Budington the reason for his silence,\nwhich explanation they then professed to accept as satisfactory.[12] On\nNovember 7, 1873, a friend of both Dr. Storrs and Mr. Beecher called on\nthe doctor, to whom he stated that while Mr. Beecher\u2019s enemies had come\nto him, and he had not felt it right to refuse to hear what any one had\nto say, Mr. Beecher\u2019s friends had not come near him; that _he himself_\n(Dr. S.) _had never once commenced a conversation with any one on this\nsubject_, and that he was sorry that he could not see this affair as Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s friends did, and wished he could believe that he was suffering\nfor the sins of others.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n  This occurred early in 1874, when Drs. Storrs and Budington were in\n  conference with Mr. Beecher, seeking for some way of avoiding the\n  complications between the three churches, which ultimately led to the\n  Advisory Council of 1874. During this period they addressed Mr.\n  Beecher in their letters as \u201cMy dear Brother,\u201d joined with him in\n  prayer asking for divine guidance out of the existing complications.\n  Neither of them intimated any belief in the scandalous stories then\n  afloat, but put the whole burden of their complaint on the ground of\n  discourtesy, and, when Mr. Beecher explained his reasons for silence\n  and the pledge he felt himself to be under, expressed themselves as\n  fully satisfied, and as late as 1876 their clerical friends understood\n  that their hostility grew out of feelings hurt by fancied neglect, and\n  not from a belief in any guilt on the part of Mr. Beecher. See Dr.\n  Bacon\u2019s letter of February 27, 1876, page 559.\n\n-----\n\nFrom his own statement, then, it would seem that he gave his ear to the\ntale-bearer, listening to all that was brought to him by Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nenemies, but _he himself never once sought_ for information from Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s friends.\n\nAbout the first of June, 1873, Mr. Beecher had become satisfied that\nthere was no longer any use of trying to help Mr. Tilton, his eyes being\nat last opened to the fact, that Tilton had been deceiving him right\nalong, and little by little had been dealing scandalous stories out to\nthe public. He declared that he would stand it no longer, and when it\nwas stated that Mrs. Woodhull had implicating letters from him he\npublished the following card in the Brooklyn _Eagle_:\n\n\u201cI have just returned to the city to learn that application has been\nmade to Mrs. Victoria Woodhull for letters of mine supposed to contain\ninformation respecting certain infamous stories against me. I have no\nobjection to have the _Eagle_ state, in any way it deems fit, that Mrs.\nWoodhull, or any other person or persons who may have letters of mine in\ntheir possession, have my cordial consent to publish them. In this\nconnection, and at this time, I will only add that the stories and\nrumors which for some time past have been circulated about me are\ngrossly untrue, and I stamp them, in general and in particular, as\nutterly false.\n\n                                    \u201cRespectfully,\n                                                 HENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\u201cBROOKLYN, N. Y., June 30, 1873.\u201d\n\nAt this time the stories afloat were vague and general.\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XXV.\n\nAfter-Effects\u2014Charges against Tilton\u2014Advisory Council\u2014Investigating\n    Committee called by Mr. Beecher\u2014Its Report\u2014Dropping Mr.\n    Moulton\u2014Council called by Plymouth Church.\n\n\nIn October, 1873, formal charges were preferred against Theodore Tilton,\nby Plymouth Church, for slandering his pastor. He replied to the clerk\nof the church, that he was not, and for four or more years had not been,\na member of the church. The church then voted to drop his name from the\nrolls, agreeably to the provisions of its manual, relating to such\ncases.\n\nMost of the sister churches were content that Plymouth Church should\nattend to her own affairs in her own way. Not so the Church of the\nPilgrims (Dr. Storrs) and the Clinton Avenue Church (Dr. Budington).\n\nThey felt themselves outraged by this action of Plymouth, in omitting to\ntry the charges preferred against Tilton.\n\nSpecial meetings were called in these churches, and a committee of seven\nappointed in each, to formulate, and send, a letter of remonstrance to\nPlymouth Church. After a considerable, but ineffectual correspondence\nbetween the churches, and consultations between the pastors, looking to\nan amicable adjustment of their differences, the two dissatisfied\nchurches called the \u201cAdvisory Council\u201d of 1874, to advise them as to\ntheir course toward Plymouth Church.\n\nWhile the correspondence and conferences referred to were going on, a\nvery serious difficulty broke out in Dr. Budington\u2019s church, which at\none time threatened to split it asunder. A large number of influential\nmembers denounced the manner of calling the special meeting, at which\nthe committee of seven was appointed, and by which the church was\ncommitted to its position of hostility to Plymouth, as being irregular,\nand in violation of their own rules.[13] This led to a number of stormy\nmeetings, in which great bitterness was felt and expressed on both\nsides.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n  They presented a formal protest, which, after rehearsing the action of\n  their pastor in calling the special meeting, concluded:\n\n                               \u201cWE PROTEST,\n\n  \u201cBecause the committee was not appointed by the church;\n\n  \u201cBecause its action has never been approved by the church;\n\n  \u201cBecause the substance and form of the documents it has prepared have\n  not been authorized even by the instructions given at irregular and\n  invalid gatherings, until it was too late to offer criticism or\n  objection;\n\n  \u201cBecause these documents, neither authorized in advance nor\n  subsequently approved by this church, have apparently committed it to\n  an attitude, and pledged it in advance to acts of antagonism and\n  censure towards a near and beloved sister church, never contemplated\n  or desired, still less resolved upon, by this church;\n\n  \u201cBecause the question of discipline, originally raised as a matter of\n  controversy, is one upon which the record of this church is such as to\n  make it especially necessary that we should proceed with great\n  circumspection when seeking to advise or censure other churches\u2014_it\n  being our own practice to drop members for absence, without censure,\n  at every annual meeting_ (Manual, sec. 6, art. 2), and the practice\n  having extended in the past, as we are informed, _to members at the\n  time currently reported to be under grave charges_.\n\n  \u201cThe whole management of this case has misrepresented the spirit of\n  this church, defeated its just right of self-government, suppressed\n  the honest and free expression of individual opinion, and tended to\n  subject the church to the control of a few members, without regard to\n  the convictions of the remainder.\n\n  \u201cWe, therefore, denounce the action of the committee as a dangerous\n  attack upon Christian liberty and Congregational polity; and we\n  declare it to be, and to have been from the beginning, _null_ and\n  _void_.\u201d\n\n-----\n\nMr. Beecher, instead of fomenting this difficulty\u2014which might easily\nhave been made the means of turning the tables upon his clerical\ncritics, and forcing them from the attack to the defensive\u2014or even\nsitting still, to await any advantages that might accrue to him or his\nchurch, came at once to Dr. Budington\u2019s relief. On January 12th he wrote\nto a prominent member of the latter\u2019s church, urging in the strongest\nterms that both the doctor, and the protestants, should seek for some\nintermediate ground on which they could meet in peace, and that the best\nmen of the church should join to avert the catastrophe which seemed\nimpending. He also wrote an earnest letter to Dr. Storrs, that he should\njoin with him in seeking the peace and unity of Dr. Budington\u2019s church.\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher and his Sister, Mrs. H. E. B. Stowe.]\n\nAt the same time he wrote a long letter directly to Dr. Budington, in\nwhich, among other things, he said:\n\n\u201c ... I pray you not to think that I am intruding on your affairs, or\nthat I am indelicate in offering to do anything I can. ... Now let me\nassure you, my dear friend, that my first and last desire, as God sees\nmy heart, is to see your church harmonious, and to see you more honored\nand firmly seated in the affection of your people than ever. I suppose I\ndo not exaggerate in saying that there is a large number of your people\nwho are aggrieved, and that they, like yourself, stand upon a sincere\nconscience. Ought there not to be a way among those who have the\nhumility of Christ to conciliate and to reconcile difficulties? And, my\ndear brother, ought not you, as teacher and leader of this flock, to be\na leader in _self-abnegation_, in tender regard for those who differ\nwith you, in overcoming evil with good, in subduing opposition by love?\n\n\u201cPardon me, I pray you. I long to see your power augmented and your\nname, now honorable, still more honored.... I count the integrity of\nyour church and your continued usefulness in it as a blessing, which\ncannot be lost without great blame somewhere, and if I can help you I\nwill do it with all the earnestness of my nature! I long for restored\npeace in our churches.\n\n\u201cThe peace which love brings is full of the fruits of the Spirit. I\nthink much of you; I pray for you in the watches of the night! If I\ncould help you effectually I should count it worth all that I have\nsuffered! I pray you do not put me from you, but let my heart be\nstrengthened and comforted by the reciprocal love of yours.\n\n                            \u201cI am, dear brother,\n                                        \u201cTruly yours,\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\nHe also advised such of his friends in Dr. Budington\u2019s church as he met,\nto the same effect. Ultimately the storm blew over, though a feeling of\nsoreness remained in the Clinton Avenue Church for a long time.\n\nOn March 24, 1874, the Advisory Council convened in Dr. Budington\u2019s\nchurch. Plymouth Church had been invited to be present at the council by\npastor and committee, \u201cto correct any statement of fact that may seem to\nthem erroneous, and to furnish any further and special information the\ncouncil may request.\u201d\n\nTo this Plymouth Church replied \u201cthat the calling of this _ex-parte_\ncouncil to consider the affairs of a church which has not declined a\nmutual council is the consummation of a course of proceedings against\nwhich, as irregular and unwarrantable, we have felt bound to protest\nfrom the beginning. That we recognize in the statement, the\nletter-missive, and the invitation as in former communications addressed\nto us, a persistent attempt to put this church under accusation and on\ntrial, and that we cannot accept the invitation of these two churches to\nappear before a council in the calling of which we have been permitted\nto take no part, in which we have not been offered the right of equal\nmembers, and in which we are not even allowed to be ordinary defendants,\nbut only to be witnesses to correct errors and answer questions\npropounded to us.\u201d\n\nOn the 28th the council made its \u201cdeliverance,\u201d but so like a Delphic\noracle that neither its friends nor its foes seemed able to agree upon\nits exact meaning.\n\nAs nearly as we can make out from the \u201cdeliverance\u201d itself, and the\ncomments made upon it by members of the council, it was to the effect:\n1. That Plymouth Church was not _en regle_ in its disposal of Mr.\nTilton\u2019s case; 2. That the two sister-churches were unwise and hasty;\nand 3. That Plymouth Church should not be read out of fellowship.\n\nVery shortly after the adjournment of the council a series of letters\nwere written by Dr. Bacon, of New Haven, and published in the\n_Independent_, which reflected very strongly upon Mr. Tilton, who, in\nthe latter part of June, published a statement in which he made an open\ncharge; in this he declared that Mr. Beecher had committed an offence\nagainst him which he forbore to name. This was the first public charge\nmade by Mr. Tilton. Up to this time the stories afloat were vague and\nindefinite, impossible of tracing to their source.\n\nMr. Beecher was absent from the city when Tilton\u2019s statement was\npublished, but, returning the next day, at once sent the following to\nthe gentlemen named therein:\n\n                                           \u201cBROOKLYN, June 27, 1874.\n\n\u201dGENTLEMEN: In the present state of public feeling I owe it. to my\nfriends, and to the church and the society over which I am pastor, to\nhave some proper investigation made of the rumors, insinuations, or\ncharges made respecting my conduct, as compromised by the late\npublications made by Mr. Tilton. I have thought that both the church and\nthe society should be represented, and I take the liberty of asking the\nfollowing gentlemen to serve in this inquiry, and to do that which truth\nand justice may require. I beg that each of the gentlemen named will\nconsider this as if it had been separately and personally sent to him,\nnamely:\n\n\u201cFrom the Church\u2014Henry W. Sage, Augustus Storrs, Henry M. Cleveland.\n\n\u201cFrom the Society\u2014Horace B. Claflin, John Winslow, S. V. White.\n\n\u201cI desire you, when you have satisfied yourselves by an impartial and\nthorough examination of all sources of evidence, to communicate to the\nExamining Committee, or to the church, such action as then may seem to\nyou right and wise.\n\n                                               \u201dHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201c\n\nThese names were selected after conference with the Examining Committee\nof the church, most of them being suggested by that committee. Two of\nthe gentlemen named were members of the Examining Committee, which\nimmediately ratified the selection, and by formal vote made them a\nsub-committee of its own.\n\nAfter the committee had been organized and begun its examination Mr.\nBeecher wrote and sent the following letter:\n\n\u201dGENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: In the note requesting your appointment I\nasked that you should make full investigation of all sources of\ninformation. You are witnesses that I have in no way influenced or\ninterfered with your proceedings or duties. I have wished the\ninvestigation to be so searching that nothing could unsettle its\nresults. I have nothing to gain by any policy of suppression or\ncompromise.\n\n\u201cFor four years I have borne and suffered enough, and I will not go a\nstep further. I will be free. I will not walk under a rod or yoke. If\nany man would do me a favor, let him tell all he knows now. It is not\nmine to lay down the law of honor in regard to the use of other persons\u2019\nconfidential communications; but, in so far as my own writings are\nconcerned, there is not a letter nor document which I am afraid to have\nexhibited, and I authorize any and call upon any living person to\nproduce and print forthwith, whatever writings they have from any source\nwhatsoever.\n\n\u201cIt is time, for the sake of decency and of public morals, that this\nmatter should be brought to an end. It is an open pool of corruption,\nexhaling deadly vapors.\n\n\u201cFor six weeks the nation has risen up and sat down upon scandal. Not a\ngreat war nor a revolution could more have filled the newspapers than\nthis question of domestic trouble; magnified a thousandfold, and, like a\nsore spot in the human body, drawing to itself every morbid humor in the\nblood. Whoever is buried with it, it is time that this abomination be\nburied below all touch or power of resurrection.\u201d\n\nThe committee commenced their sittings on the 28th of June and did not\ncomplete their report until the 28th day of August. The committee\nrequested the attendance of thirty-six witnesses, and endeavored to\nobtain such facts as were relevant to the inquiry from all attainable\nsources of evidence. In their report they stated that \u201cmost of the\npersons named have attended as requested before the committee. One\nnotable exception is Francis B. Carpenter. Francis D. Moulton promised\nto testify fully, but has failed to do so. He has submitted three short\nstatements in writing to the committee, consisting chiefly of reasons\nwhy he declined to testify, and of promises to testify at the call of\nthe committee. The committee have called him three times, with the\nresults stated. In addition to the evidence of the persons named, we\nhave examined a considerable number of letters and other documentary\nevidence which, in some way, were supposed to relate to the\nsubject-matter of inquiry. We have held in the prosecution of our\ninvestigations twenty-eight sessions.\u201d\n\nMr. Tilton appeared and presented a partial statement, finally refusing\nany further examination. Mrs. Tilton was examined, and most emphatically\nand solemnly denied the charge which her husband had made. Mr. Beecher\nwas also examined; the substance of his statement we have already\npresented. While the committee was in session, and on the 21st of July,\nMr. Tilton published a statement in the Brooklyn _Argus_, in which for\nthe first time he made the specific charge of adultery. Up to this time,\nin his private statements, he had charged \u201cimproper proposals\u201d; this\nstatement he had made repeatedly, in confidence, to many different\npersons, and had incorporated in his so-called \u201ctrue statement,\u201d which\nhe had shown to several; in this, in the most positive manner, he had\ndenied that his wife had been guilty. The reason for this change of\nposition will be made apparent later.\n\nThe committee in their report, after exhaustively reviewing the\nevidence, concluded:\n\nWe find from the evidence that Mr. Beecher has never committed any\nunchaste or improper act with Mrs. Tilton, nor made any unchaste or\nimproper remark, proffer, or solicitation to her of any kind or\ndescription whatever.\n\n\u201cIf this were a question of errors of judgment on the part of Mr.\nBeecher, it would be easy to criticise, especially in the light of\nrecent events. In such criticism, even to the extent of regrets and\ncensure, we are sure no man would join more sincerely than Mr. Beecher\nhimself.\n\n\u201cWe find nothing whatever in the evidence that should impair the perfect\nconfidence of Plymouth Church or the world in the Christian character\nand integrity of Henry Ward Beecher.\n\n\u201cAnd now let the peace of God, that passeth all understanding, rest and\nabide with Plymouth Church and her beloved and eminent pastor, so much\nand so long afflicted.\n\n       \u201cHENRY W. SAGE,             }\n       \u201cAUGUSTUS STORRS,           }\n       \u201cHENRY M. CLEVELAND,        }   _Committee of_\n       \u201cHORACE B. CLAFLIN,         }   _Investigation_.\n       \u201cJOHN WINSLOW,              }\n       \u201cS. V. WHITE,               }\n\n\u201cDated BROOKLYN, Aug. 27, 1874.\u201d\n\nThis report, with its conclusions, was presented to the church on Friday\nevening, the 28th, and accepted with great enthusiasm by a _unanimous\nvote_, the immense throng, nearly three thousand in number, rising _en\nmasse_ when the vote was put.\n\nThe terrible struggle in silence had passed, and to Mr. Beecher the\nrelief at feeling that he could speak out in his own defence was\nunutterable. He spoke of it often and strongly:\n\n\u201cAnd what was most singular was that when the church came into the\neclipse I came out of it. I had had my time when I was dumb and opened\nnot my mouth, and was led as a sheep to the slaughter; but when the\ntrouble came upon the whole church, with its intense suffering, there\ncame to me emancipation. God was pleased to uphold me as I walked alone\nand in silence, and afterwards He gave me such relief that during the\ntwo or three years in which the church was shrouded in great anxiety I\nwas filled with trust and courage, and was enabled all the time to lift\nup the church and carry it hopefully along from Sabbath to Sabbath.\u201d\n\n\u201c ... I have rolled off my burden; I am in the hands of God; I am\ncertain of salvation and safety in God, and I do not give it any lower\napplication; but I am hidden in His pavilion, I am surrounded by His\npeace, and I have got back, through storms and troubles, to the\nsimplicity and the quiet enjoyment which belonged to me many years ago.\nMy thought, my feeling, and my soul run very quiet; and it is the\nresult, not so much of any visible and external thing, as that I am sure\nI am surrounded by the hand of my God. I live in Him, and He lives in\nme, and He gives me the promised peace.\u201d\n\nThe publication of Mr. Beecher\u2019s statement (a short time prior to the\ncommittee\u2019s report) was as great a relief to Mr. Beecher\u2019s friends, as\nthe opportunity to make it had been to him. Many who trusted him\nimplicitly, believing that there was some reason for his silence, could\nnot but wonder what it might be; and when they learned that he had\nsuffered reproach in silence, rather than open the doors to the vile\nflood which would deluge the land, bringing sorrow to hundreds of homes,\nunwilling to violate the pledge he had given to Tilton and Bowen until\nthe former\u2019s treachery at last compelled him, their loving confidence\nand sympathy were only intensified.\n\nThe clouds of mystery had been cleared away, and all was plain as\nnoonday. We have room to quote but one of the many letters received, as\nan apt expression of the feelings produced by the statement. We give\nentire the letter of President Porter, of Yale College:\n\n                                             \u201cLAKE PLACID, NEW YORK.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR MR. BEECHER: I have been on the point of writing to you for the\nlast few weeks, from time to time, to express my unabated confidence and\nmy increasing sympathy for you in your great trial; but I have\nrefrained, knowing that you were too much occupied to listen to anything\nexcept necessary advice. But I have just read your statement, and am\nmore than satisfied with it. It would be a slight thing to say that I\nbelieve it to be true. I do not read for myself, but for the world at\nlarge. I believe it will be accepted as true by all, except sons of\nBelial, and those who have been committed against you in decided\npartisanship. More than this: I think that it will secure you the warm\nsympathy of multitudes whom you have not reached, or only slightly,\nbefore this, and that you will be held in higher honor than ever for\nintegrity of purpose and generosity of self-sacrifice, and that your\nexample, while it will teach discretion from your weakness, will\nenforce, in a manifestly more impressive way, the dignity and strength\nof a willingness to suffer in silence, that others might be spared. I\nbelieve the Lord will make your latter days better than in the beginning\n(as is said of Job), and if you are willing to stop doing twice as much\nas any mortal should attempt, your pulpit and pastoral influence will be\nmore blessed than ever.\n\n                             \u201cMost affectionately, your friend,\n                                                      \u201cNOAH PORTER.\u201d\n\nEarly in the sessions of the committee Mr. Tilton withdrew\u2014as\nwe understand, not liking to be followed up on\ncross-examination\u2014threatening to institute legal proceedings against Mr.\nBeecher, and, as preliminary thereto, published his statement of July\n21.\n\nWe have alluded to the fact that at this stage Tilton wholly changed the\nnature of his charge. In all the stories which he and Moulton had told\nto various friends at different times, and in the statements which he\nhad prepared and shown in confidence, the charge was always \u201cimproper\nproposals\u201d and an emphatic assertion of his wife\u2019s innocence. Now he\nproposed to stake all on one cast of the dice. He would bring a suit,\nand, if he could get no more help, he would at least, so his vanity and\nMr. Beecher\u2019s evil-wishers assured him, crush Mr. Beecher. Indeed, he\nand Moulton were cornered, and must resort to some desperate measures or\nsurrender themselves to everlasting infamy. Had they been left to\nthemselves, it is perhaps doubtful if they would have attempted so\ndesperate a remedy, even in self-defence; but there were those, not a\nfew, who egged them on, contributing to the expense of the suit, glad to\nkeep up the attack on Mr. Beecher, provided only their names were not\nbrought out.\n\nBut an action at law would not lie for merely \u201cimproper proposals\u201d; it\nmust go further than that. The case must be reconstructed. In no\n_published_ statement, up to this time, had Tilton made any definite\ncharge. Now he would put his charge in such shape as would serve the\npurposes of a suit; hence the statement of July 21, followed by a\nsimilar statement from Moulton published in the _Graphic_ on August 21.\nThe same day Tilton began his action against Mr. Beecher, placing his\ndamages at $100,000.\n\nOn the 3d of October both Tilton and Moulton were indicted for criminal\nlibel by the Grand Jury of Kings County, on Mr. Beecher\u2019s complaint.\n(After the failure of the jury to agree in the civil suit, this was\n_nolle-prossed_.)\n\nTilton\u2019s suit came on for trial the 6th of January, 1875, before Judge\nJoseph Neilson, of the Brooklyn City Court. It is not necessary to go\ninto the details of this trial. The same evidence, substantially, was\npresented as was received by the investigating committee, and as\nappeared in the published statements. For six months the case occupied\nthe time of the court and jury, the testimony covering several thousand\npages of printed matter.\n\nThe case was submitted to the jury the 24th day of June. For nine days\nthe jury strove to reach an agreement, finally being discharged the 2d\nday of July, standing three for plaintiff and nine for defendant.\n\nWe are informed, on the authority of one of the jurors, that several\ntimes they stood eleven to one in defendant\u2019s favor, and _once all\nagreed on a verdict_ for defendant, when a juror unfortunately remarked\nthat his son had wagered a large sum on a verdict for the defendant;\nthis statement split the jury at once, and from thence on they remained\nthree to nine, until they were discharged. The case was never brought to\ntrial again, the plaintiff wholly abandoning it. It is well known that\nafter plaintiff had abandoned his case, his leading counsel, Hon.\nWilliam A. Beach, frequently and publicly declared that the trial of the\ncause had convinced him of Mr. Beecher\u2019s innocence, and that he felt as\nthough they had been a pack of hounds trying to pull down a noble lion.\nFive years later he expressed similar views to the writer.\n\nIn the course of the trial Mrs. Moulton took the stand against Mr.\nBeecher. With downcast eye, and hesitating voice, she corroborated her\nhusband.\n\nBefore the trial she withdrew from the public service of Plymouth\nChurch, and became a constant attendant at the Church of the Pilgrims\n(Dr. Storrs).\n\nPlymouth Church could no longer tolerate her within its membership. It\nwas fully believed that, under the coercion of her husband, she had\ncommitted perjury during the trial, and had grossly slandered her\npastor. This would have been the ground of charges against her, but the\nchurch was advised that to try her on any charge based upon her\ntestimony in court, while the suit was still pending (plaintiff\u2019s\nattorneys had renoticed the cause for a new trial, shortly after the\ndisagreement), might involve them in a contempt of court, and, in any\nevent, would be construed as an attempt to intimidate one of plaintiff\u2019s\nmost important witnesses. But, since she had persistently absented\nherself from the services of the church, she could be dropped under the\nseventh rule of the church manual. She was accordingly notified of the\nproposed action of the church and invited to be present on the 4th of\nNovember. After hearing her defence through her legal counsel, her name\nwas dropped from the rolls by a vote of the church.\n\nShe at once demanded a mutual council, to be called by Plymouth Church\nand herself. Plymouth Church protested against Drs. Storrs\u2019s and\nBudington\u2019s churches participating therein, both of whom she had named,\non the ground that they were obviously committed to her side and could\nnot be impartial, but at the same time stated that they would go on with\nthe council. Mrs. Moulton declined unless the protest were withdrawn.\nThis being refused, she withdrew.\n\nAbout this time it was being rumored in certain circles, and notably in\nBoston, that Mr. Beecher and his church had some great secret that they\nwere concealing from the world, and for this reason had declined the\nmutual council which Mrs. Moulton had proposed\u2014forgetting that Mrs.\nMoulton was the one who had abandoned the council, and further\nforgetting that an opportunity had been offered to any who knew anything\ndetrimental to Mr. Beecher, to testify against him, first before the\ncommittee, that sat for two months, and then in the trial, that lasted\nover six months. Friends of Mr. Beecher wrote to him from Boston of this\nfeeling. He sent word at once to a friend to get the doubters together,\nand that his brother, Dr. Edward Beecher, would meet them and answer all\nquestions. From this friend we received the following account of the\nmeeting:\n\n\u201cImmediately I set about the work of collecting those who, I thought,\nwere honorable men, but misinformed into believing many things in the\ncase which I knew to be false.... I did not invite a man who had given\nsigns of being a friend of your father, but I asked every man of weight\nin the community whom I had reason to believe was prejudiced against\nhim, and every man, to whom I had access, who had expressed to my\nknowledge a judgment hostile to him.\n\n\u201cThe majority accepted.... My parlors were filled.... At the appointed\nhour a hack arrived from the depot, and out stepped your father,\nfollowed by his brother. He entered the parlors, and said in substance:\n\n\u201c\u2018Gentlemen, I have been told that some of you feel that there is a lack\nof frankness on my part with reference to the painful matter in\ncontroversy, and that there is a desire, either on my part or on the\npart of my friends, to cover up and conceal facts. If you think so you\nare in error. Our first desire is to make everything known. But it is,\nwe find, impossible to do so, because so many false rumors are flying\nabout, and everything we say gets into the papers twisted awry. I have\ncome here to beg you to ask any questions you desire. Do not spare my\nfeelings. Do not be restrained by any consideration of delicacy. The\nmore searching, the more crucial your questions are, the kinder you will\nbe. I will answer _any question_ you can ask pertaining to this affair.\u2019\n\n\u201cHour after hour questions were asked. They were put one at a time,\nslowly. Some seemed but slightly relevant. Some made my blood boil to\nhear. Some seemed such as a judge might ask of a convicted criminal\nbefore pronouncing sentence. But every question was answered\ncategorically, when that was possible, but always fully and\nexhaustively, so that the questioner pronounced himself entirely\nanswered by the reply.\n\n\u201cDuring the entire session there did not fall from your father\u2019s lips\none impatient word, one harsh rejoinder. Not by a gesture did he give\nevidence that he suffered. Only the quick flush that came at times upon\nhis cheek, showed the keenness of the torture caused him by this\ninquisition.\n\n\u201cBefore he left I asked each one present, privately, if there was any\nquestion he could think of, an answer to which would, in his opinion,\nthrow light upon the matter, which had not been asked. In every case I\nreceived a negative reply.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXVI.\n\nAfter-Effects of the Conspiracy\u2014Calling Council of 1876\u2014Principle of\n    Selection\u2014Mr. Beecher Cautions his Church\u2014Bowen Reappears; Proposes\n    a Secret Tribunal\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s Reply\u2014Bowen Dropped by Plymouth\n    Church\u2014Deliverance of Council sustaining Plymouth\u2014Mr. Beecher\u2019s\n    Persecutors Denounced\u2014Special Tribunal.\n\n\nBut now the organized determination to break down Mr. Beecher\u2019s ministry\nand overthrow his church manifested itself by a new line of tactics.\n\nThere were at this time a few members whose relation to the church was\nvery peculiar, who were neither in it nor out of it, apparently, who did\nnot ask, or who refused positively, to take letters to other churches,\nwho were not amenable to the discipline of the church, but who stood\noff, would not attend its meetings nor observe its ordinances, and who,\nwhen dealt with fraternally, in every way the church knew how, to\nprocure them peaceably to sever their connection and relieve the church\nfrom responsibility, refused to do it or neglected to do it; and then,\nwhen it was proposed to drop them, without any reflection more than\nbelonged to the nature of the case, they threatened, \u201cIf you drop us we\nwill call a council.\u201d There were at one time four councils threatened,\nby four different members on these grounds. It soon became very clearly\nunderstood, that the tactics of the adversary were now, to wear out the\npatience of the people, by a continuous series of councils, which would\nat last weary men from coming to a church where there was such incessant\ntrouble.\n\nIt was in consequence of these tactics, that Plymouth Church determined\nto end all such annoyances, by calling a National Advisory Council, that\nshould look through its rules and principles, and its entire\nadministration under them; to have it of such magnitude, and made up of\nsuch churches and men, as that its deliverances would be final, making\nan end of all these controversies and giving the church solid ground to\ngo on.\n\nInvitations were sent to one hundred and seventy-two churches, to be\nrepresented by pastor and delegate, and twenty ministers without\ncharges, principally theological writers and professors in theological\ncolleges. None were invited from New York City or Brooklyn, because of\nthe general local feeling.\n\nThe principal questions submitted were, substantially, whether Plymouth\nChurch had acted contrary to the word of God or the principles of\nChristian justice in allowing to itself in any case any other mode of\nterminating membership than death, letters of dismission, and\nexcommunication?\n\n2. What course ought it to pursue towards those who persistently\nabsented themselves from its services for various personal reasons?\n\n3. And towards those who were reported as having made insinuations\naffecting the character of other members, but who neither admit nor deny\nsuch reports?\n\n4. Whether the church should have called a mutual council to investigate\nthe charges against its pastor when so required by a member who submits\nno charges, and more than a year after a full investigation by the\nchurch, in which the pastor had been sustained by a unanimous vote?\n\n5. Whether its course in the case of Mrs. Moulton had been wise and\njust?\n\n6. Whether, in its maintenance of order, it had gone beyond its rights,\nso as to justly forfeit its claim to the confidence and fellowship of\nCongregational churches?\n\nThe letter-missive was dated February 1, 1876, and the council was\ncalled for the 15th.\n\nThe principle upon which the council was made up, we can learn from a\nletter written January 28, 1876, by Mr. Beecher to an eminent doctor of\ndivinity whose advice he wished respecting certain churches in his\nvicinity:\n\n\u201cAllow me to say a word as to the principles of selection in this\ncouncil. It will be gathered from the whole land, as far West as the\nMississippi. It leaves out men committed to a policy, or who are known\nto be working in league with adversary churches. But I wish to have\nhonest men, capable of judging upon facts and evidence, who are not so\nobstinate that they will not yield to conviction, or so tied to theories\nthat they will look at everything under a bias. I don\u2019t care whether\nthey like me or not, whether they agree with my views, whether they\napprove or disapprove of all the policy of Plymouth Church. I only want\nmen who will be candid and who will act impartially.\u201d\n\nQuite a number attended who had been members of the prior council of\n1874; and when the council met, a considerable majority\u2014their views\nhaving been acquired from newspaper reports\u2014entertained grave doubts as\nto the regularity of Plymouth Church in its previous conduct. The effect\nwhich the evidence presented had upon their minds will appear later on.\n\nAt the Friday night prayer-meeting just preceding the sitting of\ncouncil, Mr. Beecher cautioned his people respecting their conduct\nduring the council.\n\n\u201cThis church has for years been called to go through deep waters. For\nmore than twenty years we had well-nigh unabated prosperity, and we were\nalmost ready to boast that we had such wise methods of government and\nsuch signal presentations of truth as made our church life easy; that we\nhad not the vexations which belonged to other churches; and it is not\nunlikely that we may have become proud and self-sufficient. But\ncertainly for the last few years God has been dealing with us as with\nsons, and has chastened us; and it becomes us to bear in mind that the\nbest gift of God to an individual or to a church is that kind of\nchastisement which works out trust, patience, long-suffering, kindness,\nand fruitfulness in labor.\n\n\u201cWith these thoughts in mind, I wish to-night to speak a few words to\nyou, and exhort you, even more signally in days that are to come, than\nyou have in days that are past (for from my heart I can commend you in\nthis respect), to carry out and ennoble that patience, that fidelity,\nand that churchly love, which, under great difficulties you have shown.\n\n\u201cMy beloved, beware lest your intelligent judgment and conscientiousness\nin the cause of Christ, be absorbed in the feeling of personal love and\nsympathy for your elder brother. Beware lest you be drawn into a kind of\nclannish feeling of anxiety for him. I know that I have your love and\nsympathy, and I know that I am prayed for by you. That suffices me; but\non your part it will be very bad for you to suffer this mere human\nfeeling toward an individual to fill so large a place in your heart as\nthat it may be said to fill your experience. You are a church of Christ\nset on a hill, and you cannot be hid; and your business here is to\nmanifest Jesus Christ to the world in such a way as to win them to a\nnobler life; and you ought not to forget for what you are ordained. I\nhave tried to set you an example. I have endeavored to keep free from\nsuch states of mind, and from such personality, either as regards you or\nmyself, as should interfere with the teaching and the reception here of\nthe fullest and most edifying truths of our common faith; and by the\ngrace of God I have been enabled mainly to succeed in doing it. I doubt\nif any one hearing the sermons that have been preached here, with one or\ntwo exceptions, for the last five years, would from them suspect\nanything of that history through which this church has gone.\n\n\u201cSo far as you are concerned, I do not say that it is possible for you\nnot to converse about our difficulties in your families, and with each\nother; but you may do it too much; and, therefore, I wish to emphasize\nthat your business as a church is not to take care of me, but to take\ncare of and forward the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, your Head and\nMaster. Do not, therefore, under the influence of amiable feelings, and\nwarm sympathies, make the mistake of supposing that you are in a\ncampaign of any sort, except that of rallying around about our appointed\nLeader. In the church, in your families, and in our mission schools,\nyour business is to promote the teaching of Christ, for the awakening of\nmen, and for the building up of all those who have undertaken the\nChristian life.\n\n\u201cIn pursuing this course, it behooves you to remember that under such\nsevere and prolonged trouble, God expects of you, not only that you will\nbe constant and faithful in His service, but that you will grow richer,\nmore spiritual, and in every way more like Christ. You have had, and are\nhaving, a better opportunity for fulfilling the disposition set forth in\nthe Gospel, than is given to one church in a hundred. God has been and\nis dealing with you as with sons.\n\n\u201cWe are on the eve of a memorable week. In 1874 a great council was\ncalled in Brooklyn to sit on our affairs, in which we were not to\nparticipate; now we have called a council to act upon our own affairs,\nand in this we must needs participate; and there are one or two things\nthat I wish to say to you.\n\n\u201cFirst, you that receive the brethren into your households, ought to set\nup in your hearts a sentiment of honor that shall have no downfall nor\nintermission. Those gentlemen that come to take part in this council\ncome impartially. Their office is to hear, and to give such advice as\nthe Lord may inspire in them, upon the facts that shall be presented. In\nsome sense\u2014not technically\u2014they are as judges; and you must not attempt\nin your homes to influence them, nor by your sympathy and kindness in\nthe least degree to beguile them from the fullest and fairest discharge\nof their duty. Even if their judgment should be adverse to your\nconvictions and mine, nevertheless it is very plainly a matter of\nChristian honor that they should be in your families, without in the\nleast being biassed by social influences.\n\n\u201cSecondly, when you shall attend the open meetings of the council (for\nit must needs be that largely the audience will be composed of members\nof this church and society), I beseech of you, by all that is honorable\nand by all that is gentlemanly, that there be, neither from the gallery\nnor from any other part of the house, first or last, the slightest\nexhibition either of approval or disapproval. I could wish that you\nmight sit in your pews as if you were marble, though I know that your\nhearts are hot within you. That council ought to be able to sit in the\nmidst of the congregation of this church and never hear a whisper nor\nfeel a wave of influence exerted upon them. We called them that they\nmight do their duty faithfully; and I trust that you will commend\nyourselves in their sight by the most absolute abstention from any\nexpression of thought or feeling in their presence.\n\n\u201cIn the third place, I beg of you, both now and when they shall have\nassembled, to bear them in your hearts in prayer, morning and night,\nbefore God.\n\n\u201cIf you will pray more for men you will have less occasion to do\nanything else; and, in regard to this council, praying for them is a\nmode of exerting an influence upon them, which you may indulge in. Do\nyou believe in God? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Do you believe in\nprayer? Do you not believe that it is in the power of God to descend\ninto such a council, to bring a summer atmosphere into them and around\nthem, and to lead them by the invisible hand of truth, of love, and of\njustice? Pray much for them.\n\n\u201cAnd in one last word let me say that while all this agitation is going\non, while the papers are full of bickerings, full of fiery darts that\nfall like sparks from the smith\u2019s forge, remember that your duty is in\nchurch work and in church life. So far as possible, throw these\nunpleasant things off from your mind; take care of your classes and\nschools; attend faithfully to your mission work; live sweeter and holier\nlives in the family; be better men and better Christians in the\nhousehold; do not let too much of the storm whistle through the cracks\nand crevices of your experience\u2014keep it out; live individually and\ncollectively near to Christ, and He will take care of me and of you. As\nHe has done in times past, so will He do, and more abundantly, in the\nfuture, to the joy of our hearts and to the honor of His own great\nname.\u201d\n\nIn the interim between the calling of the council and its convening, the\ncase of Mr. Bowen came up before the church. For several years past, the\nold stories, which were supposed to have originated with him, had been\nset in circulation again, and quite recently a card appeared in a\nBrooklyn paper, over the signature of Mr. Bowen\u2019s son, in effect\nrepeating these slanders. A committee of Plymouth Church waited upon Mr.\nBowen, but he refused to admit or deny that he was the originator of the\nstories\u2014refused to make any statement or do anything. Ultimately he sent\na letter to the committee (at the same time publishing it in the\nnewspapers) making charges against Mr. Beecher, but in effect refusing\nto substantiate them, because he had not time to look up his evidence;\nbut offering to submit his charges to a confidential committee of three,\nprovided he should not be called on to give names, and that the\ncommittee should report only their conclusions.\n\nWhen this letter was read at a church meeting Mr. Beecher arose and\nsaid:\n\n\u201cI do not propose to argue this question to-night\u2014it is not fit that I\nshould do it. I only propose to say one or two words on the matter; and\none is: if for the last fifteen years and more, Mr. Bowen has been in\npossession of such facts as he now alleges in his letter, that he has,\nand never has mentioned them to me, nor communicated them to any officer\nof this church, nor in anywise brought them to the knowledge of the\nchurch itself, he deserves to be expelled from the church for a\nviolation of his covenant. If I am what he alleges me to be, and have\nbeen what he alleges I have been, and he knew it, and permitted it,\nwithout a word of warning to me or to this church, he has committed a\ncrime against the church, and against morality; and if his allegation is\nnot true, but is a lie, then he is guilty of one of the blackest crimes\nthat ever emanated from the bottomless pit\u2014and, before God, I pronounce\nthe allegations that he has, made to be utterly false.\n\n\u201cFurther let me say that when Mr. Bowen, being called upon to state what\nthese facts are, and what are the proofs of them which he has in his\npossession, pleads that he is upon trial, and that he has not time to\nlook them up, what are we to think of such a plea? He had time to write\nthat letter, and to charge me with being a criminal before the public of\nthis continent, and, having had time to represent me as a monster, and\nto publish that representation in the newspapers, now, when he is asked,\n\u2018What is your evidence?\u2019 he has not time to produce it! Ought not that\nto have been thought of before he made the charge public?\n\n\u201cI have another word to say, and that is in regard to the tribunal which\nhe proposes\u2014a tripartite committee, a committee composed of three\npersons\u2014on condition that in their presence he may hide names, and that\nthen their judgment be given out in adjudication of the question. Now, I\nsay that no secrecy shall rest on this matter. I do not say that I would\nnot in some respects be willing to go before such a committee, but this\nI say: Nothing on this subject shall be kept secret. If this matter is\nnot explored to the bottom it shall be because my will is set aside. I\ndo not propose that Mr. Bowen shall hide himself, nor will I permit\nanything to be hidden about me, by having the matter referred to any\nthree gentlemen who shall only let out what they _think_. What they\nthink will not satisfy you; what they think will not satisfy me; and\nsince the allegations have been made public through the newspapers, and\nMr. Bowen\u2019s name is attached to them, he has got to face the facts, he\nhas got to produce the evidence. And as for myself, I have only this to\nsay: I pronounce all the insinuations and allegations he has made as\nfalse, and, with Almighty God and the judgment day before me, I arraign\nhim as a slanderer and a liar.\u201d\n\nMr. Bowen produced no evidence to sustain his charges, and the church\nsubsequently voted that they could dispense with him.\n\nOn the 15th of February the council, the largest of its kind that had\never been convened in this country, met. Dr. Bacon was chosen moderator;\nex-Governor Dingley, of Maine, and General Erastus N. Bates, assistant\nmoderators.\n\nWhile the questions presented to the council were principally as to\nchurch regularity, the sixth also opened up the question of the action\nand result of the Investigating Committee referred to, and, generally,\nthe whole conduct of the church with reference to its pastor; this\nnaturally led to questions being put to Mr. Beecher personally as to the\npolicy he had followed respecting the scandal.\n\nBoth Mr. Beecher and the committee of the church invited the fullest\nquestioning on any point that could be suggested; urged the council to\ninvite Drs. Storrs and Budington to be present, to call Mrs. Moulton\u2019s\ncounsel, and to examine Mr. Bowen\u2014all of which the council did, Drs.\nStorrs and Budington declining to attend.\n\nFor eight days\u2014three sessions each day, morning, afternoon, and\nevening\u2014Mr. Beecher and the committee stood as targets for the questions\nof the council.\n\nWe present some of Mr. Beecher\u2019s replies, as throwing light upon\nhimself, and his actions, during the origin and growth of the scandal.\n\nTo the question why he had remained silent during the earlier rumors set\nafloat by Bowen and Tilton, and did not demand an investigation, he\nsaid: \u201cThis was the reason. The relations which subsisted between me and\nmy people were those of very strong personal affection. I know all of\nyou must be very much beloved by those whom you attend in sickness, to\nwhom you preach, and whose troubles and sorrows you console. My God has\ngiven me a sympathetic nature, ardent and loving. I attract friends to\nme, and usually I hold them. I was dear to very many; and it has been\nthe honor, as it has been the glory, of my recollection, that I have\nbeen beloved by those, to be beloved by whom is itself enough witness\nand enough honor. And it was because, from various reasons, intimations\nwere made pointing to one, and another, and another, that I saw that, if\nI were to rush recklessly out after every rumor of this kind, which came\ninsidiously and circuitously, I should bring a torrent of publicity and\nreproach upon one, two, three, many persons; and the question with me\nwas, not simply what I ought to do, but, \u2018Will you, for your own\nvindication, bring on an investigation, and project into publicity those\npersons who have the rights, the sanctities, and the delicacies of the\ndomestic circle around about them?\u2019 And now you see, when the first of\nthese rumors has been brought into public notice, how it has spread and\ngone, like a fire on a prairie, all over the United States; and you see\njust what I apprehended would be the case. Having connected with me, in\nmy relations to public affairs, parties and discussions of many sorts, I\nknew that the connection with my name in one of these various matters,\nunder the circumstances, would proclaim it throughout Christendom; and\nthe question with me was: \u2018Will you stand patiently for God to vindicate\nyou from these suggestions, putting to shame those that accuse you\nfalsely; or will you vindicate yourself by bringing sheeted publicity,\nand lurid investigation, on one, on two, or on scores?\u2019 I chose the\ncourse of silence.\u201d\n\nIn reply to another question:\n\n\u201cNow, I wish to hear the other part of the question, sir\u2014whether I am\nwilling that Dr. Storrs and Dr. Budington should state anything that\nthey know\u2014any facts? I should like to know how much longer a man need be\nat the focus of a solar microscope, with all the sun in the heavens\nconcentrated upon him for six months, and everything that could be\nraked, from the North Pole to the South Pole, and round the earth forty\ntimes circuited, raked up and brought in, and be willing to have it\nraked up and brought in again? How much longer does a man want to have\nhis willingness to have the truth come out, vindicated? If there is any\nman on earth that has anything to say\u2014that he wants to say\u2014if there is\nany man on earth that has anything to say to my detriment, I here and\nnow challenge him to say it! I go further than that. If there be any\nangel of God, semi-prescient and omniscient, I challenge him to say\naught. I go beyond that, and, in the name of our common Redeemer, and\nbefore Him who shall judge you and me, I challenge the truth from God\nHimself! And what is all this going to do? To-morrow morning it will be\nsaid in the local journals: \u2018Well, Mr. Beecher\u2014how rhetorically he\nmanaged the matter!\u2019 And it will be put in the religious papers: \u2018Oh!\nyes; that was a very plausible statement at the time, but\u2014but\u2014\u2019 And I am\nin judgment between two devils, \u2018But\u2019 and \u2018If.\u2019 Nothing that I say is\ntaken to be true, and I am put upon a perpetual trial of my veracity;\nalthough I am willing to be tried, I don\u2019t disguise from myself,\nsuppressing every sentiment of natural honor that pertains to a\ngentleman\u2014I know perfectly well this whole process is a continuous trial\nand crucifixion of every sentiment of honor and every sensibility of my\nsoul, and that I am questioned, and questioned, and questioned, and\nquestioned, as I have been, through months and years, on the supposition\nthat the truth has not been got out. And I suppose it will be so to the\nend of my life. I don\u2019t look with any great hope for the result of this\ncouncil. I don\u2019t look for any hope from the result of any council or\ntribunal. I think there is hope in the grave, and beyond; but for me, I\nexpect to walk with a clouded head, not understood, until I go to\nheaven, and that is not far off\u2014that is not far away. And I am content\nto bear just that lot that my dear Lord puts on me. He knows what is\nbest. I have accepted it. Though the natural man rebels once in a while\nand bubbles out, yet grace in the end puts it down. But I am content to\nwalk so. All my sorrow is that the preciousness of the Gospel, which it\nis given to me to preach, is hindered somewhat by this trouble; but to\nwork for Christ, and to save men, is my calling, and not to vindicate\nmyself.\u201d\n\nAgain, referring to the perverse malignity that had characterized his\nenemies: \u201cI said, and now I repeat it, that this church and its pastor\nhave been systematically, studiously pursued with perversions and what\ncannot be considered other than deliberate falsehoods. In some quarters,\nwhatever has happened has been so uniformly twisted, as to indicate what\nI supposed to be the truth\u2014namely, an organized movement to pervert\neverything and destroy that influence which I formerly had with the\ncommon people of America, and then to bring vexations, so many and so\nfrequent, upon the church as to disintegrate its patience, and thus to\nleave me alone without anything. And I will say that the backbitings,\nthe whisperings, the innuendoes, the studious shutting of the\nunderstanding to all fairness, when I make statements, and the opening\nit wide to all partisan misrepresentations, when those statements were\nreported otherwise, have been such as to open a new chapter in my mind\nof human experience, and to carry me far back towards the old doctrine\nof total depravity.\u201d\n\nIn the course of one of the sessions the pastor of a Boston church,\nreferring to the unjust rumor, current in certain quarters, that since\nthe scandal had come out the church and its pastor had not brought out\nall the facts, that there were rumors of _something_ yet unpublished,\nand that they were now unreasonably refusing to submit the matter before\nsome new tribunal, expressed his surprise at hearing the statement of\nthe committee, and wondered that Mr. Beecher and his church had not been\nbetter understood by the public. To this Mr. Beecher replied:\n\n\u201cGentlemen, you won\u2019t suspect me of any disrespect to you, but I want to\nput a home question to you. This church has been occupied in publishing\nto the world for the last three years, a statement of those facts that\nhave set you perfectly aghast, as novel and wonderful. What are you\ngoing to do when the representatives of the morality and the\nintelligence of this nation won\u2019t read a word that is published, of the\nresults of the church investigation, and the court investigation, but,\ncoming up after they have been published for months, yet are amazed at\nthe simple statement of that, which has been in the newspapers and the\ncourt records, during all this time? Are we forced not only to forge\nwedges of intelligence, but use clubs to drive them into your heads? We\nhave been doing everything that man could do, in opening, in publishing,\nand, as far as it took any definite shape, in meeting. But you cannot\nhunt a stench; you can an arrow, but a smell you can\u2019t. And therefore\nthese odorous beasts are going up and down the streets, casting some\nvenom and some odor; we can\u2019t spend the time of a Christian church for\never hunting these things. Am I to run after every rat in creation? Am I\nto run after every leech, and worm, and every venomous insect?\n\n\u201cYou have a right to demand of us that we shall meet accusations when\nthey come up responsibly stated. Did we not meet them the moment the\n\u2018Bacon letter\u2019 appeared? Within the time that was necessary to bring me\nback from the country and back to the city, did we not instantly meet\nthem with a call for investigation in the church? Was not that\ninvestigation made with a proclamation to the world to bring in\neverything known? It was not zeal covering me, it was dissection, and\nwhen the investigation had been made it was published to the world. No\nsooner had it been completed than we all distributed ourselves in the\ncountry for rest. When we came back I went instantly to a civil court.\nThat trial was noticed for action immediately on my return, and I\ncontinued for six months in that court-room, and every paper in the\nUnited States helped distribute the information of the facts that were\nthen disclosed. In July or August the court adjourned and we went back\ninto the country. We had scarcely come back again from the summer\nvacation, before we took the matter up again in regard to members of\nthis church, and issued process upon them, and this process has been\nthat which has filled, the whole time since, the newspapers and the\nclerical mind of the country. Where has been the time and space in which\nwe could institute anything else? Have we not been busy? Or shall we\nstay up all night, and turn Sunday into a judicial day, and investigate\nsomewhat more?\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t know\u2014as long as God knows, and my mother, how it is, I have\ncome to about the state of mind that I don\u2019t care for you or anybody\nelse. Well, you know that is not so: I do care and I don\u2019t, and I do\nagain and then I don\u2019t\u2014just as I happen to feel. I am tired of you; I am\ntired of the world; I am tired of men that make newspapers, and men that\nread them; I am tired of a community that has not a particle of moral\nreaction. I am tired of an age which will permit the newspapers to be\nflooded, and to make themselves the common sewers of filth and scandal;\nI am tired of a community that can read them, and read them, and read\nthem without revolting. I am tired of waiting for an honorable man that\nshall stand up at last, and say, in the name of honor and manhood, \u2018This\nis outrageous!\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd yet I am going to bear it, and I am going on preaching, and I am\ngoing to preach here, and when I am shut up here I don\u2019t know where I\nshall preach; but I don\u2019t believe that I shall live long after I have\nstopped preaching. But what I want is to do God\u2019s work, and if it is\nnecessary to have a reputation in Andover, or a reputation in Chicago,\nbefore I am to preach, I may as well stop at once. But my own feeling\nabout it is this: I am entrusted with the tidings of salvation to dying\nmen, and the first wish of my heart, is not my good name nor my\nreputation. Dear as they are to me for my children\u2019s sake, and for the\nsake of my family, after all there is a Name that is better to me than\nmine, there is a Name above every other name\u2014for my trouble has brought\nme very near to it, and the glory of Christ. God\u2019s glory and God\u2019s\ndelicacy, and sweetness and love were never made so apparent to me, as\nsince I have felt the need of them in other folks.\n\n\u201d... I will answer as regards any paper that is in the possession of any\nman, woman, or child on this continent, or on the sea, or on the land,\nand beyond the sea; anybody in heaven and anybody in hell, that has any\ndocument that I have ever written, or any information that touches me in\nany manner, I hereby give my permission to them to produce it, and I\nchallenge them to produce it, and if it is anything that will throw\nlight on me and inculpate me, I demand, by every consideration of honor,\ntruth, and justice, that it be delivered now and here, or that for ever\nafter they and everybody shall hold their peace.\u201d\n\nAt another time, referring to the burden of expense in the civil trial\nalone:\n\n\u201cI think people look upon my being tried as if it was a game of\nbattledore and shuttlecock, and as if being tried was nothing but being\ntossed through the air by two clever fellows, and as if I ought to like\nit. And any expression of preference of one tribunal over another, or\nany arithmetical expression of how many times I would like to be tried,\nis said to be covering up something or other. I would like to state to\nthe brethren here that my expenses for the trial of six months, and\nexpenses of living for the year, amounted to $118,000. I do not feel\ndisposed to go through a great many more such trials, but I trust you\nwon\u2019t think it is because I want to cover anything up, unless it is my\npockets. And if there is anybody who wishes to take my place in the\nmatter, and will pay the expenses, I will give up most cheerfully and\nlet them represent me. I ought to state further in regard to these\nexpenses\u2014I state it in love and honor to my dear friend Shearman\u2014that he\nwould not take one penny for the whole year\u2019s service, and that, aside\nfrom serving freely without money and without price, he so absolutely\nabandoned his business, that his income was cut down nine-tenths or more\nof what he was accustomed to receive, and that, great as my expenses\nwere, relatively, his were double mine, for the love-service which he\nperformed during this time.\u201d\n\nOn the 24th of February the \u201cresult of council was announced.\u201d\n\nIn this the council sustained Plymouth Church on every point, at the\nsame time recommending a few changes in its manual which it was thought\nmight save complication in the future.[14]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n  Most of them had at the time been proposed by the church, and all were\n  promptly adopted.\n\n-----\n\nThe council further advised in its \u201cresult\u201d:\n\n\u201cIn view of the fact that the pastor of this church has demanded that\nhis accusers be brought to face him, and has invited such investigation\nas this council may think desirable, for the peace and prosperity of the\nchurches, and in order to protect Plymouth Church from further vexatious\nproceedings, this council advises this church to accept and empower a\ncommission of five members, to be created by a committee of three,\nhereinafter specified, out of the twenty men hereinafter named; the duty\nof which commission shall be to receive and examine all charges against\nthe pastor which they may regard as not already tried....\n\n\u201cWe hold the pastor of this church, as we and all others are bound to\nhold him, innocent of the charges reported against him until\nsubstantiated by proof.\u201d The time within which such charges should be\npreferred was limited to sixty days.\n\nThis tribunal was thereafter appointed, and waited a year. It is perhaps\nneedless to say that no charges were preferred.\n\nIn the closing addresses of the council to the church the speakers\nexpressed more freely the prevailing personal feeling.\n\nWe quote Dr. Wellman, the first speaker:\n\n\u201cI would not depreciate at all the intense interest with which many of\nus, strangers to the pastor, have looked upon him, and watched him, and\nheard him as he has appeared before us and addressed us. But while I say\nthat, I must say, for one, that I watched with still keener interest the\nmen associated with him, and who came upon this platform to present this\ncase\u2014the members of the Plymouth Church Investigating Committee. And why\nhave I watched these men with such intense interest? Now, all men know\nthe power of this man of God to persuade men; and some of us, who live\nfar away, have been told again and again, that this pastor had such\npersuasive power, that he could manage all his men here, and make them\nbelieve anything and do anything, and therefore it did not follow that,\nbecause this great church and people were so loyal to their pastor, that\nhe was an innocent and pure man. Now, your loyal and magnificent\ndevotion to your pastor, is your praise all over this land and all over\nthis world. We had not seen you; we did not know what kind of men were\nassociated with this man of God; and it was possible, we thought, that\nthey were weak men, who could be blinded and could be made to believe\nanything. I have watched these men, and I aver to-night that they are\nnot men of feeble mind, and not men who would have an impure pastor here\nif they knew it, and not men to be managed by any pastor; and it has\nbeen the joy of my heart to find that such men have been associated,\nduring these years of your darkness and sorrow, with this man of God.\n\n\u201cIt has been said that this pastor is managing this council. Somehow\npeople all over the world have great confidence in the managing power of\nthis man. So far as I can see, he is the very last man to manage\nanybody; and as to his managing this council, I wish to say here and\nnow, once for all, and I wish it to go through you to all the world,\nthat he has managed us\u2014just as that man going down from Jerusalem to\nJericho, and robbed, and stripped, and wounded and thrown aside and left\nhalf-dead, managed that other man who came to his distress and bent over\nhim and poured oil upon his wounds and dressed them, and took him up and\nbrought him to the inn and cared for him. So this man has managed us,\nand in no other way. I had no acquaintance with him; I never spoke to\nhim until the last week; but, coming here, I have been greatly\ntouched\u2014indeed, nothing has touched me more than the manner in which\nthis pastor has laid bare his heart to us, and asked us to search him\nthrough and through, his heart and his life, and tell him if there be\nanything wrong in him or in what he has done. He has done this again and\nagain, before the council, and it has made me feel, for one, that there\nwas no need of searching such a man. I have noticed repeatedly, during\nthe presentation of this case, that the pastor of this church seemed to\nbe living two kinds of lives, one a sad one, and the other a life of\nearnest duty. Underneath his work and his addresses to us, there came\nout every now and then a sad undertone, as if he felt that he must live\nand toil for all the rest of his life, under this dark cloud of\nsuspicion and constant misrepresentation, and with these constant\ndagger-rents in his heart. Now, I do not believe that he is to live the\nrest of his life under this cloud and this burden of trouble. Ever since\nthis council was by itself, I have seen out of all this darkness a\nbright morning coming, and never has that morning seemed so near and so\nclose as it does to-night.\u201d\n\nAnd from the address of Dr. Sturtevant, president of Illinois College:\n\n\u201cWhat now are we to expect? What is to be the result of this? This:\nBrother Beecher and his church are to be assured from this hour that\nthey have our confidence. He is to be regarded as innocent until charges\nof guilt have been tabled and substantiated\u2014not floating rumors, not the\nslime of the crawling serpent, but charges clear, definite, with all\nneeded specifications of names and dates and witnesses, charges behind\nwhich there stands a responsible endorser; and while he stands thus, we\nextend to him the hand of our hearty fellowship, and entire confidence,\nuntil those charges are tabled and established. That confidence begins\nhere and now; and it enables him to say, and his people to say: \u2018All\nthese rumors, these innuendoes, these floating stories that circulate\nthrough the press, and through the ten thousand channels in which rumor\nflows, are worthy of no account until they are backed by responsible\nmen, who are willing to face that commission, and to attempt to prove\nthose charges before that commission; and if men continue to rail and\ncontinue to tell horrible stories of what they know, how it was ten\nyears ago, and seven years ago, and five years ago, etc., and what this\nman said and what that woman said\u2014if they continue to say such things,\nbelieve them not. They are just as respectable as Shimei was, when he\nwent along the hill and cursed David.\u2019\u201d\n\nFrom parts of Mr. Beecher\u2019s address to the council at the close, after\nthe \u201cresult\u201d had been announced, we get a clearer insight of his\nfeelings, and of his life during these troublesome times, than from most\nanything else that he has uttered:\n\n\u201cIt has come to pass that for so many years I have read of myself and\nheard of myself, that I have ceased in some moods to have any actual\nself, and am projected as an idea before my own mind. And if I shall\ntherefore speak somewhat freely, after the manner of men, about myself,\nI wish you to consider it a part of those metaphysics which Dr. Porter\nsays are very bad. I have often read as if I were reading in a novel\nabout the bad hero, and waked up from the dream and grimly laughed as I\nasked myself: \u2018Is it me that they mean? Is it possible for a man to live\nas long as I have, and as openly, and to have acted upon so large a\ntheatre, and been agitated by such world-shaking events, and be so\nutterly misconceived?\u2019 I have had the reputation of being a frank man.\nBut it may be true that I am a man of very cautious speech, and may\ntherefore sometimes not have expressed myself intelligently, though at\nother times I have had the reputation of being able to make myself\nunderstood! Nevertheless it has come to pass that I supposed myself to\nhave been more thoroughly canvassed, and construed in no very enviable\nlight, than it has befallen to any of my contemporaries. I am very sorry\nthat it should be so. I have no love of being a hero, and I have still\nless of being such a hero as I have been made to be. I tell you that to\nhear men talking whether I am or am not guilty makes the very\nmother-thought shiver within me. For I have sensibility\u2014I am open to the\nkeenest sense of truth and purity, and honor and right; and to be held\nbefore a jury, and to sit six long months, and to have rained upon me\nperjury and professional abuse, and to feel that over the whole broad\nextent of this land, I was the focal point on which journalism was\nexpending itself, and that, too, not as to whether I was Republican or\nDemocrat, not whether I was orthodox or heterodox, not whether this or\nthat system expounded was rightly held, but whether I was an ineffable\nculprit! I have not been hunted as an eagle is hunted; I have not been\npursued as a lion is pursued; I have not been pursued even as wolves and\nfoxes. I have been pursued as if I were a maggot in a rotten corpse. And\ndo you suppose that it is in human nature to go through that, through\nmonths and through years, and not feel it? And yet, if it please God,\nwho has enabled me to go through the desert and the Red Sea, that I\nshould go on, God is my judge, that I am both willing and I am able to\ngo on again another five years; for I can do all things, Christ\nstrengthening me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by\nfaith in the Son of God, who loved me never so much as now.\n\n\u201cAt some time it may be in my power to defend myself on every count and\ncharge. It may be in my power, at some time, with dates and\ncircumstances to expound the reason of my conduct. I am the child of a\nnoble mother and of a noble father, and I was brought up in an austere\nmorality and in a pure and unblemished household, with a most reverent\nhonor for truth, for duty, for love. And to me has been given a nature\nfor which, whether it be prudent or whether it be not, I am not\nquestionable. When they rebuke the vine for throwing out tendrils and\nholding on to anything that is next to it, whether it be homely or\nhandsome, whether it be dry or full of sap, then they may rebuke me.\nWhen you shall find a heart to rebuke the twining morning-glory, or any\nother plant that holds on to that which is next to it, you may rebuke me\nfor misplaced confidence; you may rebuke me for loving where I should\nnot love. It is not my choice; it is my necessity. And I have loved on\nthe right and on the left, here and there, and it is my joy, that to-day\nI am not ashamed of it. I am glad of it, and if I had my life to live\nover again, and were to choose between a cold caution, calculating every\nstep, without trust and confidence in man, I would, with all its\nliabilities, choose to be generous, to be magnanimous, and to be\ntrustful, and to lean though some should step aside and let me fall to\nthe ground. And let me say further that I was brought up in a household\nwhere the name of woman was only next to the name of saint, and with\ngood reason I always thought it should stand there. The memory of my\nmother has been to me, what the Virgin Mary has been to a devotee of the\nRoman Church. She has been part and parcel of my upper life\u2014a star whose\nparallax I could not take, but nevertheless, shining from afar, she has\nbeen the light that lit me easier into the thought of the invisible and\nthe presence of the Divine. My sisters I need not speak of. My\nassociations have been with women who have left upon my mind an\nindelible impression of honor, of reverence, and of affection; and all\nthat I have gone through, and all that I have suffered at the hands of\nthose that are of another school, has not changed, nor in the slightest\ndegree blurred, the sense that I have of the dignity and the sacredness\nand the beauty of womanhood. And when I have stood upon the threshold of\nwhat seemed to me\u2014knowing the secret elements that were in it, and how a\ncloud no bigger than a man\u2019s hand might roll up and cover the whole\nheaven\u2014when I have stood and looked out upon what might come, what\nmisery might be, I have said, and God knows the sincerity and the depth\nof it, \u2018It is better for me\u2014if it be possible\u2014it is better for me to\nstand, and be misunderstood than that there should be suffering over so\nwide a circle,\u2019 as I believed there would be. And that there have been\nso many heart-aches, that there have been so many, whose faces I never\nsaw, that have been bathed in tears, that there has been even the\neclipse of faith that has been mentioned in many, only shows how much\nwould have been saved to humanity, if it had been possible that that\npolicy of suffocating a domestic trouble, and keeping it in the origin\nof it, had been followed out and honorably observed. The fire, that at\nthe first is only so much that you can stamp it out, may, by fanning\nwinds or reckless hands, be spread beyond your reach, and the whole city\ndeluged with flame, the whole prairie be sheeted with fire. That which,\nin its beginning, seems quite manageable, it seems to me policy not\nonly, but duty, to suppress and maintain in its seclusion; for if it\nbursts out it will know no bounds and no termination. The endeavor I do\nnot regret; the ill success of it I do.\n\n\u201cBut having gone through it all, my only question\u2014that is, my only\ndeepest question\u2014is, Has it wrenched you from the foundations of a true\nmanhood? Do you believe in God? Do you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ?\nDo you live by the communications of the Holy Ghost? Is the higher part\nof your nature in commerce with God? I look around among men and I say,\nHas it made you hating? Has it made you jealous? Has it made you a\nmisanthropist or a misogynist? Are you sound\u2014sound in your chest, sound\nin your heart? Are you a man? Do you love men? Do you trust men? Do you\nhonor women? Do you trust them? Are you willing to labor for them? Are\nyou willing to suffer for them? I think I may say, without any fear, I\ndo believe that I live in the Spirit of God and very near to Him, and in\nregard to my feelings toward mankind there does not live the man on the\nface of this earth that I would harm if I had him in my power. There is\nnot that human creature\u2014I know it\u2014there is not that human creature that\nlives, that I would not rather help than hurt. There is not that\ncreature that lives for whom I would not bear suffering, if I could save\nhim from greater suffering. I have tried to live in the spirit of\nChrist, who wrought our joy by His sorrow, who saved us by sacrificing\nHimself. I have endeavored to so live. And now let me say further than\nthis, that while I make these asseverations of the honesty of my intent,\nand while I mean to convey, in the strongest language, my consciousness\nof innocence and rectitude, and honor and purity, I do not mean to say\nthat I have always been wise, and still less that I should advise\nanother to attempt to walk the path that I have walked, or that I have\nalways kept my temper, or that I have always restrained my tongue.\nThese, which I will not call infirmities, if you please to call them\nwrongs or sins\u2014name them yourselves, and I will still excel you in\ncondemning, in myself, anything that has been less than the straight\nline of sweetness, and of meekness, and of gentleness. I do condemn\nmyself often that I am rash, that in an over-heat I said things I ought\nnot to have said, and I am the more concerned, when I learn that these\nwords are not merely a rhetorical fault, nor regarded simply as a blur\nupon me, but that they go like poisoned arrows and afflict other hearts;\nand if there is any word that I have said, that has hurt the pastors of\nnear churches, or churches afar off, I would to God that I could so\nutterly recall it, that they should never think of it again; and I would\nbe the first of all to humble myself before them, and crave that pardon\nof them, which I have asked before of God. And if that which I have said\nor done is a hindrance to a full reconciliation, I would to God that all\nthe waters of the Jordan might wash it out from every memory. I disown\nit and take it all back, and beseech of you, as I beseech of every other\none, to remember of me, only those things that are like the Lord Jesus\nChrist, and that by His grace I have been enabled to do rightly. I am\ndischarged of all jealousy. I have no pride that hinders me from saying\nthese things to you, and giving you leave to give to them the utmost\nlatitude in their application.\n\n\u201cAllusion has been made to sadness on my part, of which no man may know.\nFor whatever may be the range of a man\u2019s outward life, there is a world\nwithin, unknown to any but God, and the most vital part of every man\u2019s\nlife, is that which is within the crystal cave of his own silence and\nsecrecy; and of that I do not propose to speak any further than\nthis\u2014that I have often felt that my life had come very near to its end.\nI live in the shadow of that feeling every day. At some hour or other of\nevery day, it seems to me as though but a hand\u2019s breadth was between me\nand the New Jerusalem. It is not either, necessarily a desire for dying\nnor an expectation of dying; it is a sentiment. And I live very much in\nthat habit; not altogether a painful one\u2014often far from it. But this I\nhave felt in looking back in those moments upon my past life\u2014I have felt\na great joy that no man can take it from me. I lived when the\nreformation of intemperance first began, and I gave great time and\nstrength to recover my countrymen from the vice. I began early my\ncareer, when there were few to plead for the liberty of the slave. I\nhave lived in a minority all my days, contesting for the right and for\nliberty. I had the privilege of living through that glorious\nrevolutionary epoch of our time, when the political economy, and the\npolitics, and the constitutional elements of our land were regenerated.\nFew men have ever had such a chance, or the health, or the opportunity\nto put in labor, in a field so rich in future results. No man can take\nit from me that I have loved my country and that I have labored for her.\nNo man can take it from me that I have loved the Church of Jesus Christ\nand that I have labored for it. No man can take it from me that I have\nloved my kind without caste or distinction. No man can take it from me!\nNow, I do not care for my reputation after I am dead and gone. That kind\nof love of reputation I never had, but there is something that is to me\nas sweet as the bells of heaven. If I have been able to inject into the\nliterature of my time a truly sweet and Christian spirit; if I have been\nable to clothe nature so that children and women and grown people will\nhave associations with trees and clouds, with the ground, with all the\nprocesses of annual resuscitation; if I have been able to clothe them\nwith religious associations, so that the heavens declare again the glory\nof God and the earth His handiwork; if I have put into words that which\nwill cheer the sick and the poor, that will inspire the young, and that\nwill go on working after I am dead\u2014this has been a very sustaining and a\nvery comforting thought to me. There is my joy for posterity\u2014that when\nby and by the clouds are all gone, when by and by the truth is as much\nknown as the earth will ever know truth, that which I have done will\nstand, that which I am God will know, and cause it to stand for ever and\never.\u201d\n\nWe give some extracts from his diary, and from letters written near this\ntime, which show how he looked upon the past few years:\n\n\u201cI have never read or heard of an instance where a pastor was called to\ncarry forward a great church under such a pressure as I have. Whatever\nis deepest, tenderest, and best in manhood has been crucified with a\nprolonged crucifixion. I have seen the poisonous malaria, affecting my\nreputation in the whole community where I have dwelt for so many years\nwith an unblemished character. I have seen false brethren silently\nbringing to bear upon me the odium of the most damaging suspicions. I\nhave seen them secretly taking counsel together, tampering with the\nfidelity of the members of Plymouth Church, and seducing my personal\nfriends, violating, under false pretences, ecclesiastical good\nneighborhood, calling councils to interfere with the peace and harmony\nof Plymouth Church, and thus spreading a local scandal and a ruinous\nsuspicion over, literally, the wide world. From this persecution among\nfalse brethren the trouble broke out into public and prolonged trial by\nthe newspapers of the country.\n\n\u201cWith a few honorable exceptions, the religious press was quick to\nbelieve evil and to confirm suspicion, and, with a few equally honorable\nexceptions, the secular press joined my adversaries.\n\n\u201cI was next tried by my own church, and after a minute research, and\nupon grounds never controverted or undermined, I was acquitted and\njustified. For six months thereafter I was subjected to the disgrace of\nsitting before a court of justice and having every atom of evidence\nadmitted that money and malice could bring together. And after this long\nand weary trial the jury refused to grant to my enemy the verdict which\nhe sought; whereupon my ministerial neighbors, reversing the fact that\nthe jury refused him damages, reported that I was not cleared\u2014as if I\nhad gone into court voluntarily, sought a verdict, and lost my suit.\n\n\u201cFollowing the civil trial, these insidious enemies commenced a course\nof vexatious attempts to call councils, and so to weary the patience of\nthe Plymouth people.\n\n\u201cTo meet this vexatious proceeding the church called the largest council\never convened upon this continent. Its members came almost to a man,\nwith doubting hearts, but went away with enthusiastic joy, having\njustified the church and justified its pastor. But, perceiving the\nvenomous spirit that disguised itself under pretence of anxiety for\necclesiastical regularity, the Great Council provided a court to sit and\nact when the council should be dissolved\u2014a court composed of legal men,\nthan whom none more impartial, just, and pure were ever called to sit\nupon the bench. No one dared to bring charges, though the court waited\nfor years.\n\n\u201cIn this long and dreadful season it would be difficult to say which\nsuffered most intensely, the church or its pastor.\n\n\u201cNo one will ever know the nervous strain required to bear this terrible\npressure, to maintain a Christian spirit, to carry on my pulpit duties,\nand to encourage and sustain the spirit of the church.\u201d\n\n                            NOVEMBER, 1875.\n\n\u201c_Nov. 12, Friday morning._\u2014For several years I have been passing\nthrough severe trials on account of the troubles in the Tilton family.\nThis has taken hold upon the church, personal friends, family,\nnewspapers, civil courts, ecclesiastical bodies, etc. I have thus been\nlike a lamb, not before her shearers, but before a fire, every stick of\nwhich has had enough heat in it to consume one\u2019s peace and comfort. In\nall this six years I have laid down for myself the strictest adherence\nto Christian principles, in all my feelings toward each person or party\nconcerned, and upon my conduct in every part of the perplexing and\nexhausting struggle for life\u2014for my life is aimed at, and the struggle\nis for life, in every sense in which life is a blessing.\u201d\n\n\u201c_Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1875._\u2014H\u2014\u2014\u2014 called from Missionary Association to\ninquire what I thought of their asking Dr. Storrs to speak at opening of\nFisk University at Nashville. Replied, No reason against, unless they\nthought that just at this time, when he heads and inspires a movement\nagainst Plymouth Church and me. But that _they_, and not I, should\ndetermine.\n\n\u201cIn myself there are two thoughts: (1) Should I give help to an enemy\nwho will use it for my harm? and (2), and a better one, Ought I to take\nany care or notice of the ascent or descent in influence of one not\nfriendly? Is it not better to go on doing duty and leave wholly to the\nOver-ruler the disposition of affairs?\n\n\u201c\u2018_Fret not thyself because of evil-doers._\u2019\u201d\n\nShortly after the council had adjourned, and on the 27th of February,\n1876, Dr. Leonard Bacon, in that spirit of brotherly love that filled\nthe council at its close, wrote to Mr. Beecher:\n\n\u201c... \u2018A brother offended,\u2019 whether Storrs (R. S.) or Budington, \u2018is\nharder to be won than a strong city.\u2019 But is it not possible for you\n(God helping you) to win Brother Storrs, and then to win Budington also?\n\n\u201cOf course you are an innocent man, grievously calumniated, pierced\nthrough and through with arrows, like St. Sebastian. You feel that the\nposition of those two brethren in relation to you is unbrotherly and\nunkind. You complain (and, I will say, reasonably) that neither of them\ncame to you in the beginning of these troubles, or has come to you at\nany later time, with a request for explanation or with offers of\nsympathy and assistance. They, on the other hand, think that you have\nwithheld your confidence and have stood aloof from them.... Is it not\npossible for you to win Storrs?... You will not win him by waiting till\nhe shall come to you.... What, then, would be the effect on Brooklyn, on\nour country, on \u2018English-speaking Christianity,\u2019 if it should be\nannounced that you three are \u2018brothers reconciled\u2019? Have I proposed an\nimpracticable thing? Am I imagining an impossible result? If so,\nalas!...\u201d\n\nTo this Mr. Beecher replied:\n\n                                           \u201cBROOKLYN, March 1, 1876.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR DOCTOR BACON:\n\n\u201cI heartily thank you for your letter and its kind and Christian\nsuggestions. They are such as a father might give to a son, and I am\nemboldened to hope that for _my_ father\u2019s sake you will allow me to\nhold, in some degree, such a relation to you.\n\n\u201cThere is nothing in _my heart_ to prevent a reconciliation with my\noffended brethren.\n\n\u201cIf it required only that I should express my regret for unanswered\nletters, and my sorrow for harsh words forced from me in the height of\ndistress, the whole matter might be settled in an hour. But it has\nlargely ceased to be a personal affair, and has assumed the complex\ncharacter of two _parties_ with strong party feeling.\n\n\u201cSo that Dr. Storrs, for instance, is not at liberty to act from\npersonal considerations alone.\n\n\u201cPass by his long and repeated interviews with Mr. Tilton as late as\nlast New Year\u2019s, and take the most recent case, that of Mrs. Moulton.\n\n\u201cMrs. M. and I are in such opposition as admits of no middle ground. To\ntake her up is to take sides against me. Our testimony in court is in\ndeadly opposition.\n\n\u201cBut Dr. Storrs has assumed her cause to the extent, that, (aside from\nall counsel during her negotiations with Plymouth Church) he sends her\nto Mr. Bell (who has just taken charge of the Mission Sabbath-school of\nhis church), with a letter requesting him _to give her a class_. Such an\nact, at such a time, produced profound impressions, even more within his\nown church than out of it. After two Sundays\u2019 attendance Mrs. Moulton\nretired from the school under plea of ill health, a great excitement\nhaving arisen within the school.\n\n\u201cDr. Storrs is surrounded by such men as \u2014\u2014\u2014, \u2014\u2014\u2014, \u2014\u2014\u2014, and \u2014\u2014\u2014, whose\nanimosity reaches bitterness.\n\n\u201cI have very little hope, therefore, of favorable results.\n\n\u201cYou should be aware that from time to time during the two years past, I\nhave conveyed to these brethren my desire of reconciliation.\n\n\u201cAfter the civil suit of last summer I drew up a letter to Dr. Storrs at\nthe request of several members of his church (warm friends of mine), in\nwhich I expressed everything which one Christian gentleman could to\nanother. But my advisers said that such a letter should not be sent\nuntil it was distinctly ascertained that Dr. S. would take it kindly;\nfor, if disposed to do so, it might lay the foundations for a refusal\nwith reasons, which would leave the case far worse than it was before.\nAs the summer vacation was at hand, the matter was dropped.\n\n\u201cI fear that Dr. Storrs is so fully committed that it is too late. He\ncould not have made a declaration of war more effectually than by taking\nup Mrs. Moulton, considering her deadly antagonism to me and her\npeculiar relations to Plymouth Church.\n\n\u201cBut if the Lord will open a way, you may be sure that I shall not hold\nback nor hesitate. I do not regard my own personal feelings or interests\nas comparable to the welfare of these neighboring churches, and the\ncause of religion in all churches. I would go to the very verge of truth\nand honor in my expressions of regret and retraction. Yet, with all\nthis, I fear, alas! there is no hope.\n\n\u201cBut I leave all to God. The effect of a reconciliation would be\npentecostal.\n\n\u201cI am the man going to Jericho, stripped, wounded, and left for dead.\nNevertheless I am writing to apologize both to the priest and Levite,\nfor not considering the proprieties and respect due them as they passed\nby.\n\n                                        \u201cGratefully yours,\n                                               \u201cHENRY WARD BEECHER.\u201d\n\n\u201cP.S. I have thought long and anxiously upon this matter. I have sent\nfriends to Dr. Storrs, who could get no word of encouragement. He\neschews even my personal friends who were his warm friends.\n\n\u201cI have thought that any movement with hope of success must come from\nwithin his own church. But there is an undeveloped _party_ on each side.\n\n\u201cOn the whole, I have come to about this:\n\n\u201cThat the _families_ of the two churches should hold on to each other\nmore firmly than ever before, and on both sides refuse to be separated.\n\n\u201cThen, as time goes on and the scandal gives place to other things in\nthe public mind, occasions or influences which we do not now command may\narise in God\u2019s good providence, and a way be opened.\n\n\u201cI have often and often thought that if it were God\u2019s will that I might\ndie, a great stumbling-block would be taken away, and health would come\nout of my grave to the ailing hearts about me.\n\n\u201cAnd why not?\n\n\u201cI have lived long, and no one ever had leave to live in an age of such\n_opportunities_, as those who have had their prime in the past thirty\nyears. One ought not to be greedy of years.\u201d\n\nThe hope in which the Great Council was called was realized. The pastors\nand delegates, called from twenty-one States, returning to their homes,\nbecame centres of a noble, generous influence, correcting false\nimpressions, setting doubts at rest, renewing again the old love and\nconfidence.\n\nIt is true that here and there, especially in certain theological\ncentres, there were those whose partisan zeal, jealous malice, or even\npersonal hatred would not let them rest content with the deliverance;\nwho would rather have kept Christendom deluged with the vile mess than\nthat Mr. Beecher should stand cleared and justified.\n\nBut the great serpent was dead; only its tail wiggled and stirred a\nlittle dust for a short time. After a little even that lay quiet.\n\nThe clouds were dissipating, the sky was clearing, and soon the sun\nshone with its former brightness, giving comfort, light, and life to\nmany thousands.\n\nThe conspiracy had failed. Where to-day are the conspirators?[15]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n  A friend has aptly put the story in a few short lines:\n\n-----\n\n                           THE FALSE SECRET.\n\n           \u201c\u2019Twas the thistle that told the yellow-bird,\n             And the yellow-bird told the bee,\n           And the gossip winds that overheard\n             Went telling the willow-tree;\n           And that is the way the little tree-frog\n             Is supposed to know it all;\n           He told his cousins that lived in a bog,\n             And they croaked to the rushes tall;\n           They whispered the reptiles that live in the mud,\n             And wiggle and creep and crawl,\n           To tell the mosquitoes that feast on blood\n             That a _star_ was seen to fall.\n\n           \u201cBut the lilies knew that it could not be true,\n             The lilies that looked on high;\n           And the waters blue, where the lilies grew.\n             Not so the little fire fly:\n           He met his friends where the garden ends\n             And the low marsh meadows lie;\n           They said it was sad as sad could be\n             That a star must fall and die,\n           And the goblin meteors danced with glee\u2014\n             _But the star is still in the sky_.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXVII.\n\nRest and renewed Activity\u2014Lecturing Tours\u2014Resignation from the\n    Congregational Association\u2014Boston Criticisms.\n\n\nVery shortly after Mr. Beecher settled in Brooklyn he began working in a\nsomewhat different and larger parish than the one included in his\nchurch. At first in the more immediate vicinity of New York, then\ngradually widening and enlarging his circuit, he spent no small portion\nof the week, during the winter months, in lecturing. He sought to\nelevate the public morals, to educate public sentiment along the line of\nintegrity and morality. While his lectures were full of the humorous,\nalive with bright poetic thoughts, there was always a purpose sought in\neach and this always seemed essential to the development of his best\nefforts. No lecture was ever delivered by him that some of his audience\ndid not go home strengthened and encouraged in their purposes of right\nliving, or awakened to begin a better life. They were week-day sermons\non practical morals. His field had gradually broadened, until by 1870 it\nincluded all of the Northern States east of the Mississippi River. From\nthese lectures he derived no inconsiderable income, which was expended\nwith no mean hand for charity, on friends, and the gratification of his\nartistic and literary tastes.\n\nWith the outbreak of the Tilton conspiracy, and the various vexatious\nproceedings incidental to and in aid thereof, he naturally found too\nmuch employment at home, and too great a strain on mind and body, to\nleave either strength, leisure, or inclination for lecturing. With the\nclose of the Great Council came comparative peace, and in the winter\nfollowing he resumed his regular lecturing. For this there were several\nreasons.\n\nThe mental and nervous wear and tear of the past five or six years had\nbeen terrible. As we have seen, he had many times been brought to the\nverge of complete prostration, which he feared might end in death or\nparalysis.\n\nIt was imperative that he should get some relief from this strain. With\nhim rest did not mean idleness, but rather activity in a different\ndirection, often greater than the work which had fatigued him. Such a\nremedy he found in lecturing.\n\nThen it was necessary to make good the great expenditure of money\nentailed upon him. The \u201ctrial year\u201d alone had cost him over $118,000,\nand, notwithstanding the loving generosity of his people had raised his\nsalary for that year to $100,000, he found himself heavily in debt.\nLecturing afforded the means of remedying this difficulty.\n\nAnother reason strenuously urged by friends, was that, to meet and talk\nwith the many thousands scattered over the land, who had so long loved\nand trusted him, would greatly aid in scattering the clouds that had\nbeen so long lowering; that it would be a source of strength and comfort\nto them, and greatly benefit him. A series of lecture-tours followed\nduring the next two or three years, extending through the New England\nStates, West, Southwest, and South, the results of which fully justified\nevery reason for this undertaking.\n\nThen for the first time he realized how many friends he had. It is true\nthat when the sky was darkest he received many hundreds of letters from\nfriends and strangers expressing unabated confidence and sympathy.\nGrateful and comforting as these were to him, they did not so fully\nreveal to him the hold that he had on the hearts of the American people\nas the demonstrations that greeted him on these lecture-trips.\n\nWhat these demonstrations were we can gain some idea from his letters\nhome, brief and hasty sketches, written at odd intervals:\n\n\u201cNext Boston. _Temple full._ Received me with prolonged clapping....\nPreached Sunday A.M. for \u2014\u2014\u2014. Had great liberty, and, as he says, swept\neverything.... At night in Boston for \u2014\u2014\u2014. Ten thousand people couldn\u2019t\nget in. Shook hands with whole audiences. Papers next morning with kind\nnotices. Went to Congregational ministers\u2019 meeting on Monday morning.\nCheered and clapped when I entered. After paper for day was finished it\nwas moved that I address the meeting. I did so, and closed with prayer.\nAll wept, and it broke up like a revival meeting. D\u2014\u2014\u2014, S\u2014\u2014\u2014, A\u2014\u2014\u2014,[16]\netc., present; did not shake hands, but scores of others did.... I learn\nthat the Andover students have come back three to one against S\u2014\u2014\u2014. They\nintend asking me over to-morrow morning to talk to them....\u201d\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n  Leaders among the opposition clergy.\n\n-----\n\n\u201cI preached yesterday in St. Paul (Minn.) I returned early this morning\nto meet the clergy of this city in Stimpson\u2019s study, about twenty-five,\nof all churches, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Congregational, Baptist,\nLutheran, Free-Will Baptist, etc. Two hours, in which they questioned me\nabout my views on doctrines, sermon-making, preaching, etc., etc., and\nat close I prayed with them. Royal time. They were more than cordial.\nExcitement for to-night\u2019s lecture even greater than for that of Friday.\nDr. Post, of St. Louis, writes to me to fill his pulpit, also the other\nCongregational minister; while the very papers that used, a year or two\nago, to abuse me, are demanding that the largest hall or theatre shall\nbe taken, so that the common people can get in.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe sense of spring has accompanied me all the way. I am now in the\nmiddle of my third week\u2014nearly half through. _Laus Deo._ Everywhere the\nsame kindness, affection, and enthusiasm. Madison is the capital of this\nState, and the Speaker and members of the Legislature have just sent a\ncommittee requesting me to open the house with prayer.... In short, the\nwhole slander is burned over out here, like a prairie or an old\ncorn-field, and will never lift itself again.\u201d\n\n\u201cI had not expected a large audience, but I _had it_. I expected but few\nof the upper class of people, but I had the best of the city; even\nWatterson, of the _Courier-Journal_, that had always vilely blackguarded\nme, sent for tickets for himself, family, and his father. I was in good\ntrim, and for nearly two hours I avenged myself upon that audience. The\nenthusiasm was complete. Every one said that I had conquered Louisville,\nand so I am enjoying the fruits of revenge! I had an uncommonly\nsuccessful trip. In Pittsburgh there was a grand audience\u2014all the\nministers from far and near. It was said that there were a hundred in\nthe audience.\u201d\n\n\u201cAll my life long I have had good, warm friends, but I never knew until\nrecently what friendship was outside of those of my own immediate\ncircle. The unmistakable enthusiasm, the love and eagerness, the\nlingering and the longing, have been such as to fill my cup full.\n\n\u201cI have felt, time and again, that that which I have had of trouble I\nhave bought at a cheap rate; the trouble has been but a small price to\npay for a lodgment in the hearts of the best men, the best women, and\nthe children. I have found that those whose love is deepest and warmest\nrepresent families who look at everything in the world from the\nstandpoint of the household\u2014who judge of preaching, of ethics, and of\nmethods by the relation which they bear to the bringing up of the young,\nand to the founding and maintaining of Christian homes. That part of the\ncommunity who live in the household, and honor it, I had almost said,\nwere universally my most dear and cordial friends.\u201d\n\nFrom this time on until his death he was more or less in the\nlecture-field every year.\n\nAnother period of restful calm sets in, during which he devoted himself,\ncomparatively undisturbed, to his duties in the pulpit, the editorial\nchair of the _Christian Union_, and the lecture-field.\n\nDuring this period of quiet he made those definite announcements of his\nbeliefs that so much disturbed many of his theological brethren, notably\nhis sermon on the \u201cBackground of Mystery,\u201d in which he discussed that\nmysterious question of future punishment; and a little later the series\nsince published under the title of \u201cEvolution and Religion,\u201d discussing\nthe application of the theory of evolution to religious beliefs.[17]\nNotwithstanding many of the most eminent of the American and English\nclergy had both entertained and expressed similar views, their\nexposition by Mr. Beecher, as usual, called forth much criticism, more\nor less severe according to the theological bent of the critic, but also\nmuch friendly comment.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n  We present Mr. Beecher\u2019s theological beliefs more fully in another\n  chapter.\n\n-----\n\nHe was at this time a member of \u201cThe Congregational Association,\u201d\ncomposed of Congregational clergymen of New York and Brooklyn. Feeling\nthat many of his brethren did not agree with his views, and that yet\nthey might be held to some extent responsible for his beliefs, he\ndetermined to resign from the Association.\n\nAt the meeting October 13, 1882, he had been assigned for discussion the\ntopic of \u201cSpiritual Barbarism.\u201d After discussing the theological beliefs\nwhich he regarded as appropriately coming under that expression, he went\non to give a full declaration of his personal beliefs, and then at the\nclose stated:\n\n\u201cI have reason to believe that a great many of the brethren of the\nCongregational faith would speak more than disapproval, and that many\neven in the Association to which I belong feel as though they could not\nbear the burden of responsibility of being supposed to tolerate the\nviews I have held and taught; and it is on this account that I, as a man\nof honor and a Christian gentleman, cannot afford to lay on anybody the\nresponsibility of my views. I cannot afford especially to put them in\nsuch a position that they are obliged to defend me. I cannot make them\nresponsible in any way, and therefore I now here, and in the greatest\nlove and sympathy, lay down my membership of this Association and go\nforth\u2014not to be separated from you. I shall be nearer to you than if I\nshould be in ecclesiastical relation. I will work for you, I will\nlecture for you, I will personally do everything I can for you. I will\neven attend these meetings as a spectator with you. I will devote my\nwhole life to the Congregational churches and their interests, as well\nas to all other churches of Christ Jesus. I am not going out into the\ncold. I am not going out into another sect. I am not going away from you\nin any spirit of disgust. I never was in warmer personal sympathy with\nevery one of you than I am now; but I lay down the responsibility that\nyou have borne for me\u2014I take it off from you and put it on myself. And\nnow you can say, \u2018He is a member of the Congregational Church, but he\nhas relieved his brethren of all responsibility whatever for his\nteachings.\u2019 That you are perfectly free to do. With thanks for your\ngreat kindness, and with thanks to God for the life which we have had\nhere together, I am now no longer a member of the Congregational\nAssociation of New York and Brooklyn, but with you a member of the body\nof Christ Jesus, in full fellowship with you in the matter of faith and\nlove and hope.\u201d\n\nHe was earnestly urged to reconsider his resignation. He felt it to be\nhis duty to adhere to the determination expressed. The Association\nunanimously passed the following resolution expressive of their\nfeelings:\n\n\u201c_Resolved_, That the members of the New York and Brooklyn Association\nreceive the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher\u2019s resignation of his membership in\nthis body with very deep pain and regret. We cannot fail to recognize\nthe generous magnanimity which has led him to volunteer this action,\nlest he should seem even indirectly to make his brethren responsible\nbefore the public for the support of philosophical and theological\ndoctrines wherein he is popularly supposed to differ essentially with\nthose who hold the established and current evangelical faith. His full\nand proffered exposition of doctrinal views that he has made at this\nmeeting indicates the propriety of his continued membership in this or\nany other Congregational Association. We hereby declare our desire that\nhe may see his way clear to reconsider and withdraw it. We desire to\nplace on record as the result of a long and intimate acquaintance with\nMr. Beecher, and a familiar observation of the results of his life, as\nwell as his preaching and pastoral work, that we cherish for him an\never-growing personal attachment as a brother beloved, and a deepening\nsense of his worth as a Christian minister. We cannot now contemplate\nthe possibility of his future absence from our meetings without a\ndepressing sense of the loss we are to suffer, and unitedly pledge the\nhearts of the Association to him, and express the hope that the day for\nhis return may soon come.\u201d\n\nOf course much comment followed this step\u2014perhaps more marked among some\nof the Boston clergy than elsewhere\u2014and in its turn drew from Mr.\nBeecher several characteristic letters. One to a near friend:\n\n\u201cDon\u2019t be scared because Boston has boiled over; it has not put the fire\nout.\n\n\u201cIt is amusing to see the pains taken to prove that I am of no account,\ndead, useless, a castaway. I know that I am dead. I knew it twenty years\nago; I have been certified of the fact every year since. I have no\ninfluence\u2014I never had, cannot have; a hundred fluttering ministers are\neager to say so before the world! Well, what of it? The wild-fowl return\nfrom the north as usual, winter comes on, the spring will come in its\nseason, birds and flowers\u2014indeed, it does seem to me that Nature cares\nnothing at all for all this squabbling of men! I am astonished at\nNature!...\u201d\n\nAnother in reply to an invitation to answer his critics through the\ncolumns of the Boston _Traveller_:\n\n\u201cI thank you for the letter and paper. I have read the somewhat large\nexpressions of these many and excellent men in regard to my orthodoxy,\nconsistency, influence, and general merit, without wishing for a moment\nto reply, as you kindly request me.\n\n\u201cWhen a dead man is lying on the dissecting-table under the hands of\nexperts, it would be unbecoming in him to rise up suddenly and discuss\nwith his surgeons the propriety of their methods and the truth of\nresults. It is not often that one can see himself as others see him, and\nespecially as Boston sees him, and, more than all, as Boston clergymen\nsee him. I am reduced to pulp, but, thank Heaven! not to ashes. When you\nsuggest a reply to these, I am sure you can have no conception of the\nsubdued and enlightened state of my mind. I am bent on improvement.\nLaying aside all my old notions of my beliefs and of my standing, I am\ncarefully putting together the real man that I now am taught that I am.\nWhen I get my new personal identity together and in working shape, I\nintend to study theology somewhere, though in my present confusion I\ncannot yet say whether I shall study at Andover or Boston; New Haven is\nnearer, but Dr. Smythe has been settled there, and I fear laxity of\ndoctrine in his neighborhood. Princeton is not far to the south of me,\nbut Dr. McCosh is a Christian evolutionist, and it would be folly, after\nwhat I have suffered, to come under the malarial influence of that\nphilosophy. On the whole, I incline to study at Park Street. But\nwherever I may go I am determined before I die to find a theology which\nwill pass muster at Bangor, at Andover, at Cambridge, at New Haven, at\nPrinceton, at Alleghany, at Oberlin, at Chicago, and at Park Street.\n\n\u201cThen I shall willingly die.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                            CHAPTER XXVIII.\n\nAttacking Corrupt Judges\u2014Interest in Political Questions\u2014Advocating\n    Arthur\u2019s Renomination\u2014Opposing Blaine\u2014Supporting Cleveland\u2014Campaign\n    of 1884\u2014After the Battle.\n\n\nIt had always been Mr. Beecher\u2019s belief that a Christian gentleman\nshould be a good citizen, and that being a good citizen involved some\nresponsibility in securing and enforcing righteous laws, in electing\nhonest men, and defeating the corrupt and unworthy. With this belief his\nwhole life was consistent. In his early ministry we find him fighting\ncorruption, intoxication, and slavery, the then three great public\nevils. Later he stood as one of the sponsors to the Republican party. In\n1856 he entered with all his force in the Fremont campaign, and in 1860\nstumped the Middle and New England States for Lincoln. The overthrow of\nslavery was his objective point\u2014the one great public evil which at that\ntime overtopped all others.\n\nWhen, in 1864, Lincoln ran for re-election, he spared no effort to\nsecure it.\n\nAnd as he thought that whatever pertained to the duties of a Christian\nman might properly be discussed in the pulpit, he did not hesitate,\nduring those war times, when the national existence was threatened, to\nadvocate the cause of the nation and the cause of liberty from his\npulpit; at one time, just before the election of 1864, devoting his\nevening sermon for the six preceding weeks exclusively to the nation\u2019s\ncause.\n\nWe remember vividly the great throngs that packed the church for two\nhours before the sermon, many getting entrance through the side windows,\nwhile the street contained as many more trying in vain to even reach the\nopen doors.\n\nWe shall never forget the thrills of excitement that ran through the\naudience under the influence of Mr. Beecher\u2019s impassioned eloquence. He\nwas thoroughly aroused, and seemed to impart much of the intensity of\nhis own feelings to his audience. He felt that to defeat Lincoln then\nmeant to throw away all that had been obtained by such a sacrifice of\nmen and money.\n\nWe are not surprised, then, in 1868-69\u2014at the time when the flood of\ncorruption had deluged New York city, reaching even to the judges on the\nbench\u2014that his voice was raised in continuous protest against that\ndisgraceful state of affairs, calling on all good men to unite and purge\nthe city of its corruption. The attack from Plymouth pulpit upon the\ncorrupt judiciary, especially, was unsparing and continuous, sometimes\nthrough whole sermons and sometimes incidentally.\n\nThe times were in desperate need of some bold moral surgery, for it\nwould be hard to imagine a worse condition in the public\nadministration\u2014in well nigh every department and branch\u2014than that which\nexisted from 1867 to 1871. The infamous Tweed had assumed virtually the\ndictatorship, and impudently wanted to know of the people, \u201cWhat are you\ngoing to do about it?\u201d A query which was fully answered a few years\nlater. But the climax was reached in the almost utter corruption of the\nbench. There were some honest judges in New York then, but they suffered\nfrom the same imputation that, in more modern times, falls upon any man\nwho has had the misfortune to have been elected an alderman of the same\ncity. Friends of some of the judges were rash enough to attempt an\nanswer through the public press to Mr. Beecher\u2019s attack. But this only\nfurnished the text for a series of more terrible denunciations in reply,\nwhich led to a very hasty muzzling of the rash defenders of the bench. A\npublic discussion, even in those days of public apathy and\ndemoralization, was the last thing that was wished by the corruptionists\nwhom he was attacking.\n\nTo a member of the federal bench who wrote him, protesting that there\n_were some_ honest judges who would be injured by Mr. Beecher\u2019s\nstrictures, he replied:\n\n\u201c... Of the fourteen (elective) judges of New York there are not over\nfive who are not known to be corrupt\u2014_i. e._, who do not employ their\noffice for the promotion of their private interests at the expense of\nthe public good\u2014and hardly _one_ of the whole fourteen who is not guilty\nof flagrant _nepotism_.\n\n\u201cNow, if clergymen were violating the vows of their calling in half that\nproportion they would have no right to complain, if some judge declared\n\u2018the clergy were corrupt,\u2019 and the judges have no just reason of\ncomplaint, when a clergymen declares the courts of New York to be\ncorrupt, and that their judges \u2018_stink_\u2019 (asking pardon of your\nsensibility).\n\n\u201cIf this allegation in so broad a form involves the innocent along with\nthe guilty, it is because such is the law of _social liability_....\n\n\u201cIf the honorable men who are alive to the purity of the judicial\nreputation can find no way of making a public and recognized distinction\nbetween themselves and their unworthy companions, they should not be\nsurprised if their own names are clouded, too.\n\n\u201cIn regard to yourself, personally, I have never heard a whisper of\ndishonor, ... and if you do not receive the full meed of your desert, is\nit not because you belong to a profession which, in New York City, is\nearning itself an odious reputation?\n\n\u201cI wish to arouse a conscience in the community, outside of courts,\nwhich will compel those judges who are pure, and who value their\nreputation, to manifest their repugnance at corruption. _I do not mean\nto pause_....\n\n\u201cI am obliged to you for the frankness of your letter, and none the less\nbecause I entirely disagree with your judgment.\n\n\u201cYou fear that such indiscriminate censure will ruin the influence of\nlaw and courts, and demoralize society.\n\n\u201cBad laws and bad judges demoralize society, and not the exposure of\nthem. Religion was in no danger when our Master denounced the priesthood\nof the temple, among whom, as with judges, there were many devout and\npure men. He expressed, as I do, the opinion of society outside of the\nprofession. The exposure was a step toward reformation.\u201d\n\nHow far his persistent denunciation stimulated and awakened the public\nconscience and hastened the final overthrow of that colossal reign of\ncorruption, of course no man can say. But the attention and excitement\naroused thereby indicated that his part in that strife was no\ninsignificant one.\n\nIn his own city he took an active part in the local elections, working\nearnestly for the public welfare, striving to secure the election of\nthose men who would best administer the local government.\n\nIn the earlier years of the Republican party questions vitally affecting\nthe welfare of the nation, and even its very existence, were before the\npeople. And on these the Republican party maintained those principles,\nwhich he believed were essential to the maintenance of the nation. He\nthrew his entire strength and influence with that party, sparing\nnothing. After the war had determined the questions of secession and\nslavery, and the reconstruction period had past and a sound financial\npolicy been established, he noticed with no little disturbance the\ninsidious growth of corrupting influences in various branches of the\ngovernment, and the gradually increasing prominence and influence in the\nparty\u2019s councils of men who did not, in his opinion, stand for the\nhighest principles of personal and political honesty. So far as he could\nhe sought to counteract this tendency downward. He earnestly supported\nthe better men in the party, and tried to prevent the dangerous ones\nfrom obtaining power.\n\nSo long as the high national principles for which the party stood were\nin the least in danger, and were acquiring a settled permanence, he\nviewed these disquieting signs as morbid growths upon a body healthy in\nthe main, and which the general strength of the body could throw off,\nlike boils or skin eruptions on a strong man\u2014painful and unsightly, but\nnot dangerous to life nor difficult to cure.\n\nBut as the government became more and more settled, and as the questions\nwhich called the Republican party into existence and which followed in\nthe reconstructive period became more and more fixed facts, he noticed\nwith increasing disquietude that the struggles at the national election\nwere becoming more a contest for party supremacy than for national\nsecurity, where personal benefit was rapidly outstripping the country\u2019s\nwelfare. At each election the politicians on either side found an\nincreasingly greater difficulty in framing a platform that should differ\nin any important particular from its opponent\u2019s, save on the tariff\nquestion, regarding which Mr. Beecher was not in accord with his party.\nThe party platforms were rapidly becoming noticeable only for the\ningenuity with which the same ideas were expressed in high-sounding\nphrases, differing only in words.\n\nEven as far back as 1877, in a sermon published under the title of \u201cPast\nPerils and Perils of To-day,\u201d he gave an intimation of his growing\nfeeling, almost prophetic:\n\n\u201cThe perils of the hour are the last that I shall mention, and they are\nthe least. Whatever may betide the questions that are now at issue, they\nwill result in nothing worse than simple transient mischief, moral,\npolitical, and civil. The foundations are settled. The future policy of\nthis nation, whichever hands undertake to hold the helm, is assured. I\nwould rather that the nation, which has been rescued by the great\nRepublican party, and borne through all the shoals and whirls and\ntroubles of the reconstructive period, for which they are now receiving\nmore curses than kindnesses, and whose mistakes are multiplied before\nthe eyes of men, while their wisdom is little thought of\u2014I would rather\nthat this nation should remain in their hands, if they are worthy to\nhold the helm; but if not, give me a hand that can hold the helm,\nwhosesoever it is. If their light is extinguished along the coast, and\nthey have no longer power to guide the ship of state to a safe harbor,\nlet other lights be kindled. We cannot afford to wait for any party. The\nnation is more important than any party. It is not, then, any particular\nperil of a change of administration that is to be feared. I look upon\nthat with interest, but still with equanimity.\u201d\n\nHe noticed with jealous interest the men who were growing up and pushing\nto the front in the Republican party, studying their characters,\nwatching their actions, noting their words to see toward what they were\ntending, whether good or evil, whether they would be safe leaders and\nwise administrators. So that when the notable campaign of 1884 began,\nand the conventions were called to select the candidates for the\nPresidency, he had very clearly defined opinions as to the fitness of\nthe various aspirants in both parties, the result of long and careful\nobservation.\n\nOf course his first concern was as to the action of the Republican\nparty. He earnestly hoped that the party would have the wisdom to\nrenominate President Arthur.\n\nWhen General Arthur was called to the Presidential chair by the sad\ndeath of General Garfield, Mr. Beecher, in common with many others, had\ngrave misgivings as to his wisdom and ability to administer so important\nan office. But he developed such unexpected administrative ability,\nshowed so much wisdom and such rare fortitude in resisting his party\u2019s\nleaders, in any unwise or hurtful action, and so much discrimination in\nthe exercise of his veto power, that he won the admiration and esteem of\nthose who had, with doubt and solicitude, seen him enter upon his\nuntried duties.\n\nEvery instinct of good sense, every argument of wisdom, urged his\nrenomination; the precedents of the party gave him a second term.\n\nWith this feeling Mr. Beecher was fully in accord. So when a meeting of\nmerchants and business men was called at the Cooper Institute, early in\nthe summer of 1884, to give expression to this sentiment, Mr. Beecher\nvery gladly accepted an invitation to address it.\n\nHe had a double reason in advocating General Arthur\u2019s renomination, or\nrather two reasons, one positive and the other negative.\n\nHe had acquired great confidence in General Arthur, and admiration for\nhis past administration. He believed that he was by all odds the best\nman in his party for the place.\n\nHe also felt sure that if General Arthur was not nominated, Mr. Blaine\nwould be, and in Mr. Blaine he saw, as he believed, a very serious\nthreatening danger. He was one of the men whose career he had carefully\nwatched, and for whom he had a very pronounced distrust. Of him he said:\n\n\u201cFor twelve years I have watched him, anxious that he should be the\nright man\u2014that he is not. For more than ten years I have been afraid of\nhim.\u201d\n\nBehind Mr. Blaine, as his earnest advocates, he saw the men who had been\nmost prominent in the jobbery and corruption that had, from time to\ntime, broken out like plague-spots in different parts of the country.\n\nHe strongly felt that his election would be regarded by the world at\nlarge as an endorsement of the idea, painfully prevalent, that all a man\nshould aim at in politics is success, no matter how.\n\nHe deeply regretted the unwisdom of not renominating General Arthur.\n\nWhen the National Convention put Mr. Blaine in nomination Mr. Beecher\nhad three courses left open to him: either (1) support Mr. Blaine, as\nhis party\u2019s nominee regularly presented by the National Convention; or\n(2) stay at home and not vote; or (3) support the opposing candidate.\n\nTo the first his answer was:\n\n\u201cIt is almost the one argument I hear on every hand: \u2018I don\u2019t like\nBlaine. He was not my choice, but then he is the regular nominee of our\nparty.\u2019\n\n\u201cWhy, according to your logic, you must vote for whomsoever the\nconvention gives you. If the convention had given you Tweed, every\nmother\u2019s son of you would have dropped your tail between your legs and\nvoted for Tweed. The logic of this is infamous.... You would not do it\nanywhere else, I tell you, except where the murrain of a blighted\npolitics had fallen upon you.\u201d\n\nThe second course had too much of prudential shirking to suit Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s temperament. If the Republican nominee was an unfit man to\nvote for, he was an unfit man to be elected; and, unless his opponent\nshould be as conspicuously unfit, every vote should be so cast as to\naffect the greatest result.\n\nThe third course alone seemed open, and when the Democratic Convention,\nin a sudden spasm of good sense and wisdom, nominated Governor\nCleveland, Mr. Beecher\u2019s mind was speedily made up.\n\nWith the first outbreak of that campaign of slanders Mr. Beecher was\ngreatly disturbed. He at once requested some personal friends residing\nin Buffalo, and well acquainted with Governor Cleveland\u2019s life and\nreputation, themselves Republicans, to make a thorough investigation of\nthe scandalous stories in circulation, and was satisfied from their\nreport that with the one exception, admitted, repented of, and lived\ndown by a life of honesty and integrity, the stories were false.\n\nOnce satisfied of their falsity, he entered into the campaign with all\nhis old-time fire and zeal.\n\nHis indignation was intensely roused at their circulation, and it only\nneeded the timid caution of friends, that he would injure himself, by\nadvocating the cause of a man about whom such stories were told, to\narouse him to an outburst of indignant scorn.\n\n\u201cIn all the history of politics we do not believe that lies so cruel, so\nbase, so atrocious have ever been set in motion. The air is murky with\nthe shameless stories of Mr. Cleveland\u2019s private life. To our sorrow and\nshame we find these cockatrice\u2019s eggs brooded and hatched by rash and\ncredulous clergymen. They could not go to Mr. Cleveland with honest\ninquiry, so they opened their ears to the harlot and the drunkard. They\nhave sought by hint, innuendo, irresponsible slander, to poison the\nfaith of holy men, of innocent women, and they have sought to make\nback-biting a copt virtue, and to change the sanctuary into a salacious\nwhispering-gallery. Is it for our sins, or for a trial of our faith,\nthat God has permitted the plagues of Egypt to revisit us? The land\nswarms with vermin, frogs slime our bread-troughs, and lice crawl about\nour chambers.\n\n\u201cDo timid ministers ever reflect that the guilt of a vice or a crime\nmeasures the guilt of him who charges them falsely? Slander takes on the\nguilt of crime alleged. True religion does not creep through twilight\npassages, but is open, frank, rejoicing not in iniquity, but rejoicing\nin the truth, hoping all things. These vespertilian saints, whose soft\nbat\u2019s wings bear them from house to house, and from town to town, in the\nservice of Baal, the God of flies and lies, will one day creep into the\nholes and clefts of rocks and hide themselves....\n\n\u201cWhen in the gloomy night of my own suffering I sounded every depth of\nsorrow, I vowed that if God would bring the day star of hope I would\nnever suffer brother, friend, or neighbor to go unfriended should a like\nserpent seek to crush him. That oath I will regard now. Because I know\nthe bitterness of venomous lies, I will stand against infamous lies that\nseek to sting to death an upright man and magistrate. Men counsel me to\nprudence lest I stir again my own griefs. No! I will not be prudent. If\nI refuse to interpose a shield of well-placed confidence between\nGovernor Cleveland and the swarm of liars that nuzzle in the mud, or\nsling arrows from ambush, may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth\nand my right hand forget its cunning! I will imitate the noble example\nset me by Plymouth Church in the day of my calamity. They were not\nashamed of my bonds. They stood by me with God-sent loyalty. It was a\nheroic deed. They have set my duty before me, and I will imitate their\nexample.\u201d\n\nOf course many of Mr. Beecher\u2019s friends were greatly exercised, and\nlamented what they feared would be a suicidal course. Again, for the\ntwentieth time or more, he was rushing upon self-destruction\u2014his\nprestige would be destroyed, his influence lost, and untold woes would\nfollow.\n\nAs we look back, scarce three years, we cannot but smile, in the light\nof subsequent events, at the great excitement and grief that existed\nthen.\n\nBut then it was real. Every effort was made at first to win Mr. Beecher\nto support Mr. Blaine, and then that he should _not_ support Governor\nCleveland, and this was carried even to the extent of threats.\n\nThe excitement threatened a serious division in his church, and the\ndanger seemed more real than on any previous occasion. Party zeal ran\nhigh.\n\nBut Mr. Beecher had acted only after careful deliberation; being\nsatisfied as to what his duty was, no argument could sway him in the\nleast that appealed to his fears or personal benefit.\n\nTo a clerical friend who wrote in early autumn, just before the real\ncampaign began, he replied:\n\n\u201c... But, now, hear me. If I thought it my duty to speak for Cleveland\nand against Blaine, I would do it, though I lost all my influence, all\nmy friends, my church, and even my own family. All considerations urged\nupon me which touch my feelings, hopes, interests, are repelled by me\nwith the whole force of my nature, and I cannot treat my friends better\nthan I do my innermost self. I will not be bribed even by love. I have\nbut a few years left. They shall not put to shame all my anti-slavery\ndays. I do not doubt that you love me, but if you loved me yet more you\nwould urge me to stand firmly to my conscientious convictions and not\nheed \u2018what men can do unto me.\u2019 The election of Blaine will be a sign of\nsuch demoralized moral sense as I never dreamed could befall Christian\nmen and ministers; or I _should_ feel so, if I had not seen good men and\nministers in the great anti-slavery struggle....\n\n\u201cI wish you would say to all my honest-hearted brethren, _please let me\nalone_! I am as old as you are, as diligent in seeking the truth, and as\nconscientious in deciding and acting.\u201d\n\nTo a letter of remonstrance and advice from a dear friend, a member of\nhis church, he wrote:\n\n\u201cI am sure that I receive with consideration any advice which grown-up\nmen desire to lay before me, especially those of my church. But, on the\nother hand, I hope the brethren will take into consideration that I am\nas much interested in being right as they can possibly be, and that I\nhave had some experience in public life, and that all that is said in\nthe newspapers, and constituting the knowledge in which the brethren\nact, is also before me, and that I have a profound interest in the\nwelfare of the nation and of the young men in it.\n\n\u201cThat, after forty years\u2019 hot experience of stormy times, I have been\nled, hitherto by God\u2019s providence, to the right conclusion.\n\n\u201cI am still in God\u2019s hands, and daily ask His guiding providence. What\nmore?\n\n\u201cThe alarm of friends, the party excitement of others, has no effect\nupon me whatever. Any _new and real information_ I shall be grateful\nfor, but to tell me nothing, and only to express amazement, wonder,\nconcern, etc., and let me know how damaging to my reputation and\ninterests it will be if I follow _my_ judgment, and not _theirs_, who\nlove me as I am sure these brethren do, indicates how far gone in\npolitical excitement they are, and how little they understand the man\nwhom they love.\n\n\u201cI shall do my duty as God reveals it to me, without a moment\u2019s\nconsideration of its effect on _me_. I am ready to resign my pastorate\nat an hour\u2019s notice, when I no longer have freedom to follow my\nconvictions, or when doing so divides the church and scatters the\ncongregation.\n\n\u201cI am thankful to the brethren who have written; even more so to those\nwho have not.\n\n\u201cI receive ten to forty letters a day from all over the land, clean and\nunclean, and merely glance at them and burn them.\u201d\n\nTo one who went to the extent of threats he replied:\n\n\u201cYour remarkable note of August 8th is received. I have nothing to say\nto the general views, except that every man should determine his duty\nfor himself and respect the same liberty in other people.\n\n\u201cTo your closing sentence, which contains the threat that, if I vote for\nCleveland, you \u2018(I) shall feel compelled to withdraw from your Church\nand your teachings,\u2019 I would only say that, having profited so little by\nmy teachings, as this arrogant sentence indicates, I should certainly\nadvise you to change your church relations in the hope of better\nresults.\u201d\n\nIt was not until the campaign had gotten under full headway, and within\nthree or four weeks of the election, that Mr. Beecher began to take any\nvery active part in it. At first he intended to speak only in New York\nand Brooklyn; but as the campaign progressed he realized the importance\nof devoting every energy to securing the States of New York, New Jersey,\nand Connecticut. Accordingly, during the last two weeks he spoke every\nday save Sunday, and on some days twice, visiting the more important\ncities of those three States. He was very earnest that the\n\u201cIndependents\u201d should not enter the Democratic party, but should\norganize as \u201cIndependent Republicans.\u201d\n\nHe thought that it was time that the political managers should\nunderstand, that there was a moral sense in the community that would not\nsubmit to bad nominations; that the best way to redeem his party was by\ndefeating unworthy nominees, and that, if this was persisted in, the\npoliticians would soon see the necessity of deferring to an enlightened\npublic sentiment, and putting in nomination only its best men.\n\nHe felt that the Republican party was being misled, by the same\ninfluences that had secured unwise or improper nominations, into a very\ndangerous path, that would ultimately lead to the utter destruction of\nthe party itself.\n\nIn one of his earlier speeches in the campaign of 1884, he voiced that\nfeeling when he spoke of his appearing in opposition to the organized\naction of the party:\n\n\u201cI confess, at the risk of the imputation of some immodesty, that my\nappearance here to-night, to antagonize the organized action of the\nRepublican party, is itself a fact of the most significant character.\nBefore many of you were born I was rocking the cradle of the Republican\nparty. I fought its early battles when it was in an apparently hopeless\nminority. I advocated its cause, speaking day and night, at the risk of\nmy health and of my life itself, which I counted as nothing compared\nwith the interests of my country, when Fremont was our first notable\ncandidate. When Mr. Lincoln became our candidate I gave all I had of\ntime, strength, influence, and persuasion, and when his election was\nascertained and efforts were made to intimidate the North, and to\nprevent his being inaugurated, I went up and down through this country\nstiffening the backs of willow-backed patriots. I faced mobs, I preached\nday and night in my own church, to hold the North up to its own rights\nand interests. When the war broke out, I sent to it the only boy I had\nbig enough to hold a musket. And as the war went on my contribution\ncould not be much, but such as it was I gave it\u2014I gave it as a mother\ngives her breast to her child.\n\n\u201cAnd when, seeking some rest from exhausting cares and labors, I went\nabroad, I did not suffer the grass to grow under my feet, but, in the\nface of royalty and aristocracy and of great wealth in England, I upheld\nthe justice and the rectitude of the cause for which we were all\nstriving. And at every canvass from that day to this I have not held\nback health, strength, or influence. Why, then, is it that I am now\nopposed to the organized movement of the Republican party? That is a\nsignificant question.\n\n\u201cI am now opposing the party whose cradle I rocked, because I do not\nmean to be a pall-bearer to carry the coffin of that party to the grave.\nThe Republican party is on its way to destruction, unless you turn the\nswitch and run it on a side track. And by all my love of my country\u2014and\nit is next to my love of my God\u2014by all my pride in the past, I feel\nbound to do whatever God will inspire me to do, to stop the ruinous\nprogress of the Republican party and to save it.\n\n\u201cIt behooves you, therefore, not to make mere amusement of the work of\nthis evening. I speak to you as to a jury. The case before you is not\nthat of some trembling culprit, or some wronged citizen seeking redress.\nIt is your whole country that is before you to-night, whose cause I am\nto plead\u2014to plead as if life or death hung on the issues. I am in dead\nearnest. It is very natural that men working through a political party,\nshould, by and by, come to look upon all events in the community in\ntheir relation to party welfare and party success. But I, who have had\nnothing to do with parties, except as moral instruments, naturally look\nupon their movements and purposes from the moral standpoint. What are\nthey attempting to do for this great people? What does their success\nmean? How does it stand alongside the intelligence, the morality, the\ntrue religion of this people, alongside that patriotism which rests its\nfeet on morality, but whose head stands in the spirituality which\nconnects man with God? I study public affairs from the moral and\nreligious standpoint, and that which is offensive to God may I never\nlive to see the day when it may be acceptable to me and to my\ncountrymen.\n\n\u201cLooking forward, as the pilot looks, what are our perils? The war is\nover. The great questions that agitated the community are past. You\ncan\u2019t bring them back. There are, however, two great dangers that betide\nour government. One is the danger that comes from the corrupt use of\nwealth; the other, that which comes from the corruption of too-long-held\npower. It is a common proverb, \u2018An honest man can bear watching; a\ndishonest man needs it.\u2019 This is just as true of politics as of common\nprocedure. This is the age of enterprise, of production, of commerce\u2014of\nmoney. Russia, Austria, and France failed in their greatest recent wars\nand enterprises because those countries were honeycombed with official\ncorruption. We are in danger from the same cause.\u201d\n\nHe regarded the introduction of the _moral element_ into politics as an\nevent of the greatest importance.\n\nPolitics had become so eminently \u201cpractical\u201d that any one who should\nsuggest the wisdom, or even propriety, of basing political action on any\nmoral principle, was in danger of being laughed at as a \u201ccrank,\u201d \u201cdude,\u201d\nor \u201cpolitical pharisee.\u201d\n\nAnd when in the birth of the Prohibition party, and the sudden uprising\nof the Independent Republicans, he saw the attempt to found practical\npolitics upon a purely moral foundation, he hailed them both as among\nthe most hopeful signs of the times.\n\nWriting of these two movements, he said:\n\n\u201cMen of moral aims have been ruled out as impracticables, as ignorant of\n_real_ politics, as enthusiasts and sentimentalists, as idealists and\ndoctrinaires. This has been very true, and they have hitherto hung on\nthe border of parties like a fringe of no substance or use. But the\ndevelopment of the party of Prohibitionists and of Independent\nRepublicans is a disclosure, it seems to me, of a great providential\ndevelopment in politics, and that there is to be hereafter a place found\nfor the _moral elements_ in the politics of our country!\n\n\u201cI have spoken of the two formative elements as likely to coalesce. For,\nthough there be thousands who cannot become technical prohibitionists,\nyet they will help them to create a higher moral sentiment on the\nsubject of temperance.\u201d\n\nThe results of the election and the part that Mr. Beecher took therein\nhave become history, and need not be further detailed.\n\nMr. Beecher\u2019s action was not, as has been erroneously suggested, caused\nby any sudden impulse. On the contrary, it was the result of careful and\nearnest deliberation, and was not taken until his mind was fully made\nup, and it retained the approval of his later judgment, after the heat\nand excitement of the contest had died out.\n\nIn his Thanksgiving sermons, it was his custom to review to some extent\nthe political as well as material growth of the country, to find in both\nwhatever there might be fit for thanksgiving.\n\nOn Thanksgiving, 1884, he, at first, intended to review the course of\nthe events of the campaign just completed, and commenced a sermon for\nthat purpose. After writing a part, he changed his plans and prepared\nanother, in which he reviewed the reconstruction of the country since\nthe war. From this we have quoted in a previous chapter.\n\nThe manuscript of his unfinished sermon we have, and, though it is a\nfragment only, it will be of value as showing his more sober judgment,\nreviewing in retrospect the campaign just past and his part therein.\n\n\u201cDuring the great political campaign which has just terminated, I have\nscrupulously refrained from introducing into the pulpit, or into the\nsocial meetings of this church, a word that, directly or indirectly, had\nany bearing upon politics.\n\n\u201cNot that I had not the right, but because it was not expedient. Out of\nthe bounds of the church I felt called to take an active part.\n\n\u201cI am not willing that you should be ignorant of my inmost motives, and\nthat you should have spread out before you the whole map of affairs as\nlooked at from my standpoint. Many of you, steadfast friends, will not\nagree with my theory and judgment of my duty; but you will acquit me of\napostasy, or of inconsistency, and perhaps will even admit that, if my\nview of the whole condition of national affairs was correct, my action\nand career have been in one direction for forty years, and _that the\nvery influences_ which led me to help in the formation of the Republican\nparty, to accept its hardships, its perils, its reproaches, in all the\nsuccessive periods of its development, have at this late day led me to\ndissent from its aims and policy. I have not left the party. I am\nstanding on the _very ground_ over which the battles have raged, when I\nhave lost good repute and suffered endless revilings.\n\n\u201cNo, I have left nothing. If there has been any change, it is not in me.\nI would not take one step away from those great moral principles which\nhave been the strength of this great historic party.\n\n\u201cOthers may think that I have mistaken the reality of affairs, and been\nmisled by will-o\u2019-wisp lights.\n\n\u201cBut, taking all counsel of all sobriety and deliberation, every true\nman must follow his own ripe judgment. I have followed mine, and,\nlooking back over the canvass, I should be conceited indeed if I said\nthat I had been perfect, had carried a cool intensity always, said\nnothing too severely. Accepting my own limitations, I nevertheless look\nback upon the past few months as worthy to be associated with the months\nand years of half a century of public labor, and indeed, if you will\nforgive the conceit, I regard this service as the very blossom of my\nlife.\n\n\u201cThese words I speak to my friends and to my church. I owe no apology or\nexplanation to the public. But to the great multitude of members of the\nChurch and society, with whom so much of my life has been spent, whose\nfriendship and love I have had, whose unity of heart and soul around me\nhas been the source of so much gladness and strength; _to you_, fathers,\nmothers, and friends of every name\u2014to you, laying aside my too sensitive\npride and my somewhat fierce sense of personal independence, I shall\nto-day unbosom myself, and shall try to give you a bird\u2019s-eye view of\nthe condition of the United States at this hour, and my understanding of\nwhat it is that God\u2019s providence is calling us to.\n\n\u201cI shall enumerate, point by point, the themes for thanksgiving to-day:\n\n\u201cTo-day is waging a great battle between _Optimism_ and _Pessimism_.\nWhat is Optimism? That happy temperament which leads one to see all\nthings in a hopeful light and in a joyful courage.\n\n\u201cWhat is Pessimism? It is that structure of mind which inclines one to\nsee all events in a sad and discouraging way. Either disposition carried\nto its farthest limit is unphilosophical. Good is not all good; bad is\nnot all bad. Good and evil are combined, like lights and shadows in\nart\u2014sometimes, as in Rembrandt, voluminous darkness nursing a small spot\nof light; sometimes all light and hardly enough dark to cast a shadow.\n\n\u201cIn looking at our own day and our own country there is both light and\nshadow. There are reasons for criticism and regret, but more for\n_gladness and thanksgiving_.\n\n\u201cGreat excitements in monarchical governments are great dangers. When\nthe government takes care of the people, the people feel little need of\ncaring for themselves. When the people, by the genius of their\ninstitutions, are to look out for themselves, they learn how, like lofty\ntrees, to let violent winds sway all their branches without disturbing\nthe _root_. That is anchored fast.\n\n\u201cThe roaring anger of the wind and the sharp cry of anguish in the\nresisting branches soon pass and die away, and the tree, unclasped by\nthe demon Storm, comes back to peace, only a few leaves lost, a few\nbranches twisted.\n\n\u201cThree weeks ago a foreigner, beholding the superlative excitement of\nthe whole community, East, North, West, and South, would have thought\nthat there could never be peace more. Newspapers flew like unquenchable\narrows every whither, business was almost forgotten, the streets were\ncrowded processions, meetings were convoked, and men of every\nprofession, arguing, appealing, inflamed the people. Friends let go each\nother\u2019s hands, families were divided for a time. Words ran high, every\ntruth was carried to the utmost limit of violence. A wordy prophesy\nfilled the land, of good or of evil. The lawyer forgot his brief, the\nartist his \u00e6sthetic dream, the merchant his bargains, the judge the\nplushy decorum of the bench. Refined ministers of the Gospel, loving\nelegant retiracy, burst forth in interviews. Venerable pastors presided\nat wild political demonstrations, and some even went forth speaking up\nand down the land, like Saul of old, in prophesying fury. Hundreds of\nhonored and beloved ministers marched in full panoply of zeal, like\nBalaam of old, to curse....\n\n\u201cThree weeks have passed! It is all gone. No more banners, lanterns,\ntransparencies, or shouts of men. The lamps are out, the men gone home\nto work, trades resumed, the lawyer to the courts, the clergyman to his\npulpit. The anger, the scare, the grief of surprise that everybody had,\nthat everybody should have said or done what everybody did, is dying\nout, the sore places are healing, friends are reaching out kindly hands\nagain.\n\n\u201cThe storm that darkened the heavens, the turbulent sea that thundered\non the shore, have resumed their peaceful mien. The only mourners are\nthey who sought and found not, who knocked and unto whom it was not\nopened. Even they will ere long cool their anger, shorten their sighs,\nand, like a weary child in its mother\u2019s lap, hide all its grief in\nsleep.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher was very much gratified, not only at the election of Mr.\nCleveland, for whom he had grown to feel a strong personal friendship,\nand in whose administration, despite the occasional mistakes that proved\neven the President to be subject to the fallibilities of mankind, he\nfound so much of moral courage, firmness, and honest good sense to\nadmire and approve, but in addition to these reasons, he felt that an\nadministration in which the South should be permitted to have a part,\nmeant the reuniting of the country in fact as well as in name, and a\nfitting sequel to that reconstruction which he had so earnestly\nadvocated nearly twenty years before. He had earnestly prayed that he\nmight see the day when our country should be _one nation_, without the\nlines of a bitter sectionalism, dividing North from South or East from\nWest; and in his last year expressed the great satisfaction he felt in\nthe part he had been permitted to play in bringing about such a result.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXIX.\n\nA Preacher\u2014His Place\u2014His Training\u2014His Estimate of the\n    Work\u2014Defects\u2014Effectual Call\u2014Upon Drawing an Audience\u2014His\n    Theory\u2014Preparation\u2014Results\u2014A Theologian\u2014His\n    Orthodoxy\u2014Evolution\u2014Ordinances\u2014Christian\n    Unity\u2014Sectarianism\u2014Peacemaker.\n\n\nIt now belongs to us, among the closing chapters of this biography, to\nspeak of Henry Ward Beecher, or rather to allow him, for the most part,\nto speak for himself, as a preacher, a theologian, and an administrator\nof ordinances\u2014three spheres of activity so blended that it is of\nadvantage to treat them together. His doctrines necessarily shaped his\npreaching, his preaching colored and emphasized his theology, and both\ntogether determined his estimate of the Church as an organized body, and\nthe value of its rites and ceremonies.\n\nAmong them, the preacher stood pre-eminent. He himself regarded\npreaching as especially his vocation, and in his judgment it ranked\nhighest of all earthly pursuits. Nowhere else was he so happy as in this\nhis chosen work. As a preacher he was most widely known, and for his\nlabors in this sphere, we doubt not, he will be the longest remembered.\n\nHis field was broader than was ever before given to any preacher, and no\nman that ever lived preached continuously to so large and influential\naudiences. During his forty years in Plymouth pulpit men from every part\nof the civilized world came to hear him, and to every part of the\ncivilized world did his published sermons find their way, bringing\ninstruction, inspiration, and comfort to multitudes.\n\nOf his rank as a preacher, it is not for us to speak dogmatically. We\nstood too near him\u2014perhaps all men of the present time stand too near\nhim\u2014to be impartial judges. Many letters and reports of sermons have\ncome to us in which he is given the first place among the preachers of\nthis age, and a few, among them some from men who themselves hold the\nfirst rank, place him before all preachers since the Apostle Paul. Which\nof these, or whether either, is the true estimate or not, it does not\nbelong to us nor to any man living to decide; but we believe that the\nlatter judgment will in time largely prevail.\n\nThe open heart that receives inspiration of God; the prophetic insight\nof the true preacher that sees into the heart of things, and sees God\nthere, and believes, with an intense conviction born of experience, that\nGod\u2019s nature is love; that this love is not for the Jew only, for those\nof favored lineage, of excellent position, of high moral standard and\nattainment, or of right belief, but is for the Gentile, for the\nwandering, the erring, the lost, outside the Church, outside even the\nsympathies and hope of religious men, the only power that can save, but\nable to save to the uttermost; the ability to see this love incarnated\nin Jesus Christ and feel it as sunshine upon the soul, continually\ndispelling the darkness; to love Him, as He is so manifested, with an\nall-absorbing passion of personal affection, before which all things\npass away from their old adjustments and become new; to see Him not only\nhead of the Church, but head over all things; to find in Him the centre\nof unity which the world needs, middle walls of partition between Jew\nand Gentile, between learned and unlearned, between ranks and classes,\nbetween science and religion, broken down; the power to rejoice in\nsufferings for His sake, to bear without faltering, to love without\nfailing, although \u201cthe more we love the less we be loved\u201d; the ability\nto open this Gospel to others, in speech that moved all hearts, as the\nwinds move the tree-tops, that never touched an object, however common,\nbut to leave it exalted, set in some new and higher relation; the\nability to move men to think, to act, to love\u2014all this, we believe, has\nnever been possessed to an equal degree with Mr. Beecher by any preacher\nsince Saint Paul preached to the Athenians, taking the altar of the\nunknown god for his text; since he described charity to the Corinthians,\ntold the Colossians that all the creation _consists_, stands in harmony,\nin Jesus Christ, and wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians. Nor do we\nbelieve that to any one but to him has there been given a work that so\nnearly resembled that of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, whose part\nit was to bridge over by a living faith, or rather by faith in a living\nOne, the vast differences that kept classes and orders and nationalities\nseparate; to give expression to the new and broader hope; to reconcile\nthe old to the new and more vital faith, and show the relation of a\nrisen Lord to a material universe. But in this we may be unduly\nprejudiced by our affection. We will let the sifting processes of the\nyears decide.\n\nThat he became a minister, as did his brothers, by reason of the\nunswerving faith and prayer of the parents, is already well known. \u201cOut\nof six sons not one escaped from the pulpit.\u201d \u201cMy mother dedicated me to\nthe work of the foreign missionary; she laid her hands upon me, wept\nover me, and set me apart to preach the Gospel among the heathen, and I\nhave been doing it all my life long, for it so happens one does not need\nto go far from his own country to find his audience before him.\u201d\n\nUshered into the preparation for the ministry by the parental faith,\nstumbling and discouraged and ready to give up the work, another hand\nwas not wanting to open still more clearly the way, draw back the\ncurtains, and let in the light:\n\n\u201cI beheld Him as a helper, as the soul\u2019s midwife, as the soul\u2019s\nphysician, and I felt because I was weak I could come to Him; because I\ndid not know how, and, if I did know, I had not the strength, to do the\nthings that were right\u2014that was the invitation that He gave to me out of\nmy conscious weakness and want. I will not repeat the scene of that\nmorning when light broke fairly on my mind; how one might have thought\nthat I was a lunatic escaped from confinement; how I ran up and down\nthrough the primeval forest of Ohio, shouting, \u2018Glory, glory!\u2019 sometimes\nin loud tones and at other times whispered in an ecstasy of joy and\nsurprise. All the old troubles gone, and light breaking in on my mind, I\ncried: \u2018I have found my God; I have found my God!\u2019 From that hour I\nconsecrated myself to the work of the ministry anew, for before that I\nhad about made up my mind to go into some other profession.\u201d\n\nHis early training-school for effective preaching was well selected. It\nwas, as is well known, one of the little villages on the banks of the\nOhio River, where the wants of river barge-men and frontiermen demanded\nhis attention. It was there he decided what his life-work should be.\n\n\u201c\u2018My business shall be to save men, and to bring to bear upon them those\nviews that are my comfort, that are the bread of life to me\u2019; and I went\nout among them almost entirely cut loose from the ordinary church\ninstitutions and agencies, knowing nothing but \u2018Christ, and Him\ncrucified,\u2019 the sufferer for mankind. Did not the men round me need such\na Saviour? Was there ever such a field as I found? Every sympathy of my\nbeing was continually solicited for the ignorance, for the rudeness, for\nthe aberrations, for the avarice, for the quarrelsomeness of the men\namong whom I was, and I was trying every form and presenting Christ as a\nmedicine to men. I went through the woods and through camp-meetings and\nover prairies. Everywhere my vacations were all missionary tours,\npreaching Christ for the hope of salvation. I am not saying this to show\nyou how I came to the knowledge of Christ, but to show you how I came to\nthe habit and forms of my ministry. I tried everything on to folks.\u201d\n\nAdded to the forces of experience and surroundings was always that of\nhis own personal, natural endowment. This he found fault with and tried\nto change, as most people do at some period of their lives, but finally\naccepted and concluded to use as best he could, without murmuring, but\nalways conscious of its limitations.\n\n\u201cI have my own peculiar temperament, I have my own method of preaching,\nand my method and temperament necessitate errors. I am not worthy to be\nrelated in the hundred-thousandth degree to those more happy men who\nnever make a mistake in the pulpit. I make a great many. I am impetuous.\nI am intense at times on subjects that deeply move me. I feel as though\nall the ocean were not strong enough to be the power behind my words,\nnor all the thunders that were in the heavens, and it is of necessity\nthat such a nature as that should give such intensity at times to parts\nof doctrine as to exaggerate them when you come to bring them into\nconnection with a more rounded-out and balanced view. I know it\u2014I know\nit as well as you do. I would not do it if I could help it; but there\nare times when it is not I that is talking, when I am caught up and\ncarried away so that I know not whether I am in the body or out of the\nbody, when I think things in the pulpit that I never could think in the\nstudy, and when I have feelings that are so far different from any that\nbelong to the lower or normal condition that I neither can regulate them\nnor understand them. I see things and I hear sounds, and seem, if not in\nthe seventh heaven, yet in a condition that leads me to understand what\nPaul said\u2014that he heard things which it was not possible for a man to\nutter. I am acting under such a temperament as that. I have got to use\nit, or not preach at all. I know very well I do not give crystalline\nviews nor thoroughly guarded views; there is often an error on this side\nand an error on that, and I cannot stop to correct them. A man might run\naround, like a kitten after its tail, all his life, if he were going\naround explaining all his expressions and all the things he had written.\nLet them go. They will correct themselves. The average and general\ninfluence of a man\u2019s teaching will be more mighty than any single\nmisconception, or misapprehension through misconception.\u201d\n\nSuccessful as he was, he yet had none of the self-conceit that would\nlead him to believe that he had reached perfection; on the contrary, his\nlanguage was always that of one who had not yet attained, but was\ncontinually reaching out unto it. \u201cYoung gentlemen, I want to tell you\ntrue preaching is yet to come. Of all professions for young men to look\nforward to, I do not know another one that seems to me to have such\nscope before it, in the future, as preaching.\n\n\u201cAnd as my years increase I want to bear a testimony. I suppose I have\nhad as many opportunities as any man here, or any living man, of what\nare called honors and influence and wealth. The doors have been opened,\nthe golden doors, for years. I want to bear witness that the humblest\nlabor which a minister of God can do for a soul for Christ\u2019s sake is\ngrander and nobler than all learning, than all influence and power, than\nall riches. And, knowing so much as I do of society, I have this\ndeclaration to make: that if I were called to live my life over again,\nand I were to have a chance of the vocations which men seek, I would\nagain choose, and with an impetus arising from the experience of this\nlong life, the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for honor, for\ncleanliness, for work that never ends, having the promise of the life\nthat now is as well as of that which is to come\u2014I would choose the\npreaching of the Gospel: to them that perish, foolishness; to them that\nbelieve and accept it, life everlasting.\u201d\n\nAnd that not because of great success: \u201cThere is a deep enjoyment in\nhaving devoted yourself, soul and body, to the welfare of your\nfellow-men, so that you have no thought and no care but for them. There\nis a pleasure in that which is never touched by any ordinary experiences\nin human life. It is the highest. I look back to my missionary days as\nbeing transcendently the happiest period of my life. The sweetest\npleasures I have ever known are not those that I have now, but those\nthat I remember, when I was unknown, in an unknown land, among a\nscattered people, mostly poor, and to whom I had to go and preach the\nGospel, man by man, house by house, gathering them on Sundays, a\nfew\u2014twenty, fifty, or a hundred, as the case might be\u2014and preaching the\nGospel more formally to them as they were able to bear it.\u201d\n\nIn his whole course we believe that he was as little moved by personal\nambition as any man could possibly be. Upon his graduation he took the\nfirst church that asked for his services\u2014as undesirable a church at that\ntime probably, in position, character, and strength, as could well have\nbeen found. And the two removes he made were the result of necessity\nrather than of choice. He had no large and stock sermons with which to\nawaken the admiration of men. Large subjects he had in plenty, but the\nsermon was such as grew at the time.\n\nFrom our knowledge of him we believe he spoke with absolute truthfulness\nwhen he says:\n\n\u201cI have had no ambitions; I have sought no laurels; I have deliberately\nrejected many things that would have been consonant to my taste. It\nwould have been for me a great delight to be a scholar; I should have\nrelished exceedingly to have perfected my thought in the study, and to\nhave given it such qualities as that it should stand as classics stand.\nBut when the work was pressed upon me, and my relations to my own\ncountry and to mankind became urgent, I remember, as if it were but\nyesterday, when I laid my literary ambition and my scholarly desires\nupon the altar and said: \u2018If I can do more for my Master and for men by\nmy style of thinking and working, I am willing to work in a second-rate\nway; I am willing to leave writing behind my back; I am willing not to\ncarve statues of beauty, but simply to do the things that would please\nGod in the salvation of men.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe had not only no ambitions for himself, but he had no patience in that\nseeking for place which, sometimes with the best of intentions,\nministers adopt. We well remember how, early in our ministry, hearing\nthat a larger church was offered to us, and fearing lest, in our\ninexperienced zeal, we might accept, he telegraphed us not to decide\nuntil we had seen him, but to come on to Brooklyn, that he might urge\nupon us the importance of a young man\u2019s staying in his first parish\nuntil \u201che had done something,\u201d by which he meant doing the work he had\ngone there to undertake.\n\nTwo things he considered essential to an effectual call to the minister\nto change his parish: one was \u201can open door in front, and the other was\na kick from behind.\u201d It was not enough that there was an open door; some\npressure of health or dissatisfaction was needed to make a perfect call.\nWhat a man was to do when he got the kick, and there was no open door in\nfront, we do not remember.\n\nAgain he writes me:\n\n\u201cMY DEAR SAM:\n\n\u201cIt is not needful that a Christian should be a Stoic, and indifferent\nto all experiences of success and popularity among others; yet, if a\nstraightforward working man finds that he does not produce popular\nresults, it is not for him to worry about it. If a man reaches the true\nspirit, he will find a certain high and solemn satisfaction, down deep\nin himself, that he is thoroughly and earnestly faithful without the\noutward signs and remunerations.\n\n\u201cThis is working \u2018as unto the Lord,\u2019 and not unto men. You will find\nmuch of this in Paul, who was not popular, as Apollos was, and who dug\nout his results by the hardest\u2014and saw but little at that\u2014of all his\nreal usefulness. Read 2 Cor. xii. 12-15. _That last verse_ is deeply\naffecting. It goes far beyond and below any experience that you or I\never had. As to the _not drawing_ large audiences, my own experience is\nprobably, in my early ministry, far less encouraging than yours. My\nLawrenceburg church held about one hundred and fifty to two hundred, and\nwas never crowded. At Indianapolis I never saw my church really full but\nthree or four times in eight years. I think that my audience for the\nfirst ten years of my preaching life did not average two hundred and\nfifty.\n\n\u201cI never regarded myself as particularly popular, nor destined to any\nconsiderable success more than belongs to any hard-working and sensible\nminister. The fact is, when I came East I came with a real but\nunexpressed determination to work hard for _common folks_, and not to\nexpect much; and I have become thoroughly seasoned to the feeling that\nlarge, hard, and painful work, heartily performed for Christ, is dearer\nto _Him_ when it pays nothing outwardly to the doer, than when, by overt\nsuccess, it gratifies the natural feelings.\n\n\u201cIn this, too, we must learn \u2018_to walk by faith_ and not by _sight_,\u2019 by\nthe inside eyes and not by the outside vision.\n\n\u201cI think a minister who is discouraged should read the eleventh and\ntwelfth chapters of Second Corinthians every week. It is the most\nwonderful record of experience ever penned, if you consider how\nuncomplaining\u2014without acrimony\u2014how cheerful, how wholesome and\nvictorious is the whole spirit in which his career is recited. It is not\nthe language of a discouraged and baffled man. It is the calm retrospect\nof a great nature, superior in one part of his soul to experiences which\nhe acutely feels in another part.\n\n                                        \u201cYours lovingly,\n                                                    \u201cH. W. BEECHER.\u201d\n\nHis theory of preaching, which came to be formed out of his experience\nof the grace of God and his labors for men, he himself has given:\n\n\u201cTo preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ; to have Christ so melted and\ndissolved in you that when you preach your own self you preach Him as\nPaul did; to have every part of you living and luminous with Christ, and\nthen to make use of everything that is in you, your analogical\nreasoning, your logical reasoning, your imagination, your mirthfulness,\nyour humor, your indignation, your wrath; to take everything that is in\nyou all steeped in Jesus Christ, and to throw yourself with all your\npower upon a congregation\u2014that has been my theory of preaching the\nGospel. A good many folks have laughed at the idea of my being a fit\npreacher because I laughed, and because I made somebody else laugh. I\nnever went out of my way to do it in my life; but if some sudden turn of\na sentence, like the crack of a whip, sets men off, I do not think any\nworse of it for that\u2014not a bit. I have felt that man should consecrate\nevery gift that he has got in him that has any relation to the\npersuasion of men and to the melting of men\u2014that he should put them all\non the altar, kindle them all, and let them burn for Christ\u2019s sake. I\nhave never sought singularity, and I have never avoided singularity.\nWhen they wanted some other sort of teaching I have always said, \u2018Get\nit. If you want my kind, here I am ready to serve you; if you do not,\nserve yourself better.\u2019\u201d\n\nFor this preaching there was always going on a certain preparation,\nalmost involuntarily. It consisted in a constant study of the processes\nof nature around him, examining them and digesting them, until he saw\nthe relations in which they stood to other facts, and a principle was\ndiscovered or an illustration of some deeper moral and spiritual truth\nwas gained. This action of his mind, we believe, became almost\nautomatic. He had an insatiable curiosity to learn facts. But he wanted\nthem for the same reason that a miller wants grain, to grind and make\nbread. So he worked them over until he had got something from them that\nfed his mind or heart, and this was the only way he could remember them.\n\nFor this preaching there had been carried on for years a study of the\nBible. The evidences, found in note-books and books of analysis, of his\nbroad and painstaking study of the Gospels have astonished us. People\nseeing him always on the wing, finding him never in his study\u2014in fact,\nhaving in his house no study-room, as such\u2014got the impression that he\nworked but little; but they made a great mistake. He worked, but it was\nin his own way. The winter that I saw him most he had Stanley\u2019s\n\u201cCommentary upon the Epistles to the Corinthians,\u201d which he carried for\nweeks in his carpet-bag, studied, and annotated from beginning to end.\nMr. Pond, who has travelled with him thousands of miles, says that Bible\nreading and study was a part of his daily work while on the train.\n\nThe results of such reading and study appear in scores of little\nnote-books that he used, some of which lie before us, containing\nsubjects, heads of sermons jotted down at moments of inspiration, in the\nfamily circle, on the railroad, in the street-car, after a talk with\nsome friend, written for the most part in that strong, full hand that is\nso well known, sometimes plainly, at other times so obscurely as to make\nit doubtful if he himself could read it after it had become cold.\n\nThis was his method of getting subjects. These were the acorn thoughts,\nout of which grew up in time strong, wide-spreading oak-tree sermons.\n\nWith eyes wide open to see things, he kept his active sympathy and\nhearty fellow-feeling for men in exercise by constant intercourse with\nthose about him. Some have a regard for mankind in general, but only\ncriticism and coldness for the concrete specimen before them. This was\nnot the case with him; he liked the common men of the present, and made\nit an object to get acquainted with them and to be with them. Very\nseldom did he cross the river on the ferry-boat but he made his way up\ninto the pilot-house, to which a key had been given him, to have a talk\nwith the pilot.\n\nWe have been often asked, \u201cHow does Mr. Beecher prepare his sermons?\u201d\nHis general preparation we have already given. The more special\npreparation for preaching on the Sabbath began on Saturday and consisted\nin doing as little work as possible\u2014doing what pleased him, making it a\nkind of active rest-day. Perhaps, if the weather permitted, he ran up to\nPeekskill to look over the place, and get rid of all friction and rasp\nby giving attention to its common and homely details, or to feed his\nimagination by looking out upon its beautiful landscape. Perhaps he\nspent it in the city. If so, he has probably been over to New York,\nlooking into shop-windows, dropping into Appleton\u2019s to look at books, or\ninto Tiffany\u2019s to look at gems, having a little chat in each place with\nsome of the clerks. You may be sure he did not forget his afternoon nap\nof from one to two hours; wherever he was he aimed to secure that. He\nhas fed well to-day, but has been careful not to eat anything that does\nnot agree with him. He will have the body in perfect order for the great\nwork of the morrow. The evening he spent quietly at home, or, possibly,\nran into one or two of the homes where he was most familiar, where he\ncould have his own way and be not bored by anybody\u2019s trying to draw him\nout into some excited discussion. If you had followed him there you\nwould very likely have found him taking his ease upon the sofa, while\nthe family life went on around him, in which he took part by humorous\nsallies or quiet suggestions, as the fancy prompted him; home and a few\ngames of backgammon with Mrs. Beecher, and to bed by eleven o\u2019clock. Up\nto this time he has not decided upon the subject or text that he will\nhandle on the morrow; to have chosen it so early as this, especially to\nhave written any part of it down, would have killed his sermon the next\nday. He could not have kindled up to it and made it a living thing, if\nit had been for so long a time buried on parchment. Even upon so\nimportant a matter as his first lecture of the Lyman Beecher lectureship\nin Yale College\u2014a new enterprise, with the faculty of the college as\nwell as the clergymen of the city present, and his lecture to be\nreported in the religious press\u2014he did not touch pen to paper until\nafter he had reached New Haven, taken dinner, had his nap, and was\nwithin an hour of its delivery, although of course the subject-matter\nhad been for a long time a-brewing. Then while shaving the outline came\nclear to his mind, and he slashed his face with his razor in his\neagerness, but his lecture secured the hearty and grateful commendation\nof Dr. Leonard Bacon, who said: \u201cIf I had heard such talk as that before\nI began to preach, it would have made a better preacher of me.\u201d\n\nThe decision was made in a general way when he awoke in the morning\u2014that\nis, the kind of sermon he would preach that day. If he was heavy and a\nlittle cloudy in the higher faculties, he would select a subject that\nwas in harmony with that state of mind. If he was stirred in spirit and\nimagination, a subject that drew upon those higher elements, and that\nministered to the same in others, would be decided upon. There was no\napproach to a sanctimonious expression on his face as he came down to\nthe breakfast-table, and he did not refuse to take part in the\nconversation, whatever it might be; and very likely there would some\nhumorous remark drop from his lips, or he would steal the bread from the\nplate of one of the children as usual. Yet it was all done with the air\nof a man that had something that engaged his attention apart from us.\nFamily prayers were likely to be short that morning, and if there were\nany of those delays that sometimes occur in the best-regulated families,\nhe would depute some one else to conduct them. And then he locked\nhimself in his own room, and for an hour and a half must be left\nundisturbed, except in the case of some imperative necessity, and then\nto be approached by no one but his wife. No noise in the halls. The hour\nof the whole week had come to him, and he must have it without\ninterruption. Of course none of us, and no one but God, ever saw him in\nthat hour, but we know that then he made his final and definite\nselection of a subject, perhaps taking it from one of those little\nnote-books; that he wrote with his goose-quill pen, upon large sheets of\npaper, his introduction; that he put down head after head, with such\nopening as the time permitted, and gave a word of illustration here and\nthere. The vision stood before him, and as hastily as possible he\nsketched the outline. As the bell began to ring for the last time, some\nfifteen minutes before the opening of the service, he would come out\nwith his papers hastily thrown together and held in his hand, or thrust\ninto his coat-pocket, and, with scarcely a word to any one, put on his\nhat, take Mrs. Beecher on his arm, and start for the church.\n\nThis hour may be shortened. It may be spent in some other place than in\nhis study, but as a rule it was had, this time of supreme choice and\narrangement, and jotting down the heads of his sermon. As an extreme\nillustration of his powers of making all places available, and to seize\nthe most outwardly unpropitious surroundings for this final preparation,\nI can say from personal knowledge that the notes of the sermon which he\npreached in Charleston in 1865 to the thousands in Zion Church, and\nwhich was one of great scope and power, was outlined in the outhouse of\nthe home where we were stopping, on scraps of envelopes which he\nhappened to have with him. From thence we went directly to the church\nand to the delivery of that grand sermon. When I spoke to him afterwards\nabout the sermon and its power, he said: \u201cThe vision came to me there,\nand if I could only have brought it out as I saw it, it would have been\nworth hearing; but I could not.\u201d\n\nWhen he preached upon the occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth\nanniversary of the founding of the Congregational Church in Stamford, he\ncame into my house hastily, stopping only long enough to kiss his\ndaughter as he hurried upstairs. In about fifteen minutes he came down,\nputting away some notes in his side-pocket, and said to her: \u201cWell, I\nhave got my sermon ready for the evening.\u201d This was in the forenoon.\nBeing prepared so long beforehand, it got cold before the time for its\ndelivery, and when he went into the pulpit he felt barren and dry.\nNeither the singing by the choir nor the prayer by a brother minister,\nof which he spoke afterwards very highly, gave him the desired relief,\nand he sat with the fixed, settled expression of a man who is bound to\ndo his duty as well as he can; but to those who knew him well there was\na lack of the light in the eye and the deep, full, restful look of\ncountenance which was marked in him when he was all prepared. It\nhappened that we had at that time a solo-singer of great richness and\nsweetness of voice, and she sang for an offertory just before preaching.\n\u201cThe Three Kings of the Orient.\u201d The sympathetic rendering of the words\nof that beautiful solo smote the rock; the waters gushed out and\nsuffused soul and intellect, and the sermon was one of great power and\nbeauty.\n\nBecause of its adaptation to awaken devotion in his own heart and in the\nhearts of his audience he valued organ music, but it must be rendered by\none who himself felt its power and could express this feeling through\nthe instrument. If the organist failed in this, no brilliancy of\nexecution nor facility in rendering popular tunes could atone for the\nfundamental lack. By reason of John Zundel\u2019s ability to express and\ninterpret religious emotion he valued him above all players that ever\nofficiated at the organ in Plymouth Church. As with the organ, so with\nthe choir. No efficiency in the leader of the choir, in the machinery,\ncould atone for the lack of appreciation of the devotional element in\nthe music.\n\nIn the Scripture-reading he was himself, feeding upon the word which he\nread, drinking in and appropriating its truths; and in the prayer he\ncame to the fountain-head, to Christ Himself, for refreshing and life\npower.\n\nAnd now for the sermon itself. For the first few moments his eyes\nfollowed the manuscript closely. He seemed to be reading; perhaps he\nwas, and perhaps there were only catch sentences upon the page which he\nwas scanning so carefully. He was gathering his forces, getting under\nheadway, making preparatory explanations, divisions, and definitions. He\nwill get into the full, rushing current of thought and feeling and\nspeech presently.\n\nWe can liken the whole process to nothing better than the descent of\nsome of our Western rivers under the care of a skilful guide. You get\ninto the boat in some sheltered cove. He takes the oar and pushes out\ngently but strongly, points out the rocks on either side and avoids\nthem, and makes his way around some tree-top that has fallen in from the\nshore. Like to this was often Mr. Beecher\u2019s opening. The current now is\nfelt and begins to bear you along on its bosom, and in that hour all\nyour life-experiences are gone over or pointed out to you. You are in\nthe shallows where life seems poor and worthless, and he shows you how\nto find the deeper channels. He points out the pleasant places on the\nshore, and shows you where living springs burst out; takes you under the\nshadow of the lofty trees whose branches sweep down within your reach,\nand anon out under the clear, sun-lighted heaven. Swirls of temptation\nare before you, and he shows you how to steer straight through or how to\navoid them. You are now in the very rapids, in the rush of the life that\nfor six days in the week is roaring around you, and all things seem to\nbe rushing to destruction; but this man is not disturbed. He is no\nstill-water pilot. He has thoroughly studied that river and knows all\nits dangers. Through the fiercest rapids that ever boat was called upon\nto pass he will guide you safely; over the deepest fall that ever boats\nmust venture he will stand by you. He goes with you until he has brought\nyou into some quiet spot of God\u2019s great and present mercy, or perhaps to\nthe mouth of the river and in sight of the islands of the blest. What a\nhand was that, so gentle, skilful, strong! What a voice, so clear,\ntender, inspiring, confident! What a heart, that knew all the ways of\nsorrow! What a guide and helper he was! \u201cO my father! my father! the\nchariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof!\u201d\n\nIn the largeness of his audience, in his power over them for the time\nbeing, there can be no question; but how about the permanent results in\ngrowth and strength of Christian character, in making men and women\nChristlike?\u2014for this, as he would be first to claim, is the only true\nsuccess. Our first witness here, of course, must be Plymouth Church, the\nbody that received most impress from the word he preached and the life\nhe lived. One of the largest churches in the land, it has been called a\ndrag-net \u201cwhich has been cast into the sea and has gathered of every\nkind.\u201d And undoubtedly it has its proportion of human weakness and\nimperfections, but, after making all deductions of this nature, it\nnevertheless remains true that, tried by all the tests that can apply to\na church, it will answer as well as any that can be found. It has been\nsingularly harmonious and free from quarrels and contention, and that\nunder trials the like of which few churches have ever been called to\nendure. Its failures in Christian character have been as few; its works\nhave been as broad and beneficent; its weekly care to provide for\nstrangers that visited it as hospitable; its benevolent contributions as\ngenerous, we believe, as those of any other church. But, deeper than all\nthis, and better than all, the spirit that has pervaded the church has\nbeen unusually kind, helpful, Christlike.\n\nIt was said that it had no life separate from Mr. Beecher. But the\nbearing of that body since the death of its pastor has given an emphatic\ndenial to that statement. From the day that his body lay in state, and\nits members gathered like a stricken household around the coffin, the\nchurch, to all outward appearances, has been growing more earnest in\ndeveloping its powers, more loving in its spirit. The seed so long\nplanted is bearing fruit, the benediction so long resting upon it is\nshowing its beauty, and is proving that indeed it is the fruit of but\none thing, and that is the Gospel of God\u2019s dear Son, of Jesus the\nChrist.\n\nBut other witnesses rise up to testify\u2014troubled, weary, heartbroken\nsouls the world over, who have read the sermons as they have come to\nthem from Plymouth pulpit; and they bear witness that this one spake as\nhe was moved of the Holy Ghost, that his message was of Him who came to\nheal the sick, to raise the dead, to set at liberty the captive.\n\nWe call to the witness-stand all ministers and all denominations of\nevery name who have ever read his sermons or heard him preach, and they\nwill testify that his message was of God.\n\nYea, we will go beyond this circle and ask those of other\npursuits\u2014laborers, workers, soldiers, actors\u2014if there has not shone upon\nthem something of the light that our Saviour shed upon all classes and\nconditions of men, and their answer will be unanimously in the\naffirmative. We go beyond the personality of men and come into the realm\nof beliefs and relationships, and affirm, without fear of denial, that\ntheology is to-day more truthful, science more devout, religion more\nattractive, sectarianism less bitter, churches more loving, politics\npurer, property more humane, labor more faithful, social ranks more\ntolerant, and nations brought nearer together, by reason of the\npreaching of the Gospel by Henry Ward Beecher.\n\nTo speak of Mr. Beecher as a theologian will awaken, we are well aware,\na smile of incredulity with many. It will be said that theology was not\nhis forte; that he seldom made use of the term except to make fun of it,\nor of those who were its exponents and teachers. Now, we acknowledge\nthat we might give a definition of this science in which he would appear\nto very poor advantage. But if theology can be considered as the\nknowledge of God in His relations to living men and to this present\nworld, then was Mr. Beecher a theologian excelled by few now living or\nthat ever have lived. He had this knowledge of God. It was as real to\nhim as his own existence. He had the nature and order of God\u2019s\nattributes very clearly settled in his own mind. He had His relations\nwith the whole universe in which He dwelt very thoroughly outlined in\nhis thought. He had his own system, upon which he worked from day to\nday, which included all existences and orders, and all times, and all\nworlds; that, as he believed, had a place for all truth that had ever\nbeen lived or revealed, and for all that ever should be lived or\nrevealed, here, or in Saturn, or Sirius, in this present time or in the\nages of ages. He made a great deal of fun of theologians, sometimes\nbecause of the one-sidedness of their views, sometimes because of their\ndryness, at others because of their pretensions, and partly because all\nclasses of men were, in his view, at times objects of legitimate\nmirth-making. Yet nevertheless he greatly valued them and their work.\n\n\u201cNow, young gentlemen,\u201d he said in his \u201cLectures to Yale Students,\u201d \u201cI\nhave often indulged myself in words that would seem to undervalue\ntheologians; but you know I do not mean it. I profess to be a theologian\nmyself; my father was a theologian; my brothers are all theologians, and\nso are many men whom I revere, and who are the brightest lights of\ngenius, I think, that have ever shone in the world. I believe in\ntheologians, and yet I think it is perfectly fair to make game of them!\nI do not think there is anything in this world, whether it be man or\nthat which is beneath a man, that is not legitimate food for innocent,\ninnocuous fun; and if it should cast a ray of light on the truth and\nalleviate the tediousness of a lecture now and then to have a slant at\ntheologians, why, I think they can stand it! It will not hurt them and\nit may amuse us. So let me speak freely\u2014the more so because I affirm\nthat it is indispensable for every man who is to do a considerable\nreligious work during a long period, or with any degree of\nself-consistency, to be a theologian. He must have method; there must be\na sequence of ideas in his thoughts. And if the work runs long enough\nand far enough, and embraces many things, there must be a system of\napplying means to ends, there must be a knowledge of instruments. These\nthings are theology in a sense\u2014a part of it, at any rate.\u201d\n\nEqually indispensable, in his view, was it that a man have a theology\nthat would change by growth:\n\n\u201cAs summer makes the tree so much larger that the bark has to let out a\nseam, because the old bark will not do for the new growth, and as the\nsame thing takes place from season to season, so mental philosophy\u2014for\nall theology is mental philosophy\u2014changes from age to age through both\nobvious and latent causes.\u201d\n\nHis bearing towards theological questions was largely decided, as he\ntells us, by his own religious experience, and by the controversies\nwhich in his early life were raging around him:\n\n\u201cIn the first place, let me say that my early religious experience has\ncolored all my life. I was sympathetic by nature, I was loving, I was\nmercurial, I was versatile, I was imaginative. I was not a poet\nexecutively, but sympathetically I was in union with the whole universal\nlife and beauty of God\u2019s world and with all human life. My earliest\nreligious training was at home. My father\u2019s public teaching may be\ncalled alleviated Calvinism. Even under that the iron entered my soul.\nThere were days and weeks in which the pall of death over the universe\ncould not have made it darker to my eyes than those in which I thought:\n\u2018If you are elected you will be saved, and if you are not elected you\nwill be damned, and there is no hope for you.\u2019 I wanted to be a\nChristian. I went about longing for God as a lamb bleating longs for its\nmother\u2019s udder, and I stood imprisoned behind those iron bars: \u2018It is\nall decreed. It is all fixed. If you are elected you will be saved\nanyhow; if you are not elected you will perish.\u2019 While in that state,\nand growing constantly and warmly in sympathy with my father, in taking\nsides with orthodoxy that was in battle in Boston with Unitarianism, I\nlearned of him all the theology that was current at that time. In the\nquarrels also between Andover and East Windsor and New Haven and\nPrinceton\u2014I was at home in all these distinctions. I got the doctrines\njust like a row of pins on a paper of pins. I knew them as a soldier\nknows his weapons. I could get them in battle array. I went from my\ncollege life immediately to the West, and there I fell into another\nfuliginous Christian atmosphere when the Old School and the New School\nPresbyterians were wrangling, and the Church was split, and split on the\nrock of slavery, and my father was tried for believing that a man could\nobey the commandments of God, and Dr. Wilson was contending against him\nin church courts that men had no ability, either moral or physical, to\nobey God; and the line of division ran all through the State, and there\nwas that tremendous whirl of Old School theology, old Calvinism and new\nCalvinism, and by the time I got away from the theological seminary I\nwas so sick\u2014no tongue can tell how sick I was of the whole medley. How I\ndespised and hated this abyss of whirling controversies that seemed to\nme to be filled with all manner of evil things, of everything, indeed,\nbut Christ! And then on one memorable day, whose almost every cloud I\nremember, whose high sun and glowing firmament and waving trees are\nvivid yet, there arose before me, as if an angel had descended, a\nrevelation of Christ as being God, because He knew how to love a sinner;\nnot that He would love me when I was true and perfect, but because I was\nso wicked that I should die if He did not give Himself to me, and so\ninconstant that I never should be steadfast\u2014as if He were saying to me:\n\u2018Because you are sinful I am yours.\u2019 Before that thought of a God who\nsat in the centre and seat of power, that He might bring glory and\nrestoration to everything that needed Him, I bowed down in my soul, and\nfrom that hour to this it has been my very life to love and to serve the\nall-helping and pitiful God.\u201d This was addressed to the association of\nwhich he was a member.\n\nOne who was present wrote that while he was saying this \u201che seemed to\nlose consciousness of his audience; his voice, although clear and\ndistinct, became low and gentle; he was carried away by one of those\nvery inspirations which he was describing; and when he spoke of the\nrevelation of Christ to himself, as one who loved men because they\nneeded love, his face underwent a marvellous change: it seemed\ntransparent with a radiant light, like a sunset glow on the Alps, while\nrapid and instantaneous changes of expression passed over it, such as\ncan only be compared to heat-lightning silently playing over the golden\nclouds of a summer evening.\u201d\n\nFrom this living experience there came into existence an order of\ntruths. \u201cAs I went on, and more and more tried to preach Christ, the\nclouds broke away and I began to have a distinct system in my own mind.\u201d\nThere grew up also a very decided dislike and oppugnance to much of the\ntheology that was then in vogue, for it seemed to stand in the way of\nmen instead of helping them:\n\n\u201cI dedicated myself, not to be a fisher of ideas, nor of books, nor of\nsermons, but a fisher of men, and in this work I very soon came to the\npoint in which I felt dissatisfied with the views of God that had been\nbefore given. I felt dissatisfied with that whole realm of theology\nwhich I now call the machinery of religion, which has in it some truth,\nand I would it had more. But I came to have this feeling, that it stood\nin the way of sinful men. I found men in distress, in peril of soul, on\naccount of views which I did not believe were true, or, if true, not in\nany such proportion. If you want to know why I have been fierce against\ntheology, that is it: because I thought with Mary, and I said time and\nagain, \u2018They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have\nlaid Him.\u2019 It seemed to me that men could not believe in such a God as I\nheard preached about, that men could not believe such a schedule of\ntruth as I had seen crystallized and promoted among men. I do not care\nthe turn of my hand about a man\u2019s philosophy; I do not care about one\nsystem or another; any system that will bring a man from darkness to\nfaith and love I will tolerate; and any system that lets down the\ncurtain between God and men, whether it is canonical priest or church\nservice or church methods, whether it is the philosophical or\ntheological\u2014anything that blurs the presence of God, anything that makes\nthe heavens black and the heart hopeless, I will fight it to the death.\u201d\n\nBut how about his orthodoxy? He says: \u201cI hold there is but one\northodoxy, and that all others are bastard orthodoxies. The orthodoxy of\nthe heart, that loves God, and loves man to such an extent that it is\nwilling to suffer for him, and to endure hardship for the sake of the\nlove it bears to men\u2014that is the true orthodoxy, and there is none\nother.\u201d\n\nHe said in an address given at a meeting of Congregational ministers in\nLondon in September, 1886:\n\n\u201cI think I am as orthodox a man as there is in this world. Well, what\nare the tests of orthodoxy? Man universally is a sinner; man universally\nneeds to be born again; there is in the nature of God that power and\ninfluence that can convert a man and redeem him from his animal life;\nand it is possible for man so to bring to bear this divine influence in\nthe ministration of the Gospel as that men shall be awakened, and\nconvicted, and converted, and built up in the faith of Jesus Christ.\nThere is my orthodoxy. But how about the Trinity? I do not understand\nit, but I accept it. If anybody else understands it I have not met him\nyet; but it seems to me that that is the easiest way of rendering the\ndifferent testimonies or words of truth in the New Testament, neither do\nI see any philosophical objection to it at all, and I accept it without\nquestioning. What about original sin? There has been so much actual\ntransgression that I have not had time to go back on to that. On what\ngrounds may a man hope? On the atonement of Christ? Yes, if you want to\ninterpose that word, atonement, on that ground, unquestionably, I am\naccustomed to say Christ saves men. But how? That is His look-out, not\nmine. I think that because the nature of God is sanative, God is love.\n\u2018If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how\nmuch more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them\nwhich ask Him?\u2019 If you choose to fix it in this way, and say that Christ\nsaw it possible to do thus and so, and that was the atonement He made\u2014if\nyou take any comfort in it, I shall not quarrel with you. But it is\nenough for me to know this, that Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has\nproclaimed, to whosoever will, health, life, new life\u2014\u2018born again.\u2019 He\nhas offered these, and therefore I no more want to question how he does\nit than a sick man questions the doctor before he takes a pill. If he\nsays, \u2018Doctor, what is in it?\u2019 the doctor says, \u2018Take it and you will\nfind out what is in it.\u2019 If men think I am heterodox because I do not\nbelieve this, that, and the other explanation of the atonement of Jesus\nChrist, it is enough for me to say I believe in Christ, and I believe\nChrist is atonement. Now, if you ask me whether I believe in the\ndivinity of Christ, I do not believe in anything else. Let a man stand\nand look at the sun, then ask him what he sees beside. Nothing: it\nblinds him. There is nothing else to me when I am thinking of God: it\nfills the whole sphere, the heaven of heavens, and the whole earth and\nall time; and out of that boundlessness of love and that infiniteness of\ndivine faculty and capacity it seems to me that He is, to my thought,\nwhat summer is when I see it marching on after the cold winter is over.\nI know where the light comes from and where the warmth comes from. When\nI see anything going on for good and for the staying of evil I know it\nis the Sun of Righteousness, and the name to me is Jesus\u2014every time\nJesus. For Him I live, for Him I love, for Him I labor, for Him I\nrejoice in my remaining strength, for Him I thank God that I have yet so\nmuch in me that can spend and be spent for the only one great cause,\nwhich should lift itself above every other cause in this whole world.\u201d\n\nConcerning one other doctrine, future punishment, he states his belief\nas follows:\n\n\u201cI have my own philosophical theories about the future life; but what is\nrevealed to my mind is simply this: The results of a man\u2019s conduct reach\nover into the other world on those that are persistently and inexcusably\nwicked, and man\u2019s punishment in the life to come is of such a nature and\nof such dimensions as ought to alarm any man and put him off from the\ndangerous ground and turn him toward safety. I do not think we are\nauthorized by the Scriptures to say that it is endless in the sense in\nwhich we ordinarily employ that term. So much for that, and that is the\nextent of my authoritative teaching on that subject.\u201d\n\nFrom his life-long interest in material science it may well be supposed\nthat he watched the development of the theory of evolution with the\ngreatest eagerness. It was not, in substance, unknown to him:\n\n\u201cSlowly, and through a whole fifty years, I have been under the\ninfluence, first obscurely, imperfectly, of the great doctrine of\nevolution. In my earliest preaching I discerned that the kingdom of\nheaven is a leaven, not only in the individual soul but in the world;\nthe kingdom is as a grain of mustard-seed. I was accustomed to call my\ncrude notion a _seminal theory_ of the kingdom of God in this world.\nLater I began to feel that science had struck a larger view, and that\nthis unfolding of seed and blade and ear in spiritual things was but one\napplication of a great cosmic doctrine which underlay God\u2019s methods in\nuniversal creation, and was notably to be seen in the whole development\nof human society and human thought. That great truth\u2014through patient\naccumulations of fact, and marvellous intuitions of reason, and luminous\nexpositions of philosophic relation, by men trained in observation, in\nthinking, and in expression\u2014has now become accepted throughout the\nscientific world. Certain parts of it yet are in dispute, but\nsubstantially it is the doctrine of the scientific world. And that it\nwill furnish\u2014nay, is already bringing\u2014to the aid of religious truth as\nset forth in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ a new and powerful\naid, fully in line with other marked developments of God\u2019s providence in\nthis His world, I fervently believe.\u201d\n\nHe had great hope from the influence he felt certain it would exert:\n\n\u201cThe theology that is rising upon the horizon will still rise. I cannot\nhope that it will be the perfect theology, but it will be a regenerated\none, and I think far more powerful than the old\u2014a theology of hope, and\nof love, which shall cast out fear. Nay, more, it is to be a theology\nthat will run nearer to the spirit and form of Christ\u2019s own teachings,\nHe who found the tenderness of Divine Providence in the opening lilies\nof the field, and the mighty power of God\u2019s kingdom in the unfolding of\ngerm and leaf and fruit.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher\u2019s view of ordinances was in harmony with his practical view\nof preaching and of theology. To his mind the ordinance was appointed by\nGod because it helped men, and was to be continued on that same ground,\nand the form best suited to that end was the one he adopted. The form of\nchurch government and of administration of ordinances was left\nuncertain, because it was to be adapted to the peculiar conditions of\nthe times or the circumstances of people. It was of principle rather\nthan of rule. It was the expression of the new life rather than of any\nartificial arrangement. Hence he believed that different forms of church\ngovernment and different methods of administering ordinances were\nequally Scriptural, and to be adopted without controversy if they\nsecured the end in view\u2014the bringing into and training up of men in\nChrist Jesus\u2014and equally antagonistic to the New Testament view when\nthey were a mere form.\n\nBut of this he himself has spoken somewhat at length:\n\n\u201cNow, there is one more thing that I want to say something about\u2014that\nis, church economy, ordination, and ordinance. I regard it as true that\nthere is laid down in the New Testament no form of church government\nwhatever nor of church ordinance\u2014none. Paul did not see the outlines of\nthe Church; they grew, they developed out of the nature of things. And\nso I say, in regard to all church worship, that is the best form of\nchurch economy that in the long run helps men to be the best Christians.\nWhatever thing is found when applied to human nature to do good, that is\nGod\u2019s ordinance. If there are any men that worship God through the Roman\nCatholic Church\u2014and there are\u2014I say this in regard to them: \u2018I cannot,\nbut you can; God bless you!\u2019 In that great, venerable church there is\nGospel enough to save any man, no man need perish for want of light and\ntruth in that system; and yet what an economy it is, what an\norganization, what burdens, and how many lurking mischiefs that\ntemptation will bring out! I could never be a Roman Catholic, but I\ncould be a Christian in a Roman Catholic Church; I could serve God\nthere. I believe in the Episcopacy\u2014for those that want it. Let my tongue\nforget its cunning if I ever speak a word adverse to that church that\nbrooded my mother, and now broods some of the nearest blood kindred I\nhave on earth. It is a man\u2019s own fault if he do not find salvation in\nthe teachings and worship of the great Episcopal body of the world. I\nwas for ten years a member of the Presbyterian Church, for I swore to\nthe Confession of Faith; but at that time my beard had not grown. The\nrest of the Book of Worship has great wisdom in it, and, rather than not\nhave any brotherhood, I would be a Presbyterian again if they would not\noblige me to swear to the Confession of Faith. On the other hand, my\nbirthright is in the Congregational Church. I was born in it, it exactly\nagreed with my temperament and my ideas; and it does yet, for although\nit is in many respects slow-moulded, although in many respects it has\nnot the fascinations in its worship that belong to the high\necclesiastical organizations, though it makes less for the eye and less\nfor the ear, and more for the reason and the emotions, though it has\ntherefore slender advantages, it has this: that it does not take men\nbecause they are weak and crutch them up upon its worship, and then just\nleave them as weak after forty years as they were when it found them. A\npart of its very idea is so to meet the weakness of men as that they\nshall grow stronger; to preach the truth and then wait till they are\nable to seize that truth and live by it. It works slowly, but I tell you\nthat when it has finished its work it makes men in the community.\u201d\n\n\u201cI immerse, I sprinkle, and I have in some instances poured, and I never\nsaw there was any difference in the Christianity that was made. They\nhave all, for that matter, come out so that I should not know which was\nimmersed or which was sprinkled.\n\n\u201cThe unity of Christians does not depend upon similarity of ordinance or\nmethods of worship. It is a hard business. I do not believe the\nmillennium will see one sect, one denomination, any more than the\nperfection of civilization will see only one great phalanstery, one\nfamily. The man on this side of the street keeps house in one way, and\nthe man over on the other side keeps house in another. They do not\nquarrel; each lets the other alone. So I hold about churches. The unity\nof the Church is to be the unity of the hearts of men\u2014spiritual unity in\nthe love of Christ and in the love of each other. Do not, then, meddle\nwith the details of the way in which different persons choose to conduct\ntheir service. Let them alone; behave at least as decently in the church\nof Christ as you would do in your neighborhood and in each other\u2019s\nfamilies. I do not know why they should not concurrently work in all the\ngreat causes of God among mankind. I am not, therefore, to teach\nCongregationalism, I am not to teach the Baptist doctrine, I am not to\nteach Presbyterianism; I am to preach \u2018O ye that are lost by reason of\nyour sins, Jesus Christ has found a ransom for you; come, come, and ye\nshall live.\u2019 That is my message, and in that I have enthusiasm. It is\nnot to build up one church or another church, or to cry down one church\nor another. Brethren, we have been trying conscience for a great while;\nwhat have we got by it? About one hundred and fifty denominations. There\nis nothing so unmanageable as a conceited conscience. Now, suppose we\nshould try another thing; suppose we should try love a little while;\nsuppose we should try sympathy, trust, fellowship, brotherhood, without\ninquisitorial power; suppose we should let men\u2019s theologies take care of\nthemselves, and bring this test to bear upon them: What is the fruit of\ntheir personal living, and what is the fruit of their personal teaching?\n\u2018By their fruits shall ye know them\u2019 did not exhaust itself in personal\nthought alone. It is a good test for denominationalism, and whenever I\nfind a denomination that puts emphasis upon holiness, where there is no\nenvy, nor detraction, nor backbiting, nor suspicion, nor holding each\nman to philosophical schedules, when I find a denomination in which they\nare full of love and gentleness and kindness, I am going to join that\ndenomination. But I do not expect to change for some time.\u201d\n\nHis estimate of sectarianism was very low:\n\n\u201cThe selfishness that inheres in the very elements of sectarianism is\nradically opposed to the spirit of the Gospel. Love works from within\noutward. Selfishness or sectarianism works from without inward. One is\ncentrifugal, the other is centripetal. The only difference between a\npious denominational spirit and sectarianism is the difference between a\ncub and a full-grown wolf. You may baptize your wolf every year with\nwhat soft names you please; it is a wolf still, that will never cease to\nmake havoc on the flock. As for ourselves, in all this tumult of men\nrunning up and down throughout the vast and misty realm of\necclesiasticism, we will none of it. There is a fairer realm, there are\nbrighter skies, distilling selecter influences. We are well satisfied\nthat this world will never behold any earthly force so great as the\nheart of man irradiated by the fire of Christ, and turned in all its\nwarmth upon men; hence our prayer for our brethren shall not be for\nesprit de corps but for esprit de Christ.\u201d\n\nAnd so, wherever he was, we find him bearing one character. In the\nmatter of rituals he grasped the reality, as he thought, and, looking at\nmen on either side of him, asking, not surrender of principle, but\ncharity. And all sects found that they had something in common with him.\n\nIn doctrines, while accused of heresy, yet, when making a full statement\nof his belief before the New York and Brooklyn Association, or the\nmeeting of Congregational ministers in England, his views received the\nheartiest commendation from men of all shades of opinion; while as a\npreacher what multitudes of every class and of all sects have been\nbrought together in Plymouth Church!\n\nAmong parties, except when in the very onset, it was the same. When the\nbattle had been fought, not a blow more than was necessary to secure the\nvictory, not an act for revenge. In the very midst of the war of the\nRebellion, in 1862, as we have already mentioned, he said, \u201cI think I\nnever pray for the loyal States without praying, at least in thought, if\nnot in utterance, for those misguided men in the South that wage this\nrebellion; and, let me tell you, I have a tender place in my heart for\nthem.\u201d And when the war had ceased he stood up for what he deemed best\nfor their prosperity, at the loss, for the moment, of a great deal of\nhis popularity at the North. In England he plead, with no tones of fear\nbut with manly words, for peace between the mother and daughter. In this\nage of spiritual growth on one side and materialistic tendencies on the\nother, Mr. Beecher, born with an intense love for nature, given a\nsurpassingly deep and rich Christian experience, and reconciling them\nboth in himself, and feeling that each interprets and enriches the\nother, and both are unified in Him who is the head over all, became\u2014he\nwas raised up for that purpose\u2014a mediator between the deepest spiritual\nexperience and the most advanced stage of real science.\n\nOne scene illustrates his true position\u2014the place he has held between\nmany diversities, and the one that we are sure will be more and more\nrecognized as his as the years go by. It was when the delegates from\nEngland were presenting their credentials to the National Council of\nCongregationalists in Boston, at about the close of the war. There was a\nvery sore feeling in the hearts of many of the loyal people of the North\nat the position of antagonism that their brethren in England and Wales\nhad taken in the great Rebellion, and it happened that the delegates\npresent had belonged very decidedly to the obnoxious side. The question\nwas upon receiving them, and several speeches had been made, and it\nseemed that a very unpleasant result would be reached. At last Mr.\nBeecher was recognized and called to the platform. In a few words he\ndescribed the situation, represented the failure of each side in the\ngreat matter of Christian charity, showed how grand an opportunity was\ngiven to illustrate this highest of Christian virtues, and closed by\nreaching down and clasping a hand of each delegate, while the whole\naudience of venerable ministers and delegates arose and showed their\ndelight by cheers and waving of handkerchiefs. It was his rightful\nplace, won by years of patient charity. Other names have been given him.\nHe has been called Reformer, War Trumpet, Popular Lecturer, Preacher.\nThey are all good, but we lift a name that we never remember to have\nseen applied to him, but which is his by right, which represents the\nresultant of all his life of toil and battle\u2014the name which belongs to\nhim as to but few men that ever lived\u2014and place it lovingly upon his\nbrow, while our eyes long for the look which he used to give: the name\n\u201cPEACEMAKER\u201d; and the familiar words come with a new significance as if\nspoken for him, \u201c_Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called\nthe children of God._\u201d\n\n\n\n\n                              CHAPTER XXX.\n\nLove of the Country\u2014Communion with Nature\u2014Farming at\n    Salisbury\u2014Lenox\u2014Matteawan\u2014The Peekskill Farm.\n\n\nLike the fabled Ant\u00e6us of old, Mr. Beecher found strength by contact\nwith old Mother Earth; not only that, but rest, health, and inspiration;\nwhile from the study of natural processes, in which he delighted, he\ngained a deep insight into the beautiful and, to so many eyes, hidden\nmysteries of nature, which was a never-failing source of comfort and\npleasure to him through all his life\u2014a rich treasury, from which he drew\nso much of that illustrative imagery which illuminated and beautified\nhis writings and speeches. If Earth was the mother, Nature was the\ngrandmother, equally beloved and loving. Nothing that came from her\nhands was uninteresting; each and every of her children found a true and\nfaithful brother in Mr. Beecher, to whom in turn they showed that trust\nand confidence that opened up to him such glorious visions, such\nsecrets, full of exquisite beauty, vouchsafed to but few among mankind.\nOf course he was fond of fishing and hunting. Not that he ever shot or\ncaught anything: he was generally innocent of any such charge. He loved\nto tramp the woods, and stroll along the brookside, ostensibly hunting\nor fishing, but really communing with nature. The gun and rod were only\nfor pretext. We take his own confessions:\n\n\u201cBut, aside from the pleasure which arises in connection with seeking or\ntaking one\u2019s prey, we suspect that the collateral enjoyments amount,\noften, to a greater sum than all the rest: the early rising, the\nfreshness of those morning hours preceding the sun, which few\nanti-piscatory critics know anything about; that wondrous early-morning\nsinging of birds, compared to which all after-day songs are mere\nejaculations\u2014for such is the tumult and superabundance of sweet noise,\nsoon after four o\u2019clock in summer, that one would think that if every\ndewdrop were a musical note, and the bird shad drank them all, they\ncould not have been more multitudinous or delicious. Then there is that\nincomparable sense of freedom which one has in remote fields, in\nforests, and along the streams. His heart, trained in life to play with\njets, like an artificial fountain, seems, as he wanders along the\nstreams, to resume its own liberty, and, like a meadow-brook, to wind\nand turn, amid flowers and fringing shrubs, at its own unmolested\npleasure.\n\n\u201cCare and trouble, in ordinary life, and especially in cities, disturb\nthe fountains of feeling, as rubbish fallen into the fountains of ruined\ncities in the East chokes them, or splits and scatters their streams\nthrough all secret channels.\n\n\u201cOne who believes God to have made the world, and to have expressed His\nown tastes and thoughts in the making, cannot express what feelings\nthose are which speak music through his heart. A little plant growing in\nsilent simplicity in some covert spot, or looking down upon him from out\nof a rift in some rock uplifted high above his reach or climbing\u2014what\nhas it said to him, that he stops and gazes as if he saw more than\nmaterial forms? What is that rush of feeling in his heart, and that\nstrange opening up of thoughts, as if a revelation had been made to him?\nWho that has a literal eye could see anything but that solitary flower\ncasting a linear shadow on the side of the gray rock\u2014a shadow that loves\nto quiver, and nod, and dance to every step which the wind-blown flower\ntakes? But this floral preacher up in that pulpit has many a time\npreached tears into my eyes, and told me more than I was ever able to\ntell again.\n\n\u201cIndeed, in many and many a tramp the best sporting was done on my back.\nFlat under a tree we lay, a vast Brobdingnag, upon whom grasshoppers\nmounted, and glossy crickets crept, harmless, with evident speculation\nof what such a phenomenon could portend. Along the stems creep aspiring\nants, searching with fiery zeal for no one can even tell what. The\nbluejay is in the tree above you. The woodpecker screws round and round\nthe trunk, hammering at every place like an auscult doctor sounding a\npatient\u2019s lungs. Little birds fly in and about, gibbering to each other\nin sweet little detached sentences, confidentially talking over their\nfamily secrets, and expressing those delicate sentiments which one never\nspeaks above a whisper in twilight. When you rise, the birds flutter and\nfly, and clouds of insects fly off from you like sparks from a fire when\na log rolls over. The brook that gurgled past the tree, feeding its\nroots, and taking its pay in summer shadows, varied every hour, receives\na portion of out-jumping fry. Far off their coming shines. But before\nthey had even touched the water, that bold trout sprung sparkling from\nthe surface and sunk as soon, leaving only a few bubbles to float down.\nThere! if the trout has a right to his grasshopper, have I not a right\nto the trout? I\u2019ll have him! After several throws I find that it takes\ntwo to make a bargain.\n\n\u201cAt length one must go home. I never turn from the silence of the\nunderbrush, or the solitude of the fields, or the rustlings of the\nforest, without a certain sadness as if I were going away from friends.\u201d\n\nFlowers and birds were his delight. Every spring he watched almost\nimpatiently for the first arbutus, anemone, bloodroot, and violet, and\nenjoyed their short stay with an intensity that years increased rather\nthan abated. The first song of the robin, the first plaintive note of\nthe bluebird, and the sweet lay of the song-sparrow were each year\nlistened for, and eagerly announced to the family with all the\nenthusiasm of early boyhood. Through the summer he watched and cared,\nwith tender solicitude, for the roses, lilies, dahlias, and\nchrysanthemum, with the many, many other of the flower-world which he\nalways had about him. And as each in its turn lived out its short span,\nfaded, and fell, he watched the scattering petals almost mournfully,\nfinding consolation only in the certainty of their return another year.\n\nEach season with its many changing moods was a living allegory to him.\n\nSpring was the young child just born, full of smiles, of tears, and\nwinsome ways\u2014the beginnings of life. Summer was early maturity, in which\nthe first promises of fruitage were beginning to be fulfilled. Steadier\nand more sober, with increasing responsibilities. Fall perfected\nmaturity with its full fruitage. Early winter, extreme old age,\nlingering at the threshold of the grave. Midwinter, nature\u2019s death,\nwhich, like the soul\u2019s, ends not in destruction, but only rests awhile\nto awaken into a more glorious resurrection.\n\nNature was to him God\u2019s book wide open, each leaf free and unbound,\nfilled with that which comforted his soul and confirmed his faith.\n\nNot even in evolution, that bugbear of so many of his clerical brethren,\ndid he find anything to disturb his trust in God, his faith in the Lord\nJesus Christ, or his confidence in the Bible, as life\u2019s guide-book; but\nquite the contrary. He found his trust, his faith and confidence,\nstrengthened and enlightened thereby. Many rough places were smoothed,\nmany dark spots enlightened.\n\nIn it he saw the highest proof of God\u2019s wonderful wisdom. A mind that\ncould conceive, perfect, and put into operation so wonderful, so simple\nand yet effective a natural law, could only be divine.\n\nIt is not strange that, with his tastes and feelings, a plot of land to\ncultivate became early a necessity. While not exactly \u201cbrought up\u201d on a\nfarm, he was brought into intimate relation with most forms of\nfarm-labor. The small plot of land around his father\u2019s house furnished\nthe field for quite a little practical farming. For in New England every\none was expected to raise the greater part of his own vegetables, and\nthe boys, as soon as they were big enough to run around, were expected\nto contribute their little quota towards the common good.\n\nIt was not until he was settled in Indianapolis that Mr. Beecher owned a\nplot of his own large enough for flowers, fruit, and vegetables. There\nhe worked daily, finding rest from his head-work, fresh air, and\nhealthful exercise, which would alone have more than repaid him for all\nexpense or trouble. Rising before five in the summer, he was out in his\ngarden when most of his neighbors were enjoying the sweet\nunconsciousness of their morning naps. Aside from the big dividend of\nincreased health and vigor, he was further rewarded by unusual success\nin raising small fruits and flowers. His roses were a revelation to the\ncommunity, and lent their fragrance to many an humble home or sick room.\nFor fruit and flowers did pastoral duty, cheering the sick, brightening\nthe dark side of life in many a poverty-cramped family; while the\nimpulse along the line of taste and love for the beautiful, and the\nfeeling of the dignity of honest labor, which he gave to the whole\ncommunity, we are told is still felt, and will long be remembered as a\nsouvenir of his pastorate in Indianapolis.\n\nHis contributions to the theory of gardening and farming in the Indiana\n_Farmer and Gardener_ we have already referred to in an earlier chapter.\n\nDuring the first few years of his Brooklyn pastorate he does not seem to\nhave had the time to look about for any place in which to practise his\nfavorite avocation.\n\nOf course the crowded condition of city life precluded the possibility\nof having either farm or garden near his home. He was accustomed then to\nvisit among friends a part of the time, spending the bulk of the summer\nin some picturesque place.\n\nThe earliest bit of country that lies within our memory was Salisbury,\nin Connecticut, where Mr. Beecher spent the summers of 1852 and 1853.\n\nWe remember well how, with the semi-savagery of early boyhood, we, with\nour misguided playmates, lay in wait for some frisky guinea-pigs,\nplaying harmlessly in their little pen, and, after capturing a number,\ntransported them to an upper veranda, and, in imitation of the ancient\nheathen\u2019s treatment of captives, dashed them upon the stones below; and\nhow retribution, in the form of a very indignant father, seized upon our\nyouthful person, and, with the dexterity born of some little practice,\ngave us a long-abiding illustration of how dreadful a thing was cruelty.\nThere also we obtained our first practical insight into a hornet\u2019s\ndisposition and activity.\n\nSalisbury, doubtless, was a lovely spot, but its memories to us are not\ncheering, and we pass on.\n\nIn 1853 Mr. Beecher purchased his first farm in the East, a plot of\nninety-six acres, situated in the town of Lenox, up among the Berkshire\nhills of Massachusetts. This was known as the \u201cBlossom Farm.\u201d It was\njustly celebrated for its fine fruit, especially apples. But it did not\naltogether suit Mr. Beecher, nor tempt him into any great agricultural\noutlay. It was too far from the city. He could not run up for a day, and\nback again. He could not be there in spring and seed time, owing to his\npastoral duties. Six weeks\u2019 vacation time in midsummer, with an\noccasional visit of two or three days, was about the limit of his time\nthere. He had to run the farm by proxy, which was about as enjoyable, to\nhim, as employing some one to eat his meals.\n\nHaving a chance, in 1857, to sell the place, he did so, and then hired\nanother farm at Matteawan, just back of Fishkill Landing, on the Hudson\nRiver. This promised to be a more satisfactory place; but a little over\ntwo hours from New York, he could run up and back the same day, and\nspend many a halfday at work in his garden, from which he was debarred\nby distance at Lenox. This, doubtless, would have been his\ncountry-place, had not some happy chance led him a little further down\nthe river, to Peekskill-on-the-Hudson, just at the entrance to the\nHighlands. There he found his ideal summer home, on the east side of the\nriver, facing the sunset, but about forty miles from New York; the land\nrising by a succession of easy hills, terrace-like, six hundred feet\nabove the river level, until one reached the farm a little over a mile\nand a half from the depot. Although when he first saw it the place was\nrough, but little cultivated, with gnarled and half-dead apple-trees\nscattered here and there over it, yet the possibilities were such that\non the first inspection he decided to buy. So it came about that in the\nfall of 1859 he gave up his Matteawan place and bought the hillside at\nPeekskill, which he named \u201cBoscobel.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: The Cottage at Peekskill.]\n\nAt the foot of his lawn the turnpike runs along a level stretch for\nnearly a quarter of a mile; from the road the land rises on the north by\na gradual, easy grade in graceful lines up to a comparatively level\nplateau, on which the cottage and the old barns were located, in true\nold-fashioned style, in happy disregard of either convenience or scenic\neffect. Taking a fresh start, the grade rose upward again for three or\nfour hundred yards, forming a third level space on top, and then plunged\nsteeply down into the valley of Peeks-kill. From the turnpike the\nprivate approach ran up between a double row of stately maples to the\nvery doorstep. This hill was one of the spurs that ran back from the\nriver at right angles to its course\u2014a detached foot-hill of the\nHighlands.\n\nWith the exception of a few acres on the crest of the hill, the farm lay\nalong the south slope, sheltered by its own crest from the north winds,\nits face to the southern sun. In this Mr. Beecher saw peculiar\nadvantages for early fruit and vegetables, while the view in every\ndirection delighted his eye. From the house, looking west, lay the\nriver, visible only for a mile or so, and lying like a beautiful Swiss\nlake encircled by protecting mountains. To the south and southeast the\nlandscape was varied and charming\u2014low hills, woodland and green fields,\nmaking up a beautiful picture. Whilst from the hill-top, reputed to be\nthe highest point in Westchester County, the country lay out like one\ngreat panorama on all sides, the view to the north and west being\nespecially grand; another glimpse of the Hudson being visible just\nbefore it is swallowed up by the grim mountains of the Highlands. Over\nall in the distance rise, blue and faint, the Catskills, whilst to the\neast the country rolls in graceful, broken stretches for miles.\n\nSuch were the general features of the farm when Mr. Beecher bought it.\n\nThe house was a low, two-story, wooden farm-house of pre-Revolutionary\norigin, where, as the legend goes, that sturdy old warrior, Israel\nPutnam, had his headquarters at one time\u2014a legend strongly corroborated\nby the silent testimony of cannon-balls, bayonets, and various military\ntrappings from time to time unearthed by the inquisitive and grubbing\nplough. In the spring of 1860 Mr. Beecher took possession of his new\nfarm of thirty-six acres, and began at once the work of reformation and\nimprovement.\n\nAt first the low, scrubby bushes that, under the pretence of bearing\nedible fruit, had long been allowed to outlive their usefulness, were\ngrubbed up and made into fagots for kindling. Then one by one the trees\nin the ancient apple-orchard, which Putnam\u2019s patriots had, doubtless,\nmany a time assaulted and carried by storm well-nigh a hundred years\nbefore, and which in turn took a sharp and colicky revenge upon their\nassailants\u2014unless the quality of their fruit had greatly deteriorated in\nmodern times\u2014yielded to the axe, and in the generous open fireplace, the\nglory of the old-fashioned farm-house, paid their last tribute to their\nmaster, man.\n\n[Illustration: The Old Apple-Tree.]\n\nThe last to fall a victim to axe and fire, and then only when extreme\nold age and decay had ended its apple-bearing life, and made it a\nstanding menace of danger to all who passed under its rotted branches,\nwas one entitled to special notice. Mr. Beecher wrote of it:\n\n\u201cI have a tree on my place at Peekskill that cannot be less than two\nhundred years old. Two ladies, one about eighty years old, called upon\nus several years ago, saying that they had been brought up on the farm,\nand inquiring if the old apple-tree yet lived. They said that in their\nchildhood it was called \u2018_the old apple-tree_,\u2019 and was then a\npatriarch. It must now be a Methuselah, and is probably the largest\n_recorded_ apple-tree in the world. I read in no work of any apple-tree\nwhose circumference exceeds twelve or thirteen feet. This morning I\nmeasured the Peekskill apple-tree, and found that, at four feet from the\nground, where the limbs begin to spring, it was fourteen feet and ten\ninches in circumference, and at six feet from the ground fourteen feet\nand six inches. I am sorry to add that the long-suffering old tree gives\nunmistakable signs of yielding to the infirmities of old age.\u201d Where the\nenormous limbs branched out, so great was the space, a summer-house was\nbuilt, in which the children played keeping house.\n\nThen the old ramshackle barns were taken in hand, with their successive\nadditions hitched on, as more space might be required\u2014architectural\nafter-thoughts, regardless of everything except capacity. Some were torn\ndown, others removed to more convenient and less obtrusive\nlocalities\u2014the smaller buildings doing duty for carriages and chickens;\nthe larger ones, with a little ingenuity and the aid of a carpenter or\ntwo, being consolidated into one commodious building.\n\nOf course this was the work of several years, and required no little\nplanning and arranging, furnishing that restful change of occupation,\nfrom the continuous and intense mental strain, which Mr. Beecher so much\nneeded.\n\nThe surface cleared, then began the more serious work of subsoiling,\ndraining, and clearing up of stones. Every inch of the thirty-six acres,\nsave only where trees and buildings stood, was turned over to the\nsubsoil. The deep subsoil plough, with four sturdy oxen to give it\nforce, drove its steel nose twenty inches down into the earth, taking\ndifferent parts of the farm in successive seasons, each then being\nseeded down to grass, grain, or vegetables, as the case might be. The\nloose stones, having first been carefully gathered from the upturned\nsurface, were then utilized in laying gutters by the roadside, in\nbuilding foundations for barns, sheds, etc., or in making drains\u2014for he\nfound that the live springs that filled the hillside, unless regulated,\nmight make his lawn too damp. So deep drains were sunk across the lower\nhalf of the hill in different directions, which carried off the surplus\nmoisture; while under house, barn, and cattle-sheds wells were sunk from\neight to ten feet, furnishing a supply of cool, sparkling water, never\nfailing in the dryest summer. With these later improvements began his\nreal gardening and farming; every form of flower, fruit, and vegetable\nthat the latitude would permit was planted and raised. Pears, apples,\nand grapes, among the fruit, might be said to have been his specialty;\nbetween two and three thousand trees and vines were planted, carefully\nwatched, trimmed, and pruned year by year until they came into full\nbearing, while the smaller fruit, vines, and bushes became well-nigh\ninnumerable. Though he kept the place always well stocked with what\nmight be called the standard crops, he was very fond of taking up, for a\nyear or two, several specialties, devoting his principal attention and\nstudy to these until he had pretty thoroughly mastered their habits,\npeculiarities, and capacities, then for the next year or two take up\nsomething else, and so on, gradually in time making a special study of\nevery flower, fruit, and vegetable that could be grown in that latitude.\n\nWhen strawberries were in hand he tried every variety, early and late,\nlarge and small, sweet and tart, and in such numbers that several\nhundred quarts were often picked in one day. The same was true of pears,\napples, plums, peaches, cherries, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, as\nwell as peas, corn, potatoes, cabbages, etc.\n\nAfter one class of fruit or vegetable had had its turn, it was not\nneglected, but one or two of the varieties found best adapted to the\nlocality were retained (except in the large fruit-trees, of which a\nlarge assortment was always kept), and only sufficient planted to supply\nthe family with about four times as much as could possibly be used; for,\nunless there was enough of everything, so that each person in the family\nat the time might, if so inclined, make a meal of any one thing, he\nwould not touch it. \u201cSkimpy messes,\u201d as he used to call them, were his\nutter abomination. But the thing that gave him the greatest pleasure was\nto beat his neighbors in early crops. Across the turnpike, at the foot\nof the lane, for many years lived a very dear friend, Mr. George Dayton,\na gentleman of means, well skilled in every phase of scientific farming;\nand between the two was carried on, so long as Mr. Dayton lived, a most\nearnest rivalry on the subject of farming. Nothing delighted Mr. Beecher\nmore than to gather a basket of peas, a large dish of strawberries, or a\ndozen ears of corn, the first of the season, that had ripened just a day\nor two ahead of Mr. Dayton\u2019s, and bringing them down to his friend\u2019s,\ndeliver them to him, as, with an air of mock sympathy, he condoled with\nhim over his inability to raise early vegetables or fruit; then, with a\nhearty laugh, invite him up on to the hillside to learn how a farm\nshould be run. The natural advantages of his location, sheltered from\nthe north and open to the first warm breezes from the south, generally\ngave him these pleasant triumphs by two or three days; though once in a\nwhile the tables would be turned, and he had to take his turn at being\nbantered and receiving his friend\u2019s so-called charity.\n\nWe confess we used to prefer these infrequent reverses, for our youthful\neyes watched regretfully the dishful of great, luscious strawberries\ngoing in triumphal procession to Mr. Dayton\u2019s. We used to think that the\nfirst fruits, like charity, should be tried at home, and had to find\nsuch guilty consolation as we could in a surreptitious visit to the\nstrawberry-bed. This was not altogether satisfactory, for aside from the\nattendant risks, the remaining berries would only be half-ripe.\n\nAt the same time he bought the place it was his good fortune to meet an\nEnglish gardener, Mr. Thomas J. Turner, and to secure his services as\nsuperintendent, or \u201cboss,\u201d as he was known to the men\u2014one of those\nsimple-minded, faithful, hard-working men, who never spared himself, nor\nhis subordinates. His devoted attachment to the family and the\nplace\u2014\u201c_Our_ farm\u201d he used to call it\u2014made him an invaluable helper.\n\nFor flowers and ornamental shrubs Turner had at first but little taste;\nhis great ambition was to make the farm \u201cpay,\u201d and the contest for\nsupremacy between master and man caused much amusement to all parties.\n\nTurner was always trying to extend the borders of his pea and potato\npatches, encroaching on the hollyhocks and dahlias, while Mr. Beecher\nwould crowd the corn and lima beans to make more room for roses and\npinks.\n\nHow Mr. Beecher outwitted his opponent we will let him narrate:\n\n\u201cI am as set and determined to have flowers as my farmer, Mr. Turner, is\nto have vegetables; and there is a friendly quarrel in hand all the\nseason, a kind of border warfare, between flowers and vegetables\u2014which\nshall have this spot, and which shall secure that nook; whether in this\nsouthern slope it shall be onions or gladioluses; whether a row of\nlettuce shall edge that patch, or of asters. I think, on a calm review,\nthat I have rather gained on Mr. Turner. The fact is, I found that he\nhad me at a disadvantage, being always on the place and having the whole\nspring to himself. So I shrewdly tampered with the man himself, and\nbefore he knew what he was about, I had infected him with the flower\nmania (and this is a malady that I have never known cured), so that I\nhad an ally in the very enemy\u2019s camp. Indeed, I begin to fear that my\nmanager will get ahead of me yet in skill and love of flowers!\u201d\n\n[Illustration: Mr. Beecher on His Farm.]\n\nIn the years when corn, cabbage, or potatoes were being specialized\nTurner was happy. With a proud and beaming face he would drive down to\nthe local market, load after load of choice vegetables. His cup of\nhappiness would overflow when he returned and announced that \u201c_our_\nvegetables\u201d brought the best price of any in the market.\n\nBut, alas! like many a man before him, his pride became, figuratively\nspeaking, his ruin; for after a while the fact was discovered that\nTurner was selecting the largest and fairest for the market, and that\nthe home table had to be content with second and third rates, too poor\nto sell with credit. That ended all further farming for profit. From\nthat time on nothing further was raised for the market.\n\nAs full of interest as every process connected with farming and fruit\nculture was, Mr. Beecher\u2019s greatest pleasure was in the cultivation of\nflowers and ornamental shrubs. Their ever-varying form, their delicate\nperfume, and, above all, their abounding wealth of color, furnished him\na bouquet of which he never tired. Roses were perhaps his standard\nfavorites, and, whatever other specialty he might be studying, they were\nkept up always. Of these he wrote:\n\n\u201cAll rosedom is out in holiday attire, and roses white and black, green\nand pink, scarlet, crimson, and yellow, striped and mottled, double and\nsingle, in clusters and solitary, moss-roses, damask roses, Noisette,\nPerpetual, Bourbon, China, tea, musk, and all other tribes and names,\nhang in exuberant beauty. The air is full of their fragrance. The eye\ncan turn nowhere that it is not attracted to a glowing bush of roses.\nWhat would not people shut up in cities give to see such luxuriance of\nbeauty!... The wonder is that every other man is not an enthusiast, and\nin the month of June a gentle fanatic. Floral insanity is one of the\nmost charming inflictions to which man is heir. The garden is\ninfectious. Flowers are \u2018catching,\u2019 or the love of them is. Men begin\nwith one or two. In a few years they are struck through with floral\nzeal. And one finds, after the heat, and strife, and toil of his\nambitious life, that there is more pure satisfaction in his garden than\nin all the other pursuits that promise so much of pleasure and yield so\nlittle.\u201d\n\nIn different years he tested every variety of form and color which could\nbe found in the single and double hollyhocks, single and double dahlias,\nphlox, geraniums, pansies, lilies, fuchsias, and chrysanthemum,\nsometimes massed in great banks of color, sometimes scattered in\ndifferent beds and along borders, or in little beds hidden amid the\nshrubbery. From early May till frost came, \u201cBoscobel\u201d was always ablaze\nwith the glories of flowers in their different seasons.\n\nIt is given to few to understand, and fewer still to experience, the\nwonderful effect which flowers had upon him. Fagged with hard work,\nvexed with cares, with nerves strained and irritated, a few hours among\nhis flowers rested his brain, soothed his nerves, and refitted him for\ndays of hard work. Doubtless change of occupation, open air, and the\nslight physical exertion required in tending his pets, did something\ntowards rest and recreation; but there was a subtle power in many colors\nthat worked upon his nerves in a strangely mysterious way, that gave him\nmore relief from nerve excitement in an hour than any drug ever\ncompounded. Flowers and colored gems\u2014which he called unfading\nflowers\u2014possessed this soothing power above everything else.\n\nIn his younger days his farming and gardening experiences were\nintimately associated with hard physical work. But after he had settled\nat \u201cBoscobel\u201d the number and pressure of his regular engagements made\nfarm labor, except by proxy, impossible. He worked some, it is true, but\nprincipally for exercise; the real use and benefit of the farm being its\nsweet and soothing restfulness.\n\nHis description of his \u201cwork\u201d and the unalloyed pleasure he found in\n\u201cfarming\u201d needs no enlarging:\n\n\u201cThe light is just coming. I do not care for that, as I do not propose\nto get up at such an hour. But the birds _do_ care. They evidently wind\nup their singing apparatus over-night, for when the first bird breaks\nthe silence, in an instant the rest go off as if a spring had been\ntouched which moved them all. There are robins without count,\nwood-thrushes, orioles, sparrows, bobolinks, meadow-larks, bluebirds,\nyellowbirds, wrens, warblers, catbirds (as the Northern mocking-bird is\ncalled), martins, twittering swallows. Think of the noise made by mixing\nall these bird-notes together; add a rooster and a solemn old crow to\ncarry the base; then consider that of each kind there are scores, and of\nsome hundreds, within ear-reach, and you will have some faint conception\nof the opening chant of the day. You may not think that I wake so early,\nbut I do; or, having awakened, I again go to sleep, but I solemnly do. I\ndon\u2019t think of getting up before six.\n\n\u201cAfter breakfast there are so many things to be done first that I\nneglect them all. The morning is so fine, the young leaves are so\nbeautiful, the bloom on the orchard is so gorgeous, the sounds and\nsights are so many and so winning, that I am apt to sit down on the\nveranda for just a moment, and for just another, and for a series of\nthem, until an hour goes by. Do not blame me! Do not laugh at such\nfarming and such a farmer.\n\n\u201cThe soil overhead bears larger and better crops, for a sensible man,\nthan does the soil under-feet. There are blossoms in the clouds. There\nis fruit upon invisible trees, to those who know how to pluck it.\n\n\u201cBut then sky-gazing and this dallying with the landscape will not do.\nWhat crowds of things require the eye and hand! Flowers must be\ntransplanted. Flower-seeds must be sown; shrubs and trees pruned; vines\nlooked after; a walk taken over the hill to see after some evergreens,\nwith many pauses to gaze upon the landscape, and many birds watched as\nthey are confidentially exhibiting their domestic traits before you. The\nkittens, too, at the barn must be visited, the calf, and the new cow.\nThen every gardener knows how much time is consumed in watching the new\nplants. For instance, I have eight new kinds of strawberries that need\nlooking after, each one purporting to be a world\u2019s wonder. I am quite\nanxious about eight or ten new kinds of clematis, two new species of\nhoneysuckle, eight or ten new and rare evergreens, and ever so many\nother things, shrubs and flowers.\n\n\u201cBut what shall I say of the new peas, new beans, rare cucumbers, early\nmelons, extraordinary potatoes? Do you not see that it is impossible for\nme, amid such incessant and weighty cares, to write? The air is white\nwith apple-blossoms; the trees are all singing; the steaming ground\nbeseeches me to grant it a portion of flower-seeds; by night the\nwhippoorwill, and by day the wood-thrush and mocking-bird, fill my\nimagination with all sorts of fancies, and how can I write?\u201d\n\nAfter a number of years Mr. Beecher began to think that he would like to\nbuild a house that should embody his ideal of what a home should be\u2014a\nreal homestead whose hospitable largeness could readily accommodate all\nthe children and the children\u2019s children, and which in design, in finish\nand decoration, should be an education for his children. Several years\nwere spent in talking over plans and examining designs proposed by\narchitects before the final plan was adopted. Then the Tilton conspiracy\nbroke out, and for a short time deferred the proposed building. But the\nneed of some diverting occupation, something that should change the\nentire current of his thoughts, became so decided that in self-defence\nhe began building the new house. On that peaceful hillside, amid the\nbusy workmen, he found a grateful asylum and refuge from the tempest\nwith which his enemies had sought to destroy him.\n\nIt has never been doubted in his family, that the relief which he found\nin the pure air, the beautiful scenery, the sweet communion with flowers\nand birds, at Peekskill, with his engrossing interest in \u201c_the_ house,\u201d\nsaved his life during those years when the burden was the heaviest.\n\nHe has often said that he never spent money more profitably than in\nbuilding his new house and in laying out his grounds.\n\nStone by stone and brick by brick he watched the foundations and the\nlower stories rise. Each floor-beam, joist, and girder received his\nzealous scrutiny. The reasons for this, and the causes for that, he must\nknow all about; until, long before the house was finished, he was,\nbarring the manual dexterity, as good a mason or carpenter as the best\nof those at work. Every day, and often a dozen times a day, he climbed\nfrom cellar to ridge-pole, studying, investigating, making suggestions,\nor proposing alterations\u2014these latter the terror of his architect; for,\nthough often decided improvements on the first plans, they sometimes\ninvolved a serious modification of the work in hand. Every gentleman who\nvisited him must make the tour clear to the ridge-pole, for there the\nview was finest. Once, when a young man was his visitor and victim, he\ninsisted that they should mount the lofty but unfinished chimney to get\na little more extended outlook, setting the example himself; but his\ncompanion, who was hugging a firmly-secured cross-tie, in momentary fear\nof losing his balance and falling, declared that he drew the line at the\nchimney, and would aspire no higher.\n\nWhen finally the house was up came the internal finishing and\ndecoration. Nothing was omitted that, in his opinion, would increase\ncomfort or convenience; while, in the decorative and ornamental finish,\nhe aimed at results which should educate the eye and tastes of his\nchildren.\n\n\u201cBoscobel\u201d was to be the family home, and ultimately his permanent\nresidence, for then he used to say that when he reached seventy, he\nproposed to retire from the public and devote his closing years to\nliterary work.\n\nHere children and grandchildren were together each summer, pilgrims to\nthis domestic Mecca. The house must be large enough to hold them all,\nand friends besides, without crowding; and it was, twenty and\ntwenty-five being no unusual number gathered within its walls. And on\none occasion, when a clerical union was invited to meet at \u201cBoscobel,\u201d\nthirty were, with a little ingenious packing, entertained over-night.\n\nIt was not until the summer of 1878 that the workmen were finally\ndispossessed and the family entered into the new house. What a sense of\nexpansion we all experienced! We looked back upon the humble little\ncottage, hallowed by so many years full of enjoyment, and wondered how\nit could ever have held us all\u2014something as a butterfly, with broad,\nexpanded wings, might contemplate its empty chrysalis, surprised that it\nhad lived so long, cramped within so small a compass.\n\nThe richness of the wall-paper and the delicacy of the frescoing would\nnot permit the hanging of pictures, while Mr. Beecher\u2019s love of the\nbeautiful would not permit him to rest quiet until he had found some way\nof further decoration appropriate to his walls. This led him to the\nstudy of the various ornamental ceramics. China, Japan, England and\nFrance, Germany and America, were each laid under contribution for its\ncharacteristic productions. Fortunately he had made his mantel-pieces\nbroad and high, with many little shelves and brackets, convenient\nresting-places for vases, cups, and bowls. Once the house was complete\ncame the final work of improvement\u2014the landscape, grading, planting\nornamental shrubs, and laying out of his lawn, whose ten acres spread\nout before the new house. The trimming of trees and shrubs into\nfantastic or mathematical figures, and strict regularity of path and\nplot, he detested. Landscape-gardening should be only an assistant to\nnature, not a remodeller.\n\nOn this theory he laid out his place. In the changing of grades,\ngrouping of shrubs, planting of tangled copses, he sought to give to\neverything the appearance of natural growth and formation.\n\n[Illustration: The House at Peekskill.]\n\nHaving taken up ornamental trees and plants, with his usual thoroughness\nhe exhausted the subject. Every tree and shrub that with reasonable care\ncould be made to grow on that favored place was planted. And so\nskilfully and naturally have they been grouped that, though there are\nover sixteen hundred of the ornamental varieties growing within the\nlimits of those thirty-six acres, they are not crowded, and nearly\ntwenty acres are free for grass, vegetables, and fruit.\n\nIt was stated by an experienced landscape-gardener, in 1884, that, with\nthe exception of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, no collection\nsimilar in extent and variety could then be found in America.\n\nOf course this building, improving, and planting called for a constant\nand heavy outlay of money. It was in part to meet this that he projected\nand carried out the series of lecture-tours that ran through the last\nten years of his life.\n\nIn the commercial sense of the word his farming was not profitable. He\nspent upon his place many thousands of dollars that never came back to\nhim in coin or currency. His receipts were of the kind not to be found\nin the open market, not affected by the flurries in \u201cThe Street\u201d;\nneither defaulting cashier nor stock-jobbing speculator could depreciate\nor lessen them.\n\nIf money be valued at the amount of comfort and happiness it affords,\nthen the thousands lavished on his beloved home were well spent, for\nseldom has the same amount given so much of real, healthful happiness,\nand to so many.\n\nNone outside of the family will ever know to how many \u201cBoscobel\u201d was a\nveritable tower of refuge in dark days and troublous times; how many\nfound inspiration there for greater work, and increased courage for\nburden-bearing; whilst to Mr. Beecher it was an investment that repaid\nhim, in dividends of life-lengthening rest, reinvigoration, and\nhappiness, many hundred per cent. No wonder that he loved every spear of\ngrass, every budding leaf and perfumed flower, upon that hillside. They\nwere his children, at least by adoption. No wonder that the birds, and\neven the very insects, his uninvited summer guests, were dear to him;\nand that each fall, as he turned his back upon the summer and the\nhillside, to enter again into the harassing turmoils of city life, his\nthoughts ran back in gratitude to the many friends that had contributed\nso much to his happiness:\n\n[Illustration: Hall in New House at Peekskill.]\n\n\u201cNeither can a sensitive nature forget his summer companions, or stint\nthem in their meed of praise and gratitude. Worms whose metamorphosis we\nhave watched; spiders whose webs glitter along the grass at morning and\nat evening, or mark out geometric figures among the trees\u2014spiders red,\nbrown, black, green, gray, yellow, and speckled; soft-winged moths;\ngorgeous butterflies, steel-colored and shining black crickets, locusts\nand grasshoppers, and all the rabble of creaking, singing, fiddling\nfellows besides, which swarm in air and earth\u2014we bid you all a hearty\ngood-by. Sooth to say, we part from some of you without regret. But for\nthe million we feel a true yearning, so much have we watched your ways,\nso many hours has our soul been fed by you through our eyes. Ye are a\npart of the great Father\u2019s family.\n\n\u201cOh! how goodly a book is that which God has opened in this world! Every\nday is a separate leaf\u2014nay, not leaf, but volume, with text, and note,\nand picture, with every dainty quip and quirk of graceful art, with\nstores of knowledge illimitable, if one will only humble himself to\nreceive it! One should not willingly be ungrateful, even to the smallest\ncreatures or to inanimate objects that have served his pleasure.\n\n\u201cAnd so, to reed and grass, bush and tree, stone and hill, brook and\nlake, all creeping things and all things that fly, to early birds and\nlate-chirping locusts, we wave our hand in grateful thanks!\n\n\u201cBut to that Providence over all, source of their joy and mine, what\nwords can express what every manly heart must feel?\n\n\u201cOnly the life itself can give thanks for life.\u201d\n\nWhile house, flowers, and plants occupied the greater part of his\nfarming time, they by no means monopolized it. He took a very deep\ninterest in his chickens. White Leghorns, Buff Cochins, and Brown\nBrahmas, out of the many kinds that he tried, were the final favorites,\nand repaid him well in eggs\u2014the universal hen currency\u2014for his pains and\ncare. Of these he wrote:\n\n\u201cIt is a day for the country; the city palls on the jaded nerve. I long\nto hear the hens cackle. There are lively times now in barn and\nbarn-yard, I\u2019ll warrant you.... The Leghorn, of true blood, leads the\nrace of fowls for continuous eggs, in season and out of season\u2014eggs\nlarge enough, of fine quality, and sprung from hens that never think of\nchickens. For a true Leghorn seldom wants to sit. They believe in\ndivision of labor. If they provide the eggs, others must hatch them....\nThe Brahmas and Cochins have good qualities. They are large, even huge.\nThey are peaceable. And the Cochins do not _scratch_\u2014an important fact\nto all who have gardens.... But a more ungainly thing than Buff Cochins\nthe eye never saw. A flock of Leghorns is a delight to the eye; their\nforms are symmetrical, and every motion graceful. But the fat, podgy\nCochins waddle before you like over-fat buffoons. They are grotesque,\ngood-natured, clumsy, useful creatures, with a great love of sitting. We\nkeep Cochin hens to sit on Leghorn eggs.\u201d\n\nSo long as he raised chickens in the good old-fashioned, orthodox way he\nwas very successful; but when, one unlucky day, he fell into the hands\nof the agent of some patent chicken-breeding process, his sorrows began.\n\nThe hatcher and brooder appeared in due time, with trays, tin pans,\nheater, self-regulating thermometer, and enough other paraphernalia to\nhatch out an ostrich. _Three hundred_ selected eggs were taken for the\nfirst experiment, carefully stowed in the trays, the heat turned on, the\nregulating thermometer put in gear; then we all stood back and gazed in\nwondering admiration upon the machine which was to grind out chickens\nlike a mill. Our impatience could hardly be restrained to await the\neventful day when the shells should crack, and the downy occupants come\ntumbling out of the trays; while visions of tender broiled chickens,\nchickens roasted, stewed, and fricasseed without limit, danced through\nour exultant minds. _Three hundred_ spring chickens! Phew! And the\nprocess could be repeated indefinitely.\n\nAt last the long-expected day arrived when, according to the\nregulations, all well-behaved eggs should hatch.\n\n_Mons laboravit et_\u2014no, not a mouse, but one solitary little chicken\ncame forth. Two hundred and ninety-nine good eggs had gone wrong!\n\nThe second trial resulted better: one in every ten responded at the\nroll-call. But even these found this cold world uncongenial, and, what\nwith the pips, gapes, and other maladies incident to chicken babyhood,\ntheir little band rapidly diminished to zero. But these discouragements\nonly stimulated Mr. Beecher to greater effort, determined that, if the\nmachine could be made to work, _he would make_ it. It would be hard to\nsay what the upshot might have been, had not the machine, one fine\nnight, started off on an original plan of its own, with a view to\nforcing the eggs, which resulted in burning the hatcher, chicken-house,\npart of a barn, and nearly cleaning out the entire general\nestablishment. After that the hens had a monopoly of the hatching\nbusiness.\n\nWith his cattle he was uniformly successful, no one having invented any\ncalf-hatching machine. For many years he raised nothing but\nAyrshires\u2014very handsome cows and very generous milkers\u2014but finally he\nbegan to try the Jerseys, and never after changed from them. Their\nbeautiful deer-like heads, small, graceful limbs, and kindly\ndispositions made them universal favorites; while their milk, scant in\nquantity but wonderfully rich in cream, made berry-time a marked season\nof the year. As he never cared to keep more than six or eight cows, he\nhad each year to sell several heifers; these, thanks to the kindness of\nMr. Kittredge, his next-door neighbor, having been registered in the\nJersey stock-book, sold for large prices.\n\nNo farm so well stocked with flowers should be without its bees; so\nabout eight years ago he purchased four hives of Italian bees, had a\nproper shed erected, and the bees duly installed.\n\nAfter a few preliminary experiments he delegated the care and culture of\nbees to our hands. The necessity of appearing in his pulpit at regular\nstated times, with a face reasonably free from distortion, compelled him\nto forego the pleasure and exercise of caring for and dodging bees. But\nif he found it prudent to turn the bees over to others, he none the less\nenjoyed watching his proxy, making humorous suggestions\u2014from a\nconvenient distance. Though he did not himself handle them, he kept\nhimself fully posted respecting their habits. All that the text-books\ncould teach he learned, and then would question us as to our actual\nexperience. Whenever a hive swarmed he was on hand, if at the farm, and\nnone were more interested in capturing the swarm than he.\n\nAs we have intimated, his bees sometimes showed a want of respect for\n\u201cthe cloth,\u201d and an inappreciation of his friendly interest. At these\ntimes he joined as heartily as the less interested spectators in the\nlaugh raised at his expense; for there seems to be something\nirresistibly comical in the sight of a full-grown man waging a hopeless\nwar with a mere mite of a bee. His relish for the humorous could not be\nstayed even by the smart of a bee\u2019s sting, while a little patience was\nsure to afford him a chance to return the laugh with interest.\n\nOn one occasion an enormous swarm had settled on the lower limbs of a\ncherry-tree, just over the place where an unconscious calf was tethered\nand peacefully browsed. By some strange freak the swarm dropped from the\nlimb upon the unsuspecting calf. Fortunately, while swarming, bees are\nnot apt to be aggressive. The calf, terrified at this crawling mass so\nsuddenly enveloping it, began to bleat and rush frantically around as\nfar as its chain would permit. The bees, at last annoyed at the shaking\nup they received, began to remonstrate in a very pointed manner. Matters\nwere momentarily growing more and more serious for the calf, when one of\nthe farm-hands, happening by, rushed in, with more zeal than discretion,\ntrying to free the calf; before he could unfasten the chain the calf\nsucceeded in entangling him, finally tripping him up and falling with\nhim to the ground, a confused mass of calf, bees, and Irishman.\nFortunately another man ran in, and, pulling up the spike to which the\nchain was fastened, released them all. Happily no one was seriously\nhurt, but the final rescuer, with face and hands still smarting, meeting\nMr. Beecher, burst out, in somewhat incoherent excitement: \u201cThose domded\nbees have murthered the calf, an\u2019 Kelly\u2019s kilt and gone to _h\u2014\u2014\u2014 the\nother way_.\u201d\n\nMr. Beecher was never able to get any satisfactory explanation as to\nwhat the \u201cother way\u201d was.\n\nBetween the Jerseys and the bees, Boscobel soon became a land veritably\nflowing with milk and honey.\n\nNo account of the Peekskill home would be complete without some mention\nof the dogs. Like all true lovers of nature, Mr. Beecher was very fond\nof dogs, and generally had a fairly large family on hand.\n\nFrom Bruno and Jack, two canine giants\u2014one a St. Bernard and the other\nhalf Russian bloodhound and half mastiff\u2014to the little, wiggling mite of\na diminutive black-and-tan, all bark and wiggle, through all the\nintervening grades of size and kind\u2014mastiff, colly, Esquimaux, and\nterrier\u2014one thing only was insisted upon invariably: the dog must be\nkind and gentle to children. He might be ever so homely, ever so\nuseless, and he would be petted and loved; but if he once snapped at the\nlittle ones who tumbled over him, pulling tail and ears, the fiat went\nforth, as irrevocable as the laws of the Medes and Persians\u2014banishment\nor death. He loved to watch them frolicking among themselves or with the\nchildren, chasing and being chased. With them he would take long walks,\nand often sit upon the bank and talk to the companion who, with ears\npricked up and wagging tail, seemed almost to understand him. Of one he\nonce wrote:\n\n\u201cI have a four-legged heathen on my place\u2014\u2018Tommy.\u2019 He is a most\nintelligent and a most discriminating little dog; he is a gentleman in\ndisguise, and I am really sorry for him that he cannot talk. If ever\nthere was a dog that was distressed to think that he could not talk,\nthat dog is. I sit by him on the bank, of a summer evening, and I say,\n\u2018Tommy, I am sorry for you\u2019; and he whines, as much as to say, \u2018So am\nI.\u2019 I say, \u2018Tommy, I should like to tell you a great many things that\nyou are worthy of knowing\u2019; and I do not know which is the most puzzled,\nhe or I\u2014I to get any idea into his head, or he to get any out of mine;\nbut there it is: I know what he thinks, and he knows not what I think.\nHe knows that there is something above a dog, and he manifests his\ncanine uneasiness by whining, and in other ways. His aspiration shows\nitself from his ears to his tail. He longs to be something more and\nbetter; he yearns to occupy a larger sphere; but, after all, he does\nnot, and he cannot.\u201d\n\nTo the children \u201cBoscobel\u201d was a beautiful home, filled with everything\nthat could educate the eye and taste, and cultivate the love of the\nbeautiful in nature; made doubly dear by the daily association with our\nfather in his happiest and brightest moods.\n\nTo the friends for whom its doors were ever open it was a delightful, to\nits owner a veritable _haven of rest_.\n\nFrom its commanding height he looked out upon the country lying below\nand beyond, with the eye of ownership; for he used to say: \u201cI own all I\ncan see. I enjoy all that there is of beauty and peacefulness in my\nneighbor\u2019s lands as much as they, without the responsibility or the\ntaxes.\u201d This, he declared, was the most profitable kind of land-owning.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXXI.\n\nHome Life\u2014Love of Children\u2014His Method of Training and\n    Education\u2014Formation of Library and Art Collection\u2014Personal Traits.\n\n\nTo the public Mr. Beecher was best known as the eloquent preacher and\nspeaker, the fearless advocate of right and foe to wrong, the champion\nof the weak and oppressed, a friend to all mankind. But it was only to\nthose who knew him in his home-life that the softer and sweeter sides of\nhis nature were fully revealed. For his home and family he had the\ndeepest and most tender affection. Though brought up in New England,\nwhere respectful reverence from child to parent was often carried to\nsuch an extreme that the father was almost unapproachable to his\nchildren, he retained none of the puritanical austerity that largely\nfilled the social atmosphere of Connecticut seventy years ago, partly\nbecause in his own home there was more of the feeling of fellowship\nbetween the father and children, but more especially because his intense\nlove for children swept away all barriers of cold formality. To his own\nhe was the companion and playfellow, the partner in every joy, the\ncomforter in every sorrow. Patient in unravelling those mysteries of\nmind and matter that perplex the early life of every healthful child, he\nnever answered their childish wonderings with the impatient \u201cdon\u2019t\nbother me,\u201d which too often checks that curiosity which is nature\u2019s mode\nof self-education, and which often makes childhood one long, continuous\n\u201cwhy.\u201d\n\nEvery little prattler was his by love\u2019s adoption. In more than a score\nof households he was _the \u201cGrandpa\u201d par excellence_, often sadly\ninterfering, we fear, with the rules of government; for, by tacit\nconsent between parents, children, and \u201cGrandpa,\u201d he was superior to all\nnursery regulations. His consent, and often co-operation, was a warrant\nof pardon for any and all pranks and escapades committed thereunder.\n\nHe was always very careful to exercise this power along the line of\nhealthy sport, in little pranks that gave amusement to all, but at the\nsame time leading the boys to be more manly and the girls to be more\nwomanly. Many a young man and woman today looks back upon those bright\ndays of their childhood with deep and tender affection, and sees where,\nin what seemed then mere sport and fun, they had caught the inspiration\nfor higher and nobler living.\n\nIn this childhood\u2019s Utopia things were sometimes strangely transposed.\nNothing would at first more surprise a stranger, in whose memory still\nlingered pungent recollections of early discipline, than to see a troop\nof children pounce down upon Mr. Beecher, clamoring with shouts and\nlaughter for a whipping. He remembered that shouts and clamor were\nconstant concomitants in the execution of domestic penalties in his\nearly days, but nothing in his experience recalled laughter in that\nconnection.\n\nThe mystery would soon be explained, when, with mock frowns and assumed\nviolence, the children were seized, twirled and tumbled into a row along\nthe wall; and ordered to hold out each right hand; one after another\neach hand was seized and several blows administered\u2014with a stick of\ncandy. Of course the sticks did not get away. The rods were not spared,\nand we don\u2019t think that any of the children were spoiled.\n\nAnd the stranger, as with quiet smile he looks upon them, wonders, after\nall, if parents resorted to that kind of whipping more, whether the\nincreased feeling of good-fellowship would not render the need of the\nother kind less frequent.\n\nIn the training of his own children he seldom resorted to actual\nphysical punishment, and then only when the little culprit had been\nguilty of some especially aggravated offence. But when he did resort to\nthe laying on of hands, he entered into it with great earnestness.\nDishonesty, falsehood, cruelty, and meanness of every kind were capital\noffences. The sinner did not lose his head in such cases, but some other\nparts of his person were so actively stimulated, that standing became\nthe most comfortable position for a long time thereafter. These little\nrencounters naturally produced profound impressions. We were not apt to\ninvite another by repeating that particular offence.\n\nWe well remember some experiments in natural philosophy, conducted by us\nwhen about six or seven years old, in which a kitten and a tub of water\nfigured prominently, some features of which, bordering on the barbarous,\nwe will omit. Just then our father came along, and\u2014well, things were\ngenerally reversed, including the youthful experimenter. The kitten was\nfished out, and we had it so thoroughly impressed upon our understanding\nthat kittens won\u2019t swim under water, that we do not remember to have\nexperimented any further in that direction.\n\nAfter these profoundly impressionable interviews he would talk earnestly\nand lovingly to the culprit, declaring that it hurt him more to punish\nthan it did the sinner to be punished\u2014which we can well believe now,\nfrom our knowledge of his deep and tender loving-kindness, and from the\nsimilar duties time has brought to us. _Then_ it used to seem strongly\nparadoxical, measuring his pain by our still smarting skin we generously\nthought that we would willingly have foregone any benefits derived from\nthe experience, and have spared him so much suffering.\n\nHappily, these graver cases were infrequent. The minor misdemeanors from\nchildhood\u2019s restless carelessness were generally met with quiet, gentle\ntalks, the mischief fully explained with all its whys and wherefores;\nthe little penitent being finally dismissed with a kiss, honestly and\nheartily determined to keep out of mischief, and succeeding, by great\neffort, for an hour or two, until he tumbled into something else. With\nsuch cases the father\u2019s patience was infinite.\n\nAs the children grew older he was untiring in his care that they should\nform those habits of body, mind, and morals that should make them\nstrong, useful, and moral men and women. He stimulated their natural\ncuriosity, but at the same time taught them to be self-helpful. If a\nquestion were asked that could be answered by any book that he had, the\nquestioner was sent for it, and told, \u201cNow read that carefully, and tell\nme what you learn; I want to know it, too;\u201d adding: \u201cInformation which\nyou get when your attention is fully aroused, and for which you have to\nstop and take some little trouble, you will be pretty sure to remember.\u201d\n\n\u201cNever ask a question,\u201d he used to say, \u201cif you can find the answer\nyourself, but never hesitate to ask if you can\u2019t find it: remember\nalways you have a tongue in your head.\u201d\n\nHis letters to the absentees at school and college were full of\nwell-considered advice, and well illustrate what we have referred to:\n\n\u201cI am more glad than I can express that you feel so much interest in\nreligious meetings, and I hope that God will lead you to embrace with\nyour whole soul a religious life. It is the only way to perfect honor\nand to the highest truth and duty. Religion is only the highest _use and\nregulation of every faculty_. To love God and live in true benevolence\ntoward men is the very way to make yourself wise, happy, and good.... In\nall your own personal conduct act upon _conscience_, and do not try to\nplease yourself merely, _but to do what is right_, and because it is\nright. Towards your companions, in all things, seek to be unselfish,\nkind in little things, studying their good and not your own.... One word\nas to reading your Bible. You must not regard the book with\nsuperstition, and imagine that you will get good by merely _reading it_.\nYou must remember that it is a very large and widespread book; many\nthings will not be of service to you _yet_. It has something in it for\nevery age and all circumstances.... Every day try to put in _practice_\nsomething that you read in the Bible. Remember that being a Christian\ndoes not take away anything that is innocent and joyous, but only adds\nto them higher and nobler joys.\u201d\n\n\u201cMY DEAR \u2014\u2014\u2014:\n\n\u201cI am glad that you have found a pleasant friend in the _minister_. It\nseems fit that the son of a minister, whose father\u2019s father was a\nminister, should have a liking for ministers. I am glad, too, that you\nare fortunate in having a man who is sensible enough to understand that\na Christian is not less _than a man_. Whatever it is right for anybody\nto do, it is right for a Christian to do; and what a Christian gentleman\nmay not do, nobody has a right to do. Religion regulates our pursuits\nand pleasures, but does not destroy them....\n\n\u201cYou are fifteen years old; that is close upon manhood. I have no doubt\nthat you begin to look at times quite seriously toward the future. _But\nfidelity to the present is the best preparation for the future._ Do\neverything _thoroughly_. Do not be a superficial scholar. Go to the\nroots of everything you study.\n\n\u201cAs to profanity out of doors, I should not, in ordinary cases, meddle\nmuch, especially in a way that should seem as though you _owned_ the\nboy, or were responsible for his conduct. Nothing is more provoking to a\nyoung person than to have people assume authority over them in moral\nthings. But in your own room it is different; profanity there is an\nintrusion on _your_ rights, and is not to be tolerated. If kind measures\nwill not check it, then peremptory ones should. I would say to such a\none: \u2018You must take your choice, to find some other room or to observe\nthe decencies of life here!\u2019 ... Now as to your studies. It is not\nmainly _the time_ employed, but the _concentration of mind_, that\ninduces rapid progress. Mere scholars study without great grasp and\nsharp and quick application of thought. They take two hours to do what\ncould better be done in one. In part this capacity of rapid\ncomprehension and accurate perception depends upon one\u2019s native\nendowments, but it depends even more on _habit_ and _training_. While\nyou seek primarily _accuracy_, you should steadily aim with it to\naccelerate your process, to see quicker, think quicker, decide quicker.\nBut if you study intensely you must take much air. Don\u2019t be tempted to\ngive up a wholesome air-bath, a good walk, or skate, or ride every day.\nIt will pay you back over your books, by freshness, elasticity, and\nclearness of mind. I have noticed that lessons which require acuteness\nand _memory_ both, are best gotten by studying them the last thing\nbefore going to bed, and then taking hold again early in the morning.\nThat which we study just before sleeping seems to come out in strong\nrelief the next day, if we renew the impression by going over the work\nagain. For difficult tasks, then, take this hint: go over just before\nsleeping, and review in the morning. But, again, take care of health;\nlearning in a broken body is like a sword without a handle, like a load\nin a broken-wheeled cart, like artillery with no gun-carriage.\u201d\n\n\u201cBut, my dear fellow, there is one thing that will be hard, but that is\nto be the root of all success and enjoyment\u2014viz., the habit of _boning\ndown to things which you don\u2019t like_. In all your after-life, your\nsuccess will depend upon your ability to do things which you do not\nparticularly _like_ to do. In other words, _duty_ must become your\nwatchword, and not _pleasure_ or _liking_.\u201d\n\n\u201cI wish, at the beginning of your college course, to say a few words\nwhich, if you will read over once in a while, may help you. You are not\nin college for the sake of its pleasures, or for form\u2019s sake, but to\nhave your whole intellectual nature roused up and brought into efficient\ndrill. No matter what powers one has by nature, he requires thorough\ndrill to know how to use them. It is not wise for you to choose a\nprofession, long before you have any knowledge of yourself, with such\nthoroughness as is needful. You are not grown yet inwardly. You do not\nknow your own powers and adaptations. The business of life is too\nserious to be settled upon before one knows anything about his fitness\nfor one or another\u2019s course.... Bear in mind that life is given you not\nto be trifled with. God will hold you to strict account for the use you\nmake of your endowments.\n\n\u201cYou were sent into life to work and be useful, not to frolic and enjoy\nyourself. You are drawing near the time when you must begin life _for\nyourself_. My dear boy, your own soul, your honor, and your father\u2019s\nname are committed to your keeping. Guard them from dishonor. May God\nhave you in his holy keeping!\u201d\n\n\u201cI want to say a word to you about your _style_. In every energetic\nnature, the style, in its essential spirit, will follow a man\u2019s\ndisposition. So it is somewhere said that \u2018style is the man.\u2019 But while\nthis is true of its _spirit_, yet its external form may be much modified\nand improved by attention and care. Now, you have never apparently made\nthis a matter of thought, and still less of study.\n\n\u201cI am not going to recommend, in addition to your other studies, that\nyou should read on style, but only this: that in _conversation_ and in\nyour _letters_ you should begin to consider ease, fulness, grace, and\nscrupulous _accuracy_. I wish you would get from the library a copy of\nCowper\u2019s letters and read them, and some of them many times. See what\ninterest he throws around trivial things by an elegant way of narrating\nthem. He draws pictures, he puts daily trifles in an artistic light. He\nis as thorough and complete in each instance as if it were a great\nhistorical event, instead of being a rabbit\u2019s play, a bird\u2019s freak, or a\ntea-table affair. The simplicity of his style, its purity and clearness,\nits _accuracy_, as clear cut as is the finest cut-glass goblet, are\nworthy of notice and imitation. Now, the first step towards improvement\nis a consciousness of _its necessity_, then an instant attempt at it.\nSuppose you make your letters a means of practice; see that nothing is\nstated in an awkward or slovenly way; leave nothing merely hinted and\nleft for the reader to make out as best he can; and, generally, make it\na rule never in _letters_, nor even in the mere sketchy memoranda for\nthe purpose of study, nor in your note-book, to do things _carelessly_.\nForm the habit of stating things clearly, and in scrupulously accurate\nand grammatical language; you have formed the habit of not letting your\nlips tell falsehoods; now do not let your pen do so either, nor let it\ntell half-truths, nor grotesque truths, but pure and simple truths, as\nthey are. _That_ is good style.\u201d\n\nTo a young friend who had much artistic ability, but who was discouraged\nbecause it was not of the highest grade, he wrote:\n\n\u201cYour note pained me for your sake, as it indicated a bad state of\nideality. The sense of the beautiful and of the _perfect_ was designed\nto stimulate and not to discourage effort. We are not to aim at the\nhighest, but the highest _attainable by us_. Here, however, comes in\nthat pride of which you speak, and which is unwise, inartistic,\nunchristian.\n\n\u201cNow, the province of art may be said to be to make homely things\nhandsome, and good things beautiful.\n\n\u201cThe power or the gift of the artist is not to glorify himself, but to\nmake the way of human life smoother to tender feet. While, then, high\nart has an important function, so has _decorative_ art. It is the\ndemocratic form of art\u2014_i.e._, the form which allies it to Christianity.\n\n\u201cWashing the feet is not an agreeable but a most necessary act. \u2018_If I,\nyour Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one\nanother\u2019s_,\u2019 etc. It is the keynote of Christianity that one should be\nwilling to _serve_, not rule. Christ \u2018emptied Himself of reputation,\u2019\n\u2018took upon Him the form of a servant.\u2019\n\n\u201d_You_ are not willing to do things which give pleasure to common\npeople. _You_ are not willing to make plain people happy, to make common\nhomes more cheerful and beautiful. You do not join ideality to\n_benevolence_, but to self-adoring _pride_. If you could perform great\nworks, you would be willing to toil, and even suffer. Being unable to do\nthat, you are not willing to perform the gentler offices of art, the\nsweetest and most womanly, and give hues and colors to those homely\nimplements that every-day life needs.\n\n\u201cIf I had your gifts and your calling, I think that every day I should\nsend thanks to God that, though I could not do great things, I could do\nthat which would cheer daily human life, that would cast a ray of beauty\nalong the homely path where the poor must walk.\n\n\u201cIt seems to me that your eyes are holden, and that you do not see God\u2019s\nangel sent to you, saying, \u2018Will you not be a worker together with God,\nfor all, and for the lowly first?\u2019 You push him away and say, with\nbitterness, \u2018Let me help the strong, the high, the rich, or let me die.\u2019\n\n\u201cIt is a wicked _pride_, and you must be born again, and repeatedly,\nuntil you can say to your Lord, \u2018I will follow Thee in Thy poverty, in\nThy humiliation, and if need be I will die to the highest ambition, that\nI may with my whole soul work for the lowly and in a lowly way!\u2019\n\n\u201cIdealized pride.\n\n\u201cIdealized conscience.\n\n\u201cThese are your enemies. They stand between you and your life\u2019s\nwork\u2014between you and Him who died for you.\n\n\u201cI would never have taken the trouble to write this, if I did not love\nyou so much, and did not hope to see you yet one day, \u2018clothed and in\nyour right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt was his idea that home should be a training-school for his children,\nby precept, example, and by object-teaching. Partly in gratification of\nhis own love of learning and of the beautiful, but more for the training\nof the family and development of correct tastes in all departments of\nliterature and art, he covered his walls with paintings, etchings, and\nengravings; when wall-space gave out, portfolios, drawers, and cabinets\nwere filled with the choicest specimens of art that he could find\u2014not\nwith the zeal of a collector, who seeks the rare merely for its rarity,\nbut because the thing itself was beautiful, or illustrated some type or\nperiod of art. As a result his collection of prints furnished a good\nillustration of etching and engraving, from the earliest rude woodcuts\nof the fifteenth century, through the various growths of improvement,\ndown to the parchment proofs of the modern etcher. D\u00fcrer, Rembrandt,\nOstade, Wille, Sch\u00f6ngauer, and many others, exemplified the old school,\nwhile through a multitude of the French, German, Italian, and English\nartists were traced the growths of modern art. All the wall-space that\ncould be spared from the paintings and framed engravings was devoted to\nbook-cases well filled. The ancient and the English classics were\nwell-nigh complete, and every modern writer of note, in any department\nof learning, could find upon Mr. Beecher\u2019s shelves the best of his\nbrain\u2019s offspring. As in art, so in literature, he bought nothing\nbecause it was rare, but only because it would gratify the higher tastes\nor could teach something. The student in any department of art, science,\nmanufacture, agriculture, medicine, or theology would find in Mr.\nBeecher\u2019s library the best authorities in his special branch of study,\nand generally with the marks of careful reading apparent upon their\npages; while the professional man, whose life had been devoted to the\nstudy and practice of his particular profession, has often wondered how\nMr. Beecher could have found it possible, with his many duties, to\nacquire a theoretic knowledge, in that branch of learning, so accurate\nand comprehensive. The solution of the mystery lay in the fact that he\nnever had to learn a thing twice. The knowledge he acquired he retained.\nHe was remarkably watchful and observant was deeply interested in\neverything that was going on about him; and when he became interested in\na subject, would buy all the books he could find that would enlighten\nhim, and study them carefully. He delighted in visiting workshops,\nfactories, laboratories, studios, and all other places where men worked,\nthere watching attentively the worker, and in a few probing questions\nreaching such facts as he had failed to find in his books\u2014applying the\nprecept he gave his children: learning what he could by his own\nobservation, then filling the gaps by questioning.\n\nWhile his memory of words, dates, and the like was very bad, rendering\nit almost impossible for him to quote accurately, or recall figures or\ndates, yet his memory of facts was wonderfully accurate. The language by\nwhich he learned a fact he could seldom repeat, but the information he\nnever forgot. The former was only the shell; it was the meat of the nut\nalone that he cared for.\n\nOf course in making up his library he bought many books which in fact he\nnever used, for he said: \u201cA library is like a bountiful table, on which\neach guest can find everything that he wants; yet it don\u2019t follow that\neach guest must eat from every dish. My library is the table for my\nmind, from which I take what I want to-day, and from which I can get\nwhat I may want at any time hereafter.\u201d His library was eminently a\n_working library_. Most of his books were bought when he was still a\nyoung minister, when economy and love of books waged constant warfare,\nof which contest we give his humorous description:\n\n\u201cAlas! where is human nature so weak as in a book-store? Speak of the\nappetite for drink, or a _bon-vivant\u2019s_ relish for dinner! What are\nthese mere animal throes and ragings to be compared with those fantasies\nof taste, of imagination, of intellect, which bewilder a student in a\ngreat bookseller\u2019s temptation-hall?...\n\n\u201cThen, too, the subtle process by which the man satisfies himself that\nhe can afford to buy. Talk of Wall Street and financiering! No subtle\nmanager or broker ever saw through a maze of financial embarrassments\nhalf so quick as a poor book-buyer sees his way clear to pay for what he\n_must_ have. Why, he will economize; he will dispense with this and\nthat; he will retrench here and there; he will save by various\nexpedients hitherto untried; he will put spurs on both heels of his\nindustry; and then, besides all this, he will _somehow_ get along when\nthe time for payment comes! Ah! this SOMEHOW! That word is as big as a\nwhole world, and is stuffed with all the vagaries and fantasies that\nFancy ever bred on Hope....\n\n\u201cMoreover, buying books before you can pay for them promotes caution.\nYou don\u2019t feel quite at liberty to take them home. You are married. Your\nwife keeps an account-book. She knows to a penny what you can and what\nyou cannot afford. She has no \u2018speculation\u2019 in _her_ eyes. Plain figures\nmake desperate work with airy \u2018_somehows_.\u2019 It is a matter of no small\nskill and experience to get your books home, and in their places,\nundiscovered. Perhaps the blundering express brings them to the door\njust at evening. \u2018What is it, my dear?\u2019 she says to you. \u2018Oh! nothing\u2014a\nfew books that I cannot do without.\u2019 That smile! A true housewife, that\nloves her husband, can smile a whole arithmetic at him in one look! Of\ncourse she insists, in the kindest way, in sympathizing with you in your\nliterary acquisition. She cuts the strings of the bundle (and of your\nheart), and out comes the whole story. You have bought a whole set of\ncostly English books, full bound in calf, extra gilt! You are caught,\nand feel very much as if bound in calf yourself, extra gilt, and\nadmirably lettered.\n\n\u201cNow, this must not happen frequently. The books must be smuggled home.\nLet them be sent to some near place. Then, when your wife has a\nheadache, or is out making a call, or has lain down, run the books\nacross the frontier and threshold, hastily undo them, stop only for one\nloving glance as you put them away in the closet, or behind other books\non the shelf, or on the topmost shelf. Clear away the twine and\nwrapping-paper, and every suspicious circumstance. Be very careful not\nto be too kind. That often brings on detection. Only the other day we\nheard it said somewhere: \u2018Why, how good you have been lately! I am\nreally afraid that you have been carrying on mischief secretly.\u2019 Our\nheart smote us. It was a fact. That very day we had bought a few books\nwhich \u2018we could not do without.\u2019 After a while you can bring out one\nvolume, accidentally, and leave it on the table. \u2018Why, my dear, _what_ a\nbeautiful book! Where _did_ you borrow it?\u2019 You glance over the\nnewspaper, with the quietest tone you can command: \u2018_That?_ Oh! that is\n_mine_. Have you not seen it before? It has been in the house this two\nmonths.\u2019 And you rush on with anecdote and incident, and point out the\nbinding, and that peculiar trick of gilding, and everything else you can\nthink of; but it all will not do\u2014you cannot rub out that roguish,\narithmetical smile. People may talk about the equality of the sexes!\nThey are not equal. The silent smile of a sensible, loving woman will\nvanquish ten men. Of course you repent, and in time form a habit of\nrepenting.\u201d\n\nWhen we consider how strongly developed was his love of the beautiful,\nwe are not surprised at his fondness for music and precious stones. At\nfirst the two seem widely dissimilar, but to his mind they were only\ndifferent forms of the same thing, and to both he was profoundly\nimpressionable. Gems and precious stones were only valued for their\ncolor. They were color crystallized, and to color he was peculiarly and\nstrangely susceptible. Music was color expressed in terms of sound. The\none was color to his eye, the other to his ear. The mere enjoyment of\nsweet sounds and beautiful colors we can readily understand; it is\ncommon to all who can see or hear, in greater or less degree. But the\nmarked peculiarity in Mr. Beecher\u2019s case was what we might describe as\ntheir drug effect. This is not, perhaps, unusual with others in the case\nof music, for, with many, soft and gentle music will quiet the excited\nmind, soothe the soul, and bring peace where the tempest raged. This was\nso with him, but in a greater and more marked degree. Colors would\nproduce the same effect. When disturbed or nerve-tired, or when, after\nsome marked effort in the pulpit or upon the platform, he found his\nbrain aflame and every nerve keyed to the highest tension, he would sit\ndown in his study, take out from his pocket or table-drawer an opal,\ngarnet, hyacinth, or flashing diamond, hold it lovingly in his open\nhand, drinking in through his eyes the soft, rich rays of color. Almost\nas if by magic, the turgid veins on brow and temple grew less prominent,\nthe deep flush upon his face softened gradually into its natural color,\nthe muscular tension abated, the nerve-strain relaxed, and a soft and\ngentle peacefulness settled down upon him, like the comforting shadow of\nan angel\u2019s wing. Casting himself upon his bed, he would sleep as\npeacefully as a child upon its mother\u2019s bosom.\n\nA notable illustration of this occurred while in England in 1863. When\nhe returned to his hotel, after a three hours\u2019 struggle with the mob in\nthe Philharmonic Hall at Liverpool, he found himself still under the\nexcitement of the fierce strife, every nerve still vibrating under the\nstrain. The waves of thought and imagination rolled through his brain,\nlike the billows of the ocean still tossing after the gale has passed.\nHe had been roused to the very centre of his being, and it promised to\nbe a night of restless, sleepless tossings. He had with him an opal of\nwonderful fire and color. Sitting down in his room, he placed the stone\nin his hand, and for half an hour sat watching the play of its changing\ncolors. As he watched, the stormy brain grew quiet, a gentle sense of\nphysical fatigue and sleepiness stole over him, yielding to which he\nwent to bed, dropping at once into a quiet, unconscious sleep, unbroken\ntill, late in the morning, he awoke, rested and refreshed.\n\nThese color-opiates he always carried with him; a dozen of the finest\nstones were set in rings and strung upon a key-ring carried in his\npocket; while in the recesses of some inner vest-pocket were hidden a\nnumber of unset stones, carefully wrapped in paper. His love in that\ndirection was well known to all the prominent jewellers, who laid aside\nfor his inspection the finest specimens of those stones for which he\nespecially cared. One of these gentlemen writes:\n\n\u201cMr. Beecher\u2019s love for fine gems was neither on account of their value\nnor their rarity. He loved them because they spoke to him of nature and\nthe God who rules nature, and this voice appealed to him most strongly\nin the specimens which possessed the richest colors. He might admire a\nperfectly clear diamond if it was unusually brilliant, but this\nadmiration sank to insignificance by the side of that awakened by one\npossessing color. \u2018How grand,\u2019 he would say, \u2018is that nature which can\ncatch the hues of the rainbow and fasten them in imperishable stone! The\nrainbow passes away, the beautiful flowers fade, but in the loveliness\nof these gems are held permanently the colors of both.\u2019 In one of my\nvisits to Europe I secured a magnificent diamond, which I am confident\nhas never been excelled. Its color is hard to describe, but I likened it\nto molten gold. I had no commission from Mr. Beecher to purchase\nanything of this kind, but nevertheless it was for him I bought it,\nknowing his taste in these matters, and consequently I resisted all\ntemptations to sell it abroad, and brought it home with me. Mr. Beecher\nwas delighted, as I thought he would be, and compared its hue to the\ndeep reddish gold of a setting sun. This gem was set in a black\nenamelled ring, and was often worn by him\u2014the only jewel I ever knew him\nto wear. He was as loyal to the gems of his cabinet as he was to his\nanimate friends, and indeed the stones were also his friends. Rubies,\nsapphires, amethysts, topaz, hyacinths, aqua-marines, all were objects\nof his deep love, not alone because they gratified his keen enjoyment of\ncolor, but also because he seemed to read in them a page of the great\nbook of nature. Neither was there any superstition connected with or\ntainting this love. The ill-omened opal was a part of his collection\nwhen the prejudice against it was strongest, and, in fact, Mrs. Beecher\nwore these stones frequently. I have said that richly-colored gems were\nhis friends, and so they were, and more. From them he gathered\ninspiration, rest, peace, and even truth itself. He saw them, but he\nalso saw beyond them. Their colors seemed to him to be one of those\nmysteries through which God speaks to man\u2014a mystery in which his spirit\ndelighted to bathe, and from which he seemed to inhale strength and much\nof that inspiration which all nature appeared to yield up to him\nungrudgingly. His gems gratified his sense of sight, his sense of\npoetry, his sense of a beautiful nature, and, more than all these, his\nsense of an omnipotent divinity. None of them, that I know of, had any\nspecial history. He loved them for themselves alone and for what they\nmight teach him.\u201d\n\nHe used to say half-jokingly, but with a great deal of underlying\nearnestness, that it was the duty of every one to be healthy and strong;\nthat weakness was the penalty which men had to pay for disobeying the\nlaws of nature, sins committed either by themselves or their parents.\nPreservation of health was a prime duty, its waste a cardinal sin.\n\nAs he preached, so he practised; he handled his body as an intelligent\nengineer does his engine. He made it a matter of careful study. He knew\njust what he could do with impunity, and just what he must avoid. If he\nfound that eating a certain thing harmed him, that thing he left alone.\nFor the stomach was the furnace and must be kept free and clear; if that\nbroke down, the whole engine came to a standstill.\n\nHe studied the effect upon himself of the various kinds of food and\ndrink, and used them at the times and in the manner which experience and\nstudy taught him would give the best results.\n\nSome things affected him very peculiarly, and of this he took advantage\nin their use. This was markedly so with tea and coffee. He found that\ncoffee produced a mild kind of mental stimulus that made all things look\nbrighter and more joyous; that its use before preaching stimulated the\nbrighter and happier side of his nature, adding a slightly roseate tinge\nto all he saw. It was optimistic. While with tea the effect was the\nreverse. Objects appeared in their more sober, sombre colors. The rosy\nfaded into the blue, and while it could not be said that he felt\ndepressed exactly, yet the tendency was downward. Life seemed somewhat\nsterner, its responsibilities became more prominent, its joys less\nconspicuous. Tea was slightly pessimistic.\n\nBut, strangely, when he drank both, as he usually did, they held each\nother in check; he then saw both the lights and the shadows of life in\ntheir true relation to one another. His mind pursued the even tenor of\nits way.\n\nWines, beer, and their like he never used for pleasure or as beverages;\nas medicines, in certain conditions of stomach disorders, he found them\nuseful. But then, as his library attests, he first carefully studied and\ninvestigated the peculiar properties of each that he used, and confined\ntheir use to the condition in which he found them most useful. For\ninstance, Burgundy wine was used only to counteract certain tendencies\ntoward hepatic trouble. Beer was used only as a substitute for the\nbromides to relieve insomnia.\n\nWriting to a friend, who had inquired anxiously as to the truth of\ncertain rumors respecting his use of stimulants, he replied:\n\n                                       \u201cBROOKLYN, February 21, 1870.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR SIR:\n\n\u201cIn reply to your letter of February 14th, I would say that I do keep\nintoxicating liquors of various kinds in my house, and probably shall do\nso as long as I keep house. But I am _not_ \u2018in the habit of offering\nthem to my friends when they call.\u2019 Nothing can be more false or\ninjurious than the impression conveyed by such language. I keep them and\nuse them strictly and always as I would medicine, and I should as soon\nthink of offering a well man a dose of rhubarb as a dose of brandy.\n\n\u201cI am a _total abstainer, both in belief and in practice_. I hold that\nno man in health _needs_ or is the better for alcoholic stimulants; that\ngreat good will follow to the whole community from the total disuse of\nthem as articles of diet or luxury; and that so soon as the moral sense\nof society will sustain such laws, it will be wise and right to enact\nprohibitory liquor laws. My practice strictly conforms to my precepts.\nWhen I was depressed in health, at times, I have made use of various\nkinds of stimulants, precisely as I would have used drugs\u2014indeed, as a\nsubstitute for them. This has been occasional, exceptional, and wholly\nmedicinal....\u201d\n\nCareful as he was himself, he disliked exceedingly to have others\nlooking after or inquiring about his health. If unwell, he would lie\ndown, and in careful dieting and sleep soon find relief. On such\noccasions he preferred to be left to himself, undisturbed by questioning\nor fussing. If well, he repelled solicitude by jokes or humorous\nbantering.\n\nExposed so constantly in his lecture-tours (in one season travelling\ntwenty-seven thousand miles) to the danger of accidents, and to sickness\nthrough unavoidable exposures, it was not strange that Mrs. Beecher felt\nno little anxiety for his welfare, and when rumors came back, with the\nusual newspaper distortions and exaggerations, her solicitude would\nnaturally be greatly increased. On one occasion, when her anxiety, in\nconsequence of some rumor, became too great to be restrained, she wrote\nan anxious letter to him, inquiring about his health and expressing her\nfears. She received the following characteristic letter in reply:\n\n\u201cMY DEAR WIFE:\n\n\u201cI see that you are incorrigible. O cruel woman! will not forty years of\nincessant assault suffice?\n\n\u201cHow many heads have you crushed! Not a bone in my body that you have\nnot broken; not a method of mutilation that you have not tried. You have\nplunged me down ravines, pitched me over precipices, drowned me, burned\nme, torn me asunder. I have lost innumerable arms, legs, and feet. I go\nlimping, handless, toward I know not what dire future. You have\nconspired with every element of earth, air, and water, by day and by\nnight, and wrung out every terrible fate that ever poet sang or Dante\ndreamed of. I do not think that there is\u2014well! well! Just think of this\nlatest. I had some disturbance in my stomach\u2014you turn me end for end and\ncall it apoplexy. I was faint\u2014you changed it to paralysis. I am getting\nto crouch and creep through life in fear that you have set some terrible\ndisaster upon me. I think I see leaves winking mischief at me. Every\nstone seems ready to fly at me. Cars and engines are traps, and seem to\nsay, \u2018Will you walk into my parlor, Mister Fly?\u2019 ... I am _fighting\nfine_\u2014my knees better, head clear; and if I only had a wife\u201d (Mrs.\nBeecher was then in Florida) \u201cI should be perfect.\u201d\n\nWhat a careful observance of the rules of health did toward keeping his\nbody in thorough working order, sleep did for his brain. Every hour of\nsleep that he could get he counted clear gain; but even that was\nregulated according to the drafts made upon his brain. During vacation\ntime, or when he had but little work on hand\u2014rare occasions\u2014he found the\nnight\u2019s rest sufficient. But on Sundays, while lecturing, or when\npressed by mental work of any kind, he would supplement the night with a\nlong nap in the afternoon. So long as he kept his health and had sleep\nenough, no amount of work tired him. Under such circumstances it might\nalmost be said that his brain worked spontaneously; thinking came as\neasily and naturally to him as breathing.\n\nHe was spared the mental drudgery that oppresses so many men. His own\nillustration was that \u201csome men are like live springs, that bubble up\nand flow perpetually; while others are like pumps\u2014one must work the\nhandle for all the water he gets.\u201d\n\nHis methods of preparation for the pulpit were peculiar. In one sense\nhis whole life was a constant preparation, for he was always observing\nand studying, laying up stores for future use, seldom knowing just when\nhe would utilize the material, yet sooner or later employing it all. His\nmemory was a great magazine, filled with ammunition, on which he drew as\nthe occasion required. This might be called his _general preparation_.\nJust before preaching or speaking he would enter into his _special\npreparation_, unlock the magazine, and lay out the material he wished to\nuse. This he would do just in advance of speaking (his ammunition was\nhighly volatile, and, if left exposed too long, was apt to evaporate and\nbe lost).\n\nHis Sunday-morning sermons were prepared after breakfast, and the\nevening sermons after tea. He would retire to his study and think out\nthe result which he wished to reach, making outline notes of the steps\nby which he proposed to reach it. He could never preach a sermon on a\ngiven topic unless it was _in his mind_. It sometimes happened that\nafter wrestling with his subject in his study for an hour or two, and\nfinally preparing a very unsatisfactory outline of what he wanted to\npreach, he would go to his church, and, while the choir were singing the\nopening hymn, the whole subject would come up before his mind in the\nform he wanted. Hastily tearing a fly-leaf from his hymn-book, or taking\nthe back of his notes, he would sketch out in a few lines the new-born\nsermon, which would perhaps occupy an hour in its delivery. These were\nvery apt to be among his best sermons.\n\nSpeaking on this subject, he once said: \u201cMy whole life is a general\npreparation. Everything I read, everything I think, all the time,\nwhether it is secular, philosophic, metaphysic, or scientific\u2014it all of\nit goes into the atmosphere with me; and then, when the time comes for\nme to do anything\u2014I do not know why it should be so, except that I am of\nthat temperament\u2014it crystallizes, and very suddenly too, and so much of\nit as I am going to use for that distinct time comes right up before my\nmind in full form, and I sketch it down and rely upon my facility,\nthrough long experience, to give utterance and full development to it\nafter I come before an audience. There is nothing in this world that is\nsuch a stimulus to me as an audience. It wakes up the power of thinking\nand wakes up the power of imagination in me.\u201d\n\nAfter a speech or sermon had once been formed in his mind, if not soon\ndelivered, it would evaporate and be lost. While he might recall it, it\nwould be in different form.\n\nWhen in the delivery, and the thoughts were surging at full tide through\nhis brain, he became like one inspired, but half-conscious of his\nexternal surroundings.\n\nThe sermon once preached, and his mind quieted down to its normal\ncondition, it would be impossible for him to recall or repeat the words\nand expressions that had but just left his lips. The general outline,\nthe result, he could of course recall, but the language was a part of\nthe inspiration, and left him with it.\n\nHis reply to one asking for a copy of a prayer illustrates this:\n\n\u201cYou request me to send you the prayer made on Decoration Day evening.\nIf you will send me the notes of the oriole that whistled from the top\nof my trees last June, or the iridescent globes that came in by millions\non the last waves that rolled in on the beach yesterday, or a segment of\nthe rainbow of last week, or the perfume of the first violet that\nblossomed last May, I will also send you the prayer that rose to my lips\nwith the occasion, and left me for ever. I hope it went heavenward and\nwas registered there, in which case the only record of it will be found\nin heaven.\u201d\n\nThe thought and labor necessary to keep up with his duties as pastor,\neditor, and lecturer would seem to have been enough to tax to the\nuttermost his time and strength. But, by a kind of selfish blindness,\nthe general public seemed wholly unconscious of the value of his time.\nBy post or in person, an unending stream poured in upon him, seeking\neverything that human ingenuity or perversity could suggest.\n\nBegging for help in every conceivable form. One wanted three thousand\ndollars to lift the mortgage from his farm. A clergyman in distress\nasked for a thousand, saying that the Lord would repay it. A young\ntheologian asked that Mr. Beecher would write him a lecture that he\nmight deliver, and from its proceeds pay his education for the ministry.\nA school-girl requested that he write for her a composition, suggesting\nthe topic and briefly outlining the way she wished it treated. Another\ncame in person from a distant State, requesting that he adopt and\neducate her; as she had exhausted her means coming on, he had to pay her\nfare back. One man, who had discovered the locality of Captain Kidd\u2019s\ntreasures, wanted him to bear the expense of their exhumation, the\nprofits to be divided. These are a few actual incidents in the line of\nbegging letters.\n\nHe has described the callers:\n\n\u201cIt is six o\u2019clock in the morning. The day is begun. The family are\nemerging. Breakfast will be ready in half an hour. You look for the\n_Tribune_. The bell rings. A man has called thus early for fear you\nmight be out. You despatch his business. Sitting down to breakfast, the\nbell rings, and the servant says the man will wait. But what pleasure\ncan one have at a meal with a man upstairs waiting for him, and the\nconsciousness of it hastening the coffee and the toast on their way? You\nrun up. Can you marry a couple at so-and-so? That is settled. Prayers\nare had with the family. The bell rings once, twice, three times. When\nyou rise there are five persons waiting for you in the front parlor. A\nyoung man from the country wishes your name on his circular for a\nschool. A young woman, in failing health by confinement to sewing, does\nnot know what to do; behind in rent; cannot get away to the country;\ndoes not wish charity, only wishes some one to enable her to break away\nfrom a state of things that will in six months kill her. Another calls\nto inquire after a friend of whom he has lost sight. While you are\nattending to these the bell is active, and other persons take the place\nof those who go. A poor slave-mother wants to buy her son\u2019s wife out of\nslavery. A kind woman calls in behalf of a boarder who is out of place,\ndesponding, will throw himself away if he cannot get some means of\nlivelihood. Another calls to know if I will not visit a poor family in\ngreat distress in \u2014\u2014\u2014 Street. A good and honest-looking man comes next;\nis out of work, has \u2018heard that your \u201criverince\u201d is a kind man,\u2019 etc.\nAnother man wants to get his family out from Ireland; can pay _half_, if\nsome one will intercede with ship-owners to trust him the balance. A\nstranger has died, and a sexton desires a clergyman\u2019s services. Several\npersons desire religious conversation. It is after ten o\u2019clock. A\nmoment\u2019s lull. You catch your hat and run out. Perhaps you have\nforgotten some appointment. You betake yourself to your study, not a\nlittle flurried by the contrariety of things which you have been\nconsidering. You return to dine. There are five or six persons waiting\nfor you. At tea you find others also, with their divers necessities.\n\n\u201cThis is not overdrawn, and for months of the year it is far underdrawn.\nThere is no taxation compared to incessant various conversation with\npeople for whom you must think, devise, and for whose help you feel\nyourself often utterly incompetent.\u201d\n\nHalf of his life-work would have been left undone had he attempted to\nhave given the letters and callers his personal attention. All that\nrelated to his pastoral duties, and much besides, he attended to\npersonally. The rest he turned over to his wife. If his life has been a\nbenefit to mankind, then the world owes a heavy debt of gratitude to her\nfor the self-sacrificing protection she afforded him. She was his\nhelpmeet indeed; nine-tenths of his correspondence she carried on. Few\nsave his church-members and personal friends had access to him until she\nhad first learned their errand, and determined whether the case was one\nthat should be brought to his attention. Yet, with all this care, he\nseldom saw less than ten or a dozen callers each day while he was at\nhome.\n\nThe drain upon his purse was constant, for he could hardly withstand a\ntale of suffering and want. Of course he was not infrequently imposed\nupon, as every generous man is apt to be. He used to say that the\nsatisfaction of relieving one really deserving sufferer was compensation\nenough to make up for being swindled ten times.\n\nNor was his generosity, or its abuse, confined to those who sought\nmaterial aid. Among those who engaged his affection and confidence, some\nthere were who, Judas-like, turned against him when it seemed for their\ninterest to do so. Toward these he never felt resentment, save\nmomentarily under the smart of some sudden, treacherous blow. The love\nwhich he once gave to a friend he never forgot. He would be very slow to\nbelieve any one, once trusted, to be unworthy, and never lost a deep and\ntender feeling for such, even after he felt that they were unworthy of\nconfidence. It was this feeling that led to no little criticism at the\nhands of those whose cynicism made trusting hard and hating easy. By\nthese his tender, sympathetic trustfulness was called \u201cgush\u201d and\n\u201cslopping over.\u201d To their criticisms he replied:\n\n\u201cI suppose I do _slop over_ sometimes. Well, I never saw a pan just full\nof milk that did not slop over. If you do not want any slopping-over,\ntake a pint of milk and put it in a big bucket. There will be no\nslopping-over then. And a man who has only a pint of feeling, in an\nenormous bucket, never slops over. But if a man is full of feeling, up\nto the very brim, how is he going to carry himself without spilling\nover? He cannot help it. There will be dripping over the edges all the\ntime. And as every flower or blade of grass rejoices when the rain falls\nupon it, so every recipient along the way in which a man with\noverflowing generous feeling walks, is thankful for his bounty.\n\n\u201cHow to carry a nature full of feeling, and administer it without making\nmistakes, I do not know, you do not, nobody does, nobody ever did, and\nnobody ever will; so we must take it and get along as best we can. Life\nis a kind of zigzag, anyhow; and we are obliged to resort to expedients,\nand make experiments, and learn from our blunders, which are inevitable.\nWe find out a great deal more from men\u2019s mistakes than from their\nsuccesses.\n\n\u201cBut, after all, I am not sorry that I have been imposed upon, and that\nI have trusted men that were not worthy to be trusted. I am not sorry\nthat I have been duped. It falls out from an abundance of generous\nfeeling. It is the mistake of a disposition that I think it is a great\ndeal better to have, with all the impositions which it suffers, than\nthat kind of cold caution which prevents your venturing anything on the\nside of kindness, because you always want to be safe.\n\n\u201cI was much impressed with what I once heard my father say. His chance\nsayings have been like rudders to me all my lifelong. A man whom he had\nbefriended, and done a great deal for, turned against him and acted very\nmeanly. One day father came home very much exercised about it, and I\nexpected he was going to _blow out_\u2014for he shook his head in a peculiar\nway that he had when his feelings were very much wrought up. He said\n(raising his hand, and bringing it down slowly, but with great\nemphasis), \u2018Well, when I have acted honorably toward a man, and he goes\naway and acts meanly toward me, I am never sorry that _I_ acted\nhonorably toward _him_!\u2019\n\n\u201cNow, I think that was a sign of nobility.\u201d\n\nPlymouth Church, although the principal field of his ministerial work,\nwas not by any means his only pastorate; he had a number of other\nsubsidiary pulpits. Most prominent among them was the White Mountains.\nSuch was his thirst for work in the fields of his Master, he made even\nhis infirmities an instrumentality for good. For nearly thirty years he\nhad been afflicted with that but little understood American malady, \u201chay\nfever,\u201d which attacked him every year about the 16th of August, almost\nto the day. For nearly six weeks he suffered the torments of that\ndistressing malady; during which reading, writing, and almost all forms\nof mental work were impossible.\n\nFinally his attention was called to the exemption which the clear,\nbracing air of the White Mountains afforded, and, trying the experiment,\nhappily found complete relief. The first year or two he merely rested,\nbut after that he began holding, at first, informal services Sundays;\nthen the large hotel parlor became the church, and every Sunday morning\nhe preached. Soon the demand for more room crowded them out, and then\none of the great tents used in the State fairs was secured, filled with\nbenches. Here, during the last two or three years that he visited the\nTwin Mountain House, he preached regularly every Sunday during his six\nweeks\u2019 _vacation_.\n\nFrom the neighboring hotels and all the adjacent towns the people came\nby hundreds, filling the great tent. Each morning, after breakfast,\nfifty to a hundred of the guests would gather in one of the smaller\nrooms and join with Mr. Beecher in family prayers. To these he read a\nchapter from the Bible, briefly expounding its meaning, and then made a\nshort prayer.\n\nAnother field in which he worked, widely different from any other, was\nthe State militia. In January, 1878, he was invited to take the\nchaplaincy of the \u201cBrooklyn Thirteenth,\u201d as it was called, and accepted\nthe invitation. His reasons for this step we give in his own words:\n\n\u201cIt was not because I had nothing to do, and wanted to fill up vacant\ntime. It was not, certainly, because I have any eminent military gifts,\nor what might be called a military spirit, by which I am led to delight\nin such things. I was as much surprised as any one could be when the\ninvitation came through Colonel Austen, bearing the request of all the\nofficers and all the privates in this regiment that I should act as\ntheir chaplain.\n\n\u201cAfter the surprise had a little subsided, of course my first impulse\nwas to say, \u2018No, I cannot.\u2019 My second thought was, \u2018Is it a matter\nsimply of your own convenience, or is there a moral duty here?\u2019 The\nquestion came, not exactly \u2018Should you?\u2019 but, \u2018Why should you not?\u2019 Is\nit not an eminently wise and proper thing for a body of citizen-soldiery\nto have a chaplain, and ought we not to be grateful that they desire it?\nMade up, as our regiments are, of young men in the prime of life, in\nthis and in all associations of men, unrestrained and uncivilized, one\nmight almost say, in the absence of woman, great mischiefs have often\nensued from a relaxation of moral principle, a sort of vortex being\nformed, down which young men might slide to their destruction; and\ntherefore it is a matter of importance that they should have a moral\ninfluence thrown about them. And when the request came from the\nThirteenth that I would act as their chaplain, it seemed to me that\nsomebody ought to answer their request; and there were some reasons why\nI thought I should answer it. I was forward in all those movements which\nbrought on the war, and during the whole period of the conflict I did as\nmuch as I possibly could to bear my part of the responsibility; and with\nthe end of the war, to drop the whole matter of our citizen-soldiery and\nshow no more interest in them, to throw them aside as an instrument\nemployed and worn out and no longer of use, did not appear to me wise or\nproper.\n\n\u201cMoreover, many of these young men belong to my congregation and to my\nparish; they were therefore in some sense my own sheep, after whom I\nought to look; and I reasoned that if it was desirable to have a\ncitizen-soldiery as a kind of background on which civil authority could\nretreat in times of great peril, it was eminently desirable that that\nsoldiery should be moral, manly, expert, and in every way fitted for the\nhigh task to which they were assigned.\n\n\u201cUnder those circumstances, because I am an old citizen here, because I\nhave a right in some sense to be a father to the young men in this\nneighborhood, and because I very heartily believe in the formation of\nthese centres of citizen-soldiery, I did not feel at liberty to shrink\nfrom the duty that was laid upon me; and I went with the hope and\npurpose, not simply as a mere recipient of courtesy, but with the\nfeeling that I might be able to do them good\u2014to do them good in the\nfirst instance as soldiers, and in the second instance as men.\u201d\n\nAs their chaplain he preached to his \u201cboys\u201d\u2014as he was fond of calling\nthem\u2014at stated intervals, and, as far as his other engagements\npermitted, attended at their reviews and public parades.\n\nOf course his inexperience in military matters led to many amusing\nincidents.\n\nBeing a capital horseman, he found no trouble in maintaining himself in\nhis saddle; but when it came to manipulating his sword, his troubles\nbegan. Then the path to martial glory did not seem easy. His first\ntrouble was to get his sword drawn; once drawn, he was puzzled to know\nwhat on earth to do with it. He almost invariably neglected to salute\nhis reviewing officer, to the great amusement of his fellow-members on\nthe staff, who enjoyed bantering him. As one of his colonels remarked:\n\n\u201cHis temporal sword was a source of some anxiety to him, and he always\ndrew it with reluctance, preferring, as he said, to wield the more\nfamiliar \u2018sword of the spirit.\u2019\u201d\n\nNext to his sword the receipt of military orders bothered him most,\nleading often to humorous comments to those about him or to his\ncommanding officer. To one of these orders he replied:\n\n                                                 \u201cDECEMBER 19, 1884.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR COLONEL:\n\n\u201cI enclose a circular with a humble request for its interpretation. It\nis, without doubt, clear as crystal to the military mind, but to my\npeaceful mind it is as dark as theology, or a pocket, or midnight, or a\nwolf\u2019s mouth.\n\n\u201cIt orders, first and beginning, that we are to come in fatigue uniform,\nwithout side-arms.\n\n\u201cIt ends by ordering us to bring our best coat, knots, and swords. I\nhumbly inquire whether one end of this letter does not seem to eat up\nthe other.\n\n\u201cShall I wear my resplendent chapeau or my ridiculous cap, in which I\nlook like a pumpkin with a ribbon around it? Shall I wear my coat and\ngolden straps, or my other military coat, which I have not got, and\nnever had?\n\n\u201cLastly, may I go directly to Historical Hall, and not to the armory?\n\n\u201cI am, your ignorant chaplain and captain,\n\n                                                \u201dHENRY WARD BEECHER.\n\n\u201cAre overcoats forbidden? Thermometer nearly down to zero!\u201d\n\nOn another occasion receiving a circular printed by one of the\nreduplicating processes then in vogue, but which was nearly illegible\nfrom the paleness of the ink, he wrote the colonel:\n\n                                                 \u201cFEBRUARY 12, 1885.\n\n\u201dMY DEAR COLONEL:\n\n\u201cI do admire black ink and legible writing. I return you a model. Do\nhelp me.\n\n\u201c(1) Is this a spiritual communication\u2014from some feeble spirit to some\npale-ink medium? How shall I reply? Do you keep a heavenly mail?\n\n\u201c(2) Or is it from Wolseley, asking me to come to the Soudan? I cannot\ngo, of course, without your permission.\n\n\u201c(3) Or is it merely an advertisement of a writing-master, showing how\nto increase piety by teaching men to live (and read) by faith, and not\nby sight?\n\n\u201c(4) In that case have you got any more clerks\u2014who can write invisible\nmessages? I might want them for my Sunday-schools.\n\n\u201c(5) You ought to send out a reader (if this is a military document) to\ninform all who read it what it says.\n\n\u201c(6) On the theory that it is a regimental order, I shall soon commence\nstudying the tactics, and be ready for a parade\u2014which, if it resembles\nthe writing, ought to take place at midnight, after the moon is gone, by\nthe light of oil street-lamps.\n\n                                                          \u201cH. W. B.\u201d\n\nAs chaplain he enjoyed the \u201crank and pay\u201d of captain, and on all\nmilitary occasions was addressed as \u201cCaptain Beecher.\u201d A few years after\nhis appointment, being at the New England dinner with General Grant, the\nlatter referred to him several times as \u201cmajor.\u201d Supposing it to be a\nslip of the tongue, \u201cCaptain\u201d Beecher said nothing about it. A few\nnights later they met again at some other public dinner, when the\ngeneral persisted in calling him \u201ccolonel\u201d; then the captain protested,\nbut Grant assured him laughingly that the next time he should promote\nhim to be general, \u201cand if you don\u2019t keep on going higher it will be\nbecause the titles give out.\u201d We believe he never got above \u201cgeneral.\u201d\n\nAll of those who were familiar with Mr. Beecher, either in the pulpit,\non the platform, or in social life, are familiar with that moral courage\nwhich led him to face unhesitatingly an adverse public sentiment in\ndefence of what he believed to be right. The preceding pages are filled\nwith many illustrations of this.\n\nHis physical courage, though perhaps not so well known to the public,\nwas quite as pronounced as his moral courage. Athletic, self-reliant,\nand in his younger days wonderfully agile, he faced the most threatening\ndanger without a tremor of his nerve.\n\nIn his advocacy of the slave he daily carried his life in his hands. At\nLiverpool he faced undaunted an imminent danger, no doubt largely\naverted by the utter fearlessness of his bearing. But in more marked\ndegree was his courage shown in an incident, never made public, that\noccurred soon after he settled in Brooklyn.\n\nA rabid dog, with lolling tongue and dripping jaws, threatening death in\nits most frightful form, appeared suddenly in the street near his house,\nand fortunately ran for a moment into the area under the front-door\nsteps of a neighbor\u2019s house, where he lay crouching in the corner, with\nhis glaring eyes turned to the doorway. In the street children were\nplaying; at any moment, the impulse to spring out might seize the beast.\nSeeing the danger, Mr. Beecher sprang instantly to the area-door, within\nless than four feet of the crouching brute, and closed the gate.\nStepping back to his house, he got his axe. When he returned the dog was\nrushing furiously around in the confined space, striving to get out.\nRaising the axe with one hand, with the other Mr. Beecher opened the\narea-door, and as the dog sprang at him struck him dead with one blow.\n\n\n\n\n                             CHAPTER XXXII.\n\n1886\u2014England Revisited\u2014Speaking in the City Temple\u2014Westminster\n    Abbey\u2014Lecturing through Great Britain\u2014Addressing the Theological\n    Students at City Temple\u2014\u201cLife of Christ\u201d\u2014Sickness\u2014Rest.\n\n\nFor several years before his death earnest efforts were made to induce\nMr. Beecher to revisit England. His manly fight against such odds, in\n1863, had quite captured the heart of the English people, who always\nhave a tender feeling for a good fighter.\n\nWhat began as admiration steadily grew and deepened into affection. His\nsermons, his writings, and even the meagre reports of lectures and\nspeeches, were eagerly read\u2014quite as much so in England as in America.\n\nAnd when the great cloud of scandal loomed up in 1873-6, none were any\nmore steadfast and loyal in love and confidence than the friends in old\nEngland. Among the many testimonials treasured by his family are the\nresolutions of sympathy and confidence received from clerical\nassociations in England, Scotland, Wales, and even from the distant\nprovinces.\n\nWith each succeeding year the importunities that he should spend a\nsummer in England increased, until, in the early spring of 1886, he\nfinally decided to brave the discomforts of an ocean voyage\u2014to him no\nslight trial\u2014and visit again his English friends. This being a trip of\npeace and not of war, he determined to take Mrs. Beecher with him. His\ndecision was made the latter part of May. The next Sunday he made the\nannouncement from the pulpit. On the following Sunday he preached his\nfarewell. The church was packed, if possible, fuller than usual, the\nthrong crowding around the pulpit-steps at the close of the service to\nsay farewell.\n\nHe engaged passage on the _Etruria_ for Saturday, June 19. The Friday\nnight preceding the regular prayer-meeting night became a regular\nleave-taking. The services were over by nine o\u2019clock, and from that hour\nuntil eleven Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were the centre of a circle of friends\nthat filled the lecture-room and overflowed into the church auditorium,\nanxious to shake hands and say God-speed.\n\nThe _Etruria_ was to start early Saturday morning, so Mr. and Mrs.\nBeecher went aboard Friday night.\n\nPromptly at six o\u2019clock the hawsers were cast off, and the great steamer\nslowly drew out from the pier, and, gathering headway, turned her prow\neastward and slowly steamed down the bay. Almost simultaneously the\nexcursion steamer _Grand Republic_, with three thousand friends\u2014whose\nenthusiastic affection had called them, before the sun was up, to pay\ntheir farewell tribute\u2014left her wharf in Brooklyn to intercept the\n_Etruria_ in the Upper Bay. Just off Liberty Island the _Etruria_ slowed\ndown and the _Grand Republic_ came alongside; her passengers, crowding\nto the nearer guards, gave vent to their feelings in ringing cheers. Mr.\nand Mrs. Beecher, standing on the upper deck, responded with hat and\nhandkerchief. The band aboard the _Grand Republic_ played \u201cHail to the\nChief,\u201d the whistles of the steamers saluted, and as the _Etruria_,\ngetting under way again, forged rapidly ahead, the choir of Plymouth\nChurch sang the Doxology, the sweetly solemn notes growing fainter as\nthe steamers drew apart.\n\nGoing below, they found their staterooms literally embanked in flowers.\nOne enthusiastic friend had left twenty homing pigeons, with\ninstructions to release them at stated intervals during the day. To\nthese short notes were attached, and borne back by the swift,\nhome-seeking wings, being the last words to many friends until the cable\nannounced Mr. Beecher\u2019s safe arrival at Queenstown on the 26th.\n\nOur space forbids an attempt to give more than a very general account of\nthis visit; a full account of the entire trip has already been\npublished, with verbatim reports of the sermons and lectures delivered\nby Mr. Beecher in England.[18]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n  \u201cA Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher.\u201d By J. B. Pond.\n  Published by Fords, Howard & Hulbert, of New York City.\n\n-----\n\n[Illustration: Mr. and Mrs. Beecher at Time of Visit to England in\n1886.]\n\nIt would be impossible in cold words to express the deep and tender\nfeelings with which Mr. Beecher put his foot again on English soil after\nan absence of nearly a quarter of a century. Memory, swift-flying, ran\nback through the twenty-three years past, and like some grand panorama\nthe impressive events, both national and personal, moved by his mind\u2019s\neyes in silent procession.\n\nSlavery, that blight upon America\u2019s fair name, had been blotted out, and\nthe places that had known it, knew it no more for ever. The struggle for\nnational existence, which had been hanging almost on even balance when,\ntwenty-three years before, he had raised his voice in this same land,\nand pleaded the nation\u2019s cause, had ended in complete victory and\ntriumphant vindication of those principles for which he had contended.\nIt was with no little pride that he was able to stand again before an\nEnglish audience and say \u201cthat every single substantial sentiment that\nwas set forth in those several popular addresses had now become\nhistory.\u201d\n\nWithin that same period he had himself passed through the flood of a\npersonal persecution which, for persistent and malignant intensity and\nunchristian bitterness, exceeded anything recorded in the annals of\nhistory. He had seen his name, his life-work, all that he had lived and\nlabored for, threatened with black destruction. Through this he had\npassed, emerging safely upon the firm shore of the continued love and\nconfidence of his countrymen. Nor could he forget the assurances of\nfullest trust that came to him from public utterances and private\nletters of the many friends in England:\n\n\u201cFor no other nation except our own have I such strong affinities as for\nGreat Britain. My ancestors came from there. I have been bred on its\nliterature. I have fed on the thought and feeling of its heroic men. I\nam a child, though born away from home, of the English people; and God\nforbid that I should be indifferent to those throes which are to bring\nforth the man-child yet! I look with profound sympathy, with the feeling\nof a child that venerates a parent in distress, upon that people; and I\ngo there with a heart as warm for them as it was for its own country in\nthe day of its division and trials. Twenty-three years\u2014and what a space\nbetween! Twenty-three years! Darkness, thunder, tears, blood, and\nwar\u2014they have gone, and the white mantle of peace is spread over our\nshores, and the fields laugh and rejoice, and the heavens are\npropitious, and the earth is bountiful, and men are growing more and\nmore into manliness. What hath God wrought!\u201d\n\nAfter a short rest in Queenstown, Mr. and Mrs. Beecher went direct to\nLiverpool; there on the 28th he had an opportunity to hear Mr.\nGladstone, meeting him after the address.\n\nThe next day they proceeded to London, where, on the following Sunday,\nMr. Beecher was to preach for Dr. Parker at the City Temple. On Thursday\nhe attended the regular weekday services held in that church every\nThursday, intending to enjoy the unusual pleasure of listening to\nsomebody else\u2019s preaching. But after the sermon Dr. Parker insisted upon\nhis addressing the meeting and closing it in prayer. On calling Mr.\nBeecher to the pulpit, the doctor spoke a few words in tribute to his\nfriend, concluding with the much-quoted sentence:\n\n\u201cMy brethren, I am sorry to break in upon a man\u2019s singularity, so that\nthe palm may, even for a moment, seem to be divided between two; I am,\nhowever, constrained to violate the sanctity of a definite personality,\nand to say that last week there was in England _a_ Grand Old Man: to-day\nthere are two of them!\u201d\n\nOn the 4th he preached for Dr. Parker, and on the 5th attended a dinner\ngiven to him by the lord mayor of London. On the 11th he preached for\nDr. Henry Allen in London, and in the afternoon attended the service at\nWestminster Abbey, calling afterwards, by previous invitation, upon Dean\nBradley, with whom were present a number of the clergymen of the Church\nof England, who had been invited to meet him. After tea the dean invited\nhim to visit the various historical private rooms of the Abbey.\n\nMany of the rooms were quite as familiar to Mr. Beecher, through his\nreading, though never seen before, as they were to the clergy of the\nchurch itself. These listened with intense interest to his familiar\nexposition and discussion, of what must have seemed to them to be their\nown peculiar province of history.\n\nThe \u201cJerusalem Chamber\u201d greatly impressed him. \u201cI am struck with awe. No\nroom has greater interest to me, unless it be the \u2018Upper Room.\u2019\u201d\n\nHe recalled with deep interest the many notable events that had there\noccurred intimately connected with religious history\u2014the Westminster\nAssembly, the Confession of Faith, the two revisions of the Bible, etc.\nThis was to Mr. Beecher a red-letter day, fuller of quiet, tender\nenjoyment, probably, than any other during his stay.\n\nOn the 19th, as he said, his play-day being over (he had preached every\nSunday, generally twice, and delivered addresses every week), his work\nbegan. At Exeter Hall, London, where he delivered the last of the famous\nspeeches in 1863, he delivered the first of his lectures in 1886. From\nthat time on until the 21st of October he lectured, on an average, four\nnights a week, preaching every Sunday. A letter home gives some humorous\nexperiences:\n\n\u201c... You would be amused at the way of public meetings in England and\nScotland. After the lecture the chairman calls on some one, previously\nagreed upon, to move _a vote of thanks_, which he does, with a speech in\nwhich he pours out such a flood of compliments that before he is half\nthrough you lose all sense of personal identity, and wonder what heroic\npersonage he is talking about, and then he moves the distinguished\ngentleman a vote of thanks. Thereupon the chairman informs the audience\nthat Reverend or Professor So-and-so will second the motion. He takes up\nthe thread of eulogy where the other bit it off, and winds you up with\ngolden cords until you swing high in the heavens. Thereupon the vote is\nput by the chairman, the audience raise their hands, and then fall into\na perfect tempest of clapping; as this subsides, you are expected to\nrise and, with modest self-depreciation, to explain how much you are\nelated and how grateful you are.... But it is after the assembly is\ndismissed that the most serious business of the evening begins. All on\nthe platform shake hands; women climb up and shake you; at every step\ndownward a host of hands\u2014men, women, girls, and boys are reaching; the\nhallway is crowded with men that pull you, shake you, hustle you; the\noutward passage is lined with scores and scores, and finally, on the\nsidewalk, the rush to get your hand is fearful, and the police have to\ncrowd them back to get you into the carriage, and then the windows\nbristle with more hands, and as the carriage moves on the crowd run\nalong by its side still fiercely pushing each other to get a chance to\nshake.\n\n\u201cA ludicrous event happened at York. Just away from the hall is a\nbridge, for which foot-passengers pay a cent and carriages two cents. A\nwoman or girl stands out on the sidewalk, extending her hand for the\nfee. After I had shaken hands at the hall, along the street, with\nscores, we came to the bridge, hardly yet shaking off the crowd. A hand\nwas thrust into the window, which I shook; the woman said something\nindistinctly, which I afterwards learned was, \u2018A penny, sir.\u2019 Thinking\nit some affectionate blessing, I took her hand again, and gave it a more\nemphatic shake. She put her face in the window and said, \u2018A penny, sir\u2019;\nPond meanwhile sitting by and laughing heartily.\n\n\u201cYour mother, too, frequently comes in for her share, and you can\nimagine how comical she looks as, with a modest smile and some surprise,\nshe deals out her \u2018thank you\u2019s\u2019 to the host of admirers.\u201d\n\nFrom July 4, when he preached first for Dr. Parker, until his departure,\nOctober 24, Mr. Beecher preached seventeen times, delivered nine public\naddresses and fifty-eight lectures. This was his summer vacation. From\nthis period of _restful_ recreation, such was his peculiar capacity and\nenjoyment of mental activity, he derived great benefit; and on his\nreturn home, after a few days\u2019 rest from the disturbing influences of\nthe, to him, ever-unrestful ocean, he declared that he never felt\nstronger, or more vigorous, or better equipped for work in his life. In\nthe course of his stay he visited and lectured in each of the cities,\nand generally in the same hall where he had \u201cfought with the wild beasts\nof Ephesus,\u201d as he used to say, in 1863.\n\nJust before his departure he addressed one meeting which, on account of\nits peculiar significance, we must mention more fully ere we pass on. So\nmuch has been said of late in certain quarters respecting Mr. Beecher\u2019s\ntheology, so many criticisms upon his orthodoxy, that his standing among\nso conservative a body as the English clergy may not be uninteresting.\nHe had already addressed the London Congregational Board, the\nCongregational School (for the sons of Congregational clergymen), and\nhad preached nearly twenty times, so that there had been a tolerably\nfair opportunity to learn something of his religious views, when he was\ninvited to address the theological students on the subject of preaching.\n\nThe meeting was held in the City Temple, October 15. Six hundred\nstudents attended, the remaining space in the body of the house being\noccupied by ministers, who came from all parts of the country to attend\nthis meeting. It was understood that Mr. Beecher would, after the\naddress, answer such questions as any might want to ask. As the hour\nfixed was eleven o\u2019clock in the forenoon, all of the theological schools\nhad to rearrange their school-hours for that day, in order to allow the\nscholars a chance to attend. This was done with great readiness. After\nan address of nearly an hour, he offered to receive such questions,\npertinent to the topic discussed, as might be put by the scholars or any\nof the clergy present, and occupied the remainder of his time in\nanswering them.\n\nOn the 24th Mr. and Mrs. Beecher boarded the _Etruria_ at Queenstown for\ntheir return home, reaching New York on the 31st.\n\nIn accordance with his expressed wishes no attempts were made to\n\u201creceive\u201d him, but he was allowed to go quietly home and rest, his\npeople reserving their welcome until the following Sunday.[19] On that\nday the church was decorated with flowers and evergreen vines, the\npulpit being literally a bank of flowers, which ran up along the face of\nthe great organ, even to the ceiling. After the service his people\nthronged around the pulpit-stairs for one shake of the hand and one word\nof welcome.\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n  The Common Council of Brooklyn voted him a public reception, which he\n  declined. The resolutions were as follows:\n\n                                 \u201cIN COMMON COUNCIL, STATED SESSION,\n                                             Monday, Nov. 8, 1886.\n\n  \u201cThe following was presented:\n\n  \u201d_Whereas_, This Common Council has heard with pleasure of the return\n  from abroad of that distinguished American, our fellow-citizen, the\n  Rev. Henry Ward Beecher; and\n\n  \u201c_Whereas_, In recognition of the eminent services rendered to his\n  country and mankind, both here and on the other side of the Atlantic,\n  of the broad and generous nature of his manhood and of his genius,\n  which has already shed its lustre for half a century; therefore be it\n\n  \u201d_Resolved_, That his Honor the Mayor be, and he is hereby requested\n  to offer to the Reverend Henry Ward Beecher, on behalf of the Mayor,\n  Aldermen, and Commonalty of the City of Brooklyn, a public reception\n  at the Academy of Music, at such time as may suit his convenience.\n\n  \u201c_Resolved_, That a committee of five members be appointed by the\n  chair, who, together with his Honor the Mayor, of which committee he\n  shall be chairman, shall make the necessary arrangements for such\n  reception, and to insure an adequate expression on that occasion of\n  the honor and esteem in which the citizens of Brooklyn, without\n  distinction of party or creed, hold this their distinguished and\n  beloved fellow-citizen.\n\n  \u201cThe resolutions were unanimously adopted by the following vote:\u201d\n\n                           (Signed by the Mayor and Common Council).\n\n-----\n\nEarly in the winter he began to seriously think of completing the second\nvolume of the \u201cLife of Christ.\u201d Friends and members of his family had\nfor some years been urging that the book should be completed. A fatality\nseemed to have hung over that book.\n\nAt the time when the Tilton conspiracy first broke out he had written a\nconsiderable part of Volume II., and undoubtedly would have soon\nfinished it, when that outbreak, with the church persecutions that\nfollowed, interrupted the work, and for a number of years kept his mind\nso engrossed in other matters as to make writing an impossibility. This\nwas followed by the business embarrassments of his publishers, and then\nthe care of reorganizing the _Christian Union_. At last, peace and quiet\nhaving been restored, he began again to arrange for the completion of\nthe work, when a vexatious suit was brought against him by Samuel\nWilkeson, who had bought the original contract for the book from the\npublishers at an assignee\u2019s sale, and, claiming that Mr. Beecher had\nbroken his contract, sued for $60,000. The pendency of this suit stopped\nall further work on the book. After some delay the cause was tried and\nthe complaint promptly dismissed by the court.\n\nTwice, after the suit, an attempt was made by Mr. Beecher to accomplish\nthe long-deferred completion of the book, but on each occasion something\noccurred to interrupt and further defer the work.\n\nFinally, in January, 1887, he determined to complete the book, and at\nthe same time to write his Autobiography. No small part of the credit\nfor this final determination is due to Major J. B. Pond, who for many\nyears past had been Mr. Beecher\u2019s lecture manager, and who joined with\nMr. Beecher\u2019s family in urging the undertaking of both works. Finally it\nwas decided that he would deliver no more lectures during the year 1887,\nbut devote all of his time outside of his church duties to these\nliterary labors.\n\nIn February a contract was made with Charles L. Webster & Co., of New\nYork\u2014our present publishers\u2014to publish both books. The \u201cLife of Christ\u201d\nwas to be completed before July 1, 1887, and the Autobiography before\nJuly 1, 1888.\n\nWith great zeal Mr. Beecher began at once to re-read, revise, and\ncomplete the \u201cLife of Christ,\u201d sometimes resting his mind by changing\nhis work and writing a little on his Autobiography. In this way, by\nMarch 1, he had revised all of his former manuscript of the \u201cLife of\nChrist,\u201d and had completed it down to chapter xxv. Eight chapters of\nVolume II. were completed in this manner, and the outlines of the\nremaining three, within which space he intended to complete the work,\nwere clearly blocked out in his own mind. As he got more and more back\ninto the long-interrupted current of thought, his interest deepened, and\nwith increased interest came greater mental ease.\n\nSeveral times he remarked that he had never seen the subject so clearly\nand luminously in his mind before. It seemed at times as though Christ\u2019s\nlife were revealed to him with a clearness and a nearness that had never\nbefore been given him. In one of his exalted moods he burst out: \u201cTwenty\nmen could not in a life-time write all I now see; how can I put it into\none book?\u201d\n\nBut a few days before his last sickness an English clergyman called to\nsee him, and after a pleasant chat, as he rose to leave, asked if there\nwas any prospect of his completing the \u201cLife of Christ.\u201d Mr. Beecher\nreplied that he was at work on it then, and would probably finish it in\ntwo or three months. The clergyman was greatly delighted, saying that he\nhad been long waiting, hoping for the second volume. As the visitor\nleft, Mr. Beecher, kneeling in his great arm-chair, as was often his\nwont when in a reverie, with one elbow on the chair-back, and chin\nresting in his open palm, gazed in silent abstraction out of the window\nfacing him. Suddenly, his face lighting up, he exclaimed, as though\nthinking aloud: \u201cFinish the Life of Christ! Finish the Life of Christ!\n_Who can_ finish the Life of Christ! It cannot be finished.\u201d\n\nProphetic words! Almost within the week he was called to that closer\ncommunion with his Saviour, and entered into that lasting peace for\nwhich he had so often longed.\n\nDuring the day of Thursday, March 3, he was in the best of spirits and\napparently perfect health. He had repeatedly stated since his return\nfrom England that he had never felt better, or better able to work. We\nhad often during the past month jokingly called him the youngest boy in\nthe house. None of us dreamed that Thursday was to end his long career\nof usefulness.\n\nDuring the night he awoke, complaining of nausea, and was taken with\nvomiting, but soon fell asleep again. Friday morning he did not get up;\nthough he roused when spoken to, he would immediately after fall asleep\nagain. These symptoms disturbed no one, as they were quite common\nwhenever he had any bilious trouble. The family thought that something\nhe ate for supper had disagreed with him, and that he was working it off\nin his usual way, by sleeping and lying quiet.\n\nFriday afternoon the doctor was for the first time called in. He\nthought, with the family, that the trouble was with the stomach, though\nsome symptoms made him think that perhaps there might be some other\ncomplicating causes than mere biliousness.\n\nLater in the evening, when one of his sons called in, he roused himself\nquite fully, called for toast, complained that his feet were cold, and\nthat his head ached some. When asked what was the matter, he replied,\njokingly, in a sort of half-sleepy manner:\n\n\u201cI had a dream last night. I thought that I was a duke and your mother a\nduchess, and I was trying to figure the interest on a hundred thousand\npounds a year\u2014you know I never was good at mathematics. It gave me a\nheadache; but I\u2019ll have your mother boil a page of arithmetic and make a\ntea of it. I\u2019ll cure it hom\u0153opathically.\u201d\n\nHe was then helped to sit up in bed and eat his toast, which he did with\neyes still closed, as though half-asleep. When laid back upon his pillow\nhe fell asleep at once.\n\nSaturday morning the dreadful truth first became apparent. Dr. Searle\nfound that the left side showed unmistakable signs of paralysis, and\nthen, recalling the previous symptoms, which had been attributed to\nother causes, said at once that it was apoplexy and that there was\nnothing to hope for. At first none would believe the diagnosis. Up to\nthat moment all had thought the illness nothing that need cause any\napprehension, when with the suddenness of a lightning-stroke came the\nannouncement of utter hopelessness.\n\nThat no chance should be overlooked, Drs. Hammond and Helmuth, of New\nYork, were called in consultation during the day, and confirmed the\nhopeless diagnosis. Nothing could be done\u2014nothing but wait. The patient\ndid not suffer; only those who stood about his bed, watching the beloved\nface, suffered.\n\nSeveral times during Saturday afternoon, in response to loud questions\nput by the doctors, he roused enough to comprehend the questions and\nbriefly answer them. With each attempt his articulation became more\ndifficult.\n\nAfter the consultations were over he never spoke again. His unconscious\nsleep became deeper and more profound through Sunday and Monday, until\nTuesday morning, at twenty minutes to ten, his breath grew fainter\u2014then\nstopped. The end he had hoped for was his. As warriors of old prayed\nthat they might die in full armor, not a piece wanting or rusted from\ndisuse, in the full activity of the fight, so he prayed that he might be\nspared the slow wasting of disease or the impairment of his physical and\nmental powers.\n\nNo black, no mourning drapery of any kind, was permitted about the house\nor on his coffin. At the door hung a beautiful wreath of delicate pink\nand white roses, gathered at the top by a large white satin bow, renewed\nafresh each morning by the hands of a beloved friend.\n\nAgainst every form of mourning he had always revolted; to him death was\nbut the gate to heaven, and the black symbols of ancient paganism he\ncould not endure:\n\n\u201cThe scholastic theology, filled with gloomy ideas sifted through stern\nRomish minds from teachings of pagan Romans has come down to us, until\nthe representations of death that exist in the literature of Rome are\nmore abominable and cruel than all the vices of all the Neros, or any\nother of the corrupt emperors. The scholastic conceptions of dying and\nof death are unworthy of reason, unworthy of conscience, and are\nblasphemous to God and to His government. They have no foundation in the\nNew Testament, none certainly in the Old, and they ought to be purged\nout of our imaginations. Yet it lingers with us, and when death has come\nthe household has not one note of triumph, not one star shines through\nthe grief, nor one door of flashing light is opened. We cover the\npictures, we shut up the instruments of music, we close the windows and\nshut out the light; we have a black hearse with plumes plucked from the\nwings of midnight, and we send for our minister, who doles out\nlugubrious, mournful themes, and we sing awful hymns. And then because\none\u2019s child has gained the coronation of glory, and is in the arms of\nJesus, and rests from all labor and trial and temptation, we put on\nblack\u2014black over the head, black around the neck, black down to the\nfeet, black inside! We carry the habiliments of woe and darkness and\ngloom, and think that we can see death everywhere. No other thing is as\nthis. The one thing that men carry everywhere with them, and they are\nbound to share alike with brothers, strangers, friends, is that one\nthing that is borrowed from the despotism and cruelty of heathenism. Not\none joy, not one thanksgiving, not one gleam of faith and hope, not one\npromise of Jesus Christ, not one single second of immortality and glory,\nis permitted to cheer the soul. All is night, black night, hopeless\nnight. Sinful, the whole of it, unchristian, ungrateful!...\n\n\u201cOne of the most beautiful things I ever saw in my whole European tour\nwas the burial place of a Prussian queen who died during the great\nstruggle against Napoleon, when the nation was ground almost to\nextinction, leaving her kingly husband almost inconsolable. At some\ndistance from the capital, and in the midst of the solemn wood, he built\na temple to her memory. It was of marble. As I entered, the light shone\ndown through blue glass, casting a sad, sorrowful tone on all that its\nrays shone upon. But further on, upon entering the inner chamber, the\ncheerful light of God\u2019s sun streamed in through the numerous windows and\nilluminated the ceiling, which was covered with glowing Scripture\npassages of death and immortality. And there in that blessed sunlight\nlay the sculptured form of the queen, forming the most perfect\nembodiment of rest, and peace, and triumph that my eyes ever beheld.\nThere was nothing, sad or sorrowful, or painful to be seen; only the\nlight of the glory of God as set forth in the sun; and the whole room\nglowed with cheer and brightness, and the monument was not gloomy but\npeaceful. I bless God with all my heart for that sight; it has been a\ncomfort to me in many a dark day and long struggle of suffering, for\nalready have I seen the triumph of death, the sweetness and the peace of\nvictory, in that monumental marble.\u201d\n\nOn Thursday a private funeral service was held at the house, the Rev.\nDr. Charles H. Hall, of the Church of the Holy Trinity, officiating, in\naccordance with the expressed wish of Mr. Beecher. Between the two a\ndeep and lasting friendship had existed. In the dark days, when not a\nfew of the clerical brethren of his own denomination in Brooklyn\ndoubted, or, hesitating, held back awaiting the result, Dr. Hall, in a\nmanner characteristic of his brave and manly nature, went out of his way\nto show, in public, his confidence and love for Mr. Beecher. The latter\nattending service one day, during the time when the clouds hung\nheaviest, at the Church of the Holy Trinity, the doctor, seeing him in\nthe congregation, descended into the aisle, and, taking his friend by\nthe hand, led him to a seat within the chancel. Mr. Beecher, always\nforgetful of injuries, never forgot an act of friendship. It was his\noft-repeated wish that, should he be called first, the voice of this\nbrave, beloved friend might speak the words of cheer and comfort to\nthose he left behind.\n\nAt the close of the service, Company G, of the Thirteenth\nRegiment\u2014which, having been largely recruited from the young men of\nPlymouth Church, was called the \u201cPlymouth Company,\u201d and affectionately\nstyled by Mr. Beecher \u201cMy boys\u201d\u2014with arms reversed, banners furled, and\nmuffled drums, marched to the house, and, as a guard of honor, escorted\nthe body of their pastor, chaplain, and friend to the church, as he was\nborne for the last time within its doors, and laid him, silent for the\nfirst time, at the foot of that pulpit from which his voice, during\nwell-nigh forty years, had so often rung out to right the wrong, to lift\nup the down-trodden, to uphold the weak, to elevate mankind; that had so\noften preached comfort to the sorrowing, light to those in great\ndarkness, pointing out the way of life to struggling sinners, and\nrevealing that boundless love of God which was the keynote of his\ntheology.\n\nTill Saturday morning an almost continuous stream passed through the\nchurch to look in a last farewell upon the face of a friend, scarcely\nending with midnight, renewed again by daylight, all day long. Old men\nand children, rich and poor, met to mourn a common loss.\n\nHe rested in a bed of flowers, the coffin hidden from sight by twining\nsmilax, covered with white pinks and rosebuds; pulpit and organ buried\nin flowering shrubs and graceful plants, decorated with many floral\ndesigns.\n\n[Illustration: Lying in State in Plymouth Church.]\n\nOn Friday morning the public funeral service was held, Dr. Hall\npreaching the sermon.\n\nSimultaneous with the services at Plymouth, funeral services were held\nin the three nearest adjoining churches.\n\nOn the proclamation of the mayor, business was suspended during the day;\nthe Legislature adjourned, sending a special committee to attend as its\nrepresentatives at the funeral.\n\nOn Sunday a memorial service was held in Plymouth Church, in which the\nrepresentatives of every creed took part\u2014Jew and Gentile, Catholic and\nProtestant\u2014and nearly every denomination of Protestantism vying each\nwith another in paying tributes of respect, gratitude, and love to their\ncommon brother\u2014a most fit, practical example of that for which he had\nalways preached, the universal brotherhood in God.\n\nOn Saturday, the 12th, the body was taken quietly to Greenwood.\n\n\u201cTo-day Henry Ward Beecher\u2019s body was buried in Greenwood. His hearse\nwas followed in sympathy and honor by millions of his countrymen. The\nmourners were of all kindred and of every language. Not in this\ngeneration, at least, has there been a funeral so nobly significant. In\nthe stately procession walked the viewless forms of principles, of\ngovernments, of nations, and of races. The guardian spirit of the slave\nwhom he helped to liberate; the fair, sad genius of the Green Isle, for\nwhich he so often and so eloquently pleaded; the dusky representative of\nthe Chinese Empire, in behalf of whose sons he again and again demanded\njustice; the fair form of modern science with the radiance of the\nmorning sun on her queenly brow; the benign angel of charity, clothed in\nthe whiteness of that purity which renders sin invisible; democracy,\nwith her free step, flowing hair, and cap of many hues; Columbia, full\nof matronly grace and benignant as the atmosphere of June; and\nChristianity, calm, motherly, and forgiving\u2014these are the pall-bearers\nby whom the body of our hero was borne to its resting-place....\u201d[20]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n  From the Brooklyn _Citizen_ of March 12.\n\n-----\n\nOn a sunny slope in that most beautiful of all cemeteries, overlooking\nthe Bay of New York, is the grave of Henry Ward Beecher. But it is only\nthe grave: \u201cWhen I fall, and am buried in Greenwood, let no man dare to\nstand over the turf and say, \u2018Here lies Henry Ward Beecher,\u2019 for God\nknows that I will not lie there. Look up; if you love me, and if you\nfeel that I have helped you on your way home, stand with your feet on my\nturf and look up; for I will not hear anybody that does not speak with\nhis mouth toward heaven.\u201d\n\nWith all our sorrow we cannot begrudge him the rest and peace so well\nearned, nor that for which he had so often prayed\u2014a quiet, painless\ndeparture while yet each faculty was unimpaired. He remembered with\ndeepest pain the failing years of his own father, who lingered till all\nhis faculties became impaired:\n\n\u201cMy venerable father, who was a second David in his time\u2014a man of\nwar\u2014and yet who had as sweet a heart as ever an angel woman had, lived\nthrough many last years of weakness and obscuration, and I had to\nremember a great way back to find my father. It was very pitiful, very\npainful.\n\n\u201cThat is one reason why I do not want to be an old man. I hope God will\nhave so much consideration for my weakness\u2014if it be a weakness\u2014as to let\nme drop down in my harness and in the full energy of work. I have no\nfear whatever of dying: it is only the fear of living that I have before\nmy eyes....\n\n\u201cSome persons talk about a man having passed through a stormy life, and\nsitting now at the end of his life in quiet, preparing himself for\nheaven. Heaven does not want any such preparation as that. That is the\nbest preparation which a man makes when he is using the whole force of\nhis being in his day and time. I would rather die with the harness on\nand be dragged out by the heels. I would like to fall in the traces. You\ncannot help scoring one year against yourself and growing old in one\nway; but it is the outward man that is growing old. The wine that is in\nyou ought to be growing better and better every year. Time should mellow\nand ripen it. True, if a man\u2019s power is dried up, he cannot do more than\nhe has strength for; but every man should do up to the measure of his\nstrength, and not forget the sudden appearing of God in his own day and\nin his own time.\n\n\u201cI love those streams that run full, clear to the ocean. Some men there\nare who are like mountain streams, torrent-fed, that boom in the spring,\nwith wondrous glory of fulness and power, and go rushing through the\nearlier months, but slacken their speed, and by midsummer are only a\ntrickling reminiscence of the river. I like to think of streams like the\nold Merrimac, that begin work up near their head-waters, and never run a\nleague without turning some mighty wheel of industry, and have no\nvacation to the end, but go into the sea with the very foam on their\nsurface.\u201d\n\nFor him death had no terrors; it was the gate opening into eternal rest\nand peace\u2014that peace for which he had so often yearned and longed in his\nlater years. Death was the welcome friend, not the dreaded foe.\n\n\u201cIs there anything sweeter to grief and sorrow than that passage where\nthe New Testament, sweet book of the soul, speaks of dying? Let\nTuscanized Romans talk of death; let heathen mythologies come to us with\nskulls, and cross-bones, and hideous images of dying, of the monster\nDeath, of the tyrant Death, of the scythe-armed Death, of a grim and\nterrible fate; but what terror can any of these representations have for\nus when we have for our encouragement and hope the promises of the New\nTestament?\n\n\u201cOn a summer\u2019s day the gentle western wind brings in all the sweets of\nthe field and the garden; and the child, overtasked by joy, comes back\nweary, and climbs for sport into the mother\u2019s lap; and before he can\nsport he feels the balm of rest stealing over him, and lays his curly\nhead back upon her arm; and look! he goes to sleep; hush! he has gone to\nsleep, and all the children stand smiling. How beautiful it is to see a\nchild drop asleep on its mother\u2019s arm! And it is said, \u2018He fell asleep\nin Jesus.\u2019 Is there anything so high, so noble, or divine, as the way in\nwhich the New Testament speaks of dying? How near death is, and how\nbeautiful!\n\n\u201cIf you have lost companions, children, friends, you have not lost them.\nThey followed the Pilot. They went through airy channels, unknown and\nunsearchable, and they are with the Lord; and you are going to be with\nHim, too. I die to go, not to Jerusalem, but to the New Jerusalem. I\ndie, not to wait in the rock-ribbed sepulchre, which shall hold me sure;\nI die, that when this body is dropped I shall have a place, in the\ninward fulness of my spiritual power, with the Lord.\n\n\u201cThen welcome gray hairs! they come as white banners that wave from the\nother and higher life. Welcome infirmities! they are but the loosening\nof the cords preparatory to taking down the tabernacle. Welcome\ntroubles! they are but the signs that we are crossing the sea, and that\nnot far away is our home\u2014that house of our Father in which are many\nmansions, where dwells Jesus, the loved and all-loving. And let us\nrejoice that He has gone from the body, that He may be ever present in\nthe spirit, and that ere long we may be with Him.\u201d\n\nHis life had been full and complete. Unconsciously, in words of\nmatchless beauty, he painted his own picture when he said:\n\n\u201cAnd the most beautiful thing that lives on this earth is not the child\nin the cradle, sweet as it is. It is not ample enough. It has not had\nhistory enough. It is all prophecy. Let me see one who has wrought\nthrough life; let me see a great nature that has gone through sorrows,\nthrough fire, through the flood, through the thunder of battle,\nripening, sweetening, enlarging, and growing finer and finer, and\ngentler and gentler, that fineness and gentleness being the result of\ngreat strength and great knowledge accumulated through a long life\u2014let\nme see such a one stand at the end of life, as the sun stands on a\nsummer afternoon just before it goes down. Is there anything on earth so\nbeautiful as a rich, ripe, large, glowing, and glorious Christian heart?\nNo, nothing.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\n\n\n                               APPENDIX.\n\n                               ----------\n\n\nMr. Beecher\u2019s trial lecture was the first sermon which he preached as a\nclergyman. It may be interesting, both from that fact and because, as\nMr. Beecher himself once remarked, it shows how commonplace a sermon a\nman might write who subsequently attained to some eminence as a\npreacher.\n\n                             TRIAL LECTURE.\n\n_For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth\nnot thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud,\nthat it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my\nword be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me\nvoid, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper\nin the thing whereto I sent it._\u2014ISAIAH lv. 10, 11.\n\nNo one can read the Bible, even superficially, without observing how\nmuch it brings in the natural world to illustrate the truths of the\nmoral. Of the truths of God\u2019s government or of his own Being it may be\nsaid \u201cthe invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are\nclearly seen, being understood by the things _that are made_.\u201d The\npassage assigned as the subject of this lecture is remarkable in this\nrespect, since two departments are compared\u2014the truth of God is compared\nwith the elements.\n\nIt will be particularly noticed here that no formal analogy is set up\nbetween the effect of truth and the effect of natural causes. Nor are\nthe two compared in all respects.\n\nIt is not intimated that truth acts as natural causes act\u2014that truth\nproduces effects on mind in the same way as rain does upon the earth and\nits vegetation. Nothing of this. The comparison instituted respects one\nthing, and only one thing, and that is the equal _certainty_ of two\nthings. The passage teaches simply and only that there is as much\ncertainty that the truth of God will produce its appropriate results, in\nits own way, as there is that natural elements will, in their own way,\nproduce their natural results. Those who attempt to draw a parallel\nbetween the operations of God\u2019s moral government and His natural one,\nand call upon this passage for witness, neither understand the import of\nthis text nor the nature of the thing whereof they treat.\n\nIt is a comforting declaration, and to none more so than to Christians\nwho love truth. We often fear that it will be covered up, its influence\ndestroyed; that through the weakness of men, or the power of evil, or\nsome disastrous reverse of events, its power will be lost. And\nparticularly are ministers, whose chief duty it is to study truth, to\npromulgate and confirm it throughout the community, liable to despond\nwhen they find themselves coping with so many malign influences, so much\ncoldness, and scepticism, and worldliness, and ignorance. If they look\nonly upon the narrow scale upon which they labor, it often would seem as\nif there were indeed no power in truth, no certainty that it would\nfructify.\n\nIt is an assurance, then, to our faith, and a great comfort to us in our\ntoil, when we listen to Him who sitteth in the heavens, and before whom\nall things are open and naked\u2014who sits serene above all the whirl which\ndistracts and confuses us on this dusty earth, and hear Him say, seeing\nthe beginning from the end of all things: \u201cFor as the rain cometh down,\nand the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the\nearth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the\nsower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out\nof my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish\nthat which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent\nit.\u201d\n\nWe design at this time to draw from our text a few obvious inferences,\nto confirm and illustrate and apply them.\n\n1. _We may infer that truth is adapted_ to produce moral results in this\nworld.\n\n_How_ it produces them we shall not examine. It is a matter of\nphilosophy, of speculation, and we concern ourselves with the practical\nbearing of our text.\n\nThis inference will appear the more plainly true if we consider\u2014\n\n1. That the Bible is explicit upon this head. Paul says to Timothy:\n\u201cFrom a child thou hast known the _holy Scriptures, which are able to\nmake thee wise unto salvation_, through faith which is in Christ Jesus.\u201d\n\nAnd not satisfied with specific assertion, he generalizes and makes it a\ngeneral principle: \u201cAll scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is\nprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in\nrighteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished\nunto all good works\u201d (2 Timothy iii. 16\u201317).\n\nCould anything be more untrue, if truth _has not_ an adaptation to\nproduce what it is said to do?\n\nThroughout the Bible God regards truth as sufficient to accomplish His\npurposes, and nothing is so severely dealt with, by rebuke and judgment,\nas that deficiency and sin which comes of neglecting or refusing truth.\n\n\u201cWhat more could I have done for my vineyard than I have _done_?\nWherefore, when I looked, that it should bring forth grapes, brought it\nforth wild grapes?\u201d\n\nA constant visible Providence, mighty acts, the record of wonderful\ndeliverances and mercies, and the institutes of a beneficent law\u2014were\nnot these adapted to produce the required obedience in the Jews? If\ntruth have not adaptation to produce moral results, the Jew very\npertinently might have replied to this severe rebuke: What has been done\nto produce obedience? Nothing but a series of truths have been given\nwhich have no adaptation or tendency to produce holiness.\n\nNothing has been done to make us other than we are. And in exact\naccordance with the spirit of this was Christ\u2019s teaching when He said:\n\u201cIf I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now\nthey have no cloak for their sin\u201d (John xv. 22).\n\n2. The very object for which truth was revealed confirms the truth of\nour inference. It was revealed either for something or for nothing. If\nfor nothing, it was foolishness. But if for something, then either it\nwas fitted to produce what it was created for, or it was not. If it was\nnot adapted to produce that for which it was created, then God attempted\nto bring to pass an end with means ill-adapted to that end. He raised up\nan instrumentality without adaptation to do what he desired. But what is\nmeant by instrumentality, which has nothing of an instrument in it? What\nis instrumentality without any adaptation to do anything? Consequently\nif we would avoid imputing such weakness, such double folly and failure\nto God, we must admit with the Bible the adaptation of truth to produce\nits appropriate moral results.\n\nMen travel across the express declarations of His word, and cross\nreason, to support a philosophical theory which, after all, destroys the\nvery thing for which they framed it.\n\n3. Our inference becomes still more apparent in truth if for a moment we\nadmit the opposite doctrine and watch its results.\n\n(1) The law is composed of truths respecting God, His relations to us,\nand ours to Him\u2014the duties flowing thence, the penalties and rewards\nrespectively of disobedience or obedience, our duties to one another,\netc.; and all this professedly is given to restrain from evil and\nproduce good.\n\nBut if truth has no adaptation to produce moral effects, the law was\ndesigned to do what it had no adaptation to do. It could have no\ninfluence and no power, and God is represented as framing a law to do\nwhat it had no relevancy to do.\n\n(2) The character of God\u2014why is it held forth to excite admiration and\nlove, if that has no _adaptation_ to excite such feelings?\n\nThere is nothing in God, nothing in His attributes, which can awaken the\nleast emotion, unless truth can work out moral results.\n\n(3) And precisely so of all the recorded doings of God since creation,\nespecially that stupendous spectacle\u2014the Atonement. All is thrown away\nas respects influence upon intelligent moral beings, they are utterly\nworthless, if they have no power to do anything. In short, this theory,\nso unfounded, so monstrous either in philosophy or fact, so repugnant to\nevery declaration of God, would destroy every influence which the Bible\nwas sent to produce.\n\nIt cuts off the mind from any influence except that by which a stick or\nstone might be moved from place to place. The strong declaration of the\nBible that men resist the truth\u2014how, if nothing to resist?\n\nWe admit _that truth, as a matter of fact, does not_ produce its\nlegitimate results without the influence of the Holy Spirit. But then\nthe reason lies in the depravity of our hearts, and not in any want of\n_adaptation_ in the truth.\n\nGod made it ample, it was enough to create infinite obligation, and, if\nunresisted, to have kept us from sin and trained us up in holiness. Our\ndepravity resisted its action, and would always; and this is the ground\nand necessity of the interference of the Holy Spirit.\n\nNot the want of light, but men love darkness better; not the want of\nadaptation in truth, but men resist it, and will do so for ever, unless\nGod shall send the Holy Spirit. In His hands truth becomes omnipotent.\nHe pierces with it the darkest eye, and sounds it upon the deafest ear,\nand rouses up the deadest heart, \u201cenlightening by it their minds\nspiritually and savingly to understand the things of God, and\neffectually drawing them to Jesus Christ, being made willing by His\ngrace.\u201d\n\nWe are not, however, to rest satisfied with this mere intellectual view\nof this point. It has very deep, practical importance, which I shall\nbriefly lay open to you.\n\n1. It shows you the importance of knowing _what the truth is exactly_.\n\nGod has made truth to produce certain results of good, and no substitute\nfor it will. The husbandman who would raise a harvest of wheat must sow\nwheat, not something which is only very much like it. The Christian who\nwould have the fruits of _truth_ in his heart must believe _the_ truth,\nand not something that is very much like it.\n\nHe who would have the fruits of God\u2019s love in his heart, who would grow\nrich in the graces of the Spirit of God, must understand God\u2019s character\n_just as it is revealed_\u2014_i.e._, just _as it is_, for it is the truth of\nHis character which will produce salutary results, and nothing else\nwill. Hence those who entertain false views of God have a deficient\ncondition of mind and heart in exact proportion as they deviate from the\ntruth; and this is the reason why those who reject the Divinity of our\nLord and Saviour wane in piety, in happiness, and finally experience\nfrom their view of God hardly one beneficial result. They have expected\nthat what was not true would produce in them the effect of what _was\ntrue_. Consequently we find the sacred writers anxiously inculcating a\ndiligent, careful study of the character of God, as Paul to the\nColossians (chap. ii. 2, 3): \u201cThat their hearts might be comforted,\nbeing knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance\nof understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of\nthe Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom\nand knowledge.\u201d\n\nAnd just before: \u201cThat ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all\npleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the\nknowledge of God.\u201d\n\nSo, too, Eph. i. 17: \u201cThat the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father\nof glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the\nknowledge of Him.\u201d\n\n2. So also respecting doctrine. We are bound to know exactly what God\nhas revealed, for that is to produce the good effect in the hands of the\nSpirit, and not an imagination which we think is true. If by total\ndepravity we teach something else than that which the Bible teaches,\nwill the same results flow? If, instead of regeneration, as Christ and\nPaul explain it, we vamp up a theory aside and different from it, will\nthe effect be the same? Will the Holy Spirit employ it equally with the\nother?\n\nNay, he who does not preach truth, and believe truth, preaches error and\nbelieves error. Truth saves, and error destroys. And this is the reason\nwhy it is some matter what a man believes, provided he is sincere. God\ndoes not regenerate and save by _sincerity_, but by truth. Error\nreceived sincerely is only error placed where it shall work out its\nfullest evils with the greatest certainty, and with every help which the\nheart can afford. Error sincerely received is death cordially embraced.\n\n3. Hence we see how deeply important it becomes for Christians to employ\nprayer and diligent study of the Bible, that the Holy Spirit of God may\nenlighten their minds with all truth.\n\nAll that which constitutes a pure and holy heart must come from truth;\nourselves and our hearers are to be saved by _truth_ in the hands of the\nHoly Spirit. How earnestly, then, should we seek His divine, unerring\nguidance! If He teach us, we shall have truth indeed; but if left to our\ndepraved hearts how soon shall we draw in error, how soon shall we be\nspoiled by vain philosophy and deceit after the traditions of men, after\nthe rudiments of this world, and not after Christ! And if deserted\nforever, how rapid will be our deterioration from bad to worse, until\neternal death do close upon us!\n\n4. The importance of propagating, through all the world, the Bible, is\nmost particularly taught in the text, and is most appropriately deduced\nfrom our position. God has promised that His Holy Spirit shall go with\nit, shall make it effective. Would we fill the earth with the power of\nGod\u2019s Spirit, send abroad the Bible, by which He has graciously\ndetermined to act, and through which He will sanctify and save.\n\nII. The second inference which I draw from this passage is that, _when\nthe truth is properly explained and applied, we are both allowed and\nbound to expect corresponding auspicious results_.\n\n1. So Christ and His apostles taught by example. Christ refused to throw\naway labor when nothing could be _expected_ from it. Hence He never\nwould open to the Pharisees and bigoted doctors of Jerusalem the nature\nof His message, nor descant upon the character of God, nor urge upon\nthem His claims, nor urge them to repent, nor work miracles before them.\nHe knew the heart of man, and knew that no good would follow. If, then,\nthe ground of exclusion from the labors of His ministry was that there\ncould be no hope of success, then where He did labor it must have been\nupon the ground _of hope of success_.\n\nSo Paul repeatedly rejoices in the power of the Gospel to save mankind,\nand gloried in this with great exultation, proclaiming that on this\naccount he was not ashamed of it.\n\nNow, was it the mere fact that Paul felt that the truths of the Gospel\nhad the power, abstractly, to save mankind, without any particular\nexpectation that they _would_ do so, or did his heart fire because he\nmost confidently expected that nations would be _born_ to Christ by his\npreachings? No one whose heart ever burned with a desire of glorifying\nGod by gathering in souls to His kingdom can hesitate to say which of\nthese inspired Paul. It is no joy, no subject of particular gratulation,\nthat the Gospel can save mankind, unless we also believe that it\n_actually will_.\n\nThe only reason why we rejoice in its adaptation to save the world is\nbecause we believe that the world should be saved.\n\nHow wide of the truth are they who think that a faithful, sincere\nChristian or minister has no right to expect the fruits of their labor,\nbut are bound to rest as satisfied that it should not as that it should\nhappen! It is a spirit utterly repugnant to the Gospel. Some would\nimagine that we should not so expect\u2014expect confidently the fruit of our\nlabors\u2014because God is a Sovereign and worketh according to the counsel\nof His own will.\n\nBut this is the very ground upon which we build our confidence.\n\nIt is because God, as a Sovereign, acting most freely and according to\nthe purposes of His own will, hath joined to truth its appropriate\nresults, and has encouraged us to expect them. If God were no Sovereign,\nwe should have no confidence, never knowing what might or might not\nhappen. But now, since He is Supreme, and hath joined truth, well\napplied, to a certainty of corresponding results, we shall most\nshamefully do violence to His Divine Sovereignty if we affect to doubt\nwhether it will in fact be as He hath ordained that it shall be. If He\nhad not joined means to ends it would be temerity to expect the one from\nthe other.\n\nBut since He has, it would be doubting Him, contradicting Him, if we\nwere not so to do.\n\nTo the diligent farmer God gives abundant increase, to the laborious\nartist remuneration corresponding to his skill. To the faithful\nminister, who rises betimes to sow the seeds of life and waters them\nwith his tears, God will give him an abundant harvest; and the diligent\nChristian who employs all the means of truth within his reach, in humble\nreliance upon God, shall not be disappointed. He may expect growth in\ngrace, and God will not falsify his hopes.\n\nThe Sovereignty of God is the sure ground upon which every one may build\nhis hopes and not be disappointed. For God is not a man that He should\nlie, hath He said, and shall He not do it?\n\n2. Success of ministry and Christian effort demand it for very\nconstitution of our nature.\n\n3. Only ground on which the multiplied institution of the Gospel can be\navailable.[21]\n\n-----\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n  These two subdivisions were not written out in full, blank spaces\n  being left in the original for their fuller elaboration.\n\n-----\n\nIII. The third inference which I draw from this passage is that _the\ninstrumentality of the truth, the efficiency of the means, does not\ndetract from the power of God, but highly illustrates it_.\n\n1. It will be observed in this passage that, although so much efficiency\nis given to truth, yet _God_ is continually speaking, and speaking, too,\nin the air of most sovereign authority. Truth is made to appear\nperfectly subservient to his Divine Will. \u201cSo shall _My_ word be that\ngoeth forth out of My mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it\nshall accomplish that _which I please_, and it shall prosper in the\nthing whereto _I_ sent it.\u201d\n\n2. The reason why it illustrates and does not detract from God\u2019s\nsupremacy and power may now easily be seen. It shall do just what _God\nwishes_ to be done, and for which He appointed it, and for which He made\nit efficient. Besides this it can do nothing else. It can only do this\nbecause God so wills. Truth is not an agent acting, since God made it,\nindependently of God, self-moved; nor is it to be turned by man to do as\nhe wishes. It does what it was made to do, and God made it, so that all\nits effects are but new examples of the power of God. It hangs where God\nplaced it, and shines in the sphere He circumscribed, and nowhere else.\n\n3. It accomplishes this result, which belongs to it, not from any\ninherent virtue which redeems it from the power of God, and causes its\neffects to illustrate only its own power, but simply and always because\n_God pleases_ that it should do so. As its powers are enlarged and\nencompass greater results, so must be the conception of His power who\nclothed it with such efficiency.\n\nAnd God always sustains truth, and those circumstances by which it can\nproduce fitting results, and if He dropped them for one moment from His\ncare they would perish.\n\nWhoever, then, finds that the employment of means of truth is producing\na forgetfulness of God, may be assured that he is using them wrongfully.\nIt is a pernicious result wrought in him by abusing our constituted mode\nof action.\n\nHe who properly appreciates the notion of means and instrumentality will\never have most occasion to admire both the power and goodness of God,\nand His wisdom too, in that constitution of things which He has made.\n[Blank Page]\n\n\n\n\n                                 INDEX.\n\n\n Abolitionists, feeling against, H. W. Beecher on, 268, 420;\n   ostracized socially, 185;\n   Webster, Daniel, on, 239.\n\n _Advance_, the, organization of, 491.\n\n Advisory Council (1874), assembling of, 526;\n   call for, 523;\n   deliverance of, 527;\n   Plymouth invited at, declines, 527;\n   protest against, a, 524.\n\n Advisory Council (1876), assembling of, 543;\n   Beecher, H. W., cautions on, to church, 539,\n     statements at, 544\u2013549,\n     declared innocent by, 550,\n     address to, at close, 552;\n   call for, 537;\n   committee on charges, advises an, 550, 558;\n   composition of, 538;\n   officers of, 543, 544;\n   Plymouth sustained by, 549;\n   principle of selection of, 538;\n   questions submitted to, 538;\n   Sturtevant\u2019s, Dr., opinion of Mr. Beecher, 551;\n   Wellman\u2019s, Dr., opinion of Mr. Beecher, 550.\n\n Allen, Ethan, remark of, on British cruelty, 35.\n\n America, a \u201cbetter England,\u201d 25.\n\n Amherst, Mass., in 1827, 93;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., garden plot in, 96.\n\n Amherst College in 1830, 112;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., course at, 109-135;\n   offers title of D.D. to Mr. Beecher, 391.\n\n Anderson, Gen. Robert, tribute to, by Mr. Beecher, 452.\n\n Anecdotes:\n   Boston woman, the cross, 118;\n   calf and bees, 637;\n   cannon-ball, the, 87;\n   cat in the organ, 382;\n   cow, chase of the, 141;\n   \u201cDinah, Crazy,\u201d 243;\n   dog Noble, 290;\n   English beggar, 670;\n   \u201cfollow-your-leader,\u201d 85;\n   Fulton omnibuses, 248;\n   grammar, lesson in, 75, 76;\n   Grant, Gen., and Mr. Beecher\u2019s titles, 663;\n   kite, the, 203;\n   liquor-seller, the, 195;\n   lions, two monstrous, 51;\n   ruffian, the, 194;\n   slaves, teaching of, 253;\n   sleeper in church, 186;\n   Stowe, Prof., outwitted, 141;\n   tides, explanation of, 76;\n   truant, the, 184;\n   tub-raft, the, 208;\n   \u201cTutor\u2019s Delight,\u201d 116.\n\n Arthur, Chester A., opinion on, of Mr. Beecher, 575;\n   on renomination of, 576.\n\n Articles, H. W. Beecher\u2019s, sources and characteristics of, 325, 326;\n   Cause and Cure of Agitation (1850), 242;\n   Christian\u2019s Duty to Liberty (1854), 276;\n   Church and Steamboat (1850), 350, 351;\n   Contrast, The (1862), 335;\n   Controversy, Harsh (1850), 244;\n   Convictions, Various, and Sin (1852), 353;\n   Country\u2019s Need (1862), 328;\n   Courage and Enterprise (1862), 324;\n   Crisis, The (1854), 273;\n   Defence of Kansas, 283;\n   Degraded into Liberty (1852), 263;\n   Different Ways of Giving (1850), 352;\n   Disbanding of Bowdoin St. Church (1862), 98;\n   Dog Noble and Empty Hole (1856), 290;\n   Dull Meetings, One Cause of (1852), 353;\n   Duty, The Great (1862), 327;\n   Duty of the Hour (1862), 323;\n   Duty of To-day (1862), 330;\n   Flowers in Church (1802), 392;\n   Fugitive Slave Bill (1850), 240;\n   Ground, The Only (1862), 333;\n   Hearts and No Hearts (1856), 287;\n   Hours of Exaltation (1857), 373;\n   Hymns, Church (1855), 366;\n   Ice in the Church (1852), 353;\n   Infidel Toast, The (1859), 389;\n   Law and Conscience (1850), 240, 241;\n   Leader for the People (1862) 332;\n   Lind, Jenny (1850), 351;\n   Litchfield Revisited (1856), 35;\n   Liturgy, Church, 370;\n   Men, not Slaves (1862), 323;\n   Mountain and the Closet (1857), 373;\n   Naval Discipline (1852), 355;\n   Newspaper Report, on a (1852), 356;\n   Our Help from Above (1862), 323;\n   Patriotism of the People (1862), 329;\n   Proclamation of Emancipation, on (1862), 336;\n   Queer Pulpit, A (1862), 334;\n   Reconstruction (1862), 333;\n   Remember the Poor (1850), 352;\n   Root of the Matter (1862), 331;\n   Salutatory (1861), 321;\n   Shall we Compromise? (1850), 237;\n   Silence must be Nationalized (1856), 287;\n   Time, The, has Come (1862), 332;\n   Trumpet, The (1862), 335;\n   Use of the Beautiful by Christians, 393;\n   War with England (1861), 322;\n   Word from the People to Congress (1862), 323;\n   Working with Errorists (1859), 380.\n\n Atchison, David R., in Kansas war, 277.\n\n Bacon, Rev. Leonard, letters of, against Tilton, 527;\n   letter of, on reconciliation, 559.\n\n Barnes, Hiram (Litchfield), reminiscence of, 37.\n\n Beach, Hon. W. A., convinced of H. W. Beecher\u2019s innocence, 533.\n\n Beecher, Rev. Charles, anecdotes by, of H. W. Beecher, 50;\n   music, early work in, 92, 138, 139;\n   recollections by, of boyhood, 57, 58,\n     of Seminary days, 139.\n\n Beecher, David, character of, 17;\n   strength of, 20.\n\n Beecher, Rev. Edward, promotes _Advance_, 491.\n\n Beecher, Esther, influence of, on H. W. Beecher, 68, 69;\n   in Brooklyn, 352;\n   Mr. Beecher\u2019s tribute to, 38.\n\n Beecher, George (son of Lyman), death of, 204.\n\n Beecher, Hannah, reminiscence of, 19.\n\n Beecher, Harriet (daughter of Lyman)\u2014see _Stowe, Harriet B._\n\n Beecher, Harriet (wife of Lyman), arrival of, at Litchfield, 54;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., opinion of, 65,\n     religious instruction by, 77,\n     tribute to, 143;\n   death of, 143;\n   home training, methods of, 65;\n   impressions of Beecher family, 54, 55;\n   marriage of, to Lyman Beecher, 53;\n   reminiscence of, by Mrs. Stowe, 54.\n\n Beecher, Henry (1570), notice of, 19.\n\n Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward,\n   Administration, strictures on, in 1862, 328\u2013331, 335;\n     distrusted by, in 1863, 397, 443,\n       feeling changed, 444.\n   Advisory Council (1876), on, 538;\n     cautions his people as to, 538;\n     statements at, 544;\n     challenge at, 545;\n     demands production of letters, 549;\n     declared innocent by, 550;\n     address to, at close, 552.\n   Agriculture, articles on, 182;\n     studies in, 198;\n     work in, 199.\n     See under Farm, p. 698, and Peekskill, p. 701.\n   Aid sought from, some samples of, 656.\n   Ambition of, for enterprise, 89;\n     personal, devoid of, 593,\n       advice to a relative on, 593, 594.\n   American, a typical, 25.\n   Amherst College, enters, 109;\n     course at, choice of, 112;\n     studies at, 113;\n     reminiscences by Dr. Field, 113, 115,\n       by Dr. Haven, 113,\n       by L. Tappan, 114, 117,\n       by S. H. Emery, 114,\n       by Rev. S. Hanks, 114;\n     debate, a victory in, 114;\n     \u201cTutor\u2019s Delight,\u201d 116;\n     sports at, 117;\n     financial difficulties, 117;\n     plans to earn money, 118;\n     in anti-slavery debate, 119;\n     record at, 135.\n   Ancestry of, 20, 21;\n     its legacy of loyalty and truth, 24.\n   Anderson, Gen. Robert, tribute to, 452.\n   Art, effect of works of, 346\u2013348;\n     high, versus decorative, on, 645;\n     his collection of prints, 646.\n   Arthur, Chester A., praise of, 575;\n     renomination of, reasons for desiring, 575, 576.\n   Aspirations, on youthful, 89.\n   Attainments of, at ten, 70, 71.\n   Atonement, on doctrine of, 607.\n   Auction-sale, slave, imitation of, 292.\n   Audiences of, on early, 594.\n   Autobiography of, preparations for, 673.\n   Bacon\u2019s, Dr. L., letter to, on reconciliation, 559;\n     reply, 560.\n   Bashfulness of, youthful, 70.\n   Battle of, a youthful, 36.\n   Beautiful, on Christian enjoyment of the, 393;\n     in nature, his love for, 394.\n   Beecher, Esther, tribute to, 38;\n     influenced by, 68.\n   Beecher\u2019s, Harriet, impressions of, 55;\n     instructed in religion by, 77;\n     his tribute to, 143.\n   Beecher, Lyman, estimate of, 17;\n     effect on, of conduct of, 68, 69;\n     indignant at persecution of, 151.\n   Beecher, Roxana, tribute to, 24;\n     recollections of, 47;\n     influenced by memory of, 67, 554;\n     opinion of, from her letters, 128.\n   Beecher, Rev. T. K., reminiscence by, 90, 138.\n   Belgian court, experiences at, 404.\n   Bible, early analysis of, 137, 192;\n     on method of reading, 642.\n   Birth of, 37, 41.\n   Birds, love for, 615, 616.\n   Blaine, J. G., opinion of, 576;\n     refuses to support, 577,\n       threatened for refusal, 579;\n     election of, on probable result of, 579.\n   Books, on buying, 648.\n   Boston, bells of, amazed at, 83;\n     ships and Navy-Yard in, enthusiasm over, 84;\n     on juvenile feuds of, 85;\n     chief in, of \u201cfollow your-leader,\u201d 85;\n     cannon-ball, purloins a, 87;\n     life at, in boyhood, 90\u201392;\n     moral influence of, bad, 92;\n     joins Bowdoin St. Church, 98;\n     receives call to, 216;\n     defence at, on scandal rumors, 535.\n   Bowen, Henry C., hostility of, 490, 492;\n     action of, in Tilton\u2019s charge against Mr. Beecher, 511,\n       charge published, 513, 514;\n     on renewed charges of, 542, 543.\n   Brattleboro, Vt., lecture at, 130\u2013132.\n   Brice, Pomona, help for, 293.\n   Brooklyn, declines reception by Common Council of, 672.\n   Brown, John, sermon on, 301.\n   Brussels, visit to, in 1863, 403.\n   Buchanan, Pres., on administration of, 305;\n     on fast-day of, 307.\n   Budington, Rev. W., church of, seeks to heal dissension in, 524;\n     letter to, on its protest, 526.\n   Callers, daily, description of, 657.\n   Calvinism, early teaching in, 70, 77.\n   Camp, life in, on dangers of, 319.\n   Catechism, a failure at, 65.\n   Character, moulding of, 44, 81;\n     at seventeen, 108, 112;\n     during college course, 113\u2013116;\n     in manhood, 258.\n   Charity, on, 352;\n     demands on his, 658.\n   Charleston, S. C., invited to deliver address at (1865), 449;\n     Stanton\u2019s despatch concerning, 450;\n     address at, 451\u2013454;\n     purpose of, in going to, 460.\n   Children, love for, 639;\n     a method of whipping, 640;\n     his own, on newspaper report as to, 356;\n     training of, 640;\n     justice tempered by love, 641;\n     advice to, on self-helpfulness, 641,\n       on religion, on Bible-reading, 642,\n       on study, 642, 643,\n       on health and on duty, 643,\n       on choosing profession, 643,\n       on literary style, 644.\n   Chimes, church, first experience with, 83.\n   \u201cChoosing good parents,\u201d on, 17.\n   Christianity, on power of, to crush slavery, 268.\n   _Christian Union_, in control of, 491.\n   Church, going to, when a boy, 59,\n       promises made, 60,\n       experiences at, 61;\n     on growth of a, 227, 483;\n     on proper work of a, 540.\n   Church-bell, adventure with a, 60.\n   Church-membership, on, 362.\n   Cincinnati, O., family life at, 140;\n     drives off his father\u2019s cow, 141;\n     constable at, a, 142;\n     \u201cfamily meeting\u201d at, 142;\n     _Journal_ of, editor of, 141.\n   Cleveland, Pres., remarks on slanders against, 577;\n     support of, reasons for, 577\u2013580;\n     on administration of, 587.\n   Cleveland letters: invited as chaplain to convention, 461;\n     reply to invitation, 465,\n       public clamor against, 462,\n       remarks on, 474, 475;\n     Tyng\u2019s, Dr., letter on, 469,\n       reply, 470;\n     Storrs\u2019s, Dr., letter on, 471;\n     Mr. Beecher\u2019s second letter, 472,\n       effect of, 477,\n       Storrs, Dr., on, 477;\n     assailed by _Independent_ for, 501.\n   Coffee, effect of, 652.\n   Colors, how affected by, 649\u2013651.\n   Compromise measures, article on, 236\u2013238;\n     Missouri Compromise, on repeal of, 273\u2013277;\n     appeal to ministers as to, 275, 276;\n     on offer of, in 1860, 306;\n     in general, on, 421;\n     on proposal for, in 1864, 446.\n   Congress, on proposed nomination to, 360.\n   Congregational Association, resigns from, 567, 568;\n     statement to, 568;\n     remarks on criticisms of his action, 569.\n   Congregational Church, estimate of, 610.\n   Conspiracy against, beginning of, 494;\n     statement on, 495\u2013520,\n       effect of publication of, 531;\n     investigating committee, calls for an, 499, 528,\n       action of, 529, 530;\n     publicity of, motives for avoiding, 504, 519, 531, 544;\n     _Eagle_, card in, as to Woodhull letters, 522;\n     demands production of any letters, 529;\n     letter to, of Pres. Porter, 532;\n     on malignity of conspirators, 546, 553;\n     on prompt demands for investigation, 547;\n     on publishing of, 548;\n     cost of, 549, 565;\n     Shearman\u2019s, T., part in, 549;\n     reflections on, 557;\n     hostility of press in, 558;\n     nervous strain from, 558;\n     English sympathy during, 668.\n   Conscientiousness of, how developed, 65.\n   Controversy, harsh, advice against, 244.\n   Conversion of, 98;\n     recollections of, 590.\n   Correspondence of, how conducted, 658.\n   Courage of, physical, in killing mad dog, 664.\n   Country, intense love for, 416, 460.\n   Courtship of, 121\u2013127,\n     on false reports as to effects of, 129;\n     Saxon, description of, 127.\n   Cowper, William, on style of, 644.\n   Creditors, on duty to, 354.\n   Cunard steamers, on bigotry upon, 350;\n     falsehood as to, charged with, 351.\n   D.D., declination of title of, 391.\n   Daniel, Samuel, poem of, 134.\n   Darkness, early spiritual, 78\u201381, 119\u2013121, 604;\n     darkness dispersed, 155.\n   Davis, Jefferson, on proposed hanging of, 458.\n   Death, impending, feelings of, 507, 508, 516, 556;\n     of his brother George, 204;\n     of his son George, 205;\n     of his daughter \u201cCaty,\u201d 224;\n     of his twin sons, 357;\n     of three nephews 372;\n     no fear of, 681, 682;\n     remarks on, 682;\n     his death, 676,\n       wishes concerning, 681,\n       private service at, 677,\n       service in Plymouth, 678;\n     burial of, 680;\n     grave of, 680.\n   Debate, early power in, 113, 114.\n   Denominationalism, on, 611.\n   \u201cDepravity, total,\u201d hatred of phrase, 380.\n   Divine, the, early strivings for, 77, 78, 100.\n   Doctrine, early knowledge of, 163, 165, 604;\n     commended for, 612.\n   Douglass, Fred, invitation to, to Plymouth, 248.\n   Dramatic power of, early, 96.\n   Ecclesiastical machinery, dislike of, 152, 153, 606.\n   Edinburgh, Scotland, speech at, in 1863, 419\u2013422.\n   Editor, on power of an, 321;\n     editorial articles, sources of, 325,\n       characteristic features of, 325, 326.\n   Edmonson sisters, in purchase of, 292.\n   Elections of 1884,\n     distrusts Mr. Blaine, 576;\n     endorses Mr. Cleveland, 577, 578,\n       remarks on, 578,\n       answer to remonstrance on, 579, 580,\n       answer to threat, 580;\n     active work in, 580;\n     review of, 584\u2013586;\n     excitement in, on calm after, 586.\n   Ellsworth, Col., on death of, 313.\n   Elocution, how acquired, 95, 96;\n     gesture in, a favorite, 186.\n   Emancipation, demands, 331, 332, 333, 335;\n     Proclamation of, article on, 336;\n     God\u2019s will, resigned now to, 337, 338.\n   England, on war with, 322, 412;\n     departure for, in 1850, 339;\n     impressions of Warwick Castle, Kenilworth, 340,\n       of C\u00e6sar\u2019s Tower, Guy\u2019s Tower, 341,\n       of Stratford-on-Avon, 342, 344,\n       of Oxford, Bodleian Library, 344, 345;\n     Episcopal services in description of, 342\u2013344;\n     return from, 349.\n     Departure for, in 1863, 396;\n       motives for, 396, 397;\n     on sympathy in, for South, 399, 400;\n     arrival in, declines to speak, 400;\n     Congregational clergy of, strictures on, 401;\n     London, first speech in, 401, 402,\n       second speech in, 432\u2013436;\n     United States, on English dread of, 402, 403;\n     consents to speak in, 406;\n     requests for speeches in, 407;\n     Manchester, speech at, 408\u2013414;\n     offensive utterances against, denies, 416;\n     Liverpool, speech in, 422\u2013432,\n       placarded in, enmity of press of, 422;\n     speeches in, effect of, 436, 441;\n     Storrs, Dr., on the work in, 437;\n     impressions from the visit, 438\u2013441;\n     New York papers on his work in, 441;\n     welcomes delegates from, to Boston Council, 613.\n     Departure for, in 1886, 665;\n     friends\u2019 enthusiastic farewell, 666;\n     retrospect on landing, 666, 668;\n     likened in, to Gladstone, 669;\n     preaching in London, 669;\n     Westminster Abbey, visit to, 669;\n     his work in, 670, 671;\n     public meetings in, on customs at, 670;\n     address in City Temple, 671;\n     return from, 672.\n   English-speaking peoples, claimed by all, 26.\n   English classics, love for, 113, 114, 133;\n     criticisms on, 145, 146.\n   Episcopal Church, impressed by service of, 343;\n     on liturgy of, 370;\n     charged with disrespect towards, 371;\n     vision of sermon in a, 377;\n     tribute to, 610.\n   Evil, method of combating, 194, 195, 217, 218, 219, 355.\n   Evolution, sermons on, 567;\n     belief in, 608, 609.\n   Exhortation in social meetings, on, 353.\n   Extemporaneous speech, early aptitude for, 113, 173.\n   Farm, work on, beginning of, 57, 617;\n     knowledge of farm-work, 199;\n     on one use of a, 360;\n     at Peekskill, 383, 619\u2013638;\n     work on, as a recreation, 617.\n   Fishing, first experience at, 31;\n     a confession as to, 614\u2013616.\n   Flowers, love for, 96, 616, 626;\n     brings him a rebuke, 96;\n     on abundance of, 392;\n     pulpit, on use in, 393;\n     at Boscobel, 626, 627;\n     how influenced by, 627.\n   Freedom of speech, on, 243, 245;\n     on stifling of, in Kansas, 284.\n   Fremont, on marriage of, 290.\n   Fugitive Slave Law, articles on, 236\u2013238, 240\u2013244.\n   Future punishment, on doctrine of, 608.\n   Gaelic blood in, source of, 18.\n   Garrison, William L., estimate of, 267.\n   Glasgow, Scotland, speech in, in 1863, 414\u2013419.\n   Gospel, must preach it as revealed to him, 154.\n   Gospels, an analysis of, 192;\n     broad study of, 596.\n   Government, divine, views on, 326;\n     church, views on, 609.\n   Graduates, advice to, 173.\n   Grammar, youthful definition in, 75.\n   Hall, Rev. Chas. H., deep friendship for, 677.\n   Hammers, on animation of, 389.\n   Harrington, Moody, helped by, 120.\n   Health of, how founded, 31;\n     impaired in 1849, 339,\n       in 1863, 396;\n     management of, 652;\n     on duty as to, 651.\n   Heaven, digging to find, 49.\n   \u201cHomeward Bound,\u201d liking for, 379.\n   Home-life of, 639.\n   Honors, worldly, compared with ministry, 592.\n   Hopkinton, Mass., teaching at, 129, 130.\n   Horseback-riding, early attempt at, 55.\n   Horticulture, love for, 96;\n     studies in, 198;\n     work in, 199;\n     as an alterative, 394, 395.\n   Humorousness, early, 115;\n     some examples of, 75, 76, 116, 118, 122, 124.\n   Hymns: see Music, p. 700.\n   Imposed upon, remarks on being, 659.\n   _Independent_, contributor to, 328, 488;\n     editor of, 321, 488;\n     Salutatory, 321;\n     editorials in, in 1862, 322\u2013336;\n     assailed by, for Cleveland letters, 469, 491;\n     resigns editorship, 490;\n     severs connection with, 491.\n   _Indiana Farmer_, editor of, 182, 185, 197.\n   Indianapolis, called to, 179,\n       accepts call, 180;\n     recollections of parishioners, 181\u2013187;\n     his churches at, 181, 183, 207;\n     his residences at, 182, 202;\n     personal appearance at, 183;\n     a refractory brother, 184;\n     popularity at, 186, 203;\n     an imitative tailor, 187;\n     revivals at, sermon before Presbytery, 189;\n     work in other towns, 190, 193;\n     labors in, against crime, 194, 195;\n     sermons at, on slavery, 195\u2013197;\n     painting his own house, 202;\n     his class of girls at, 203;\n     helps at kite-making, 204;\n     recollections of, 206\u2013209;\n     tub, adventure with, 208;\n     departure from, 216;\n     success at, charged to plagiarism, 218;\n     garden work at, 617.\n   Infidelity, early victory over, 74.\n   Infidels at Cincinnati, on the toast of, 381.\n   Influences on, early, 65, 66;\n     of Charles Smith, 66;\n     of Esther Beecher, 68;\n     of his father, 68, 69;\n     in Boston, 83, 84.\n   Information, early desire for, 108.\n   Instruction, catechetical, soon forgotten, 69.\n   Investigation, habit of, how acquired, 32.\n   Johnson, Pres., letter to, on reconstruction, 460;\n     stricture on, 470, 471;\n     accepts policy of, 473.\n   _Journal of Commerce_, criticism on, 334.\n   Journals of, object in keeping, 144, 145;\n     some extracts from, 109\u2013112, 139, 144\u2013150, 169, 339, 340.\n   Judiciary, corrupt (1867\u201371), thunders against, 572, 573.\n   Kansas, on emigration to, 284;\n     sends arms to, 283, 286;\n     on the contest in, 283, 301;\n     strictures on Administration, 302.\n   Knowledge, art of retaining, 647.\n   Kossuth, Louis, on the visit of, 256;\n     gift of Hungarian bracelet, 352.\n   Labor, physical, views on, 199;\n     in the North and the South contrasted, 418.\n   Lane Seminary, influence of, 137;\n     life at, 154;\n     graduates from, 157.\n   Latin, result of studies in, 88.\n   Law, on obedience to, 241, 242.\n   Lawrenceburg, called to, 157;\n     removes to, plans, 158;\n     church duties at, 159, 172;\n     success and salary at, 173;\n     housekeeping at, 174, 175;\n     Thomas\u2019s, Rev. J. H., reminiscences, 176;\n     influence at, 177;\n     on a gift of clothing, 178, 179;\n     farewell sermon at, 180.\n   Laws lacking public sentiment, on, 459.\n   Leader, as a popular, 325.\n   Lectures of, his first, 130\u2013132;\n     at Cincinnati in 1861, 309;\n     during Rebellion, 319;\n     politics and religion in, 390;\n     purpose of, 564;\n     field of, 564;\n     proceeds of, how spent, 564;\n     omitted during Conspiracy, 564;\n     resumption of, reasons for, 564, 565;\n     demonstrations at, 565,\n       remarks on, 566;\n     in Boston, reception at, 565;\n     West, reception in, 566;\n     Louisville, reception at, 566;\n     first before Yale students, how prepared, 598;\n     expenses in lecture-tours, 653.\n   \u201cLectures to Young Men,\u201d purpose of, 200;\n     publishing of, 201.\n   Left to himself in boyhood, 59.\n   Lenox, Mass., farm at, 359, 618;\n     work on, 360;\n     relinquished, 372.\n   Leopold, King, presented to, 403, 404;\n     advice to, as to Mexico, 405.\n   Letter of, an early, 50.\n   Lev\u00e9e, adventures at a, 111.\n   Library of, how founded, 131, 133;\n     contents of, in 1835, 150,\n       in later life, 646, 647;\n     a working library, 647;\n     remark on, 647.\n   License, obtains a, 157.\n   \u201cLife of Christ,\u201d first volume of, completed, 480, 674;\n     second volume of, work on, 673, 674;\n     prophetic remark concerning, 674.\n   Lincoln, Pres., estimate of, work for, 304, 305;\n     on call of, for troops, 327, 328;\n     on vacillation of, in 1862, 329, 332, 333;\n     on duty of, 331;\n     on Emancipation Proclamation of, 336;\n     on Southern commission of, in 1864, 446;\n     tribute to, 447, 456;\n     death of, 454,\n       remarks on, 446, 455.\n   Lind, Jenny, defence of, 351;\n     reminiscence of, 351, 352.\n   Liquor, on selling of, by Christians, 354;\n     use of, 652, 653;\n     on need of, except as medicine, 653.\n   Litchfield, Conn., early life in, 31\u201333;\n     visit to, in 1856, 35\u201338;\n     reminiscences by people of, 36, 37;\n     winter at, 62, 63;\n     North Pole situated in, 63;\n     visit to, in 1857, 373.\n   Liturgy, on church, 370, 371.\n   Liverpool, Eng., arrival in, in 1863, 400;\n     talk in, a, 401;\n     speech in, 422\u2013432;\n     placarded in, 422, 426;\n     threatened with violence in, 423;\n     risk in speaking in, 423;\n     subject of speech, 423;\n     reception at the hall, 424, 425.\n   London, Eng., first speech in, in 1863, 401;\n     second speech in, 432\u2013436;\n     voice in, threatened failure of, 432, 433;\n     success in, 436;\n     preaches in, in 1886, 669.\n   Love, to enemies, on, 311\u2013313;\n     Christian, better than logic, 380;\n     for friends, 658,\n       \u201cslopping over,\u201d remarks on, 658, 659.\n   McClellan, on defeat of, 328;\n     criticism on, 331.\n   Manchester, Eng., reception in, in 1863, 408, 409;\n     subject of speech in, 409;\n     speech in, 410\u2013414;\n     victory in, 410;\n     effect of speech, 414.\n   Manliness and power, source of, 21.\n   Marriage of, 170, 171;\n     of his daughter, 388.\n   Mathematics, backwardness in, 94;\n     opinion of, 114.\n   Matteawan, N. Y., residence at, 372, 618.\n   Medical schools, views on, 353, 354.\n   Memory of, where defective, 647.\n   Militia, on need of moral influence on, 661;\n     as a member of, 660\u2013663.\n   Ministers, classification of, 149;\n     should be joyous, 150;\n     on duty of, as to slavery, 248\u2013252,\n       as to war-tax, 324,\n       in public affairs, 360,\n       as to preaching against evil practices, 361;\n     spiritual office of, 370.\n     See Preacher, p. 701.\n   Mitchel, John, prophecy on, 266.\n   Monarchies, excitements in, contrasted with United States, 585.\n   Moral principles, sacrifices for, 312.\n   Moulton, Frank, confidence in, 496, 497;\n     letter to, June, 1873, 515;\n     on letter from, 518;\n     wife of, opposition to, 560.\n   Mount Pleasant Institute, enters, 93;\n     mathematics at, 94, 100;\n     elocution at, 95;\n     recollections of W. P. Fitzgerald and J. W. Lovell, 94, 95;\n     chaplain of, rebukes H. W. Beecher, 96;\n     life at, 97;\n     studies at, 97, 100, 101;\n     religious experiences at, 97\u2013102;\n     Bible work at, 99, 100;\n     troubles at, 102;\n     on card-playing at, 102;\n     visit to, in 1849, 107;\n     his character while at Institute, 108.\n   Mourning, on outward symbols of, 676;\n     Prussian queen, on tomb of a, 677.\n   Music, early work in, 92, 124, 138, 139, 144;\n     church music, on old methods of, 363;\n       reform in, 365;\n     \u201cPlymouth Collection,\u201d compilation of, 363\u2013366;\n     hymns, views on, 366, 368;\n     music-writers, acquaintance with, 368, 369;\n     at prayer-meeting, 378;\n     organ, on value of, 600.\n   Name of, its source, 41;\n     names bestowed upon, 613.\n   Nation above party, 577.\n   Nature, love for, 32, 33, 59, 74, 96,\n       acquired by study, 394;\n     religious impressions connected with, 77;\n     study of, for preaching, 596, 614, 615.\n   Navy, American, on moral defect in, 355.\n   Negroes, feeling toward, how influenced, 66;\n     fugitive, on help to, 240, 241, 323,\n       on return of, 252;\n     on ostracism of, 247;\n     on treatment of, by omnibuses, 247, 248;\n     on freedom being given to eight, 263;\n     treatment of, at North, 303;\n     on slaves liberated by army, 323;\n     on benefits to, of restoration of South, 463, 467, 473.\n   Newell, Constantine, affection for, 104\u2013106.\n   New England stock, a product of, 25, 26.\n   \u201cNoble,\u201d anecdote of, 290.\n   Northbridge, Mass., teaching at, 130.\n   Northern merchants, on boycott of, 247.\n   Norwich, N. Y., impressions of, 389.\n   \u201cNorwood,\u201d quoted, 88;\n     published, 479.\n   Observation, habit of, how gained, 32.\n   Optimism, definition of, 585.\n   Oratorical powers, imperceptible in youth, 70.\n   Ordinances, church, view of, 609.\n   Ordination, examination for, 161, 165, 166;\n     Old School, refuses to subscribe to, 161, 162, 166;\n     ordained, 163, 167.\n   Original sin, on doctrine of, 607.\n   Orthodoxy, definition of, 606;\n     on tests of, 606, 607.\n   Paris, visit to, in 1850, 346;\n     art-galleries of, how affected by, 346\u2013348, 349;\n     Vicksburg, hears of fall of, while visiting, 405,\n       effect on Southerners in, 406.\n   Parker controversy, peacemaker in, 259;\n     results, 260;\n     letters on, 261, 262.\n   Parker, Theodore, condemned for associating with, 380;\n     tribute to, 381.\n   Party, political, on blind subservience to, 577;\n     on redemption of a, 581.\n   Pastorates, short, opposed to, 180.\n   Patriotism of, where nurtured, 35;\n     strength of, 416.\n   Paul, St., compared with, 588, 589.\n   Peace (1861), denounces terms of, 310, 311.\n   Peekskill, N. Y., farm at, 383;\n     description of, 619, 620;\n     cottage at, 620;\n     improvements made, old apple-tree, 621, 622;\n     products of, 623;\n     early crops at, rivalry over, 623, 624;\n     Turner, T. J., outwitted by Mr. Beecher, 624,\n       thrifty nature of, 626;\n     flowers at, 626;\n     his \u201cwork\u201d at, 627, 628;\n     new house at, 628\u2013630,\n       chimney of, as a look-out, 629,\n       decoration of, 630;\n     trees and shrubs at, 630, 632;\n     benefits derived from, 632;\n     insects at, gratitude to, 632, 634;\n     fowls at, 634, 635,\n       the patent hatcher, 635, 636;\n     cattle at, 636;\n     bees at, 636, 637;\n     dogs at, 637,\n       remarks on \u201cTommy,\u201d 638.\n   Perseverance, thoughts on, 147.\n   Personal attack, averse to, 354.\n   Pessimism, definition of, 585.\n   Phillips, Wendell, in Brooklyn, work for, 246.\n   Phrenology, acceptance of, 130;\n     lecturing on, 138, 144.\n   \u201cPinky,\u201d buying freedom of, 294\u2013297.\n   Plurality of wives of ancestors, remark on, 20.\n   Plymouth Church, invited to come to, his answer, 210\u2013213;\n     called to, 214;\n     accepts call, reasons, 214, 215;\n     failure at, predicted, 217;\n     first sermon at, 218;\n     slavery, labors at, against, 219\u2013221;\n     installed, 221;\n     success at, 222, 225;\n     revivals at, work in, 222, 375, 391;\n     prayer at, sample of a, 228;\n     prayer-meeting, lecture, sociable at, 229-231;\n     policy towards, 232;\n     retrospect, a (1863), 337;\n     prayer-meetings at, daily, 376,\n       influence of, 377;\n     on income of, 379;\n     organ at, on a new, 382;\n     on flowers in, 393;\n     on Silver Wedding of, remarks at, 481\u2013484;\n     generosity of, in Conspiracy, 565;\n     tribute to, 578;\n     result of work in, 601;\n     welcome at, in 1886, 672;\n     funeral services at, 678;\n     memorial service at, 680.\n   \u201cPlymouth Collection,\u201d history of, 363\u2013366;\n     terms of publication of, 364;\n     on alleged omission of Watts\u2019s hymns from, 368.\n   Political secret societies, on, 362.\n   Politics, in the army, indignant at, 444;\n     on honesty and morality in, 583.\n   Prayer, early love for, 97, 100;\n     sample of, 228;\n     on extemporaneous, 371;\n     at prayer-meeting, 378;\n     reply to request for copy of a, 656.\n   Prayer-meetings, method of conducting, 376, 377;\n     on laughter in, 377.\n   Preacher, his rank as a, 588;\n     qualities as a, 589;\n     parental faith his first incentive, 590;\n     early training-school, 590;\n     temperament as a, 591;\n     high estimate of a, 592;\n     early life as a, a happy period, 593;\n     call to a, two essentials to, 594;\n     discouraged, advice to a, 595;\n     should consecrate every gift, 595.\n     See Ministers, p. 700.\n   Preaching, beginnings of, 130;\n     first in the West, 149;\n     naturalism in, 164;\n     to preach Christ only, 167, 178, 193, 227;\n     first real, at Indianapolis, 187;\n     versatility in, 193;\n     courage in, incidents of, 194, 195;\n     means of relief from, 198;\n     spirituality in, one source of, 391;\n     estimate of, 588;\n     on future scope of, 592;\n     theory of, 595;\n     involuntary preparation for, 596;\n     influence of his, on theology, 602;\n     manner in, an example, 605;\n     preparation for, 597\u2013600, 655.\n   Precious stones, love for, soothing effect of, 649\u2013651;\n     relief derived from, at Liverpool, 650;\n     reason for love of, 650, 651.\n   Pride, early struggles with, 102.\n   Private Journal of, at Amherst, 109;\n     contents of, 109, 110.\n   Profanity, on a case of, 642.\n   Prussian queen, on tomb of a, 677.\n   Pulpit, on freedom of, 248\u2013252;\n     duty of, as to war-tax, 324,\n       in public affairs, 360, 361;\n     as a popular educator, 362;\n     preparation for, 655.\n   \u201cPuritan penitentiary,\u201d not born in a, 57.\n   Rats, at Litchfield, description of, 63.\n   Rebellion, on enlistment of son for, 310;\n     interest of, in organizing militia, 314;\n     sacrifices for, 316;\n     Fourteenth Regiment, equipment of, 316,\n       sermon to, 317;\n     Sixty-seventh Regiment, equipment of, 317, 488;\n     Union soldier, on duty of, 317, 318;\n     Bull Run defeat, on, 350;\n     on Administration\u2019s inactivity and mismanagement, 324, 325, 328,\n        329,\n       on duty of, 330, 331;\n     God\u2019s leadership in, prayer for, 332;\n     Union success in, confident of, 333;\n     Confederacy and Administration contrasted, 335;\n     state of, in 1863, 397;\n     enormous army, should be crushed by an, 443;\n     troops in, should be no distinction between, 443;\n     end of, joy at, 451, 455;\n     brought on by Southern politicians, 454.\n   Reconstruction of South, on President\u2019s duty in (1862), 333;\n     speech on, 458;\n     letter on, to Pres. Johnson, 460;\n     on benefits of, to colored race, 463;\n     on military government in, 465, 466.\n   Recreation, mental, how taken, 394, 395.\n   Religion, meaning of, 642.\n   Religious experience of, at Litchfield, 65\u201369, 76\u201381;\n     at Mt. Pleasant, 97\u2013102;\n     at Amherst, 119\u2013121;\n     at Lane, 154, 155;\n     spiritual exaltation (1857), 373;\n     influence of early, 604.\n   Republican party, work for, in 1856, 289,\n       in 1860, 304, 305,\n       in 1864, 571;\n     esteem of, 471;\n     in sympathy with (1866), 473;\n     favors election of members of, to Congress (1866), 475;\n     corruption in, labors against, 574;\n     reasons for not working for, 581\u2013583;\n     still a member of, 584.\n   Republics, on political excitement in, 583.\n   Reputation, on posthumous, 557.\n   Responsibility, on individual, 219.\n   Retort, quickness of, 252, 253.\n   Revivals, at Litchfield, 81;\n     at Mt. Pleasant, 98;\n     at Amherst, 119;\n     at Terre Haute, 191, 192;\n     at Plymouth, 222, 231, 391;\n     method of conducting, 375\u2013378.\n   Romance of, an early, 103.\n   Ruskin, John, tribute to, 394.\n   Sadness, a tendency to, 345, 346, 500, 556.\n   Sailor, on needs of the, 355.\n   St. Louis Library Association, asked to lecture before, 389;\n     matters to be avoided, his reply, 390.\n   Salisbury, Conn., on beauties of, 356.\n   Salvation, on, 379.\n   Sarah \u2014, buying freedom of, 298\u2013300.\n   Saviour, vision of sufferings of, 377.\n   Scepticism, a touch of, 154, 164.\n   Scholar, desires to be a, 593.\n   School life, beginning of, 49, 50;\n     experiences at district school, 51\u201353,\n       at Mr. Brace\u2019s and Mr. Langdon\u2019s, 72, 74,\n       at Catharine Beecher\u2019s, amusing incidents, 75, 76;\n     progress in his studies, 83;\n     at Mt. Pleasant, 93\u2013108.\n   Schools, the two Presbyterian, views on, 163.\n   Scott, Walter, early critique on, 145.\n   Sea-life, determines on, 89;\n     to study for it, 90, 93;\n     design abandoned, 99.\n   Seasons, allegorical view of, 616.\n   Sectarianism, on, 611, 612.\n   Sermons, illustrations for, how acquired, 32;\n     his earliest, 130;\n     first Western, 149;\n     first at Lawrenceburg, 173;\n     record book of, 179, 192;\n     at Indianapolis, 186, 187;\n     modelled on Apostles\u2019, 188;\n     proper aim of, 188;\n     sermon on \u201cProdigal Son,\u201d 189;\n     first sermon in Plymouth, 218,\n       outline of, 229;\n     issued in book form, 479;\n     Thanksgiving, custom in, 584;\n     note-books on, 596;\n     method of preparing, 597\u2013600, 655,\n       remarks on, 655;\n     the one at Charleston, 599,\n       at Stamford, 599;\n     method of delivering, 600;\n     fruits of, 602;\n     must be delivered immediately, 656;\n     trial sermon, 687.\n   Seward, Wm. H., opinion of, 305.\n   Shakspere, early criticism on, 146.\n   \u201cShining Shore,\u201d a favorite with, 366, 379.\n   Sickness, thoughts on, 147;\n     his final, 675.\n   Slavery, work done against, at Amherst, 119,\n       at Indianapolis, 185, 195\u2013197;\n     course on, defined, 217\u2013220, 242;\n     on Church\u2019s timidity towards, 221;\n     Fugitive Slave Law, articles on, 236\u2013238, 240\u2013244;\n     leader against, an acknowledged, 244;\n     pulpit labor against, defence of, 248\u2013252;\n     tenacity of anti-slavery, on cause of, 257,\n       instrumentalities for, use of, 266;\n     Constitution, ballot, Church, as forces against, 267;\n     Christianity against, on power of, 268;\n     battle against, religious element in, 269, 270;\n     on treatment of, 303, 331;\n     military question, a, 331;\n     system of, requires ignorance, 417.\n   Sleep, habits as to, 654.\n   South, not safe to visit, 426;\n     on reconstruction of, 453, 458, 461;\n     on kindness to people of (1865), 454;\n     on effect of exclusion of, 459, 468, 473;\n     affection for, 460;\n     faith in honor of, 463;\n     on restoration of States of, 465\u2013468,\n       Northern fear of, 466, 467;\n     to be effected by Republican party, 477;\n     on results to, of elections of 1884, 587;\n     mediation for, 612.\n   Speculative, early aptitude for the, 78, 79.\n   Spiritualism, disbelief in, 363.\n   Sports, youthful, superiority in, 85, 108.\n   Stanton, Edwin M., encouraging note to, reply, 447;\n     requested by, to go to Charleston, 449;\n     telegram from, on Sheridan\u2019s success, 450.\n   Stockton, Col.], recommends to Lincoln, 443.\n   Storrs, Dr. R. S., reasons for not confiding in, 520;\n     attempted reconciliation with, 561.\n   Stowe, Rev. Calvin E., indebtedness to, 137;\n     a joke on, 141.\n   Strength of paternal ancestry of, 19.\n   Studies, in youth, backward in, 70, 74, 102.\n   Study, on wrong method of, 643.\n   Style, literary, remarks on, 644.\n   Sumner-Brooks affair, speech on, 287;\n     article on, 288.\n   Sunday, influences of, when a boy, 62.\n   Synod meeting, description of, 152.\n   Tasks of, in boyhood, 64.\n   Taxes for war, on, 323;\n     Christian\u2019s duty as to, 324.\n   Tea, effect of, 652.\n   Temperance, early work in, 130, 138, 144, 147;\n     in Lawrenceburg, 185;\n     \u201cteetotal\u201d at Oxford, Eng., 345;\n     to his daughter, on practice of, 384;\n     use of liquors as medicine, 652, 653.\n   \u201cTemple Melodies,\u201d compilation of, 363;\n     name omitted from title of, 364.\n   Terre Haute, Ind., reminiscence of, 190\u2013192.\n   Theologian, as a, 602, 603;\n     estimate of, 603.\n   Theology, proposes to find a universal, 570;\n     his influence on, 604;\n     theological disputes, hatred of, 604, 605;\n     dislike of, reason for, 606;\n     future, on the, 609.\n   Thirteenth Regiment, accepts chaplaincy of, 660;\n     sword a source of trouble, 662;\n     military orders, experience with, 662, 663;\n     title in, 663.\n   Tides, youthful definition of, 76.\n   Tilton, Theodore, affection for, 489, 500;\n     first charge of, 493;\n     called on to leave Brooklyn by, 494, 503;\n     efforts to reclaim, 495, 497;\n     opinion of, to Bowen, 503;\n     self-accusations of unintentional wrong to, 505;\n     moral conduct of, deceived in, 509;\n     urges him to break with Mrs. Woodhull, 510;\n     on bad traits of, 516;\n     promise to, as to Mrs. Tilton, 517;\n     payment to, of $5,000, 519;\n     openly charged by, 527;\n     charge changed by, 532;\n     civil suit by, 533.\n   Tilton, Mrs. T., advice asked by, as to separation, 502;\n     letter to, Feb. 17, 1871, 507;\n     letter to, on Woodhull scandal, 513.\n   Tools, readiness with, 64.\n   Travel, foreign, religion weakened by, 384.\n   Trinity, on doctrine of, 607.\n   Tripartite agreement, part in, 512;\n     honored by him alone, 520.\n   Trouble, on surmounting, 374;\n     how affected by, 499.\n   Trouting, letter on, 357.\n   Trust in God, on, 379;\n     how strengthened, 616, 617.\n   Truth, desire for, 212.\n   \u201cTutor\u2019s Delight,\u201d the, 116.\n   Tweed frauds, denunciations of, 572.\n   Twin sons of, birth of, 352;\n     death of, 357.\n   Undenominational spirit of, 163, 167, 227, 483, 611.\n   Unitarian reaction in Massachusetts, on the, 83;\n     Sabbath-school, on ostracism of a, 355, 356.\n   Vicksburg and Gettysburg, on victories of, 405, 406.\n   War, views on, 312, 313, 398;\n     Christians in, on bearing of, 314;\n     with England, on, 322.\n   Welsh blood in, source of, 19.\n   White Mountains, summer services in, 660.\n   Widowerhood, possible, remark on, 20.\n   Woman, reverence for, 554.\n   Writing-paper, dislike of foreign, 387.\n   Young, fondness for, 184, 185, 203;\n     \u201cLectures to Young Men,\u201d 199.\n\n Beecher, Mrs. H. W., an accident to, 385;\n   determination of, 386;\n   Beecher\u2019s, Henry W., letter to, on his health, 653;\n   Lawrenceburg, description of pastorate at, 172,\n     of housekeeping at, 174;\n   retrospect by, of Mr. Beecher\u2019s youth, 121\u2013127;\n   wedding of, 170;\n   journey to West, 171.\n\n Beecher, John, a pioneer of New Haven Colony, 19.\n\n Beecher, Joseph, reminiscence of, 19;\n   strength of, 20.\n\n Beecher, Nathaniel, reminiscence of, 19;\n   strength of, 20.\n\n Beecher, Rev. Lyman, affection of, for his wife, 26.\n   Beecher, Roxana, opinion of, 24, 26.\n   Birth and childhood of, 18.\n   Boston, removal to, 82.\n   Character of, 17, 26, 27.\n   Children of, their regimen, 46;\n     tulip-bulbs, adventure with, 47;\n     at their mother\u2019s death, 49;\n     some amusements of, the cat\u2019s funeral, 56;\n     treatment of, by their father, 57;\n     fishing trip, a, spoiled, 58;\n     teaching of, by their father 58;\n     father\u2019s spirit, influenced by, 68.\n   Cincinnati, household at, 138\u2013140;\n     family meeting at, 142.\n   College, preparation for, 19.\n   Courtship of, 26.\n   Death of, H. W. Beecher on, 681.\n   Duelling, effect of sermon on, 27.\n   East Hampton, life and labors at, 27;\n     departure from, 29.\n   Farm life, disgusted with, 18.\n   Financial difficulties, faith under, 117.\n   Indomitable spirit of, infused into his children, 68, 69.\n   Kindness of, abused, remark on, 659.\n   Lane Seminary, president of, 136, 160;\n     instruction at, method of, 137;\n     heresy, charged with, 151, 160;\n     union of churches, wish for, 160.\n   Letters of, to Roxana Foote, 26, 27.\n   Litchfield, called to, 29;\n     dwelling at, 38, 62,\n       rats in, 63;\n     household at, 38,\n       H. W. Beecher on, 553;\n     ideal home, an, 40;\n     labors at, made a mental stimulus, 58;\n     visit to, in 1857, 373.\n   Marriage of, to Roxana Foote, 27;\n     to Harriet Porter, 53.\n   Missionary societies in Connecticut formed by, 42.\n   New School, battle for, 151.\n   Orthodoxy, zeal for, 82.\n   Plymouth Church, at a revival in, 376.\n   Religious temperament of, 26.\n   Shrewdness of, in H. W. Beecher\u2019s sea project, 90.\n   Society for Prevention of Vice in Connecticut formed by, 42.\n   Synod, moderator of, 152.\n   Temperance, action on, 42.\n   Unitarian reaction, protest against, 82.\n   United States in 1813, remarks on, 41.\n   Woodspell, the yearly, 58.\n\n Beecher, Roxana, accomplishments of, 23.\n   Ancestry of, 21, 22.\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., estimate of, 128;\n   her influence on, 67, 554.\n   Courtship of, 26.\n   Death of, 48.\n   East Hampton, L. I., life in, 27.\n   Education of, how acquired, 23.\n   Episcopal Church, member of, 23, 24.\n   Letters of, to Lyman Beecher, 26.\n   Love of, for her husband, 26.\n   Parents of, loyal to king, 23.\n   Personal characteristics of, 23, 24.\n   Recollections of, 47.\n   Religious temperament of, 24, 26.\n   School of, in East Hampton, 28.\n   Science, interest in, 40.\n   Trials of, some, 40.\n\n Beecher, Rev. Thomas K., reminiscences by, of Henry and Charles, 90,\n    138.\n\n Benton, Lot, Lyman Beecher brought up by, 18.\n\n Big Bantam Lake (Litchfield), 31.\n\n Blaine, James G., H. W. Beecher on, 576, 577.\n\n Blake, G. Faulkner, in ransom of slaves, 294.\n\n Boscobel\u2014see _Peekskill_.\n\n Boston, Mass., bells of, 83;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., life in, 90\u201392,\n     adventure with cross woman of, 118,\n     rumors in, against, 534, 546,\n     rumors refuted, 535;\n   reception in, at lecture, 565;\n   Beecher, Lyman, removes to, 82,\n     dwelling at, 85;\n   feuds of, juvenile, 85;\n   Navy-Yard of, H. W. Beecher\u2019s enthusiasm over, 84,\n     purloins cannon-ball from, 87;\n   ships of, impress H. W. Beecher, 84;\n   sport of, a juvenile, 85.\n\n Bowen, Henry C., H. W. Beecher\u2019s dispute with, as to accounts, 489,\n     scandalous hints concerning, 490,\n     hatred of, intensified by resignation, 492,\n     bitter enemy to, 494,\n     promises support to, 504,\n     renews charges against, 542,\n     proposed committee on, 543;\n   card of, on black-listing, 247;\n   Conspiracy, part in, 493;\n   Plymouth Church, dropped by, 543;\n   Tilton, Theodore, early troubles with, 491,\n     reasons for reducing, 503,\n     charged by, with scandalous stories, 511;\n   tripartite agreement, part in, 512.\n\n Brice, Pomona, help afforded to, 293.\n\n Brooklyn, N. Y., H. W. Beecher called to, 187, 210\u2013216,\n     speech at, on return from England, 438,\n     in answer to Wendell Phillips, 458;\n   Common Council of, tender reception to Mr. Beecher, 672;\n   Fourteenth Regiment, equipment of, 316;\n   martial spirit in, in 1861, 314;\n   services in, at death of Mr. Beecher, 680;\n   slaves ransomed in, 292\u2013300;\n   Thirteenth Regiment of, elects Mr. Beecher chaplain, 660.\n\n Brooks, Preston S., attack of, on Charles Sumner, 286;\n   Mr. Beecher on, 287, 288.\n\n Brown, John, H. W. Beecher on, 301, 302;\n   name of, a war-cry, 301;\n   sketch of, 300.\n\n Brussels, Belgium, visit to, of Mr. Beecher, 403.\n\n Buchanan, Pres., administration of, 305;\n   election of, 291;\n   fast-day of, 307.\n\n Budington, Rev. W. I., Advisory Council (1876), refuses to attend, 544;\n   Beecher, H. W., enmity to, 521;\n   church of, divided on calling council, 523,\n     protest on, 524,\n     letter to, from Mr. Beecher, on protest, 526.\n\n Bull Run defeat, H. W. Beecher on, 320;\n   effect of, at North, 319, 320.\n\n Burgess, Deacon, annually nominated for Legislature, 22.\n\n Burr, Betsey, 38.\n\n Calhoun, John C., on Compromise Bill, 236.\n\n California, admission of, as State, 235.\n\n Calvinism, H. W. Beecher\u2019s early training in, 70, 77;\n   Beecher\u2019s, Lyman, zeal for, 82;\n   reaction against, in Massachusetts, 82, 83.\n\n Catlin, Dr. (Litchfield), reminiscence of, 36.\n\n Charleston, S. C., exercises at, in 1865, addressed by Mr. Beecher,\n    449\u2013454;\n   his sermon at, how prepared, 599.\n\n Chestnut Hill (Litchfield), 30.\n\n Children, H. W. Beecher\u2019s love for, 639;\n   method of whipping, one, 640;\n   advice to his children on self-help, religion, Bible-reading, study,\n      health and duty, choosing profession, literary style, 641\u2013644.\n\n _Christian Union_, H. W. Beecher editor of, 491;\n   formation of, 491.\n\n Cincinnati, O., in 1834, 153;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., lecture in, in 1861, 309.\n\n _Citizen_, Brooklyn, on burial of Mr. Beecher, 680.\n\n Clay, Henry, Compromise measure of, 235,\n     Beecher, H. W., on, 237;\n   Omnibus Bill of, 236.\n\n Cleveland, Grover, slanders against, Mr. Beecher on, 577, 578;\n   supported by, in 1884, 577\u2013580.\n\n Cleveland, O., army and navy convention at, object, 461, 464;\n   invitation of, to Mr. Beecher, 461.\n\n Cleveland letters, history of, 461\u2013478;\n   invitation to Mr. Beecher by convention, 461;\n   reply, 465,\n     public clamor against, 462;\n   second letter, 472.\n\n Cobden, Richard, on English sympathy for American Union, 440.\n\n Compromise measures, acceptance of, by political parties, 257;\n   Beecher, H. W., on, 236\u2013238, 306, 421;\n   evil of, 235;\n   introduction of, in Congress, 233;\n   object of, 235;\n   passage of, 238;\n   popular endorsement of, 257, 265.\n\n Congregational Association, H. W. Beecher resigns from, 567,\n     statement to, 568;\n   resolution of, on resignation, 568.\n\n Congregational Church, proposed liturgy for, 370;\n   Beecher, H. W., on extemporaneous prayer in, 371;\n   of England, favors Confederacy, 400, 402,\n     Mr. Beecher on, 401;\n   Mr. Beecher\u2019s estimate of, 610.\n\n Connecticut, Congregational churches of, withdraws aid from, 42;\n   Society for Prevention of Vice, missionary societies in, 42;\n   temperance question, 42.\n\n Conspiracy, the, H. W. Beecher\u2019s account of, 495\u2013520,\n     on malignity of, 546;\n   beginning of, 493, 494;\n   Boston, rumors in, concerning, 534,\n     Mr. Beecher\u2019s defence at, 535;\n   Bowen\u2019s, H. C., part in, 493;\n   civil suit, the, 533;\n   Moulton, Mrs., against Mr. Beecher, 534;\n   cost of, to Mr. Beecher, 549;\n   end of, 562;\n   \u201cFalse Secret,\u201d the, 563;\n   history of, 488\u2013563;\n   investigating committee on, 499, 527\u2013530,\n     members of, Mr. Beecher\u2019s letter to, 528;\n   Moulton, Frank, joins, 494;\n   tripartite agreement in, 496, 497, 511, 512;\n   Woodhull scandal in, 513.\n\n Cowper, William, style of, 644.\n\n Cuba, annexation of, 280, 282;\n   expedition against, 281.\n\n Cunard steamers, H. W. Beecher on bigotry on, 350, 351.\n\n Cutler, W. T., in Mr. Beecher\u2019s call East, 210, 213;\n   letter to, of Mr. Beecher, 210.\n\n Daniel, Samuel, poem of, quoted, 134.\n\n Dayton, George, neighbor at Peekskill, 623.\n\n Democratic party, divisions in, in 1863, 398;\n   losses of, in 1854, 273;\n   success of, in 1852, 257,\n     in 1856, 291.\n\n Douglas, Stephen A., resolution of, to repeal Compromise, 272.\n\n Douglass, Fred., invited to attend Plymouth Church, 248.\n\n Dred Scott decision, the, 281;\n   logical results of, 282.\n\n _Eagle_, Brooklyn, Tilton\u2019s infamous article in (1873), 514.\n\n East Hampton, L. I., Beecher family in, 27,\n     departure from, 29;\n   school in, of Roxana Beecher, 28.\n\n Edinburgh, Scotland, H. W. Beecher\u2019s speech in, 419\u2013422.\n\n Editor, H. W. Beecher on power of an, 321;\n   editorial articles of, sources, 325;\n     their characteristic features, 325, 326.\n\n Edmonson sisters, freedom of, purchased, 292, 293.\n\n Election of 1884, H. W. Beecher\u2019s work in, 575\u2013583;\n   review of, 585, 586.\n\n Ellsworth, Col., H. W. Beecher on death of, 313.\n\n Emancipation, H. W. Beecher demands, 331, 332, 333;\n   Proclamation of, article on, 336.\n\n Emery, S. Hopkins, reminiscences by, of H. W. Beecher, 114.\n\n Emigration societies, to aid fight in Kansas, 279.\n\n England:\n   America, introduced slavery into, 431.\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., visit to, in 1850, 339\u2013349;\n     impressions of Warwick, Kenilworth, 340,\n       of C\u00e6sar\u2019s and Guy\u2019s Towers, 341,\n       of Stratford-on-Avon, 342, 344,\n       of Oxford, Bodleian Library, 344, 345.\n     Trip to, in 1863, 396\u2013436;\n       speeches in Manchester, 408\u2013414,\n         in Liverpool, 422\u2013432,\n         in London, 432\u2013436;\n       effect of speeches, 436, 441.\n     Visit to, in 1886, 665\u2013672;\n     Westminster Abbey, visit to, 669;\n     on customs at public meetings in, 670;\n     address in City Temple, 671.\n   Classes in, upper, favor Confederacy, 339, 400, 438,\n       reasons for, 439;\n     laboring classes favor North, 400, 440.\n   Confederate cruisers, building of, stopped, 410.\n   Congregational clergy in, favor South, 400, 402;\n     H. W. Beecher on, 401.\n   Parliament of, willing to declare for South, 406.\n   Product of institutions of, in New England, 25.\n   Public meetings in, customs at, 670.\n   Queen of, a friend to North, 439.\n   Confederacy, results in, of its success, 429;\n     feeling in favor of, universal, 438.\n   Vicksburg and Gettysburg, effect of victories at, 406, 441.\n   War with, H. W. Beecher on, 322, 412.\n   United States, reasons for wishing disruption of, 402, 403, 439, 440;\n     material reasons for supporting Northern cause, 428, 429.\n\n _Express_, New York, on Fremont\u2019s\n marriage, 291.\n\n \u201cFalse Secret,\u201d the, 563.\n\n Fast-day, Buchanan\u2019s, 307.\n\n Field, Thomas P., reminiscences by, of H. W. Beecher, 96, 113, 115.\n\n Fitzgerald, W. P., H. W. Beecher\u2019s instructor in mathematics, 94.\n\n Foote, James, notice of, 21.\n\n Foote, Nathaniel, notice of, 21.\n\n Foote, Roxana\u2014see _Beecher, Roxana_.\n\n Foote, Roxana Ward, names H. W. Beecher, 41;\n   notice of, 22.\n\n Foote, Samuel, reminiscence of, 38.\n\n Fourteenth Regiment, formation of, 316;\n   H. W. Beecher\u2019s sermon to, 317.\n\n Freedmen\u2014see _Negroes_.\n\n Freedom of speech, H. W. Beecher on, 243\u2013245;\n   on stifling of, in Kansas, 284.\n\n Fremont, John C., marriage of, used against him, 290;\n   nominated for President, 288;\n   religion of, 291.\n\n Garrison, William L., H. W. Beecher on, 267.\n\n Gettysburg, victory at, effect in England, 406.\n\n Glasgow, Scotland, H. W. Beecher\u2019s speech in, in 1863, 414\u2013419.\n\n Gould, Judge, law-school of, at Litchfield, 34, 37;\n   reminiscence of, 36.\n\n Grant, Gen., and Mr. Beecher\u2019s military titles, 663.\n\n Guilford, Conn., 22, 23.\n\n Hall, Rev. Charles H., friendship of, for H. W. Beecher, 677;\n   preaches at his death, 678.\n\n Hanks, S. W., reminiscence by, of H. W. Beecher, 114.\n\n Harrington, Moody, a religious helper to H. W. Beecher, 120, 121.\n\n Haven, John, reminiscence by, of H. W. Beecher, 113.\n\n Hopkinton, Mass., H. W. Beecher\u2019s school at, 129.\n\n Hubbard, Aunt Mary, 38;\n   death of, 42.\n\n _Independent_, the, H. W. Beecher\u2019s early contributions to, 320, 488,\n     editor of, 321, 488,\n     editorials in (1862), 322\u2013336,\n     assailed in, for Cleveland letters, 469, 491, 501;\n   conduct of, protest against, 491;\n   influence of, early, 490;\n   purpose of, 321;\n   rivals of, 491, 492;\n   Tilton, Theodore, editor of, 490,\n     resigns, 492.\n\n Independent Republicans, H. W. Beecher on, 561, 583.\n\n Indianapolis, Ind., H. W. Beecher called to, 179, 181,\n     his churches at, 181, 183,\n     departure from, 216;\n   condition of, in 1839, 181, 206;\n   railroad train from, the first, 207, 216.\n\n Indians, antiquities of, at Litchfield, 31;\n   Lyman Beecher\u2019s labors among, 27.\n\n Ingersoll, Mrs., reminiscence of, 72.\n\n Investigating Committee (in Conspiracy), asked for, by Mr. Beecher,\n    528;\n   report of, 530.\n\n Ireland, American sympathy for, 265.\n\n Johnson, Pres., plan of, as to reconstruction, 458,\n     H. W. Beecher to, 460;\n   course of, Northern anger against, 462, 469\u2013471.\n\n Jones, Mr., part of, in \u201cTemple Melodies,\u201d 363, 364.\n\n _Journal of Commerce_, New York, H. W. Beecher\u2019s criticism on, 334.\n\n Kansas, H. W. Beecher on the contest in, 283, 301;\n   Brown, John, in, 300;\n   emigrants to, rush of, 279,\n     H. W. Beecher on, 284;\n   forces in, opposing, 280;\n   freedom, personal, endangered in, 284;\n   governors of, deposed, 282;\n   importance of, in slavery contest, 277;\n   Lecompton Constitution, adoption of, 278,\n     rejected by the people, 282;\n   Legislatures of, the two, 279, 280;\n   rifles sent to, by Mr. Beecher, 283, 286;\n   situation in, in 1855, 278;\n   slave-laws of, 278, 284;\n   Topeka Constitution, adoption of, 279;\n   war in, beginning of, 271,\n     deeds committed in, 279,\n     results of, 282, 300.\n\n Kilbourne, \u201cMa\u2019am,\u201d H.W. Beecher\u2019s first teacher, 50.\n\n Kossuth, Louis, sketch of, visit to America, 256, 352.\n\n Landon, Sheriff, reminiscence of, 37.\n\n Lane Seminary, Ohio, Lyman Beecher president of, 136,\n     gives earnest tone to, 137;\n   object of, 136;\n   slavery question at, 137.\n\n Langdon, Mr., school of, attended by H. W. Beecher, 72;\n   teaching, method of, 74.\n\n Lawrenceburg, Ind., H. W. Beecher called to, 157,\n     residence at, 174, 176,\n     success at, 173, 176;\n   church of, independent, 162, 167;\n   description of, 158, 159.\n\n \u201cLectures to Young Men,\u201d purpose of, 200;\n   publishing of, 201.\n\n Lecture-room talks of H. W. Beecher:\n   Conversion of Philippian Jailer (1858), 376;\n   Division in Presbyterian Church, 163;\n   Emancipation Proclamation, 337;\n   Love to Enemies, 311.\n\n Lenox, Mass., H. W. Beecher\u2019s farm at, 359, 360, 618;\n   residence at, given up, 372.\n\n Leopold, King, receives H. W. Beecher, suggests compromise in\n    Rebellion, 404;\n   Mr. Beecher\u2019s advice to, on Mexico, 405.\n\n Letters quoted:\n   Beecher, H. W., to Dr. Bacon, March, 1876, 560.\n     To Barnabas Bates, October 12, 1852, 261.\n     To Mrs. Beecher, May 17, 1849, 106;\n       1873, 508;\n       on his health, 654.\n     To Edward Beecher, July 11, 1829, 99;\n       August, 1829, 100.\n     To William Beecher, 1832, 129.\n     To Dr. Budington, 1874, 526.\n     To W. T. Cutler, December 15, 1846, 210.\n     To Richard Hale, October 12, 1852, 261.\n     To Indianapolis Church, August 12, 1847, 214.\n     To Investigating Committee, 1874, 528.\n     To R. W. Landis, October 12, 1852, 262.\n     To Frank Moulton, June, 1873, 515.\n     To Plymouth Church, August 19, 1847, 215.\n     To S. Scoville, on Ambition, 594.\n     To St. Louis Library Association, 1859, 390.\n     To Mrs. Tilton, November, 1872, 513.\n     To New York _Tribune_, 268, 269.\n     To Dr. Tyng, September 6, 1866, 470.\n     To his sister, 1817, 50;\n       December 24, 1828, 97;\n       March 1, 1830, 101;\n       1831, 117;\n       1837, 171.\n     To his daughter, November, 1853, 358;\n       June 24, 1854, 358;\n       1859, 383, 384;\n       February 11, 1860, 385;\n       February 14, 1860, 387.\n     To his children, 642\u2013646.\n     To Colonel of Thirteenth Regiment, December 19, 1884, 662;\n       February 12, 1885, 663.\n   Bacon, Dr. Leonard, to H. W. Beecher, February 27, 1876, 559.\n   Moulton, Frank, to H. W. Beecher, June 1, 1873, 517.\n   Storrs, R. S., to H. W. Beecher, November 2, 1872, 520.\n   St. Louis Library Association to H. W. Beecher, 1859, 389.\n   Tyng, Dr. S. H., to H. W. Beecher, 1866, 469.\n\n \u201cLife of Christ,\u201d first volume of, completed, 480, 674;\n   second volume of, work on, 673, 674;\n   prophetic words of Mr. Beecher on, 674.\n\n Lincoln, Pres., H. W. Beecher\u2019s confidence in, 304;\n     work for, 305;\n     on call of, for soldiers, 327, 328;\n     on vacillation of, in 1862, 329, 444;\n     on invincible purpose of, in 1863, 398;\n     visit to, in 1864, 446;\n     tribute to, 447.\n   Emancipation Proclamation of, 336.\n   Nomination of, 304.\n   Restoration of South, favors immediate, 465.\n   Nomination of, for presidency, 304.\n\n Lind, Jenny, H. W. Beecher\u2019s defence of, 351.\n\n Litchfield, Conn., antiquities of, 31;\n   appearance of, in 1856, 35\u201338;\n   Beecher, Lyman, called to, 29,\n     residence and household at, 38, 62, 63;\n   courts of, their brilliancy, 34;\n   description of, by H. W. Beecher, 30;\n   education and religion, reputation for, 33, 34;\n   foundation of, wisdom shown in, 33;\n   natural beauties of, 32, 33;\n   paradise, a, for a boy, 31;\n   patriotism of, during Revolution, 34;\n   school of, H. W. Beecher at, 51\u201353;\n   situation of, 30, 31;\n   winter in, H. W. Beecher on, 62.\n\n Litchfield Hill, 30.\n\n Little Pond (Litchfield), 31.\n\n Liverpool, England, Mr. Beecher\u2019s first speech in, in 1863, 401,\n     second speech, 422\u2013432,\n     placarded in, 422,\n     threats against, 423,\n     reception of, 424;\n   _Courier_ of, on Mr. Beecher, 422.\n\n London, England, Mr. Beecher\u2019s first speeches in, in 1863, 401, 402;\n   second speech in, 422\u2013436.\n\n Lord, Mrs. (Litchfield), reminiscence of, 37.\n\n Love, Mr., author of \u201cShining Shore,\u201d 366.\n\n Lovell, John E., Mr. Beecher\u2019s instructor in elocution, 95.\n\n McClellan, Gen. George, defeat of, 327;\n   H. W. Beecher on, 328.\n\n McLean, Judge John, on H. W. Beecher\u2019s slavery sermons, 196, 197.\n\n Manchester, Eng., Mr. Beecher\u2019s speech at, 408\u2013414.\n\n Mason, Lowell, on hymn-music, 365.\n\n Massachusetts Emigrant Company, work of, 279.\n\n Matteawan, N. Y., Beecher family at, 372, 618.\n\n Missouri Compromise, the, 235;\n   repeal of, proposed, 272,\n     effected, 277,\n     clerical protest against, 273,\n     H. W. Beecher\u2019s articles on, 273\u2013277.\n\n Mitchel, John, H. W. Beecher\u2019s prophecy on, 266;\n   slavery, views on, 265.\n\n Moulton, Frank, assurances of, to H. W. Beecher, 496, 497;\n     urges him to write to Mrs. Tilton, 507;\n     urges letter from, clearing Tilton, 515;\n     letter to, June 1, 1873, 517;\n     innocence of, affirms, 518.\n   Conspiracy against Mr. Beecher, joins, 494.\n   Indicted by Grand Jury, 533.\n   Investigating Committee, fails to attend, 529.\n   Part of, in $5,000 to Tilton, 519.\n   Tilton\u2019s cause, advocacy of, 505.\n   Wife of, dropped by Plymouth, results, 534.\n\n Montague, George, recollections by, of H. W. Beecher, 93, 95.\n\n Mount Pleasant Institute, appearance of, in 1849, 107;\n   Beecher, H. W., enters, 93;\n   lotteries at, 118;\n   standing of, 94.\n\n Mount Tom Hill (Litchfield), 30;\n   signal station at, ancient, 31.\n\n Music, H. W. Beecher\u2019s early work in, 92, 124, 138, 139, 144;\n   church music, an old method of, 363,\n     reform in, 365;\n   \u201cPlymouth Collection,\u201d compilation of, 363\u2013366;\n   hymn-music, H. W. Beecher\u2019s views on, 366\u2013367;\n   organ, value of, to H. W. Beecher, 600.\n\n Napoleon III., Mexican campaign of, sympathy with Confederacy, 399.\n\n Negroes, H. W. Beecher on help to fugitive, 240, 241,\n     on return of, 252;\n   on social ostracism of, 247;\n   on treatment of, at North, 247, 248, 303;\n   on freedom given to eight, 263;\n   on benefits to, from admission of South, 463, 467;\n   suffrage refused to, 474.\n\n Nettleton, Mr., revival by, at Litchfield, 77, 80.\n\n Newell, Constantine, character of, 106;\n   covenant of, with H. W. Beecher, 104;\n   history of, 105.\n\n New England, H. W. Beecher a product of, 25, 26;\n   influence of, on the nation, 25;\n   slavery in, Mr. Beecher on, 250.\n\n New Jersey, slave erased from Prayer-Book of, 254.\n\n New York, law of, as to slaves, 251.\n\n New York City, corrupt judiciary of (1867\u201371), 572.\n\n North, the, admission of Southern States, fear from, 466, 467;\n   blockade by, in 1863, 399;\n   feeling at, against Compromise, 235, 236,\n     for Compromise, 238;\n   Fugitive Slave Law, abhorrence of, 239, 240;\n   industry in, universal, 418;\n   merchants at, black-listed, 247;\n   political parties in, in 1863, 398;\n   population and intelligence of country resident in, 413;\n   Rebellion, military ardor in, in 1861, 314, 315,\n     desolation from, 315,\n     unity of, not to be broken by, 327,\n     conflicting schemes in, 330,\n     army of, in 1863, 397;\n   slavery at, abolition of, 251;\n   soldiers of, on exclusion of South, 461, 462;\n   Sumter, Fort, excitement over fall of, 314;\n   workingman, doctrine as to (1863), 419.\n\n Norwich, N. Y., H. W. Beecher on, 389.\n\n \u201cNutplains,\u201d Roxana Foote at, 22\u201324, 26, 27.\n\n Omnibus Bill, Clay\u2019s, 236.\n\n Omnibuses of New York and negroes, 247, 248.\n\n Ostend Manifesto, the, 280.\n\n Oxford Presbytery, rule of, as to licenses, 159, 166;\n   H. W. Beecher examined by, 161, 162, 166.\n\n Paris, France, H. W. Beecher\u2019s visit to, its art-galleries, 346\u2013348.\n\n Parker, Theodore, H. W. Beecher on, 380, 381.\n\n Parker, Dr. (London), tribute of, to Mr. Beecher, 669.\n\n Parker, \u2014 (Litchfield), reminiscence of, 37.\n\n Parker controversy, the, 257\u2013262.\n\n Peekskill, N. Y., farm at, 383;\n   description, 619, 620;\n   cottage at, 620;\n   old apple-tree at, 621;\n   products of, 623;\n   flowers at, 626;\n   new house at, 628\u2013630,\n     decoration of, 630;\n   trees and shrubs at, 630, 632;\n   fowls at, 634,\n     the patent hatcher, 635;\n   cattle at, 636;\n   bees at, 636, 637;\n   dogs at, 637,\n     \u201cTommy,\u201d 638.\n\n Phillips, Wendell, experiences of, in Brooklyn, 246.\n\n Phrenology, H. W. Beecher\u2019s adoption of, 130.\n\n Pierce, Pres., Ostend Manifesto inspired by, 280;\n   peace, hopes for, 265;\n   qualifications of, for office, 257.\n\n Pierce, Misses, ladies\u2019 school of, at Litchfield, 34;\n   reminiscence of, 36.\n\n \u201cPinky,\u201d freedom of, bought at Plymouth, 294\u2013296.\n\n Plymouth Church, Advisory Council (1874), declines to attend, 527;\n   deliverance of, how affected by, 527.\n   Advisory Council (1876), calls an, 537;\n     composition of, 538;\n     questions discussed by, 538;\n     sustained by, 549;\n     recommends committee on charges, 550.\n   Beecher, H. W.. generosity to, in Conspiracy, 565;\n     his sermons in, in 1864, 571;\n     welcome to, in 1886, 672;\n     service in, at death of, 678;\n     memorial service in, 680.\n   Building, the new, 387.\n   Burning of first building, 222.\n   Call of, to Mr. Beecher, 214.\n   Condition of, in 1858, 374.\n   Courtesy at, by pewholders, 379, 380.\n   Danger to, from mobs, 246.\n   Debt of, extinguished (1851), 353.\n   Flowers in, introduction of, 392.\n   Formation of, 213, 214.\n   Generosity of members of, 216.\n   Growth and popularity of, 222\u2013224, 225, 480.\n   Income of, criticism on, 379.\n   Influence of, 480.\n   Investigating Committee, accepts report of, 530.\n   Lecture at, weekly, 229.\n   Members in (1862), reception of, 392;\n     exercised over Cleveland letter, 472;\n     number of, in 1872, 480;\n     troubles caused by, after Scandal, 537;\n     duty of, as to Advisory Council, 539\u2013542.\n   Moulton, Mrs., dropped by, 534.\n   Organ at, the new (1859), 382.\n   Phillips, Wendell, at, 246.\n   Polity of, 232.\n   Prayer meetings at, weekly, 230;\n     daily, 376,\n     influence of, 377,\n     prayers in, 378.\n   Regiments, rendezvous for, 316.\n   Revival at, in 1848, 222;\n     in 1858, 375;\n     in 1861\u201363, 391.\n   Sheridan\u2019s victory, joy over, 450.\n   Silver Wedding of, 480;\n     Children\u2019s day, 481;\n     Members\u2019 and Historical days, 482;\n     Communion day, 486;\n     Storrs\u2019s, Dr., speech at, 484\u2013486.\n   Slavery, its stand against, 221.\n   Slaves ransomed in, 293\u2013300.\n   Sociable at, weekly, 231.\n   Sunday-schools of, 480.\n   Sunday services in, 228, 229.\n   Tabernacle, building of, 223.\n   Tilton, Theodore, dropped from rolls of, remonstrances against, 523.\n\n \u201cPlymouth Collection,\u201d history of, 363\u2013366;\n   terms of publishing of, 364;\n   a model for others, 365;\n   H. W. Beecher on alleged omissions from, 368.\n\n Porter, Pres. Noah, letter to H. W. Beecher on Conspiracy, 532.\n\n Prayer, H. W. Beecher\u2019s early love for, 97, 100;\n   sample of, 228;\n   on extemporaneous, 371;\n   reply to request for copy of a, 656.\n\n Presbyterian Church, division in, 151, 159, 165,\n     one cause of, 160,\n     one result of, 168;\n   H. W. Beecher on, 163.\n\n Prohibition party, H. W. Beecher on, 583.\n\n Prospect Hill (Litchfield), 30.\n\n Raymond, John, sails for England with H. W. Beecher, 396;\n   speech of, in London, 401.\n\n Rebellion, the, H. W. Beecher on, 310, 313, 314;\n     sacrifices for, 316;\n     on Union soldier\u2019s duty in, 317, 318;\n     on Southern unity and Northern uncertainty in, 330;\n     on distinction between Union troops in, 443;\n     on end of, 451, 455.\n   Beginning of, 309.\n   European sentiment regarding, 400.\n   Federal army in, condition of, in 1863, 397.\n   Federal disasters in, in 1862, 327.\n\n Reconstruction, H. W. Beecher on, 458\u2013461,\n     sermon on, 463;\n   feeling as to, in North, 464;\n   Johnson\u2019s, Pres., plan of, 458;\n   problem of, 457.\n\n Reeve, Judge Tapping, law-school of, at Litchfield, 34, 37.\n\n Reeve, Mrs., death of Roxana Beecher, description of, 48.\n\n Republican party, the, advantages of, over rivals, 289;\n   H. W. Beecher\u2019s early work for, 289,\n     in 1860, 305,\n     in 1864, 571,\n     reasons for opposing in 1884, 581\u2013583;\n   campaign song of, 289;\n   charge against, a, answered, 307;\n   corruptions in, 574;\n   formation and composition of, 288;\n   issue of, in 1860, 304;\n   Lincoln nominated by, 304;\n   platform of, first, 288;\n   South, exclusion of, minority against, 461,\n     restoration of, by the party, 477.\n\n Roebuck, John (England), favors South, why, 403.\n\n Ruffin, Judge (N. C.), on legal status of slaves, 249.\n\n Ruskin, John, influence of, on H. W. Beecher, 394.\n\n Russell, Lord John, support by, of American Union, 431, 433.\n\n Salisbury, Conn., H. W. Beecher at, 618.\n\n Sawmill Pond (Litchfield), 31.\n\n Sawyer, Martha, gives H. W. Beecher\u2019s first call, 157.\n\n Scandal\u2014see _Conspiracy_.\n\n Scotland, H. W. Beecher\u2019s tribute to, 415;\n   his speeches in, 415\u2013422.\n\n Secession, decree of, 305;\n   H. W. Beecher on, 307.\n\n Sermons of H. W. Beecher quoted:\n   American Democracy, Success of (1862), 326;\n   Background of Mystery, 567;\n   Camp, The (1861), 319;\n   Campaign of 1884, 584;\n   Compromise, Against (1860), 306;\n   Confidence in Union Success (1862), 333;\n   Crisis, The (1861), 310;\n   Death of the Soldier (1861), 315;\n   Evolution and Religion, 567;\n   Fast-day of Buchanan (1861), 307;\n   Government, Divine (1862), 326;\n   God in National Affairs (1861), 319;\n   Harper\u2019s Ferry Tragedy (1859), 301;\n   Individual Responsibility, 219;\n   Lincoln\u2019s Assassination, 455;\n   Modes and Duties of Emancipation (1861), 320;\n   Our National Flag (1861), 317;\n   Past Perils and Perils of To-day, 574;\n   Phillips, Wendell (1884), 245;\n   Revivals (1858), 375;\n   first sermons in Plymouth, 218;\n   Trial Sermon, 685.\n\n Shearman, Thomas G., services of, in Conspiracy, 549.\n\n Sheldon, Dr. (Litchfield), reminiscence of, 36.\n\n \u201cShining Shore,\u201d history of, 366;\n   H. W. Beecher\u2019s liking for, 379.\n\n Silver-Grays, the, 288, 289.\n\n Sixty-seventh N. Y. Regiment, equipment of, by Mr. Beecher, 317, 489.\n\n Slavery, battle against, 233, 271;\n   Beecher\u2019s, H. W., debate on, at Amherst, 119,\n     sermons on, in Indianapolis, 195,\n     their effect, 196, 197,\n     in Brooklyn, 219, 220;\n   Christianity against, power of, 268;\n   Church\u2019s timidity as to, 221, 254;\n   Compromise measures on, 233\u2013239;\n   Constitution, ballot, and Church as forces against, 267;\n   doctrine of, 419;\n   dominance of, in 1857, 281;\n   eras of, five, 234;\n   feeling towards, in Indiana, 196,\n     in United States in 1854, 271;\n     at Lane Seminary, 137;\n   military question, a, 331;\n   Mitchel\u2019s, John, views on, 265;\n   preaching against, threatened, 248,\n     H. W. Beecher on, 248\u2013252;\n   religious societies, attitude of, 252;\n   treatment of, H. W. Beecher on, 303, 331.\n\n Slaves, eight freed by law in New York, 263;\n   Beecher, H. W., on help of, 240,\n     on pulpit work for, 248\u2013252,\n     on return of fugitive, 252,\n     on proper treatment of, 303, 304;\n   freedom purchased for, in Brooklyn, 292\u2013300;\n   hunting of, in 1851, 255;\n   ignorance of, why necessary, 417;\n   Kansas laws against, 278;\n   status of, religious, 248,\n     legal, 249.\n\n Smith, Charles, influence of, on H. W. Beecher, 66, 69, 431.\n\n South, the, advantage to, of Compromise Bill, 235, 238.\n   Civil liberty in, suppression of, 413.\n   Cruisers for, building stopped by queen, 410.\n   English sympathy for, 399\u2013401, 413.\n   Grievance of, on slavery, 238, 272.\n   Labor in, dishonorable (1863), 418.\n   Northern merchants black-listed by, 247.\n   Rebellion, unity of purpose in, 330;\n     vehemence and courage in, 398;\n     caused by political leaders of, 454.\n   Slavery in, code of, 251;\n     plan of, for spreading slavery, 429.\n   States of, decree secession, 305;\n     reconstruction of, problem as to, 457;\n     effect of exclusion of, 459;\n     Northern soldiers against exclusion of, 461;\n     Northern fear from admission of, 466;\n     H. W. Beecher\u2019s mediation for, 612.\n\n Speeches of H. W. Beecher quoted:\n   at Charleston (1865), 451\u2013454;\n   Edinburgh (1863), 419\u2013422;\n   Glasgow (1863), 414\u2013419;\n   Liverpool (1863), 419\u2013422;\n   London (1863), 432\u2013436;\n   Manchester (1863), 410\u2013414;\n   North Victorious, The (1865), 458.\n\n Spenser, Edmund, \u201cFaerie Queene\u201d quoted, 156.\n\n Stanton, Edwin M., note to, from H. W. Beecher in 1864, and reply, 447;\n   Charleston, proposes to send Mr. Beecher to, 448;\n   Fort Sumter, fall of, order on anniversary of, 449;\n   telegram of, as to Sheridan\u2019s victory, 451.\n\n Stockton, Col. T. B. W., sent to Lincoln by Mr. Beecher, 443.\n\n Storrs, Dr. R. S., Advisory Council (1876), declines to attend, 544;\n   Beecher, H. W., address on English speeches of, 437,\n     letter to, on Cleveland letters, 471, 477,\n     tribute to (1872), 484\u2013486,\n     letter of help to, 520,\n     refuses reconciliation with, 561;\n   hostility of, to H. W. Beecher, reasons for, 521;\n   judgment as to Mr. Beecher, on ex-parte testimony, 522;\n   Moulton, Mrs., assumes cause of, 560;\n   Tilton\u2019s influence on, 513.\n\n Stowe, Calvin E., assistance of, to H. W. Beecher, 137.\n\n Stowe, Harriet Beecher, attainments of H. W. Beecher, remarks on, 70,\n     on studies of, 74;\n   Beecher, Harriet, reminiscence of, 54;\n   childhood of, impressions of, 57;\n   diligence of, early, 56;\n   her mother\u2019s death, recollections of, 48, 49;\n   Parker controversy, part taken in, 259, 260;\n   reminiscences of, 55;\n   Roxana Beecher, tribute to, 24;\n   tulip-bulbs, adventure with, 47.\n\n Sturtevant, Dr., on H. W. Beecher, 551.\n\n Sumner, Charles, attack on, by Preston Brooks, 286;\n   meeting on, in New York, 287;\n   H. W. Beecher on, 287, 288.\n\n Sumter, Fort, anniversary of fall of, exercises at, 449\u2013454;\n   fall of, 309,\n     excitement in North, 314.\n\n\n Tallmadge, Col. (Litchfield), 35;\n   reminiscence of, 36.\n\n Tappan, Lewis, reminiscences by, of H. W. Beecher, 114, 117.\n\n Temperance, H. W. Beecher\u2019s early work in, 130, 138, 144, 147,\n     in Lawrenceburg, 185,\n     practice of, at Oxford, Eng., 345,\n     to his daughter on, 384.\n     habits as to, 652, 653;\n   Lyman Beecher\u2019s action on, 42.\n\n Terre Haute, Ind., H. W. Beecher\u2019s reminiscence of, 190\u2013192.\n\n Texas, effect on, of Compromise, 235.\n\n Thayer, Hon. Eli, in Kansas struggle, 279.\n\n Thirteenth Regiment, Brooklyn, H. W. Beecher as chaplain of, 660;\n   Company G of, guard at his funeral, 678.\n\n Thomas, Rev. John H., on H. W. Beecher\u2019s Lawrenceburg pastorate, 176.\n\n Tilton, Theodore, associations of, evil, 497.\n   Beecher, H. W., early affection for, letter to, 489;\n     esteems himself greater than, 490, 492;\n     whispers stories against, 492;\n     hostility to, first charge against, 493;\n     demand on, to leave Brooklyn, 494, 503;\n     treachery to, 496;\n     urges him to use his house, 500;\n     bitterest against, when in pecuniary difficulties, 510;\n     secures $5,000 from, 519;\n     blackmail of, attempted, 520;\n     charge against, makes open, 527;\n     civil suit against, 533.\n   Blackmail, attempts at, 499, 520.\n   Bowen, Henry C., denies tales of, 490;\n     claim against, for $7,000, 496;\n     charge against, 511,\n       secures publication of, 515.\n   Charge of, denied by Mrs. Tilton, 529;\n     specific charge, 530;\n     charge changed, 532.\n   Church-membership, proposed deprivation of, 509.\n   Counsel of, declares Mr. Beecher innocent, 534.\n   _Eagle_, Brooklyn, infamous article in, 514.\n   \u201cEditorial Soliloquy\u201d of, 491.\n   Family of, H. W. Beecher\u2019s intimacy with, 501.\n   _Independent_, assistant editor of, 488;\n     editor of, 490;\n     resigns editorship, 492.\n   Indicted by Grand Jury, 533.\n   Investigating Committee, before the, 529.\n   Lecturing, failure at, blames Mr. Beecher, 510.\n   Moral conduct of, 506.\n   _Observer_, work on, 488.\n   Plymouth Church, dropped from rolls of, 523.\n   Sketch of, 488.\n   Stories of past life of, 493.\n   Storrs, Dr. R. S., T. reads \u201cTrue Statement\u201d to, 521.\n   Tripartite agreement, signs, 496;\n     his changes in, object of, 497;\n     part in, 512.\n   \u201cTrue Statement\u201d of, results, 513.\n   Views of, \u201cadvanced,\u201d 491, 502;\n     public protest against, 501.\n   Wife, treatment of his, she asks advice of Mr. Beecher, 502;\n     incriminating document extorted from, 504,\n   Woodhull, Victoria, alliance with, 510;\n     scandal version of Mrs. W., statement on, 513.\n   _Union_, Brooklyn, editor of, 492.\n\n Toombs, Senator Robert, threat of, concerning Fugitive Slave Bill, 236.\n\n _Trent_ affair, the, 322;\n   English papers on Mr. Beecher\u2019s action in, 422.\n\n Tripartite agreement, history of, 511, 512;\n   publication of, 515,\n     Tilton\u2019s rage at, 515, 516.\n\n Turner, Thomas J., superintendent at \u201cBoscobel,\u201d 624\u2013626.\n\n Tyng, Rev. Stephen H., on Mr. Beecher\u2019s Cleveland letter, 469.\n\n\n Union Sewing Committee, formation of, 247.\n\n Unitarian movement in Massachusetts, 82, 83;\n   Sabbath-school, ostracism of a, 355, 356.\n\n United States,\n   Administration of, in Kansas struggle, 277\u2013280;\n     pro-slavery, 291;\n     inactivity of, in 1862, 324,\n       H. W. Beecher on, 328, 329,\n       on mismanagement by, in 1862, 329,\n       on duty of, 330, 331;\n     distrusts Mr. Beecher in 1863, 397,\n       changes its opinion of him, 444.\n   Commercial disaster in, in 1857, 371, 375.\n   Compromise in 1854, feeling on, 265;\n     schemes of, in 1860, 306.\n   Condition of, in 1813, 41, 42.\n   Congress of, and President Johnson, 458, 469, 470;\n     constitutional amendment by, proposed, 473\u2013475;\n     suffrage to negroes, refuses, 474.\n   Elections of 1884, condition after, 586.\n   Federal army of, in 1863, 397.\n   Free trade in, a future certainty, 429.\n   Ireland, sympathy for, 265.\n   Navy of, H. W. Beecher on, 399.\n   Political condition of, in 1863, 398.\n   Policy of, fifteen years, Southern, 420.\n   Reaction in, for Compromise, in 1851, 255.\n   Reconstruction in, problem of, 457.\n   Repeal of Compromise, excitement over, 273.\n   Senators of, pledged to Compromise, 257;\n     plot for rebellion in 1856\u201360, 305.\n   Slavery in, in 1854, feeling on, 271.\n   States of, decree secession, 305.\n\n Vicksburg, fall of, effect on H. W. Beecher, 405;\n   effect of, in Great Britain, 406.\n\n Ward, Andrew, sketch of, 22.\n\n Ward, Col. Andrew, sketch of, 22.\n\n Ward, Gen. Andrew, sketch of, 22, 23\n\n Webster, Daniel, support by, of Compromise Bill, 236, 238.\n\n Weld, Theodore, in early slavery movements, 138.\n\n Wellman, Dr., on H. W. Beecher, 550.\n\n Westminster Abbey, H. W. Beecher\u2019s visit to, 669.\n\n Whig party, defeat of, in 1852, 257;\n   extinction of, in 1854, 273.\n\n White Mountains, H. W. Beecher\u2019s summer services in, 660.\n\n Wilkeson, Mr., part of, in Conspiracy, 515.\n\n Wolcott, Oliver, King George\u2019s statue melted by, 34.\n\n Wolcott, Gov. Oliver, Jr., reminiscence of, 35.\n\n Woodhull, Victoria, blackmail of H. W. Beecher, attempted, 513;\n   letters in possession of, Mr. Beecher on, 522;\n   scandal, version of, published, 510, 513, 520.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n                           Transcriber\u2019s Note\n\nAt the foot of p. 173, an unreferenced footnote appears, referring the\nreader to \u201cAppendix A.\u201d for the text of Rev. Beecher\u2019s inaugural sermon.\n(The Appendix has no \u201cA\u201d, per se.) A reference to the footnote has been\nadded.\n\nOn pp. 265, 276, 351, 362, 382 an asterisk appears right-justified at\nthe end of a quoted passage. As explained on p. 366, this was used by\nBeecher as a signature. These are retained here, though merely with an\nextended space between the text and his \u2018signature\u2019.\n\nThe index entry for Beecher's remarks about the proposed compromise of\n1864, refers to p. 445, should have been p. 446, Likewise, references to\nmusic and hymns on p. 367 should have been 368. Both were likely caused\nby the interpolation of a numbered full page illustration, and have both\nbeen corrected.\n\nThe format of the two-column index has been changed to single column,\nand the punctuation regularized.\n\nHyphenation of compound words is retained as printed. Where the hyphen\nappears on a line or page break, it is retained or removed depending on\nthe preponderance of usage elsewhere.\n\nErrors deemed most likely to be the printer\u2019s have been corrected, and\nare noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.\nThe following issues should be noted, along with the resolutions.\n\n  20.18    [\u2018/\u201c]It has always been a shadow               Replaced.\n\n  75.36    Now decline he.[\u2019]                             Added.\n\n  84.13    the first electric shock of wonder and         Removed.\n           pleasure.[\u201d]\n\n  96.27    to improve the opportu[tu]nity and administer  Removed.\n\n  101.1    He shall be called a Nazarene.[\u201d/\u2019]            Replaced.\n\n  162.22   and declared the body _dissolved_[./,]         Replaced.\n\n  190.8    by no means confined to Indianapolis[.]        Added.\n\n  263.8    for my God is greater than their devil[.]      Added.\n\n  305.36   in spite of the popular vote[.]                Added.\n\n  333.39   but we are a-going to succeed in America.[\u2019]   Removed.\n\n  372.19   was the eldest son of his father\u2019s family[.]   Added.\n\n  561.4    from time to time during the two[ two] years   Removed.\n           past\n\n  649.15   It has been in the house this two months.[\u201d/\u2019] Replaced.","title":"A Biography of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":280666}