IMWIIIIh mimiinimnnmiimimhiwimimmimimiiinnnift.itrttiih PAULINE FORE MOFFITT LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA GENERAL LIBRARY, BERKELEY 33oofcd frp Ipman Abbott, 3D. 2X HENRY WARD BEECHER. With Portraits. Crown 8vo, $1.75, net. Postage extra. THE RIGHTS OF MAN. A Study in Twentieth- Century Problems. Crown 8vo, $1.30, net. Postpaid, $1.44. THE LIFE AND LITERATURE OF THE AN- CIENT HEBREWS. Crown 8vo, $2.00. THE EVOLUTION OF CHRISTIANITY. i6mo, $1.25. CHRISTIANITY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. i6mo, $1.25. THE THEOLOGY OF AN EVOLUTIONIST. i6mo, $1.25. THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF PAUL THE APOSTLE. Crown 8vo, $1.50. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN, AND COMPANY, Boston and New York. HENRY WARD BEECHER HENRY WARD BEECHER By LYMAN ABBOTT BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY <$be llilu*rsi&r press, Cnnibn&oc 1903 COPYRIGHT I903 BY LYMAN ABBOTT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Published November igoj Add to Lib.i GIFT 1103 TO PLYMOUTH CHURCH IN APPRECIATION OF THE KINDLY WELCOME AND CORDIAL SUPPORT EXTENDED TO ME, WHEN, ON THE DEATH OF MR. BEECHER, I WAS CALLED TO SUCCEED HIM IN THE PASTORATE, THIS VOLUME IS GRATEFULLY DEDICATED. 408 INTRODUCTORY In 1854 I entered the law office of my brothers in New York City, and went to live with the older of them in Brooklyn. He was attending Plymouth Church and I naturally went there with him. He was a son of New England, a Puritan, though of liberal temper, and a Webster Whig, and therefore originally had a triple prejudice against the young preacher who had recently come to Brooklyn, and who was in manner a Westerner, and in theology and politics a radical. But my brother had char- acteristically resolved to listen to six successive sermons from the preacher before finally deciding about him, and, as a result, was already a sympa- thetic listener and a devoted friend. I was not yet twenty years of age, and the defects and the excel- lences of Mr. Beecher appealed alike to my boyish nature : his exuberant life, his startling audacity, his dramatic oratory, his passionate fire, his flashes of humor, his native boyishness, all combined to fascinate me. But this superficial enthusiasm soon gave place to a deeper feeling. I had constructed for myself a crude theology, doubtless largely bor- viii INTRODUCTORY rowed from others, but for which I ought not to make others responsible. That theology may be briefly described in a sentence thus : I had in- herited from a depraved ancestry a depraved na- ture ; I had broken the laws of God, and deserved punishment ; God was a just God, and justice compelled him to insist on the penalty ; but Christ had borne the penalty that the law might be justi- fied and still God's justice maintained ; if I accepted Christ as my Saviour, the law would be honored, God could be merciful, and I could be released from the penalty. For me, religion was acceptance of this mercy, and obedience to the laws which I had before disobeyed ; the Bible was the source of my knowledge of those laws ; the Holy Spirit was a helper to enable me to keep them. I was afraid of God, I was attracted to Christ, and, partly im- pelled by the fear, and partly inspired by aspiration, I wished to listen to conscience, to obey the law, to do my duty; but I had no assurance that I could, or perhaps I should rather say, that I would do either persistently. Mr. Beecher revolutionized my theology by revolutionizing my life. I obtained through him a new experience of God, of Christ, of salvation, of religion : I began to see that Jesus Christ was what God eternally is, that his laws are the laws INTRODUCTORY ix of my own nature ; that I have not more truly in- herited disease than health, depravity than virtue, from my ancestors ; that salvation is life, and that Jesus Christ came into the world to give me life ; that God is my Father and my Friend, and that my fellowship may be with him ; that the Bible is the record of the experiences of men who knew him and his love and his fellowship, and who narrated their experiences that others might share them ; that religion is not the obedience of a reluctant soul to law, but the glad captivity of a loyal soul to the best of all loved friends. As this new life was born in me, there was born also in me the strong desire to impart it to others ; and after long hesi- tation, and much debate with myself, I abandoned the profession of the law in which, at the age of twenty-two, I was already successfully engaged as a member of the New York bar, thanks to my two older brothers with whom I was associated. After a year of special study, with some accompanying experience in preaching to a village congregation in Maine, I gave myself to the work of the Christian ministry. From that day to this my desire has been by voice and pen to give to others the life which had been given to me when I learned that God is love and Jesus Christ is love's interpreter, and therefore God's interpreter. x INTRODUCTORY In 1858 I left Brooklyn, and therefore Plymouth Church, and did not return until 1887, when, on Mr. Beecher's death, I became his successor. Dur- ing those nearly thirty years of absence from Brooklyn, I rarely heard Mr. Beecher preach or lecture. I was at one time intimately associated with him in preparing a special edition of his ser- mons, and in the work of preparation examined with care several hundred of them ; and later I was in constant fellowship with him as his asso- ciate in the editorship of " The Christian Union. " But during these years I was less a pupil of Mr. Beecher than a critical student of his work. For guidance and inspiration I went less to him than to those to whom he had gone : first of all to the Four Gospels ; next, to the Epistles of Paul ; then to those teachers in the Church, from Clement of Alexandria to Robertson and Maurice, who had seen in religion a life rather than a law, in God a Friend rather than a Judge, and in salvation char- acter rather than destiny. I went back also to the in- structors of my childhood. I read again my father's " Young Christian," from which I had received the first conscious impulse which any voice or pen had given me to the Christian life. I followed the clue which Mr. Beecher had given me, and I lived and honored him none the less for the discovery that INTRODUCTORY xi the Church had never been without witnesses to a faith and life like his. That faith and life were not new except as the song of every bird is new, though the same note has been sung by a thousand ancestors. But they were new to me when in my youth I heard them and accepted them in Plymouth Church. To Mr. Beecher I am indebted for a new interpretation of and a new impulse to the life of faith and hope and love. So, when the publishers of this volume asked me to prepare it, I acceded to their request in the hope that it might serve to bring to others, through the story of Mr. Beecher's life, that conception of Christian truth and that experience of Christian faith which Mr. Beecher had brought to me. Nearly half a century has passed since from the young preacher of Brooklyn I received the impulse which sent me into the min- istry, the message which subsequent study has done much to develop, but nothing to contradict, and the faith which life has never disappointed, but has constantly enlarged and enriched. That half cen- tury has been largely spent with other masters, and I believe that I am now far enough from the spell of Mr. Beecher's personal presence to estimate justly his life and character. Certainly this volume will not be coldly critical ; I do not mean that it shall be indiscriminately eulogistic. xu INTRODUCTORY Generally the preface to a volume is the portion last written. Before I set pen to paper on the substance of this volume, I write this preface to make clear to myself, and I hope also to others, my purpose. It is not to tell the full story of Mr. Beecher's personal life : that has already been done by his wife and son and son-in-law, in a volume which is essentially autobiographical and to which I could add nothing. It is not to write the life and times of Mr. Beecher: he was so identified with all the great events of his time that to write such a volume would be to write the history of the United States in what is perhaps the most critical and certainly the most dramatic period of the na- tional life. In this volume, I, his friend, who gladly acknowledge my own indebtedness to him, seek to interpret the life and character of a man of great spiritual and intellectual genius, whose faults were superficial, whose virtues were profound, whose influence will outlive his fame, and who has probably done more to change directly the religious life, and indirectly the theological thought in Amer- ica than any preacher since Jonathan Edwards. LYMAN ABBOTT. CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON, N. Y. CONTENTS PAGE CHAPTER I The Meaning of Mb. Beecher's Life 1 CHAPTER n The Making of the Man 16 CHAPTER HI Early Ministry 39 CHAPTER IV Plymouth Church 72 CHAPTER V The Pastor of Plymouth Church 100 CHAPTER VI Parenthetical 133 CHAPTER VII The Anti-Slavery Reformer 156 CHAPTER Vni The Anti-Slavery Campaign 195 CHAPTER IX The Civil War 223 CHAPTER X The Campaign in England 244 CHAPTER XI Reconstruction 264 *v CONTENTS CHAPTER XII Under Accusation 288 CHAPTER Xni Later Ministry 300 CHAPTER XIV Editor and Author 328 CHAPTER XV The Yale Lectures on Preaching 353 CHAPTER XVI He finishes his Course 374 CHAPTER XVII Estimates and Impressions 386 APPENDIX Mr. Beecher's Analysis of Romans, Chap. vn. . . . 422 Mr. Beecher's Theological Statement 429 Index 451 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Henry Ward Beecher Frontispiece From a photograph hy George G. Rockwood. This is believed to be the latest portrait. Dr. Lyman Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and 1 1 im;v Ward Beecher 30 From a photograph taken about 1861. Henry Ward Beecher 162 From a daguerreotype taken by Irving about 1851. By conrtesy of George G. Rockwood. Copies of English Incendiary Placards against Mr. Beecher in 1863 253 Facsimile Letter from Mr. Beecher to Dr. Lyman Abbott 410 BIBLIOGRAPHY [Prepared by Rev. W. E. Davenport.] Cincinnati Journal. Edited in part by Henry Ward Beecher. Cincinnati, O., 1836-37. Sermon on the Occasion of the Funeral of Noah Noble, late Governor of Indiana, pp. 27. Indianapolis, 1844. Seven Lectures for Young Men. Indianapolis, 1844; Salem, 1846 ; Boston, 1849, '51, '53, '55, '63, '65, '68, and '69 ; New York, 1851, '53, '60, '73, '79, '81, '84, '93, '98 ; London, England, 1851, and many reprints ; Philadelphia, as Industry and Idleness, 1850. Copyright expired 1895, and since that published by Henry Altemus, Philadelphia. A Dissuasive from Moral Intolerance. Address by Henry Ward Beecher, at Bloomington, Ind. Indianapolis, 1845. Indiana Farmer and Gardener. Edited by Mr. Beecher. Indianapolis, 1845. 24 numbers. Western Farmer and Gardener. Henry Ward Beecher, Editor, 1846. Indianapolis, 24 numbers. A Discourse Delivered at Plymouth Church, Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1847. Cady & Burgess : 60 John St., New York, 1848. Address before the Society for Promoting Collegiate Edu- cation in the West. (In annual report of Society, 1848.) Plymouth Church Manual. New York, 1848, '50, '54, '67, '74. One in 1848 and one in 1850 printed by Henry Speer, 78 Wall St., by vote of the Church. The Independent, Star Contributor, beginning October 18, 1849. Sermon for Thanksgiving Day. Hunt's Merchant Maga- zine, December 12, 1850. New York, 1851. Two Papers on Politics and the Pulpit. New York, 1851. xviii BIBLIOGRAPHY National Anti-Slavery Standard (Sermons and Addresses in). New York, 1851. On the Choice of a Profession. Address by Henry Ward Beecher. 1851. Book of Eloquence, by Charles Dudley Warner. Selections from H. W. B. Cazenovia, 1853. Pulpit Portraits of American Preachers, by John R. Dix. Chapter on H. W. B., with portrait. Boston, 1854. Off-hand Takings; or, Crayon Sketches of Noticeable Men of Our Age, by G. W. Bungay. (Article on H. W. B., and portrait.) New York, 1854. Autographs of Freedom. (Includes portraits of and sketches by Lewis Tappan, H. B. Stowe, and Henry Ward Beecher.) Auburn and Rochester, N. Y., 1854. Star Papers. J. C. Derby: New York, 1855, '59. En- larged edition, 1873. The American Portrait Gallery. (Portrait and Sketch H. W. B.) New York, 1855. The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes. Preface H. W. B. A. S. Barnes & Co.: New York, 1855, '56, '59, '62, '67, '68, '83. Bartlett's Distinguished Modern Agitators. (Article on H. W. B.) New York, 1855. Fowler's American Pulpit. (Includes able article on H. W. B.) New York, 1856. Man and his Institutions. An address to the Society for Promoting Collegiate Education in the West. Delivered in Boston, May 28, 1856. American Journal of Education, July, 1856. Republished, New York, 1856. Defence of Kansas. By Henry Ward Beecher. Washing- ton, D. C, 1856. Buell & Blanchard, printers. Banner of Light. Includes sermons by H. W. B. Boston, 1856. Social Reform Tracts, No. 5. The Strange Woman of the Scriptures described and the young cautioned of her wiles and of their dangers, being a lecture addressed to young men by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, U. S. (brother of Mrs. Stowe). Edited by J. Harding. London: Simpkin, Mar- shall & Co., 1857. BIBLIOGRAPHY xix Inquirer and Chronicle. Includes sermons by H. W. B. New York, 1857. American National Preacher, No. 1, vol. xxxi. Sermon by H. W. B., on Christ Knocking at the Door of the Heart, January, 1857. New York, 1857. The Baptist Collection. Being the Plymouth Collection adapted for Baptist use. New York, 1857. Social Reform Tracts, No. 6. The Home of the Harlot, its description, character, and tendencies as seen under the Scripture lamp ; being the concluding part of the celebrated lectures to young men by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (U. S.), brother of Mrs. Stowe. Edited by J. Harding. Lon- don : Simpkin & Marshall, 1857. Life Thoughts. Extracts from extemporaneous discourses, edited by Edna Dean Proctor. Boston, 1858, '59 (30th thousand). Large paper edition, 1860; London, 1860; New York, 18$), '69, '71, '80. Life Thoughts. Henry Ward Beecher. Complete edi- tion. London, 1858: Hamilton & Adams Co. Alexan- der Strahan & Co. : Edinburgh, 1859. Life Thoughts, by Henry Ward Beecher, with a biograph- ical sketch. London : Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1863. Life Thoughts, gathered from the extemporaneous dis- courses of Henry Ward Beecher. London: Wardlock & Tyler, Warwick House, Paternoster Row. God's Seal and Covenant, with a list of members of Ply- mouth Church. Brooklyn, 1858. Revival Hymns, by Henry Ward Beecher. Boston: Phil- lips, Sampson & Co., 1858. Letter to Messrs. Brown & Co., Boston, recommending the torches manufactured by them. 1858. The New York Ledger (many contributions). New York, 1858. The Power of the Spirit, by Henry Ward Beecher. Lon- don, 38 Ludgate Hill. Men's Excuses for not becoming Christians, and Discour- agements of the Christian Life. Two sermons by Henry Ward Beecher, with portrait. New York, 1858. How to become a Christian. A tract for the times. Boston. xx BIBLIOGRAPHY How to become a Christian, by Henry Ward Beech er. New York, 1858, '62 ; Brooklyn, 1862. Revised by the author, and published by the American Tract Society of Boston, 117 Washington St. A Narrative of Remarkable Incidents, by W. C. Conant, with introduction by H. W. B. Derby & Jackson: New York. Sermons by Henry Ward Beecher (12mo). One sermon in each number, published weekly. London: J. Heaton, Norwich Lane, Paternoster Row, 1859. The Telegraph and Fireside Preacher. (Includes sermons by H. W. B.) New York, 1859. Memorial of the Revival in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in 1858, comprising incidents and fragments of lectures and sermons by the pastor. By a member of the Church. New York, 1859. William Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher, and Theo- dore Parker. Boston, 1859. pp. 15. Articles on T. Parker ; An Explanation of Views on Total Depravity. Printed by authority of the Fraternity Course Lectures Society, Boston. A. Williams & Co., 1859. Notes from Plymouth Pulpit. A collection of memorable passages from the discourses of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, with a sketch of Mr. Beecher and of the Lecture-room. By Augusta Moore. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859. New edition greatly enlarged, Harper & Bros., 1865. Pulpit and Rostrum. (Includes sermons by Mr. Beecher.) New York, 1859. Who is our God : the Son or the Father ? By Rev. Thos. J. Sawyer. A reply to Henry Ward Beecher's articles on Theo. Parker. Vagabondia, by Adam Badeau. (Includes articles on H. W. B.) New York, 1859. Chronicle of the Hundredth Birthday of Robert Burns. (Includes oration by H. W. B.) Edinburgh, 1859. Plain and Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming, by Henry Ward Beecher. Derby & Jackson : New York, 1859; Boston: Brown, Taggard & Chase, 25 & 29 Cornhill, 1859 ; London, 1859. Pleasant Talk about Fruits, Flowers, and Farming, by BIBLIOGRAPHY xxi Henry W. Beecher. New edition, with additional matter from recent writings, published and unpublished. J. B. Ford & Co.: New York, 1874. New Star Papers; or, Views and Experiences of Religious Subjects. Derby & Jackson : New York, 1859, '69. Pub- lished as Summer of the Soul, London. Address on Mental Culture for Women, by H. W. B. and James T. Brady, in Pulpit and Rostrum. New York, 1859. Echoes from Harper's Ferry, by James Redpath. Includes pp. 257-279, sermon by H. W. B. preached in Plymouth Church, Sunday evening, October 30, 1859. Italian Independence, by J. P. Thompson. (Includes ad- dress by H. W. B.) New York, 1860. Woman's Influence in Politics. An address in New York, February 2, 1860. Boston, 1860, '69, 71. Civil War : Its Causes, its Consequences, its Crimes, and its Compromises. Series No. 1, by Henry Ward Beecher and Archbishop Hughes. Published by Reuben Vose, New York, 1851. 8vo. pp. about 24. Pamphlet appeal against Mr. Beecher and in favor of stopping " this horrid war " ; quotes from Mr. Beecher's addresses. Remarks by Henry Ward Beecher, at the funeral of Ed- ward Corning, Plymouth Church, Thursday afternoon, Janu- ary 31, 1861. For private circulation. War and Emancipation. A Thanksgiving Sermon preached in Plymouth Church, November 21, 1861. Phila- delphia, 1861. The Independent. Edited by H. W. B., December 19, 1861, to December 21, 1862. The Love Element of the Gospel. H. W. B. Printed at request of Father Cleveland, Boston. Crime and its Remedy. H. W. B. Issued by the Howard Association, London. Fast-Day Sermons ; or, The Pulpit on the State of the Country. Peace be Still. H. W. B. pp. 265-292 ; Rudd & Carlton: New York, 1861. Sermon before the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the New York and Brooklyn Foreign Missionary Society. Pub- lished with the Proceedings. New York, 1862. xxii BIBLIOGRAPHY Eyes and Ears, from the New York Ledger. Boston, 1862 ; London, 1862 ; Boston, 1863 ; (3d edition) Boston, 1866, '67; New York, 1887. Printed in England as Royal Truths. Eyes and Ears, by Henry Ward Beecher (author of Life Thoughts). London: Sampson & Co., 1862. The Methodist. (Includes sermons by H. W. B.) New York, 1862. Royal Truths, by Henry Ward Beecher. (6th thousand.) Alexander Strahan & Co. : Edinburgh ; Hamilton Adam & Co.: London, 1862. Freedom and War. Discourses on Topics Suggested by the Times. Boston : Ticknor & Fields, 1863. American Cause in England. Address at Manchester, England, October, 1863. James Redpath, Boston, 1863 ; New York, 1863. American Rebellion. Report of Speeches of Henry Ward Beecher delivered in England at Public Meetings in Man- chester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London ; and at the farewell breakfasts in London, etc. Manchester, England, 1864 ; London, 1864. Sermons by Henry Ward Beecher. (15 nos.) London: J. Heaton & Son, 42 Paternoster Row, E. C, 1864. Sermons of H. W. Beecher. 2 vols. Dickinson: London, 1864. Aids to Prayer. New York : A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1864, '66, '87. Our Minister Plenipotentiary, by O. W. Holmes, in The Atlantic Monthly. Boston, 1864. Universal Suffrage. An Argument by H. W. Beecher, including report of conference between Secretary Stanton, General Sherman, and Freedmen in Savannah. Delivered in Plymouth Church, Sunday evening, February 2, 1865. Printed by William E. Whiting, New York, 1865. Trip of the Oceanus. Address at Fort Sumter, April 14, 1865. New York, 1865. Also reprinted as an Old South Leaflet, Boston. Sermon on Lincoln's Death. New York, 1865. Universal Suffrage and Complete Equality in Citizenship. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxiii Discourses by H. W. Beeeher, Andrew Johnson, and Wen- dell Phillips. Boston, 1865. Reports of the New England Society of New York. (In- clude addresses by H. W. B.) See Reports for 1866, '67, '71, '72, '73, '74, and '83. Presentation Memorial to Workingmen. Oration at the raising of the old flag at Sumter, and sermon on the death of Lincoln, with sketch of Lincoln. Manchester, England, 1865. Letter to the Soldiers and Sailors. New York, 1866. The Political Status of Women, by Henry Ward Beeeher, in The Friend, vol. i. New York, 1866. Address at the Anniversary of the American Missionary Association, 1866. 595 Pulpit Pungencies. G. W. Carleton: New York, 1866 ; London, 1866. Address at National Woman's Rights Convention, May 10, 1866. Reprinted as Woman's Duty to Vote, 1866. Re- printed, 1898. The Methodist. Has fortnightly sermons by H. W. B. New York, December 8, '66, to February 13, '69. Norwood, a novel (from New York Ledger). New York, 3 vols., by Scribners, 1867, '68, '80, '91. J. B. Ford, 1874 and 1898; London, 1867; Sampson, Low & Co., 1887. Address at Laying Corner-stone of Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn. Brooklyn, 1867. On Health. An Address delivered before the New York Medical Students' Union, Brooklyn. Brooklyn, 1867. Royal Truths, by Henry Ward Beeeher. Boston : Tick- nor & Fields, 1867. Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit. Stenographically re- ported. A. C. Armstrong : New York, 1867 ; Scribners' seventh edition, 1868 , Armstrong, 1895. Famous Americans, by James Parton. Chapter on H. W. B. and his Church. 1867. Article on Plymouth Church, The Atlantic Monthly, Bos. ton, 1867. Sermons by Henry Ward Beeeher. Edited by Lyman Abbott. 2 vols. Harper & Bros.: New York, 1868. xxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY Prayers in the Congregation, by Henry Ward Beecher, D. D. Strahan & Co.: 58 Ludgate Hill, London, 1868. Putnam's Magazine (sketch of H. W. B.). New York, 1868. Sunshine and Shadow in New York. Chapter on Beecher and Plymouth Church, by Matthew Hale Smith. Hartford: T. B. Bun & Co., 1868. Men of our Times, by H. B. Stowe. (Includes chapter on H. W. B., and portrait.) 1868. Illustrated Bible Biography. (Introduction by H. W. B.) Boston, 1868. Plymouth Pulpit, New York, September, 1868, to Septem- ber, 1873. J. B.Ford & Co. Gnaw-Wood ; or, New England Life in a Village. A satire on Norwood. New York : National News Co., 1868. Sermons, by H. W. Beecher. Dickinson : London, 1869, and thereafter to 1886. Oratory, Sacred and Secular, by Wm. Pittenger. In- cludes note on and sketch of H. W. B. New York : Samuel R. Wells, 1869. The Funeral Service of Mrs. Lucy W. Bullard. Address by H. W. B. Worcester, 1869. How Beecher Makes his Sermons, by Ralph Meeker. Packard's Monthly, March, 1869. The Overture of the Angels, by H. W. Beecher. J. B. Ford, 1869. The Great Metropolis, by J. N. Browne. Chapter 27 on H. W. B. Hartford, 1869. The Christian Union. Edited by Henry Ward Beecher, January 1, 1870, to November 2, 1881. New York. Now The Outlook. The Potato Book, by G. W. Beat. Includes article on the Potato Mania by H. W. B. 1870. Familiar Talks on General Christian Experience, by Henry Ward Beecher. London : Nelson & Sons, Paternos- ter Row, 1870 ; Edinburgh and New York. Lecture-Room Talks. A Series of Familiar Discourses on Themes of General Christian Experience. J. B. Ford & Co., 1870. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxv O. P. Morton's Oration. Prayer by H. W. B. 1870. Henry J. Raymond and the New York Press, by Augus- tus Maverick. Includes Mr. Beecher's funeral sermon. Hartford, Conn., 1870. 1000 Gems from the Sermons of Henry Ward Beecher, by the Rev. G. D. Evans, Victoria Park, London. Hod- der & Stoughton : 27 Paternoster Row, 1870. Common Sense for Young Men on the Subject of Tem- perance. A sermon by H. W. B., in Plymouth Church. New York : Natioual Temperance Society, 1871. Address at Semi-Centennial of Amherst College, July, 1871. On Labor ; Popular Errors in the Education of American Youth. By H. W. B. Baltimore, 1871 and 1872. The Unity of Italy. Includes address by H. W. B., at Academy of Music. New York, 1871. My Summer in a Garden. Charles Dudley Warner. In- troduction by H. W. B. Osgood : Boston, 1871. My Summer in a Garden. Charles Dudley Warner, with an Introduction by Henry Ward Beecher. London : Samp- son & Low. Morning and Evening Exercises. Edited by Lyman Ab- bott. Being selections from the published and unpublished writings of Henry Ward Beecher. Harper Bros., 1871. The Heavenly State and Future Punishment. Two ser- mons by Henry Ward Beecher. New York, 1871. The Life of Jesus the Christ, by Henry Ward Beecher. One vol. J. B. Ford & Co., 1871. Large edition, New York, 1872. Completed in two vols, by bis sons, 1891. Reissued by E. B. Treat, 1896. The Life of Jesus the Christ, by Henry Ward Beecher. Loudon : T. Nelson & Sons, Paternoster Row, 1871. Also issued in Edinburgh. Successful preaching, by J. Hall, T. L. Cuyler, and Henry Ward Beecher. American Tract Society : New York, 1871. Forty-eight Sermons preached by Henry Ward Beecher previous to 1867. London : R. D. Dickinson, 1871. Great Fortunes, by John B. McCabe. (Includes chapter on H. W. B.) New York, 1871. xxvi BIBLIOGRAPHY Una and her Paupers. Memorials of Agnes E. Jones. (Introductory preface by H. W. B.) New York, 1872. Remarks and Prayer at the Funeral of Elizabeth Cripps. 1870. Records of the Proceedings at the Unveiling of the Frank- lin Statue at Printing-House Square, New York City. (In- cludes an address by H. W. B.) New York, 1872. A Day in Plymouth Church, — Henry Ward Beecher's. S. W. Partridge & Co.: London, 9 Paternoster Row, 1872 ; Glasgow : Thomas Murray & Son, 1872. Popular Lectures on Preaching, by Henry Ward Beecher. Glasgow: Joseph Man & Sons ; London: Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1872. Should Libraries and Public Reading-Rooms be opened on Sunday ? Address delivered by Henry Ward Beecher at the request of members of the Mercantile Library Asso- ciation of New York, at Cooper Union Hall, Monday, April 22, 1872. Phonographically reported by T. J. Ellinwood. Contemporary Review. Sketch of H. W. B., by H. R. Haweis. London, 1872. Temperance Sermons, No. 10, Liberty and Love. An Appeal to the Conscience to Banish the Wine Cup. New York, 1872. Men of our Day, by L. P. Brockett. (Includes portrait and chapter on H. W. B.) St. Louis, 1872. Scribner's Monthly. Article by A. McElroy Wylie. New York, October, 1872. The History of Plymouth Church, including Historical Sketches of the Bethel and the Navy Missions, by N. L. Thompson. J. W. Carleton: New York, 1873 ; London, 1873. New York Tribune Extra, No. 2. Lecture by H. W. B. on Compulsory Education. Yale Lectures on Preaching, by H. W. B. 3 vols. J. B. Ford & Co.: New York, 1872-74, also 1881 and 1893 ; Three vols, in one, 1900. London, 1872. The Present Fearful Commercial Pressure. Discourse by Henry Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church. London : W. Howell & Co. Price, one penny. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxvii Letters on the Future Life, addressed to Rev. Henry- Ward Beecher by B. F. Barrett. Philadelphia : Claxton, Remsen & Hafflinger, 1873 Duyckinck's Eminent Women and Men of America and Europe. Sketch and portrait of H. W. B. 1873. Plymouth Pulpit (New Series). New York : J. B. Ford & Co. Begun September 27, 1873 ; ended September 18, 1875 ; 4 volumes. Reprinted, 1891. New York Tribune Extras, Nos. 6 and 7. Yale Lectures for Ministers, by Henry Ward Beecher. Account of Services of Silver Wedding Week at Plymouth Church. Edited for Committee by H. C. King. New York, 1873. Sketches of Representative Men, by Augustus C. Rogers. Portrait and sketch of H. W. B. Atlantic Pub. Co.: New York, 1873. Proceedings at the Farewell to Professor Tyndall. (In- cludes address by H. W. B.) New York, 1873. William H. H. Murray's The Perfect Horse. Introduc- tion by H. W. B. Boston : James R. Osgood, 1873. Memorial of Horace Greeley. Funeral address by H. W. B. New York, 1873. The Discipline of Sorrow. H. W. B. J. B. Ford, 1874. Proceedings of the Evangelical Alliance. (Includes address by H. W. B.) New Vork, 1874. Clergy of New York and Brooklyn, by J. A. Patton. Sketch of H. W. B., and portrait. New York, 1874. A Summer Parish. Sketch and Discourses of the Morning Services at the Twin Mountain House, N. H., 1874. New York: J. B. Ford, 1875. Great Modern Preachers. Sketches of Spurgeon, Stop- ford Brooke, and Henry Ward Beecher. London, 1875. Truth and Candor Vindicated from the Assaults, and Christian Ministers Vindicated from the Compliments of Dr. Parker, City Temple, in his recent defences of Mr. Beecher, by Senex Rusticus. London : R. Coulcher, 50 Chancery Lane, 1874. Paxton's Complete and Illustrated Edition ; The Great xxviii BIBLIOGRAPHY Brooklyn Romance. All the Documents of the Beecher- Tilton Case, unabridged. New York: J. H. Paxton, 1874. The Great Sensation ; History of the Beecher-Tilton- Woodhull Scandal. Chicago, 1873. Ye Tilt-on Beecher; or, The muddle of ye mutual friends in verse, by the author of Ye Ball. pp. 24. New York, 1874. The Brooklyn Council of 1874 ; Letter Missive, State- ments, and Documents, together with a full stenographical report of the proceedings, and the result of the Council. New York, 1874. The Romance of Plymouth Church, its Pastor, and his Accusers, by E. P. Doyle. Hartford, Conn., 1874. Beecher and his Accusers, including Life of H. W. B., by F. P. Williamson. Philadelphia, 1874. New York Tribune Extra, No. 16. The Brooklyn Con- gregational Council (complete). New York, 1874. Wickedness in High Places, by E. B. Fairfield. Mans- field, O., 1874. Case of E. B. Fairfield, by R. R. Raymond. New York, 1874. Metropolitan Sermons. New York Tribune Extras, Nos. 19 and 20. Includes sketches of four sermons by H. W. B. The Story of Henry Ward Beecher and Theo. and Mrs. Tilton, by the Editor of the Anglo-American Times. Lon- don: Anglo-American Press, 1874. History of Plymouth Church, — Manual, Officers, and full list Members, pp. 92. 1874. Truth Stranger than Fiction. Guelph, Ont., 1874. The Beecher-Tilton Investigation ; Full and Impartial Account, pp. 126. E. E. Barclay & Co.: Philadelphia, 1874. Drama of Deceit. (A Satire in Verse on H. W. B.) Worcester, Mass., 1875. The Little Clincher, being the Great Biblical Defense of Henry Ward Beecher ; Spicy Poems and Pleasing Articles on the Beecher-Tilton Scandal (with scurrilous illustrations). Washington, D. C, 1875. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxix Case of Mr. Beecher. Opening address by Benj. F. Tracey. New York, 1875. Official Report of Trial of Henry Ward Beecher. Notes and References, edited by Austin Abbott. 2 vols. New York, 1874. The Vail Removed. (A Scurrilous Attack on H. W. B.) New York, 1874. A Looking-Glass for Henry Ward Beecher. (Similar to above in part.) H. W. B. vs. Theo. Tilton : Trial Proceedings. New York: McDivitt & Campbell. 2 vols., 1875. True History of the Brooklyn Scandal, by C. F. Marshall. Philadelphia: National Pub. Co., 1875. Catholic Sermons, Select Discourses by Eminent Minis- ters of Various Denominations. Vol. ii., pp. 97-108, Thank- fulness, H. W. B. London: F. E. Langley, 29 Warwick Lane, Paternoster Row, E. C, 1875. The Brooklyn Council of 1876. (Published by Plymouth Church.) New York: A. S. Barnes, 1875. Non-conformity upon the Henry Ward Beecher Case, — A protest against the action of Joseph Parker, in the City Temple, in sympathy with H. W. B. London, 1875. 2 editions. Uncontradicted Testimony in the Beecher Case. Preface by Lyman Abbott. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1875. The Result of the Brooklyn Advisory Council of 1876, with the Letters of Dr. Leonard Bacon, President Timothy Dwight, D. D., etc., etc. New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. The Beecher Trial. A Review of the Evidence for the New York Times, July 2, 1875. New York, 1875. Mr. Beecher's Trial : with Portrait. Harper's Weekly Supplement, June 5, 1875. An Address on Congregationalism as affected by the de- clarations of the Advisory Council held in Brooklyn, N. Y., February, 1876. By Richard S. Storrs, D. D. March 13, 1876. No publisher. References and citations prepared for the convenience of the Brooklyn Council of 1876. With prefatory note by Henry M. Storrs. No publisher. xxx BIBLIOGRAPHY Ingersoll, Beecher, and Dogma, by R. S. Dement. Chi- cago, 1875. Views and Interviews on Journalism. (Includes address by H. W. B., before State Editorial Reunion at Pough- keepsie.) Chas. F. Wingate, 1875. The Brooklyn Theatre Fire. Includes address by H. W. B.» at Memorial Services, Brooklyn. Daily Times Print, 1876- The Holocaust at the Brooklyn Theatre. Includes ad- dress by H. W.B. Daily Argus, Brooklyn, 1876. Oratory, An Oration by H. W. B. Philadelphia, 1876, '86, '92, '95, '97, '99. Centennial Orations. Includes address by H. W. B. Tribune Extra, No. 32, 1876. The Plymouth Chimes. Devoted to Plymouth Church and its Missions. 1877-1903. Address to the Army of the Republic, H. W. B. Spring- field, Mass., 1878. Past Perils and the Perils of To-day. A sermon by H. W. B. Christian Union Print, New York, 1878. The Background of Mystery. A Sermon by H. W. B., December 15, 1877. The Whole World in Pain. A sermon by H. W. B. Christian Union Print, 1878. The Strike and its Lessons. A sermon by H. W. B. New York, 1878. In the West. A sermon by H. W. B., with note by Lyman Abbott. Christian Union Print, 1878. Christianity Unchanged by Change. Two sermons by H. W. B., under one cover. Christian Union, No. 10, 1878. An Hour with the American Hebrew. Includes sermon by H. W. B. on Jew and Gentile. 1879, New York. The Plymouth Triangle. A paper of Plymouth Fair ? with article by H. W. B. Brooklyn, March, 1879. An Account of the Visit of the 13th Regiment, N. G. S., New York to Montreal, Canada. Includes address by H. W. B. Brooklyn, 1879. Golden Gleams from Henry Ward Beecher's Words and Works, by John T. Lloyd. Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, 1880. BIBLIOGRAPHY xm Plans for Reading. Edited by Lyman Abbott. Includes article by H. W. B. New York, 1880. Channing Memorial. Address by H. W. B. Brooklyn Academy of Music. Boston, 1880. Memorable Men of the Nineteenth Century. Life, H.» W. B., with portrait. J. T. Lloyd, London, 1881. Sermons of H. W. B., 1873-74. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, New York, 1882. New England Society of Brooklyn. Addresses by H. W. B. In Proceedings for 1881, '82, '84, '86. Henry Ward Beecher's Statement of Belief before the New York and Brooklyn Association. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1882 ; The Christian Union, 1882. O. A. Brownson, Works, vol. xiii. and vol. xix. Beech- erism and its Tendency. Detroit, 1882 and 1887. Progress of Thought in the Church, by H. W. Beecher. North American Review, August, 1882. In Memoriam : Hobart Schroeder. Portions Mr. Beecher's Friday evening talk. No date. Funeral Service of Dr. H. B. White. Address of H. W. B. March 28, 1883. On Free Trade and Congressional Elections. H. W. B. 1883. A Circuit of the Continent : Account of a tour through the West and South. By Henry Ward Beecher. With por- trait. Being his Thanksgiving Day discourse, Nov. 29, 1883. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. Life of Henry Ward Beecher by Lyman Abbott, assisted by S. B. Halliday. pp. 604. New York : Funk & Wagnalls, 1883; and with additional matter, London, 1887. Articles of Faith and Principles and Rules of Plymouth Church. Brooklyn, 1884. Leading Orators of 25 Campaigns, by W. C. Roberts, Portrait and sketch of H. W. B. New York : K. L. Strouse & Co., 1884, Address at the Brooklyn Rink, by H. W. B. Brooklyn, October, 1884. Wendell Phillips ; A Commemoration Discourse, by H. W. B. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1884. xxxii BIBLIOGRAPHY Beecher's Cleveland Letters : — Two Letters on the Re- construction of the Southern States, written by H. W. B., in 1866, with introductory postscript. 1884.. A Circuit of the Continent. A Thanksgiving sermon by H. W. B. New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1884. Comforting Thoughts (arranged by Irene Ovington from Beecher's sermons). New York: Fords, Howard & Hul- bert, 1884, '90, '93, 1901, with introduction by Newell Dwight Hillis. A Surrender to Infidelity. A reply to Rev. H. W. Beecher. A sermon preached by Justin D. Fulton, D. D., in the Cen- tennial Baptist Church, Brooklyn. New York : Funk & Wagnalls, 1884. Fifty Years among Authors, Books and Publishers. Reminiscences by J. C. Derby. Chapter on H. W. B. New York, 1884. Evolution and Religion. A few sermons by H. W. B., with portrait. New York : Gallison & Hobson, 18§5. Evolution and Religion. Part i. Theoretical. Part ii. Practical. Eight sermons discussing the bearing, of the Evolutionary Philosophy on the Fundamental Doctrines of Evangelical Christianity. New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1885, '86. London : James Clarke & Co. Dedication Ceremonies of N. Y. Lodge No. 1, B. P. O. Elks, at Evergreen Cemetery. Address of H. W. B. New York, 1885. H. B. Claflin Memorial Address, by H. W. B., March 14, 1885. New York, 1885. Funeral Sermon of Mary Carrington Healy, by H. W. B. No date. The New Theology of Henry Ward Beecher Briefly Re- viewed, by Henry Webb. Philadelphia, 1885. Memorial Volume of City of Boston, of U. S. Grant, including Eulogy of Grant by H. W. B. Boston, 1886. Beecher Book of Days. Compiled by Eleanor Kirk and C. B. Lerow. New York, 1886. E. T. Mason's Humorous Masterpieces. Selections from H. W. B. New York, 1886. Henry Ward Beecher's Last Sermon. Preached in Plymouth Church. London, 1887. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxxiii I am resolved what to do. Last sermon of Henry Ward Beecher, February 27, 1887. New York: Gallager & Hoeffer, 1887. Sermons in the Brooklyn Magazine, 1886-87. The Beecher Calendar for 1887. New York, 1887. Beecher as a Humorist. Selections from the published works of H. W. B. by Eleanor Kirk. New York. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1887. Henry Ward Beecher : A Memorial — Plymouth Church, 1887. The Christian Union Supplement : March 17, 1887. Il- lustrated. Containing biographical sketch, tribute, sermon by H. W. B., incidents, and anecdotes. The Christian Union Pub. Co. Henry Ward Beecher : His Life and Work. Partly re- print of above. Illustrated. The Christian World, London, No date. Beecher Memorial. Contemporaneous Tributes to His Memory. Edited by Edward W. Bok. New York: 1887. Same, London, James Clarke & Co., 1887. Memorial of Henry Ward Beecher, by Jos. H. Knight, New York, 1887. A Tribute to H. W. Beecher, by Rev. Frank Fitch, March 13, 1887. Buffalo, New York, 1887. Henry Ward Beecher. A Sermon by John W. Chadwick, March 13, 1887. G. H. Ellis, Boston, 1887. Henry Ward Beecher. A discourse delivered in the Union Park Congregational Church, March 13, 1887, by Rev. F. Noble, D. D. Chicago, 1887. Sermon in Plymouth Church, by Rev. Thomas Armitage, D. D., March 7, 1887. Brooklyn, 1887. Joseph Parker's Eulogy on Henry Ward Beecher, with letters by Gladstone and Grover Cleveland, with postscript, James Clarke & Co., London, 1887. Sermon by Rev. Duncan McGregor, D. D., preached in the Carroll Park M. E. Church on the death of Henry Ward Beecher. Printed by request of the Trustees. Brook- lyn, 1887. Henry Ward Beecher : A sketch of his career : with xxxiv BIBLIOGRAPHY analyses of his power as a preacher, lecturer, orator, and journalist ; and incidents and reminiscences of his life. By Lyman Abbott, D. D., assisted by Rev. S. B. Halliday. Hart- ford, Conn.: Am. Pub. Co., 1887. A Chaplain's Record. Article on H. W. Beecher, by Capt. D. E. Austen, in North American Review, April, 1887. New York, 1887. Patriotic Addresses in England and America, 1850 to 1885, by John R. Howard, with biographical sketch. New York, 1887 and 1891. Life of Henry Ward Beecher, by Joseph Howard, Jr. Hubbard Bros. : Philadelphia. Routledge's World Library — Henry Ward Beecher in the Pulpit, with an introduction by Rev. Hugh Reginald Haweis, M. A. London: Routledge & Son, Ludgate Hall, 1886. A Summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher, by James B. Pond. New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1887. Beecher's Personality. Article in the North American Review, by W. S. Searle, M. D. May, 1887. Henry Ward Beecher in England in 1886. James Clarke & Co. Addresses, Lectures, Sermons and Prayers, London, 1887. With biographical sketch and portrait. Beecher : Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and Philanthropist. A volume of representative selections, with biographical sketch, by Thos. W. Hanford. Chicago, 1887. Catalogue of the library, etc., of H. W. B. American Art Association : New York, 1887. Henry W. Beecher. A Lecture delivered by Felix Adler, for the Society of Ethical Culture at Chickering Hall, New York, 1887. Annual Cyclopaedia, Biography of H. W. B. New York, 1887. Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit. By Wm. Drysdale. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1887. As above, with introductory note by Joseph Parker, D. D., City Temple, London. Chas. Burnett & Co., 1887. BIBLIOGRAPHY The Moral Uses of Luxury and Beauty, by H. W. B. The Christian Union Print, 1887. The Boyhood of Henry Ward Beecher. A Litchfield Beecher Day, by Frank S. Child, New Creston, Conn. 1887. pp.32. Life and Work of Henry Ward Beecher, by Thos. W. Knox. Hartford, Conn., 1887. Speeches on the American Rebellion (first published in America). Edited by John Anderson, Jr. New York, 1887. Religion and Duty ; or, Fifty-eight Sunday Readings from Henry Ward Beecher. Selected and arranged by Rev. J. Reeves Brown. London : James Clarke & Co., 1887. The Apostle Preacher. A sermon preached in Wood St. Congregational Church, High Burnet, on Sunday, March 27, 1887, in memory of the late Henry Ward Beecher, by Rev. J. Matthews, with a preparatory note by Rev. Joseph Par- ker, D. D. London: G. W. Cowing. Life of Henry Ward Beecher, by W. C. Griswold. Por- trait and illustrations. Centrebrook, Conn., 1887. Anecdotes of Henry Ward Beecher, by N. A. Shenstone. Chicago : R. R. Donnelly & Son, 1887. Albany Law Journal, J. D. Parsons, March 19, 1887. Proposed Memorial to the late Henry Ward Beecher. F. W. Evans, Mt. Lebanon College, New York, 1887. Biography of Henry Ward Beecher, by W. C. Beecher and Samuel Sooville, assisted by Mrs. H. W. Beecher. New York : Chas. L. Webster & Co., 1888. The above, London, by Sampson, Low, Marston & Co., 1888. Current Religious Perils, by Joseph Cook. (Contains re- marks on H. W. B.) Henry Ward Beecher. Memorial Address delivered in Plymouth Church, by R. W. Raymond, March 11, 1888. A String of Pearls. Selections from H. W. B. New York, 1888. Beecher, by G. W. Washburn. J. B. Lippincott : Phila- delphia, 1888. Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe, by C. E. Stowe. (Con- letters from H. W. B.) New York, 1889. BIBLIOGRAPHY Signs oil Promise. Sermons by Lyman Abbott. (Contains Memorial Sermons on H. W. B.) New York, 1889. Crown of Life. Selections from the writings of H. W. B., by Mary Storrs Haynes, with introduction by R. W. Ray- mond. Boston : D. Lothrop & Co. Memorial Service in Plymouth Church, March, 1891, with Memorial Address by Thos. G. Shearman. New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1891. Mr. Beecher as I knew him. Mrs. H. W. Beecher, in Ladies' Home Journal, Philadelphia, October, 1895. Faith. Mr. Beecher's last (morning) sermon. Ellinwood : Brooklyn, 1891, '92. The Hidden Manna and the White Stone. A sermon by Mr. Beecher, July 6, 1866, with appendix by Mrs. Beecher. Ellinwood : Brooklyn, 1892. A Book of Prayer, by H. W. Beecher. Compiled by El- linwood. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1892 ; Dickinson : London, 1892. Addresses. Edited by F. Saunders. (Includes the Advance of a Century by H. W. B.) 1893. Bible Studies. Readings in the early history of the Old Testament, with familiar comments ; Plymouth Church, 1878-79. Edited by John R. Howard. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, New York, 1893. Best Thoughts of Henry Ward Beecher, with portrait and biographical sketch, by Lyman Abbott, D. D. H. G. Good- speed & Co., 1893. Life of H. W. Beecher, the Shakespeare of the Pulpit. By J. H. Barrows, D. D. New York : Funk & Wagnalls, 1893. London and Toronto. Other Essays from the Easy Chair. G. W. Curtis. In- cludes account of Mr. Beecher's preaching on Lincoln's death. New York, 1893. The Plymouth Hymnal. Edited by Lyman Abbott. (Con- tains historical introduction on the service rendered to hymnology by H. W. B.) New York : The Outlook Co., 1893. Donn Piatt : Sunday Meditations. Includes selected sketches by H. W. B. Cincinnati : Robt. Clark, 1893. BIBLIOGRAPHY xxxvii Beecher Exonerated. A poem by Isaac M. Inman. New York : Franklin Press Co., 1893. History of the 13th Regiment. Chapter on H. W. B. as chaplain, with portrait. Brooklyn, 1894. Famous Leaders Among Men. Sarah Knowles Bolton. Includes account of H. W. B. New York and Boston, 1894. Metaphors, Similes, and other Characteristic Sayings from the Discourses of H. W. B. Edited by Ellinwood. Introduction by H. B. Sprague. Andrew Graham : New York, 1895 ; London, 1895. Specimens of Argumentative Modes. Compiled by George P. Baker, Assistant Professor in English', Harvard University. Henry Holt & Co., 1896. Includes speech delivered by H. W. Beecher in Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, October 18, 1863, with notes by the editor, as an illustration of persuasive oratory. Library of the World's Best Literature. Includes por- trait of H. W. B., and review of his work, by Lyman Ab- bott, in vol. iii. New York, 1896. Men Who Win ; or, Making Things Happen, by Wm. Thayer. Has chapter on H. W. B. T. Nelson & Sons, New York, 1896. The Literature of America, by W. W. Birdsall and others. Account of H. W. B. Chicago and Philadelphia, 1897. The New Puritanism. Addresses at the Semi-Centennial of Plymouth Church, by Lyman Abbott, Amory H. Brad- ford, Charles A. Berry, George A. Gordon, Washington Gladden, and W. J. Tucker. Introduction by R. W. Ray- mond. New York : Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1897 ; Lon- don : James Clarke & Co., 1897. Poetical Sermons; Including the Ballad of Plymouth Church, and The Heart of the Republic. (Poems on H. W. B., by W. E. Davenport.) New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. Address on H. W. B., by J. B. Pond, before the Long bland Historical Society. Brooklyn, 1897. Giants of the Republic, by J. H. Vincent. Chapter on H. W. B. 1898. xxxviii BIBLIOGRAPHY Autobiographical Reminiscences. Edited by T. J. Ellin- wood. Selections from talks by H. W. B. New York, 1898. R. C. Ringwalts. Modern American Oratory. Includes The Sepulchre in the Garden, by H. W. B. New York, 1898. American Orations. Edited by A. Johnson. Includes H. W. B.'s Liverpool Address. 1898. The Fruit of the Spirit, by Rev. Alford B. Penniman. Chapter on H. W. B. Adams, Mass., New York, 1898. Reminiscences, by Justin M'Carthy. Chapter on H. W. B., and Woman's Rights. Harper Bros. : New York, 1899. Patriotic Nuggets. New York : Fords, Howard & Hul- bert, 1899. The Clergy in American Life and Letters, by D. D. Addison. Includes account of H. W. B. London: Macmillan, 1900. The World's Best Orations. Edited by David J. Brewer. Includes oration by H. W. B. New York, 1899. Brooklyn Eagle Library. No. 39, Plymouth Church An- nals. February, 1900. Eccentricities of Genius, by J. B. Pond. Chapter on H. W. B. New York : G. W. Dillingham, 1901. Henry Ward Beecher. Article in Encyclopaedia Britan- nica, by Lyman Abbott, D. D. 1902. Henry Ward Beecher Souvenir. (A booklet of quota- tions.) No date. Translation into German, by Rossiter W. Raymond, of Life Thoughts, by H. W. B. Berlin. No date. Translation into German of Royal Truths, with a Sermon on the Slavery Question, by H. W. B. Berlin. Translation into German of Sermons, by H. W. B., with a biographical introduction by Henri Tollin. Berlin, 1870. Translation into Welsh of quotations from H. W. B. and others. Crexham, Hughes & Son. No date. HENRY WARD BEECHER HENRY WARD BEECHER CHAPTER I The beginning of Mr. Beecher's real life was a spiritual experience which he himself has graphi- cally described. I can find no exact date for this experience ; but the opening sentence of his de- scription implies that it occurred after his gradua- tion from Amherst College ; and in his address to the London ministers in 1886 he refers to it as having taken place in the Ohio woods, and " when he had studied theology," evidently therefore dur- ing his seminary course. I was a child of teaching and prayer ; I was reared in the household of faith ; I knew the Catechism as it was taught ; I was instructed in the Scriptures as they were expounded from the pulpit and read by men ; and yet, till after I was twenty-one years old, I groped without the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus. I know not what the tablets of eternity have written down, but I think that when I stand in Zion and before God, the brightest thing I shall look back upon will be that blessed morning of May when it pleased God to reveal to my wandering soul the idea that it was his nature to love a man in his sins for the sake of helping him out of them ; that he did 2 HENRY WARD BEECHER not do it out of compliment to Christ, or to a law, or a plan of salvation, but from the fullness of his great heart ; that he was a Being not made mad by sin, ^ut sorry ; that he was not furious with wrath toward the sinner, but pitied him — in short that he felt toward me as my mother felt toward me, to whose eyes my wrong-doing brought tears, who never pressed me so close to her as when I had done wrong, and who would fain with her yearning love lift me out of trouble. And when I found that Jesus Christ had such a disposition, and that when his disciples did wrong he drew them closer to him than he did before — and when pride, and jealousy, and rivalry, and all vul- gar and worldly feelings rankled in their bosoms, he opened his heart to them as a medicine to heal these infirmities ; when I found that it was Christ's nature to lift men out of weakness to strength, out of impurity to goodness, out of everything low and debasing to superi- ority, I felt that I had found a God. I shall never for- get the feelings with which I walked forth that May morning. The golden pavements will never feel to my feet as then the grass felt to them ; and the singing of the birds in the woods — for I roamed in the woods — was cacophonous to the sweet music of my thoughts ; and there were no forms in the universe which seemed to me graceful enough to represent the Being, a conception of whose character had just dawned on my mind. I felt, when I had with the Psalmist called upon the heavens, the earth, the mountains, the streams, the floods, the birds, the beasts, and universal being to praise God, that I had called upon nothing that could praise him enough for the revelation of such a nature as that in the Lord Jesus Christ. Time went on, and next came the disclosure of a Christ ever present with me — a Christ that was never far from me, but was always near me, as a companion and friend, THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 3 to uphold and sustain me. This was the last and the best revelation of God's Spirit to my soul. It is what I con- sider to be the culminating work of God's grace in a man ; and no man is a Christian until he has experienced it. I do not mean that a man cannot be a good man until then ; but he has not got to Jerusalem till the gate has been opened to him, and he has seen the King sitting in his glory, with love to him individually. To the interpretation of this vision and the im- partation of the life which it begot in him he thenceforth gave himself. Was this vision true ? Was this life of value ? By the answer to these two questions his character and career must be meas- ured. Some changes in public sentiment are so radi- cal and so widespread that it is almost impossi- ble for one born in the later time to realize from what they have been delivered or the price which has been paid for their deliverance. It is difficult for readers living in the light and warmth of the twentieth century to realize the conception of reli- gious truth and life which dominated the reason and the conscience in the beginning of the nineteenth century. But some understanding of this concep- tion is absolutely necessary if one would compre- hend the life or estimate the public service of Henry Ward Beecher. For that service lies not so much in any definite contribution to theological thought as in a change made in the atmosphere of religious thinking and living. The nineteenth century opened with very little 4 HENRY WARD BEECHER of either light or warmth in the Puritan churches of England and America. Aggressive piety was al- most confined to the Methodist churches, which had not yet lost the enthusiasm of their first great love and their first surprising successes. The philosophy of Locke was the dominant philosophy in England, and was preparing the public mind for the material- ism of Maudsley, the agnosticism of Herbert Spen- cer, and the Utilitarianism of Bentham and of Mill. In the Church of England worship was a dull rou- tine and faith a cold intellectualism. The orthodox definition of faith made it synonymous with belief, the orthodox definition of virtue made it synony- mous with happiness. Mental philosophy ignored the spiritual element in man ; moral philosophy de- nied the virtues of self-denial and suffering. Already, as the first quarter of that century drew to its close, the protest of the unquenchable instincts of the heart had begun to make itself felt in three distinct but substantially contemporaneous movements. In the Oxford Movement earnest men, making quest for that life which the popular philosophy of the day either quietly ignored or dogmatically denied, turned their faces backward, and sought, by reviv- ing the mystical doctrines and the elaborate ritual of the half -pagan church of the early ages, to revive the life which had animated both. Under the inspi- ration of such devout souls as the poet John Keble and the prophet John Henry Newman, there was a revival of archaeology in religion, the results of which are still to be seen in a revived Anglo-Ro- THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 5 manism, an imitative ritualism, and a vigorous and vital work of Christian beneficence among the poor and the outcast. Simultaneously started, though without organism or acknowledged leader, the Broad Church Movement, in which men, equally dissat- isfied with the superficial philosophy of the age, sought for spiritual truth by looking within for the witness to it, a movement whose prophets — Er- skine, Maurice, Thomas Arnold, Robertson, Kings- ley, Stanley, and Farrar — have made their voices heard across the Atlantic, where their interpre- tation of life has been caught up and reechoed by such prophets as our own Munger, Mulford, Brooks, and a score of others. The same dissatis- faction with the ideals of the Church and the uni- versities sent still another school in search of spirit- ual life to the Scriptures, whose truths found new interpreters in such scholars as Tregelles, Words- worth, Davidson, Ellicott, Alford, and Conybeare and Howson. This threefold reaction against a spiritless psy- chology and a superficial if not an Epicurean moral philosophy must not be forgotten in making any true estimate of the progress of thought in our own churches on this side of the Atlantic. For here, too, the churches had lost their power over the masses of the people, though from other causes. They were manacled by a fatalism which they had in- herited from the Reformation. Luther himself de- clared that man had lost his freedom by the Fall, and that God had in his secret counsels reserved 6 HENRY WARD BEECHER certain of his children to inevitable reprobation. Calvin, equipped with less tender sympathies and with more remorseless logic, had undertaken to drag these counsels out from the secret places where Luther left them in hiding, and to blazon them abroad throughout all Europe. The Methodist re- volt against a fatalism as inconsistent with Scrip- ture as it is with personal consciousness had only intensified in the churches of Puritan descent the dangerous dogmas of unconditional election and reprobation. These churches held that God existed for his own glory ; that he had eternally elected a few to salvation, and reprobated the many to end- less sin and shame ; that he had made this choice for them without reference to their character or actions ; that the decree was absolutely irrevocable ; that the damnation of the many and the salvation of the few served equally, not only to enhance his majesty and redound to his praise, but also to in- crease his joy and the holy joy of the blessed. The least of the evils which accompanied the preaching of this travesty on the Scriptures, founded on the misapprehension of a few enigmatical texts taken out of their connection and therefore robbed of their true meaning, was the infidelity which it fos- tered. It quickened unbelief and deadened vital piety. There were no revivals. The churches did not believe in them. The minister was a winnower whose Gospel was a fan in his hand, with which he se- lected the eternally chosen grain, while the unalter- able chaff was swept away into unquenchable fire. THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 7 Theology is at once the cause and the product of the religious life ; and the religious life of New England in the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury was such as this theology might well be ex- pected to indicate. Intemperance was all but universal. It entered not only every village, but every home. Every store was a drinking store. The noisome odors of the bar polluted even the parsonage on the occasion of ordinations and other kindred ministerial gatherings. Slavery not merely held three millions of slaves in bondage, but con- trolled the nation, and openly formed its plan for making of the republic a great slave empire ; denied the right of free speech in both North and South ; denied the right of petition in Congress ; and so stifled the Church that only in isolated pulpits was the voice of remonstrance raised against it. There was no missionary zeal, and at the beginning of the century no missionary organization, either home or foreign. The American Board, the mo- ther of them all, was organized only three years before Mr. Beecher was born, and then against the open opposition of conservatism in the Church and the still more serious obstacle of an almost universal indifference. Infidelity was common. Thomas Paine was far more popular in his day than Robert Ingersoll has been in ours, and Byron was far more read and admired than is Swinburne now. When Dr. D wight took the presidency of Yale College, there were in it two Thomas Paine societies and only four or five students known to 8 HENRY WARD BEECHER be professing Christians; and so popular was French infidelity that a number of the leading members of the Senior class had dropped their own names and taken instead the names of lead- ing French infidels, as Voltaire, Rousseau, and D'Alembert. There was, it is true, a " Moral Society of Yale College ; " but apparently it was organized only to debate religious and ethical ques- tions, and it is significant that it was a secret soci- ety, and any disclosure of its proceedings was pun- ishable by expulsion. 1 In the churches long creeds were being substituted for the short and simple covenants of the earlier Puritans, in a vain hope thus to turn back the current. The great Uni- tarian revolt against Puritan theology had already begun with the settlement of Channing in Boston in 1803, a revolt which became organic in the formation of .the Unitarian Association in 1825. There was already impending the battle between the Old School and the New School in theology, which subsequently rent the Presbyterian denomi- nation, and would have rent the Congregational- ists also if they had been sufficiently organized to be capable of division. Such was the legacy which the Puritan theology of the eighteenth century had left to New Eng- land : a fear of God ; a reverence for his law ; a strenuous though narrow and conventional con- 1 Life of Timothy Dwight : Introduction to Dwighfs Theology, p. 20 ; Two Centuries of Christian Activity at Yale College, p. 55 ; Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher, i. 43. THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 9 science ; but also a religion divorced from ethics ; a Church silent in the presence of intemperance and slavery ; without missionary zeal or mission- ary organization; threatened by the intellectual revolt which eventually carried from it some of its wisest and noblest men ; and surrounded by a com- munity lapsing into indifference and neglect or combining in open and cynical infidelity. But already conscience was beginning to protest within the Church against these spiritual condi- tions. Dr. Timothy Dwight in New Haven put the infidelity of Thomas Paine on trial by a re- statement of Christian doctrine in more rational forms than those which had created the infidel reaction against Christianity. Dr. Lyman Beecher in Boston restated orthodox doctrine in reply to the criticisms of Dr. Channing, and in such a way as to provoke the criticisms of the conservative in the orthodox churches. Albert Barnes was put on trial in Philadelphia for teaching that God is love and man is free. Drs. Finney and Nettleton em- phasized their faith in a new theology by the " new measures " which they inaugurated in revivals of religion. The organization in 1810 of the Ameri- can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was followed by the organization of the American Home Missionary Society 1 in 1826. The first gun in the long temperance campaign, fired by Dr. Lyman Beecher in 1826, was followed by the 1 The name has since been changed to The Congregational Home Missionary Society. 10 HENRY WARD BEECHER organization of the Washingtonian Society and the birth of the Washingtonian Movement in 1840. Into this atmosphere of awakening life Henry- Ward Beecher was born, and in it he grew up to manhood. The theological movement which had radically changed the character and spirit of the Church had in America many leaders ; chief among them I count Horace Bushnell, Charles G. Finney, and Henry Ward Beecher : the first, the prophet of faith ; the second, the prophet of hope ; the third, the prophet of love. Dr. Emmons died in 1840, the last of the merely logical preachers of New England ; and with him died the orthodox rationalism which, up to the close of the eighteenth century, dominated the Puritan pulpit. This rationalism assumed that man is a reasonable creature ; that the reason is the supreme faculty ; that this reason is to be con- vinced by the truth ; and when it is convinced, the will must of necessity obey ; and that when this result is reached, the man is a converted man and a new creature. Such was the philosophy which, sometimes avowed, sometimes unrecognized, under- lay the earlier Puritan preaching. The whole fabric of the religious life was built by logical pro- cesses, with doctrine, on the human reason. But all men are not logical, and all men do not obey the truth even when it is made clear to their lo- gical understanding. Spiritual truth is not mined by picks and beaten out by hammers ; it is not to be arrived at by slow processes of demonstration, THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 11 but to be apprehended and appreciated upon the bare presentation of it. Truth is a form of life ; and only as it is received as a life, vitalizing and dominating the soul, is it spiritually efficacious. Of this philosophy, which is more than a philo- sophy, Horace Bushnell was the chief exponent in the Puritan churches. That the invisible world is immediately and directly seen by the spirit of men ; that God is no mere hypothesis to account for the phenomena of creation, but man's best friend, his Father, and intimate personal companion ; that inspiration is no remote phenomenon, once attested by miracles now buried forever in the grave of a dead God, but the universal and eternal commun- ion between living souls and the living God ; that the Bible is no infallible record offered as a sub- stitute for such communion, but a prophetical illus- tration of its reality and an incentive to its con- tinuance ; that; the forgiveness of sins is infinitely more than any theory of atonement, and that no theory of atonement can comprehend the full mean- ing of the forgiveness of sins — these were not the theories of a philosopher, but the vital convictions, because the living experiences, of the saint, whose sainthood must be in the heart of the critic of Horace Bushnell before he can criticise, and in the heart of the disciple before he can comprehend. This progress toward a more spiritual apprehen- sion of truth carried with it a clearer conception of human liberty. All theories of fatalism fall away before the personal test of self-consciousness. 12 HENRY WARD BEECHER That man is a free moral agent ; that he can do right and is therefore blameworthy for doing wrong ; that he is sinful — not because he was made so, but because he had made himself so: the nineteenth century is the century of political and industrial emancipation, because in the redis- covery of this truth it has won spiritual emancipa- tion. The Lutherans have long since disowned Luther's theory of a secret counsel of God. The Calvinists have abandoned John Calvin's doctrine that man lost moral freedom by the Fall. The doctrines of limited atonement and of uncondi- tional election, though they may still be preserved in fossiliferous creeds, are rarely, if ever, dragged forth from their archaeological retreat, at least by any son of the Puritan in any Puritan church. Civilization disowns them absolutely, unanimously, and with indignation. The power of Charles G. Finney lay in his vigorous and vehement interpre- tation of this indignant protest within the orthodox Church against the spirit of fatalism. His clarion- like voice, his logical mind, his legal education, his intensity of conviction, his singularly unaffected and unconventional piety, his impressive personal- ity, combined with his overmastering sense of man's liberty and therefore of man's responsibility, made him the most remarkable revival preacher of his age. To men paralyzed by the despair engendered by fatalism, his message was, You can, therefore you may ; to men paralyzed by the indif- ference engendered by fatalism, his message was, THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 13 You can, therefore you must. Liberty and re- sponsibility are always coterminous ; hope and duty are different aspects of the same experience. Dr. Finney was the preacher of liberty and responsi- bility ; he was therefore an apostle of duty and of hope. If Horace Bushnell was the apostle of faith, and Charles G. Finney was the apostle of hope, Mr. Beecher was characteristically the apostle of love. The Puritan did not believe that God is love. His conception of God was represented by the phrase most commonly used to describe him — "The Moral Governor of the Universe." The phrase " Fatherhood of God " is rarely found in the sermons of the older Puritan divines. The dominant doctrine concerning God in the Puritan churches in the first third of the nineteenth cen- tury is fairly represented in Dr. Edward Payson's sermon on " Jehovah, a King " : " Jehovah is a great king ; under obligations to make laws for his subjects ; the best and wisest laws possible ; and to enforce those laws and inflict the threatened pun- ishment on all who transgress them." The dom- inant doctrine concerning the Bible is represented by Dr. Lyman Beecher's sermon in 1817 on " The Bible a Code of Laws " : " The word of God is a code of law which the Moral Governor of the Uni- verse has given us to set forth his glory." To Henry Ward Beecher, from that day in May when the vision was afforded to him which he has re- counted, Christ was God ; not a messenger sent from 14 HENRY WARD BEECHER God ; not a Someone coming between God and the human soul to appease God and admit the human soul to the privileges of a purchased mercy ; not a manifestation of the mercy of God, holding back for a little while the wrath of God, as hounds are held back by the leash until it is cut and they are set free ; but God manifest in the flesh : no wrath in God that was not in Christ ; no justice in God that there was not in Christ; no judgment which God has ever rendered or ever will render that Christ has not typified in his earthly judgments on Publican and Pharisee ; no meekness, tenderness, sympathy, patience, long-suffering in Christ that are not in the Father whom he manifested on the earth. This to Mr. Beecher was not a theory : it was a vital experience. He honored Christ as he honored the Father ; to him all revelation of God was in Christ, all revelation of duty was in Christ's life, all revelation of truth was in Christ's teach- ing. Criticised because he lectured in Boston upon Theodore Parker's platform, he thus replied to the intimation that he was at one with Theodore Parker in his religious beliefs : — Could Theodore Parker worship my God ? — Christ Jesus is his name. All that there is of God to me is bound up in that name. A dim and shadowy effluence rises from Christ, and that I am taught to call the Father. A yet more tenuous and invisible film of thought arises, and that is the Holy Spirit. But neither are to me aught tangible, restful, accessible. They are to be re- vealed to my knowledge hereafter, but now only to my THE MEANING OF MR. BEECHER'S LIFE 15 faith. But Christ stands my manifest God. All that I know is of him, and in him. I put my soul into his arms, as, when I was born, my father put me into my mother's arms. I draw all my life from him. I bear him in my thoughts hourly, as I humbly believe that he also bears me. For I do truly believe that we love each other ! — I, a speck, a particle, a nothing, only a mere beginning of something that is gloriously yet to be when the warmth of God's bosom shall have been a summer for my growth ; — and HE, the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace ! How this faith grew up in Mr. Beecher, how as a boy he was prepared for it, what it came to mean to him, what in theological and ethical instruction it involved, how far he was faithful to it, and what effect his preaching of it by pen and voice has pro- duced in the life of the American people, it will be the purpose of this volume to show. For in this faith we find the key to the interpretation of his character and his career, as a preacher, a moral reformer, an editor, a lecturer, and an author. CHAPTER II THE MAKING OF THE MAN Henry Ward Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24, 1813, the eighth child of Lyman and Roxana Foote Beecher. 1 I make no attempt to trace his genealogy farther back ; those who desire to do so will find the material in the " Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher." Lyman Beecher was a Congregational minister, who attained in his day an eminence scarcely less than that which his son later attained. During his active pastorate (1798-1834) the country was smaller; the means of intercommunication less; there were no railroads; steamboats were just coming into use; the telegraph did not exist ; newspapers were few and poorly equipped, and rarely gave reports of ser- mons or religious assemblages ; the questions which stirred the public excited neither the passion of en- thusiasm nor the passion of rancor which was aroused by the antislavery conflict and the Civil War. For these reasons, if for no other, the reputation of the 1 The statement in the family Biography of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher that he was the ninth child (page 41) is evidently a slip of either pen or type, as appears from a comparison with other statements in the Biography and with the Autobiography and Cor- respondence of Lyman Beecher. THE MAKING OF THE MAN 17 father never extended so widely as that of the son. But contemporaries who were familiar with both not infrequently rated the elder preacher as the equal in forcefulness and power of the younger. I recall, as one of the dim memories of my boyhood, a sermon which I heard Lyman Beecher preach in Boston something over half a century ago, probably after his retirement from the active ministry. It was directed against the doctrine that man can be saved by good works. I recall the figure of the preacher, the spectacles upon the nose while he was reading his notes and thrust up upon the forehead or sometimes held in the hand while he was extem- porizing, the impassioned gestures, the torrent of words, the vehemence of conviction behind them, and the general outline of the sermon — an imagi- nary ledger page, with the good deeds put on the credit side, and the failures, the omissions, and the sins on the debit side, and the balance cast up at the foot of the page. More than this I do not recall. But I am sure that no sermon would be remembered by me for fifty years if it had not been one of extraordinary impressiveness. In fact there is only one other sermon, only two addresses of any kind, of that period, that have left any impression on my mind : the first, a sermon by the elder Tyng to young men ; the second, the address by Daniel Webster given in 1850, in Niblo's Garden. Both the theological and the moral issues of 1813 were very different from those of the latter half of 18 HENRY WARD BEECHER the nineteenth century. In theology the burning questions were two : one, Is man a free moral agent, or is he under unalterable decrees of an omnipotent Creator ? the other, Is man so ruined in the Fall that he can be saved only by divine omnipotent grace through Jesus Christ, or is he by nature a child of God, possessing God's nature, needing little more than the corrections which come through normal development and healthful education, and is Jesus Christ only a teacher to direct him and an example for him to follow ? It seems strange now to read, in a letter of one of Dr. Lyman Beecher's contemporaries written to him in 1816, the following sentence : " The doc- trines of free agency and sinners' immediate duty to repent do wonders among my people. I preach them publicly and privately. I have no fear. My congregation the first Sabbath I preached after I got home stared as if I was crazy. * I am not mad, most noble Festus.' " It is difficult for us to-day to imagine a condition in which such preaching should have aroused opposition, excited enthusiasm, and produced revivals ; but such was the fact. Dr. Ly- man Beecher was an earnest advocate of this, which was then the " new theology," and he employed freely what were then known as the " new methods : " the prayer-meeting, the revival sermon, the inquiry bench, rising for prayer, and the open confession of Christ. A little later, when he moved from Litch- field to Boston, he represented the conservative ten- dencies in opposition to Unitarianism, as before he THE MAKING OF THE MAN 19 had represented the progressive tendencies in oppo- sition to Calvinism, and became by dint of his force- fulness and the earnestness of his convictions and his dramatic and oratorical ability the representa- tive of the Orthodox, as Channing was the repre- sentative of the Unitarians. He was by nature a warrior and delighted in battle. Theology was to him no dry and jejune science, but living and prac- tical. Truth was instrumental ; his problem always how so to use it as to stir, quicken, and develop life. He brought his theological controversies into the home circle, and set his boys arguing with him on every kind of question, political, moral, and theo- logical. He thus developed their mental muscle, taught them to do their own thinking, and to stand by their convictions and defend them against strong opposition. He had a delightful, naive, childlike egotism, quite free from self-conceit, yet inspiring him with a kind of self-assurance which is often the precursor of victory. Henry Ward Beecher once said to me : " My father always had the angel of hope looking over his shoulder when he wrote. I have always written with the angel of sorrow perched upon my pen ; success has always come as a surprise to me." Henry Ward Beecher was a man of many moods, and it was not safe to take too seriously such a self-interpretation, but that he rightly interpreted his father I have no doubt. The father's " Autobiography and Correspondence " af- fords many illustrations of this wholly unconscious egotism ; one instance will suffice to make clear 20 HENRY WARD BEECHER to the sympathetic reader this characteristic. The death of Alexander Hamilton in his duel with Aaron Burr had shocked the whole country. Dr. Lyman Beecher had taken the occasion to write and preach a sermon on dueling, which being published created no little stir. He followed it with a resolu- tion in the synod at Newark^ New Jersey, — for at this time he was settled in East Hampton, Long Island, and was in the Presbytery, — recommending the formation of societies against dueling. What ensued he thus describes : — I anticipated no opposition. Everything seemed go- ing straight. But next morning a strong reaction was developed, led by Dr. . The fact was, a class of men in his parish, politically affiliated with men of dueling principles, went to him and said the thing must be stopped. He came into the house and made opposi- tion, and thereupon others joined, and it suddenly raised such a storm as I never was in before nor since. The opposition came up like a squall, sudden and furious, and there I was, the thunder and lightning right in my face ; but I did not back out. When my turn came, I rose and knocked away their arguments, and made them ludicrous. Never made an argument so short, strong, and pointed in my life. I shall never forget it. There was a large body; house full; my opponent a D. D. ; and I was only thirty, a young man nobody had ever heard of. I shall never forget the looks of Dr. Miller after I began to let off. He put on his spectacles, came round till he got right opposite to where I stood, and there he stared at me with perfect amazement. Oh, I declare ! if I did not switch 'em, and scorch 'em, and stamp on 'em ! It swept all before it. Dr. made THE MAKING OF THE MAN 21 no reply. It was the centre of old fogyism, but I mowed it down, mid carried the vote of the house. 1 From this incident the reader will correctly sur- mise that Dr. Lyman Beecher carried into ethical questions the same intensity of conviction and fiery earnestness which he carried into theological con- troversies. He was more of a theologian than his son, but he was not less a moral reformer. Drink- ing in his time was universal ; drunkenness was common; alcoholic liquors were always provided at church ordinations, and not infrequently by the church, and charged in as a part of its expenses. It was customary to appoint a committee on tem- perance at the General Association, and it was cus- tomary for the committee to satisfy itself with platitudes. In 1812 a committee of the General Association of Massachusetts brought in a report of this description, the gist of it being, as Lyman Beecher afterwards summarized it, that intemper- ance had been for some time increasing in a most alarming manner, but that the committee were obliged to confess that they did not perceive that anything could be done. This report of inability was just the thing to stir the blood of Lyman Beecher. He rose instantly and moved the appoint- ment of a new committee ; he was necessarily made its chairman ; and the next day he brought in a report which he characterizes as " the most impor- tant paper that ever I wrote." This was followed 1 Autobiography and Correspondence of Lyman Beecher, vol. i. p. 153. 22 HENRY WARD BEECHER by a series of resolutions recommending the min- isters to preach on the subject of temperance, the churches to discontinue the use of ardent spirits at church meetings, and the people to cease using them as part of hospitable entertainment in social visits, to substitute palatable and nutritious drinks in the place of alcohol in providing for the work- inginen on the farm and elsewhere, and to cooper- ate with the civil magistrates in the execution of the laws. He did not at that time urge total abstinence. Fourteen years later he preached a famous series of sermons on temperance, which was one of the causes that led to the great Washing- tonian Movement. Such was the father of Henry Ward Beecher. The mother was not less remarkable, though in temperament and character singularly different. Roxana Foote came of a Cavalier ancestry, and her family had remained loyal to King George throughout the American Revolution. She was early confirmed in the Episcopal Church, and re- mained attached to its ceremonial ; but the reader must remember that the Episcopal Church at that time was in its religious conceptions, if not in its theological dogmas, as Puritan as the Congrega- tional Church. Her temperament was poetic. She was a lover of polite literature, a great lover of nature, and would surely have been an enthusiastic lover of art and music had she lived under cir- cumstances in which she could have indulged and developed such a love. She wrote and spoke the THE MAKING OF THE MAN 23 French language fluently ; sang, accompanying her voice on the guitar ; had considerable skill in the use of the pencil and the brush ; and notable skill in the various uses of the needle, from plain sewing to fine embroidery. Her delicate and sen- sitive nature incapacitated her for certain of the functions which at that time in New England a pastor's wife was expected to perform ; for she was so sensitive and of so great natural timidity that she never spoke in company or before strangers without blushing, and w^s absolutely unable to lead the devotions in the women's prayer-meetings. Yet with this personal timidity was intermingled that peculiar strength which comes from close and intimate communion with God. Gentle and yet strong, lover of peace yet glorying in her husband's battles and in his victories, wholly at one with him in a supreme consecration to God, her piety of spirit and her placidity of temperament combined to give to her an equipoise which made her the trusted counselor of her husband, on whose judg- ment he depended, and in whose calm his own more turbulent spirit found rest. She died when Henry was but three years old, yet her influence remained a potent factor in the formation of his character. From her he inherited his love of nature, of music, and of art ; from her the susceptibility to culture, which his education never fully developed ; from her that femininity of character, that tenderness and sweetness of spirit, which endeared him to those who knew him 24 HENRY WARD BEECHER best, but was almost wholly unrevealed to the world without, and sometimes assumed by censori- ous critics to be nothing more than a dramatic as- sumption. To her also must perhaps be attributed his affection for the Book of Common Prayer, which he loved and read, but never, I think, used in public. I fancy he never could have become an Episcopal clergyman ; the spontaneity of his character, his unconventionalism, his serene dis- regard of traditions of every kind, would have made it impossible for him to express his devo- tional spirit in words selected for or imposed upon him by others. His love and reverence for her he retained throughout his life. He was accustomed to say that through his feeling for this, almost un- known mother he could understand the feeling of the devout Roman Catholic for the Virgin Mary. Do those who die remain as guardian angels to guide, to guard, and to inspire us ? The question is one which it is impossible to answer. Certainly the affirmative cannot be demonstrated, but cer- tainly there is much to warrant the hope, if not to sustain the hypothesis. Perhaps it is my own half conscious experience of the influence of a mother who died in my early childhood which makes me the more ready to believe that this mother's per- sonal influence over her boy of strange contradic- tions did not end when God took her from his sight. About a year after the mother's death the father married Miss Harriet F. Porter, of Port- land, Maine, — "a beautiful lady, very fair, with THE MAKING OF THE MAN 25 bright blue eyes and soft brown hair, bound round with a black velvet bandeau," but " so fair, so deli- cate, so elegant that we [children] were almost afraid to go near her." x Serene, ladylike, pol- ished, never lacking in self-possession, but stately and not easy of approach, she inspired the children with a reverential affection, but even more with awe. It was impossible that Henry should ever have become intimate with her. His nature was too shy, hers too reserved. Yet indirectly she strongly affected his early experience by intensify- ing his awe of religion as something preternatural, and by cultivating in him a habit of self -inquiry and self-reproach that were quite foreign to the healthful development of so exuberant a nature. The father, mother, and stepmother were not the only ones who exercised a strong formative influ- ence over Henry Ward. He came into a family of brothers and sisters, each of whom possessed a strongly marked individuality. It would indeed be difficult to name another family in our times in which were so many children who in after life developed character akin to genius. Catharine, as a school-teacher, became one of the pioneers in the movement for giving woman a higher educa- tion, a movement whose consummation she did not live to see. Edward, as college president in the West and as pastor in the East, attained no incon- siderable eminence as educator, preacher, and theo- logian. Harriet became perhaps the most famous 1 Mrs. Stowe : quoted in Biography, p. 54. 26 HENRY WARD BEECHER of all American novelists. This was not wholly because a great historical situation gave to her dramatic ability a rare opportunity of which she availed herself in writing " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Had she never written this, her most effective and striking fiction, u The Minister's Wooing," would still have made her famous. It takes a place in the front rank of historical novels as a graphic and vital picture of a notable epoch. Charles, as the musical collaborator of his brother Henry in the preparation of the " Plymouth Collection," was one of the earlier contributors to the cause of congregational singing, and, although his music no longer survives, and his editorial judgment does not stand the test of later musical criticism, the churches of Puritan faith and order owe him no little debt for the impulse he gave to con- gregational singing. A half brother, Thomas K. Beecher, built up in Elmira, New York, an insti- tutional church before the institutional church had been heard of, and it remains to this day one of the best conceived, in its equipment, of any of its class. So unique was the family that the classification of humanity, suggested by some American wit, has passed into a proverb : he divided mankind into " the good, the bad, and the Beechers." There were other members of the family, too, of whose influence in the formation of Henry's char- acter account must be taken. There was Aunt Esther, Lyman Beecher's half sister, who, after THE MAKING OF THE MAN 27 the death of the mother, became the caretaker and housekeeper ; who was, as Henry Ward Beecher once said, " so good and modest that she would spend ages in Heaven wondering how it ever hap- pened that she ever got there, and that all the angels will be wondering why she was not there from all eternity ; " in whom with this modesty and goodness was combined the Puritan conscience applied in that housekeeping which was her spe- cific sphere ; who was anxious, self -exacting, self- distrustful, but never fault-finding ; a close econo- mist, keeping house for Mr. Lyman Beecher, who was a careless though never a self-indulgent spender; a thorough believer in the maxim that order is the first law of Heaven ; superintending a house whose master was too impetuous and eager to observe that law, but whose unselfishness of disposition prevented the friction which otherwise would have been inevitable. There was Aunt Mary, the mother's sister, who was a lover of literature and fiction, and a beautiful reader, and was accus- tomed to read from Irving and Walter Scott to the family circle. Although she died a few months after Henry Ward was born, she left a sacred memory and a sacred influence behind her. There was Uncle Samuel, the mother's sea-captain brother, who made occasional incursions into the family, bringing all sorts of mementoes from foreign shores, with exciting stories of his adventures, and whose humorously combative nature led him to glorify the vi rt i n -s of the Turks and the pagans and the 28 HENRY WARD BEECHER Jews, and arouse the master of the house to long and heated discussions, semi-theological. There was the society of the town also to share in moulding the character of the boy. In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, manufacturing was in its infancy ; there were no factory towns ; and the concentration of population in great cities had not yet begun. The English habit of living in the country was still continued ; and the best society was found in the rural districts. There were excel- lent schools, which made Litchfield an educational centre. It was a county town, and there gathered here from time to time, for days together, leading members of the bar. Its church was a social centre, and it was ambitious to have an able and intellectual preacher, and was proud of the one it had. In the autobiography of Lyman Beecher it is said that Count , who in youth had spent some years in Litchfield as a student of the law school, in later life, though he had in the interim moved in the highest circles of French society, dwelt with enthu- siasm on the society of Litchfield, which he declared was the most charming in the world. Some allow- ance must be made for the politeness of a French- man, and for the imperfection of an old man's recollections, but the testimony is significant. In such society and in such a family let the reader imagine Henry Ward Beecher growing up. The family government was firm but not rigid ; in general gentle, occasionally severe. Prompt obe- dience was required. Two or three experiences of THE MAKING OF THE MAN 29 discipline at the father's hand were sufficient to teach this lesson ; thereafter a decided word from father or mother was always sufficient. These occasions of discipline did nothing to break the fellowship between the father and the child. The father's chief daily recreations were frolics with his children. " I remember him," says Catharine Beecher, " more as a playmate than in any other character during my childhood. He was fond of playing pranks upon us, and trying the queerest experiments with us, for his amusement as well as ours. I remember once he swung me out of the garret window by the hands, to see if it would frighten me, which it did not in the least." The father was fond of fishing, and took the children often with him on his fishing excursions. He shared, too, the chores and work of the household with the boys ; and often lightened the household duties with story-telling, one of the children giving, while the rest worked, the best account he could of incidents in one of Scott's novels, which they had recently read together in the family circle. A Puritan family it certainly was, in the strength of its conscience, in the authority of law, in the exactitude of obedi- ence required. But the picture which in after years remained on the minds of the children was not like the conventional picture of the Puritan home. It is thus portrayed by Mrs Stowe: "One of the most vivid impressions of the family as it was in my childish days was of a great household inspired by the spirit of cheerfulness and hilarity, and of 30 HENRY WARD BEECHER my father, although pressed and driven with busi- ness, always lending an attentive ear to anything in the way of life and social fellowship." Outside the family there were none who exer- cised any very direct influence in moulding the char- acter of the growing boy, unless possibly the very humble serving-man, whose religion was simply emotive and untheological, and whom Henry Ward ever after held in grateful remembrance. I am in- clined to believe, however, that Mr. Beecher's grati- tude exaggerated the influence which Charles Smith exerted upon him. There was not much to inspire in the church services, held twice every Sunday in the meeting-house, with its turnip-like canopy over the minister's head, and its large square pews, and its singers' seat, and its quaint fuguing tunes, or in the sermons, unintended and unadapted for chil- dren ; and as little was there to give true education in the district school, in its square pine building, blazing in the unshaded sun in summer, with its box-iron stove red-hot in winter, and under the rigorous and unsympathetic discipline of its sharp- eyed school-mistress, "precise, unsympathetic, keen, untiring." So the boy grew up with that curious contradict- ory nature, so often recognized in after life as belonging to children, so rarely recognized in the child by those who have his training. To observers he seemed simply a wild, careless, frolicsome boy, full of pranks and mischief, bubbling over with animal spirits ; restless in school and in church, THE MAKING OF THE MAN 31 lover of nature, lover of adventure. Later, when the family moved to Boston, he became a master spirit among the schoolboys, carrying into boyish battles the spirit which he had inherited from his father, which made him a leader in many a youth- ful campaign against the " Prince Streeters " and the " Charlestown Pigs." One incident of this boy life which he records serves as well as a hundred to illustrate his nature. In the game of " Follow Your Leader " he led his fellows a weary and peril- ous chase, seeing with increasing exhilaration one after another drop off and abandon him, until at length, from the bowsprit of a ship alongside the wharf, he sprang off into the deep water, clothes all on, and rose to the surface sputtering, to look back and see the last two boys standing on the bowsprit, not daring to essay the feat he had achieved. Yet all this time, within this rough, boisterous, romping, healthy boy was another boy — tender, delicate, sensitive, shy; not so much misunder- stood as absolutely not understood. His father was too busy to be his comrade in the quieter expe- riences of his soul, and, truth to tell, could not have understood them, no matter what leisure he might have had. The stepmother was too saintly to be serviceable to a boy who was often introver- sive, self -examining, self -torturing ; who had only the " natural virtues," which his father's theology counted no evidence of a regenerate nature ; who had never experienced conversion ; who thought of 32 HENRY WARD BEECHER his father and his second mother as ready to die, and of himself as not ready to die, and so of a great gap between himself and them, growing ever wider and wider, and certain to issue at last in the great gulf which separated Lazarus from Dives. The younger generation of this age can never understand the anguish of soul suffered by chil- dren brought up in even the more liberal schools of Puritan theology of the olden time, in which religion was regarded, not as the transfusion of all life by the spirit of love and consecration, but as a separate and preternatural experience, apart from life, into which one could come only by a spiritual cataclysm, called regeneration. It is out of her own experience that Mrs. Stowe has, in "The Minister's Wooing," so graphically described the effects of this theology on simple-hearted natures. At length the love of adventure and the spirit of unrest combined provoked in the growing boy a resolve to go to sea. His wise father did not oppose him — rather commended him ; but told him that for success in this he must have a course in mathe- matics and navigation, and to the boy's response, " 1 am ready," answered by sending him to Mt. Pleasant, a preparatory school at Amherst, Massa- chusetts. Here came a new and potent influence in the formation of his character. Up to this time he had been no student, and by his instructors was counted rather exceptionally dull, though by his companions in play exceptionally bright. The THE MAKING OF THE MAN 33 teacher of mathematics at Mt. Pleasant school, W. P. Fitzgerald, taught him to conquer in studying ; the teacher of elocution, John Lovell, inspired him with patience to endure the drudgery of a daily drill. Now for the first time, at the age of fourteen, he began to put into brain activity the force and vigor which up to this time had either gone into sports or had been worse than wasted in desultory wrestling with spiritual problems too great for him. Ever after his experience at Mt. Pleasant he proved himself capable of that hard work which some one has declared to be the essence of genius. It has often been said that Mr. Beecher was not a student. If to be a student is to be patient, persistent, assid- uous in the accumulation of facts and the investi- gation of minute details, it is true Mr. Beecher never was a student. He was accustomed to get the results of such investigations from others for whose ability he always entertained the greatest respect. But if to be a student is to formulate to one's self the problem to be investigated, to gather light from all sources in its investigation, and in that light to wrestle with the problem until a solu- tion is found which one dares defend against all opposers, Mr. Beecher was preeminently a student. He was no mere omnivorous reader, browsing among books for self-indulgence, nor gathering from them simply to pass on to others, as a kind of reporter, what he had read. He both read for a purpose and used to good purpose what he read. For this capacity to study questions, to reach 34 HENRY WARD BEECHER results, and to defend them against all assailants, lie was indebted first of all to his father, next, so I judge from his own reminiscences, to the Mt. Pleasant preparatory school. He had not yet joined the church, for he had not been converted; but in a letter to his sister he quite unconsciously illustrates the kind of religious life which has grown up in him without conversion : " I do not like," he says, " to read the Bible as well as to pray, but I suppose it is the same as it is with a lover, who loves to talk with his mistress in person better than to write when she is afar off." A little later than this there was a revival at Mt. Pleasant, and a wave of feeling passed over him which he thought might be conversion. His father was quite satisfied on the subject, and partly from a kind of shamefacedness which kept the boy from saying he did not think he was a Christian, he " let them take me into the Church." Like a ship built on the land that on some moment must be launched into the sea are some souls ; like a fish born in the sea and growing up there are others. Henry Ward Beecher belonged to the latter class ; he never was launched and needed no launching. The churches of the Puritans have grown wiser than they were in his father's time, for which wisdom no little thanks are due to Dr. Bushnell and his bitterly criticised book on " Christian Nurture." This is the boy who in 1830, at seventeen years of age, entered Amherst College, in a class of forty members. Out of the evangelical passion in the THE MAKING OF THE MAN 36 New England churches during the early half of the nineteenth century, of which Dr. Lyman Beecher was so distinguished a representative, this college was born, in 1821. It was organized to promote the interests of evangelical religion by providing for the education of indigent young men for the ministry. The story of its birth is one of persistent and indomitable enthusiasm overcoming great obstacles. The friends of Williams College feared the rivalry of a new institution ; many of the friends of Christian education doubted the wisdom of establishing two colleges in western Massachusetts ; the Unitarian element in the state saw in this new movement a new attack upon lib- eralism, and prepared to thwart it at the outset. It was difficult to secure an agreement among the advocates of the evangelical faith, difficult, when the agreement was reached, to raise the fifty thou- sand dollars which constituted the financial basis for beginning the work, difficult, when the money had been secured, and the first building had been erected, to obtain a charter from the legislature. But when these obstacles had been overcome, there was no difficulty in securing students. In 1830, when Henry Ward Beecher was ready to enter college, Amherst had its land, two dormitories, a chapel with recitation rooms annexed, the begin- ning of a college library, a faculty consisting of a president, six professors, and one tutor, and about two hundred pupils. Everything, however, was on a scale of extreme simplicity. The salaries of 36 HENRY WARD BEECHER the professors ranged from 8600 to $800 a year, the expenses of tuition from $30 to $40, board from $1 to $1.25 a week. The students took care of their rooms, made their own fires, and generally sawed their wood. The entire expenses for a four years' course did not exceed $800. The students assembled for prayers every morning at a quarter before five in the summer, and at a quarter before six in the winter. Their working-day was divided into three nearly equal portions, in each of which two or three hours were set apart for study, and each study period was followed immediately by a recitation. The college discipline was rigorous, the college regulations minute and exact. Obedi- ence was enforced by a system of fines. There were long vacations to enable the students to add to their slender resources by teaching in the dis- trict schools. Such was the college which Henry Ward Beecher entered in the eighteenth year of his age. He carried with him a nature of strange contradic- tions : a masculine robustness of nature mated to a femininity of spirit ; great spontaneity of charac- ter coupled with a morbid habit of self-examina- tion ; an inborn love for church and for his fellow- men together with a hopeless endeavor to create in himself that preternatural change which was thought to be essential to Christian character ; a habit of hard work, but a habit of working ac- cording to his own mood, not according to rules prescribed for him by others. His college stand- THE MAKING OF THE MAN 37 ing is indicated by his later remark that he once stood next to the head of his class ; it was when the class was arranged in a circle. He studied the lessons allotted him by the college, so far as was necessary to enable him to get through, but no farther ; but he threw himself with enthusiasm into courses ' of reading and study to which his mood impelled or his judgment guided him. In accordance with the custom of the time he taught school during the long winter vacation to add to his limited means. The missionary spirit which he had imbibed from his father already began to ferment within him; and he conducted prayer- meetings, gave lectures on temperance, and later on phrenology, and preached in villages what would be called sermons, except that he was not a min- ister. Once he earned ten dollars as a lecturer, and spent it in buying an edition of Burke, the foundation of his future library. He got no great standing at college for scholarship, and no appoint- ment at Commencement ; but he was regarded as one of the fine debaters in the college debating society, and outside of it was recognized by his classmates as an intellectual leader. He was profoundly religious, yet perpetually perplexed by skepticism ; was alternately inspired by a great hope and whelmed in a sort of half despair. At the end of four years he graduated, leaving behind him an academic record respectable but not emi- nent, having carried on throughout the four years an aggressive though fitful and boyish Christian 38 HENRY WARD BEECHER and philanthropic work, and carrying with him the results of a wide though desultory reading ; very much in earnest in his resolve to use his expe- rience and his voice for the service of his fellow men ; very much in uncertainty respecting himself and the value of his own inner life. CHAPTER III EARLY MINISTRY In 1834 Henry Ward Beecher was graduated from Amherst College, at twenty-one years of age. Dur- ing these twenty-one years America had made rapid growth in size and population, and new and complex problems were arising which the young graduate would in his later years help to solve. In 1813 the little village of Cleveland, Ohio, formed the northwestern outpost of the nation. The fron- tier line ran thence in a southwesterly direction to the Tennessee River, and thence in a southeasterly direction to the southern border of Georgia. In 1834 the republic had extended far to the west of this line ; the Mississippi River formed its western frontier, the southern shores of Lake Erie and Lake Michigan its northern frontier. Michigan, Wiscon- sin, Minnesota, and Iowa were, however, still prac- tically uninhabited, and all west of the territory now occupied by those states was untrodden wilder- ness. The population had increased from less than eight million to over twelve million. The increase had been nearly equally divided between North and South, but not between East and West ; the centre of population was a little east of Washington. The first steamboat to make its way against the Missis- 40 HENRY WARD BEECHER sippi current from New Orleans to Cincinnati had given in 1815 a prophecy of the future commercial importance of the latter city which far-seeing busi- ness men were not slow to comprehend ; it promised to be the metropolis of the West, for Chicago, though an important trading-post on the frontier, was but just incorporated as a town and had a population of less than four thousand. The rail- road was yet in its experimental stage. In a race run in 1829 between a locomotive and a horse, the horse outdistanced the locomotive. A year and a half later the first real railroad was operated in the state of South Carolina, and in six months there- after a second short line of railroad between Albany and Schenectady was in operation ; but as yet a railroad to be operated by a steam locomotive was looked upon by most practical business men as wholly impracticable. The " big ditch," as the Erie Canal was contemptuously called, had been dug between Albany and Buffalo, making a completed waterway between the Northwest and the ocean — the foundation of the future commercial greatness of New York City. Baltimore and Philadelphia, which had to depend upon teaming over the Alle- ghanies, awoke to the necessity of finding some contrivance to compete with the canal, and this ne- cessity gave to the railroad enterprise its first con- siderable impulse. As yet, however, though many roads were planned, few were constructed, and as late as 1830 there were but thirty-six miles of com- pleted roadbed in the country. When the young EARLY MINISTRY 41 graduate went from Amherst College to Cincinnati, whither his father had now removed, he must have gone either by stage to Albany, by canal to Buffalo, by steamboat on Lake Erie, perhaps to Cleveland, and then again by stage across Ohio to the Ohio River, or by stage over the Alleghanies to Pittsburg and thence by boat on the Ohio to Cincinnati. While Henry Ward Beecher was at Amherst College his father had removed from Boston to Cin- cinnati, to take the presidency of Lane Theological Seminary. The young metropolis of the West was described by one of the promoters of this enter- prise as at the heart of four millions of people, and in twenty years to be at the heart of twelve mil- lions — " the most important point in our nation for a great central theological institution of the first character." For Christian men were as far-seeing as commercial men, and as eager to take advantage of the opportunities which the growing West af- forded. They procured a charter in 1829, secured a donation of sixty acres of land, and started the new seminary with one professor and three or four students. What the students did for instruction, when after a few months the professor was sent East to obtain funds, history does not tell. The professor failed in his endeavor and resigned. The enterprise would apparently have been abandoned but for the indomitable enterprise of one man, the Rev. F. Y. Vail, who wisely judged that to get East- ern funds Eastern confidence must first be secured, and for this purpose an Eastern man obtained to 42 HENRY WARD BEECHER act as president of the yet unborn institution. He came to Boston and applied to Dr. Lyman Beecher. " There was not on earth a place but that," said Dr. Beecher afterwards, " I would have opened my ears to for a moment, but I had felt, and thought, and labored a great deal about raising up ministers, and the idea that I might be called to teach the best mode of preaching to young ministry of the broad West flashed through my mind like light- ning. I went home and ran in, and found Esther alone in the sitting-room. I was in such a state of emotion and excitement I could not speak, and she was frightened. At last I told her. It was the greatest thought that ever entered my soul ; it filled it, and displaced everything else." He accepted the call. His acceptance secured a gift of twenty thou- sand dollars from Arthur Tappan, of New York, whose interest in all forward movements was shown throughout his life, both by his generous benefac- tions and his active services. It was a matter of course that Henry Ward Beecher, now fully re- solved upon the ministry as his life work, should go, on graduation, to Lane Theological Seminary, to complete his preparations under the instructions of the father whose theological debates in the fam- ily, during the son's boyhood, had already familiar- ized him with theology, both abstract and applied. Cincinnati was at this time a city of about thirty thousand inhabitants. The seminary was outside, in the woods, where the whistle of the quail, the flight of the turkey, the rush of wild pigeons, were EARLY MINISTRY 43 to be heard. The father did not believe in dissociat- ing theology and religion. He lectured during the week, and preached in the city on Sunday ; carried, alternately, his theology into his sermons, and his religion into his lectures. The young student did not, so far as I can learn, get a great deal out of the regular theological course. He began writing a journal " of events, feelings, thoughts, plans, etc., just as they have met me ; thus giving in part a transcript of my inner and outer life." His biogra- phers say that they " find very little, almost nothing, concerning the regulation, work, and studies of the theological course, possibly because some other book, which has not come down to us, contains these.' ' I think it far more probable that it was because the work and studies of the theological course, as prescribed by the authorities, did not greatly interest him. This was not because he was idle, but because his temper was such that he was never able — perhaps I should rather say never inclined — to work along lines marked out for him by others. He was an omnivorous reader, and always read to some purpose and for some result. Thus, when he had finished Scott's " Antiquary," he wrote a comparison of " The Antiquary " and " Ivanhoe ; " and a little later, a critical comparison between Scott and Shakespeare. Whether his com- parison is adequate or even sound is not a matter of consequence; that he wrote it illustrates the fact that his reading was thoughtful and discrim- inating. His studies, however, constituted by no 44 HENRY WARD BEECHER means the whole, perhaps not even the major part, of his life. He sang in the church choir, and some- times led it ; he conducted a Bible-class, which was practically a lecture on the Bible, and gave, contemporaneously, a course of temperance lectures through the week ; and he preached on Sundays, as opportunity offered, throughout the theological course. He began also to accumulate a library, which numbered early in the second year of his theological course a hundred and thirty-five vol- umes, intelligently selected and carefully read, only about one third of them professional books. The anti-slavery controversy was beginning to assume serious proportions. He was much more interested in it than in the theological controversies in which his father was engaged; at one time added amateur editorship to preaching, lecturing, teaching, and choir leading ; at another volunteered as a special constable, and for several nights patrolled the streets of Cincinnati to protect the negroes and their friends from a mob. On the whole the picture of these seminary days, which we gather from his journal and letters, so far as published, are those rather of a zealous man of affairs than of a patient and painstaking student. It must be remembered, however, that in 1834 no such sharp line between the period of preparation and that of action was drawn as is drawn in our day. Engineering schools were practically un- known ; the engineer rose from the ranks. Law schools were few and poorly patronized. John EARLY MINISTRY 45 Marshall, perhaps the greatest jurist America has ever seen, went directly from a country academy into a law office, from a law office into politics, and from politics to the bench ; a single course of law lectures at William and Mary College was all the academic legal instruction he ever received. Only a minority of the ministers of that day took any theological seminary course, many of them no col- lege course ; piety, that kind of familiarity with the Bible which all children obtained through home training, and a very moderate acquaintance with the well-established theology of the time being con- sidered an adequate equipment for preaching the Gospel. It was quite in accordance, therefore, with the spirit of the time that Henry Ward Beecher should divide his energy between academic studies and practical work, giving, I suspect, if not the larger portion of his time, certainly the larger portion of his energy and enthusiasm, to the work. Whether the modern method of keeping the student apart from life in academic pursuits for ten or fifteen years, and then plunging him at once into active life, under such pressure as makes the con- tinuance of systematic study almost impossible, furnishes a better preparation for life than the method of our fathers, in which practice and theory were more intermingled, both in the period of study and in the period of work, may be open to question ; I am inclined to think a partial reversion to the older method would be an improvement on the method now pursued. 46 HENRY WARD BEECHER Throughout the seminary course there were periods in which Henry Ward Beecher was subject to serious skepticism and to serious spiritual de- pression. At times he thought of abandoning the ministry altogether, on account of his theological doubts, — for they were theological rather than religious ; at other times he resolved to preach whether Presbytery approved or not. He would at all events maintain his independence. " I must," he said, " preach the Gospel as it is revealed to me, not as it is laid down in the schools." It was at some time in this seminary course that he had that experience of Christ, as a supreme manifestation of God, which I have recorded in the opening of the first chapter of this volume. From the time of that revelation he seems never to have had a doubt respecting his mission, or a hesitancy about endea- voring to fulfill it, only hesitation about the path to be taken toward its fulfillment. About twenty miles south of Cincinnati was the little village of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the Ohio River. It had at one time hoped to be the metro- polis of the West ; it is hardly larger to-day than when Henry Ward Beecher settled there, while Cincinnati has become one of America's great cities. Here was a feeble Presbyterian church, consisting of twenty persons. In one of his ser- mons Mr. Beecher thus graphically describes his early experiences there : — I remember that the flock which I found gathered in the wilderness consisted of twenty persons. Nineteen EARLY MINISTRY 47 of them were women, and the other was nothing. I remember the days of our poverty, our straitness. I was sexton of my own church at that time. There were no lamps there, so I bought some ; and I filled them and lit them. I swept the church, and lighted my own fire. I did not ring the bell, because there was none to ring. I opened the church before prayer-meetings and preaching, and locked it when they were over. I took care of everything connected with the building. His journal contains some definite resolves, on some of which I think he instinctively acted all his life long : " Remember you can gain men easily if you get round their prejudices and put truth in their minds ; but never if you attack prejudices." " My people must be alert to make the church agreeable, to give seats, and wait on strangers." " Secure a large congregation ; let this be the first thing." His resolution to " visit widely " I do not think he ever fulfilled. What the Method- ist contemporary in Lawrenceburg said respecting Mr. Beecher there, Mr. Beecher's subsequent life confirms : " Mr. Beecher could outpreach me, but I could outvisit him." The church voted him a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars, which seems to have dwindled in the payment to one hun- dred and fifty ; the Home Missionary Society added one hundred and fifty more. Three hundred dol- lars was a small salary, even in those days, on which to marry and begin housekeeping, but Mr. Beecher's courage always overtopped his caution. With characteristic impetuosity, as soon as he had 48 HENRY WARD BEECHER been formally called and before he had been for- mally ordained, he wrote to Miss Eunice Bullard, to whom he was engaged, suggesting that their marriage be celebrated shortly after his ordination, and then followed and almost overtook his letter with a proposal to have the wedding first and the ordination afterwards. This sort of impetuosity generally succeeds in such cases, and it did in this case. They were married August 3, 1837, left New York a little later, and, traveling day and night, reached Cincinnati the last of August. Four children of this marriage survived Mr. Beecher : Henry Barton ; William C. ; Herbert F. ; and Harriet E. ; the latter married the Kev. Samuel Scoville, a Congregational clergyman. The family life of Mr. Beecher has been written by the son, William C, and the son-in-law, Samuel Scoville, assisted by the widow, Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher. To that volume the reader of this is re- ferred for all the domestic side of Mr. Beecher's life. It would not be seemly either to repeal; here what they have written, or to supplement it by anything additional. The ordination of Mr. Beecher was not so simple an affair as he had perhaps anticipated it would be. The battle between the Old School and the New School party in the Presbyterian Church was already in progress. Lyman Beecher represented the New School or progressive element. The Miami Pres- bytery was largely composed of Scotch-Irish Pres- byterians, whose views were what they would call EARLY MINISTRY 49 consistently, what their opponents would call ex- tremely, Calvinistic. Henry Ward Beecher was familiar with theological distinctions, little as he cared for them. He had been trained in them from his boyhood. He was always quick-witted, and never quicker than when under mental excite- ment. His resolve to get round prejudices, not to attack them, was put to the test, and his skill in fulfilling that resolve was demonstrated. In spite of a prolonged and hostile examination, he stood his ground, and, if orthodoxy alone had been in question, would have been ordained in spite of opposition, but when a resolution was introduced requiring the candidate to pledge his adhesion to the Old School Presbyterian General Assembly, and so part company with his father, who was a leader in the New School party, he peremptorily refused, at the hazard of relinquishing his church and the little salary which was pledged to him, and beginning his married life with nothing. But his little church cared more for its minister than for the theological controversy, and promptly de- clared itself independent of the Presbytery. The two years of his ministry in Lawrenceburg were years of poverty, but of joyful self-denial. The bride and groom lived in two rooms over a stable at a rental of forty dollars per annum. They furnished the rooms with second-hand furni- ture — a little of it bought, more of it given. The preacher welcomed gifts of cast-off clothing, and thought himself "sumptuously clothed." His lit- 50 HENRY WARD BEECHER tie church was crowded, but his people were better satisfied with his preaching than he was himself. He has not recorded any notable spiritual results from it. The sermon was yet to him an end, not a means to an end. He knew how to make a ser- mon that would interest, but not how so to use a sermon as to affect character. After two years of ministry in this discouraging field, where he worked hard for little pay and with no considerable results, he accepted a call, thrice repeated, and removed to Indianapolis. The growth of this country has been so rapid, and the changes in its conditions so kaleidoscopic, that it is impossible for us now to realize the mate- rial, social, and moral conditions which existed less than three quarters of a century ago. In 1839, when Mr. Beecher moved to Indianapolis, it was an unkempt village, growing up in the midst of a wilderness. A few houses, clustered together, con- stituted the centre of the future town. From this centre houses of wood straggled off in every direc- tion. Many of the unoccupied squares were fenced in, so as to constitute paddocks, in each one of which one or more milch cows were kept during the day. The passages between the squares, into which, ac- cording to Western fashion, the town was laid out, were overgrown with dog-fennel, save where wagon tracks had made a sinuous road, avoiding a stump on the one side and a mud hole on the other. When these roadways became impassable some enterpris- ing traveler opened a new one through the dog- EARLY MINISTRY 51 fennel. In winter these ways were often impassable by reason of mud, in summer insufferable by rea- son of dust. There was no sewerage ; the town was flat ; and the water stood in pools, or found its way slowly through open ditches, often choked up with weeds or refuse. Save in the very centre of the town, there were no sidewalks ; such as existed were mere strips of gravel, with depths of mud on either side. Pioneers coming hither from the East to make their fortune had foreseen a great future for this embryo capital. They had already planned six railroads to centre in this town, for the travel which did not yet exist, and the legislature, more audacious than private capital, had undertaken to begin their construction. A state bank had been organized, a state-house built, a fire-engine com- pany formed, and a great scheme of public works for the improvement of the anticipated city had been devised and entered upon. The result of this enterprise had shown that, in material as in spirit- ual things, faith without works is dead. The vigor- ously engineered boom had collapsed, and in 1839 and for several years thereafter the village was suf- fering from the consequences of too much misdi- rected energy. As a result of the division of the Presbyterian Church into Old School and New School, fifteen members of the First Presbyterian Church had withdrawn to foimd the Second Presbyterian Church. The rivalry between the two churches was intensified, rather than lessened, by the fact 52 HENRY WARD BEECHER that both possessed the same traditions and the same creed. The new church was worshiping in a hall, but had already projected the construction of a meeting-house. Mr. Beecher's promised salary in Indianapolis was twice his nominal salary in Law- renceburg. But six hundred dollars a year was not munificent even then ; it may be reasonably esti- mated as about equivalent to twelve hundred dol- lars in our own time. The first of the Indiana railroads had been built from Madison as far as Vernon, twenty miles on its way to the capital, and it is said that Mr. Beecher and his wife took the first train over this uncompleted railroad, riding this twenty miles in a box-car ; the rest of the jour- ney, it is to be presumed, they took over the miry roads, through the untraveled wilderness, in a springless wagon. From the scanty materials furnished by such books as W. R. Hallaway's " History of Indiana- polis," and J. P. Dunn's " History of Indiana," and the letters of Mr. Beecher himself, it is possible to form some conception, though vague and inade- quate, of the kind of population in which the next eight years of Mr. Beecher's life were to be spent. The earlier settlers of Indiana were French Catho- lics, coming up from Louisiana and down from Canada. They possessed both the virtues and the vices characteristic of the French pioneer. They were kindly, humane, easy-going. They brought slavery with them, but it was a form of slavery quite different from that which later prevailed in EARLY MINISTRY 63 the Anglo-Saxon portions of the continent. Their laws provided for the education of the slaves in the Roman Catholic faith, and for the protection of marriage relations, and forbade excessive and cruel punishments ; in brief, it was, to quote Mr. Dunn, P as endurable as any slavery could be." The ordi- nance of 1787, under which the whole Northwest Territory was organized, forbade slavery; but it was strenuously contended, with considerable sup- port from judicial decisions, that this ordinance did not forbid the continuance of slave relations which existed before the ordinance was passed ; and in fact, up to the admission of Indiana to the Union as a state, December 11, 1816, slavery in a mild form still continued throughout the territory. In the judgment of these French settlers there was nothing immoral in drinking, or even in drunken- ness, and it must be said, in explanation if not in defense of their position, that drunkenness with them rarely led to the brawls and the violence which it so often inspires in the Celtic and Anglo- Saxon races. Gambling was also looked upon as an entirely innocent recreation, though again it must be said, in explanation if not in defense, that the gambling was generally for sums which the gam- blers could afford to lose, was conducted according to the rules of the game, and was inspired, not by greed and covetousness, but by the pleasurable ex- citements incident to such games of chance. But into this population had come a new ele- ment, bringing with it a much more strenuous life. 64 HENRY WARD BEECHER Pioneers from the Atlantic seaboard, mostly from the middle states, had come hither, seeking their for- tune. They brought an intensity of nature wholly foreign to the French character. They were more thrifty but more greedy of gain ; more enterpris- ing but harder and less good-natured. When they gambled, it was to make money ; when they drank, they quarreled ; and drinking and gambling being both against their conscience, demoralized their character and became gross and flagrant vices. When enterprise gambles, it becomes professional gambling, and professional gambling is rarely if ever honest. The fact that Indianapolis was the capital of the state brought to it a class of politicians whose character was not always above reproach and intensified the tendency toward the twin vices of drunkenness and gambling. Street brawls were fre- quent, and were sometimes of a ferocious character. " Fighting," says Mr. Hallaway, " in the early days of the capital was quite a feature in its social or unsocial life. No Saturday passed without one, or commonly half a dozen brawls." One incident which Mr. Hallaway narrates serves to illustrate, better than any general description could do, the rude character of the people and the period. A certain bully of the town, often drunken and vio- lent, and when so an unendurable terror to his neighbors, made his appearance at a Methodist camp-meeting. His drunken threats terrified the congregation, and threatened to break up the ser- vices. The Methodist preacher once or twice EARLY MINISTRY 55 requested him to go away in peace ; finding this unavailing, he came down from his pulpit, gave the fellow the first thrashing he had ever had in his life, and then went back and finished his sermon. The thrashing seems to have been effectual — per- haps did more good than the sermon ; at all events, as the story goes, with a dramatic fitness quite worthy of Shakespeare, the bully, humiliated at being thrashed by a preacher, and unable to with- stand the jeers of his comrades, reformed, and lived the rest of his life, and died at last, a temperate and self-respecting citizen. It will be a mistake, however, if the reader should get the impression that Indianapolis was wholly given over to these influences. If some of the im- migrants from the East had left their religion and their conscience behind them, there were others who brought into the religious life of the nascent metropolis the same energy and enterprise which they brought into its commercial activities. There were some vigorous and efficient churches, and some strong and effective preachers, in the place. Four years before Mr. Beecher's arrival there had been organized, by the moral leaders in the com- munity, an agricultural society, a benevolent soci- ety, and a literary society ; all of course undenomi- national, yet all working in harmony with the Christian churches of the place, and indirectly supported by them. Within four years after his arrival, there was organized a state hospital for the insane, of which Mr. Beecher was made one of 56 HENRY WARD BEECHER the trustees, and a female collegiate institute for the higher education of girls, and musical taste had been sufficiently developed to call for the opening of a piano factory. One of the noblest Christian men I have ever known must have been already exerting a considerable influence in Indianapolis. Sympathetic but never sentimental ; never conceal- ing his faith, and never obtruding it; refusing upon principle to accumulate wealth, though he had good opportunity to do so ; using alike his money and his time in the service of his Master and his fellow men — " Uncle Billy Jackson," as he was affectionately called through all that commun- ity, bore a witness to the sweetness and the strength of a true Christian character, such as transcends all eloquence of the voice. He illustrated a certain type of Christian character, careless of creeds, " zealous of good works," possessing the spirit of Christianity but not very regardful of its forms, with the enterprise, the energy, and the unconven- tionalism of the West directed in spiritual chan- nels and to spiritual ends, such as is rarely seen except in new communities during their formative period. Men and women of this type, with others less original but not less devout, gathered about Mr. Beecher, and supported him in his work. Of them he subsequently said : — My memory of these persons will never grow dim. My heart goes out to them ; and I guess they think of me. I think they requite all the love I bestow upon them. When dying, many and many of them have sent EARLY MINISTRY 57 me messages. Many and many of them, as they parted from this shore, bore testimony that the sweetest hours of their life were those passed under my instructions, and sent back messages of encouragement to me. How many times I think of five or six rare, beautiful, sainted ones, who sent me messages from the other side — I think they were halfway across at any rate — that my preaching of Christ was true ; that they had gone so far that they felt it to be true ! I felt as though they were messages from heaven itself. And shall I have under my own roof spirits that are more sacred to me than these? From the beginning the new preacher was what men call a success. Notwithstanding malarial attacks, to which, in common with all his neighbors, he was sometimes subject, he was generally over- flowing with health and energy. His vivid im- agination, redundant rhetoric, and dramatic per- sonification of every character he wished to portray, his musical voice, capable of every intonation, from thunder of indignation to gentlest and softest note of invitation, and, behind all, his absolute freedom from cant and every suspicion of professionalism, gave him unexampled power in the pulpit. His animal spirits, hopeful temper, humaneness of dis- position, which made him unfeignedly interested in everything that interested any of his fellows, attracted to him socially all sorts and conditions of men. His lack of conventionality, illustrated by the fact that he was the first minister to be seen with a felt hat, and that he did not hesitate to take an active part in painting his house, or carrying 68 HENRY WARD BEECHER home a load of groceries in a wheelbarrow, would have subjected him to criticism in an older com- munity, but in this heterogeneous population it won for him additional commendation. The hall which constituted the temporary meeting-place of his church was crowded from the first, and at the close of the first year the church had constructed and moved into a permanent and more commodious edifice, which in turn was thronged. From the first his church was a church of strangers. The members of the legislature attended it almost in a body. The rule that he had laid down for himself in Law- renceburg — " My people must be alert to make the church agreeable, to give seats, and wait on strangers " — was carried out in Indianapolis, as it was subsequently in Brooklyn. He was always more interested in preaching to sinners than to saints, to skeptics than to believers, to the world than to the church. In this respect he was essen- tially an evangelist, and would not have remained long in any church whose doors were not hospit- ably open to all the people. That he had crowded and attentive congregations never satisfied him. Years afterwards, in Brooklyn, when, as the result of some sermon, an unexpected conversion followed, and some one in prayer-meeting spoke of the arrow shot at a venture accomplishing its mission, Mr. Beecher replied : "I never shoot an arrow at a venture ; I always aim at a mark, though I may not hit the mark I aim at." It was in Indiana- polis, if we may trust Mr. Beecher's recollection, EARLY MINISTRY 59 that he first began to recognize this fundamental principle underlying all successful preaching. It is this which distinguishes the sermon from an essay or a literary address. If it be a true ser- mon, it has a definite object in the preacher's mind. It is not an end, but a means to an end. The subject is to be chosen, the text selected, the line of argument or exposition pursued, the illustra- tions employed, the rhetoric adapted — all to this one definite end which, from first to last, the preacher has in view. In expounding this truth Mr. Beecher disavows any claim for originality. " Others had learned this," he says. " It was the secret of success in every man who ever was emi- nent for usefulness in preaching. But no man can inherit experience ; it must be born in each man for himself." It was in Indianapolis that this experience was born in him ; and without this experience he never would have been the great preacher he became. He labored continuously and zealously for revivals. At one time he preached seventy nights in succession ; at another he rode two days through the forests, to Terre Haute, to join with Dr. Jewett, the Congregational preacher there, in revival services. The memory of those services, of that preaching, and of the house-to- house and store-to-store visiting which the two preachers conducted in connection with the ser- vices, remained a significant and sacred memory when I went to become the successor of Dr. Jewett in Terre Haute in 1865. 60 HENRY WARD BEECHER Mr. Beecher's active labors did not prevent in- dustrious study. He continued his accumulation of a library. He went over the four Gospels, compiling them and classifying their incidents and teachings according to a method of his own, and in the process familiarizing himself with their most vital truths. He added editorial to pastoral labors. There were nothing but political papers in the state at the time. At the request of the "Indiana Journal " Mr. Beecher undertook to edit a depart- ment in it, to be printed monthly, under the title " Western Farmer and Gardener." Any one who is familiar with Loudon's cyclopedias of horti- culture and agriculture, will, I think, agree with me that, however valuable as authorities, they do not appeal to the imagination. Mr. Beecher sup- plied the imagination. He read and re-read in these cyclopedias, which he found in the state library, and invested them with pictorial charac- ter by his own creative mind. " In our little one- story cottage," he says, " after the day's work was done, we pored over these monuments of an almost incredible industry, and read, we suppose, not only every line, but much of it many times over ; until at length we had a topographical knowledge of many of the fine English estates quite as intimate, we dare say, as was possessed by many of their truant owners." Only a man who possessed the power of creating a picture, provided he was given pigments and a canvas, could have obtained such a knowledge by such a process. How vivid this EARLY MINISTRY 61 creative work was is illustrated by a curious inci- dent which I had from his own lips. He wrote a description of some remarkable flower, the name of which I have now forgotten, which was copied far and wide as a rare portrait of a rare plant. Some years afterward the gardener in an Eastern hothouse showed him a specimen of the flower which he had so graphically described. Mr. Beecher asked its name, whereat the astonished and indignant gardener, thinking his guest was chaffing, told Mr. Beecher, to his astonishment, that he was looking on the original of his own description, and could hardly believe Mr. Beecher's solemn assertion that he had never set eyes on the flower before. The study of men now began to grow with Mr. Beecher into a habit which was continued through- out his life. As a boy at college he had taken up phrenology and put into the study of it much more enthusiasm than he did into scholastic philosophy ; he accepted in the main its craniology ; observed critically the shape of men's heads, their complex- ion, the color of their eyes and hair; classified them according to their temperaments, and judged of them accordingly. This method of study, entered upon in an amateurish way in college,* became now instinctive. But it was men not phrenology which interested him, and phrenology only because it was a means of studying men. His interest in men was both personal and professional ; the two were so intermingled that it would be as impossible for 62 HENRY WARD BEECHER his biographer as I doubt not it was for him to discriminate between them. He mixed with all sorts of men, partly because all sorts of men inter- ested him dramatically, partly because he wished to study them as a lawyer studies his jury, or as a doctor studies his patients. It is said of Christ that he knew what was in men ; Mr. Beecher made it his business to learn what is in man — the aver- age man, the merchant, ^the lawyer, the politician, the man of the street and the shop. He was as audacious in his disregard of social distinctions as was his Master ; as careless of what people would say or think. When in his course of " Lectures to Young Men," of which I shall speak more fully presently, he wished to depict the perils- of gam- bling, then the popular vice in Indianapolis, he succeeded, I know not by what method, in getting one of the gambling fraternity to visit him in his study, and describe to him the practices of the profession, as a novelist might have done had he wished to dramatize the vice. The result was a description so realistic and vivid as to stir the whole capital as it had never been stirred on that subject before. Yet his professional interest in humanity was only an incident in an interest which was far wider. All life appealed to him ; all opportunity summoned him ; every kind of achieve- ment had attractions for him. Washington Hall took fire. " Mr. Beecher," Mr. Hallaway tells us in his " History of Indianapolis," " was one of the foremost in carrying the hose-pipe right into the EARLY MINISTRY 63 burning portion of the house, and after two hours' work, came out a mass of soot and dirt and ice and blood from his cut hands ; but with the fire subdued." Yet these and kindred incidents were but incidents ; his work was that of a preacher, and to preaching everything else in his life was subordinated. Mr. Beecher's preaching at this period of his life was preeminently reviyal preaching ; but the reader would misapprehend its nature if he thought, from this characterization of it, that it was devoted to producing emotional excitements. Emotional it certainly was, for the young preacher threw his heart into everything he said ; he believed, to use Paul's phrase, " with the heart unto righteous- ness." But with him the one clause was as essen- tial as the other. He was preeminently a practical preacher. His three sermons on slavery produced, in their way, as real an impression in Indianapolis as his father's six sermons on intemperance had produced nineteen years before in Connecticut, though the impression was more local and more temporary. But his most distinctive and most per- manent work in his Indianapolis pastorate was his course of " Lectures to Young Men." These are, indeed, so far as I know, the only sermons of his Indianapolis ministry which have been preserved. 1 They illustrate all the combined characteristics of 1 One special sermon and one address delivered in the West were printed, but they are out of print See Bibliography in end of this volume. 64 HENRY WARD BEECHER his power as a preacher : his knowledge of men ; his grasp of moral principles ; his quick detection of hypocrisies and false pretenses with which vices are disguised ; his logical power of orderly arrange- ment of thought ; his artistic power of graphic por- traiture ; his directness of purpose ; his incisive- ness of speech ; and, above all, his absolute courage. I wish it were possible to transfer to these pages the whole of his lecture on " Gamblers and Gam- bling," and ask the reader to consider it as de- livered by a soul on fire with an eager purpose to save young men, using voice, face, and gesture, all thoroughly trained instruments of expression, and spoken to a community in which gambling consti- tuted a recognized and profitable profession. His text is the picture of the soldiers gambling at the foot of the Cross. He begins by describing the vice of gambling ; portrays the first steps — a com- paratively innocent wager of a sixpence over a pack of cards ; traces the downward progress, as he has seen it himself, and sets, as in a Rogues' Gallery, the photographic likenesses of the dif- ferent types of gamblers — the taciturn, quiet gambler ; the jolly, roystering gambler ; the lying, cheating gambler ; the broken-down lawyer or poli- tician, turned gambler. Next he traces the evil of gambling to its source and spring — the passion for excitement ; and describes the evils which it be- gets — idleness, the overthrow of domesticity, the provocation to other vices, especially drink and dis- honesty ; all this given in words which, even now, EARLY MINISTRY 66 read in a wholly different atmosphere, and sixty years after they were uttered, are aflame with the speaker's indignation. He ends his sermon with four pictures portraying the successive scenes in a gambler's life. Two of these scenes I transfer to these pages as an illustration of the type of Mr. Beecher's oratory in 1840, though with full con- sciousness that these paragraphs, wrested from their connection, do his oratory injustice. Scene the third. Years have passed on. He has seen youth ruined, at first with expostulation, then with only silent regret, then consenting to take part of the spoils ; and, finally, he has himself decoyed, and stripped them without mercy. Go with me into that dilapidated house, not far from the landing at New Orleans. Look into that dirty room. Around a broken table, sitting upon boxes, kegs, or rickety chairs, see a filthy crew dealing cards smouched with tobacco, grease, and liquor. One has a pirate-face burnished and burnt with brandy ; a shock of grizzly, matted hair, half covering his villain eyes, which glare out like a wild beast's from a thicket. Close by him wheezes a white-faced, dropsical wretch, vermin-covered, and stenchful. A scoundrel Spaniard and a burly negro (the jolliest of the four) complete the group. They have spectators, — drunken sailors, and ogling, thieving, drinking women, who should have died long ago, when all that was womanly died. Here hour draws on hour, sometimes with brutal laughter, some- times with threat and oath and uproar. The last few stolen dollars lost, and temper too, each charges each with cheating, and high words ensue, and blows ; and the whole gang burst out the door, beating, biting, scratching, and rolling over and over in the dirt and dust. The worst, 66 HENRY WARD BEECHER the fiercest, the drunkest of the four is our friend who began by making up the game. Scene the fourth. Upon this bright day stand with me, if you would be sick of humanity, and look over that multitude of men kindly gathered to see a murderer hung. At last a guarded cart drags on a thrice-guarded wretch. At the gallows' ladder his courage fails. His coward feet refuse to ascend; dragged up, he is sup- ported by bustling officials ; his brain reels, his eye swims, while the meek minister utters a final prayer by his leaden ear. The prayer is said, the noose is fixed, the signal is given ; a shudder runs through the crowd as he swings free. After a moment his convulsed limbs stretch down and hang heavily and still ; and he who began to gamble to make up a game, and ended with stabbing an enraged victim whom he had fleeced, has here played his last game, — himself the stake. No doubt the modern critic will condemn these pictures as over-oratorical, as he will condemn Hogarth's pictures of " The Rake's Progress " as theatrical ; for what the second are in art, the first are in literature. But oratory is to be measured by its practical effectiveness. It is an instrument for producing results, and the instrument must be adapted to the time, the place, the circumstance ; the orator is himself in some sense a product of that time and place and circumstance. It is doubt- ful whether the oratory of Daniel Webster would hold the United States Senate to-day ; it is certain that the oratory of Rufus Choate would not win from the juries of to-day the verdicts he was accus- tomed to win from the juries of his time. Mr. EARLY MINISTRY 67 Beecher's later preaching in a different community possessed a different quality, as we shall see. The one conclusive answer to all criticisms on his ora- tory in Indianapolis in 1840 is the fact that the year following their delivery, and, as there is good reason to believe, in no small measure as a conse- quence of their delivery, the professional gamblers were driven out of Indianapolis by a committee organized to carry on a war against them, and threatening them with prosecutions which they thought it best to avoid by flight. Thus throughout the eight years of Mr. Beecher's pastorate in Indianapolis he was more than a par- ish minister; he was preacher, editor, moral re- former, public citizen. Throughout those years the popular judgments respecting him were as conflict- ing as they were in his later life. He was variously regarded with love, with admiration, with distrust, with dread, with bitter hatred. " Woe unto you," said Christ, " when all men speak well of you ! " Never in his ministry did Mr. Beecher fall under this condemnation. He paid little heed to the theo- logical discussions which were at that time the subject of heated debate in the Presbyterian Church. To men who regarded religion as identical with theology his indifference to theology seemed to be irreligion. His sense of humor confirmed this impression in the minds of that considerable class who think that a man cannot be serious unless he is always solemn. His disregard of social con- ventionalism shocked the taste of some, his disre- 68 HENRY WARD BEECHER gard of religious conventionalism made him seem irreverent to others. He was by nature a radical and a reformer. To those who regard social safety as dependent upon the preservation of the estab- lished order he appeared, as Paul did to the same class of minds in the first century, as one bent on turning the world upside down ; they dreaded him. To the lewd fellows of the baser sort he was espe- cially obnoxious. He did not concern himself with the question of the Fall, or the extent or degree of Total Depravity , and already foreshadowed, by his indifference to these doctrines, his later re- pudiation of them. But if he did not preach against sin in the abstract, he acquainted himself with the sins which were current and popular in the city in which he ministered, and described them in scathing terms, and condemned them with a fiery indignation, of which the quotation I have given above furnishes a single illustration. The men who profited by drunkenness and gambling found their traffic interfered with, and felt the latent moral sense of the community aroused against them, and they hated him. More than once he was threatened with assault ; but he never believed in non-resistance ; he was vigorous and muscular ; and though I do not know that he was familiar with the art of boxing, it is certain that, had he been assailed, he would have lacked neither the will nor the power to make a vigorous defense. He was absolutely fearless, and this was itself a protection. On one occasion it is narrated of him EARLY MINISTRY 69 that a would-be assailant met him on the street, pistol in hand, and demanded of him a retraction of some utterance of the preceding Sunday. " Take it back right here," he demanded, with an oath, " or I will shoot you on the spot." " Shoot away," was the preacher's response, as he walked calmly on. Whether the would-be assassin was cowed by the preacher's calmness, or whether he only intended a threat which he did not mean to carry out, the shooting did not take place. But if Mr. Beecher was distrusted, dreaded, and hated by some classes in the community, he was admired and loved by others. To his dying day he retained a boyish nature. His love for children, his unaffected and spontaneous interest in their life and in all their sports drew the children to him. "Children and dogs," he once said, "are good judges of human nature." He stood this test well. There are some persons whose sympathetic nature is chiefly receptive — they need sympathy; there are others whose sympathy enables them to under- stand the perplexities, the burdens, and the sorrows of others, and whose strength makes them a tower of refuge into which the pursued may flee. Such was Mr. Beecher's nature ; his sympathy was a door at which any one might knock, through which any one in any kind of trouble might enter. This combination of sympathy and strength drew to him the troubled and distraught. Of pastoral work, in the conventional sense of that term, he did very little; but he rendered personal help, 70 HENRY WARD BEECHER through personal sympathy, to many who were not in his church or regular attendants upon his min- istry. His interest in public questions, his know- ledge of actual conditions, his audacity in describ- ing them as they existed, his courage in confronting them, and in challenging to battle those who lived by the weaknesses, the follies, and the vices of mankind, fascinated the strong men of the com- munity, and drew them to hear him ; many went away to criticise, but returned again, attracted in spite of themselves. His unfeigned love of his fel- low men, his indomitable faith in them and hope for them, inspired similar faith and hope and love in others ; for these are qualities which are always contagious. His presentation of God as a Father of infinite compassion, whose character is revealed in the earthly life of Jesus Christ, was, in that time and place, extraordinarily novel ; men knew not what to make of it ; and curiosity commingled with higher motives to attract audiences eager to hear this strange gospel. The sincerity and sim- plicity of the preacher's faith, and his unmistak- able access to God in public prayer, with whom he talked as with a friend in familiar intercourse, appealed to the truly devout souls, and brought to him that kind of gratitude and affection which the soul always feels toward one who has brought him into a new fellowship with God. His message was interpreted with a freshness of thought, a vividness of imagination, a power of impassioned feeling, and an oratorical skill, which had become to him a EARLY MINISTRY 71 second nature ; but these outward qualities would never have given him his influence had they not been instruments for the expression of a gospel of life and love. His reputation extended throughout the state. When men came up to the capital they went as matter of course to hear Henry Ward Beecher, if they remained in the city over Sunday. Saints and sinners alike crowded to hear him. The echoes of his fame extended beyond the boundaries of the state. He began to be heard of on the At- lantic seaboard. Simultaneously he received two invitations — one to become assistant pastor in the old established and famous Park Street Congrega- tional Church, of Boston, then, next to the Old South Church in Boston, the most influential one of the denomination in the United States ; the other to the just organized Plymouth Church of Brooklyn. He had expected to spend his life out in the West ; but his life in the West proved to be only a preparation for a larger life of national influence and importance. CHAPTER IV PLYMOUTH CHURCH Opposite the lower end of Manhattan Island, and separated from it by the East River, Long Island rises in a precipitous bluff from sixty to seventy feet above the tidal water at its base. This bluff extends along the river for nearly a mile, and early became a residence district for merchants doing business in the adjoining city. The region still bears the name of Brooklyn Heights, or in local parlance, " The Heights." In 1847 Brooklyn, which had been incorporated thir- teen years before, had become a city of sixty thou- sand inhabitants ; New York contained half a million of inhabitants, and extended from the Bat- tery to Fourteenth Street, beyond which was open country. On the northern edge of " The Heights," where the hill slopes down to the river, was a Pres- byterian church. The worshipers had found its location unsatisfactory because too far from the centre of the aristocratic section, all of which lay to the south ; to the north was, and still is, a population to which a church may minister, but which can do little to build up a church. The church had therefore purchased lots farther south, on " The Heights," and they offered their Orange PLYMOUTH CHURCH 73 Street property for sale. Half a dozen earnest Congregationalists interested, as subsequent history showed, less in Congregationalism than in that theological and civic liberty for which the Puritan churches have historically stood, decided to pur- chase this property and make it a nesting-place for a second Congregational church in the city of Brooklyn. They purchased the property for twenty thousand dollars, and then looked about for a preacher, a church, and a congregation. At that time the great religious and philanthropic societies were accustomed to hold their annual meetings during one week in May, which was accordingly designated Anniversary Week. Mr. William T. Cutter, one of the men interested in the new enter- prise, who had heard Mr. Beecher in the West, secured from one of the missionary societies an invitation to him to deliver the annual address or sermon on this Anniversary Week. Thus brought to New York, it was not difficult to secure his con- sent to preach in the Orange Street church edifice on Sunday. He afterwards said that he accepted the invitation to deliver the missionary address in order " to urge young men to go West, to show what a good field the West was, and to cast some fiery arrows at men that had worked there and got tired and slunk away and come back. ... I came East not knowing what I did ; it was a trap." The unconscious candidate of the unborn church produced the impression which Mr. Cutter believed he would produce. Early in June a church of 74 HENRY WARD BEECHER twenty-one members was organized, and a call was at once extended to Mr. Beecher to become its pastor. An almost simultaneous call to the Park Street Church in Boston was promptly declined ; with more hesitation and after considerable delay the call to Brooklyn was accepted. A few sen- tences from a private letter, written in the pre- liminary correspondence before the question was settled, indicate the spirit with which the young preacher entered upon his new field. As the letter expresses with great clearness and evident sincerity the purpose which animated Mr. Beecher through- out his career, it is worth quoting at some length. But if ever I come to you or go to any other place, although I have no plans as to situations, I have, I hope, an immovable plan in respect to the objects which I shall pursue. So help me God, I do not mean to be a party man, nor to head or follow any partisan effort. I desire to aid in a development of truth and in the pro- duction of goodness by it. I do not care in whose hands truth may be found, or in what communion ; I will thankfully take it of any. Nor do I feel bound in any sort to look upon untruth or mistake with favor because it lies within the sphere of any church to which I may be attached. * I do not have that mawkish charity which seems to arise from regarding all tenets as pretty much alike — the charity, in fact, of indifference — but another sort : a hunger for what is true, an exultation in the sight of it, and such an estimate and glory in the truth as it is in Christ that no distinction of sect or form shall be for one moment worthy to be compared with it. I will over- leap anything that stands between me and truth. Who- PLYMOUTH CHURCH 75 ever loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth is my brother. He that doeth God's will was, in Christ's judgment, His mother, His sister, His brother, His friend, His disciple. On the first Sunday of his public ministry, Octo- ber 10, 1847, the preacher made his position per- fectly clear. His morning sermon was on Jesus Christ as the source of true religion, and the power of personal character ; the evening sermon on the relation of the Church to the public ethical pro- blems of the day — specifically, its duty to deal honestly and courageously with intemperance and with slavery. The reader of the present generation cannot easily comprehend what such an utterance as this indicated in the first half of the nineteenth century, in what was practically part of the com- mercial metropolis of the nation. Not only were the great missionary societies silent on the subject of slavery, not only were the churches, with rare exceptions, equally silent, but this silence was de- fended and eulogized. Religion was regarded as a purely personal matter; its office to make right the relations of the individual soul with God. This done, it was assumed that the relations between individuals would of themselves become righteous, and the social duties due from man to his fellow men would be performed. Hence the pulpit had little to say respecting the purely temporal and social aspects of life, and, with rare exceptions, nothing concerning its political aspects, except on special occasions, as on fast days and thanksgiving 76 HENRY WARD BEECHER days, and even then only to a limited extent. The revolution in preaching, which, as a result has made the pulpit a powerful force in dealing with every-day problems, — a revolution in which Mr. Beecher was a foremost leader, — has been so suc- cessful that those who know only the American pidpit of to-day can hardly imagine what it was in 1847. No doubt the desire for peace, the fear of disturbing the churches, the consciousness in the preachers of inability to deal with the complicated problem of slavery for which they had received no special training, the spirit of conservatism which makes any innovation seem difficult if not danger- ous, and the strong political and commercial inter- ests banded together in the support of the slavo- cracy combined to make silence easy and speech difficult ; yet it is but just to recognize the fact that the Christian religion in that generation was largely regarded as a means, not for making life on this earth better and happier, but for prepar- ing, in this life, by theological beliefs or by so- called religious experiences, for a better and hap- pier life hereafter. Whether because the doctrines which he pre- sented were obnoxious, or because his Western unconventionally repelled more than it attracted, or because there were few or no social influences to draw men to the new enterprise, or because the preacher had not yet got himself in hand, did not understand his surroundings, had not, as the say- ing is, found himself, or simply because the best PLYMOUTH CHURCH 77 and most effective public teaching does not in- stantly attract, the new preacher at first drew but moderate congregations. It was not until early in 1848, that is, after six months of preaching, that the church building began to be crowded ; but from that time on, it was unable to accommodate the congregations. It was therefore not a disaster but a good fortune that in 1849 the church build- ing was so badly damaged by fire that it became necessary to rebuild. A temporary " tabernacle " of wood was erected to serve as a place of worship until the first Sunday in January, 1850, when the new church was ready for occupancy. This con- sisted of two buildings — the church auditorium, and the lecture and Sunday-school room; the latter in two stories, the lecture-room below, the Sunday-school room above, with what was then a novelty in church architecture, social parlors, 1 and I believe also a kitchen. The size of the audito- rium was, in popular reports, exaggerated ; its legitimate seating capacity was 2050. This was subsequently increased by aisle seats so contrived as to be folded, when not in use, against the adjoin- ing pew. Including those occupying these seats, the average congregation during Mr. Beecher's ministry approximated twenty-five hundred ; in- cluding those who stood in the vacant spaces or on the stairs and in the hallways the auditorium some- times contained approximately three thousand. 1 These were subsequently thrown into the Sunday-school room to accommodate the increasing number of pupils. The present par- lors were built in 1862. 78 HENRY WARD BEECHER Baedeker's " United States " characterizes Ply- mouth Church as " without architectural preten- sions." It is, indeed, both in exterior and interior, absolutely unadorned. It contains no stained-glass windows and no ecclesiastical ornaments, and is characterized by no architectural beauty. This was due to no accident but to deliberate design. There are two services which, from the earliest ages, the Church of God has rendered in the com- munity : it has expressed and at the same time cultivated the piety of devout souls; and it has furnished religious instruction and inspiration both to the devout and to the undevout. These services can be conjoined ; but they also can be and some- times have been entirely separated. In the Jewish Church the worship was conducted by the priest- hood, who gave no religious instruction in connec- tion with the Temple services ; religious instruction was given by the prophets, who conducted no wor- ship in connection with their public teaching. In Christ's conversation with his disciples at the Last Supper, as recorded in the Fourth Gospel, devotion and instruction were intermingled ; but no public worship accompanied the Sermon on the Mount as it is recorded by Matthew. Prayer and teaching were combined in the simple services of the Apos- tolic Church, held in the houses of disciples ; but Paul's famous sermon at Athens was unaccompa- nied with any worship. In the modern church the worship and the instruction are habitually though not always united ; but in one class of churches PLYMOUTH CHURCH 79 greater provision is made for the worship, in the other for the teaching. The Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches lay emphasis on the ritual and the sacraments, and relegate the sermon to a second place or omit it altogether ; the Puritan churches make the sermon predominant and at- tach less relative importance to prayer and praise. The first construct a cathedral, equip it with all the aesthetic elements, musical and artistic, capable of promoting spiritual delight in the worshiper, and allow this cathedral to be used for no other purpose than that of the worship of God, generally but not always accompanied with public instruc- tion. The second build a " meeting-house," where the people of the community may gather for any legitimate function, where academic exercises may be held, literary, political, and moral reform lec- tures may be delivered, and on Sunday religious instruction may be afforded, which is almost in- variably though not necessarily accompanied with public worship. The best type in America of the first conception of the church building as a house of worship is probably that furnished by Trinity Church, Boston ; the best type in America of the second conception of the church building as a house for religious instruction is probably that furnished by Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. It would be difficult to find in church, hall, or thea- tre a more perfect auditorium. Standing upon the platform, which serves as a pulpit, the speaker is seen by every person in the house — there are no 80 HENRY WARD BEECHER great pillars to obstruct the view — and heard by every auditor in the house — there is no vaulted roof in which the voice is lost, no angles to catch and to deflect it. A voice of very ordinary carry- ing power can be heard in a conversational tone throughout the edifice, and a voice like Mr. Beecher's, of extraordinary carrying power, can be heard in tones scarcely raised above a whis- per. For nearly forty years Mr. Beecher preached in this meeting-house. Without adventitious aids, either musical or aesthetic, by the simple power of his oratory as some would say, of his personal character I should prefer to say, he drew to this meeting-house a congregation which ordinarily filled every seat, and which often so crowded it that hundreds were turned away unable to get admittance. The congregation was large but not wealthy. Wealth is conservative, and Mr. Beecher's radical- ism repelled those who were interested in main- taining the established order. To meet the cost of the church a scheme was devised of popular sub- scriptions to stock, the interest of which was pay- able in pew rents only, the principal being payable from the surplus revenues of the church. The pro- blem how to pay the current expenses still remained to be solved. This is always a problem of difficulty, but in the case of Plymouth Church it was one of peculiar difficulty ; for almost from the day of the completion of the new edifice the demand for pews was in excess of the supply. How to meet this PLYMOUTH CHURCH 81 demand without favoritism, and without exclud- ing by high prices the plain people to whom Mr. Beecher wished to preach, was a question not easily- answered. To answer it a rental was attached to the pews lower than that customarily charged in other churches in the city, and for a considerable number of the pews so low that no one need feel himself excluded by reason of the expense ; then every year the pews were put up for hire at public auction ; and the sums bid in excess of the rent attached were added to the fixed rents in making up the income of the church. Good-natured rivalry among certain of the wealthier or more prominent members of the church often pushed up the price of a few seats in the centre of the church to a high figure ; others were bid in at a moderate premium ; a large number were always left to be taken with- out any premium at all. This plan of " auctioning off " the pews, which was discontinued after Mr. Beecher's death, is not free from objection, but the objection is chiefly one of sentiment. While it was in operation it resulted in giving an income which speedily paid off the debt upon the church, and thereafter furnished, over and above all the church expenses, a considerable sum which was wisely used in paying the cost of the city missionary enterprises which the church carried on. The church was Congregational. Mr. Beecher was radical, the members who gathered about him were radicals, and the church was in its Congrega- tionalism radical. The principles of Congregation- 82 HENRY WARD BEECHER alism are two. First, the independence of the local church. Each church is absolutely autonomous, frames its own organization, adopts its own creed, arranges its own ritual, administers its own dis- cipline. From its decisions there is no appeal ; it recognizes no superior ecclesiastical body. There is, it is true, a fellowship of the churches, but it is simply fellowship. The Conferences of the Con- gregational churches are social and intellectual assemblies; the Councils of the Congregational churches are bodies to give advice, not to enact law. The relation between Congregational churches Mr. Beecher has somewhere aptly compared to the relations between families in a village : if one family misbehaves itself, the others cease to visit it ; but they have no power over its local adminis- tration of its own concerns. The other principle of Congregationalism is the absolute equality of all its members. The minister is without any ecclesiastical authority whatever. Theoretically he may be, and in England he sometimes is, simply a layman, selected by the congregation to be their teacher because he is apt to teach. No doubt in practice these principles are sometimes materially modified. The resolutions of Conferences and the acts of Councils come to have the effect of law ; the withdrawal of fellowship, the effect of penalty. A church which in its creed, its ritual, or its dis- cipline departs too far from the traditions and habits of other Congregational churches is liable to be disfellowshiped and to suffer opprobrium, if PLYMOUTH CHURCH 83 nothing worse, in its isolation. In some Congrega- tional churches also the minister is made ex officio moderator of all business meetings, and thus given a power to appoint committees ; in others a stand- ing committee is created, through which all busi- ness must pass, and from which no appeal to the church is effective, even if it is allowed. As we shall see later, Plymouth Church was determined to maintain its independency, no matter what sac- rifice that independency might involve. It was equally determined to maintain the equality of all its members. Its pastor was not ex officio modera- tor of its business meetings, and in fact infre- quently presided. It is rare that a pastor possesses as great influence in his church as Mr. Beecher possessed, but he had no ecclesiastical power what- ever beyond that of the single vote which he cast in what was a pure democracy. T Theologically, the church was orthodox;? It adopted a creed which embodied the doctrines of the Fall of man, the Depravity of the human race, the Trinity in unity of the Godhead, the provision for salvation through the atonement of Jesus Christ, the inspiration and authority of the Bible, the future judgment with its final awards of everlast- ing punishment and eternal life ; in brief, its theo- logy was of the New School Presbyterian Church, and of the New England theology of the orthodox Congregational churches of the middle of the nine- teenth century. IBut from the very initiation of the church its pastor's influence was steadily exerted in 84 HENRY WARD BEECHER favor of substituting spiritual and ethical standards for intellectual standards of character! The ques- tions asked in the examination of candidates for admission were practical rather than doctrinal. In the pulpit, in the prayer-meeting, and in the ad- ministration of the church the question, What do you believe ? was rarely heard ; the question, What is your life ? was, in varying forms, constantly reit- erated. The creed adopted by the church at its foundation remains unchanged as the historic creed of the church ; but since 1870 subscription to this creed has no longer been required ; the only con- dition of admission to the church is assent to and acceptance of the following covenant : — Do you now avouch the Lord Jehovah to be your God, Jesus Christ to be your Saviour, the Holy Spirit to be your Sanctifier ? Renouncing the dominion of this world over you, do you consecrate your whole soul and body to the service of God ? Do you receive his word as the rule of your life, and by his grace assisting you, will you persevere in this consecration unto the end ? If any one thinks this covenant furnishes too open a door for admission to the Church of Christ, I reply by saying that one of the most prominent, influential, and devout members of that church, for many years one of its deacons, told me that for a year he remained outside the church before he could decide that he would pledge himself to con- secrate his " whole soul and body to the service of God." Such a covenant as the above, if it be truly interpreted and earnestly pressed, constitutes a far PLYMOUTH CHURCH 85 stricter test of membership than can be furnished by any creed, long or short. From the first the church was 1 preeminently a social organization. Circumstances conspired to make it so. Its original membership was composed of households of about equal social standing. Without either the very rich or the very poor, Brooklyn, though a city of sixty thousand inhabit- ants, still retained village characteristics, as indeed to some extent it does to this day. 1 The new pas- tor therefore had not to create but only to foster the social life of the church. There were at first three weekly services : a lecture on Tuesday even- ing, a social gathering on Thursday evening, and a prayer-meeting on Friday evening. The first two were ere long discontinued, and the three were combined in the Friday evening meeting, which became lecture, social gathering, and prayer- meeting. The people were accustomed, however, to gather in the lecture-room in little groups be- fore the hour of service, and to remain for social intercourse after the conclusion of the service. Not infrequently this after social meeting was almost as long as the more formal meeting which preceded it. But that meeting itself was informal. Mr. Beecher sat in his chair upon the platform and talked to the congregation, as a friend with friends. The congregation caught the spirit of informality 1 Chauncey Depew in an after-dinner speech some ten years ago characterized it as the fourth largest city and quite the largest village in the United States. 86 HENRY WARD BEECHER from his spirit ; and though the size of the meet- ing prevented it from ever becoming truly collo- quial, and the tact of the pastor prevented its ever degenerating into a debating-society, there was a freedom in the interchange of opinions and ex- periences which was sometimes startling to those accustomed to the more staid methods of ordinary assemblages for worship. In the latter years the pastor's talks were taken down by a shorthand writer, and many of them were published in the press, and some of them collected in book form as " Lecture-room Talks." To many of his congrega- tion Mr. Beecher seemed at his best in these infor- mal meetings, in which he was less the orator than the personal counselor and friend. But it was not only at occasional meetings organ- ized for social intercourse, nor at informal Friday evening meetings, that the social life of the church was developed. The village church which I at- tended in my boyhood was on Sunday morning truly a "meeting-house." The farmers drove in from miles about, fastened their horses in the shed, and gossiped with one another over the crops, while their wives talked over family concerns until the church bell tolled. Service over, the social gossip was taken up where it had been dropped, and continued until, little by little, the congregation melted away. This New England method was unconsciously adopted in a modified form in the Plymouth Church services. After the first year the pewholders found it neces- sary to be at church ten minutes before service PLYMOUTH CHURCH 87 began, to make sure of their seats. They did not sit meditatively during these ten minutes ; they talked freely, in the vestibule, in the aisles, in the pews, sometimes going from pew to pew. The buzz of conversation did not stop when the organ voluntary began ; but when the preacher rose in the pulpit to offer the invocation, there was an instant hush. I always have thought that Mr. Beecher's habit of commencing the invocation in tones hardly audible was caused, not wholly by the wise determination not to imperil his voice, but also by the purpose to add impulse to the desire for silence in order to reverential participation. After the benediction was a second social gathering ; friends and strang- ers streamed up to shake hands with Mr. Beecher, who remained near the pulpit for that purpose, and who thus encouraged them to shake hands with one another, cementing old friendships and making new acquaintances. I am here describing the habit of Plymouth Church neither to commend nor to criticise it. It was partly due to the neighborhood character of the early church, partly to the quasi village life of the community, partly to the trans- ference to a city of early habits by the New Eng- landers who made the great proportion of the con- gregation, partly to the social necessities of a new and democratic organization in which are so many topics for mutual consideration, partly to the preacher's strong conviction that freedom of social intercourse of man with his fellow man is in no wise incongruous with the spirit of devoutness in man 88 HENRY WARD BEECHER toward his God. If every preacher could by his strong and spiritual personality transfuse the con- gregation with the spirit of devotion in the first brief prayer of invocation, as Mr. Beecher did, it would be safe for every congregation to maintain the social prelude to religious service which Ply- mouth Church maintained, — but not otherwise. Music was from the first a feature of the wor- ship in Plymouth Church, but it was music fur- nished by, not to, the congregation. Back of the pulpit stood an organ of considerable size and a gallery which furnished accommodation for a con- siderable chorus choir ; the organ was subsequently replaced by what was, when constructed, I believe, the largest church organ in America. When John Zundel first came to Plymouth Church I do not know, but for many years he was, as its organist, Mr. Beecher's spiritual coadjutor. Nervous, irrit- able, with genius, but, I suspect, without what in our time would be regarded as adequate training, he loved music as an expression of the spiritual life. " I cannot," he said, " pray with my lips, I pray with my fingers." His music was profoundly devotional. He sympathized heartily in what was regarded in the earlier years of Plymouth Church as one of Mr. Beecher's oddities, — his pas- sionate desire for congregational singing. Artists would probably criticise his accompaniment of the congregation, for he often marked the time with strongly accentuated pedal movement, but the result was that " dragging " was almost unknown PLYMOUTH CHURCH 89 in the congregational singing of Plymouth Church. The effect of a melody sung by two thousand out of the three thousand of the congregation — and cer- tainly that proportion sang in Plymouth Church — might not have been musical, but to any one sensi- tive to human feeling it was intensely devotional. Here, again, allowance must be made for differ- ences of temperament. The cultivated musician might well find his devotional nature more ap- pealed to by the choral singing in a great cathe- dral, or even by the concealed quartette in a cathedral-like church, but most men are more sen- sitive to human feeling than to musical chords, and to such the congregational singing of Ply- mouth Church would be a greater expression and inspiration of devotional life. This congregational singing did not, however, spring spontaneously into existence. I believe the scientists are generally agreed that, in biology, spontaneous generation has no place ; I am sure it has none in social development. There was neither music-book nor hymn-book adapted to congrega- tional singing when Mr. Beecher came to Brook- lyn; congregational singing was not common in practice, and those who advocated it were looked upon as impracticable innovators. Yet we can now see that unconsciously the Puritan churches had been preparing for it. The habit of singing sacred music in the home, the singing-schools and the musical institutes common throughout New England, the revival spirit caught from the 90 HENRY WARD BEECHER Methodists and naturally expressing itself in popu- lar songs, and the pioneer musical work done by Lowell Mason and his two pupils, George F. Root and George James Webb, had done much to cre- ate a desire for popular participation in church music, though as yet but little to develop ability for it. Mr. Beecher was no musician, but he loved music. He proposed to the musical conductor in Plymouth Church to prepare a hymn and tune- book for the use of the congregation in church services. " Temple Melodies," almost the first book of its description, was the result. It did not satisfy Mr. Beecher's ideal. Its success inspired him with the ambition for a larger undertaking, and he be- gan the preparation of " Plymouth Collection " with a catholic courage rare in any minister. He laid all poetry under contribution ; not only the Calvinistic Watts and the Arminian Wesley, but also such Roman Catholic authors as F. W. Faber, Madame Guion, and Francis Xavier ; such Unita- rians as Miss Martineau, Henry W. Longfellow, Sarah Adams, and John Pierpont ; such secular poets as Mrs. Browning, William Cullen Bryant, John G. Whittier, and James Russell Lowell. There is now scarcely a single collection of any value in use in our churches which does not con- tain contributions from these sources. But though their use in 1855 was not wholly unprecedented, Mr. Beecher was severely criticised for his bold- ness. " Even those who applauded him anticipated no great results from the innovation." Said a re- PLYMOUTH CHURCH 91 view of " Plymouth Collection," in the " Brooklyn Eagle," " We do not look for any great extension of really congregational singing in the more settled parts of our country. Refinement (it is so called, we believe) does not tend in that direction." It certainly did not. Even chorus singing in the city churches was rare ; the favorite instrument for church music was the quartette. When " Plymouth Collection " was published it is doubtful if there was a score of congregations in the United States which were supplied with music-books for congregational use ; now the use of such books is almost univer- sal in the non-liturgical churches in our cities, towns, and larger villages. The musical develop- ment in England and America which " Plymouth Collection " has done something to promote has, during the last half century, called into existence a great number of new hymns and tunes, and thus left " Plymouth Collection " wholly inadequate for present church service. But it was the work of a pioneer, and in estimating the relation of Mr. Beecher to the church life of America, what he did to give impulse to congregational singing, by showing its possibilities while as yet it was only an apparently impossible dream of the idealist, ought never to be forgotten. In coming to Brooklyn Mr. Beecher brought with him a definite purpose to make Plymouth Church a spiritual church. He says : " I had no theory ; but I had a very strong impression on my mind that the first five years in the life of a church 92 HENRY WARD BEECHER would determine the history of that church and give to it its position and genius ; that if the ear- liest years of a church were controversial or bar- ren it would take scores of years to right it ; but that if a church were consecrated, active, and ener- getic during the first five years of its life, it would probably go on through generations developing the same features. My supreme anxiety, therefore, in gathering a church, was to have all of its members united in a fervent, loving disposition ; to have them all in sympathy with men ; and to have all of them desirous of bringing to bear the glorious truths of the Gospel upon the hearts and con- sciences of those about them." From the first and with increasing power this spiritual atmosphere was prevalent in Plymouth Church. Conversions were frequent, additions on confession of faith numer- ous, and presently, revivals of religion accompa- nied with great ingathering of members. The first service in the new Plymouth Church was held on the first Sunday in January, 1850. In 1852 one hundred and two were added to the church on con- fession of faith ; six years later three hundred and sixty-nine. These were the fruits of definitely marked revivals of religion, accompanied by some unusual services; but in both cases the services were the product of the revival ; the revival was not the product of the services. The revival of 1857-58 was the last of those spiritual quickenings produced by the theological revolution which I have described in the first chap- PLYMOUTH CHURCH 93 ter. It extended throughout the country; my impression is that it was nowhere more fruitful in spiritual results than in New York, and that in New York no church gave greater evidence of its practical power in the spiritual life than Plymouth Church. I write of it from personal recollection, dimmed but not effaced by the lapse of years. One Sunday evening in the winter of 1857, Mr. George A. Bell, an active and devoted member of Plymouth Church, invited me to meet with a few other members of the church the next morning on our way to business for an hour of prayer. The morning brought a blocking snowstorm ; a little over a score gathered in the lecture-room ; the pastor was not present. He was invited but de- clined; disavowed his belief in manufactured revivals ; appeared almost to discourage the meet- ings ; really threw the responsibility for beginning them upon the laity of the church. Reluctantly they took it ; for two or three weeks they carried the meetings on, with increasing attendance and interest. Then one Sunday evening Mr. Beecher announced his intention to be present and there- after he invariably presided. This was the begin- ning of a remarkable series of prayer-meetings, continued until the early summer of 1857, and re- sumed again in the winter of 1858. Those who attended those meetings will never forget them; " their freedom of intercourse, their social warmth, their spiritual tenderness ; the commingling of humor and pathos, of the intellectual and the 94 HENRY WARD BEECHER emotional, of the practical and the spiritual, in a word their life, genuine, free, untrammeled, varied life, gave them a character wholly inde- scribable." 1 Always at the close those who desired prayer for themselves or others were asked to indi- cate their desire ; such requests were always pre- sented, and a closing prayer was invariably offered by Mr. Beecher, who grouped together these re- quests in a supplication, in which none of them were forgotten. After the meeting, which was al- ways closed promptly at the end of the hour, Mr. Beecher remained to converse with those who de- sired personal counsel for themselves or others. He called in assistants, both men and women, in whose tact and judgment he had confidence, to aid him in this personal work, and often to carry it on by visiting inquirers in their homes. In this revival Mr. Beecher had no help from any professional evangelist and little help from any of his brother ministers. Every spiritually efficient minister was too busy in his own parish to take much part in the work of other parishes. He made no attempt to drive men into the kingdom of God ; little or none to make them feel either the present evil or the future peril of an unsaved con- dition ; the burden of his preaching was a presen- tation of the joy inherent in the life of faith, hope, and love. " I have sat in my own pulpit," he once 1 Henry Ward Beecher: A Sketch of His Career, by Lyman Abbott, assisted by Rev. S. B. Halliday. American Publishing Company. PLYMOUTH CHURCH 95 said to me, " and seen Finney get the sinner down and pound him until I have wanted to pull Finney by the coat and cry out, O let him up, let him up." Dr. Finney drove men to repentance ; Mr. Beecher drew them. The themes of his revival preaching might almost be summed up in the saying of Hosea: "I drew them with bands of love." One evening he read a letter from an unknown young man, unknown I think to him, certainly to the congregation, saying that he was going to destruc- tion under temptations which he could neither re- sist nor escape, and imploring Mr. Beecher "to preach to me the terror of the law, anything to arouse me from this fearful lethargy." With this as his text Mr. Beecher preached the love of God in Jesus Christ as the only remedy for sin, saying, " If this love of God will not move you, the fear of God will not." The incident was characteristic. Mr. Beecher believed in retribution — at that time more definitely than he did subsequently. But he rarely preached it, and when he did so, it was only as a dark background, that he might make the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ more luminous. The most definite declaration of his faith in this subject at this time is found in the following paragraph in his sermon on " The Gentleness of God : " — Sometimes, in dark caves, men have gone to the edge of unspeaking precipices, and, wondering what was the depth, have cast down fragments of rock, and listened for the report of their fall, that they might judge how 96 HENRY WARD BEECHER deep that blackness was ; and listening — still listening — no sound returns ; no sullen plash, no clinking stroke as of rock against rock — nothing but silence, utter si- lence ! And so I stand upon the precipice of life. I sound the depths of the other world with curious in- quiries. But from it comes no echo and no answer to my questions. No analogies can grapple and bring up from the depths of the darkness of the lost world the probable truths. No philosophy has line and plummet long enough to sound the depths. There remains for us only the few authoritative and solemn words of God. These declare that the bliss of the righteous is everlast- ing ; and with equal directness and simplicity they de- clare that the doom of the wicked is everlasting. And therefore it is that I make haste, with an incon- ceivable ardor, to persuade you to be reconciled to your God. I hold up before you that God who loves the sin- ner and abhors the sin ; who loves goodness with infinite fervor, and breathes it upon those who put their trust in him ; who makes all the elements his ministering ser- vants; who sends years, and weeks, and days, and hours, all radiant with benefaction, and, if we would but hear their voice, all pleading the goodness of God as an argument of repentance and of obedience. And remember that it is this God who yet declares that he will at last by no means clear the guilty ! Make your peace with him now, or abandon all hopes of peace. 1 With this persuasive, attracting, enticing char- acteristic of his revival preaching was another, — its extreme simplicity. It was without technical theological terminology ; it was without metaphy- sical refinements ; it presented the religious life as preeminently natural, the sacrifice it required was 1 Sermons, Harper & Brothers' edition, vol. i. p. 109. PLYMOUTH CHURCH 97 a " reasonable sacrifice." Of this characteristic a notable illustration is afforded by an address de- livered in March, 1858, in Burton's old theatre on Chambers Street, on "How to become a Chris- tian." It was delivered at a week-day meeting; the theatre was crowded to its utmost capacity ; I had difficulty in getting in. The interested reader will find it reported in the " New Star Papers." I can here only quote a few typical sentences ; any condensation would fail to interpret its spirit : — I do not think that there is a man in this congrega- tion that is not abundantly qualified to-day, before the sun goes down, to become a true Christian in the spiritual and experimental sense of the term. A man who knows enough to take care of his busi- ness, to live obediently to the laws of the land, to live in the affection of the family, knows enough to begin a Christian life. It is not needful that you have a great deal of feeling. . . . The less feeling there is required to effect a moral revolution, the better. Do you desire the love of God? Do you desire it more than you do your pleasure, more than ambition, more than selfish indulgence ? . . . Why do you not take three minutes of this sovereign power of choice to become a Christian ? I care for you ; not out of my own nature, but be- cause the spirit of my Master makes me thus care for your soul. He sent me to tell you that He — glorious as He is — that He cares for you ten thousand times more than I do. Such preaching as this was not calculated to 98 HENRY WARD BEECHER produce excitement. The emotionalism, developing occasionally into hysteria, which has too often ac- companied revivals of religion, and which some readers erroneously imagine to be characteristic of all revivals of religion, was noticeably absent from the experience of Plymouth Church. It is not too much to say that it was never seen there, in either Sunday service or weekly prayer-meeting. Feeling there was, often deep feeling ; but always natural, moral, rational. " The less feeling there is re- quired to effect a moral revolution, the better," interprets all Mr. Beecher's spiritual endeavor. The sermons were expository, not hortatory, though expository rather of spiritual experience than of either the letter of Scripture or the doctrine of theology. The prayer-meetings were simple, collo- quial, unconventional. The spiritual activity of both pastor and people was unmarked by efforts either to coerce or cajole attendants into uniting with the church ; it was characterized, on the con- trary, with distinct efforts to caution, especially the young, from too sudden action springing from momentary impulse. At the end of ten years, partly as the result of these revivals, the church had grown in membership from twenty-one to twelve hundred and forty-one. Anticipating here for a moment future history, it is legitimate to add that at the semi-centennial of Plymouth Church, celebrated in 1897, it was reported that thirty- six hundred and thirty-three persons had come into the kingdom of God through the doors of the PLYMOUTH CHURCH 99 church, an average of little over seventy-two each year, for the most part, without special measures or meetings of any kind. Humanly speaking, these results were due primarily to the intellectual and spiritual power of the pastor. To some account of him and his methods, as I personally knew both at this epoch in his ministry, the next chapter will be devoted. CHAPTER V THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH It was seven years after the organization of Ply- mouth Church that I first began to attend it, and I here speak of Mr. Beecher as I knew him then, but I judge that no great change had been made either in his person, his habits, or his preaching in those seven years, save that perhaps his powers had improved a little, certain roughness due to his Western experiences had been rubbed off by attri- tion with the East, and the too exuberant rhetoric of his earliest ministry was mastered and pruned. In person he was slightly under six feet ; power- fully built ; not corpulent, but stocky. His gen- eral appearance suggested great physical strength. Mr. Fowler, the phrenologist, said of him that he was a " splendid animal," and no one looking on his magnificent physique could doubt the fact. He had a great brain ; a great forehead, bearing wit- ness to his intellect ; a domed crown bearing witness to his reverence and his benevolence ; a broad back of the head, bearing witness to the strength and force of his will; and heavy eye- brows, indicating power of observation. He had a good digestion and an excellent nervous system. Shortly before his death, in answer to some one THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 101 who asked him if he was going to Europe for his health, he replied, " I already have more health than I know what to do with." Vigor of health was characteristic of him throughout his life. No doubt nature had endowed him with a fine phy- sique, but he cooperated with nature and took ex- cellent and intelligent care of his body. He used neither tobacco nor alcohol, until the latter years of his life, when he made occasional and rare use of the lighter forms of the latter. He did not use tea or coffee in excess, and in his diet was never self- indulgent. He had studied the relation of differ- ent foods to different physiological conditions, and adapted his own diet intelligently to his own needs ; eating, for instance, little beef, because it made blood, and he was too full-blooded by nature. He was an early riser, and usually finished his work in the study in time to allow some out-of-door exercise or excursion before a two-o'clock dinner. The afternoon was given to rest; part of it to sleep, part of it to social calling or out-of-door em- ployment. After a light supper he entered on the work of the evening, which was almost invariably given up to some public engagement. He was al- ways a sound sleeper, and had the gift, somewhat rare I think, of throwing off cares and anxieties, whether they belonged to him or others, when he believed that further carrying them would do no good to him or to them. He early adopted the principle that it is better to rest before one's work as a preparation for it, than after one's work as a 102 HENRY WARD BEECHER recuperation from it. Saturday, therefore, was al- ways given to rest ; for he believed that the sab- bath commandment was as applicable to ministers as to laymen, and, with rare exceptions, he did his work six days in the week, and rested on the sev- enth. But Saturday, not Sunday, was his rest-day. Whatever he may have been before, after I knew him he was not, in any ordinary sense of the term, a pastor. The work of a pastor is twofold : to organize his church as a captain of its spiritual industries, and to visit from house tq house, doing personally in the household work somewhat ana* logous to that done by the Catholic priest in the confessional. Mr. Beecher did neither. He did not organize his church. He inspired those who gathered about him with generous aspi- rations, pointed out to them work to be done, in- cited them to do it, but left them to do it in their own way. Even up to the time of his death, it might be said that Plymouth Church was rather a body of workers- than a working body. Many, if not most churches, are over-organized ; the machin- ery is too great for the steam generated to operate it. Plymouth Church was under-organized ; the steam generated by the Friday evening meeting and the Sunday morning service was greater than the organism afforded scope for. There were or- ganizations and very effective ones in connection with Plymouth Church, but they were independent of any one central control ; and while their effi- ciency was due to the energizing power of Mr. THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 103 Beecher, their form and framework were due to the organizing capacity of others. Nor did Mr. Beecher, to any considerable ex- tent, do pastoral work from house to house. He did little visiting, except of a restful sort, in the houses of intimate friends. He was not often to be seen at the bed of the sick, or even of the dying; he was not always to be had for either the funerals or the weddings incident to his great parish. When the necessity for this work became apparent, and it also became apparent that the one man could not do the preaching and public speak- ing in which Mr. Beecher was engaged, and also the personal, pastoral, house-to-house visiting, a pastor's assistant was secured, and on the Rev. S. B. Halliday, for years Mr. Beecher's faithful coadjutor, this form of personal work devolved, and by him it was done with admirable fidelity. Never- theless, Mr. Beecher did do, in his own way, a personal work much greater and more influential, I am inclined to think, than the average of even notably efficient pastors. For sometimes half an hour after the Friday evening prayer-meeting he held what I may call a religious reception. He sat on or near the platform, to talk with old friends or meet with new acquaintances ; he shook hands with any one that offered him a hand; an old friend returning after a long absence was instantly recognized and greeted with the warm cordiality of the love that is without dissimulation ; if any one wished to see him privately, he sat down in the 104 HENRY WARD BEECHER pew beside the seeker, heard his experience, di- vined his need before the narrative was half fin- ished, and went to the heart of the matter in a quick sympathetic or pungent sentence ; if further help was needed, he referred the petitioner to some wise counselor, or made with him an appointment for some further and fuller interview. He ex- pressed to me once his admiration for the tact, skill, and forcefulness of Dr. Nettleton's personal work of this description. I fancy that he had studied Dr. Nettleton's methods, and to good ad- vantage. But it was as an orator, in the pulpit and on the platform, in church, lecture-hall, and public assem- bly, that Mr. Beecher exercised his principal influ- ence on the nation, and on his own church. By oratory I mean the art of influencing masses of men by spoken address. Any man who possesses this art, and actually does so influence men, I call an orator, whatever his elocutionary or rhetorical gifts, whatever the methods which he employs. In fact, Mr. Beecher had remarkable elocutionary and rhetorical gifts. He gave me once an account of the methods which he pursued in his boyhood, when under a skilled elocutionist, he spent some- times an hour at a time simply practicing the use of the vowel o, with its varied intonations, or took a posture at a chalk-mark on the floor and went through varied gestures, exercising each movement of the arm under his instructor's direction, as he was told how far the arm should come forward, THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 105 where it should start from, how far go back, and under what circumstances these movements should be made. Whatever stiffness and artificiality such drill might have at first produced had entirely disap- peared by the time Mr. Beecher came to Brooklyn ; for the effects of this drill made ease, flexibility, and variety of voice and movement a second nature to him. His voice, his arms, his whole body, and in some sense preeminently his face, were the quick and potent servants of his alert mind. Training had given his voice great carrying power. His contem- porary and friend, Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, once said to me that the secret of vocal power without vocal weariness is knowing how to use the bel- lows. Mr. Beecher knew how to use the bellows. He never strained his throat in vehemence of speech; the throat was simply used to determine the quality of the tone ; the forcefulness of it was given by the abdominal muscles. The reading of the Scripture lesson in too many Congregational churches is a piece of perfunctory ritualism. It was a lesson in elocution to hear Mr. Beecher read a Scripture lesson. You might not agree with his interpretation, but you could not misunderstand it. I recall once hearing him, in a sermon on the gen- tleness of Christ, pause and say : " But did not Christ denounce the Pharisees with bitterest invec- tive ? That depends upon the spirit with which He uttered and with which we read His words." Then he took up the New Testament, turned to the twenty-third chapter of Matthew and read three or 106 HENRY WARD BEECHER four verses — " Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- sees, hypocrites " — with thunder in the tones, frown upon the brow, wrath in the voice ; then, without note or comment, he read them again as a lamentation, with infinite pathos, with suppressed tears in the tones of his voice. Then he closed the New Testament and went on with his sermon. With this remarkable elocutionary power was a sympathetic imagination that made him, for the moment, enter into and participate in every ex- perience which he described. Coupled with a keen and quick observation of things, his imagination made him a graphic painter of scenes, which were portrayed with a vividness such as made them for the moment present to the audience. Coupled with a sympathetic insight, his imagination made him a dramatic portrayer of characters, who were introduced upon the platform as though they for the moment were addressing the audience. Coupled with his devout spirit, his imagination enabled him to realize himself and make his congregation realize the presence of the living God, as really known through transcending knowledge. Thus variously working, his imagination made him at once the most graphic, the most dramatic, and the most devout of orators. Whether in his pulpit or his parlor, he enacted with his voice, gesture, and facial expression the incidents he narrated. His face had not less flexibility than his voice, nor was it less obedient to his instant and unconscious volition. It was this dramatic quality which made men say THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 107 of him sometimes that he was a great actor. That he could have made a great actor, in the pro- fessional sense of the term, I do not believe ; he could not have coerced himself into playing a part ; moral enthusiasm was necessary to create the con- ditions under which face and voice and gesture would serve his purpose. His rhetoric, no less than his elocution, was al- ways subordinate to moral ends. Both were instru- ments which he had come by ten years of practical use, unconsciously for the purpose of moving the audience he was addressing. I do not think, after he came to Brooklyn, he ever preached sermons analogous to those " Lectures to Young Men " de- livered in Indianapolis, to which I have referred in a previous chapter. His descriptive powers became subordinated to his philosophical thought. It might be too much to say that he was rhetorical and im- aginative rather than thoughtful in Indianapolis ; but it is certain that he was thoughtful rather than imaginative and rhetorical in Brooklyn. It was because his rhetorical forms were thus instrumen- tal that he almost never verbally repeated himself. He acted on the aphoristic advice which Professor Edwards A. Park is said to have given his students : " There is no objection to preaching an old sermon if it is born again." Mr. Beecher had favorite and familiar lines of thought and he repeated them again and again. But he had no old sermons. I do not recall that he ever repeated a sermon " by request." I do not think he could have done so if 108 HENRY WARD BEECHER he had tried; any more than he could have re- peated a conversation. In a sense, every sermon, every address was a conversation with his audience. In the phrasing of it always, in the figures employed often, in the anatomical structure of it sometimes, the audience took an unconscious part. It was this conversational attitude in which Mr. Beecher stood to his audiences, and as a result of which he re- ceived from them impressions while he was impress- ing himself upon them, that made his sermons always fresh; this also partly accounted for the great variableness of his power. That power de- pended partly on his own mood, but also partly on the mood of his audience. His interest was in men, not in theories; in life, not in philosophy. He saw everything in the concrete, and his generalizations were, therefore, always interpreted in concrete forms. His illustra- tions were not ornaments attached to his discourse, like fringe upon a garment ; they were woven into it, a part of its web and woof, so that, in general, it was impossible to remember the illustration with- out remembering the truth which, it illustrated. At the same time he dealt not with isolated facts but with broad principles. From the particulars he evolved the general truth, then returned to the particulars to illustrate and enforce it. Although his method changed somewhat afterward, his ser- mons at this time generally revolved, each one about one central principle, so that the congrega- tion went away, not dazzled by pyrotechnics, not to THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 109 discuss the oraior and his methods, but impressed by some vital principle which elocution, oratory, rhetoric, argument had combined to enforce. Whatever interested men, interested him. He was thus an instinctive student of human affairs ; knew about trades, industries, domestic concerns, the affairs of the kitchen, the street, the shop ; and they all came into his discourses, not only to illuminate his thought, but also to make connec- tion with the men and women before him whose lives were in these various spheres. It was inter- esting to sit, as at one time I did, in the choir-gal- lery, looking upon the great congregation, and see how different references to different phases of life would catch and compel the attention of different hearers. He would capture a merchant with an illustration from the stock exchange, an artist with a reference to a picture, a mother with a reference to a garden or to children, a musician with a reference to a symphony or an oratorio, and they all would bear upon the one central truth which he determined not merely to make clear to the minds but to make potent in the lives of his hearers. It has been sometimes said that Mr. Beecher was not a scholar. Whether he was or no I will not undertake, to say, for the term scholar connotes different ideas to different minds; I will simply describe him as he was. He made no direct use of the Hebrew, and if he had ever known the lan- guage, had, I am sure, forgotten it. If he wanted exegetical information on a passage of the Old 110 HENRY WARD BEECHER Testament, he went to his brother Dr. Edward Beeeher, or to his friend Dr. Thomas J. Conant, both of whom were expert Hebraists. He was fa- miliar with the Greek, and in his New Testament studies made constant use of it. When I decided to go into the ministry I sought his advice as to the best books for my library ; he said, " Buy Alford's Greek Testament, whatever you do." It took all the little money I had, but I was very glad after- wards I had made the expenditure. In his time this certainly was, if it is not still, the best critical apparatus for the study of the Greek New Testa- ment. During his anti-slavery campaigns he not only had in his library " Curtis on the Constitu- tion " and " Kent's Commentaries on Law," but he carefully studied them. No one would claim for him that he was a constitutional lawyer, but he had his own well-considered opinions, formed after careful study, on the great constitutional questions involved in the anti-slavery controversy. He was familiar with the best books of his time on phy- siology, was a believer in the principles of phreno- logy, which he acquired at their fountain head, the works of Gaul and Spurzheim, and he made habit- ual use of the phrenological nomenclature in his analyses of human life. He was familiar with cer- tain of the great classics, though that familiarity rarely appeared in his addresses, partly because he was not given to quotation, partly because he had no verbal memory, and could not quote without breaking in upon the current of his discourse to THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 111 read the quotation. He read and re-read such writ- ers as Homer, Dante, Milton, Thackeray, Scott, — the first two in translations. He not only read, he studied them. The best discrimination between Dante and Milton I have ever heard or seen I heard from his lips in private conversation. He was familiar, too, with the latest contributions of mod- ern thinkers on subjects co-related to his themes — Herbert Spencer, John Tyndal, Thomas H. Huxley, Matthew Arnold, and I believe was instrumental in securing the republication of their works in this country, and so introducing them to American readers. Rarely was I at his house, unless for the briefest errand, that he did not call my attention to some noteworthy book, or some specially valu- able article in a late review, English or American. This familiarity with current literature was partly due to his habit of mousing among the book-stores and in the libraries, and getting information as to the things most worth knowing from others whose business it was to know the whole field of literature and philosophy. When he went on a lecture tour he carried with him a black bag ; I suppose at some time it must have been new. In that black bag was a small library. It usually contained a book of poetry, one of philosophy, one of history, one of fiction. Pursuing synchronously courses of poetry, history, philosophy, and fiction, he took up his course in either one according to the mood of the hour. He called himself a slow reader ; I rather think he was, for he read not primarily to acquire 112 HENRY WARD BEECHER information but to stimulate thought. He chose books of power, and when the thought was stimu- lated, closed the book, and followed the clue which it had put into his hand ; yet he acquired the habit of quickly ascertaining what a book had for him, would turn with a kind of unerring instinct to that portion and pass by the rest. " I never read a book through," he said to me once ; " a book is like a fish : you cut off the head, you cut off the tail, you cut off the fins, you take out the backbone, and there is a little piece of meat left." I called on him once at his dinner hour to obtain his opinion on a treatise on phrenology. At the end of the first course he left the table and sat down by the win- dow, took the pages, and ran over them, much in this way : " Yes ! no ! that is not true." " Ah ! that is old." " Yes, that is so." " Well, I don't know about that." In fifteen minutes he had gone through the volume and knew it better than I did after an hour or two of examination. I believe he read Froude's " History of England " between the dinner courses. Such reading is an unsocial habit not to be recommended, but it is one which cer- tainly would not be fallen into by a man who was " no student." But a book is only the reflection of a man ; it only tells what a man has thought about some- thing. Mr. Beecher got directly from men much which most students get indirectly through printed pages. He was preeminently a student of nature, man, and the Bible. THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 113 In nature he saw a hieroglyphic language and read the lesson which it had for him. Whether he was familiar with the writings of Wordsworth I do not know ; but no man I have ever known pos- sessed a mind so much in this respect like that of Wordsworth as Henry Ward Beecher. He says in one of his lecture-room talks, " Have you ever, as a part of your obedience to Christ, taken time to sit down and think what birds and flowers mean? You have taken flowers and you have en- joyed them — their forms, their colors, their odors — simply as objects which had a relation to a cer- tain sense of beauty in yourself. That is very well, although it is the merest superficial treatment of that profound subject, and does not fulfill the com- mand of God. The command of prayer, of meek- ness, of humility may rank higher in the moral scale, but they are not one whit more commands than is this passage a command in relation to birds and flowers, and they do not address you one whit more than this does. Consider. It is not smell, it is not admire, it is not enjoy, it is not even look at ; it is consider. And to consider is to ponder ; it is to take a thing up into your mind and turn it over and over that you may know what it means." In these words he describes his own habits. He considered, that is, pondered much. If he read books less than most ministers, he thought more about what he read than most ministers think. If he ate less, he digested more, and it is what we digest, not what we eat, that makes us strong. 114 HENRY WARD BEECHER He carried the same spirit into his study of men. He did not visit much from house to house, nor, so far as I know, did he ever belong to a club ; clubs were not as common then as now. But he made himself a welcome guest in the shop, the office, the factory. He did not confine his fel- lowship to any class or circle in society. He says somewhere, "There is no man that is not wiser than I am on some subjects ; I can get something from everybody." In another place he says, " There is not a deck-hand on the ferry-boats, nor a man at Fulton Ferry whom I do not know, and who has not helped me." This was the secret of his interest in all manner of things. While he was getting information from men he was getting insight into men. In his Yale lectures to young men he tells them how in his pastoral intercourse he adjusts his ministry to the character of the man, as their character is interpreted to him by the structure and organism of the individual before him. Despite this constant intuitive study, he was easily cheated. There is a profound truth in the epigram attributed to Edward Eggleston — "I never knew a person who knew man so well and men so ill as Henry Ward Beecher." He studied men with a "charity which thinketh no evil;" looked not so much to see what was in the man to- day as what were the possibilities for the man in the future. But it was because of this ineradicable faith in the possibility of goodness in men that he was the great preacher. " We are saved by hope : " THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 115 if the pulpit universally recognized this truth it would possess a much greater saving grace. In the same spirit in which he studied nature and man, he studied the Bible. A pocket Bible was his constant companion. If by being a Bible preacher is meant a preacher who gathers by concordance a great accumulation of texts and quotes them as demonstration of a proposition which he wishes to establish, Mr. Beecher was not a Bible preacher. If by a Bible preacher is meant a man who is suffused through and through with the spirit, in- spiration, and uplifting influence which is in this collection of Hebrew literature, Mr. Beecher was preeminently a Bible preacher. " Under the fos- sil,'* says M. Taine, " there was an animal ; and behind the document there was a man. Why do you study the shell except to bring before you the animal ? So you study the document only to know the man." So Mr. Beecher studied the Bible. " A Bible alone," he says, "is nothing. A Bible is what the man is who stands behind it — a book of hieroglyphics, if he be nothing but a spiritual Champollion ; a book of rituals, if he be nothing but a curiosity-monger or an ingenious framer of odds and ends of things ; and a valuable guide, full of truth and full of benefit for mankind, if he be a great soul filled with living thought." The Bible is primarily a revelation of the higher spiritual ex- perience of men ; it is a revelation of God just in so far as God is in spiritual experience. The study of the Bible as a document, that we may know the 116 HENRY WARD BEECHER men who produced the document, and so better understand the spiritual experience in and through which God is revealed, constitutes the miscalled " Higher Criticism." It was the recognition of the man behind the document, and the spiritual expe- rience in the man, which both made famous and subjected to severe criticism Dean Milman's " His- tory of the Jews" and Dean Stanley's "History of the Jewish Church." To what extent the same spirit actuated Mr. Beecher's pulpit use of the Old Testament, and to what extent the results of the "Higher Criticism" were anticipated by him, is indicated by the volume of popular lectures on the Bible preached during the winter of 1878-79, and subsequently published under the title "Bible Studies." But it was the New Testament which he chiefly studied. He did not merely read it and re-read it ; he did not merely study the interpreters of it ; his study was not mainly nor even largely textual and verbal ; I doubt whether he ever spent much time over questions of grammatical construction or ver- bal translation ; the object of his study was always to get at the living thought of the writer, to under- stand and put himself in possession of the writer's experience. In this study he made use of his pen, working over the passage under his consideration, analyzing it and writing down the analysis, either to clarify it, to fasten it in his own mind, or to preserve it for future reference. A striking illus- tration of this his method of study is an analysis THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 117 of the seventh chapter of Romans, which he wrote, I believe, some time in the seventies. He subse- quently gave it to me, and it was published in " The Christian Union " in 1887, at the time of his death. The analysis is worked out in a manner analogous to that of a lawyer's brief, and with a detail which recalls the. method of Dr. Charles G. Finney. 1 While he thus familiarized himself, not only with the writings and the thoughts, but even more with the vital experiences of Paul, he gave, if not a more assiduous, a more constant and compre- hensive study to the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. " Christ," says William Arnot, " is the living Seed ; the Bible is the husk that contains the Seed." It was that he might understand and interpret this living Seed that Mr. Beecher studied and used the Four Gospels. I doubt whether any minister ever lived who in a stricter sense preached Jesus Christ. When he died, leaving his life of Christ but half finished, his sons were able to com- plete it, with scarcely a break, by quotations from his sermons, except that there was no sermon to be found describing the crucifixion. This scene was so sacred to Mr. Beecher that he never ven- tured to attempt a portrayal of it. If it is a mistake to suppose that Mr. Beecher was no student, it is equally a mistake to suppose that he was accustomed to speak without prepara- tion. In his early ministry he had made a careful analytical study of the old English divines, not so 1 See Appendix II. 118 HENRY WARD BEECHER much for their thought as for their style. He wrote his early sermons fully and sometimes with consid- erable care. I think his " Lectures to Young Men," given in Indianapolis, were fully written. Rhetoric had thus become to him, as had elocution, a second nature. But at the time of which I am writing his preparation of his theme was chiefly a brooding, a meditating, a considering. This took no little time ; but the immediate analysis of his theme, its formu- lation, and the verbal phrasing of it, were ac- complished with marvelous rapidity. He told me once his method ; I describe it from memory. " I have," he says, " half a dozen or more topics lying loose in my mind through the week ; I think of one or another, as occasion may serve, anywhere, — at home, in the street, in the horse-car. I rarely know what theme I shall use until Sunday morning. Then, after breakfast, I go into my study, as a man goes into his orchard ; I feel among these themes as he feels among the apples, to find the ripest and the best ; the theme which seems most ripe I pluck ; then I select my text, analyze my subject, prepare my sermon, and go into the pulpit to preach it while it is fresh." In this preparation he wrote the introduction and the earlier portions of his sermon in full, but as the time for the church service grew near, the writing was more abbreviated; then mere heads were jotted down, in single sentences, or perhaps single words ; and at last, almost as the bell began to toll, he caught up his unfinished manuscript, THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 119 walked with long, rapid strides to the church, edged his way through the throng, with a greet- ing here and there to a special friend, dropped his soft felt hat by the side of his chair, put his notes on the table beside him, sometimes added to them with a pencil while the choir was sing- ing the anthem. 1 When the time for the sermon came, the notes lay on the open Bible before him. He read in a quiet manner, not always easily audi- ble throughout the church unless it were notably still, the first and fully written pages, dropped his manuscript to throw in a thought that flashed upon him, came back to it again, dropped it again, presently dropped it altogether, either not to recur to it at all, or to recur to it only to catch from some word or sentence a hint as to the next point in the current of his thought. To the careless it seemed that Mr. Beecher's preparation of his ser- mon was left to Sunday morning ; in fact, he rarely if ever in his ordinary preaching treated a theme until he had given to it weeks of meditation. In his earlier years there lay on his study table a little notebook with flexible covers, about the size of a sheet of commercial note-paper, full of hints, subjects, themes, sketches of possible sermons, with an occasional fully articulated skeleton. Later I think he gave up this notebook, but his pocket was generally half full of letters, on the back of 1 This was his method daring the earlier years of his Brooklyn ministry ; subsequently he often preached from mere notes jotted down on a sheet of note-paper. 120 HENRY WARD BEECHER any one of which he would jot down thoughts for sermons, as they might strike him, wherever he happened to be. A single illustration may serve to make clear this excogitation of his sermons. He was to preach at an ordination in New Eng- land. " I think," he said to me, " I shall preach a sermon on pulpit dynamics ; you had better look for it." I did look for it, and it was nothing but a description of the incidental advantages of and happiness in the ministry as a profession. When I next met him I asked, " Where is that sermon on pulpit dynamics ? " " It was not ripe," he re- plied ; " but I shall get something out of it yet." What he did get out of it was, ten years later, the Yale "Lectures on Preaching," one of the best pieces of work he ever did. When I turn from some account of Mr. Beecher's general and specific methods of preparation to an analysis of the sermons themselves, the difficulty of furnishing any generic analysis is almost insuper- able. This is partly due to the extraordinary vari- ety of elements which entered into them. " The most myriad-minded man since Shakespeare," Charles H. Spurgeon is said to have called Mr. Beecher. This myriad-mindedness shows itself in the structure and composition of his sermons. He advised the young men at Yale Theological Semi- nary never to preach two sermons alike, if they could help it — counsel founded upon his own prac- tice. The Harper and Brothers edition of his " Sermons " containing a selection of forty-six dis- THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 121 courses, taken from the preaching of ten years, includes an autobiographical exposition of the spirit and purpose of his ministry in " Thirteen Years in the Gospel Ministry, a Sermon of Minis- terial Experience ; " a prose poem in " The Sepul- chre in the Garden ; " a theological discourse in " The Divinity of Christ maintained in a Consid- eration of his Relations to the Soul of Man ; " a spiritual rhapsody in " The Gentleness of God ; " a meditation, the fruit of a spring day spent on his farm, in " The Lilies of the Field, a Study of Spring for the Careworn ; " an interpretation of nature in u The Storm and its Lessons ; " an expo- sition of the simplest ethical duties in " Faithfulness in Little Things ; " an exposition of an Old Testa- ment story in " Three Eras in Life : God — Love — Grief — as Exemplified in the Experience of Jacob ; " — in truth, there are scarcely two ser- mons in this collection which in form, structure, and method are alike. There are, however, certain general character- istics which may be said to belong to all of Mr. Beecher's sermons. He rarely preached a textual or expository sermon. 1 " A text," he has some- where said, " is like a gate ; some ministers swing back and forth on it ; I push it open and go in." His texts were rarely more than mottoes for, or introductions to his discourse. This was by no accident ; it sprang by necessity out of his methods 1 His Bible Studies may be regarded as an exception, but they were lectures rather than sermons. 122 HENRY WARD BEECHER of preparation. He first determined the object that he wished to accomplish by his sermon — some change in life, practical, spiritual, or intellectual, in an individual, or in a type, or in a church, or in the entire community ; then he selected the theme which would be, in his judgment, most instrumental to this end ; and lastly the text which would serve as an introduction to the theme. I do not mean that his mind always went through these processes in this order ; I do mean that in the order of im- portance the object to be accomplished came first, the theme by which it was to be accomplished sec- ond, the text which was to introduce the theme third. He never forced texts out of their connec- tion, nor imputed to them a fanciful meaning, nor employed them as mere devices to awaken a guess- ing curiosity in the minds of the congregation. Strictly doctrinal sermons were few ; occasionally he preached one for the purpose of denning his position and reaffirming his substantial agreement with the evangelical Protestantism in which he had been bred. When he essayed an entrance into pure theology he was not at his best. His argument for the divinity of Christ derived from his rela- tions to the human soul is effective, not because it is an exposition of philosophy, but because it is an interpretation of experience ; but when he attempts to define this divinity, as in a sermon preached in 1879, and subsequently in the introduction to his life of Christ, as " simply the Divine Spirit in a human body," he offers a definition with which it THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 123 is impossible to reconcile the spirit of his own preaching. Nowhere in religious literature is the essential humanity of Christ's nature more illus- trated and enforced than in Mr. Beecher's preach- ing ; nor anywhere is Christ's essential divinity more emphasized. In truth, Mr. Beecher was indifferent as to theo- logical theories, ritualistic observances, and church connections ; only the realities of life interested him. He was a Congregationalist, partly because he was born in New England, partly because he was independent by nature ; but he was quite ready to co-work with ministers of all denominations, and he would have been equally ready to work in any denomination if he could have had in it equal liberty. As we have seen, the creed of his church did not differ from that of New School Presbyte- rianism ; there was a baptistry under the pulpit, and candidates for admission were baptized by immer- sion or sprinkling, as they preferred ; the prayer- meetings had the fervor of Methodist prayer-meet- ings; Mr. Beecher was by nature too unconventional to adopt a liturgy, but for the liturgy of the Epis-. copal Church he had a great affection. " Should our own children," he says, " find their religious wants better met in the service of the Episcopal Church than in the Plymouth .Congregational Church, we should take them by the hand and lead them to its altars." On the questions at issue be- tween the different denominations I think he rarely if ever preached, unless the preaching of his later 124 HENRY WARD BEECHER years against certain tenets of the severer type of Calvinism affords an exception. But though he was not a theological preacher, if by that is meant a preacher whose aim it is to expound a certain philosophy of religion, a simple but consistent theology underlay all his ministry from its beginning to its end. Professor William James, in his volume on the " Varieties of Reli- gious Experience," declares that " there is a cer- tain uniform deliverance in which religions all appear to meet. It consists of two parts : 1. An uneasiness ; 2. Its solution. — 1. The uneasiness, reduced to its simplest terms, is a sense that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand. 2. The solution is a sense that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers." This is very analogous to Professor Christlieb's declaration that evangelioal Christianity is all summed up in the two words " sin " and " salvation." In the evangelical theo- logy as interpreted by Christlieb, in the message of universal religion as interpreted by Professor James, Henry Ward Beecher was a devout and earnest believer. It is true that in his later years he repudiated the doctrine of the Fall of man in Adam, and he always repudiated the idea that the race could justly he held responsible for any such fall. It is true that he repudiated, in vigorous and even vehement terms, the doctrine of Total Deprav- ity. This word, he said, " is an interloper ; it is not to be found in the Scriptures ; we do not be- THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 125 lieve that it is even to be found in the catechism and confessions of faith of Protestant or Catholic Christendom ; we do not feel called upon to give the mischievous phrase any respect; we do not believe in it, nor in the thing which it obviously signifies ; it is an unscrupulous, monstrous, and unredeemable lie." But he did believe, " with con- tinual sorrow of heart and daily overflowing evi- dence, in the deep sinfulness of universal man ; " believed that " no man lives who does not need to repent of sin, and to turn from it ; " believed that " turning from sin is work so deep and touches so closely the very springs of being that no man will ever change except by the help of God." This was in him no theoretic conception based either on a 'priori reasoning or on ancient Biblical history ; it was a conviction borne in upon him by his own personal experience and by his wide observation of life. Few ministers in the American pulpit have preached more searchingly on human sins, or awakened more vividly in men's consciousness the sense of their wrong-doing ; it is doubtful whether any minister has preached more effectively practi- cal ethics — the supreme obligation of love to God and man as the controlling motive of the life, and the various specific obligations which that supreme obligation involves. But this was not the burden of Mr. Beecher's preaching. His aim was less to convince men "that there is something wrong about us as we naturally stand " than to make available to them 126 HENRY WARD BEECHER the true solution, namely, " that we are saved from the wrongness by making proper connection with the higher powers." He believed that the Gospel is the " power of God unto salvation," and his preeminent ambition in the ministry was to make that Gospel effectual. He affirmed in the strong- est terms that success in preaching depends on the power of the preacher to put before men the Lord Jesus Christ ; that high above all other influences is Christ, "a living Person who gave himself a ransom for sinners and now ever lives to make intercession for them ; " that " there can be no sound and effective method of preaching ethics even which does not derive its authority from the Lord Christ ; " that " all reformations of evil in society, all civil and social reformations, should spring from this vital centre ; " that " all philan- thropies are partial and imperfect that do not grow out of this same root ; " that " all public questions of justice, of liberty, of equity, of purity, of intel- ligence should be vitalized by the power which is in Christ Jesus." * In these respects Mr. Beecher's preaching was the antipodes of naturalistic. He believed profoundly in the declaration of the Ni- cene Creed that Jesus Christ " for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven." He be- lieved, in other words, that the connection with the higher powers has been made for us by the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ ; and the aim of his preaching was to persuade men to accept 1 Sermons, Harper and Brothers' edition, vol. ii. p. 200. THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 127 this connection, and so escape from the sinfulness in which they were enmeshed. 1 As his preaching was non-naturalistic, so it was non-rationalistic. The basis of naturalism in reli- gion is the assumption that men can save themselves from sinfulness without a divine helper ; the basis of rationalism in preaching is the doctrine that men are governed by their reason, and if they are per- suaded of a truth will follow it. Mr. Beecher did not believe that men are governed by their reason ; he believed that they are governed by their motive powers. He therefore appealed directly to their emotions. It was often said in criticism of him that he was an emotional preacher. He would not have denied the assertion. He was an emotional preacher, partly by reason of his emotional temper- ament, partly by reason of his psychological con- ception of the forces that determine life. Even more than to show men the right way, he sought to fur- nish them with power which would impel them in the right way. He believed in enthusiasm, and he imparted enthusiasm to all who came under his dominating influence. He did not confound the sentiments and the emotions ; he did not attempt to play upon the sentiments. As little as any man I ever knew was he ambitious to move men either to laughter or to tears, except as through laughter and tears he could inspire men to higher spiritual living. With him oratory was not an end, but a 1 Compare for a consideration of the substance of his preach- ing, chapters i. and iv. 128 HENRY WARD BEECHER means. His aim was not to amuse, excite, or even instruct, but through instruction and inspiration, through humor and pathos, to bring the whole man into vital union with God, and the whole life into conformity with the law of God as it is interpreted by the life and character of Christ. Thus his preaching was more than emotional, it was spiritual. He believed in the potential divinity in every man; he believed that if this potential divinity were once awakened and given its true place, it would bring all the man into subjection to the law of God, and he sought, by reason, by imagi- nation, by humor, by pathos, by illustration, and by emotion, but yet more than by any or all of these, by direct spiritual contact, to evoke this divine potentiality and make it actual and effective. Mr. Beecher would not have been the preacher that he was if he had not been essentially a mystic. By a mystic I mean a man who possesses the power of seeing immediately and directly the invisible and the eternal. " If I were asked," he told the Yale theological students, " what had been in my own ministry the unseen source of more help and more power than anything else, I should say that my mother gave to me a temperament that enabled me to see the unseeable and to know the unknow- able, to realize things not created as if they were, and oftentimes far more than if they were, present to my outward senses." Mr. Beecher's imagination was not a mere faculty for ornamentation, it was a power of immediately perceiving the invisible. His THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 129 belief in God was not what Carlyle contemptuously calls "an hypothetical God." God was to him a perpetual presence. He knew God and walked with him. So natural and simple was this faith that it required for its cultivation no adventitious circum- stances ; it was entirely congruous in his mind with secular activities, domestic enjoyments, ebullient mirth. He had the faith of a child who never thinks that he may not be merry in his father's presence. Merriment and reverence were not to him in the least incongruous. Men who were repelled by a faith of a more austere type appreciated a faith whjch was so simply and naturally human. The consciousness of God was awakened in men by one who recognized God's fellowship in all the com- mon experiences of life. This pervasive faith made him not merely an orator about religion, but an imparter of religion, and constituted the secret of his pulpit power. It interprets at once his real re- verence and his seeming irreverence ; his fellowship with God no less in secular than in sacred hours, and his disregard for the conventions of religion the utility of which for less impressionable souls he sometimes failed to realize. And yet this mystical power that makes all ideals realities because all ideals are parts of the Infinite and the Eternal power was mated in Mr. Beecher to a cool, hard, practical common sense. He was mystical, but he was rational. All the visions that were brought to his mind through his imagination he tested and measured by the judgment. He was not at times 130 HENRY WARD BEECHER a rationalist, and at times a mystic ; all his mys- ticism was rationalistic mysticism, and all his rationalism was a mystical rationalism. A great deal of the skepticism of our day I think is due to the fact that men are trying to demonstrate reli- gious truth by the faculties by which it can only be tested ; they are trying to build up faith in God by the process by which only faith in God can be mea- sured after it exists. As though men should attempt to make flowers by tearing flowers to pieces; as though men should attempt to make life by dissect- ing the living body. Mr. Beecher saw and knew the Eternal. Then what he had seen he brought to the judgment bar of reason and conscience, and his pulpit gave the joint testimony of his faith and his reason. This mystic quality of Mr. Beecher gave to his prayers a spiritual power quite as remarkable as the power of his preaching. The Puritan doctrine that regeneration entirely changes the character was perhaps the cause which led the Puritan churches to assume that any regenerate soul can lead a congregation in prayer, and to impose upon every layman, cultivated and uncultivated, the duty of praying in public in the prayer-meeting. In truth, there is no intellectual exercise so diffi- cult as that of public prayer. He who would con- duct the devotions of a congregation must not think of the congregation, otherwise he will in- stinctively address them ; he must think of the congregation, otherwise he will engage in a mere THE PASTOR OF PLYMOUTH CHURCH 131 monologue, while the congregation listen to his closet talk with God. Which of these two is the more indecorous and irreverent it is not easy to say. It is because of this inherent difficulty that extemporaneous prayers fall so readily into one of three categories : unrealized ritual, practically a repetition of old-time forms, without the graceful and well-ordered phraseology which belongs to an historic liturgy ; a spiritual monologue, with the congregation in the attitude of eavesdroppers ; or a public speech, nominally addressed to God, really to the human audience. Mr. Beecher's prayers for many years were taken down by a shorthand writer and were published with his ser- mons in " The Christian Union," subsequently in pamphlet form, and eventually selections of them in two volumes. Having undertaken some years ago to compile a book of devotions for private and family use, I necessarily made a somewhat large collection, and a somewhat careful study, of the literature of prayer. If there is any collection of prayers which surpasses these published prayers of Mr. Beecher in simple spiritual eloquence, in the self-revelation of childlikeness of heart and famil- iarity of fellowship with the Everlasting Father, and in understanding and interpretation of the wants, simple and complex, superficial and pro- found, of the human heart, I have never seen it. Rarely does one of these prayers trench in charac- ter upon public address ; occasionally it is, in part at least, a monologue ; more frequently it is sim- 132 HENRY WARD BEECHER ply a new phrasing of common and oft reiterated petitions ; but in general it is a gathering up of the experiences of the varied congregation and their interpretation to the Father on behalf of his children. A prophet is one who interprets God to man ; a priest is one who interprets man to God. Mr. Beecher would have disavowed being a priest ; he would have insisted that every man can carry his own wants to God without the intervention of any intermediary. But far more than most minis- ters he was a true priest, interpreting men's deeper wants to themselves, and so acting as their inter- preter in declaring those deeper wants to him who alone can provide for them. No one can understand Mr. Beecher as a social reformer who does not first understand him as a pastor and preacher, a minister to the spiritual life, a prophet and priest, an interpreter of man to God and of God to man. From this aspect of his character and life we turn to that aspect presented by his career as a reformer, a service necessarily more prominent in the history of his country, but, as I believe, less profoundly influential in the real life of his generation. CHAPTER VI PARENTHETICAL The movements of the generation just preceding the existing generation are usually those least com- prehended by the existing generation ; they are not remote enough to constitute past history, they are not recent enough to constitute current history; but it is impossible to understand correctly the atti- tude of Mr. Beecher, or to measure intelligently the influence which he exerted, without understand- ing something of the complicated issues which he confronted when he came to Brooklyn in 1847. It is therefore necessary to turn aside from the narration of the events of his life in order to trace briefly the growth both of slavery and of the anti-slavery sentiment in the United States, and to describe briefly the conflicting opinions of the abolitionists on the one side, and of the timid, the reactionaries, and the apologists for slavery on the other, as they existed at the time when Mr. Beecher began to take a prominent part in the discussions to which slavery gave rise. The anti-slavery issue in 1847 was far more complicated than it appears to be to the reader in 1900. Roughly speaking, the community in the North was divided into three parties: there was 1M HENRY WARD BEECHER an occasional advocate of slavery, a conservative, who defended it because " whatever is, is right ; " an economist, who thought it essential to the cotton industry, and the cotton industry essential to the welfare of the country ; a romanticist, entranced by the patriarchal aspects of domestic slavery, or re- pelled from the anti-slavery movement by the vitu- perative spirit of the radical abolitionists ; but on the whole there was no sentiment in the North in favor of slavery. There was a great deal of apathy ; there were a great many who regarded the issue as remote, and dreaded its approach ; there were men who cared more for the integrity of the political party, or of the ecclesiastical organization, than they did for their fellow men ; there were ministers who did not think that Christianity had to do with social questions, and who condemned the preaching of liberty and humanity as the preaching of politics ; there were editors who had never studied the Con- stitution of the United States, and did not realize that under the Constitution anything could be done to limit or restrict what they conceded to be a serious evil ; there were moralists, all of whose indignation was expended on the abolitionists for their attacks on the Constitution and the Church, and who had no indignation left to expend on the pro-slavery spirit, which denied in the Southern States, and sought to deny throughout the nation, free press, free speech, and free schools. These classes, grouped together, constituted what was sometimes called the " conservative," sometimes. PARENTHETICAL 135 the "pro-slavery" party, though neither epithet properly described them. There were, secondly, the abolitionists, who demanded the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery, and as a means to that end, the dissolution of the Union, under the mistaken impression that so they would secure immediate and unconditional abolition. And there were, thirdly, the anti-slavery men who be- lieved that the Constitution gave to the federal government ample powers to prevent the extension of slavery, who wished to exert those powers for that purpose, and who believed that, if the exten- sion of slavery was thus prevented, it would be possible to secure eventually the peaceable aboli- tion of slavery even in the slave states. In order to understand Beecher's share in the ultimate over- throw of slavery, it is necessary to understand these three parties and something of the history which produced them. The year 1620, which saw the Pilgrim Fathers landing on Plymouth Rock, saw a vessel with slaves on board landing on the Virginia coast. Nor was slavery at first confined to any section. In 1790 — the first term of George Washington — it existed in every state of the Union, except only Massachusetts ; it did not finally disappear from the state of New York until 1827; and, as has been shown in a preceding chapter, was maintained, in spite of the Ordinance of 1787, in Indiana until the admission of Indiana as a state into the Union in the year 1816. From the first it existed under 136 HENRY WARD BEECHER protest. The abolition sentiment, nurtured in England by the abolition movement under the leadership of Wilberforce and Clarkson, crossed the sea and made itself felt in the American Colonies. The first anti-slavery societies included Southern as well as Northern men. In the original draft of the Declaration of Independence, one of the counts in the indictment against King George was, that he had insisted on maintaining the slave- trade in spite of the protests of the state of Vir- ginia. The first anti-slavery convention, held in 1793 in the city of Philadelphia, was attended alike by Northern and Southern men, and empha- sized the issue between slavery and freedom as dis- tinctly as it was emphasized, half a century later, by Henrys Ward Beecher, William H. Seward, and Abraham Lincoln. In the address issued by that convention it was distinctly affirmed that liberty and slavery cannot exist together on the same con- tinent. This anti-slavery movement was nurtured and promoted by the churches. The Presbyterian and Methodist churches, especially, were distinctly anti-slavery in their teachings, as well as in their sentiments, and the Friends' Meeting was even more outspoken and vigorous. Nor was this work of the Christian Church and of the philanthropic anti-slavery societies nugatory. The anti-slavery sentiment grew apace. Partly owing to the indus- trial conditions, partly to political considerations, and partly to humane, philanthropic, and religious teachings, slavery was gradually abolished in the PARENTHETICAL 137 states north of the so-called Mason and Dixon's Line — the geographical boundary between Penn- sylvania and Maryland. In 1830 it had disappeared absolutely from the last of the so-called Northern States. Moreover, Under the influence of these teachings, the slave-trade had been abolished by Congress in 1808, the earliest date at which such abolition was permitted by the Constitution, and it had been practically abolished earlier than that by statutes enacted in nearly every state in the Union prohibiting the importation of slaves from abroad. 1 This abolition of slavery was accomplished by a gradual and wholly peaceful process, and in most if not all the states with some measure of compen- sation to the slave-owners. If this movement could have gone on unchecked slavery might have been peacefully abolished throughout the United States by the end of the nineteenth century. But it was not allowed to go on unchecked. Simultaneously with the growth of anti-slavery sentiment there grew up a pro-slavery sentiment. The invention of the cotton-gin in 1793, and- its general adoption by the year 1812, had created a great demand for cotton. Experience had demonstrated that cotton could be raised only by negro labor, and it was assumed, without argu- ment, that negro labor must be slave labor. The South, responding to the demand for negro labor created by the increased price and value upon cot- 1 Georgia and South Carolina took no such action; North Carolina levied a tax on all slaves imported. 138 HENRY WARD BEECHER ton, began to put a value upon slavery as an in- dustrial condition which they had not earlier done. This demand created a new industry — the rearing of slaves in the Border States, to be shipped and sold as laborers in the Gulf States. The men who engaged in this traffic were universally despised throughout the South ; but the traffic went on, and indeed was a necessity of the slave system. These industrial changes not only increased the commer- cial value of slavery, but also changed its character. Slaves engaged in domestic service as house ser- vants were still kindly treated. They were regarded as in some sense members of the family ; were well fed, well clothed, well cared for, and in general kindly, though not always respectfully, treated. An attachment grew up between them and the master, the mistress, and the children of the home, such as was unknown in the domestic service of the Northern States. But no such relations were pos- sible between master and servant when the master was engaged in rearing slaves for sale, and none such were possible on the great cotton and sugar plantations of the South, where the negroes worked in gangs under overseers, often of their own race. 1 Thus, while from the North slavery disappeared, in the South slavery became the distinguishing char- acteristic of its industrial system, and at the same time radically changed in its character. Thomas 1 " Louisiana sugar planters did not hesitate to avow openly that, on the whole, they found it the hest economy to work off their stock of negroes about once in seven years and then buy an entire PARENTHETICAL 139 Jefferson had urged in his later years that all chil- dren born in slavery after a certain date should be freed, provided with a home and with some mea- sure of education at public expense, and as soon as they reached competent age sent to some place out- side the country, as San Domingo ; but he was the last Southern statesman of any note to advocate abolition, either gradual or immediate. These changes in the economic conditions of the South were accompanied inevitably by others. Wherever labor is servile, labor is disgraced. La- bor in the South was disgraced, and the free negro and the poor white occupied positions less respected than those of the slave. The Southern States relapsed into a condition of feudalism far inferior to that of the middle ages. Socially and politically, they became an oligarchy ; retaining the form but not the spirit of democracy, ruled by a small body of land-owners and slave-owners. Education is fatal to slavery, and the education of the slave was discouraged in all the Southern States and ab- solutely prohibited in many of them. The education of the poor white would have inevitably produced discontent among the negroes ; therefore there was no adequate provision for their education. The movement for free schools, beginning in New Eng- land and moving westward, never crossed into the region dominated by the slave power. Until after new set of hands." James Ford Rhodes: History of the U. S., vol. i. p. 308. See this entire chapter iv. for a very judicial his- torical picture of American slavery as it existed in 1850. 140 HENRY WARD BEECHER the Civil War not a single Southern State pos- sessed any approximation to a free-school sys- tem. The South was a purely agricultural country and wished to buy its manufactured articles in the cheapest market ; it therefore believed in free trade. The North was a manufacturing commu- nity; it wanted a monopoly for its manufactured articles, and therefore demanded a protective tariff. From the formation of the Constitution two par- ties, representing two political tendencies, divided the nation : one, led by Thomas Jefferson, dreaded concentration of political power and emphasized the value of local self-government ; the other, led by Alexander Hamilton, dreaded the perils arising from sectional self-interest and emphasized the importance of a strong national organization. The Constitution was an endeavor to harmonize these two forces — the centrifugal and the centripetal. For reasons which it is not necessary to go into here, the centrifugal, or Democratic, or Jefferso- nian, tendencies were greatest in the South ; the centripetal, or national, or Hamiltonian, forces were greatest in the North. The North prospered, the South did not. Immigration poured into the North, and avoided the South. The industry of the North was diversified ; the South gave itself up to a single industry, and that one dependent on slave labor. Socially, the South was Cavalier and aristocratic; the North Puritan and democratic. Thus, the South and the North, united under the PARENTHETICAL 141 same Constitution, drifted farther and farther apart, and became at first alien and then hostile to one another — industrially, economically, politi- cally, socially. Mason and Dixon's Line crept westward with the westward growth of the nation : all south of that line became aristocratic, feudal, slave; all north of that line became democratic, modern, free. When the inclination is strong it can generally discover or invent reasons to justify it. The South wished slavery, and found reasons for its mainte- nance. The economic advantage was pleaded : We must have slave labor for our cotton, our sugar, and our rice industry. The social argument was pleaded : The blacks must be kept in subjection to the whites or we shall have intermarriage and all the evils that will follow from intermarriage. The religious argument was pleaded : The curse of God upon the descendants of Ham ; the uncondemned existence of slavery in the Old Testament times ; the fact that Jesus Christ did not in explicit terms condemn it in New Testament times. Southern ministers forgot the radical difference between Roman slavery and Hebrew slavery ; they forgot that Hebrew legislation surrounded slavery with such conditions that iu the time of Christ slavery had almost if not entirely disappeared from Pales- tine, except as it was imported there by Rome ; they forgot that under the beneficent teachings of Christianity slavery gradually disappeared from Europe ; they assumed that a condition of labor, 142 HENRY WARD BEECHER permitted for a little while in the early barbarism of Judaism, was the best condition of labor for the foremost and freest country on the face of the globe in the nineteenth century. At the same time with this growth of slavery in the South and this abolition of slavery in the North, there grew up in the North an unwonted prejudice against the African. It would perhaps be difficult to say why this prejudice was greater in the North than in the South ; but of the fact there can be no doubt. The negro was no longer a negro : he was a " nigger." Special sections of the great cities were, by a kind of common consent, set apart for the negroes, like the ghettoes for the Jews in the mediaeval cities. In the theatres they were banished to the upper galleries, which were called derisively " the nigger heaven." They were directed to the galleries, or to special, and gener- ally undesirable, pews in the churches. Only the more servile forms of labor were permitted to them. In Boston, later the centre of the Abolition Move- ment, on the great days when the Ancient and Honorable Artillery paraded on Boston Common, the negroes were customarily hooted off the public grounds before the parade began. Something such was the condition of the country in the year 1831. In that year two events occurred, having no apparent connection, but having a cer- tain striking dramatic relation : in Virginia a slave insurrection broke out, accompanied with deeds of barbarism and cruelty ; in Boston, William Lloyd PARENTHETICAL 143 Garrison started " The Liberator," pledged to in- stant and immediate abolition. William Lloyd Garrison is a type of the radical abolitionist of the North, the antipodes of the pro- slavery propagandists of the South. Which pro- duced the other has ever been a matter of hot debate between the respective advocates of South and North. The truth is, each produced the other : the fire creates a draught ; the draught increases the fire. It was inevitable that the extension of slavery and the change in its character should excite alike assailants and advocates ; it was inevitable that every assault should intensify the resolute purpose of the advocate, and every advocacy should inten- sify the resolute purpose of the assailant. Mr. Garrison contended that slavery was a sin, and, because a sin, should be instantly abandoned. His position is thus defined by Mr. Oliver Johnson, one of his friends and biographers : — Mr. Garrison had learned the doctrine of immediatism from Dr. Beecher himself. The very keynote of the re- vivals of that day, in which the Doctor took so prominent a part, was the duty of every sinner to repent instantly and give his heart to Christ ; but the men who were most eloquent in urging this doctrine in its application to the sin of unbelief, were prompt to deny it in its application to the sin of slavery. Sin in general was something for which there could be no apology or excuse, but the par- ticular sin of treating men as chattels and compelling them to work without wages could only be put away, if at all, by a process requiring whole generations for its 144 HENRY WARD BEECHER consummation ! Such was the moral blindness of the time — a blindness not of the multitude alone, but of the professed expounders of the will of God. 1 This was not all. If slavery was a sin, so Mr. Garrison argued, the slaveholder is a sinner. The original slaveholder stole the slave from his home in Africa ; he was a man-stealer. But the parti- cipant is as bad as the thief ; therefore the man who took the slave from the slave-dealer is him- self a man-stealer. But a thief can give no title to his goods; therefore the slave-owner, who in Georgia or South Carolina had, two centuries after the original theft, inherited a negro, was himself a man-stealer. He ought not, so Mr. Garrison argued, to be admitted to fellowship in any church ; he ought, so Mr. Garrison argued, to be treated as a man-stealer, and no more socially recognized than any other thief. The proposition for grad- ual emancipation Mr. Garrison vehemently con- demned : slavery was a sin to be instantly broken off. The proposition for compensation he equally condemned : to compensate the slaveholder, he said, is to pay him for his stolen goods, to acknow- ledge that his crime is not a crime. But the Con- stitution of the United States interposed a con- siderable obstacle to the instant and immediate emancipation of the slave. The Northern States had no more power over slavery in South Carolina 1 Oliver Johnson : Life and Times of William Lloyd Garrison, p. 45. PARENTHETICAL 146 than over serfdom in Russia. William Lloyd Gar- rison was quite ready to meet this constitutional argument. He found in the Book of Isaiah a text which he thought appropriate. That prophet had declared that the men in his time who had no faith in God scoffed at the divine warnings because they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, and the prophet scornfully affirmed that such covenant with death and agreement with hell would be annulled, as the people would find to their cost. William Lloyd Garrison applied this phrase to the Constitution of the United States. It was, he said, a covenant with death and an agreement with hell; let us away with it. The Northern States were responsible for the sin of slavery because they allowed themselves to remain in partnership with the slaveholders. He demanded the instant abolition of this partnership with slave- holders by the secession of the Northern States from the Union. These radical and uncompromising principles were put forth in a radical and uncompromising temper. Whoever did not agree with the aboli- tionists, both in the end to be sought and in the methods to be pursued, was denounced as a pro- slavery man. When the time for political action came, Frederick Douglass, himself an emancipated negro, and the foremost representative of his race then, as Booker T. Washington is the foremost representative now, withdrew from the Abolition party, to vote with the Liberty party. He was 146 HENRY WARD BEECHER instantly scored by the abolitionists as an apostate and renegade. James G. Birney was nominated as a candidate by the Liberty party on a platform demanding that there should be no further exten- sion for slavery. He was instantly denounced as a political place-hunter. Those in the Church of Christ who did not agree with the radical prin- ciples of the radical abolitionists came in for a similar denunciation. Said Mr. Garrison : — " Christianity indignantly rejects the sanctimonious pretensions of the great mass of the clergy in our land. It is becoming more and more apparent that they are nothing better than hirelings, in the bad sense of that term — that they are blind leaders of the blind, dumb dogs that cannot bark, spiritual popes — that they love the fleece better than the flock — that they are mighty hindrances to the march of human freedom, and to the enfranchisement of the souls of men." 1 It is perhaps not astonishing that ministers so characterized did not find themselves prompted to march in company with the leader who so charac- terized them. Along with these principles and this temper, it was charged upon the abolitionists that they sought to bring about the instant and immediate emanci- pation which they demanded by insurrectionary and incendiary methods. That charge has been denied. Whether true or false, it certainly was not without ground. Abolition tracts were freely cir- 1 William Lloyd Garrison: The Story of his Life, Told by his Children, vol. ii. p. 140. PARENTHETICAL 147 culated throughout the Southern States ; pictures were printed upon cheap handkerchiefs, such as might be easily circulated among the slaves, and were sent to them — pictures, the only effect of which, whatever may have been their object, must have been to arouse the slaves to insurrection. The notion was currently entertained that the slave population was restless, discontented, ready to revolt, kept in subjection only by a knowledge that the whole resources of the federal government would be employed to put the insurrection down. This notion attributed to the negroes a knowledge which they did not possess and sentiments which belong to a much higher state of moral devel- opment than they had attained. John Brown's famous raid assumed a readiness on the part of the slave to rise in revolt if the opportunity was afforded him, which the subsequent history of the Civil War demonstrated beyond all question to be wholly lacking. But the programme as well as the platform of the abolitionists took for granted the existence of such a widespread discontent among the negroes of the South, which only awaited an opportunity to break out in efficacious revolt. It is not the only case in history in which reformers have attributed their own instincts and inclinations to a people wholly incapable of them. It is never quite fair to cite single paragraphs out of passionate utterances in a time of great excitement, for the purpose of interpreting the views of a party, a faction, or a leader, since in 148 ' HENRY WARD BEECHER such times all men are apt to say what in cooler blood they would modify. But the careful enun- ciation of its principles by a party may be justly taken by the historian as a true interpretation both of its purpose and its spirit. The following decla- ration of principles was kept standing at the head of the columns of " The Liberator," the official organ of the radical abolitionists : — All men are born free and equal, with certain natural, essential, and unalienable rights — among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Three millions of the American people are in chains and slavery — held as chattels personal, and bought and sold as marketable commodities. Seventy thousand infants, the offspring of slave parents, kidnapped as soon as born, and permanently added to the slave population of Christian (!), Republi- can ( ! ! ), Democratic (!!!) America every year. Immediate, unconditional emancipation. Slave-holders, slave-traders, and slave-drivers are to be placed on the same level of infamy, and in the same fiendish category, as kidnappers and men-stealers — a race of monsters unparalleled in their assumption of power, and their despotic cruelty. The existing Constitution of the United States is a covenant with death, and an agreement with hell. No Union with Slave-holders ! 1 The first three paragraphs state truly enough, though the latter of the three is inflammatory rhet- oric, the evils of American slavery as it existed in 1847 ; the other four, which embody the remedy 1 The Liberator of January 1, 1847. PARENTHETICAL 149 for those evils which the abolitionists proposed, were each one of them false ; Mr. Beecher believed each one of them to be false. No Union with slaveholders was not a sound principle of political action. Secession from the Union was neither right nor expedient. It was not right, because the North as well as the South was responsible for the existence of slavery ; the North ' as well as the South had entertained and maintained it ; the importation of slaves was carried on by- New England shipping merchants and defended by New England representatives; and when the proposition came before the Constitutional Con- vention for the prohibition of the slave-trade New England voted for the clause that it should not be abolished until 1808. Thus the North shared with the South in the responsibility for the sin and shame of slavery, and it had no right, Pilate-like, to wash its hands and say, "We are guiltless of this matter." It was under sacred obligation to remain in the part- nership and work for the renovation of the nation. As it was not right, so neither was it expedient. There was no time when the Middle States would have thought of withdrawing if the New England states had followed the advice of Garrison and Phillips. If they had followed that advice, slavery would almost certainly have forced itself upon the far West, as it attempted to do upon Kansas, would probably have reentered Indiana, and not impos- sibly have won recognition in even Ohio, Penn- sylvania, and New York. If the North Atlantic 150 HENRY WARD BEECHER States had followed the counsels of " The Liber- ator " and withdrawn from the Union, there is every probability that to-day all the Southern States, and a possibility that a considerable proportion of the Western States, would have been united in a great slave confederacy. The advice of the abolitionists, if followed, would not have abolished slavery; it would have established slavery. It is not true that the United States Constitu- tion was " a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." It had some serious defects — the most serious, that of compromise with slavery, which later gave birth to the fugitive-slave law ; but its excellencies exceeded its defects. It was a noble instrument of freedom, greater than any other that has ever been framed by a single convention or in a single generation. By it there was conferred upon Congress ample power to put such restraint upon slavery as would eventually bring it to an end. Under the Constitution Congress had power to abolish the slave-trade and that power had been exercised. It had power to put restraints upon the interstate slave-trade, if not to abolish it alto- gether; and such restriction would have crippled slavery, such abolition would have ultimately de- stroyed it. It had power to refuse the admission of any new slave state into the Union and to pro- hibit slavery in any territory of the United States, the exercise of which power would have put slavery in the way of ultimate extinction. It had power, conferred by an explicit clause of the Constitution, PARENTHETICAL 151 to protect a free press and free speech in every state in the Union, a power which, had it been wisely and vigorously exercised, would have made possible a continuance of the agitation for emanci- pation in the slave states themselves. More than all this, John Quincy Adams, in the hot debates in the House of Representatives, had suggested that, if war ever broke out, slavery could be abol- ished under the war powers which the Constitution confers. His utterance was prophetic, and slavery was so abolished. The Constitution was no cove- nant with death, no agreement with hell : it had in it all the vital powers necessary for the imme- diate restriction and the eventual extinction of slavery on the American Continent. The slaveholder was not a man-stealer. The origi- nal slave-dealer in Africa was ; but the man who found himself in a slave state, the owner of slaves bequeathed to him by his ancestors, was as truly under the domination of the slave system as the slave himself. What could he do? Emancipate his slaves? In one state, if he did so, a tax was laid upon the emancipated slave for the very pur- pose of sending him back into slavery again ; in another state, if he did so, he must give bonds that the slave would never become a pauper, or the act of manumission was illegal ; in another state, he could not emancipate him legally unless he carried him out of the state. What should this man do, who had a hundred slaves in his possession, and no money with which to provide for them ? Should 152 HENRY WARD BEECHER he set his slaves free, run away from responsibility, and leave them to be sold again at the auction block to the highest bidder ? This in many cases would have been the result of " immediate, uncon- ditional emancipation," and this would not have been liberation. It was therefore not true that immediate, uncon- ditional emancipation was the duty of the hour. It certainly was not the duty of the Northern readers of " The Liberator : " they had no more political power to emancipate the slaves in the Southern States than they had to emancipate the slaves in Turkey. It was not necessarily the duty of the individual slaveholder: if he undertook immedi- ate, unconditional emancipation, he would in many cases only pass his slave from one state of servitude to another and a worse state. Whether it was the duty of the individual state must at least be gravely questioned. When a great wrong has been done by a community, and has been wrought into the social fabric of the community, it cannot be abolished by a single act of legislation. When an individ- ual is engaged in wrong-doing, it is his duty im- mediately to cease wrong-doing; the doctrine of immediatism, applied by Dr. Beecher to the indi- vidual, is sound. When a community has become pervaded by a social injustice which has been wrought into its very structure, it is not always its duty, by an immediate act of legislation, to de- stroy the structure, in order that it may destroy the evil ; the 4 u ty of immediatism, applied to the com- PARENTHETICAL 153 munity by Mr. Garrison, was unsound. The single- taxer traces land ownership back to robbery : the Romans stole the land from the Europeans, the Normans from the Anglo-Saxons, the Anglo-Saxons from the Indians ; therefore the single-taxer pro- poses to abolish all ownership in land. Even if it be true that all land ownership is a kind of robbery, it does not follow that it ought to be instantly abolished, with the result of overturning in a day the whole fabric of civilization built upon the pri- vate ownership of land. No man ought to work twelve hours a day three hundred and sixty-five days in the year, with no opportunity for a Sabbath or a holiday, save as he secures it sometimes by working eighteen hours a day. It does not follow that the iron-master, who finds himself as much under the domination of the present industrial sys- tem as the iron-worker, must put on three shifts, while his neighbors are working with two, and bankrupt himself, or must close his mills and turn his hands out to starve. It is true that slavery was founded on man-stealing; it is not true that the best remedy for slavery was immediate and unconditional abolition of the slave system, without preparation of either slave or society for a better industrial condition. The doctrine of the abolitionists, summarized in the last four clauses of the platform published in " The Liberator," Mr. Beecher never accepted ; he was not an abolitionist. The abolitionist af- firmed, " No union with slaveholders ; " Mr. Beecher 154 HENRY WARD BEECHER said, " We shall abide by the Union." 1 The aboli- tionist denounced the Constitution as " a covenant with death and an agreement with hell ; " Mr. Beecher affirmed, " We believe that the compro- mises of the Constitution look to the destruction of slavery, not to its establishment." 2 Abolitionists denounced slaveholders " as a race of monsters, unparalleled in their assumption of power and their despotic cruelty ; " Mr. Beecher affirmed that both slave and master " are to be treated with Chris- tian wisdom and forbearance: we must seek to benefit the slave as much as the white man, the white man as really as the slave." 3 The abolition- ists demanded " immediate, unconditional emanci- pation ; " Mr. Beecher said : "We do not ask to interfere with the internal policy of a single state. . . . We will not ask to take one guarantee from the institution." 4 It is true that Mr. Beecher never fell into the error of some about him who lost the true perspective. He never imagined that aboli- tionism was the provoking cause of the pro-slavery spirit, or fancied that if Garrison and Phillips could be silenced, slavery would of itself pass out of existence. He never imagined that abolition was the permanent and enduring evil to be fought, and slavery the lesser and temporary evil to be con- doned. He never turned aside from the work of 1 The Independent, Feb. 21, 1850: Patriotic Addresses, p. 177. 2 The Independent, Feb. 21, 1850 : Patriotic Addresses, p. 171. 8 Oct. 30, 1859 : Patriotic Addresses, p. 209. * Biography : p. 242. PARENTHETICAL 166 arousing the public conscience of the North to do its whole duty respecting slavery, in order to enter into a war of words with men who, by erroneous methods and in an unloving spirit, were seeking the same ultimate end as himself — the enfran- chisement of the enslaved race. He devoted the strength of his intellect, the power of his pas- sion, the play of his humor, the keenness of his sarcasm, his vivid imagination, his rhetorical and elocutionary power, to the cause of freedom ; but he believed that this cause of freedom was best subserved by remaining in the Union, by sustain- ing the Constitution, by treating slave and slave- owner alike as brother men, by using the political power of the nation to prevent the extension of slavery into new territory, and by trusting to the moral influence of persuasion to bring about its gradual abolition in the states where it already existed. In his anti-slavery principles Henry Ward Beecher was at one, not with William Lloyd Gar- rison and Wendell Phillips, but with James G. Birney, William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, Abraham Lincoln. He was not what he has some- times been called — an abolitionist ; he was an anti-slavery reformer, working within the Consti- tution, under the law, by practical methods. This general definition of his position must be borne in mind by the reader, if he would understand correctly the history of the events in whioh Mr. Beecher took part, and of his participation in them, as recorded in the next chapter. CHAPTER VII THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER Mr. Beecher's first participation in any public discussion of the slavery question was in Amherst College. He was chosen one of the disputants in the college debating society. The question for discussion was African colonization, a chimerical scheme, then new, for solving the slavery question by transporting the negroes back to Africa. "Fortunately," he says in his sermon upon the death of Wendell Phillips, " I was assigned to the negative side of the question. In preparing to speak I prepared my whole life. I contended against colonization as a condition of emancipation — enforced colonization was little better than en- forced slavery — and advocated immediate eman- cipation on the broad ground of human rights." His next public service in the anti-slavery cause was in Cincinnati, where, while a student at Lane Seminary, he showed his enthusiasm by volunteer- ing as a special constable, and patrolling the streets to protect the negroes and their friends when pro- slavery riots broke out in the city. There is no record of his speaking on this subject at Lawrence- burg. In Indianapolis his method of dealing with the THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 157 topic was characteristic of his combined courage and caution. In a campaign the wise leader, when considering what to do, takes counsel of courage ; when considering how to do it, takes counsel of caution. In Indianapolis there was little hostility to slavery, and bitter hostility to abolitionism. Had Mr. Beecher begun his ministry by an attack on slavery, his ministry would have ended on the day on which it began. For some years, apparently, he did not deal with the question directly. His first reference to it was incidental and by way of illustration. He pictured a father ransoming his son from captivity among the Algerines in such a way as to enlist the sympathy of his hearers with the white slave against the negro slaveholders. ■ They all thought," he afterwards told the Yale theological students, " I was going to apply it [the illustration] to slavery ; but I did not. I applied it to my subject, and it passed off : and they all drew a long breath. It was not long before I had another illustration from that quarter. And so, be- fore I had been there a year, I had gone all over the sore spots of slavery, in illustrating the subjects of Christian experience and doctrine. It broke the ice." It was not until toward the close of his Indianapolis ministry that he preached directly on slavery. He did so in compliance with a recom- mendation by the Presbytery to all Presbyterian clergy to preach at least one sermon during the year on this theme. Mr. Beecher preached three : in the first, discussing ancient slavery, especially 158 HENRY WARD BEECHER among the Hebrews ; in the second, the doctrine and practice of the New Testament respecting slavery ; in the third, the moral aspects of Ameri- can slavery and its effects upon the community. One of these sermons was published in pamphlet form, but is out of print. We may assume that in them was embodied his subsequent teaching, in which he drew sharply the distinction between Ro- man and Hebraic slavery, and showed that the ex- istence of the latter afforded no justification for the former, so great was the difference between the two. When he came to Brooklyn the conditions in which he found himself were very different from those which he confronted in Indianapolis. He was the pastor of a church just organized. Its character and spirit would depend largely upon his ministry. The men who had organized this church were of New England origin, and enter- tained New England convictions respecting the sin and shame of slavery. The year after he came to Brooklyn " The New York Independent " was founded. Its three editors, Dr. Leonard Bacon, Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, and Dr. Richard S. Storrs, were all pronounced anti-slavery men ; two of its founders, Seth B. Hunt and Henry C. Bowen, were among the founders of Plymouth Church. How free a platform Mr. Beecher was to have in Plymouth Church depended, there- fore, primarily upon himself. In his first Sunday evening sermon he declared his intention to apply the principles of Jesus Christ to intemperance, to THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 159 slavery, and to all other great national sins ; and it was his custom thereafter each year, before the pew-renting, to preach a vigorous anti-slavery ser- mon, that not only the members of his church, but his pewholders also, might know what kind of a gospel they were invited to support. Thus, partly by reason of his circumstances, partly by reason of his courage in availing himself of them, Mr. Beecher avoided the peril which confronted so many ministers in that epoch, who could not speak upon the subject of slavery without stirring up, not only hostility to themselves, but possible intes- tine warfare within the church, and as a probable result either their own expulsion from the pastor- ate or the departure from their church and con- gregation of some of their eminent and perhaps necessary supporters. Throughout the campaign of which we are to give some account in this and the succeeding chapter, Mr. Beecher was supported by a substantially unanimous and generally enthu- siastic church and congregation. Nevertheless, for the first two years Mr. Beecher's main work in Brooklyn was that of a parochial pastor and preacher. He gave himself to the work of building up his church by his spiritual ministry to the congregations which were attracted to it. Like a wise general, he organized and inspired his army before he began his campaign. The burning of the original church building, necessitating the erection of the new one, added to the difficulties inci- dent to a new pastorate, and increased his parochial 160 HENRY WARD BEEGHER labors. Six months of illness, during which time he was forbidden to preach, interposed another and a serious obstacle to his ministry. Despite these facts, the church had grown at the close of the year 1849, that is, in less than two years and a half, from twenty-one members to three hundred and twenty-seven. The church was stronger than the number of its membership would indicate, for it was thoroughly loyal to its leader, and was full of enthusiasm for its work. During these two years and a half the act which most distinctly identified Mr. Beecher in the public mind with the anti- slavery cause was the dramatic conduct of an auction sale of two negro girls, pur- chased, as the result of the sale, for freedom. These two young women, of light complexion, but born of a slave mother, finding themselves about to be sold from Washington for exportation to New Orleans, and probably for a fate more dreadful than death, endeavored to escape, were captured, and brought back to Washington. The story of their attempted flight reached Northern ears ; a meeting was held in the Broadway Tabernacle for the purpose of raising the necessary funds for their emancipation ; the young preacher from the West was one of the speakers ; he extemporized on the platform a slave auction and called for bids ; the necessary amount was secured ; and the girls were pronounced freed before the meeting adjourned. This was the first of a series of similar purchases of slaves, through Mr. Beecher' s instrumentality, during a period of THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 161 ten or twelve years. He was criticised by radical abolitionists for wasting his energies in the eman- cipation of a few individuals, while the great slave empire was left undisturbed ; by others, for his recognition of the right of the owner to his slaves by paying money to the owner for their manumis- sion; and by still others, more anxious that all things should be done decorously and in order than that anything should be done at all, for sensation- alism in his methods. But Mr. Beecher's object was not merely the manumission of a few individ- ual slaves : he believed in the humanity of his fel- low men ; he believed that thousands of his fellow citizens, who would regard with apathy if not with complacency the slave system at a distance, would regard with abhorrence the return of an individual slave girl to a life of enforced sin and shame. At a later period he said : " The very men who give their counsel and zeal and money against the unseen slave of the South irresistibly pity the particular fugitive whom they may see running through the North. They give the Union Committee mouey to catch the slave, and give the slave money to escape from the Committee." He judged that in no way could he so successfully arouse the dormant feeling of the North against the slave system as by invit- ing the cooperation of Northern men and women to secure the emancipation of individual slaves. Had he been inclined to defend his method from those who criticised it as sensational, he might have referred them to the method of the Hebrew 162 HENRY WARD BEECHER prophets, who taught so often and so effectually by dramatic object-lessons. But such utterances as his first Sunday evening sermon, in 1847, and such acts as the purchase of the Edmondson girls, in 1848, were but like the tuning of the instruments before the symphony, or the testing of the arms before the beginning of the battle. In the best sense of the term Mr. Beecher was an opportunist. He spoke, not like Ralph Waldo Emerson, merely to declare himself, — he spoke always for a purpose ; his speech was always addressed to an audience, and always for the pur- pose of convincing it. He watched, therefore, for his opportunity, seized it when it came, adjusted his address to the occasion, and thus enhanced its effectiveness. His opportunity came with the introduction of the compromise measures into Con- gress by Henry Clay, in January, 1850, the same month in which Plymouth Church entered into its new building. The object of these compromise measures was to readjust the relations between the North and the South ; to put an end to the grow- ing separation between them and heal the breach which already existed ; and to do this on the basis of the Constitution of the United States by a series of mutual concessions. The sincerity of Henry Clay's patriotic purpose will not be doubted by the impartial student of history. He was seventy- three years of age ; he had recently embraced the Christian religion ; the beginnings of his speech on the compromise resolutions indicated not only THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 163 the seriousness of his mind but the religious spirit which animated him. The compromise resolutions included eight pro- positions, part of them concessions to the North, part of them to the South : The admission of Cali- fornia with her free constitution, a concession to the North ; no restriction as to slavery in the terri- torial governments to be established by Congress in the territory acquired from Mexico, a conces- sion to the South. A declaration that it is inexpe- dient to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia without compensation and without the consent of the state of Maryland and the people of the Dis- trict, a concession to the South ; prohibition of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, a conces- sion to the North. More effectual provision for the rendition of fugitive slaves, a concession to the South ; a declaration that Congress has no power to interfere with the slave-trade between the states, a concession to the South. On the whole, the North had a right to think that the concessions to the South not only were greater in number but greater in importance than the concessions to the North; nevertheless, if the issue between North and South was one to be adjusted by mutual con- cessions, the compromise measures were in the main well conceived. The ablest argument for these measures, from the Northern side, is that presented by Daniel Webster in his famous speech of the 7th of March, 1850. It is not necessary here to pass upon his 164 HENRY WARD BEECHER motives ; they were probably mixed, as the motives . of most men are ; in my judgment, there is no just ground for saying, with Von Hoist, that it " was a candidate's speech, and that its chief object was to win favor of the South." The Union and the Con- stitution were Daniel Webster's idol. He knew no higher end in life than to maintain the Union, no higher law for political action than the Constitu- tion. With prescience greater than that of his critics, he foresaw the terrible results to the coun- try if the growing antagonism between North and South was not allayed and the growing breach was not healed. There must be either a reestablish- ment of the Union or war between North and South. Events proved him to be wiser in this pro- phetic judgment than his assailants. The argument for the compromise measures, from the point of view of one who feared civil war between the sec- tions, and who recognized no higher law than that of the Constitution, and no higher ideal than the preservation of the Union, can be easily summa- rized in a few words. The Constitution was itself a succession of compromises. Political life is possible only on the basis of a succession of compromises. The objections of the North to the compromise mea- sures were not well considered. The absence of re- striction as to slavery in New Mexico would do no harm, since slavery could never be maintained in a territory where tobacco, corn, cotton, and rice could not be raised, and where the land could be made fertile only by irrigation. To prohibit slavery in THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 165 New Mexico was only " to reenact the will of God." Mr. Webster declared himself ready to assert the principle of the exclusion of slavery whenever ne- cessary, but he would not do a thing unnecessarily that wounds the feelings of others. He contended that it was the duty of the North, under the Con- stitution, not only to allow but to provide the means for the rendition of fugitive slaves, and that the South justly complained that the constitutional duty of the North in this respect had not been ful- filled. The speech was received with an outburst of bitter wrath by the anti-slavery reformers of New England. Webster was called " a recreant son of Massachusetts," " a fallen star — Lucifer descend- ing from Heaven ; " his speech, " a blow struck at freedom and the constitutional rights of the free states which no Southern arm could have given ; " comparable to no deed in American history done by a son of New England " but the act of Bene- dict Arnold ; " to be estimated only " as a bid for the presidency." What was then regarded as the sober second thought of New England did not sus- tain these reproaches ; his old friends came to his rescue ; and presently the 7th of March speech came to be recognized as the representative utter- ance of the overwhelming majority in the North, who, with Webster, reverenced the Union, recog- nized the Constitution as the supreme standard for political action, dreaded a civil war, which they re- garded as among the possibilities of a near future, 166 HENRY WARD BEECHER and believed that the issues between North and South could be adjusted by mutual concessions. In estimating the public sentiment of the time, the reader must recall, not merely the definite ar- gument of a Clay and a Webster in favor of the compromise measures, but the indefinite feelings of the community which lay below all such arguments. The slave was property. It might indeed be argued that he ought not to be, but in fact he was ; eman- cipation would mean the financial ruin of unnum- bered thousands who had invested their all in this property, which was impliedly secured to them by the Constitution and explicitly secured to them by law. The Constitution was the noblest document struck off by the mind of man in a single epoch, the basis of the national organization, the secret of their growth, the hope of their future ; abolitionism condemned the Constitution as "a covenant with death and an agreement with hell." The union of the states had given peace and prosperity to mil- lions, and if it were preserved would give peace and prosperity to millions more ; if it were dissolved the hope of democracy would perish from the earth. No one could estimate the world's loss in such a catastrophe ; no one could be sure that it would bring any real gain even to the negro. The sacred rights of property, the sacred Constitution, the sacred Union which that Constitution created and conserved were all in peril ; abolitionism threat- ened them all ; compromise alone could save them : such was the argument, and it carried conviction THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 167 to the hearts of the great majority of patriotic citi- zens, and made many who loved both liberty and their fellow men hesitate at action the issue of which in its effects on both no man could foresee. Such were the political conditions, although the 7th of March speech had not then been delivered, when Mr. Beecher wrote and published in " The Independent " an editorial whose title indicated his denial of the fundamental principle underlying the compromise measures. The article was entitled " Shall we compromise ? " In this article the im- possibility of compromise is affirmed with eloquent fervor. " Slavery is right, and slavery is wrong ; slavery shall live, slavery shall die ; slavery shall extend, slavery shall not extend: are these con- flicts to be settled by any mode of parceling out certain territories? Now the battle rages at one point. By and by it will rage at another. These oppugnant elements, slavery and liberty, inherent in our political system, animating our Constitution, checkering our public policy, breeding in statesmen opposite principles of government, and making our whole wisdom of public legislation on many of the greatest questions cross-eyed and contradictory, — these elements are seeking each other's life. One or the other must die." Thus, denying at the out- set the fundamental postulate of Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, Mr. Beecher proceeded to contrast the two theories, the Northern, or democratic, the Southern, or aristocratic, their birth, their growth, their inevitable results. The North puts honor 168 HENRY WARD BEECHER upon its laborers, who become reading and reflect- ing men ; the South makes labor a disgraceful ne- cessity, denying it education and compelling it by the lash. "Liberty is a universal right — it be- longs to men, on the one side ; it is a privilege, and belongs to a class, on the other side." " The North compacts, the South stratifies." He recognized the fact that the possibilities of both systems were in the Constitution, but they were there only in the seed. The compromises of the Constitution were adopted in the expectation that slavery would be eradicated by the superior vitality of liberty. Those compromises " looked to the destruction of slavery, and not to its establishment." But slavery had ac- quired a new growth and a new power. The agita- tions which disturbed the community were not due to the abolitionists ; they were due to the exist- ence of these two irreconcilable systems. The South has " found out that slavery cannot live and stand still." It therefore demands room for extension ; " for every Free state a state for Slavery ; one dark orb must be swung into its orbit, to grow and tra- vail in pain, for every new orb of liberty over which the morning stars shall sing for joy." " No compromises can help us which dodge the ques- tion; certainly none which settle it for slavery." It is the duty of the North " openly, firmly, and forever to refuse to slavery another inch of terri- tory, and to see that it never gets any by fraud." " It is her duty to declare that she will under no considerations be a party to any further inhumanity THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 169 and injustice." Mr. Clay's resolutions demanded better provision for the recovery of fugitive slaves. Mr. Beecher did not deny that such provisions are called for by the compromises of the Constitution, but he declared that there is a higher law than the Constitution. "Not even the Constitution shall make me unjust." "I put constitution against constitution — God's against man's. Where they agree, they are doubly sacred ; where they differ, my reply to all questioners, but especially to all timid Christian scruples, is in the language of Peter : * Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.' " As there is a higher law than the Constitu- tion, so there is a higher ideal than the Union. " The very value of our Union is to be found in those principles of justice, liberty, and humanity which inspire it." If "these principles must be yielded up to preserve the Union, then a corpse only will be left in our arms, deflowered, lifeless, worthless." " Religion and humanity are a price too dear to pay even for the Union ; " and religion and humanity are set at naught by slavery, which takes liberty from those to whom God gave it, for- bids food for the understanding or the heart, takes honesty from the conscience, and defense from vir- tue, "gives authority into the hands of lustful or pecuniary cupidity, scorns the family, and invades it whenever desire or the want of money prevails, with the same coolness with which a drover singles out a heifer, or a butcher strikes down a bullock. 170 HENRY WARD BEECHER These are not the accidents of slavery ; they are its legitimate fruits, they are its vitality. If you stop these evils you will destroy the system." The arti- cle closes with a declaration of war against slavery. " We shall study to circumscribe slavery where it now exists. We shall oppose every party that se- cretly or openly connives at it. We shall be hostile to every measure which consults its interests. . . . We will compromise any measures tending to pre- vent the extension of slavery. We will compromise as to the particulars of its death, laying out, and burial. But every compromise must include the advantage of liberty and the disadvantage of slavery." "We shall abide by the Union. . . . If there be those who cannot abide the Union, be- cause it is pure and religious, just and humane, let them beware of that tumultuous scene into which they purpose to leap." But he does not believe that any such issue will result. " Firmness is the remedy for threats. If good men, having good representatives, are but firm, the storm will beat the stout oak and rage like a demon through its twisted branches, but pass on and spend itself in the wilderness ; meanwhile the returning sun shall find the noble tree unwrecked and fast-rooted." It is said that this article was read to John C Calhoun, then on his death-bed, that he asked the name of the author, and said : " That man under- stands the thing ; he has gone to the bottom of it ; he will be heard from again." It is because in this article Mr. Beecher did go to the bottom of the THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 171 questions involved in the compromise measures that we have given its substance at so great length. In it he anticipated by three weeks William H. Sew- ard's declaration that there is a higher law than the Constitution, and by nearly ten years Abraham Lincoln's declaration that there is an irreconcilable conflict between slavery and liberty ; in it the fun- damental principles of the Republican party were asserted six years before the Republican party was organized, and ten years before it elected Abraham Lincoln upon a platform embodying those princi- ples. In it were contained in compact statement substantially all for which its author was to con- tend through the ten years of incessant campaign- ing which preceded the Civil War. There is no advantage in treating Mr. Beecher's views on the subject of slavery, from this time for- ward, in any chronological order, because there was in those views no chronological development. He did not speak on the subject of slavery until he had studied it in its various relations, well consid- ered its various aspects, and determined what his message should be concerning the whole subject, and all the questions that would be likely to grow out of it. In this respect he set an example which ministers in haste to speak on the social questions of our time would do well to follow. His posi- tion on the complicated questions involved will be better interpreted by giving them topically than by giving them chronologically. In doing this I depend largely upon the volume of " Patriotic 172 HENRY WARD BEECHER Addresses," in which John R. Howard has brought together the most important of Mr. Beecher's pub- lic speeches on slavery, the Civil War, and recon- struction. I. The apologists for and defenders of Ameri- can slavery Mr. Beecher met with a clear definition of the American system and a scholarly discrimi- nation of it from Hebrew slavery. The American slave was a chattel; he was the property of his master. The end of the system was judicially de- clared to be " the profit of the master, his security, and the public peace." The slave was judicially defined to be "one doomed in his own person and in his posterity to live without knowledge, and without capacity to make anything his own, and to toil that others may reap the fruits." The sys- tem forbade marriage and legalized and promoted lust. " A wedding among this unhappy people is but a name, — a mere form to content their con- science or their love of imitating their superiors. Every auctioneer in the community has the power to put asunder whom God has joined. The de- generacy of their owner is the degeneracy of the marriage relation in half the slaves on his planta- tion." Such a system as this Mr. Beecher declared to be incapable of reformation. " To say to three million men made by God, * Ye are not men, but like oxen and horses, like dogs and hogs, ye are things, property, chattels,' — why, to talk of the abuse of a system which has this for its elementary principle is as wild as it would be to talk of the THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 173 abuse of robbery, the abuse of murder, the abuse of adultery.' " There was nothing in the Hebrew system of slavery to afford justification for the American system. Among the Hebrews there were three forms of servitude. First, that into which the Hebrews themselves might come — a kind of apprenticeship. Secondly, a public slavery ; that of the Gibeonites, who did service for the common- wealth. Thirdly, the Hebrew bond-service, which was slavery proper. This slavery was not enacted by Moses. He found it and he regulated it and limited it. Only a heathen could be made a slave. As a condition of his enslavement he must be cir- cumcised, that is, introduced into the privilege of the Church, and the master was obliged to give him a religious education ; if he was wronged, he could apply to the courts for redress ; if he was maimed, he immediately became free ; if he ran away, he could not be forcibly returned. " All the laws of Moses were in favor of the slave — for his ad- vantage, his benefit, his encouragement, his defense." The Hebrews legislated for their slaves as men, but we make them property — chattels. They are not men but brutes. Four thousand years ago the slave enjoyed the privileges of the Church — the Temple worship; now we give him no religion. Four thousand years ago the slave enjoyed the rights and privileges of the family state ; now the chastity of man and woman is no more regarded than that of a dog. Four thousand years ago the laws were made for the slave ; now they are made for the master. Four thousand vears ago a slave could 174 HENRY WARD BEECHER seek redress in court ; now there is not a court from Mason and Dixon's Line through to Texas where a slave can open his mouth as a witness and be believed. Ah ! if you will only bring American slavery on the platform of Hebrew slavery — if you will give the slave the Bible, and send him to school, and open the doors of the courts to him, then we will let it alone — it will take care of itself. In old times slaves were treated as children of a family, trained, nurtured, educated. Let the Southern slaveholder do like this. Then would slavery soon cease, for the care and expense would be greater than any one could bear. 1 II. Between this slave system of the South and the free system of the North compromise was im- possible. The policy of the South was not one of vexatious haughtiness ; it sprang from the irresist- ible nature of their industrial system. If their aggressive temper were due to violence provoked by agitation, it would be reasonable to expect " that forbearance, conciliation, and compromise will re- store good temper, and with returning temper that things will grow peaceable." But the aggressive demands of the South came from a law stronger than the volition — from a law which underlies society and compels its movements. The South could not endure free speech ; it was fatal to the slave system. " One spark may explode a maga- zine, and one word touch off a servile insurrection fatal alike to master and slave. To keep fetters on their servants they must keep fetters on their own tongues. Their mouth is a prison, their tongue is 1 Patriotic Addresses, 183, 184. THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 175 a prisoner. Liberty of the speech and of the press, liberty of political action, in the slave states, but especially the more southern ones, would break them up." If American slavery was to continue, therefore, free speech must be abolished, for " free speech is wrong if slavery is right." And it was as impossible to allow free speech in Congress or in the North as in the South. " There is no theoretic disposition to abridge liberty of speech in Con- gress, but our country is now so sympathetically connected, the transmission of news is so marvel- ously easy and quick, that Congress has become a speaking-trumpet. The whole nation hears its speeches. . . . The Southern man says : ' With you it is not a necessity to speak, with us it is a matter of necessity to have silence. ... It is only a theoretic sentiment that impels you, it is self- existence that drives us.' As a matter of fact this is true. A system of slavery is imperiled by the natural contact of a system of liberty." The same necessity compels the South to demand the exten- sion of slavery. Free states increase in wealth and population, slave states remain stationary or dete- riorate. " Virginia cannot grow — Pennsylvania cannot stand still. The Carolinas are sinking by the nature of their industry, New York is advanc- ing prodigiously. Georgia has no chance in a match with Ohio. If the slave states stand as they are and depend upon the inherent energies of their own system, they are doomed, inevitably, to become the last and least. That which they lack, 176 HENRY WARD BEECHER therefore, in intrinsic force, they are compelled to seek by extension. Arkansas supplements Virginia. When New York weighs down the Carolinas, Texas is thrown in to bring up the scale." But uncom- promising adherence to principle does not involve war upon the South. " If by compromise is only meant forbearance, kindness, well-wishing, concili- ation, fidelity to agreements, a concession in things, not principles, why, then, we believe in compro- mise ; — only that is not compromise, interpreted by the facts of our past history." The anti-slavery Northerner wishes no harm to the South or to its people, covets not their territory, is not jealous of their honors, does not ask to molest the South in her own institutions, does not even deny them liberty to retake their fugitive slaves where they can find them. "But we will not be made consta- bles to slavery, to run and catch, to serve writs and return prisoners. . . . We will, and with grow- ing earnestness to the end, fulfill every just duty, every honorable agreement, and every generous act, within the limits of truth and honor ; all this and no more, — no more though the heavens fall, — no more, if states unclasp their hands, — no more, if they raise up violence against us, — no more." Compromise was a sham. The promise of peace through compromise was a deceitful promise. " The only way to peace is that way which shall chain slavery to the place it now has, and say to the dragon, ' In thy den thou must dwell, and lie down in thine own slime, but thou shalt not go forth to THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 177 ravage free territory or leave thy trail upon un- spotted soil.' " III. The duty of the North was in his view per- fectly simple and perfectly plain. It was to use the power conferred upon it under the Constitution to confine slavery within its then existing limits. That it possessed such power had been conceded in Congress by the foremost statesman of the South- ern States, John C. Calhoun. It was not until it became clear that the consent of the North to the extension of slavery into free territory would be difficult if not impossible to obtain, that the doc- trine was developed that Congress could not pro- hibit slavery in the territories, — that slavery was national, not local. Mr. Beecher did not argue the constitutional question. He assumed the correct- ness of the view held alike by North and South in the earlier days of the republic. The North had no right to interfere with slavery in the states ; but it had the right to prohibit the extension of slavery in free territory ; and it was under a sacred obli- gation to exercise this right. That exercise ex- hausted its powers under the Constitution, and therefore fulfilled its political obligations. Such restriction effected, the North must trust to time, patience, and kindly influence, for the ultimate extinction of slavery. This principle of political action was so fundamental to Mr. Beecher's whole course during the decade of anti-slavery agitation from 1850 to 1860, and it so differentiates him from the abolitionists, on the one hand, and the 178 HENRY WARD BEECHER so-called conservatives, on the other, that we quote at considerable length from his own statement in " The Independent." 1 Our policy for the future is plain. All the natural laws of God are warring upon slavery. We have only to let the process go on. Let slavery alone. Let it go to seed. Hold it to its own natural fruit. Cause it to abide by itself. Cut off every branch that hangs beyond the wall, every root that spreads. Shut it up to itself and let it alone. We do not ask to interfere with the internal policy of a single state by congressional enactments : we will not ask to take one guarantee from the institution. We only ask that a line be drawn about it ; that an in- superable bank be cast up ; that it be fixed and forever settled that slavery must find no new sources, new fields, new prerogatives, but that it must abide in its place, sub- ject to all the legitimate changes which will be brought upon it by the spirit of a nation essentially democratic, by schools taught by enlightened men, by colleges send- ing annually into every profession thousands bred to jus- tice and hating its reverse, by churches preaching a gos- pel that has always heralded civil liberty, by manufac- tories that always thrive best when the masses are free and refined and therefore have their wants multiplied, by free agriculture and free commerce. When slavery begins, under such treatment, to flag, we demand that she be denied political favoritism to regain her loss ; we demand that no laws be enacted to give health to her paralysis and strength to her relaxing grasp. She boldly and honestly demanded a right to equality with the North, and prophetically spoke by Calhoun that the North would preponderate and crush her. It is true. 1 Quoted in the Biography, 242, 243. THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 179 Time is her enemy. Liberty will, if let alone, always be a match for oppression. Now, it is because statesmen propose stepping in between slavery and the appointed bourne, to which she goes, scourged by God and Nature, that we resent these statesmen and refuse to follow them. If her wounds can be stanched, if she may have adven- titious aid in new privileges, slavery will renew her strength and stave off the final day. But if it be forbid- den one additional favor, and be obliged to stand up by the side of free labor, free schools, free churches, free institutions ; if it be obliged to live in a land of free books, free papers, and free Bibles, it will either die or else it ought to live. Was Mr. Beecher right ? Would the restriction of slavery have resulted in the ultimate extinction of slavery ? History does not answer that question, for slavery was overthrown by a very different pro- cess. But it is clear that the slave power believed with Mr. Beecher, that the extension of slavery was necessary to its continued existence. Senator Toombs, of Georgia, wished to see the South Amer- ican states annexed in order to make room for slavery ; Pierre Soule, of Louisiana, sought the annexation of Cuba for the same purpose ; Bar- ringer, of North Carolina, speaking in 1861, for the secessionists, declared that no compromise could be considered which did not concede new territory to the slave states. " They know," he said, " that when slavery is gathered into a cul de sac and sur- rounded by a wall of free states, it is destroyed. Slavery must have expansion. It must expand by the acquisition of territory which now we do not 180 HENRY WARD BEECHER own." It was because the leaders of the slave power were convinced of this truth that when, by the elec- tion of Abraham Lincoln, the North declared that there should be no more extension of slavery in the Uuion, they resolved to destroy the Union and seek extension elsewhere. The abolitionists who sought to destroy the Union in order to destroy slavery enlisted on behalf of slavery the sentiments of national patriotism and national pride ; the anti- slavery reformers, among whom Mr. Beecher was a leader, by insisting on the maintenance of the Union and the restriction of slavery, at last saw the sentiments of national patriotism and national pride enlisted in the destruction of slavery that the nation might be preserved. IV. What was the duty of the North respecting the Fugitive-Slave Law ? The answer to this ques- tion in 1850—60 was not so clear as it now seems to the unconsidering reader. The Constitution of the United States (Art. iv., sec. ii., 3) provided that persons lawfully bound in any state to service or labor, who fled into another state, should be delivered up on demand. This clause had been unanimously adopted, and without debate, by the Constitutional Convention. In point of fact, the fugitive slaves were not delivered up on demand. They escaped in considerable number to the North, and the Northern States made no provision for their return. On the contrary, many of the states, by " personal liberty laws," encouraged the escape of the slave and discouraged their capture and THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 181 return. 1 State officers who assisted slave-hunters were fined ; lawyers who conducted the cases of alleged* owners were disbarred ; the confinement of fugitive slaves in state prison was prohibited ; state prosecuting attorneys were charged with the duty of defending and if possible securing the dis- charge of every arrested fugitive slave. Voluntary organizations were formed in different parts of the North to aid the escape of fugitive slaves. They were sent from one trusted member of this organiza- tion to another, until they found safety in Canada. In an official report the secretary of one anti-slavery society announced that four hundred fugitive slaves had thus been aided to escape by that one organi- zation. The South, believing that the slave was property and that the North was bound in honor by the clause of the Constitution to return the slave, was indignant ; the North, believing the slave was a man, that the return of a fugitive slave to bondage was inhuman, and that humanity was of higher authority than the Constitution, continued to disregard the clause of the Constitution and to aid in the escape of the slave. Among the laws which, combined, constituted the compromise measures of 1850, was a fugitive- slave law, which intrusted to federal officers the execution and enforcement of the provision of the Constitution of the United States providing for 1 Some, if not most of these laws, were subsequent in date to the Fugitive-Slave Law ; but they illustrate the feeling against returning fugitive slaves prior to that law. 182 HENRY WARD BEECHER the return of fugitive slaves. This law provided for certain commissioners, to be appointed by the circuit courts of the United States, who were to take cognizance of fugitive-slave cases. The testi- mony of two witnesses to the escape of a slave, and the identification of the arrested fugitive by the oath of one person, was declared to be satisfactory proof on which to base his return to his master. The proceedings were summary ; no jury trial was allowed; the testimony of the accused was not admitted; all good citizens were required to aid in the execution of the law ; and any attempt to harbor or conceal a fugitive slave was punishable with fine and imprisonment. Few in the North approved the spirit of this law ; none in the North liked it ; but many de- fended it. It was claimed that it simply fulfilled the constitutional obligation which the North was in duty bound to fulfill ; that the return of a fugi- tive slave could not be wrong, since Paul returned Onesimus to slavery ; that it was enacted by the law-making power and that obedience to law was the duty of the citizen, whether he liked it or not. Mr. Beecher, I do not think, ever raised any ques- tion as to the constitutionality of the law. That it was constitutional cannot now be questioned by any impartial historian. No provision had been made by the states for carrying iuto effect the clause of the Constitution requiring the return of persons held to service or labor when they escaped from one state to another state. The fact that the THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 183 clause was in the Constitution was sufficient to authorize Congress to make provision for carrying it into effect by federal machinery and through the federal courts. The commissioners provided for by the law might properly be regarded as spe- cial judges created by statute, with special judicial functions conferred upon them. Jury trial in the state in which the fugitive was arrested was not his constitutional right, since it was assumed that the trial would take place in the state from which he had fled, as it does in the case of an accused fleeing from one state and carried back to it under extradition proceedings for trial. But Mr. Beecher denied that the clause in the Constitution pro- viding for the return of fugitive slaves created a moral obligation to return them. He affirmed that the requirements of humanity were of superior authority to those of the Constitution. That there could be no higher law than the Constitution he condemned as subversive alike of the fundamental postulate of ethics and of the foundations of a free state. Human nature is a poor affair — man is but a pithy, porous, flabby substance, till you put conscience into him ; and as for building a republic on men who do not hold to the rights of private conscience, who will not follow their own consciences rather than that of any priest or public, you might as well build your custom-house in Wall Street on a foundation of cotton-wool. But the nation that regards conscience more than anything else, above all customs and all laws, is like New England with its granite hills, immovable and invincible ; and the nation 184 HENRY WARD BEECHER that does not regard conscience is a mere base of sand, and quicksand too, at that. 1 That any ministers should cite the return of Onesimus to his master by Paul as an argument for the return of a fugitive slave in America under the Fugitive-Slave Law, would seem extraordinary, were not such unintelligent use of Scripture com- mon whenever external authority is substituted for moral sense as the final test of conduct. Mr. Beecher did not question the authority, but he de- nied the analogy : — There are two ways of sending fugitives back into slavery. Paul gives us an account of one way, — the way he sent back the slave Onesimus. Now, if people will adopt Paul's way, I would not object. In the first place, he instructed him in Christianity and led him to become a Christian. Then he wrote a letter and sent it by Onesimus. The slave was not sent off under the charge of officers, but he went back alone, of his own free will, with a letter and recommendation as a brother beloved. 2 But he spent little time in replying to half-hearted apologies for the law. He appealed against it to the moral sense of the North. He condemned it on the ground that it violated the law of God ; in eloquent terms and repeatedly he defied it. The law is bad enough in obliging the officers to exe- cute it, but when it comes down among the citizens, when it forbids us helping a man to liberty, I say, " God do so to me and more also, if I do not help him freedom- ward." 1 Patriotic Addresses, p. 194. 2 Ibid. p. 189. THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 185 He indicted the law not as unconstitutional, but as inhuman in what it undertook to do — send back a man to bondage, and a woman to the shambles of lust ; immoral in what it required the citizen to do, in requiring him to cooperate in such active in- humanity ; impolitic, because it excited in the North an indignation against the law which gave the fugi- tive many friends where he before had few, and so practically promoted the escape of fugitive slaves, which it was the object of the law to prevent ; in- jurious to the nation, because it stirred up ill blood between North and South ; irreligious, because it led men and even ministers to scout at " the higher law," — the law of conscience, the law of God, the law upon which obedience to all law is based ; un- patriotic, because more than anything of recent oc- currence it had promoted a disregard of authority and a contempt for all law. To the argument that law when enacted must be obeyed, and that there is an end of all liberty based on law if each indi- vidual in a free community may decide for himself whether he will obey the law or not, and discard it at his option, — an argument which perplexed many conscientious citizens, — he replied by drawing sharply the distinction between endurance of wrong when inflicted and the commission of wrong when required. Every citizen must obey a law which inflicts injury upon his person, estate, and civil privilege, until legally redressed ; but no citizen is bound to obey a law which commands him to inflict injury upon another. We must 186 HENRY WARD BEECHER endure but never commit wrong. We must be patient when sinned against, but must never sin against others. The law may heap injustice upon me, but no law can authorize me to pour injustice upon another. When the law commanded Daniel not to pray, he disobeyed it; when it commanded him to be cast into the lion's den, he submitted. 1 This principle he summed up in the following aphoristic sentence : " Obedience to laws, even though they sin against me : disobedience to every law that commands me to sin." V. The duty of the North was not merely nega- tive ; it was not merely political ; it was not ful- filled by refusing obedience to the Fugitive-Slave Law and refusing to acquiesce in the extension of slavery. The North had other and affirmative duties to perform ; it had a transcendent duty of maintaining in all its anti-slavery campaign a spirit of brotherly kindness toward master as well as slave. In an address delivered before the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in May, 1851, Mr. Beecher said : — The first business is to limit slavery within its present bounds ; there is nothing in the Constitution against this, at any rate ; then, secondly, to see to it that the South has not factitious help from us in the support of slavery ; and thirdly, not to interfere directly with slavery where it is. We are to do what the sun does when it comes up over the eastern hills ; it looks at a mountain of ice and melts it. If our missionaries want to convert the Arabs, they cannot preach to them when they are on horseback, 1 Quoted in Biography, p. 241. THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 187 for they will run away ; they must make the Arabs sit down and be fixed in one spot. And so must we do with slavery ; we must hitch her and anchor her, and then begin with brotherly affection to kill her. And then with our hearts warm and kind, and with no hasty or hard remarks, we must preach the Bible to them, and preach till we make slavery a burden to their consciences, and a burden to their pockets, as it is now a burden on God's forbearance. 1 This spirit pervaded all his anti-slavery addresses. The North was not to treat the citizens of the South with acrimony and bitterness because they were involved in a system of wrong-doing. It was not to breed discontent among the bondmen. " Whatever gloomy thoughts the slave's own mind may brood, we are not to carry disquiet to him from without." The North ought not to encourage any organized plan to carry the slaves off or to incite them to abscond ; still less should it promote or tolerate anything like insurrection and servile war. " By all the conscience of a man, by all the faith of a Christian, and by all the zeal and warmth of a philanthropist, I protest against any counsels that lead to insurrection, servile war, and blood- shed. It is bad for the master, and bad for the slave, bad for all that are neighbors to them, bad for the whole land, — bad from beginning to end." 2 1 Patriotic Addresses, p. 187. 2 This explicit condemnation of John Brown's method, coupled with appreciation of John Brown's fanatical courage, was uttered in a sermon preached October 30, 1859, while John Brown was in prison awaiting trial. 188 HENRY WARD BEECHER The North should begin reform at the North. There the free colored people were refused the com- mon rights of citizenship, could not ride in the city cars, were shut out from the common industrial employments, were taxed for the schools and the schools closed against their children, were barely tolerated in the churches. All this ought to be re- formed. " What can the North do for the South unless her own heart is purified and ennobled ! The North must maintain sympathy and kindness toward the South. We are brethren, and I pray that no fratricidal influences be permitted to sunder this Union." "If I might speak for the North, I would say to the South : * We love you and hate your slavery. We shall leave no fraternal effort untried to deliver you, and ourselves with you, from the degradation, wickedness, and danger of this system, and for this we cling to the Union. There is health in it.'" The North must be in earnest to rid itself of all complicity with the sin of slavery. " You and I are guilty of the spread of slavery unless we have exerted, normally and legitimately, every influence in our power against it." If we acquiesce in slavery, " we clothe ourselves with the cotton which the slave tills. Is he scorched, is he lashed, does he water the crop with his sweat and tears, it is you and I that wear the shirt and con- sume the luxury. Our looms and our factories are largely built on the slave's bones ; we live on his labor." I think one would search Mr. Beecher's speeches and writings in vain for a single instance THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 189 in which his condemnation of the sin of slavery was tainted with the Pharisaic tone of " I am holier than thou." His condemnation of slavery was also a confession ; he took, as it were, upon himself the sin and shame, against which he summoned all his energies in a long and what at times seemed a hopeless campaign. VI. What had the Church to do with slavery ? In a Democratic procession in Brooklyn in 1856 a transparency was borne bearing the legend, "Henry Ward Beecher had better stick to the pulpit." That any one should have thought that preaching respecting a system which denied the right of the laborer to his wages, the right of the husband to his wife and the wife to her husband, of the parents to the children and the children to the parents, and of all to education and to freedom in religion, was a violation of this legend, and that to deal with such a system was to depart from the legitimate function of a Christian teacher, seems to us in this twentieth century wholly incredible. But the Democratic legend expressed what was a common and, in the beginning of the decade of which we are writing, an almost universal belief in the churches and among the clergy. It is not true that the churches of the North in 1850 were pro-slavery; but it is true that they did not think it the function of the Church to deal with slavery. Nor was the say- ing, " Let the minister preach the Gospel," a mere cowardly evasion of a difficult and dangerous duty ; genuine conviction lay behind this utterance. I 190 HENRY WARD BEECHER think it was in 1875 that D wight L. Moody came to Mr. Beecher, asking him to resign his pulpit and go into an evangelical campaign for the conversion of the world. " We two working together," he said, in urging this plan upon Mr. Beecher, " could shake the Continent as it never has been shaken before." Mr. Beecher, in telling me this incident afterwards, said, in substance, — of course I do not pretend at this late date to remember and quote his exact words, — " This proposition of Mr. Moody's was very at- tractive to me. I should like to go up and down the land preaching the gospel of the love of God in Christ Jesus. But Mr. Moody and I could not pos- sibly work together in such a mission : he believes that the world is lost, and he is seeking to save from the wreck as many individuals as he can ; I believe that this world is to be saved, and I am seeking to bring about the Kingdom of God on this earth." These two conceptions of the Christian religion, one of which regards as its end a world redemption and the creation of a new social order founded on right- eousness and inspired by love, the other of which regards the end of the Christian religion the pre- paration of few or many in this life of probation for a heaven beyond the grave, are not necessarily in- consistent — each may include the other ; in point of fact, however, each has generally been held exclu- sively of the other. The doctrine of a lost world from which a few are to be saved for a future heaven was inherited by the churches from a mediaeval theology, and, though somewhat modified, was still THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 191 dominant in 1850. The Home Missionary Society, the Foreign Missionary Society, the American Tract Society, all maintained a policy of silence re- specting slavery ; not merely because speech would imperil the organization, but because slavery be- longed to the present social order, — and they main- tained that it was not their function to deal with the present social order. Whether in 1850 Mr. Beecher had formulated his theology respecting what has since been called " social salvation " as clearly as he had in 1875, I do not know ; I rather think not. It was characteristic of Mr. Beecher, as it is of most men of action, to act on his instincts first and formulate his philosophy afterwards. His theory of life grew out of his living ; and it was impossible for such a man as he, inspired by the spirit of hu- manity which animated him, to live in a country in which slavery was spreading its baleful influences over the whole nation, and have the opportunity to speak, and still keep silence. " I do not know," he said in 1886, in an address before the London Congregational Board, " what it is in me — whether it is my father or my mother or both of them — but the moment that you tell me that a thing that should be done is unpopular, I am right there every time. I fed oh the privilege of making men hear things that they did not want to hear because I was a public speaker. I gloried in my gifts, not because they brought praise, for they brought the other thing continually ; but men would come and would bear, and I rejoiced in it." It was quite 192 HENRY WARD BEECHER impossible that a man with this fire in his bones, with men coming to hear what he had to say, could be silent on slavery, when slavery was the upper- most moral issue in the community. Mr. Beecher was not a preacher and an anti- slavery reformer ; he was an anti-slavery reformer because he was a preacher. Slavery was an obsta- cle to the Kingdom of God. It was the opposite of that kingdom which is righteousness and peace and joy. It involved wrongness and war and misery. It destroyed men, and Jesus Christ came to build men up. Mr. Beecher could not preach this Gos- pel of Christ and work for this Kingdom of God without coming in conflict with the system which antagonized the one and destroyed the other. In his " Review of Thirteen Years in the Ministry " he states this principle broadly without making spe- cial application of it to slavery. When I hear men say they are ordained to preach the Gospel, and that they are consequently not to med- dle with public questions which disturb the peace, I always ask myself what Gospel it is that man is or- dained to preach which forbids him to meddle with public questions that disturb the peace ; for it is ex- plicitly declared that the Gospel of Christ should cause disturbance. ... I hold that it is a Christian minister's duty not only to preach the Gospel of the New Testa- ment without reservation, but to apply its truths to every question which relates to the welfare of men; and, as far as I am concerned, I am willing to do this and take the consequences, whatever they may be. 1 1 Sermons, Harper's Edition, vol. i. pp. 28, 29. THE ANTI-SLAVERY REFORMER 193 In an address delivered before the Anti-Slavery Society, and in a subsequent letter to the "New York Tribune," both of which are quoted from in the " Biography of Henry Ward Beecher," by his son and son-in-law, he states this principle more fully in its specific application to slavery. "My earnest desire is that slavery may be destroyed by the manifest power of Christianity. If it were given me to choose whether it should be destroyed in fifty years by selfish commercial influences, or, standing for seventy-five years, be then the spirit and trophy of Christ, I would rather let it linger twenty-five years more, that God may be honored, and not mammon, in the destruction of it." In re- sponse to the " Tribune's " criticism of this senti- ment, he reaffirmed and reinforced it. Our highest and strongest reason for seeking justice among men is not the benefit to men themselves, ex- ceedingly strong as that motive is and ought to be. We do not join the movement party of our times simply be- cause we are inspired by an inward and constitutional benevolence. We are conscious of both these motives and of many other collateral ones ; but we are earnestly conscious of another feeling stronger than either, that lives unimpaired when these faint, yea, that gives vigor and persistence to these feelings when they are discour- aged ; and that is a strong, personal, enthusiastic love for Christ Jesus. I regard the movement of the world toward justice and rectitude to be of His inspirations. I believe my own aspirations, having a base in my natural faculties, to be influenced and directed by Christ's spirit. The mingled affection and adoration which I 194 HENRY WARD BEECHER feel for Him is the strongest feeling that I know. Whether I will or not, whether it be a phantasy or a sober sentiment, the fact is the same nevertheless, that that which will give pleasure to Christ's heart and bring to my consciousness a smile of gladness on His face in behalf of my endeavor, is incalculably more to me than any other motive. I would work for the slave for his own sake, but I am sure that I would work ten times as earnestly for the slave for Christ's sake. 1 If this spirit distinguished Mr. Beecher from the merely anti-slavery reformers on the one hand, and from the theological and ecclesiastical preachers on the other, it distinguished him also from certain anti-slavery preachers who were rather reformers than preachers of the Gospel, and whose churches suffered in consequence from the diversion of their interests and enthusiasms from a spiritual to a merely ethical work. It was this recognition of the anti-slavery movement as a Gospel movement, and of humanity and liberty as essential elements in the Kingdom of God of which the Christian minister is a herald, that enabled him to carry on his church work, and with extraordinary spiritual results, and accompanied by a remarkable revival, in the midst of an anti-slavery campaign from which he never suffered himself to be diverted, and in which he never relaxed his efforts. 1 Quoted in Biography, p. 269. CHAPTER VIII THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN For the ten years 1850-60, Mr. Beecher devoted himself to the propagation of the principles stated in the preceding chapter : the fundamental truth — that slavery is inherently and essentially wrong ; the ultimate end to be constantly kept in view — the abolition of slavery ; the means for the accom- plishment of that end — the restriction of slavery within the then existing limits of slave territory ; the underlying principle — no participation by the North in the sin of slavery, and therefore no return by the North of fugitive slaves ; the spirit — one of good will alike to black and white, to slave and master ; a chief instrument in the working out of this reform — the Church of Jesus Christ; the dominant, animating motive — love for Christ and loyalty to Him and His kingdom. He emphasized now one of these principles, now another, accord- ing to the exigency of the time, the nature of the audience he addressed, his own mood ; but he never retracted, never modified, never added to these fundamental principles. With one exception, here- inafter to be mentioned, all his teaching relating to the slavery question was a development and application of his article in " The New York Inde- 196 HENRY WARD BEECHER pendent " of February 21, 1850, entitled « Shall we compromise ? " 2 The compromise measures were enacted in July, 1850. Idaho and New Mexico were organized as territories, with no reference to slavery. California was admitted as a free state. Slave-trade was abol- ished in the District of Columbia. The Fugitive- Slave Law was enacted and its machinery set in operation. Wherever a fugitive slave was arrested popular excitement was aroused, popular hostility to slavery was intensified, and converts to the anti- slavery cause were made. Men who assented to slavery as a patriarchal institution in the remote South were aroused to indignation when they were asked to aid or even acquiesce in the return to slavery of a fugitive who had made his escape from it. Prominent men took part in stirring up the public to open, though fruitless, resistance to this law ; others, with greater wisdom, aided in evad- ing it. This was done not only by radical aboli- tionists — not only such men as Samuel J. May and Theodore Parker, but practical politicians like Thurlow Weed, United States officials like George S. Hilliard, anti-slavery editors like Horace Gree- ley, aided and abetted the operation of the " under- ground railroad." Sometimes these evasions took on a whimsical turn. The story is told of a United States marshal in Boston under a Democratic administration, who, when he was applied to for aid in arresting a fugitive slave, was accustomed 1 See page 167 ff. THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 197 to reply, " I will see if I can find him ; " then always went to William Lloyd Garrison's office and said, " I want to find such and such a negro ; tell me where he is." " The next thing I knew," he said afterwards, " the fellow was in Canada." After nearly three years, it is said that not fifty- slaves had been recovered under the Fugitive- Slave Law. But the excitements occasioned by the spasmodic attempts to recover fugitive slaves in the North were both local and short-lived. The general im- pression was that the compromise measures were a success. The country had a respite from the anti- slavery agitation, and rejoiced in its peace. Who- ever attempted to disturb that peace by reopening the question aroused against himself the hostility of the community. Strange as it may appear to us now, to the great mass of the men in the North the slavery question appeared to be settled. So marked was this effect of the compromise measures that President Fillmore, who had succeeded to the office on the death of Zachary Taylor, was able to declare that * the agitation which for a time threatened to disturb the fraternal relations which make us one people is fast subsiding," and to congratulate the country " upon the general acquiescence in these measures of peace which has been accepted in all parts of the Republic." New issues arose to divert public interest to other topics of public discussion. The long dispute between the United States and Great Britain respecting an isthmian canal connect- 198 HENRY WARD BEECHER ing the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans was settled by the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and this achievement turned public attention from national to international problems. No one then realized that half a century would pass and the canal would still be uncompleted and, indeed, scarcely begun. The dramatic revolution in Hungary aroused public interest ; with the arrival of Kossuth on our shores, it became a brief but passionate excitement. The famous letter of Daniel Webster to Mr. Hulsemann, the Austrian charge, affirming the interest of the United States in this revolution, and its right and intention to recognize, in its own discretion, any de facto revolutionary government, aroused the enthu- siasm of American lovers of liberty, and turned their thoughts for the moment away from the vio- lation of liberty within their own country. A new native American party, with a secret oath-bound organization, bearing the popular title of " Know- Nothing," partly religious, partly political, which aimed at the exclusion of foreigners from control, and therefore from office, widened and intensified the popular impression that the slavery issue was a past issue, and that other and more immediately im- portant questions had taken its place. This belief found at once expression and confirmation in the election of the Democratic candidate for the presi- dency — Franklin Pierce — by an overwhelming majority, two hundred and fifty-four electoral votes against forty-two for the Whig candidate, Winfield Scott, with a popular majority of more than two THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 199 hundred thousand, the largest which had ever been received since any record was made of the popular vote. Says James Ford Rhodes in his " History of the United States : " " The reason of Demo- cratic success was because that party unreservedly indorsed the compromise, and in its approval neither platform nor candidate halted. . . . The people were convinced that the status of every foot of territory in the United States, with regard to slavery, was fixed ; that it had ceased to be a political question." From this pleasing illusion the North was sud- denly aroused by the introduction into Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska bill by Senator Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. In 1820 Missouri had been admitted to the Union on the conditions — first, that no restriction as to slavery be imposed upon Missouri in framing a state constitution, and, second, that in all the rest of the country ceded by France to the United States north of the southern boundary line of Missouri, there should be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude. This famous Missouri Compromise Senator Douglas proposed to repeal by an act providing for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska as territories, with liberty to the people of those territories to determine for themselves whether they would allow slavery or not. Senator Douglas's enemies, at the time, asserted that his sole motive for this legislation, and for the consequent reopening of the slavery question, was his ambition to secure the Southern vote for the 200 HENRY WARD BEECHER presidency in a future presidential campaign. The historian has to do with the public acts, not with the private motives, of men; but the historian, whatever his judgment of Senator Douglas's act, must recognize the truth that better motives than that of personal ambition might have actuated him. For ten years he had been urging the organization of the Nebraska territory upon Congress, but in vain. His avowed object was to open the line of communication between the Missouri Valley and our possessions on the Pacific Ocean, and prevent the latter from coming under the domination of Great Britain through the industrial activity of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company. Three forces had operated thus far successfully to resist this necessary measure for the public welfare. The territory west of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers had been reserved to the Indians, with a guarantee that it should never be open to white settlement " so long as grass should grow and water should run." Mis- taken humanitarians resisted any disregard of the supposed rights and interests of the Indians guar- anteed under these treaties. The Atlantic States were jealous of the growth and expansion of the Mississippi Valley, and resisted any policy which might tend to promote that growth and expansion. The South dreaded the political domination of the North, and was jealous of the industrial growth of free territory, and therefore it resisted any scheme for opening the territory west of the Missouri River subject to the restrictions of the Missouri Com- THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 201 promise. Senator Douglas may have believed that the opening of this immense territory to settlement and civilization would far outbalance any dis- advantages which might grow out of a temporary reopening of the slavery question ; he may have believed that slavery would not enter this territory, that, to quote the words of Daniel Webster, it was not necessary to reenact the laws of God ; he may have believed that, since slavery was a state insti- tution and could not be interfered with in the state, it was a legitimate extension of that principle to allow the people of the territory, which was but an inchoate state, to determine for themselves whether they would or would not allow it. Whatever his motive, the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, by a vote of one hundred thirteen to one hundred in the House, and by a vote of thirty-five to thir- teen in the Senate, in May, 1854, aroused the indignation of the North as it never had been aroused before. This was not merely, perhaps not mainly, because territory before consecrated to freedom was now thrown open to slavery ; it was rather because a sacred compact had been rudely set aside. The North had fulfilled its part in the contract : Missouri was a slave state. The South now nullified its part in the contract and opened the territory north of the southern boundary of Missouri also to slavery. The contention of the anti-slavery advocates that the slavery question could never be settled by compromise was justified. The North began to realize that compromises and 202 HENRY WARD BEECHER compacts were in vain. Much of the hostility which before had been directed against the abolitionists, because they persisted in agitating the slavery question, was now directed against the doctrine of popular sovereignty, because it reopened that agitation. The Kansas-Nebraska bill was introduced into Congress on the 23d of January, 1854. On the 11th of February Mr. Beecher entered the cam- paign against this measure. " The Nebraska bill," said he in a speech in Boston, " is the death-strug- gle of slavery for expansion, seeing that she must have more room to breathe or suffocate. All ques- tion as to whether slavery shall be agitated is now at an end. The South says it shall be agitated, and she cannot help it. The mask is off, and all dis- guises are thrown to the winds, and the slave power stands out in its true character, making its last and most infamous demands upon the North. All we have to do is to say No." Two weeks later he writes to " The New York Independent," expressing the deep religious motive which inspired his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill. " Everywhere I find the Nebraska question to be a theme of anxious interest. But there is little outward expression of strong feeling. I fear that Christian men do not look upon it as a religious question. The responsi- bility which God has placed upon the religious- minded North to hold that vast territory open to the Gospel, to institutions which spring from a religious feeling and will corroborate all religious THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 203 endeavors, is but little felt. Yet to me that seems a very urgent view, the deepest." He urges upon the people instant and immediate activity; recom- mends that petitions be circulated in every school district ; that documents be distributed among the people, especially the speeches of Chase, Seward, and Sumner ; that every man of influence write to his representative ; that public meetings be held all through the North ; that the women cooperate in this movement ; that no one wait for his neigh- bor, but " the poor men, uncultured men, mechan- ics and laborers, in short, the great industrial class, move with spontaneousness." He finds at last a people ready to respond. A hundred and fifty-one ministers of New York and vicinity memorialize Congress against the Nebraska bill ; three thousand ministers of New England unite in a petition against it. But to Mr. Beecher the popular excitement seems like apathy. He declares that by the bill " it is proposed to doom a territory large enough to make ten states as large as New York to slavery." At times he apprehends the dissolution of the Union. To his own people he says, in a prayer-meeting : " Things have come nearly to the worst in this nation ; but with the consciousness of Divine Provi- dence, I will not despair. If God sees fit to destroy this government He will raise up another to carry out His purpose." This is on the 19th of May, 1854 ; seven days later the Kansas-Nebraska bill is signed and becomes the law of the land. There were two ways of meeting this movement 204 HENRY WARD BEECHER for the extension of slavery: one by federal, the other by local action. Both methods were simulta- neously adopted by anti-slavery leaders. There had been for twelve years a Liberty party in the United States, insignificant in numbers, but at least on one occasion influential. The vote for James G. Birney in 1844 had drawn off votes enough from Henry Clay to secure the election of James K. Polk. In that election, the Liberty party had been, or at least at the time appeared to be, however unconsciously, an ally of the slave power. But after the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed, it began to be clear to those who regarded the slavery question as the most important question before the nation, that there was no longer hope from either the Democratic or the Whig party for even moder- ate anti-slavery action. The demands of slavery were sustained alike by the Whig Millard Fill- more and the Democratic Franklin Pierce. Never- theless, shrewd politicians, whose anti-slavery principles could not be questioned, doubted the advisability of attempting the formation of a new party. Chase, Sumner, and Wade approved it, but Sumner had always been an independent, and Chase was a Democrat ; Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward at first discouraged it. The latter did not believe that the various opponents of the Nebraska bill were yet ready to work together in a common organization for a common end. I do not know that Mr. Beecher ever took part in the councils of those who were framing the political machinery to resist THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 205 the extension of slavery. He was never, in any sense of the term, a politician. But when, in 1856, the heterogeneous political elements, which were agreed in nothing but their hostility to further extension of slavery, united in the nomination of John C. Fremont for President of the United States, Mr. Beecher at once entered heartily into the canvass for his election. The week after the nomination he writes from New Hampshire : — Everywhere I find people aroused to the great ques- tion of the times, and it seems as if at last the North were determined to fulfill her mission and restore to the land the principles which she first planted. I find in every quarter that Fremont is gaining friends and bids fair to carry every state in New England. Two months later, at the end of the summer's vaca- tion, when he would naturally be beginning the fall work with Plymouth Church, at the request of a number of eminent clergymen and others, he was given a leave of absence by the trustees to devote himself to the political campaign " in behalf of the cause of liberty, then felt to be in peril." This was in September, 1856. Upon this campaign he en- tered with characteristic energy, speaking twice and often three times a week, generally making a two to three hours' speech, often in the open air, to audiences of from eight to ten thousand people. The burden of his campaign speeches was a reiter- ation of the principles we have already reported as urged by him on the platform and in the press. When the opponents of Mr. Fremont tried to con- 206 HENRY WARD BEECHER fuse the issue by making a new one, Mr. Beecher did not follow their lead, and, by turning the laugh on them, effectually prevented them from diverting public attention from the real question at issue. Certain astute politicians had endeavored to secure the cooperation of the native American party with the new Republican party, though wiser counsels had prevailed and had prevented any open alliance between the two. The opponents of the Republican party endeavored to set this native American sen- timent against John C. Fremont, because in his runaway match he had been married by a Roman Catholic priest. His political enemies insisted that he was a Roman Catholic and concealed the fact for political ends. The charge, though refuted, was repeated again and again. Serious argument serves little purpose in such a case. Mr. Beecher's story of the dog named " Noble-at-the-empty-hole " over- whelmed the accusation with ridicule. " Having on one occasion seen a red squirrel run into a hole in a stone wall, he could not be persuaded that he was not there forever. . . . When all other occupations failed, this hole remained to him. When there were no chickens to harry, no pigs to bite, no cattle to chase, no children to romp with, no expeditions to make with the grown folks, and when he had slept all that his dog skin would hold, he would walk out of the yard, yawn and stretch himself, and then look wistfully at the hole, as if thinking to himself: 1 Well, as there is nothing else to do, I may as well try that hole again,' We had almost forgotten this THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 207 little trait until the attack of the < New York Ex- press' in respect to Colonel Fremont's religion brought it ridiculously to mind again. . . . The 'Express,' like Noble, has opened on this hole in the wall, and can never be done barking at it. Day after day it resorts to this empty hole. When everything else fails, this resource remains. There they are indefatigably, — 4 Express ' and Noble, — a church without a Fremont, and a hole without a squirrel in it. . . . We never read the 4 Express ' nowadays without thinking involuntarily, * Good- ness ! the dog is letting off at that hole again.' " The story was caught up by the press and went the rounds of the country. " The dog Noble and the empty hole " turned into ridicule the attempt to make political capital out of the marriage of Fre- mont by a Roman Catholic priest. It is doubtful whether the incident lost General Fremont a vote ; it is quite certain that it did not lose him so many as were gained for him by the romance of the run- away match. Simultaneously with this national movement to prevent the further extension of slavery was a local movement, which eventually proved success- ful, to secure Kansas and Nebraska for freedom by planting in them a population determined to make of them free states. For this purpose an Emigrant Aid Company was organized in New England in 1854 by Eli Thayer. He was an ardent believer in popular sovereignty. He felt sure, and events proved him right, that under popular sovereignty 208 HENRY WARD BEECHER freedom would win. A charter was granted by- Massachusetts, capital was secured, emigrants were invited. Its object was to plant capital in the new territory in advance of population, and thus fur- nish the incoming immigrant with the advantage of mills, schools, and churches. It was not an abolition society. Financial and patriotic motives commingled in the intentions of its founders. Its aim was to build up a prosperous community in the prosperity of which the immigrant would share. Its methods were peaceable: its first immigrants went without any implements of war. u The Emi- grant Aid Company," says Mr. Spring in his history of Kansas, " never bought a firelock or furnished its patrons with warlike equipments of any sort." From the outset this scheme of securing Kansas and Nebraska for freedom met with opposition from very different quarters. The men who loved peace rather than liberty opposed it, because they foresaw in it only a new phase of the interminable strife which they abhorred. They anticipated the incursion of armed forces from Missouri, and as a result either civil war or the forcible overthrow of the free-state settlers by their more warlike and less scrupulous neighbors. Conservative anti-slavery men regarded it as wholly impracticable. They believed that these New England immigrants, who had to travel fifteen hundred miles to the battle- ground, would be no match for the slave popula- tion from the adjoining state of Missouri, who THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 209 could in one day blot out all that the free-soilers could do in a year. The abolitionists condemned it as commercial in its spirit and impracticable in its methods. " The Liberator " denounced the Emi- grant Aid Company as " a great hindrance to the cause of freedom and a mighty curse to the terri- tory." Wendell Phillips declared that "the fate of Nebraska and Kansas was sealed the first hour Stephen Arnold Douglas consented to play his perfidious part," for so his abolition of the Mis- souri Compromise was regarded by the anti-slavery sentiment of the North. To take possession of the country by industry, by roads, by mills, by churches, would take, he said, two centuries. Thomas Went- worth Higginson maintained that even if the Emi- grant Aid Society were successful, success would achieve nothing ; Nebraska would be only a trans- planted Massachusetts, and the original Massachu- setts had been tried and found wanting. 1 From the first Mr. Beecher threw himself heart and soul into this movement, as did many of the New England clergy. The anticipations of the peace-lovers were presently realized. When elec- tion day came, over seventeen hundred Missourians came over into Kansas, and swelled the pro-slavery vote. When the next election day came, five thou- sand Missourians marched into Kansas to assist in the election of the legislature. Judges of elec- tion were awed into submission or driven away by threats. Protests against the result of the election l Eli Thayer : The Kansas Crusade, p. 101. 210 HENRY WARD BEECHER were signed at the hazard of life. Election returns were canvassed by the governor, in a room filled with men armed to the teeth. But these Mis- sourians came into Kansas only to vote. Southern presses urged Southern men to carry their slaves with them into the new territory. "Two thou- sand slaves," said Mr. Stringfellow, a leader of the Missourians, " actually lodged in Kansas will make a slave state out of it. Once fairly there, nobody will disturb them." But no slave-owner was willing to act on this advice. Slaves carried into a state surrounded by freemen, might become discontented and run away, and if they did, their capture would certainly be difficult. What should the New England settlers do? Should they practice non-resistance and submit to be overawed by incursions from Missouri, or should they arm for self -protection ? Many of the sup- porters of the free-soil cause hesitated : some sim- ply dreaded bloodshed; some on principle were opposed to all use of force ; some insisted that Christ taught the doctrine of non-resistance. But the free-soilers on the ground prepared to meet force with force. Mr. Beecher defended their right so to do. He said : — The New Testament declares that malign revenge or hatred are not to be felt toward an enemy. We do not think it touches at all the question of what kind of instru- ments men may employ. It simply teaches what is the state of mind which is to direct either kind of instrument, moral or physical. If we reason and argue, love, not THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 211 malignity, is to animate us. If we are in extremities and defend our lives with weapons, it is not to be in hatred, but calmly, deliberately, and with Christian firmness. We know that there are those who will scoff at the idea of holding a sword or a rifle in a Christian state of mind. I think it just as easy as to hold an argument in a Chris- tian state of mind. The right to use physical force we regard as a very important one. We do not see how it may be right to use a little, but wrong to use a great deal of force, when self-defense is the end, and when the feelings are not malignant, but simply a calm, conscientious standing for right. He urged the emigrants to go to Kansas ; urged those who had sons in Kansas to send them arms; urged parents to pray that their sons " may not have occasion to use them, hut if they must be used, that the sons may so wield them that the mother be not ashamed of the son she loves." He practiced what he preached : aided in taking up contributions to arm the f ree-soilers ; pledged twenty-five rifles from Plymouth Church ; called for subscriptions in the lecture-room of the church, for their purchase. As the result of these and simi- lar subscriptions in various parts of the country by the friends of the free-soilers, rifles were sent out to Kansas in considerable numbers. One or more consignments were sent in boxes labeled " books." It is said that one consignment was labeled " Bibles." In one address Mr. Beecher defended the use of rifles, which, he said, would be more useful than Bibles in an argument with wolves. For one or the other of these reasons, Sharpe's 212 HENRY WARD BEECHER rifles sent to the free - soilers were dubbed " Beecher's Bibles." In fact, the possession of the rifles by the free-soilers sufficed to win a blood- less victory. " We do not know," he subsequently said, "that a single man has ever been injured with them. They are guiltless of blood." Never- theless they won a victory where otherwise defeat would have been certain. The famous Wakarusa War did not come to actual hostilities. The Mis- sourian invaders, twelve to fifteen hundred armed men, encamped on the Wakarusa River in the vicinity of Lawrence. It must be said for their courage that they probably did not fear Sharpe's rifles in the hands of the free-soil men ; but they did fear the popular sentiment of the country if they should open the first battle of what might be a civil war. When they found that there was a resolute party in Kansas determined to fight for freedom, they withdrew without firing a shot. The battle for liberty was won, and, so far as events can justify moral principles, the moral principle which Mr. Beecher had advocated was justified by the peaceful victory achieved by the possession of Sharpe's rifles. So passes ten years of constant, though inter- mittent agitation, probably the most politically stormy in the history of the American nation. Cowards are silent, cautious men seek for com- promise, belligerent men inflame popular passion and arouse popular prejudice, honest men are sorely perplexed. The issue remains always the same ; THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 213 but the aspect of the issue constantly changes. The slave power grows more and more aggressive. It first asks to be let alone ; then it demands new territory by a compromise ; then it repudiates the compromise it formerly demanded and seeks new territory through popular sovereignty ; then it repu- diates popular sovereignty and wishes the national- ization of slavery. Simultaneously the anti-slavery sentiment of the North grows more definite, more resolute, more wide-spread. In all these changes Mr. Beecher never departs from the principles avowed in his first public utterance. When in May, 1856, Charles Sumner is struck down by Preston Brooks and beaten almost to death, Mr. Beecher seeks not to inflame the passion of the North against the assailant, but against the power which that assailant too well represents. " The nature of slavery," he says, in a public meeting in Brooklyn, "has been for a long time to make encroachment. But the time has come when it has walked into the government. It takes possession of the Senate Chamber." John Brown, erroneously assuming that the slaves were eager for their lib- erty, and if provided with a leader will arise, throw off the yoke of slavery, and win freedom for them- selves, undertakes his fatuous raid into Virginia. Mr. Beecher believes neither in the paroxysm of indignation nor in the passion of enthusiasm. His prayer for John Brown and the other imprisoned raiders indicates a principle which history confirms. " Remember these that are in prison — Thy servants 214 HENRY WARD BEECHER who in Thy providence have been permitted to lift up their hands in a mistaken way, but out of which Thou wilt yet induce good." When a public hall is denied Wendell Phillips for a lecture, because of his unpopularity, Mr. Beecher, radically as he differs from Mr. Phillips in both spirit and methods, secures from the trustees the use of Plymouth Church for the obnoxious lecturer. Issuing a call to battle against the compromise measures, Mr. Beecher gives Mr. Clay sincere praise for desir- ing peace. But when Daniel Webster, born and bred in the atmosphere of New England, becomes the advocate of this same measure, he denounces the son of Massachusetts for his apostasy. Nor is he, during these ten years, a man of one idea. He is not merely an anti-slavery reformer. Every event which concerns the liberty of his fellow men concerns him. When Louis Kossuth comes to America, Plymouth Church is put at his disposal, and Mr. Beecher in introducing him calls on the audience to " bear witness to me how often from this place prayers have been offered and tears shed when we have heard of the struggles of Hungary." When the advent of Father Matthew has revived interest in the temperance cause, Mr. Beecher avails himself of the opportunity, and speaks on the same platform with P. T. Barnum, Dr. George B. Cheever, and Dr. Theodore F. Cuy- ler, for temperance. When the electric cable to unite the old world and the new is to be laid, Mr. Beecher is among the early visitors to the frigate THE ANTI-SLAVEKY CAMPAIGN 215 Niagara, which is charged with the duty of laying it, and writes of the coming event as one which will " bind two continents together, and be a road for the business of the world." The Church and amusements had always been thought to belong in different fields, and the duty of the Church as discharged in warning the young against tabooed amusements. In 1857 we find Mr. Beecher preach- ing on social amusements, and recommending gym- nastics, wrestling, bowling, boating, and field sports generally. Three weeks later he is pleading the cause of the American Indian in a public meeting in New York City. The corner-stone of a new city armory is laid. He is there to speak, on broad lines, of municipal and national patriotism. The centenary of Robert Burns is to be celebrated. Mr. Beecher gives the memorial address : " The nation which reads Robert Burns in the nursery will never have tyrants in the parliament house. In all his weakness, sorrows, joys, and fears, he is universal in his sympathies. . . . Dead, he has made the world rich. His life was a failure until he died ; and ever since it has been a marvelous success." A reading-room and a coffee-house are to be opened in the Bowery — one of the first of the now numerous attempts to improve men through other than conventionally religious means. Mr. Beecher is there to indorse it. Italy is engaged in her finally successful effort to throw off the yoke of foreign bondage and become a free and united nation. Mr. Beecher joins in a call for a public 216 HENRY WARD BEECHER meeting, addresses it, and helps to raise a fund for Garibaldi's aid. He speaks on the same platform with Lucy Stone Blackwell for the emancipation of woman : urges the enlargement of her influence because it will involve an enlargement of her char- acter ; insists that " she is better fitted for home when she is fitted for something else." If he be- lieved that the ballot for every one is necessary both as a symbol and as a defense of liberty, he shared with his contemporaries an opinion which experience on a large scale has modified in the minds of many who are devoted to human free- dom. There lies before me as I write a journal kept by a member of Plymouth Church, during a period extending from 1850 to 1869. I am amazed as I turn its pages over at the mere physical endurance of this man. For the ten years with which in this chapter I have to do, he was engaged almost daily in public service. The first four evenings of the week he was generally speaking on some public platform. As if moral reforms were not enough to keep his brain busy, he engaged in the work of lecturing. The lyceum lecture was then one of the great instruments for public education, and Mr. Beecher was in constant demand as a lyceum lecturer, especially after the Fremont campaign. Commerce, art, life, literature, everything but theology, furnished him topics. Among his themes are " The Ministry of the Beautiful," « Character," "Amusements," "Success in Life," "Wit and THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 217 Humor," " Mirthfulness," " The Commonwealth." Beside all this he contributed to the press frequent articles, grave and gay, long and short, sometimes serious discussions of public themes, sometimes chatty sketches of personal experiences or observa- tions. This more public ministry did not divert him from his ministry to and in his own church. He was almost invariably back from his campaigning and lecturing in time to be at the Friday evening meeting. At this meeting, which was always crowded, he gave what he called a " lecture-room talk," which was really a brief lecture. In these lecture-room talks Mr. Beecher rarely dealt with the topics of his weekly campaigning. His themes were largely those of personal religious experience. Religion has to do both with man's relation to his fellow man and with his personal relation to his God. In his weekly campaigns Mr. Beecher dealt wholly with the former. In his lecture-room talks he generally dealt with the latter. His themes were such as " Communion," " Tears," "Groping after God," "Praise and Prayer," " Christian Joyousness," " The Spontaneous Good- ness of God." Following the lecture was almost always an after-meeting which was sometimes social, sometimes pastoral, sometimes executive ; in which inquirers were met, guidance given, plans of church work briefly discussed. Saturday was a holiday ; only the most pressing exigency was allowed to break in upon this rest-day of the preacher. After 218 HENRY WARD BEECHER he moved to Peekskill from Lenox, where he at first had his summer retreat, he often went up for the day to his country home in the spring and fall when weather invited to outdoor occupations. On Sunday he was rarely absent from his pulpit. His people were generous ; they made no demands for pastoral service, and he rendered very little ; but they were always disappointed when he was absent from his pulpit, and he knew it. Exchanges were no relief to him, for he had no old sermons. So he almost invariably preached, and habitually twice on Sunday, and always to crowded congregations. The pews and aisles were always full; more often than not, all standing-room was taken ; the pulpit-stairs were regularly used for seats by the young men and children of the congregation ; often hundreds were turned away unable to gain entrance to the church. In the congregation were many Western and South- ern merchants, coming to the city, according to the fashion of those days, to buy goods ; and many men of note in all the ranks of life. Kalph Waldo Emerson, A. Bronson Alcott, Henry D. Thoreau, Walt W r hitman, Louis Kossuth, Abraham Lincoln were a few among the notabilities. And it was not chiefly curiosity to hear the reformer on public themes that drew this congregation. Sermons on the topic of the hour were occasional and excep- tional. His sermons, as his lecture-room talks, were largely on topics of personal life, — individual rather than sociological. During all this time Plymouth Church was not THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 219 merely a great congregation, attracted by the fame of a great preacher. It was a living church, com- posed of men and women actively engaged in Chris- tian and philanthropic work, under the inspiration which the preacher furnished. The Sunday-school was so large as to fill the Sunday-school room full to overflowing ; at times the lecture-room had to be used to accommodate the overflow. The spiritual efficiency of a church is indicated by the additions to its membership upon confession of faith. Dur- ing these ten years seven hundred and seventy- three united with Plymouth Church on confession of their faith. Its spiritual life is indicated by the response it makes to a general awakening in the community. It was in the midst of these stirring events that the church experienced the revival of which I have spoken in a previous chapter. Dur- ing this revival Mr. Beecher's attention was con- centrated on the spiritual work in his church, for to this he always gave the first place, and from the daily morning prayer-meetings held during that revival he was rarely absent. In addition to his platform work, his contributions to the press, his preaching, and the special ministry involved in two successive revivals, Mr. Beecher also found or made time to prepare the " Plymouth Collection," of which I have already spoken, and which was fin- ished and published in 1855. It is true that Mr. Beecher concentrated his en- ergies on his public teaching, now by his pen, now on the platform, now in the pulpit. He did little 220 HENRY WARD BEECHER or no personal pastoral work from house to house, little executive work in administration of church activities. He inspired the church, and left it to direct its own activities. But they were not confined to those which are customary to church life in a great city ; and something of the responsibility for them must have fallen upon him. For the Plymouth Church edifice was not idle throughout the week. It was the best auditorium in Brooklyn for public lectures, and was in frequent use. It served as a lecture-hall as well as meeting-house. Among the lecturers who were heard here were Thackeray on the " Four Georges," Professor Youmans on " Alco- hol and its Uses," John B. Gough on temperance, Professor Mitchell on astronomy, Charles Sumner, Joshua R. Giddings, George W. Curtis on aspects of the slavery question, and Schuyler Colfax and Thomas Corwin, on I know not what. Abraham Lincoln, it is said, was to have lectured in Ply- mouth Church on coming East in 1860, but was transferred to Cooper Union in order the more effectually to reach a New York audience. Yet it would be a mistake were the reader to suppose that either Mr. Beecher or Plymouth Church was what is ordinarily called popular. If he was the most admired orator and the most be- loved preacher of his time, he was also the most bitterly hated, excepting only Theodore Parker. No language was too bitter, no epithets too stinging to be applied to him. It was declared that " his pulpit has been turned into a political engine to THE ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN 221 overthrow the institutions of the Southern States, to dissolve the Union, and to foment civil war ; " he was characterized as one of the clergy " who attack not those sinners who hear them, but those who are a thousand miles away ; " he was classed with Garrison and Wendell Phillips, and all three were warned that " a trip to Europe just now would prove very beneficial to their health ; " that " their ease and comfort will be anything but safe in this country in six months from this time " (De- cember, 1860). These unambiguous hints came from a metropolitan journal of no insignificant reputation. Jewish rabbis and Christian preachers added their voice of condemnation against " all our notorious abolition preachers, who have resorted to the most violent processes of interpretation to avoid the meaning of plain Scripture texts," and " who make that to be sin which in the Bible is not de- clared to be sin." This hostility reached its climax after the election of Abraham Lincoln. That fall Plymouth Church was threatened with a mob. One evening the services were interrupted by a stone thrown from outside which came crashing through the window. But the congregation fell into no panic; after the sermon an extemporized body- guard followed the preacher to his home ; no further violence was attempted ; and Mr. Beecher, in bid- ding his friends good-night, made a reassuring speech from the steps of his house : " I do not think there is any occasion for alarm, nor do I imagine that I really need your protection. If there had 222 HENRY WARD BEECHER been, and I had fallen, it would have been the best thing that could have happened for the cause ; but nothing will happen to me or to my house. I have not lived in this city for thirteen years for nothing." The friendly crowd responded with cheers and cries of "That's so," and separated, and so the incident came to an end. Abraham Lincoln's speech in Cooper Union, February 27, 1860, won for him the nomination to the presidency by the Republican party. His speech became the platform of the party. In its principles and in its spirit it represented what Mr. Beecher had for ten years urged his fellow citizens to incorporate in a national resolve and embody in national action. It therefore made Abraham Lin- coln Mr. Beecher's candidate for the presidency. In the triumph of the Republican party upon this platform, and with this man as its leader, the epoch of anti-slavery agitation came to an end; the epoch of civil war began. For from the day when the election of Abraham Lincoln was an- nounced, the issue before the people of the North regarding slavery was changed. It was no longer, Would they consent to the extension of slavery ? That question was answered. It was, Would they respond to Abraham Lincoln's appeal : " Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it"? CHAPTER IX THE CIVIL WAR Mr. Lincoln was elected in November, 1860 ; his inauguration did not take place until March 4, 1861 ; this quasi interregnum of four months be- tween the election and the inauguration of the President of the United States cost the nation unnumbered thousands of dollars and unnumbered thousands of lives. That the Civil War could have been absolutely prevented is not probable ; that its duration would have been greatly lessened if Mr. Lincoln had taken the reins of government within four weeks after his election cannot be doubted, for during the four months of interregnum the nation was without a leader. Mr. Lincoln could not lead because he was not President ; Mr. Buchanan could not lead because he had not capacity. The nation was confronting a great crisis, and Mr. Buchanan was not the man for a crisis. A skillful diplomat, a shrewd politician, skillful in the evasion of diffi- cult questions, but without a statesman's ability to understand or a brave man's courage to meet them, incapable of comprehending a great situation or grasping a great principle, Mr. Buchanan was exactly not the man for the place. There were in the country two conceptions of 224 HENRY WARD BEECHER the nature of the federal government. The United States of America is confessedly a union of sover- eign states. Ought it to be regarded as a partner- ship from which any partner may withdraw at will, or a marriage which once consummated is indis- soluble ? The South held the first view, the North the second. The sovereignty resides in the people. Was the supreme expression of this sovereignty in the State or in the Nation ? in an issue between the two which was the final arbiter? The South answered, The State ; the North answered, The Nation. Either view was self -consistent ; for either view rational argument was possible. Mr. Buch- anan, versed in the art of compromising by the simple method of conceding something in every controversy to each disputant, attempted to solve this controversy by such a compromise. He said in effect to the North : " You are right — this is a nation; the union of the states is a marriage; no state has a right to secede." He said in effect to the South: "You are right — the sovereignty of the state is supreme ; the sovereignty of the fed- eral government is subordinate, and although no state has a right to secede, the federal government has no right to coerce it into submission if it does secede." Such a compromise, pronounced by the chief executive of the federal government, was entirely satisfactory to the secessionists ; they did not in the least care what theory Mr. Buchanan held respecting the right of a state to secede, so long as he refused to use or allow to be used the THE CIVIL WAR 225 forces of the federal government in preventing se- cession. Under his administration seven states were permitted to hold conventions and proclaim their withdrawal from the Union ; the Secretary of War was allowed to retain his post and use his power to equip the seceding states for the impending con- flict ; the United States brigadier-general com- manding the Department of Texas was allowed to turn over his entire army, with all the posts and fortifications, arms, munitions of war, horses and equipments, to the Confederate authorities. Be- fore Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, and under Mr. Buchanan's administration, the Confederate States had taken possession of every fort, arsenal, dock- yard, mint, custom-house, and court-house in their territory except three — Fort Sumter, Fort Pick- ens, and Key West. This was not accomplished without strong opposition in the South. In South Carolina, when the minister first dropped from the service the prayer for the President of the United States, James L. Pettigrew, the foremost lawyer of the state, rose in his pew, and slowly and with distinct voice repeated, " Most humbly and heartily we beseech Thee with Thy favor to uphold and bless Thy servant the President of these United States ; " then, placing his prayer-book in the rack, withdrew, with his wife, from the church, which he never reentered. In Georgia, Alexander H. Ste- phens, easily the foremost statesman in the South, argued earnestly against secession ; pointed out the fact tliat the Republican President faced a 226 HENRY WARD BEECHER Democratic majority, both in the House of Repre- sentatives and in the Senate, — could carry no legislation, could appoint no officer, could not even form a cabinet hostile to the interests of the coun- try, as the Democratic majority interpreted those interests. It may fairly be doubted whether the ordinance of secession would have commanded a popular vote in any state in the South except South Carolina if the vote could have been pre- ceded by a full and free discussion, if it could have been unattended with threatening or violence, and if the Unionists could have had the moral support of the federal administration. But it must be said, in apology for Mr. Buchanan, if not in defense of him, that if public sentiment was divided in the South, it was also divided in the North. The radical abolitionists were opposed to coercion and welcomed secession. They had them- selves been secessionists from the first. Not a few of those who voted for Mr. Lincoln, when they found themselves confronting the peril of war, would have been almost ready to cancel their vote, and were quite ready to draw back from the prin- ciples to which he was committed and from which he never swerved. The commercial disasters which war would involve appalled some, the terrible tragedy of war appalled others, and an honest con- viction of the impracticability of coercion con- vinced still others. Three days after the election the " New York Tribune," the most influential journal of the Republican party, in a leading ar- THE CIVIL WAR 227 tide said : " If the cotton states decide that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace. . . . We hope never to live in a republic whereof one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets." Most extraor- dinary compromises were proposed to avoid the peril of war. It was proposed that the Constitu- tion should be amended so as to provide for slave territory south of a given line and free territory north of a given line, each inviolate from interfer- ence ; that slavery should never be interfered with in the territories ; that a clause should be inserted in the Constitution recognizing the doctrine of states rights and denying the power of coercion to the general government ; that Mr. Lincoln should resign and another president be elected less objec- tionable to the South ; that the office of president should be abolished and a council of three sub- stituted, each of whom should have a veto on every public act. Those who were most loyal, not only to the government, but to the fundamental principles of the Republican party, were divided in their opinion respecting the best policy to be pursued. It soon became plain that secession of the cotton states could not be prevented by compromise. But it was not so clear that it was impossible to dis- suade the border states from casting in their lot with the Confederacy. To prevent them from so doing became the first object of leading men whose loyalty to the nation and to liberty could not be questioned. So clear-headed and loyal a statesman 228 HENRY WARD BEECHER as Charles Francis Adams advocated the appoint- ment of committees and summoning of conferences and shaping of a compromise to secure this result. That during such a time of intellectual confusion a man of Mr. Buchanan's mould, temper, and educa- tion should have been perplexed, irresolute, and vacillating is not to be wondered at. In all this time of confused counsels there were some men, the strongest, as we can now see, who never for a moment lost sight of the one guiding principle that concession should never more be made to the slave power under any pretext whatever, be the consequences what they might. Among these were the silent man at Springfield, and the eloquent man in Brooklyn, neither of whom for an instant hesitated. In December Abraham Lincoln wrote to Mr. Washburne : " Prevent as far as possible any of our friends from demoralizing themselves and their cause by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on slavery extension. There is no possible compromise upon it but what puts us under again, and all our work to do over again." There is no reason to suppose that at this time Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Beecher had any understanding or any correspondence with each other ; but what Mr. Lincoln said in occasional private letters Mr. Beecher said with vigor from the pulpit, on the platform, and from the press. Mr. Beecher was not a diplomat ; he had no skill in political arts ; he did not know how to propose a scheme to blind THE CIVIL WAR 229 the eyes of his opponents and to tide over a diffi- culty, — a scheme to be abandoned as soon as the crisis was passed. Despite rumors and reports that he subsequently became a political adviser of Mr. Lincoln, and a still more influential adviser of President Grant, I am not able to find any his- torical evidence that he ever was the adviser of either. He is a wise man who knows his own powers and his own limitations, exercises the first, and keeps within the second. It was Mr. Beecher's genius to create that public sentiment which un- derlies and gives force to political action in a democracy, and to give effective and eloquent expression to that sentiment when it had been created. To this work he gave himself with single- ness of purpose, for he understood the mission to which he had been called better than any of his critics, better than some of his eulogists. During this period of interregnum there were two services which could be rendered by a man who had access to the public mind and conscience. He could do something to persuade the Union men in the South that their constitutional rights and liberties were not in danger. They were not wholly without ground for their apprehension, cer- tainly not without excuse for it, for the vehement and inflammatory writings and speeches of the abolitionists had been circulated far and wide. But it was even more important to inform the mind, sustain the courage, and strengthen the resolution of the anti-slavery majority in the North, 230 HENRY WARD BEECHER to make all the men who had voted for Abraham Lincoln realize what Abraham Lincoln realized — that no compromise of any sort concerning the extension of slavery was possible. To this double purpose Mr. Beecher gave himself. At first, in common with the great leaders of the Republican party, he did not believe that there was serious peril of war. The Union-savers had cried " Wolf ! Wolf ! " so often when there was no wolf that the anti-slavery reformers had come to believe that the beast did not exist. They dis- credited the courage of the South, as the South- erners discredited the courage of the North ; they thought the threat of disunion was uttered only for political purposes, and had been uttered much too often; that, to quote Charles Francis Adams's summary of his father's opinion, " The South was not in earnest, that its threats were mere brag- gadocio, that its interests and safety combined to keep it in the Union." Asked in March, 1860, to speak on how to save the Union, Mr. Beecher began his speech by saying, " It is somewhat em- barrassing to speak on this subject, because I con- sider that the Union is in no danger. . . . The Union was never so firm as it is now." In Novem- ber following the election of Mr. Lincoln he ex- pressed again the same confidence in even stronger terms : " It is absurd to suppose that the South with all her interest in the Union will leave it, and therefore I say the South will never leave the Union. There is a man now at the helm of the ship of state THE CIVIL WAR 231 who will guide her safely through the perils which encompass her, a man who knows not what it is to be scared." Mr. Beecher did not then realize the far-reaching plan of the Confederate leaders, which involved the establishment of a great semi-tropical republic, founded on an African slave-trade, and including Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies, united with the slave-holding states of North America ; nor did he realize the power of popular passion, in a democratic community, when inflamed, to disregard all considerations of self-interest. But, as time went on, and the peril of civil war became more imminent, the result was to make Mr. Beecher's insistence on uncompromising adherence to principle more vigorous. On the 29th of Novem- ber, 1860, he preached a Thanksgiving sermon, the character of which is indicated by its title, " Against a Compromise of Principle." In this sermon he said that there were three courses possible : — (1) To go over to the South. (2) To compromise principle. (3) To maintain principle on just and constitutional grounds, and abide the issue. The first was not to be thought of. Compromise was made impossible by the inherent nature of the issue. " To be of any use compromise must make the slaves con- tented, slavery economical, slave states as pros- perous as free states. Compromise must shut the mouth of free speech, . . . must cure the intol- erance of the plantation, . . . must make evil as prosperous as good, enforced slavery as fruitful 232 HENRY WARD BEECHER as free labor." The North ought to have nothing to do with halfway measures or halfway men. To the demands of the Southern secession leaders this should be its answer : — The North loves liberty, and will have it. We will not aggress on you. Keep your institutions within your own bounds ; we will not hinder you. We will not take advantage to destroy, or one whit to abate, your fair political prerogatives. You have already gained advan- tages of us. These we will allow you to hold. You shall have the Constitution intact, and its full benefit. The full might and power of public sentiment in the North shall guarantee to you everything that history and the Constitution give you. But if you ask us to augment the area of slavery ; to cooperate with you in cursing new territory ; if you ask us to make the air of the North favorable for a slave's breath, we will not do it ! We love liberty as much as you love slavery, and we shall stand by our rights with all the vigor with which we mean to stand by justice toward you. 1 In reading these words the reader should remem- ber that they were uttered when the Northern pul- pits and Northern press were clamoring for some impossible compromise, when Congress was debat- ing halfway measures, when halfway men were endeavoring to contrive some platform of conces- sion to slavery and secession that would postpone the inevitable conflict, when abolitionists were ad- vising to let the erring sisters depart in peace. Six weeks later, on a fast-day appointed by the President, speaking on " Our Blameworthiness,' ' 1 Patriotic Addresses, p. 242. THE CIVIL WAR 233 Mr. Beecher again indicted slavery as " the most alarming and most fertile cause of national sin. . . . Not only a sin but a fountain from which have flowed many sins." Commonplace as this utterance may seem now, it did not seem so then. On the same day on which Mr. Beecher was de- claring that slavery was the great national sin, a neighboring Brooklyn preacher was arguing that slavery was indorsed by the Bible, and was urging the then familiar argument that the blameworthi- ness of the nation consisted in the fanaticism which denounced slavery. I remember on that same fast- day attending a union service in a Western city at which several addresses urging to repentance were made, and only one of the speakers referred to slavery. By the others not the most distant allu- sion was made to it, while every other sin in the calendar, from Sabbath-breaking to covetousness, came in for a safe and harmless denunciation. As might be expected, when by the bombard- ment of Fort Sumter the Confederacy threw down the challenge of war to the federal government, Mr. Beecher was prompt to respond. He was ab- sent lecturing when the news of the bombardment was flashed over the wires. Returning to his home, he gave on Sunday morning his message for the hour to his congregation. The commercial fears which counseled a new attempt at compromise he sought to counteract by arousing a passionate enthusiasm for nationality, liberty, humanity. The fire that even now, more than forty years after the 234 HENRY WARD BEECHER delivery of the sermon, flashes from the printed page, it is as impossible to reproduce, in an analy- sis of the argument, as it is to reproduce in the heaped up ashes from a camp-fire the pile of logs aflame, its light illumining the darkness of the night, and its glow warming the bystanders. The spirit of his message was conveyed by its text, " Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." In this sermon Mr. Beecher presented clearly the demand of the Republican party, the demand of the South, and the impossibility of any compromise between the demands. " We ask no advantages, no new prerogatives, no privileges whatsoever ; we merely say, Let there be no intes- tine revolution in our institutions, but let them stand as they were made and for the purposes for which they were created." On the other hand, the Confederates " have expunged the doctrine of uni- versal liberty and put in its place the doctrine of liberty for the strong and servitude for the weak." The new constitution of the so-called Confederate States " holds that there is appointed of God a governing class and a class to be governed, — a class that were born governors because they are strong and smart and well-to-do, and a class that were born servants because they are poor and weak and unable to take care of themselves." Men in the North were proposing to secure peace between liberty and slavery by ignoring the distinction be- tween them. These Northerners he scourged with unsparing ridicule : — THE CIVIL WAR 235 You can have your American eagle as you want it. If, with the South, you will strike out his eyes, then you shall stand well with Mr. Davis and Mr. Stephens of the Confederate States ; if, with the Christians of the South, you will pluck off his wings, you shall stand well with the Southern churches ; and if, with the new peace-makers that have risen up in the North, you will pull out his tail-feathers, you shall stand well with the society for the promotion of national unity. But when you have stricken out his eyes so that he can no longer see, when you have plucked off his wings so that he can no longer fly, and when you have pulled out his guiding tail-feathers so that he can no longer steer himself, but rolls in the dirt a mere buzzard, then will he be worth preserving ? Such an eagle it is that they mean to de- pict upon the banner of America ! But he did not merely ridicule ; he did not merely denounce — he argued : On what conditions could the North retreat from the war? on what conditions have peace ? " On condition that two thirds of the nation shall implicitly yield up to the dictation of one third ; " on condition that " we will legalize and establish the right of any discontented community to rebel and set up intestine govern- ments within the government of the United States ; " on condition that " we will agree funda- mentally to change our Constitution, and instead of maintaining a charter of universal freedom, to write it out as a deliberate charter of oppression ; n on condition that we " become partners in slavery, and consent, for the sake of peace, to ratify this gigantic evil;" on condition that "we shall no 236 HENRY WARD BEECHER longer have any right of discussion, of debate, of criticism, — shall no longer have any right of agi- tation, as it is called." Against these demands of the South he placed the duties which the hour devolved upon the North. " While the air of the South is full of the pestilent doctrines of slavery, accursed be our communities if we will not be as zealous and enthusiastic for liberty as they are against it." Every man should declare himself. "We must draw the lines. A great many men have been on both sides. A great many men have been thrown backward and forward, like a shuttle, from one side to the other. It is now time for every man to choose one side or the other." Com- mercial interests must not be permitted to inter- fere. " We must not stop to measure costs — espe- cially the cost of going forward — on any basis so mean and narrow as that of pecuniary prosperity." An ultimate and enduring settlement must be kept ever in mind. " We must aim at a peace built on foundations so solid of God's immutable truth, that nothing can reach to unsettle it. Let this conflict between liberty and slavery never come up again." And the controversy must be entered into without wrath or bitterness. "Let not our feeling be savage or vengeful. We can go into this conflict with a spirit just as truly Christian as any that ever inspired us in the performance of a Christian duty. . . . Let the spirit of fury be far from us ; but the spirit of earnestness, of willingness to do, to suffer, and to die, if need be, for our land and our THE CIVIL WAR 237 principles, — that may be a religious spirit. We may consecrate it with prayer." In this sermon occurred an incident which illus- trates both the quickness of the orator to seize the advantage of the unexpected, and the wisdom of the Christian to direct the sudden excitement of an audience to a noble issue. I can best give this incident by quoting it from the sermon itself : — Since I came into this desk I have received a dis- patch from one of our most illustrious citizens, saying that Sumter is reinforced, and Moultrie is the fort that has been destroyed. [Tremendous and prolonged ap- plause, expressed by enthusiastic cheers, clapping of hands, and waving of handkerchiefs.'] But what if the rising of the sun to-morrow should reverse the message ? What if the tidings that greet you in the morning should be but the echo of the old tidings of disaster? You live in hours in which you are to suffer suspense. Now lifted up, you will be prematurely cheering, and now cast down, you will be prematurely desponding. Look forward, then, past the individual steps, the various vicis- situdes of experience, to the glorious end that is coming ! Look beyond the present to that assured victory which awaits us in the future. The incident is characteristic of Mr. Beecher. He often raised his audiences to the highest pitch of excitement, but never for the mere pleasure of exciting them. He always endeavored to utilize the excitement which he had created by giving to it a practical turn, and making it minister to a higher life in future conduct. 238 HENRY WARD BEECHER From the hour in which war began, Plymouth Church became a centre in the war excitement, as it had been an educational centre in the anti-slavery campaign which had preceded. It was continuously used as a means, not only for strengthening cour- age and stimulating patriotic enthusiasm, but also practically for raising and equipping soldiers. The American flag floated from the roof of the building. At times daily meetings were held for the purpose of making up articles necessary for volunteers. A news express was organized, called the " Plymouth Mail," to forward papers to the enlisted repre- sentatives in Plymouth Church. At one service three thousand dollars were raised to aid in equip- ping one of the regiments. At another a fine out- fit of Colt's revolvers were presented by the young men of Plymouth Church to a company. Mr. Beecher equipped one regiment at his own expense. One of his sons volunteered with the father's hearti- est approval. Sermons were frequent to companies of soldiers coming to Plymouth Church for the pur- pose of receiving instruction and inspiration. One of these sermons entitled " The National Flag," de- livered to the Brooklyn Fourteenth in May, 1861, was little more than an eloquent incitement to cour- age and patriotism ; another, on " The Camp, Its Dangers and Duties," pointed out the moral dan- gers incident to camp life, and contained counsel to soldiers how to avoid them, and to friends at home how to strengthen the young men no longer safe- guarded by the influences of the home. THE CIVIL WAR 239 From the first Mr. Beecher believed that the war would end in the emancipation of the slave. " That we see," he said, " the beginning of na- tional emancipation we firmly believe. And we would have you firmly believe it, lest, fearing the loss of such an opportunity, you should over-eagerly grasp at accidental advantages, and seek to press forward the consummation by methods and mea- sures which, freeing you from one evil, shall open the door for innumerable others and fill our future with conflicts and immedicable trouble." But he was not in haste to anticipate the course of events ; he did not demand an emancipation proclamation immediately. " How far our government, by a just use of its legitimate powers under the Constitution, can avail itself of this war to limit or even to bring slavery to an end, is matter for the wisest deliber- ation of the wisest men." Even emancipation could not, in his opinion, justify a course which would so centralize the national government as to destroy the state governments. The nation must still maintain " unimpaired in all its beneficence the American doctrine of the sovereignty of local government, except in those elements which have been clearly and undeniably transferred to the federal government." But when the President issued, in September, 1862, the preliminary eman- cipation proclamation Mr. Beecher heartily in- dorsed it, while he commended the President for not anticipating in his action the public sentiment of the North. On December 28, four days before 240 HENRY WARD BEECHER the final emancipation proclamation, lie took the approaching event as text for a sermon on " Lib- erty under Laws," which he defined to be "the liberty [of every man] to use himself, in all his powers, according to the laws which God has im- posed on those powers ; " this he declared was the divine prerogative of every man under the sun. During all this time Mr. Beecher's work in the pulpit and on the platform was supplemented, as it had been in the previous years, by his work with the pen. In December, 1861, he became editor-in- chief of " The Independent," and for the brief time during which he held that position, its edito- rials were largely devoted to the one issue before the nation ; not so much to the discussion of ques- tions — for the time for discussion had passed — as to the inflaming of zeal, the stimulating of patri- otism, the encouraging of devotion, the strengthen- ing of resolution. When James M. Mason and John Slidell, repre- sentatives from the Confederate States to the gov- ernments of France and England, were taken from an English mail steamer by Captain Wilkes, of the United States Navy, and the whole country was in a blaze of excitement, and war with England was imminent, Mr. Beecher assumed no wisdom on the question of international law involved and urged no special policy on the administration ; he contented himself with declaring, " If we have, to the width of a hair, passed beyond the line of our own proper duty and right, we shall, upon suitable showing, THE CIVIL WAR 241 need no menace to make suitable reparation. . . . But if we have done right, all the threatenings in the world will not move this people from their steadfastness." When the question of finance pressed upon the government, he did not discuss the proper method of raising revenue, but he urged the fearless imposition of taxes sufficient for the necessities of the country : " Every honest man in America ought to send to Washington one message in two words, Fight, Tax." When slaves began to come into our lines, he did not discuss the legal or military question raised as to their status, but he insisted that they were to be treated as men, not as slaves : " Let us forget that these blacks were ever Slaves, and remember only that they are Men. With this as our first principle we cannot go far wrong." When McClellan was halting and hesi- tating on the Potomac, Mr. Beecher did not, like some of his contemporaries, propose military meth- ods or suggest a form of military campaign ; but he demanded of the army " courage and enterprise " in an editorial bearing those two words as its title. " Since war is upon us, let us have courage to make war." Two months before President Lincoln's first emancipation proclamation he began to urge upon the nation emancipation as a necessity. Mr. Beecher was a great friend of Edwin M. Stanton. In these editorials of the summer of 1862 some- thing of Mr. Stanton's impatience with McClellan's military policy appears in criticism of Mr. Lin- coln's administration. We now know better than 242 HENRY WARD BEECHER Mr. Beecher then could know the difficulties which surrounded Mr. Lincoln, and the necessities which made him cautious not to move more rapidly than he could move with the united force of the loyal North supporting him. But the intensity of these editorials helped to arouse the very public senti- ment for which Mr. Lincoln was waiting, and which made Mr. Lincoln's action, when it came, practical and efficient. We should misinterpret Mr. Beecher if we should leave our readers with the impression that during these exciting months he was simply or even chiefly a reformer. His sermons on the one political sub- ject which agitated the nation were frequent, but they were the exception. As during the previous anti-slavery campaign, his chief message was a per- sonal gospel. On May 30, 1863, he sailed for Europe for what was intended to be a well-earned vacation — but came to be the occasion of the most important single service he ever rendered to his country. The Sunday evening before his depar- ture he took for reaffirmation of the fundamental purpose of his ministry. I think that all those who were familiar with that ministry during the sixteen critical years which he had spent in Brooklyn would bear testimony that in this familiar discourse he not inaptly described it. Among the earliest, the deepest, and the strongest purposes of my ministry was the determination that it should be a ministry of Christ. Nothing could be further from my heart than to make this pulpit the clustering THE CIVIL WAR 243 point of a number of reforms. I never would have con- sented to serve in a church that was merely what is called a reformatory church. I felt in my soul that all power in moral reforms must spring from a yet deeper power ; and for that I struck. And I remember how, in the very beginning, night and day without varying, through all the early months of my ministry here, I had but one feeling — to preach Christ for the awakening of men, for their conversion. My desire was that this should be a revival church — a church in which the Gospel should be preached primarily and mainly for the re-creation of man's moral nature, for the bringing of Christ as a living power upon the living souls of men. My profound conviction of the fruitlessness of man without God was such that it seemed to me gardening in the great Sahara to attempt to make moral reforma- tion in a church which was not profoundly impressed with the great spiritual truths of Christ Jesus. I have no doubt that there are many in this land who would think it an extravagant thing to hear it said that the keynote of my ministry among you had been the evan- gelization of the soul, or the awakening of men from their sinfulness and their conversion to the Lord Jesus Christ. It has been ; and if you had taken that out of my thought and feelings you would have taken away the very central principle of my ministry. By far the largest number of my sermons and the most of my preaching has been aimed at the conviction and the conversion of men. CHAPTER X THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND When the secession movement first assumed seri- ous proportions the sympathy of England was with the secessionists. There were many reasons for this. The political control of England was in the hands of the English aristocracy. Feudal Eng- land had always looked with both suspicion and aversion on her democratic daughter. The strong- est argument against feudalism was the unparal- leled growth of democratic America. Commercial England saw in the republic across the sea a rival who would soon contest with the mother country her claim to commercial supremacy, and she was not unwilling to see that rival dismembered, and her own commercial supremacy thus secured to her. For more than a quarter of a century England had seen the South aggressive and successful, the North timid and retreating. It was not strange that she believed the South brave, the North timid ; and England admires pluck and despises cowardice. During the four months between the election and the inauguration of President Lincoln she had seen the secessionists united, purposeful, aggressive ; she had seen the North divided, vacillating, frightened. Even Charles Sumner and Salmon P. Chase had THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 245 intimated willingness to allow the Southern States to go out with slavery if they so desired it ; even Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State in the new administration, had repudiated both the right and the desire to use armed force in subjugating the Southern States against the will of a majority of the people. No wonder that under these circum- stances the English people, in increasing numbers, shared in the conviction a little later expressed by Mr. Gladstone : " We may anticipate with certainty the success of the Southern States so far as regards their separation from the North. I cannot but be- lieve that that event is as certain as any event yet future and contingent can be." In politics pre- eminently is it true that " Nothing succeeds like success ; " and the anticipated success of the Con- federacy won for it many sympathizers in Great Britain who might otherwise have hesitated. In political circles in Great Britain Mr. Lincoln was unknown, and Mr. Seward, his Secretary of State, who was known, and who was erroneously supposed to be the controlling spirit in the new administra- tion, was viewed with great distrust. We now know that this distrust was well grounded, and that if Mr. Seward had been the controlling spirit in the new administration he would have provoked a war with Great Britain for the purpose of arousing the national sentiment in South and North and uniting both sections against a common foe. The Southern States were the great cotton producing states of the world ; England was the great cotton 246 HENRY WARD BEECHER manufacturing community of the world : the pro- sperity of England, almost the life of many of her people, was dependent upon the cotton supply fur- nished by the Southern States, and therefore depend- ent upon breaking the blockade and opening the Southern ports to commerce. As the result of the Civil War the cotton supply had shrunk by May 1, 1862, from 1,500,000 bales to 500,000 bales, of which less than 12,000 bales had been received from America ; over one half of the spindles of Lancashire were idle, and in two towns, Blackburn and Preston, alone, over 20,000 persons were de- pendent on parochial aid. On the pressure pro- duced by this cotton famine, and anticipated by the Confederate leaders, they had relied to compel England's intervention in their behalf. Agents of the Confederate States, official and unofficial, were busy in England, quietly working through press and public men to create public opinion favorable to their cause. America has never fully realized the debt it owes to the one brave, loyal, and lonely American, Charles Francis Adams, our American Minister to England during the period of the Civil War, whose courage was equaled by his sagacity, and to whose diplomacy we primarily owe the fact that English intervention in behalf of the Confed- erate States was prevented. If the question between North and South had been, in the early years of the war, clearly seen to be the question whether slavery should dominate the continent or be destroyed, the anti-slavery con- THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 247 science of Great Britain might have been relied upon to counteract, to a considerable extent, the forces in England working on behalf of the Con- federate cause ; but even to Americans the issue between the two sections was obscured, and it is not strange that Englishmen did not correctly ap- prehend it. Isolated men of prophetic nature, like James Martineau, saw that if slavery was confined within a limited territory it must perish through the action of economic causes, but the great English pub- lic saw nothing but the issue as it was defined by public speech ; and repeated, and even official decla- rations in America, in the early history of the war, distinctly denied that slavery was other than inci- dentally involved. Even as late as the summer of 1862, Mr. Lincoln had written to Mr. Greeley that ever memorable letter in which he declared that his paramount object in this struggle "is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slaves, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that." It is not strange that the Eng- lish public generally did not discriminate between the object of public action and the effect of public action ; did not see that, while the object of the government must be simply the reestablishment of the federal authority throughout the nation, the effect of that reestablishment must inevitably be the eventual overthrow of slavery. When at last, in 248 HENRY WARD BEECHER January, 1863, the President's proclamation of emancipation was issued, it did something, but not much, to clear the atmosphere. It was regarded by the English journals generally, not as history has regarded it, the greatest blow ever struck for human freedom by a single hand, but, to quote one Eng- lish critic, " the most unparalleled last card ever played by a reckless gambler." The English people were invited to recognize it as either a futile bid for negro support, or, if effective, as a summons to an insurrection which would be accompanied by " a carnage so bloody that even the horrors of the Jacquerie and the massacres of Cawnpore would wax pale in comparison." America was not without friends in England, chiefly to be found among the laboring-class, who were without a vote, and for the most part without a voice, yet curiously not wholly without political influence. As in many another crisis in history, their instincts were wiser than the sagacity of the statesmen and the leader-writers; they felt what they could not have defined — that the cause of free labor the world over was being fought out on Ameri- can soil. They could not answer the arguments adduced on platform and in press on behalf of the Confederate States, but their sympathies were with the preservation of the republic, their hopes were for the overthrow of slavery. The emancipation proclamation gave a reasonable and historic basis for those hopes. And in January, 1863, a public meeting was held in Exeter Hall against interven- THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 249 tion in behalf of the Confederate States, the first considerable expression of the before silent con- science of the common people of the land. Such, briefly described, was the public sentiment in England, when, after " two or three months " of rest upon the Continent, Mr. Beecher reached Lon- don in the early fall of 1863. Dr. John Kaymond, Mr. Beecher's friend and companion in his European travels, had returned to America when Mr. Beecher left the Continent of Europe, and Mr. Beecher remained alone in Eng- land. 1 At first he refused the requests urged upon him to speak. There were special reasons why he should refuse. He was there simply as a private citizen, without any connection with the govern- ment or any authority to speak in its behalf. The rumor, afterward circulated, that he had been informally and unofficially deputed by the adminis- tration to go to England, and endeavor to create a sentiment favorable to the North, he explicitly denied. He went wholly on his own responsibility, with no supporter except his own church. Roving 1 The best history of this English episode in Mr. Beecher's life, including Oliver Wendell Holmes's description of it in The Atlantic Monthly, Mr. Beecher's autobiographical account, and stenographic reports of the principal addresses, will be found in Patriotic Addresses, edited by John R. Howard. The account of his experiences as here given is largely based on Mr. Beecher's own account, given to a group of about twenty friends in his par- lors, sometime in the seventies. This account was taken down in shorthand, and with some slight revision is printed in full in Henry Ward Beecher : A Sketch of his Career, by Lyman Abbott and S. B. Halliday. 250 HENRY WARD BEECHER diplomats, sent to England from time to time by- Mr. Seward, acted independently of Mr. Charles Francis Adams, the American Minister, and thus discredited Mr. Adams, and enhanced the difficul- ties of a delicate position. Unappointed volunteers were also complicating affairs by private intermed- dling, and by their letter-writing to the London "Times," were not conducing to the friendly relations between Great Britain and the United States. Mr. Beecher did not wish to be identified in the public mind with either of these classes of mischief-makers. Bitter feeling against America was sedulously cultivated by some eminent jour- nals and by not a few reputable men. To speak for America was sure to invite every species of insult and indignity from Confederate sympathizers, and was not sure to receive encouragement or support from the few sympathizers with the North. It was not even certain that the speaker's efforts would not be condemned by the administration as possibly well- meaning but practically injurious efforts. Mr. Beecher was unfamiliar with the conditions of the public mind, and by no means confident of his abil- ity to meet them. He was conscious that, added to the prejudice against him as a representative Amer- ican, there was personal prejudice, theological and other, which had been diligently excited against him as an individual. The strength of these com- bined prejudices is illustrated by the defensatory and almost apologetic character of the introduc- tions with which, when he came to speak, he was THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 251 on more than one occasion presented to his audi- ences. But Mr. Beecher's friends urged him to recon- sider his declination. They presented two grounds, one private, one public, why he should accede to their request. They pleaded with him that they had defended the North, and suffered on its behalf, and they affirmed that if he went home refusing his help, his enemies and theirs would declare that the North itself despised them. They assured him that the commercial and aristocratic circles of Great Britain were eager to have Great Britain intervene • that it was of the utmost importance, in order to prevent the danger of intervention, to arouse and instruct the anti-slavery sentiment of England upon the issues of the war; that a movement was on foot to win to the Confederate cause the sympathies of the non-voting English laborers by a series of public meetings ; and that in their judgment Mr. Beecher could do more than any other man to fore- stall and counteract this movement. The recent victories at Vicksburg and at Gettysburg had done something to stem the current of popular feeling in favor of the Confederate cause, and so to make this time opportune for securing a hearing for a representative of the North. The argument pre- vailed ; Mr. Beecher's refusal was changed to con- sent, and arrangements were made for success- ive speeches at Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London. 1 1 The success which attended these meetings led subsequently 252 HENRY WARD BEECHER There seems to be a kind of unacknowledged public sentiment in England, which an American finds it difficult to comprehend, that it is perfectly fair play to prevent a speaker from being heard if his opponents can do so by vociferous interruption, or to capture a meeting organized for one purpose and turn it to a diametrically opposite purpose if there is force enough in the opposition to accom- plish the result. So long as physical violence is not resorted to, this sort of tactics seems to be treated in England as a legitimate part of the game. It was quite in accordance with English traditions, therefore, that no sooner were the ar- rangements for giving Mr. Beecher a hearing made and announced than counter arrangements were made to prevent Mr. Beecher from being heard. Blood-red placards were posted in the streets of the cities where he was to speak. They summoned the mob to prevent his speaking. The audacity of the lies contained in these placards almost surpasses belief. They charged him with demanding that " the best blood of England must flow for the outrage England had perpetrated in America ; " with recommending that London be sacked ; with calling for the extermination of the people of the South and repeopling it from the North ; and they called on Englishmen to see that he gets "the welcome he deserves." The only effect of these posters was to arouse in him the to three farewell breakfasts at, respectively, London, Manches- ter, and Liverpool. [1st poster, in red and black ; eize, 22x34 inches ] Specimens of Posters displayed, in Cities in England where Mr. Beecher spoke in 1S63. REV. H. W. RGFXHER'S MISSION TO LIVERPOOL. THE TRENT AFFAIR. [Rev. H. W. Beecher in the New York Independent."] " Should the President quietly yield to the present necessity (viz. : the de- livering up of Messrs. Mason and Slidell) as the lesser of two evils and bide our time with England, there will be a SENSE of WRONG, of NATIONAL HUMILIATION SO PROFOUND, AND A HORROR OF THE UNFEELING SELFISHNESS OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT in the great emergency of our affairs, such as will inevitably break out by and by in flames, and which will only be extinguished by a deluge of blood ! We are not living the whole of our life to-day. There is a future to the United States in which the nation will right any injustice of the present hour." The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at a meeting held in New York, at the time when the Confederate Envoys, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, had been surrendered by President Lincoln to the British Government, from whose vessel (the Royal Hail Steamer Trent) they were taken, said " That the Best Blood of England must flow for the outrage England had per- petrated on America." This opinion of a Christian (?) minister, wishing to obtain a welcome in Liverpool, whose operatives are suffering almost unprecedented hardships, caused by the suicidal war raging in the States of North America, and urged on by the fanatical Statesmen and Preachers of the North, is worthy of con- sideration. REV. H. W. BEECHER'S IDEA OF SLAVERY. In Plymouth Church, in Brooklyn, N.Y., January 25, 1860, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher announced his creed on Slavery in six Points : 1. That ft man may hold a slave and do no wrong. 2. That immediate Emancipation is impossible. 8. That a Slave-holder mav be a good Christian. 4. That the influence of Slavery is not always evil. 5. That some actual Slave-holders are doing more for the cause of Freedom than AOme violent Reformers. That Auti-eUvery Bigotry Is worse than the Papacy. [2d poster ; lize, 20x29 inches.] THE WAE 0HBIST IAKS1 THEIR DOCTRINES. At a Jubilee Demonstration in New York, in January last, REV. JOHN J. RAYMOND, The appointed Chaplain of the meeting, in his opening prayer, said: "We thank thee, God, that thou hast seen fit to raise up one, ABRAHAM, sur- named Lincoln. . . . He is a man whom GOD SHOULD bless, and the people delight to honor." UNITED STATES SENATOR LANE, In his Address to the Great Union Meeting at Washington, said : " I would like to live long enough to see every white man now -in South Carolina in Hell." REV. H. WARD BEECHER, In his Address in Glasgow, last Monday, said : "They (alluding to the NORTH rose like ONE MA.N, and with a voice that reverberated throughout the whole world, cried — LET IT (alluding to the South), with all its attendant horrors, GO TO HELL." From the Manchester Guardian's Correspondence : Is this the same Reverend Mr. Beecher who, at a meeting in America, during the discussion of the ' ' Trent Affair," said : " That the best blood of Eng- land must flow as atonement for the outrage England committed on America"? [3d poster ; size, 25x38 inches.] WHO IS HY. WARD BEECHER? He is the man who said the best blood of England must be shed to atone for the Trent affair. He is the man who advocates a War of Extermination with the South, — says it is incapable of " re generation," but proposes to re-people it from the North by " generation." — See " Times." He is the friend of that inhuman monster, General BUTLER. He is the friend of that so-called Gospel Preacher, CHEEVER, who said in one of his sermons — "Fight against the South till Hell Freezes, and then continue the battle on the ice." He is the friend and supporter of a most debased Female, who uttered at a public meeting in America the most indecent and cruel language that ever polluted female lips.— See " Times." MEN OP MANCHESTER, ENGLISHMEN! What reception can yon give this wretch, save unmitigated disgust and con- tempt ? His impudence in coming here is only equalled by his cruelty and im- piety. Should he. however, venture to appear, it behooves all right-minded men to render as futile as the first this second attempt to get up a public demonstra- tion in favor of the North, which is now waging War against the South with a vindictive and revengeful cruelty unparalleled in the history of any Christian land. Cave & SenD Printers by Steam Power, 1 alatlne Building, Manchester. THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 253 resolve, " I won't leave England until I have been heard." But as the time came near for his first address, he began to doubt whether his first resolve had not been wise. That strange foreboding which sometimes comes upon an orator, that sense of in- tellectual helplessness, that premonition of utter failure, which is often really the precursor of great success, settled upon him. Mr. Hamilton W. Mabie, to whom he at one time narrated his experiences, has kindly written out his recollection of the nar- rative for me as follows : — I remember very distinctly my talk with Mr. Beecher, although some things may have become a little blurred in the flight of time. He told me that nothing could de- scribe the weight of antagonistic English opinion which rested on his spirit the moment he arrived in England ; he felt as if he were surrounded by an almost impene- trable wall of prejudice and antagonism ; he seemed to have the animosity of the entire country on his should- ers. On the day on which he was to make his first speech, he was in an agony of depression all the morn- ing, feeling quite unable to bear up under the awful burden of the concentrated animosity of a nation : he felt something as he imagined Christ might have felt on the road to Calvary ; he had never been so depressed before, and was never again under such a burden. He spent most of the morning on his knees, without any help; but finally arrived at a point where his prayer took the form of an offer to surrender everything and even to fail if that was God's will. Gradually, the depression wore off, and was succeeded by a great sense of repose. When he finally drove to the hall his peace was like that of a mountain lake, which nothing could 254 HENRY WARD BEECHER have disturbed. When he entered the hall he found it packed with an audience collected for the express pur- pose of silencing him. Every time he opened his mouth his voice was drowned by the clamor of the hostile crowd. This went on so long that he began to fear that he should not get a chance to say anything. In the mean time he had studied his audience carefully, and it had photographed itself on his mind. The green baize doors reaching from the circle of chairs on the side, which ran around the outside of what we should call the orchestra, were fastened together. Seats had been brought in and placed around the side walls, and in some cases against these doors. In one of these seats a large, burly, red-haired, red-whiskered man was sitting, who was particularly vociferous, shouting, clapping his hands, pounding his feet, and throwing himself back in his. chair. After about twenty minutes of attempted talk, in one of these paroxysms of racket, Mr. Beecher happened to be looking at this man, when he threw him- self back with great violence, broke the fastenings of the door, and went head over heels in his chair down the stairs on the outside. The whole thing was so in- stantaneous and so funny that Mr. Beecher burst into a roar of laughter. The audience were astonished ; turned around, following his glance, took in what had hap- pened, and began to laugh themselves. That moment of relaxation he caught, made a witty remark which made them laugh still more, then told them a story which caught their attention, and from that moment held them without a break, as long as he chose to speak. This last sentence must be taken relatively. It is evident from the published reports that to the end Mr. Beecher had to contend against constant interruption. His own account, as I heard it, con- THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 255 firms the accuracy of these reports. In that ac- count he said : — As soon as I began to speak the great audience began to show its teeth, and I had not gone on fifteen minutes before an unparalleled scene of confusion and interrup- tion occurred. No American that has not seen an Eng- lish mob can form any conception of one. I have seen all sorts of camp-meetings and experienced all kinds of public speaking on the stump ; I have seen the most disturbed meetings in New York City, and they were all of them as twilight to midnight compared with an English hostile audience. For in England the meeting does not belong to the parties that call it, but to whoever chooses to go, and if they can take it out of your hands it is considered fair play. This meeting had a very large multitude of men in it who came there for the purpose of destroying the meeting and carrying it the other way when it came to the vote. I took the mea- sure of the audience, and said to myself, " About one fourth of this audience are opposed to me, and about one fourth will be rather in sympathy, and my business now is not to appeal to that portion that is opposed to me, nor to those that are already on my side, but to bring over the middle section." How to do this was a problem. The question was, who could hold out longest. There were five or six storm centres, boiling and whirling at the same time ; here some one pounding on a group with his umbrella and shouting, " Sit down there ; " over yonder a row between two or three combatants ; some- where else a group all yelling together at the top of their voices. It was like talking to a storm at sea. But there were the newspaper reporters just in front, and I said to them, " Now, gentlemen, be kind enough to take down what I say. It will be in sections, but I will have it connected by-and-by." I threw my notes away, and 256 HENRY WARD BEECHER entered on a discussion of the value of freedom as op- posed to slavery in the manufacturing interest, arguing that freedom everywhere increases a man's necessities, and what he needs he buys, and that it was, therefore, to the interest of the manufacturing community to stand by the side of labor through the country. I never was more self-possessed and never in more perfect good tem- per ; and I never was more determined that my hearers should feel the curb before I got through with them. In Liverpool the conditions were even worse than in Manchester. " Liverpool," says Mr. Beecher, " was worse than all the rest put to- gether. My life was threatened, and I had com- munications to the effect that I had better not venture there. The streets were placarded with the most scurrilous and abusive cards." Here there was threatening of actual violence ; but some of Mr. Beecher's friends got warning of the dan- ger, went armed to the meeting, and prevented violence by being prepared for it. For an hour and a half Mr. Beecher fought the mob before he got control, and then spoke an hour and a half afterwards; even then amid continual interrup- tion. " I sometimes felt," he says, " like a ship- master attempting to preach on board of a ship through a speaking-trumpet, with a tornado on the sea and a mutiny among the men." As one' turns to these speeches, and endeavors in imagination to reproduce the stormy scenes which accompanied them, he is impressed with the quick- ness of the speaker in turning every adverse inci- dent to his own advantage, the emotional eloquence THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 257 of certain evidently extemporaneous passages, the knowledge of history and of constitutional princi- ples which underlies them, the philosophical unity which makes of them all, to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, " a single speech . . . delivered piece- meal in different places," and the peculiar adapta- tion of each address to the special audience to which it was delivered. One or two examples may serve to illustrate the first characteristic : — Great Britain has thrown her arms of love around the Southerners, and turns from the Northerners. ("No.") She don't? I have only to say that she has been caught in very suspicious circumstances. (Laughter.) If the South should be rendered independent — (At this juncture mingled cheering and hissing became im- mense ; half the audience rose to their feet, waving hats and handkerchiefs, and in every part of the hall there was the greatest commotion and uproar.) You have had your turn now ; let me have mine again. (Loud applause and laughter.) If this present struggle shall eventuate in the separation of America, and making the South — [loud applause, hisses, hooting, and cries of " Bravo ! "] — a slave territory exclusively — [Cries of "No! No!" and laughter]. (Interruption and uproar.) My friends, I saw a man once who was a little late at a railway station chase an express train. He didn't catch it. (Laughter.) If you are going to stop this meeting you have got to stop it before I speak ; for after I have got the things out you may chase as long as you please, you will not catch them. (Laughter and interruption.) 258 HENRY WARD BEECHER It is said that when Russia is now engaged in sup- pressing the liberty of Poland it is an indecent thing for America to flirt with her. I think so too. (Loud cheers.) Now you know what we felt when you were flirting with Mr. Mason at your Lord Mayor's banquet. I am tempted to draw my pencil through these sentences, conscious how utterly inadequate their reproduction here is to suggest the alertness of the speaker in the circumstances under which they were first produced, — the quickness of resource, the facility of expression, the imperturbable good humor, the control of himself, and therefore the control of his hostile audience. It would be quite useless to take out of their connection the passages of supreme eloquence, which are scattered through these addresses, with their passionate patriotism, their love of liberty, their courageous faith in the power of divine principles, their perception of the essential unity of the Anglo-Saxon race, their com- prehensive and catholic inclusion of all struggling humanity everywhere, whose battle the North was engaged in fighting. These more brilliant qualities in his English speeches have concealed from the public their more sterling and permanent value. I am surprised, in- timate as my acquaintance with Mr. Beecher was, at the accuracy of historical information, the sta- tistical knowledge, the detailed acquaintance with economic and industrial aspects of the slavery ques- tion, which could not have been crammed up in special preparation for these addresses, separated THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 259 as he was from his library, and from all access to American sources of information. His clear appre- hension of the constitutional issues involved does not surprise me, for I knew him as a careful con- stitutional student. But his ability to make our complicated federal constitution clear to an Eng- lish audience would have been remarkable, even if he had been giving an academic lecture to a quiet and note-taking class of Oxford students, instead of a public address to popular and hostile audi- ences, and subject to perpetual interruption. Could these five speeches be denuded of all their dra- matic incidents, — the quick repartee, the spark- ling humor, the fervid eloquence, — and recon- structed as one review article, discussing the issues of the hour in their bearing on English people and English politics, the article would be a notable contribution for the clearness of its insight, the breadth of its view, and the unanswerable logic of its argument. In Manchester, where the spirit of individualism had its birth, where the freedom of labor was recog- nized, and where the interests of the laboring-man were predominant, Mr. Beecher traced the history of the anti-slavery conflict, showed that it was a conflict between free and slave labor, that the Civil War had grown out of it, and that the result of Northern victory would eventually be " the eman- cipation of every living being on the continent of America.' ' At Glasgow, the great labor city of the border line between England and Scotland, 260 HENRY WARD BEECHER emphasizing the same truth, he showed that slavery- brings labor into contempt, that freedom honors it ; that free labor promotes virtue and intelligence, and that virtue and intelligence compel leniency of government; that slave labor promotes igno- rance and vice, and ignorance and vice compel tyranny in government ; that thus " the American question is the workingman's question all over the world. The slave master's doctrine is that capital should own labor — that the employer should own the employed. This is Southern doctrine and South- ern practice. Northern doctrine and Northern prac- tice is that the laborer should be free, intelligent, clothed with full citizen's rights, with a share of the political duties and honors." In Edinburgh he traced the rise and development of the American Union, explained the nature of its Constitution, traced the progress of the anti-slavery conflict, and showed how the Civil War was the inevitable out- come of that conflict, and how the victory of the North inevitably involved the victory of represent- ative government and universal liberty. In Liver- pool, whose commercial interests were supposed to be favorable to the recognition of the Southern Confederacy and the breaking of the blockade, he showed that slavery is hostile to commerce and to manufactures ; that Great Britain wanted chiefly, not cotton, but consumers ; that a slave nation must be a poor customer, buying the fewest and the poor- est goods ; that a free nation must be a good cus- tomer, buying the largest and the best goods ; an THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 261 economic argument which he supported by vital statistics, convincing and unanswerable. At Exe- ter Hall, in London, he briefly rehearsed his pre- vious speeches, showed their relation to each other as parts of a consecutive series, and then proceeded to give his audience the American point of view of the issues involved. It was in this speech that he explained so clearly the nature of the American Constitution, which is to the Englishman ordinarily so insoluble a problem. In this speech, too, occurs as eloquent and genuine an expression of the love of liberty, imperishable in the Anglo-Saxou heart, as can be found in Anglo-Saxon literature. Standing by my cradle, standing by my hearth, stand- ing by the altar of the church, standing by all the places that mark the name and memory of heroic men who poured their blood and lives for principle, I declare that in ten or twenty years of war we will sacrifice everything we have for principle. If the love of popular liberty is dead in Great Britain, you will not understand us ; but if the love of liberty lives as it once lived, and has worthy successors of those renowned men that were our ancestors as much as yours, and whose examples and principles we inherit to make fruitful as so much seed- corn in a new and fertile land, then you will understand our firm, invincible determination — deep as the sea, firm as the mountains, but calm as the heavens above us — to fight this war through at all hazards and at every cost. If by oratory we mean power to produce a real and enduring effect on a great audience, and if the greatest test of oratory is conquering a hostile audi- 262 HENRY WARD BEECHER ence and producing a permanent effect upon the hearers in spite of their hostility, then Mr. Beecher's five orations in England take deserved place among the great forensic triumphs of the world, — by the side of the orations of Demosthenes against the Crown, and Cicero's orations against Catiline. The orators of the American Revolution spoke to sym- pathizing audiences, those of the anti-slavery ora- tors in the American anti-slavery campaign pro- duced far less immediate effect, the orations of the great orators in the British House of Commons — Chatham, Fox, and Burke — rarely changed the vote of the House, and the victories which Lord Erskine won over juries, in spite of the threats of the judges and the influence of the government, were not won under circumstances so hostile, nor were they so far-reaching in their effects. What effect Mr. Beecher's speeches had on English pub- lic sentiment, and on English and American his- tory, it is not possible accurately to estimate. But this much at least I believe it is safe to say : by them he enlisted democratic England against feudal England, the England of the Puritan against the England of the Cavalier, the England of the plain people against the England of the aristocracy ; by them he did much to counteract the deliberate and persistent efforts to misrepresent the American problem and the American public ; did even more to clear away unintentional and natural misunder- standing ; made English intervention in the Amer- ican conflict impossible ; aided to make possible the THE CAMPAIGN IN ENGLAND 263 subsequent arbitration of the international, difficul- ties between England and America, growing out of the Alabama claims ; and foresaw, foretold, and prepared for that impalpable and unofficial alliance between England and America which promises in the future to give justice, order, and stability to the whole world. CHAPTER XI RECONSTRUCTION In November, 1863, Mr. Beecher returned from England, to find himself suddenly popular, in un- expected quarters in his own land. He had fought in Great Britain crowds hostile to America, he had conquered for his native land at least a hearing, and the pride and patriotism of Americans of all classes were gratified and ready to express gratifi- cation. In his own city of Brooklyn he was given what was tantamount to an ovation lasting several days. Three successive meetings of ■ welcome were given to him : two by his church on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings; another by the citizens of Brooklyn on Thursday evening in the Academy of Music ; on Friday evening an immense war meet- ing, at the same place, gave him spontaneously another ovation ; four days later, still another was given to him at a public meeting in the city of New York. From this time he was brought into more direct personal relations with the administration. And to his English service has been not unnaturally attributed the fact that, when Charleston was sur- rendered, Mr. Beecher was selected by the Presi- dent to deliver the address on the occasion of the raising of the flag over the recaptured Fort Sumter. RECONSTRUCTION 265 It was characteristic of Mr. Beecher to turn his own thoughts, and those of the audiences he was privileged to address, from past victories to present and future problems. The question of the recon- struction of the South was already coming to the front. President Lincoln's amnesty proclamation, issued in December, 1863, provided a basis on which government might be organized in any of the Southern States. This proclamation provided that in any states in which there were voters who availed themselves of this proclamation, equal in numbers to ten per cent, of the voters of 1860, they might proceed to organize a state govern- ment, and that any provision which might be adopted by such state government in relation to the freed people of such state, which should recog- nize and declare their permanent freedom, provide for their education, and yet be consistent as a tem- porary arrangement with their present condition as a laboring, landless, and homeless class, would not be objected to by the national executive. On January 4, 1864, a free-state convention was held at New Orleans under this proclamation, and the first steps were taken for the organization of a re- constructed state government in accordance with its terms. The President's proclamation, and the prompt response of the state of Louisiana, acting under that proclamation, brought the question of reconstruction to the front, although the war was not yet ended. Mr. Beecher, in public addresses, at once fore- 266 HENRY WARD BEECHER shadowed the general principles which he expected to maintain, and which in fact he did maintain during all the reconstruction period. On the 10th of February, 1864, he introduced an ex-Confeder- ate brigadier-general in Plymouth Church, who spoke in favor of the complete abolition of slavery. In introducing him Mr. Beecher said : "I wish to say to the people of the South and Southwest, through the speaker, that there never was a com- munity so large which had so little animosity toward the South — and if slavery were taken away there would be nothing between us but the heart-beat." A year later he declared himself in favor of grant- ing suffrage to the negroes ; two months thereafter he took the occasion furnished by the news of the capture of Richmond, telegraphed to him from Secretary Stanton, to rebuke the spirit of revenge and the spirit of exultation over a fallen foe, which was common throughout the North, and to advocate the reestablishment of fraternal feeling between the two sections which had been at war. Three days later, at a public meeting for the expression of gratulation over recent victories, he repeated these remarks of peace and good will. And to his own church, on the occasion of his departure to deliver his memorable address at Fort Sumter, he said, " I go down to say to them (the people of the South) the day dawns and the darkness of the night is past, and as brethren to brethren I come to say to you, good tidings of great joy. The day on which the old flag is to be raised is Good Reconstruction 267 Friday ; and as Christ was raised to bring life and liberty into the world, so will the flag carry renewed life and liberty to the South. And as Plymouth Church has been known as an anti-slavery church, let your word be hereafter national fraternity and national benevolence, as I know it will be." The church officially indorsed these principles by a minute passed, I believe, without a dissenting vote. In this minute, the church, aiming to reflect the better sentiment of the North, disavowed in explicit terms all feeling of revenge, and all desire for special privilege, and urged the Christian men of the South " to hasten on the reconciliation which we and all Christians at the North desire, and to take the lead in restoring peace to a country which can never be divided." In all the mutations of public feeling and all the strife of parties which followed, and which made the reconstruction period one of such great perplexity, because of such tangled policies and vacillating purposes, Mr. Beecher maintained the spirit of confidence in the South and of good will toward it, expressed by him in this address and by his church in its official response. He believed and taught that a sound reconstruction policy involved a very few fundamental principles, and he empha- sized now one, now the other, as necessity seemed to require, but he never departed from them or modified them in any particular. It will therefore be more convenient, in interpreting his attitude, not to follow a strictly chronological order. For 268 HENRY WARD BEECHER his principles remained the same under Andrew Johnson as under Abraham Lincoln, in 1868 as in 1863. The problem of reconstruction, as it presented itself at the close of the Civil War to the people of the North, was a very difficult and perplexing one. It is not strange that the best minds differed respecting the method of its solution. The great majority of the best citizens in the South believed as firmly as ever in the right of secession, and in the political and industrial subordination of the African race. The loyalty of the masses, and of most of the leaders, consisted in submission to necessity. Emancipation was endured because it could not be avoided. Although the f reedman was no longer considered the chattel of the individual master, plans were rife to make him a serf attached to the soil, or, if this were impracticable, to keep him in industrial and political subjection in the state. There was believed to be, not without apparent reason, a real danger that if the South were left free to frame its own institutions, it would build up a new form of feudalism, scarcely less oppugnant to the democratic idea than the old form of f eudalism had been. General Grant, whose generous sentiments toward the South are now universally recognized, declared, as the result of a tour of inspection in some of the Southern States during the months of November and December, 1865, that it was not then safe to withdraw the military from the South; that the whites and RECONSTRUCTION 269 blacks each required the protection of the general government. This was not wholly due to perils from a turbulent white population. "The late slave," he said, " seems to be imbued with the idea that the property of his late master should by right belong to him, or at least should have no protec- tion from the colored soldier." He added that in some instances " the freedman's mind does not seem to be disabused of the idea that a freedman has the right to live without care or provision for the future." A great variety of plans for treating the states lately in revolt were proposed. Some would regard the whole Confederate territory as a conquered province, and govern it under military law, read- mitting states and territories from time to time, as the conditions seemed favorable. Some would readmit the states as they were, excluding from the suffrage all those persons who had taken an active part in the war of rebellion, thus leaving the suffrage in the hands of the loyal whites, who in all the states would have constituted a limited, and in some of them a not very intelligent, minority. Some would establish universal suffrage, except for the exclusion of a small number of secession leaders, but including the whole body of the negroes, re- gardless of their intellectual or moral qualifica- tions. Some, maintaining the somewhat doctrinaire ground that the state had not been in revolt, but that a mob had been in possession of the state, proposed to consider the mob dissolved, and the 270 HENRY WARD BEECHER state as of right entitled to its old place in the Union and its old representation in Congress. There were serious objections to each one of these plans. To the military plan — because it would create a centralized power in Washington which might easily become despotic in the South, and perilous to the whole nation. To the organization of the states by giving all the political power to the loyal whites — because it would create in all the Southern States government by minority, and in some of them by a minority very narrow and not very intelligent. To the plan of universal suf- frage — because it would place the prosperity of the South in the hands of an ignorant democracy, and would be liable to create a war between the races. To the restoration of the Southern States as they were before the war — because it would reestablish the slave-holding oligarchy, unchanged in spirit, though placed under new conditions. The difficulty of the situation was enhanced by the strife of parties. Many of the Republican leaders desired universal suffrage, because they counted on the negro vote to secure for the Repub- lican party supremacy in the Southern States ; many of the Democratic leaders desired the re- establishment of the Southern States on the old basis, because it would restore the Democratic party to its old supremacy in national affairs. The ineradicable distrust of the Southern leaders by the North, and the passionate hate engendered by the war, were enormously increased by the assassina- RECONSTRUCTION 271 tion of Abraham Lincoln. Finally, the fact that President Johnson, who succeeded Mr. Lincoln, and was himself a Southerner, took, as time went on, more and more of the Southern and Democratic side of the question, developed a bitter hostility between himself and the Republican majority in Congress and throughout the North. All these conditions combined to keep alive sectional feeling, to create a solid North on one side, and a solid South on the other, and to make impossible that harmony of feeling which is essential to harmony of political action. It is easy now to criticise the reconstruction measures which the radical majority in Congress finally adopted and the radical majority in the North ratified, but it is not so easy to point out any better policy which could have been taken. The truth is, after three centuries of slavery, fol- lowed by four years of terrible civil war, no policy of reconstruction was possible which would not be accompanied with many and great political, social, and industrial evils. The nation has not yet paid the full penalty of its violation of its fundamental principles of justice and liberty. Mr. Beecher's views on reconstruction are mainly to be found in three documents : his address at the raising of the Union flag over Fort Sumter, April 14, 1865 ; his sermon on the " Conditions of a Restored Union,' , preached in Plymouth Church, October 29, 1865, during the early stages of the debates over the reconstruction of the Southern States ; and his two letters, written respectively 272 HENRY WARD BEECHER August 30 and September 8, 1866, known as the Cleveland letters. 1 In the address at Fort Sumter, his formulation of the conditions of reconstruction is very simple. These conditions, as he states them, are three in number : — First. That these United States shall be one and indivisible. Second. That states are not absolute sovereigns, and have no right to dismember the republic. Third. That universal liberty is indispensable to republican government, and that slavery shall be utterly and forever abolished. These conditions, which now seem axiomatic, did not seem so then, not even to all the people of the North, still less to the people of the South. To the emphatic elucidation of these conditions he de- votes the first part of this address. To an interpre- tation of the benefits conferred alike upon North and South by the war he devotes the second part of it. A few sentences must suffice to indicate its general spirit. We exult, not for passion gratified, but for a senti- ment victorious ; not for a temper, but for a conscience ; not as we devoutly believe, that our will has been done, but that God's will hath been done. Let no man misread the meaning of this unfolding flag ! It says, " Government hath returned hither." — It proclaims, in the name of vindicated government, peace and protection to loyalty ; humiliation and pain 1 All three documents will he found in Patriotic Addresses. RECONSTRUCTION 273 to traitors. This is the flag of sovereignty. The Na- tion, not the States, is sovereign. Restored to author- ity this flag commands, not supplicates. One Nation under one government, without slavery, has been ordained and shall stand. There can be peace on no other basis. On this basis reconstruction is easy, and needs neither architect nor engineer. Without this basis no engineer or architect shall ever reconstruct these rebellious states. Emerging from such a prolonged rebellion, he is blind who tells you that the State, by a mere amnesty and benevolence of Government, can be put again, by a mere decree, in its old place. It would not be honest, it would not be kind or fraternal, for me to pretend that the Southern revolution against the Union has not re- acted, and wrought revolution in the Southern States themselves, and inaugurated a new dispensation. So- ciety is like a broken loom, and the piece which rebel- lion was weaving, has been cut, and every thread bro- ken. You must put in new warp and new woof, — and weaving anew, as the fabric slowly unwinds, we shall see in it no gorgon figures, no hideous grotesques of the old barbarism, but the figures of vines and golden grains framing in the heads of Justice, Love and Lib- erty! Is it feared that the rights of the States will be with, held ? The South is not more jealous of their state rights than the North. State rights, from the earliest colonial days have been the peculiar pride and jealousy of New England. In every stage of national formation it was peculiarly Northern, and not Southern, statesmen that guarded State rights as we were forming the Constitu- tion. But, once united, the loyal States gave up forever that which had been delegated to the National Govern- ment And now in the hour of victory, the loyal States 274 HENRY WARD BEECHER do not mean to trench upon Southern States' rights. They will not do it or suffer it to be done. There is not to be one rule for high latitudes and another for low. We take nothing from Southern States that has not already been taken from Northern. The South shall have just those rights that every Eastern, every Middle, every Western State has, — no more, no less. In this address Mr. Beecher did not discuss the question of negro suffrage. In his sermon on the " Conditions of a Restored Union " 1 he enters more fully into the question what these conditions should be. He urges that " the South should be restored at the earliest practicable moment to a participa- tion in our common government. It is best for us ; it is best for them." The North should not wait for their conversion from secession. " Let men say that secession ought to have been allowed — if they accept the fact that it is forever disallowed by the people of this Continent." The North should not wait for guarantees for the future. "What guarantees ? How are we to secure them ? I think that the best guarantee that can be given is the utter destruction of slavery." The North should not demand that the South be further humbled. " I think it to be the great need of this Nation to save the self-respect of the South." But certain precedent conditions should be imposed. " It is 1 This sermon was preached in October, 1865, six months after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and before the introduction of the reconstruction measures into Congress, and the famous speech of Thaddeus Stevens urging the measures which were subsequently adopted. RECONSTRUCTION 275 right that state conventions should be required to abolish slavery, and to assist in the amendment of the Constitution of the United States in that re- gard, so that any state that might try to rejuvenate slavery should under the Constitution be unable to do it." " Before the States of the South are rein- stated these conventions should have ascertained, and presented, and established the condition of the freedman. They should have established, first, his right to labor, and to hold property, with all its concomitants. They should have established his right to labor as he pleases, where he pleases, and for whom he pleases, and to have sole and undivided the proceeds of his own earnings, with the liberty to do with them as he pleases just as any other citizen does. They should also have made him to be the equal of all other men before the courts and in the eye of the law. He should be just as much qualified to be a witness as the man that assaults him." Mr. Beecher's statement as to negro suf- frage must be given more fully because it involves an explanation of his radical view on the suffrage question in its various aspects : — I hold that it would have been wise, also, for these conventions to have given him the right of suffrage — for it is always inexpedient and foolish to deny a man his natural rights. And I yet stand on the ground that suffrage in our community is not a privilege, or a pre- rogative, but a natural right. That is to say, if there is any such thing as a natural right, a man has a natural right to determine the laws that involve his life, and 276 HENRY WARD BEECHER liberty, and property. He has a right to have a voice in the election of those magistrates who have to do with his whole civil prosperity. If the right to deter- mine the laws and magistracies under which one exists is not a natural right, I know not what a natural right is. It is not giving the colored man a privilege to allow him to vote : it is developing a long dormant natural right. It may be proper to say here that Mr. Beecher accepted, with possibly one reservation, to be pre- sently noted, all the logical deductions from his premise that suffrage is a natural right. 1 He de- manded suffrage for the immigrant no less than for the negro. In an address delivered February 20, 1860, he said : "lam for universal suffrage. Would you allow the shiploads of foreigners emptied on these shores to vote at once ? I would. Don't you consider it a great evil ? I consider it an evil, but less than not having them vote. Although it may be a great inconvenience to teach them, I hold that all foreigners should vote. Then will you go a step farther and admit women to vote ? Even so I would. It is my settled con- viction, for opinion is not strong enough, that wo- men are not in the way of duty when they do not give consideration" to the duty which G6d in his providence is waiting to put upon them ; for when woman feels that she has a duty to perform in this 1 From both the premise and the deductions I dissent. The practical effects of universal suffrage afford the final argument against it. . RECONSTRUCTION 277 matter and demands the ballot, she will have it." A year later he reaffirms the same principle, apply- ing it more fully to woman suffrage, and insisting that " the individual is the unit of society, and not the family. And there can be no greater blunder in philosophical statement than to hold anything else in our day." A year and a half later, in a speech for General Grant, October 9, 1868, he consistently puts voting before education. " It has been said that a man has been educated to vote, but I declare that voting educates a man. As to the blacks, how long would it have been before any one would have taken the trouble to explain to them about political affairs if they had not the right of suffrage." Mr. Beecher's consent that negro suffrage should be limited in the first instance to negroes who bore arms is hardly consistent, philosophically, with his position that suffrage is a natural right : for it may well be claimed that if government has the power to protect the natural rights of its citizens, it has the duty of protecting them. But Mr. Beecher was never a doctrinaire. Idealist he was in the ends he sought, but he was always practical in his choice of the means to be employed. As in the preceding decade he had kept steadily in view the ultimate abolition of slavery, but had been ready to accom- plish it by the restriction of slavery within pre- scribed limits, so now he sought as the final result universal suffrage, but was willing to accept a lim- ited suffrage as the first step toward that result. He believed in universal suffrage, but he did not 278 HENRY WARD BEECHER believe in forcing his belief upon the South against the opposition of the Southern whites. " The best intentions of the government," he said, "will be defeated, if the laws that are made touching this matter [the general treatment of the negro] are such as are calculated to excite the animosity and hatred of the white people in the South toward the black people there. I except the single decree of emancipation. That must stand, though men dis- like it." The reason why any coercive measures would be unwise was that they would excite such race animosity. " All measures," he said, " insti- tuted under the act of emancipation for the blacks, in order to be permanently useful must have the cordial consent of the wise and good citizens of the South. . . . These men [the negroes] are scat- tered in fifteen States ; they are living contiguous to their old masters ; the kindness of the white man in the South is more important to them than all the policies of the nation put together." He was there- fore willing to let the claim for suffrage wait upon processes of education. " I am satisfied that, while we ought to claim for the colored man the right to the elective franchise, you never will be able to secure it and maintain it for him, except by making him so intelligent that men cannot deny it to him. You cannot long in this country deny to a man any civil right for which he is manifestly qualified. And if the colored man is industrious and accu- mulates property, and makes a wise use of that property, you cannot long withhold from him his RECONSTRUCTION 279 civil rights. We ought to demand universal suf- frage, which is the foundation element of our American doctrine ; yet I demand many things in theory which I do not at once expect to see real- ized in practice. I do not expect to see universal suffrage in the South ; but if the Southern peo- ple will not agree to universal suffrage, let it be understood that there shall be a property and educational qualification. Let it be understood that men who have acquired a certain amount of property, and can read and write, shall be allowed to vote. I do not think that the possession of property is a true condition on which to found the right to vote ; but as a transition step I will accept it, when I would not accept it as a final measure. It is a good initial, though not a good final." 1 He was willing to accept even less than this, as a compromise : — We want a beginning ; and I would be willing, not as a finality, but as a stepping-stone to what I hope to get by and by, to take the suffrage for those colored men who bore arms in our late war for the salvation of this 1 It is interesting to note that this conditional suffrage has now been adopted (1902), though as a finality, by the voluntary action of six of the Southern States, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, in all of which any negro paying taxes on three hundred dollars' worth of property, and able to read and write, is entitled by the recently amended consti- tutions to register and vote. If Mr. Beecher's plan had been adopted in 1865, a long and bitter experience of race antagonism in the South, and sectional antagonism in the nation, would appar- ently have been avoided. 280 HENRY WARD BEECHER government. 1 Now, I would like to see the man that professes to be a Democrat, who is opposed to a soldier's voting. Where is the man who can look in the face of that black hero who has risked his life in the thunder of battle to preserve this country, and say, You do not deserve to vote ? The man who could do that is not himself fit to vote. He lacks the very first element of good citizenship. Recognizing the fact that universal suffrage to be safe must be accompanied with universal intelli- gence, Mr. Beecher urged a vigorous prosecution of education in the South. We are to educate the negroes and to Christianly educate them. We are to raise them in intelligence more and more, until they shall be able to prove them- selves worthy of citizenship. For I tell you all the laws in the world cannot bolster a man up so as to place him any higher than his own moral worth and natural forces put him. You may pass laws declaring that black men are men, and that they are our equals in social position ; but unless you can make them thoughtful, industrious, self-respecting, and intelligent ; unless, in short, you can make them what you say they have a right to be, those laws will be in vain. 2 1 This was also Mr. Lincoln's suggestion, in his famous letter to Governor Halm of Louisiana. 2 It is interesting to compare this declaration of principles hy Mr. Beecher in 1865 with Dr. Booker T. Washington's declara- tion in 1899 : " I believe the past and present teach but one les- son, — to the Negro's friends and to the Negro himself, — that there is but one hope of solution ; and that is for the Negro in every part of America to resolve from henceforth that he will throw aside every non-essential, and cling only to essential, — that this pillar of fire by night and pillar of cloud by day shall be property, economy, education, and Christian character." — The Future of the American Negro, p. 132. RECONSTRUCTION 281 But this work of education in the Southern States Mr. Beecher would not carry on exclusively for the negro. He would ignore all distinctions of race and color in benefactions, as he would ignore them in the law. He would not treat the South as a pagan land, to which missionaries must be sent, but as a part of a common country to which aid must be given by the richer and more prosperous section. " We are," he said, " as far as in us lies, to prepare the black man for his present condition and for his future, in the same way that we prepare the white man for his. And I think it should be a joint work. I do not think it would be wise for the North to pour ministers, colporters, and school- masters into the South, making a too marked dis- tinction between the black people and the white. We ought to carry the Gospel and education to the whites and blacks alike. Our heart should be set toward our country and all its people, without dis- tinction of caste, class, or color." It is safe to say that if the North had been animated by this spirit, and had acted in this temper, its missionary and educational efforts among the negroes in the South would have lessened instead of intensifying South- ern race prejudices, as in many localities it has done. While Mr. Beecher insisted on a policy of pro- tection for the colored race, he also insisted on a policy of trust and confidence toward the Southern whites. He believed that these two policies were not only reconcilable, but that the protection for 282 HENRY WARD BEECHER the negroes would best be secured by confidence in the whites. He therefore agreed with President Johnson and the Democratic party in desiring the immediate admission of the Southern States to the privileges and prerogatives of statehood ; while, at the same time, he agreed with the Republican party in desiring adequate protection for the rights and adequate promotion of the education of the colored people. It would not be correct to say that he occupied a position midway between the two con- tending forces. But he saw the truth, or what he regarded as the truth, in the position of each of them. It was this desire of his for the prompt re- establishment of fraternal relations between North and South, the quick cessation of military govern- ment, the earliest possible reestablishment of civil authority, that led him to write the once famous Cleveland letter. A convention of soldiers and sailors was called at Cleveland, Ohio. Its object was to promote the policy of immediate restoration of the Southern States. Mr. Beecher was invited to act as its chaplain. He declined the invita- tion, but in so doing he wrote giving his views at length, the gist and purpose of his letter being expressed in its opening sentence: "I heartily wish it and all other conventions, of what party soever, success, whose object is the restoration of all the States late in rebellion to their Federal relation." It is difficult to understand now why this letter should have subjected Mr. Beecher to the vehement RECONSTRUCTION 283 and vituperative abuse to which he was subjected. I suspect that the obnoxious element in the letter was comprised in the phrase "all other conven- tions, of what party soever." The party feeling between President Johnson and the Republican majority, which a year and a half later led to the impeachment of President Johnson, was already very intense. The Cleveland Convention was sup- posed to be a convention in President Johnson's interests. Mr. Beecher's letter was supposed to separate the writer from the Republican party, with which he had before cooperated, and to fur- nish ammunition for the Democratic party, with which President Johnson was beginning to cooper- ate. It undoubtedly did separate him from the radical wing of the Republican party. In a letter, written nine days subsequently, to a parishioner, explaining but not retracting his Cleveland letter, he distinctly declares his separa- tion from the radicals. And this frank declaration was the more significant, and to a large section of the Republican party the more obnoxious, because uttered just as the autumn congressional elections were coming on. In this letter he not only defines his former letter, but interprets and reaffirms the political speeches which for a year past he had been delivering in various important cities. " For a year past," he says, " I have been advocat- ing the very principles of the Cleveland letter in all the chief Eastern cities — in Boston, Portland, Springfield, Albany, Utica, Rochester, Buffalo, 284 HENRY WARD BEECHER Philadelphia, Harrisburg, Pittsburg, and Brook- lyn." And what these principles are he makes very clear : — Deeming the speedy admission of the Southern States as necessary to their own health, as indirectly the best policy for the freedmen, as peculiarly needful for the safety of our Government, which, for the sake of accom- plishing a good end, incautious men are in danger of perverting, I favored, and do still favor, the election to Congress of Republicans who will seek the early admis- sion of the recusant states. Having urged it for a year past, I was more than ready to urge it again upon the Representatives to Congress this fall. The hostility to Mr. Beecher was undoubtedly enhanced by the fact that in previous discussions he had strongly — too strongly as subsequent history shows — indorsed Andrew Johnson, as a wise and statesmanlike president. But for this very reason it should have aroused the less excitement, cer- tainly the less surprise. He was not a Johnson man ; he distinctly and in terms disavowed being a Johnson man. But he was not an anti-Johnson man, and in the then state of public feeling in the Republican party — a year and a half later culmi- nating in the impeachment of President Johnson — not to be a political enemy of President John- son was, in the eyes of the radical faction of the Republican party, nothing less than a capital offense. There are a great many people who cannot un- derstand loyalty to principle, who do understand RECONSTRUCTION 285 loyalty to party. Principle seems to them vague, indefinite, intangible ; the party is a visible organ- ism, and whoever leaves it seems to them a de- serter. The party is their standard ; if the party vacillates and the individual does not vacillate with it, it is he, not the organization, which seems to be unstable. Mr. Beecher adhered to the principles enunciated by Abraham Lincoln in his amnesty proclamation. President Johnson departed from them in the one direction, the radicals in another, and all the efforts of moderate men, of whom Mr. Beecher was a distinguished representative, to secure unity of counsels and of action proved in vain. History looking back now clearly sees what Mr. Beecher not less clearly foresaw. He thus states it in his own words : — Upon Mr. Johnson's accession I was supremely im- pressed with the conviction that the whole problem of reconstruction would pivot on the harmony of Mr. John- son and Congress. With that we could have secured every guaranty and every amendment of the Constitu- tion. Had a united Government said to the South, promptly backed up as it would have been by the united North, " With slavery we must take out of the Consti- tution whatever slavery put in, and put in whatever slavery for its own support left out," there can scarcely be a doubt that long before this the question would have been settled, the basis of representation in the South conformed to that in the North, and the principle, the most fundamental and important of all, might have been established in the Constitution, viz. that manhood and full citizenship are identical. 286 HENRY WARD BEECHER Mr. Beecher's independent refusal to follow the leadership of the radical Republicans, more than his maintenance of the policy of immediate restora- tion of the Southern States, constituted the real cause of objection to his position. At the same time, the candid historian must doubt Mr. Beecher's proposition that " refusing to admit loyal Senators and Representatives from the South to Congress will not help the f reedmen, it will not secure for them the vote, it will not protect them, it will not secure any amendment of our Constitution, how- ever just and wise." In point of fact, the exclu- sion of the Southern States from participation in the government until they had ratified Article xiv. of the Constitution, did secure that impor- tant constitutional amendment, and prepared the way for a still more important amendment in the adoption of the Fifteenth Article. But this con- sent to the necessary amendment of the Constitu- tion was coerced from a reluctant South, when that consent might certainly have been won from a willing South if the promptness and unity of coun- sel which Mr. Beecher urged could have been secured. And that such willing assent to the in- dustrial freedom of the negro and to a qualified and limited suffrage would have saved the South years of political disaster and industrial distress, and the nation a long sectional strife, transferred from the field of battle to the field of politics, is to an increasing number of people both North and South a demonstrated fact. Rereading in the light RECONSTRUCTION 287 of subsequent history the account of the recon- struction period, and in that period, Mr. Beecher's speeches and letters, it appears even more clearly than it did then that his counsels were as wise as his spirit was fraternal, and that in the period of reconstruction he showed the spirit of a statesman as truly as in the period which preceded he had shown the spirit of a prophet and a reformer. CHAPTER Xn UNDER ACCUSATION In its immediate effect on national politics the Cleveland letter was not of great importance. Party strife was too high to permit either faction to listen to counsels of conciliation and modera- tion. But it led to an episode in the life of Mr. Beecher, which for a time threatened permanently to becloud his before unsullied reputation. To the narrative of that episode it is now necessary to turn. For the first thirteen years of its existence " The New York Independent " had been under the edi- torial control of three editors, Doctors Leonard Bacon, R. S. Storrs, and Joseph Thompson, all Congregational ministers of national eminence. At the expiration of that time, December, 1861, they resigned, and Mr. Beecher, who had been a frequent contributor, and whose sermons for the three years preceding had been published in " The Independent," became its sole editor. At his re- quest, Mr. Theodore Tilton, a young protege of Mr. Beecher and a member of Plymouth Church, for whom he had almost the affection of a father, was called in to be the assistant editor. The office work of an editor was never congenial to Mr. Beecher. UNDER ACCUSATION 289 He was in constant demand during the Civil War for public addresses, in addition to his church work. He was neither able nor inclined to give much time to the editorial work beyond writing an occa- sional " Star Paper " and editorials. When he went to England, he left " The Independent " in the charge of Mr. Tilton, and shortly after his return, in the fall of 1863, he withdrew from the active duties of editor, leaving his name for a time at the head of the columns, although practically Mr. Til- ton took his place. At the same time Mr. Beecher entered into a contract with Mr. Bowen, the pro- prietor of " The Independent," by which he agreed to contribute to the paper and it agreed to publish weekly his sermon or " Lecture-Room Talk." This contract could be dissolved by either party On three months' notice. This was in February, 1864 ; a year later Mr. Tilton became editor in name as well as in fact. When in September, 1866, the Cleveland letter appeared, there appeared simultaneously a caustic criticism of it in the columns of " The Independ- ent ; " and at the same time the publication of the weekly sermon was suspended, without explanation or notice to Mr. Beecher. He was forthwith de- luged with protests from subscribers who assumed that he had withdrawn his sermons from the paper because the paper had criticised him. He endured this misinterpretation for a little while ; then he gave the notice required to close the contract be- tween him and " The Independent " and when urged 290 HENRY WARD BEECHER by the proprietor to reconsider his decision declined to do so. Three years later, on the first of January, 1870, "The Christian Union" was started by J. B. Ford & Co., and he became its editor-in-chief. In twelve months thereafter the circulation of the new journal had grown to 30,000, while that of " The Independent " had sensibly decreased. For Mr. Tilton had proved to be more brilliant as a newspaper writer than sagacious as a newspaper leader. His utterances on religious questions were increasingly distasteful to the orthodox churches ; and the orthodox churches were the constituency to which in the past " The Independent " had ap- pealed. His utterances on the subject of marriage and divorce, though possibly no more radical in theory than those of John Milton, whom he quoted in support of them, were identified in the public mind with American theories of socialism and free love. The religious heresy might have been toler- ated; the social heresy was far more obnoxious; protests poured in upon Mr. Bowen from every quarter ; he was finally forced to the conclusion, to which he apparently came with reluctance, that a change of editorial control was indispensable to the future success of his journal ; and Mr. Tilton was summarily dismissed from his editorial position. Meanwhile, Mr. Tilton's domestic life was neither peaceful nor pleasant. The change which had taken place in his views was an occasion of great anxiety and pain to his wife, and his mode of expressing them would have given pain and anxiety to a UNDER ACCUSATION 291 woman less sensitive than Mrs. Tilton. She was anxious to know her duty with reference to the religious education of her children, and consulted her pastor. He advised patience. There were other difficulties of a more personal nature, and at length, her patience exhausted, she left her hus- band, sought refuge at her mother's house, and sent her pastor a request that he would advise her as to her duty. He consulted with one of the dea- cons of his church and with his wife, and the three united in counseling a permanent separation, which, however, did not at that time take place. Such, briefly stated, were the causes which led Mr. Til- ton to the resolve — I quote his own words — "to strike Mr. Beecher to the heart ; " such the origin of the charge preferred by Mr. Tilton, and forming the basis of the persecution to which Mr. Beecher was subjected for five years, which began with the resolve of Mr. Tilton in December, 1870, and may be said to have ended with the findings of the advisory council in February, 1876.J As to the charge itself, it is difficult for the judicial historian to state it. First, Mr. Tilton affirmed that Mr. Beecher had made improper pro- posals to his wife, but accompanied the statement with the most solemn declaration of his wife's absolute innocence and purity, — " as pure as an angel in heaven " were his words ; subsequently he converted the charge into one of criminal conduct. Mr. Beecher's Puritan conscience, New England training, and great sensitiveness combined to make 292 HENRY WARD BEECHER him a purist as regards all relations between the sexes. On the trial that subsequently took place, nothing of a suspicious character was proved against him, except certain letters written by him. Persuaded by a friend of Mr. Tilton that he had acted upon misinformation in counseling the per- manent separation between Mr. and Mrs. Tilton, and that his counsel had directly aggravated Mr. Tilton's domestic difficulties, and indirectly led to his dismissal by Mr. Bowen, and so to his social and financial ruin, Mr. Beecher gave both verbal and written expression to the poignancy of his re- gret, in language which was subsequently distorted into a confession of crime. To one familiar with Mr. Beecher's readiness to excuse his neighbor and accuse himself, these letters were not ambiguous ; to others they might have been so. That he kept silence concerning these charges, until they were given to the public in a form which made silence no longer possible, was in accordance with Mr. Beecher's lifelong principle, to pay no attention to slanders against his name. If he had been more suspicious and less unworldly, he would not have accepted without questioning the assertions of Mr. Tilton's friend, which led him groundlessly to accuse himself. If he had early taken counsel of other men more suspicious and less unworldly, he would probably not have been caught in the net which was spread for him. But much as his friends may wish that he could have taken such counsel, they must recognize the sentiment of honor which UNDER ACCUSATION 293 forbade him both as a gentleman and as a minister to disclose to any one secrets affecting the peace and good name of a member of his own church. That he kept silence so long will not be counted as other than a fact to his honor by any one who con- siders that the strong incentive to speak was only counteracted by the stronger obligation of silence. Not until June, 1874, did Mr. Tilton make any public charge against Mr. ■ Beecher, and then in terms wholly vague. Mr. Beecher instantly re- plied to it by a demand for a full and thorough investigation. Then ensued a curious conflict, Mr. Tilton and his friend employing all their resources to impede, thwart, and prevent an investigation, Mr. Beecher insisting that it should be absolute, thorough, and complete. It was not until after this investigation was begun that the charge against Mr. Beecher was altered from one of im- proper proposals to one of criminal conduct. The change was necessary in order to lay a foundation for the proceedings at law which Mr. Tilton finally brought. I have here stated, though with necessary brevity, all the facts essential to an understanding of this case. It only remains to state with equal brevity the results of the three investigations — one by Plymouth Church, one by the civil courts, and one by a council of Congregational churches. The investigation on behalf of Plymouth Church was conducted by a special committee of six gen- tlemen well known in their community, and some 294 HENRY WARD BEECHER possessing a more than local reputation. Among them were Mr. Henry W. Sage, since known by his benefactions to Cornell University and his services as one of its trustees ; Horace B. Claflin, one of the most prominent and influential of the great mer- chants of New York City; and John Winslow, a well-known Brooklyn lawyer, who brought to the committee a recognized ability in the examination and cross-examination of witnesses and the weighing of evidence.) The committee were appointed on the 27th of June, 1874 ; they presented their report on the 27th of August ; and after recounting their endeavors to ascertain the facts, and exhaustively reviewing the evidence which they had been able to obtain, they reported that " we find nothing what- ever in the evidence that should impair the per- fect confidence of Plymouth Church or the world in the Christian character and integrity of Henry Ward Beecher." This report, with the evidence on which it was based, was reviewed and unanimously approved by the examining committee, and the reports of both committees were laid before the church, after full public notice, and unanimously adopted by fifteen hundred members, substantially the entire resident membership of the church. This action of the church took place on the 28 th of August, 1874. The second investigation was the trial before a civil court of an action brought by Mr. Tilton against Mr. Beecher for alienating the affections of his wife. PThe trial dragged on for six months UNDER ACCUSATION 295 and ended in a disagreement of the jury, nine of whom, comprising all who were men of Christian belief, affirming their belief in Mr. Beecher's in- nocence.] Before the trial ended, however, the chief lawyer for the prosecution was with difficulty pre- vented from abandoning the case, and subsequently publicly avowed his belief in Mr. Beecher's inno- cence ; and the judge who presided at the trial testi- fied to his convictions, by presiding, eight years later, at the meeting held in the Brooklyn Academy of Music in honor of Mr. Beecher's seventieth birthday, and joining in the resolutions declaring that " by the integrity of his life and the purity of his character he has vanquished misrepresentation and abuse." 1 A year and a half after this trial the largest and most representative council of Congregational churches ever known in the history of the denom- ination was called by Plymouth Church to counsel it respecting its action, which had been subjected to severe criticism by the critics of Mr. Beecher. The roll of members actually in attendance was two hundred and forty-four ; they were summoned from all parts of the country and from all schools of thought in the Congregational denomination, and included not a few whose political or theological prepossessions would have made them naturally sus- picious of Mr. Beecher. Its sessions were presided over by the Rev. Leonard Bacon, D. D., of New Haven, as moderator,.and the Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr., of Maine, and General Erastus N. Bates of 1 See chapter xm. p. 326. 296 HENRY WARD BEECHER Illinois as assistant moderators. At the opening of this council Mr. Beecher appeared before it, declar- ing on behalf of the church that the council was desired to make whatever investigation it might wish to make, by whatever plan of investigation it deemed wise, and on his own behalf that an ade- quate and just investigation of all the circumstances in the case was what he most coveted. After the investigation was completed, he reappeared before the council, and was questioned at great length, answering without reserve any question which any delegate chose to ask; and among the delegates were not only eminent clergymen, but laymen of national reputation, and among the latter lawyers skilled in the art of cross-examination, peing without power to subpoena witnesses or administer oaths, the council could not properly try the case which had been already triedAbut it conducted a public inquiry with a freedom which is impossible in a court of law, and by its formal resolutions declared that " we hold the pastor of this church, as we and all others are bound to hold him, inno- cent of the charges reported against him, until sub- stantiated by proof." The closing addresses of Dr. J. W. Wellman of Massachusetts, Dr. J. M. Sturtevant, the president of Illinois College, and Dr. Noah Porter, the president of Yale College, assured him and the church of the unabated con- fidence of the council, and of the churches which it represented. This judgment has since been affirmed by the spontaneous expressions of Mr. Beecher's UNDER ACCUSATION 297 fellow citizens in the city which lie made his home for forty years ; and by the verdict of the larger community at home and abroad, to whose sponta- neous expressions of confidence and esteem I shall presently have occasion to refer. To those who believe in Christ's declaration that the religious teacher is to be known by the fruits of his work, the spiritual results of Mr. Beecher's ministry during the years in which his enemies were continuing their frankly avowed endeavors to drive him in disgrace from his pulpit, his city, and the editorial chair, will serve as an even more conclu- sive evidence of Mr. Beecher's character than the judgment of his church, the churches of his de- nomination, and the spontaneous and unofficial verdict of his fellow citizens. The statistics of Plymouth Church during this time show in the number of dismissions no indication of suspicion, distrust, or dissatisfaction in Plymouth Church ; in the number of admissions by letter no indication of lessened confidence on the part of other Chris- tian churches ; and in the number of those received on confession of their faith no diminution in the number of those converted to Christ through the ministry of the church and of its pastor. 1 Num- 1 The following table shows admissions and dismissions for the four years prior : — Admissions Tears 1872 By Letter 62 On Confession 136 Dismiss 60 1873 , 126 68 70 82 . 59 1874...... 1876 121 106 34 49 298 HENRY WARD BEECHER bers alone are not significant of spiritual values. That during these four years, 1872-75, Mr. Beech- er's congregation remained undiminished and the membership of the church was sensibly increased, might perhaps be attributed to his oratorical gifts ; that his church sustained him with almost absolute unanimity might be, and by his critics was, attributed to his magnetic personality. But neither Mr. Beecher's oratorical gifts nor his mag- netic personality can account for the fact that the entire work of the church proceeded with un- abated spiritual vigor as witnessed by its Sunday- schools, its prayer-meetings, its varied philan- thropic and Christian work, the character and life of its members, and the permanence and efficiency of the church which survived him. To this plain statement of the wholly uncontra- dicted and unquestioned facts in this case, it may not be improper for me to add an expression of my own personal opinion. I had some special advan- tages for forming one. I was intimately acquainted with -both Mr. Tilton and Mr. Beecher. More than a year before the Cleveland letter I had ventured to warn Mr. Beecher that Mr. Tilton was not the friend Mr. Beecher thought him to be. I was per- sonally acquainted with the incidents which led to his withdrawal from " The Independent " and his subsequent founding of " The Christian Union." My brother, Austin Abbott, was one of Mr. Beecher's counsel in the trial, and I had special facilities for a careful study of the evidence in the UNDER ACCUSATION 299 case, and certain editorial duties made such study a necessity. In the advisory council subsequently held I was an active member, and my duties as chairman of its business committee made my con- stant attendance at all its sessions, both public and private, my duty. There was no proof at any time of any act of impropriety on Mr. Beecher's part toward Mrs. Tilton or toward any other woman, — nothing that could be called even an "indiscre- tion." His only indiscretion was in allowing him- self to be on terms of comparative intimacy with men who were unworthy of his confidence, and in accepting as true, without inquiry or investigation, statements which a man of more practical wisdom would certainly have doubted, if he did not in- stantly recognize their falsehood. After no incon- siderable hesitation I have given to this story larger space than its real importance deserves, only because I feared lest passing it by with mere scant attention would be misconstrued by some reader. Personally I believe that future history will attach as little emphasis to this episode in the life of Mr. Beecher as history now attaches to analo- gous imputations, with far more to give them color, brought against John Wesley in his lifetime. CHAPTER Xin LATER MINISTRY In order to give a connected account of this epi- sode in the life of Mr. Beecher, it has been neces- sary to interrupt the historical continuity of the narrative. To that narrative I now return. The Cleveland letter written August 30, 1866, recommended that middle way which was the path alike of national honor and of national safety, but in what was then the condition of the nation, nei- ther of the two political parties was willing to take this middle way. For the time being the counsels of such men as Mr. Beecher — for he by no means stood alone — were discarded. The nation could learn only by experience the political lessons which its men of prophetic mind perceived intuitively. Mr. Beecher, therefore, wisely withdrew for a time from the more active participation in public affairs, and gave himself to other and more quiet labors. During the decade 1866-76, he wrote both "Norwood" and the first volume, with part of the second volume, of the " Life of Christ." These were the only volumes he ever wrote ; his other books were composed of casual contributions writ- ten originally for the periodicals. During these ten years he founded " The Christian Union," and LATER MINISTRY 301 in 1872-74 delivered the famous " Yale Lectures on Preaching" at Yale Theological Seminary. 1 This editorial and literary work was carried on in addition to his regular preaching, his frequent lecturing, and his addresses on various public occasions. In the fall of 1872 the twenty-fifth anniversary of the organization of Plymouth Church and Mr. Beecher's installation were recognized in a series of meetings, lasting for five days, and known in the history of the church as the " Silver Wedding." These exercises were characterized by the sim- plicity which under Mr. Beecher's administration had become a second nature to Plymouth Church. Flowers constituted the only decoration ; the music was chiefly congregational ; only one address that could be called an oration was delivered ; this was the only eulogy ; the other speeches, if speeches they could be called, were informal, conversational, reminiscent, — nearly all of them by lay members of the church. The week might be described in a word as a home week. Many absent members returned ; others sent letters of affectionate remembrance ; others, who had found inspiration in Plymouth Church, though they had never belonged to it, came to testify their affection and receive new gift of life. If the ad- mission had not been rigidly confined to the holders of tickets, even Plymouth Church could not have 1 See chapters xiv., " Mr. Beecher as Editor and Author," and xv., " The Yale Lectures on Preaching." 302 HENRY WARD BEECHER contained the crowd which would have thronged it. Except for a short storm on Thursday night, the weather was fine. The keynote of the week was struck at the first meeting by Mr. George A. Bell, the successive superintendent of its three Sabbath- schools, in the sentence, "I thank Mr. Beecher because he has made me to know my God and my Saviour." The programme of the week was so arranged as to include the whole life of the church. Monday night was given up to the children. Tues- day was given to a reunion of all that had worked in either of the Plymouth Sunday-schools from their organization. Wednesday was the laymen's day, when the founders of the church made state- ments concerning its origin, its history, and its pro- gress. Thursday evening the church was crowded to its utmost capacity, to hear two addresses — one of reminiscences and personal experience, by Mr. Beecher, reciting the history of this church "as it looks to me from my own standpoint ; " the second, an address by Dr. R. S. Storrs on " Mr. Beecher as a Preacher." The printed page preserves the sympathetic insight, the wise analysis, the pictorial imagination, the iridescent humor, and the finished literary form of Dr. Storrs's eulogy ; but it cannot indicate the powerful personality which stood be- hind the words and uttered itself through them. Dr. Storrs's simile illustrating Mr. Beecher 's oratory is equally applicable to his own on this occasion : " I do not know," said he, " very much about Mr. Beecher's preaching, for I have only heard him LATER MINISTRY 303 three or four times ; but I know enough to recog- nize the difference between the sermon as he preaches it, and the sermon as it is printed and published to be read afterward : the one is like the fireworks as they appear at night in all their bril- liance and glory, the other is like the blackened, smoking framework which the boys stare at the next morning." But more sacred and moving than any oratory were the morning prayer-meetings, and the Friday evening communion service, conducted as nearly as possible in the spirit of a Friday evening prayer-meeting. The church was thronged with com- municants — the body, the side aisles, the galleries. Throughout the week Mr. Beecher contended against an inclination, which he feared rather than perceived, toward hero-worship. His introduction to the communion service emphasized his desire. " In the presence," said he, " of these memorials, let no name be mentioned except that one which is above every name ; " and with a touch almost of sadness, he enforced his request : " If I have taught you to look to any other one, my teaching has been worse than useless." Then followed brief words of Christian experience from laymen, on whom he called — generous, sincere, glowing; after which the communion was administered to twenty-five hundred communicants ; and by a few brief words from Mr. Beecher the thoughts of the church were turned from the past to the future, and the ser- vices of the week were brought to a close. 304 HENRY WARD BEECHER Despite the generous contribution of a hundred thousand dollars by Plymouth Church, presented in the form of an increase of salary during the year of the trial, the enormous expenses involved left Mr. Beecher indebted. Careless as he was in the use of mouey, he was never careless about his pe- cuniary obligations. As soon, therefore, as the trial was over he set himself to work to raise the funds necessary to meet obligations which he had in- curred, and the easiest and simplest way to do this was by lecturing throughout the country. Doubt- less another cause combined to impel him to this course. He believed that the best remedy for worry was effective work ; he held with Dr. Chalmers to " the expulsive power of a new affection." The best possible way to erase from his own mind and from that of the public, who had been fed for six months with newspaper reports of the trial, was to give himself to a national ministry through the lec- ture platform. His lecture tours, under Major J. B. Pond's direction, and for the most part in com- panionship with him, extended as far west as the Pacific coast and as far south as Memphis. These annual lecture tours under Major Pond's direction began April 18, 1875. From that time until Feb- ruary, 1887, three weeks before his death, Mr. Beecher is said by Major Pond to have traveled with him nearly three hundred thousand miles, and to have lectured under his supervision twelve hun- dred and sixty-one times. On a single one of these tours Mr. Beecher delivered seventy-five lectures, LATER MINISTRY 305 preached sixteen sermons, and traveled seventeen thousand miles. These lecture tours gave oppor- tunity for the expression of public confidence in him, and of this opportunity the public, East and West, North and South, availed itself. He was rarely in any town over Sunday that he was not invited to preach, and he invariably accepted the invitation, irrespective of the denomination which invited him, and always without compensation. If he was in a college town, he was customarily in- vited to address the students, and, if other engage- ments permitted, he accepted the invitation. The warmth of the reception given to him was in some places as unexpected as it was gratifying. In Mem- phis he was received, when he arrived in the city, with a salute of twenty-one guns, and, as there was no lecture-room large enough to hold the people, Agricultural Hall was taken, and four thousand seats put into it. It was not always so, however. Political, theo- logical, and personal prejudices combined sometimes in bitter opposition to him, — opposition which I believe he never failed to overcome. One dramatic instance illustrates both facts. On board the sleeper at Baltimore en route to Richmond, a tele- gram was put into Mr. Pond's hands which read as follows : — Richmond, Va m January 22, 1877. To J. B. Pond, Baltimore, Md. No use coming. Beecher will not be allowed to speak in Richmond. No tickets sold. 306 HENRY WARD BEECHER Mr. Pond put the telegram into his pocket and said nothing to Mr. Beecher. On arriving in Rich- mond the warning was repeated. The local agent abandoned the lecture. Mr. Pond rented the the- atre, and issued bills and dodgers announcing that the lecture would be delivered. When the evening came, the theatre was crowded with men ; no women were present. Mr. Pond was advised that " the gallery is full of eggs." When Mr. Beecher rose to speak, he was greeted with yells from the hostile audience. He met them with a good- humored jest at the members of the Virginia legis- lature, who were present in large numbers. The rest of the audience joined in the laugh at the legislature. In a few minutes Mr. Beecher had the crowd under his control. At the close an informal reception was given him in the hotel, and he was earnestly urged to remain and lecture a second night, that the women might come to hear him. I rarely heard Mr. Beecher lecture ; I often heard him preach. He was at his best in the pulpit, next on the rostrum, last on the lecture platform. He generally wrote his lectures, but rarely read them, and never memorized them. Mr. Pond is my authority for saying that he never delivered the same lecture twice in the same way. The form and structure of the lecture depended largely upon the audience to which it was to be addressed, and while the substance of it remained unchanged, the illus- trations were frequently varied from evening to evening. Local incidents and occasions inspired LATER MINISTRY 307 sometimes his most eloquent passages, as in his peroration in the Richmond lecture, — a tribute to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the mother of Presidents, and his forecast of the noble future which lay before her. Mr. Beecher could not speak without imparting some information, nor without some flash of humor, but he never lec- tured merely for the purpose of entertaining or instructing his audience. His lectures were all ethical discourses: any one of them might have been a sermon ; some of them were. One of the most famous of his lectures, that on " Evolution and Religion," grew out of a sermon, and in turn was elaborated into a course of eight sermons on that subject, subsequently published in book form. On the whole, it may be truly said that his lecture tours constituted a form of religious ministry, ethi- cal and social, rather than spiritual and individual. Not less than his sermons, however, were his lec- tures inspired by the purpose to interpret and apply the principles and precepts of Jesus Christ, and in- spire men with the Christian spirit. In popularity Mr. Beecher as lecturer stood second only to John B. Gough, in inspirational effect second to no one. Though during this decade the political ques- tions before the country did not compare in either dramatic interest or public influence with those growing out of slavery, Mr. Beecher continued, though in lesser measure, to discuss before the public the questions which from time to time arose. He was a continuous student of social questions, 308 HENRY WARD BEECHER and continued to speak upon them. He advocated unsectarian public schools, and strenuously opposed the division of the public funds between the Ro- man Catholics and the Protestants, or any use of public funds for sectarian schools of any descrip- tion. He advocated the Irish cause, speaking on the same platform with John Dillon and Charles Stewart Parnell, and urging the policy, now at last adopted by the English government, of making the tenant population of Ireland land-owners. He vigorously antagonized the exclusion of the Chinese from our coasts, saying, whimsically, that when the camel eats palm, the camel does not become palm, but the palm becomes camel. He opposed prohibi- tion as " an absolute impossibility," and advocated high license. I do not know that either local option or the dispensary system had become a public ques- tion in his time, or, if so, that he ever expressed himself definitely upon them. He urged civil-ser- vice reform, and opposed the free coinage of silver. He faced with his usual courage anti-Jewish preju- dice, of which there was in 1881 a special ebulli- tion, and preached a sermon on the subject of such interest that the substance of it was cabled across the Atlantic, and the " Pall Mall Gazette " declared of it that it would excite, especially in Germany, " much more interest than a presidential mes- sage." He spoke and wrote, in presidential elec- tions, for Grant, for Hayes, and for Cleveland ; and on different occasions for the redemption of the ballot-box, for the Sunday opening of libraries, for LATER MINISTRY 309 woman suffrage, for popular amusements, for the enforcement of excise legislation, at public dinners to Professor Tyndall and to Herbert Spencer, and in public tributes to Dr. Livingstone and to Mat- thew Arnold. His advocacy, by pen and on the forum, of the election of President Cleveland caused a surprise which the historian cannot but declare to have been extraordinarily unreasonable. Mr. Beecher was always and by nature an independent ; he be- longed to no party, and was the advocate of none. He spoke on abolition platforms against some of the fundamental principles of the abolitionists ; he spoke on Republican platforms against some of the fundamental principles of the Republicans; he preached an evangelical faith to Unitarian congre- gations ; and he would have been glad to preach a Christian faith in a Jewish pulpit, or a Protest- ant faith in a Roman Catholic pulpit, if the op- portunity had been offered to him. Politically, he was an individualist, if not by inheritance, cer- tainly by training. His ten years of anti-slavery campaigning had emphasized his belief in the lib- erty of the individual, his desire to promote that liberty, and his belief that the individual should be left unhandicapped, to pursue in his own way his own chosen path in life. Economically, he be- longed with the Manchester school, though, mor- ally, he repudiated the idea that social order can ever emerge from a mere conflict of selfish inter- ests. Protection is essentially socialistic in its 310 HENRY WARD BEECHER nature. It assumes that the nation is not merely a collection of individuals ; that it has an interest apart from the interests of the individuals who compose it ; that it may rightfully adopt a policy which will promote the interests of the whole, although it may interfere with the liberties or im- pair the interests of some. What measure of truth there is in this socialistic philosophy, toward which in many ways American society is now turning, it is not necessary for me here to inquire. Mr. Beecher did not believe in it. He was, therefore, necessarily and on principle, a free-trader. He had avowed himself so, explicitly and emphatically, in his Eng- lish speeches ; he had repeated that avowal, again and again, on Republican platforms ; he had re- sisted within the Republican party the growth of the high protective principle. When, as candidate for governor of the state, Mr. Cleveland ran against Governor Folger, Mr. Beecher supported Mr. Cleveland. When, therefore, in 1884, the is- sue was clearly and sharply made in the first Blaine and Cleveland campaign, Mr. Beecher had no option but either to keep silent or to advocate the election of Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Cleveland stood for civil- service reform, Mr. Blaine for machine politics ; Mr. Cleveland stood for a tariff for revenue only, Mr. Blaine for a high protective system. Any one who knew Mr. Beecher should have known that, if he had to choose between the party he had asso- ciated with and the principles which he held sacred, he would always leave the party for the sake of the LATER MINISTRY 311 principles. This he did. His doing so cost him some warm friendships. All this he foresaw. He hesitated for weeks before he formed the final de- cision. I speak in this matter of what I know, for at his request I went up to Peekskill to counsel with him on the subject. He made careful inqui- ries respecting the rumors prejudicial to Mr. Cleve- land's character before he espoused Mr. Cleve- land's election, and he satisfied himself that, what- ever color of truth they might have had in the past, they were absolutely untrue as respected Mr. Cleve- land's character in 1884. The unwise recommen- dations of some friends, who ought to have known him better, and who urged him not to become an advocate of Mr. Cleveland's election because he could not afford to do so, were perhaps the final determining element in the formation of his de- cision. Nothing was more likely to lead Mr. Beecher into battle than such a warning, that it would be perilous to himself. It is not necessary here to rehearse the arguments which Mr. Beecher presented in support of free trade ; it must suffice to say that they were mainly moral, not economic. He held that whatever seeming prosperity the pro- tective tariff conferred on one class involved the real detriment of another class, that it was essen- tially a selfish policy, and he opposed it " as not only impolitic, but unjust and morally wrong." In the decade which we are considering Mr. Beecher's first work was, as it had been in the past, as a preacher and in his own church. But 312 HENRY WARD BEECHER his preaching underwent a noticeable change. It became more intellectual and philosophical. It was addressed less to the will and more to the reason. Mr. Beecher's preaching may be approximately divided into three epochs. In the first it is largely pictorial, imaginative, emotional. This preaching is typified by the " Lectures to Young Men." In the second epoch, the emotions and the imagina- tion have been brought into subjection ; the style is less exuberant ; the pictures are not less vivid, but they are less numerous; they do not follow one another in such kaleidoscopic succession ; the emotion is spiritualized, — it is deeper, devouter, stronger, — not less impassioned, but under better control ; the whole sermon converges on one truth ; preaching has become a battle, in which all the resources of the commanding general are brought to bear upon the one pivotal point in the field, and reason, imagination, emotion combine to carry away the hearer, capturing his will, and bringing him into subjection to a new purpose, and obedient to a new law of life. Of this epoch the Harpers' edi- tion of sermons selected from those preached in the years 1860-68 afford the best illustration. In the third epoch Mr. Beecher is a teacher. The sermons are expositions; he is an interpreter of faith ; he is attempting to show men that the spir- itual experience, into which he has before been endeavoring to carry them by all the forces of his nature, is an experience consistent with the highest exercise of the reason ; he preaches less for con- LATER MINISTRY 313 version, and more for instruction and edification. Of this type of preaching his eight sermons on " Evolution and Religion " are the most striking illustration. 1 The later change was intentioned ; it was a deliberate adaptation of his preaching to new conditions. In the second of his sermons on "Evolution and Religion" he thus defines his purpose : — The last years of my life I dedicate to this work of religion, to this purpose of God, to this development, on a grander scale, of my Lord and Master Jesus Christ. I believe in God. I believe in immortality. I believe in Jesus Christ as the incarnated representative of the spirit of God. I believe in all the essential truths that go to make up morality and spiritual religion. I am nei- ther an infidel, nor an agnostic, nor an atheist ; but if I am anything, by the grace of God I am a lover of Jesus Christ, as the manifestation of God under the limita- tions of space and matter ; and in no part of my life has my ministry seemed to me so solemn, so earnest, so fruitful, as this last decade will seem, if I shall succeed in uncovering to the faith of this people the great truths of the two revelations — God's building revelation of the material globe, and God's building revelation in the unfolding of the human mind. May God direct me in your instruction ! To understand the significance of this decision 1 Evolution and Religion : Part i. Eight sermons discussing- the hearings of the evolutionary philosophy on the fundamental doctrines of evangelical Christianity. Part ii. Eighteen sermons discussing the application of the evolutionary principles and theo- ries to the practical aspects of religious life. Fords, Howard AHulbert. 1885. 314 HENRY WARD BEECHER and the value of his service in its execution, the reader must conceive the conditions out of which it grew. Darwin's " Origin of Species " was pub- lished in 1859, Herbert Spencer's " First Princi- ples," in sections, in 1860-62. Translated into common language for the common people, through innumerable editorials and magazine articles, and rapidly finding their way into academic instruction in all the higher institutions of learning, they be- gan to give currency to the notion of evolution in many circles where its fundamental principle was not in the least comprehended. From the first this doctrine of evolution was generally regarded by the churches as an attack on religion ; and not unnat- urally, since it denied two fundamental articles of the Puritan, if not of the Protestant creed, — the Fall of Adam and the inerrancy of the Bible. The whole Puritan system of theology had been built upon the Fall of Adam. Its first article was the Total Depravity of the human race. On this was supposed to be founded the necessity for re- velation, as a divine disclosure to fallen man of truths required for his salvation, which, owing to his Fall, he could not otherwise know ; for redemp- tion by a sacrificial atonement, rendered necessary to purge away his sins and succor him from the de- served wrath of God, on account of the Fall ; and for a new birth, necessary to recover man from the death in which he was involved by the sin of Adam, and from which he could be recovered only by a new creative act. The doctrine of evolution affirmed LATER MINISTRY 315 that man had come from a lower animal order ; it denied that man was made perfect and had fallen from a higher to a lower estate ; it therefore seemed to deny the doctrines of revelation, redemption, and regeneration. It was regarded by substantially the whole Christian Church as subversive of the entire system of evangelical faith. At the same time, and as a necessary consequence, evolution denied a second fundamental doctrine of the Puri- tan and later Protestant creed, — that the Bible is infallible and inerrant. Protestants, refusing the authority of the Church, had, partly for polemical reasons, substituted therefor the authority of the Bible. Evolution treated the Genesis story of the Fall as a fable ; it therefore denied the inerrancy of the Bible, denied its absolute and binding authority, and seemed to destroy the foundation on which the whole Protestant superstructure was reared. We can now see clearly, what our fathers did not see, that evangelical faith is not depend- ent on the doctrine of the Fall of Adam, and that Protestantism is not dependent on the iner- rancy of the Bible. The Fall of Adam is narrated in the third chapter of Genesis. It is not again referred to in the Old Testament, nor in the New Testament, except parenthetically by the Apostle Paul. In the one chapter where the Apostle Paul treats of the nature and origin of sin, the seventh chapter of Romans, he represents it as an emer- gence of the flesh against the spirit, a representa- tion quite in harmony with the scientific doctrine 316 HENRY WARD BEECHER of evolution. The doctrine of Adam's Fall occupies no such fundamental position in the Bible as it oc- cupies in the Puritan creeds. It is equally clear that the later Protestantism had claimed for the Bible an authority which the Bible never claims for itself and which the earlier Reformers did not claim for it, much as Roman Catholicism had claimed for the Church an authority which neither the Jew- ish Church nor the primitive Christian Church ever claimed for itself. We can see that the frank recognition of the Bible as the record of a progress- ive revelation — a book in its successive stages issu- ing from the spiritual experience of the epoch and adapted to that experience — recommends it to ra- tional faith and removes insuperable difficulties pre- sented by the conception of it as an inerrant and infallible record of truth divinely dictated to hu- man amanuenses. But it is not strange that, when the doctrine of evolution was first expounded, mainly by men of unecclesiastical, if not anti-eccle- siastical sympathies, it was regarded as subversive both of evangelical faith and of regard for the Bible as a revelation of truth. It is not strange that it should even now be so regarded by those who have never studied evolution, and do not know what it really means, and who have never gone be- hind the creeds of Christendom to the Bible, from which those creeds are supposed to have been drawn, to ascertain whether the creeds state the truths of religion as the Bible states them, and in the relations in which the Bible states them. LATER MINISTRY 317 Mr. Beecher was one of the first ministers in the Christian Church, if not the very first in this coun- try, to advocate the doctrine of evolution as a doc- trine which, so far from being inimical to the cause of Christ, was certain to prove its friend and sup- porter. The first reference in Mr. Beecher' s pub- lic teaching which I have been able to find, that indicates an acceptance or an inclination to accept the doctrine of evolution, was an incidental refer- ence in a Sunday morning sermon, March 11, 1860 : " What word did Adam ever speak or what manly thing did he ever perform, before or after the Fall, that was thought worthy of record ? He has a name in the Bible ; that is all. The world has come uphill every single step from the day of Adam to this." But it was not until nearly twenty years after that he began the systematic advocacy of evolution as an interpretation of the divine or- der which is consistent with and helpful to evan- gelical faith. To understand what this advocacy meant, the reader must also understand what evangelical faith, as Mr. Beecher apprehended it, means. All religion recognizes man's obligation to God. It was a distinctive characteristic of the Hebrew religion that it also recognized God's obligation to man. The obligation was seen by the Prophets to be mutual : that of subjects to their King, but also that of the King to his subjects ; that of the chil- dren to their Father, also that of the Father to his children. God was therefore represented in the 318 HENRY WARD BEECHER Old Testament as a covenant-keeping God. Cove- nant is mutual and involves mutual obligations. This doctrine of the obligation of God to men re- appears in the New Testament as a gospel. Law represents what men owe to God ; the Gospel re- presents what God will do for men. The first de- clares what he requires of them ; the second, what service he will render to them. An evangelical preacher is one who lays stress on this service which God renders to man, and on man's conse- quent hope in God. Mr. Beecher was throughout his life, in this sense, an evangelical preacher. He laid stress on duty and righteousness, but he laid far more stress on faith and hope and love — faith as a personal consciousness of God ; hope as an as- surance of the future because of God ; and love as an inspiration to life because of the soul's recogni- tion of God's love. The object of Mr. Beecher in the sermons on " Evolution and Religion," and largely in the preaching of the later years of his life, of which these sermons furnish an illustration, was to show that evolution, as an interpretation of God's way of working in the world, is not only consist- ent with this gospel of God's helpfulness but gives to it a richer and better interpretation. Do you suppose that now, after fifty years in the Christian ministry, I could attend the funeral of religion cheerfully and joyfully, with every hereditary necessity on me, with the whole education of my youth, with all my associations, all the endearments of my past life in my memory, and with vivid and living sympathy with LATER MINISTRY 319 men, — do you suppose that I could stand here to advo- cate any truth that would destroy the substance, or in any degree materially injure even the forms of religion ? I would die sooner ! Do you suppose, from my nature and my whole example, I could go into the course of sermons that T have preached, and into the course of sermons that, God willing, I will preach yet, for any other reason than that I believe that the new view is to give to religion a power and a scope and a character such as has never yet been taken and known in the world at large? Better men than some have been, I suppose, will never be born ; better lives than certain single lives will never appear over the horizon of time ; but that which I look for is the change of the human race. I am not thinking of men, but of mankind. I am not in sympathy alone with the Church, but with the whole human family. And my longing, as it has been for years, is for such teaching and such philosophies as slmll lead the whole human race to a higher and a nobler condition. This paragraph interprets the object and illus- trates the spirit of the entire series : that spirit is a broader and profounder faith because Mr. Beecher has come to understand evolution ; that purpose is to give this broader and profounder faith to others. He frankly admits that evolution has " revolutionized my educational beliefs, but it has revolutionized those beliefs only to make them more spiritual, more hopeful, more full of the divine life." He has no tendency to rationalism : he reaffirms his belief in the miracles, and in the doctrine of divine design and of a superintending 320 HENRY WARD BEECHER and personal Providence. He is not a Universal- ist : he repudiates with intense abhorrence the doctrine of endless punishment, but he does not affirm the doctrine of universal restoration ; u ana- logy would suggest that unfit men have run their career and perished." He is not a Unitarian : he reaffirms his acceptance of the Trinity, as the best hypothetical explanation to account for the teach- ings of Christian Church history and human expe- rience, and his undiminished faith in Christ as M the one fit manifestation of God, so far as he could be made known to human intelligence." He repudiates the doctrine of the Fall, but reaffirms in the strongest language his belief in the reality and universality of sinfulness, and in the necessity of repentance and that new birth which is the be- ginning of the new spiritual life. In his lectures on " Bible Studies," given on Sunday evenings during the autumn, winter, and spring of 1878- 79, he had anticipated much of the modern criti- cism, though he had done so, not in a scholastic discussion of theories, but in a practical use of the Old Testament narratives. In his sermons on " Evolution and Religion " he repudiates the doc- trine of the plenary and verbal inspiration of the Bible, and with it the doctrine that the Bible is inerrant and infallible, and substitutes therefor the doctrine of the Bible as "the record of the gradual and progressive unfolding of human know- ledge in respect to social and spiritual things through vast periods of time." At the same time LATER MINISTRY 321 he declares his reverence for the Bible as "the book which has reached the highest conception of God yet attained by human consciousness ; " a book which "gives the only grand ideal of manhood known to literature;" a "living book" with " power of inspiring men with the noblest desires ; " a " book that creates life." There is nothing in these views which to the modern reader will seem radical or revolutionary. In the score of years which have elapsed since these sermons were preached, evolution has won for itself universal recognition. Practically all scientists are now evolutionists ; all collegiate in- struction in every department is based on the assumption of the fundamental truth of evolution as the law of life and progress ; and the great ma- jority of ministers and theologians either frankly accept it or silently acquiesce in it. It is not neces- sary here to revive the bitterness of those years and repeat the vilification and abuse to which Mr. Beecher was subjected for the crime of being in advance of the churches of his time. This abuse, however, led to one significant act on his part which has sometimes been misinterpreted. Criti- cism of his theological views, coming from some of his brethren in the Congregational ministry, and especially in the local association to which he be- longed, led him in October, 1882, to withdraw from its membership, solely because he did not wish that other members should be embarrassed by any supposition that they indorsed or were responsible 322 HENRY WARD BEECHER for his at that time unpopular opinions. He did not, however, become an independent. He re- mained to the day of his death a Congregationalist in good standing, always continuing his member- ship in the state association, and always retain- ing his fellowship with the ministers and churches of the Congregational faith and order. He took the occasion of his withdrawal from the local asso- ciation to restate his evangelical faith. This state- ment, made with his customary frankness, to his own brethren in the ministry, was taken down by a shorthand reporter. 1 It is the fullest as it is the latest statement of Mr. Beecher's theological views, nor do I know any reason to think that he subse- quently departed in any important respect from these views. Neither the Sunday evening lectures on the Old Testament nor the Sunday morning sermons on " Evolution and Religion " are a mere exposition of critical and philosophical theories. In both series Mr. Beecher is still a preacher, not a lecturer. Other volumes of a later date by other authors will give to the reader a better intellectual conception of modern criticism as applied to the Old Testa- ment, and of the philosophy of evolution as applied in theological science ; but any preacher who de- sires to know how to use the Old Testament for spiritual ends, while holding it to be not an infalli- ble standard, but the record of a progressive reve- lation, will find few books more serviceable to his 1 See Appendix. LATER MINISTRY 323 purpose than Mr. Beecher's " Bible Studies ; " and any preacher who desires to know how to use the doctrine of evolution, as an instrument for the un- folding of spiritual truth in our time for practical and spiritual ends, will find few if any volumes more serviceable for his purpose than the one containing Mr. Beecher's first eight sermons on " Evolution and Religion." If any one asks what was the spiritual effect of this teaching as compared with that of the preced- ing epoch, the answer must be twofold : First, that Mr. Beecher did not suddenly become an evolu- tionist. " Slowly," he says, " and through a whole fifty years I have been under the influence, first obscurely, indirectly, of the great doctrine of evolu- tion." The doctrine that the kingdom of God is a growth, and comes not with observation, under- lay all his preaching ; and I do not know of any pastor of the last half of the last century whose preaching was accompanied with greater apparent spiritual results in accessions to the church on pro- fession of faith than that of Mr. Beecher. In the second place, although in the later decade there were no such great revivals as that of 1858, when three hundred and sixty-nine were added to the church on confession of their faith, most of them at a single communion, the average additions to the church on confession of faith were, with that exception, about the same during the last decade as during the earlier years, though they were un- accompanied by any such emotional conditions as 324 HENRY WARD BEECHER accompanied the two special revivals which occurred during the first ten years of his ministry. In 1881 Mr. Beecher severed his connection with " The Christian Union." Writing had grown increasingly distasteful to him. Confinement to the desk he avoided. His editorial relations to " The Christian Union " had been indeed through- out all my connection with it, that is, since 1876, somewhat slight and constantly lessening. I had hoped, through the services of a shorthand writer, to get from him, in conversation, material which would serve for editorial purpose ; but I did not to any considerable extent succeed. He was always expecting to write editorials, but almost never did. Occasionally he would send me a letter while on his lecture tours, but they were infrequent. He left the supervision of the paper wholly in my hands, although on great questions I constantly consulted with him. His ideas found their way to its columns through the inspiration which he afforded both to me and to others of the staff, but not in the inimitable form in which he would have put them. His name and mine stood at the head of the paper as joint editors. He came to feel, as I did, that this put both him and the paper in a false position, giving the public an impression that it was getting what really he was not furnishing. So at length, in 1881, he sold his interest in the paper, and laid down his editorial work. His lecturing, public speaking, and preaching he continued with unabated vigor to the end. Few LATER MINISTRY 325 were the public occasions at which he was not an honored guest. He was invited to speak at four of the six New England dinners in the city of Brook- lyn between 1880 and 1886, an honor accorded to no other man. On the 25th of January, 1883, a public meeting was tendered to him on the occa- sion of his seventieth birthday. The Academy of Music was crowded to its utmost capacity; and half an hour before the exercises commenced the doors had to be closed. A great throng remained outside, to whom, before the exercises within began, Mr. Beecher sj>oke briefly. Upon the stage within were many of the most eminent clergymen of Brooklyn and New York ; indeed, it would be easier to make a list of those who were absent than of those who were present, either in person or by letter. The meeting was presided over by Judge Joseph Neilson, who had presided at the trial of Mr. Beecher in the same city eight years before. Addresses of eulogy were delivered by Dr. Armi- tage on " Mr. Beecher as a Man," Dr. Robert Coll- yer on "Mr. Beecher's English Campaign," Dr. Fulton on " Mr. Beecher as a Christian," and by the Hon. Seth Low, then the mayor of Brooklyn, on " Mr. Beecher as a Citizen ; " and letters ex- pressive of confidence and esteem were read from Oliver Wendell Holmes, John G. Whittier, George William Curtis, Wendell Phillips, Andrew D. White, Mark Hopkins, Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, General W. T. Sherman, White- law Reid, Professor J. D. Dana, ex-President 326 HENRY WARD BEECHER Hayes, and others. A resolution was passed by a rising vote expressing the appreciation, by his fel- low citizens of Brooklyn, of Mr. Beecher " as a religious teacher, a public citizen, a generous neigh- bor and friend, and a man who by the integrity of his life and the purity of his character has van- quished misrepresentation and abuse, corrected and counteracted misunderstanding, and converted pub- lic alienation into personal affection." So passed his closing years. His campaigning days were over. To the end there were those who were alienated from him for various reasons : some, because in the battles through which he had passed he had dealt blows which left scars ; some, for ecclesiastical reasons which will seem to posterity, and indeed seem even now, wholly insignificant ; some, because his theological positions subjected him to undeserved religious suspicion ; some, be- cause his political independence could not be under- stood by those who can see no difference between loyalty to party and loyalty to principles. But all these combined made but an insignificant minor- ity. He was in Brooklyn easily its most distin- guished and its most honored citizen, respected by all, revered by many, loved by those who knew him best, his church devotedly attached to him. To the end he retained his physical and his intel- lectual force. His preaching was less imaginative and less impassioned than in the earlier years, but it was never more vigorous. Never did it appeal so effectively to men of large minds. His winters LATER MINISTRY 327 were given to work with a vigor which few men who have passed seventy could parallel ; his sum- mers were spent in the new home which he had built in Peekskill, and in which, as he once said to me, he had desired to express himself by show- ing in material form what a country home should be. Before, however, I come to speak of the last scene in this great life, I must devote two chapters to certain phases of his life work, necessarily passed by in this history, in order to maintain unbroken the continuity of the narrative. CHAPTER XIV EDITOR AND AUTHOR In this chapter I propose to bring together some facts illustrating Mr. Beecher's character and work in the sphere of journalism and authorship, such as could not well be inserted in their chronological order, except in brief reference, without interfering with the continuity of the historical narrative. Mr. Beecher began editorial work before he was ordained to the ministry. He acted for four or five months as editor of " The Cincinnati Journal," while he was still a student in Lane Seminary. His editorials produced such an impression that they were copied with approval by " The Cincinnati Gazette," at that time regarded as the ablest jour- nal west of the Alleghanies. In Indianapolis he edited an agricultural department in " The Indiana Journal," as a sort of recreation from the more serious labors of his ministry. During his editor- ship " The Western Farmer and Gardener," under which title the agricultural department of " The In- diana Journal " was published in monthly numbers, gained a national reputation. This editing was recreative ; real writing as a serious business of life, he did not enter upon to EDITOR AND AUTHOR 329 any extent until after he came to Brooklyn in 1847. " The Independent," which was started the follow- ing year, was a Congregational newspaper, estab- lished for the maintenance of Puritan doctrines and principles and their fearless application to social problems, especially that presented by slavery. Of its three editors, the Rev. Joseph P. Thompson, pas- tor of the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City, had especial administrative capacity, 1 and was prac- tically the managing editor of the journal. Mr. Beecher's genius was soon recognized by his Congre- gational associates, and he was engaged as a regular contributor. He was too independent to work well in harness ; his associates preferred that he should alone be responsible for his utterances, and he pre- ferred the freedom which such independence con- ferred. His methods of preparation and composition were peculiar, and were in striking contrast to those of his associate, Dr. Thompson. Dr. Thompson had his regular day at the office, was always punctual, calculated the amount of matter required, rarely if ever gave too much or too little, and his copy was the delight of compositors. Mr. Beecher came into the office about the time his manuscript was ex- pected, sometimes boiling over with excitement, sometimes bubbling over with humor, talked of anything and everything but the business before him, finally caught up his pen, turned to the near- est desk, shut himself up in his shell, impenetrable as if he were a turtle, drove his pen across the 1 See chapter xn. p. 288. 330 HENRY WARD BEECHER paper as if it were a printing-machine and he an electric battery, threw off the pages as he wrote them, left them to be gathered up and carried by the boy to the compositors' room, and trusted a subordinate to read proof, correct errors, and sup- ply omissions. But what he wrote was caught up and quoted from one end of the land to the other. In effectiveness of utterance Mr. Beecher's leaders in " The Independent " have never been surpassed in American journalism. Comparisons are perilous, but I think it is safe to say that no Northern journal, except perhaps " The New York Tribune" and "The New York Evening Post," exerted so powerful an influence in creating and guiding public opinion during the ten years which preceded the Civil War as did " The New York Independent." At the close of this epoch, and just on the eve of the outbreak of the Civil War, the Congrega- tional triumvirate resigned and Mr. Beecher be- came editor-in-chief of " The Independent." In the issue of December 19, 1861, appears his salutatory. It is brief. In it he declares that the change of editorship does not involve any change in the prin- ciples, purpose, or general spirit of the paper, which will continue " firmly to hold and to teach those great cardinal doctrines of religion that are substantially held in common by the Congregational orthodox churches of New England and by the Presbyterian churches of our whole land. But as heretofore, this will be done for the promotion of EDITOR AND AUTHOR 331 vital godliness rather than for sectarianism," and it " will not forget that there is an ethical as well as an emotive life in true religion," and therefore will assume " the liberty of meddling with every question which agitates the civil or Christian com- munity." During the brief term of Mr. Beecher's active control as editor-in-chief of " The Independ- ent " the influence of the paper was maintained, if it was not enhanced. Its efficient service in sus- taining the courage of the people, urging aggressive, patient, and persistent heroism, chiding the delays which McClellan's dilatory policy imposed upon the administration, preparing the way for the emanci- pation proclamation, and urging the issuing of one, has already been referred to in a previous chapter. What Mr. Beecher could have made of " The In- dependent " if he had been adequately supported is matter for surmise, not for history. He was not adequately supported. Mr. Tilton was as lacking in administrative ability as Mr. Beecher ; he was not more systematic by temperament, he was not steadied by great faith in great principles, and he was always ambitious to be editor-in-chief himself ; and at the end of two years Mr. Beecher resigned the editorship, to leave his friend and protege in his place. In January, 1870, the publishing firm of J. B. Ford & Company having bought a small and un- 1 The effect of this resignation and his ultimate entire with- drawal from the paper, and the reasons that led to it, have been stated in a preceding chapter. Chapter xn. 332 HENRY WARD BEECHER successful religious weekly entitled "The Church Union," started for the purpose of securing the or- ganic unity of all Protestant Evangelical churches, changed its name to "The Christian Union," and Mr. Beecher assumed its editorship. At the same time with its change of name, its character and purpose were changed. Mr. Beecher signalized his advent by insisting from the first that the paper which preached religion should also practice it. " He shut down at once and forever," says Mr. John R. Howard, his publisher, " upon a large class of pro- fitable business, in excluding medical advertise- ments, and in ordering a strict censorship upon whatever might offend the taste or impose upon the credulity of readers." Those who remember the class of advertising on which religious journals of that period, with few exceptions, largely depended for their income, will perhaps realize what so radi- cal action involved in this starting of a new jour- nal. Mr. Beecher's salutatory was much more elab- orate than that issued when he took the editorial charge of " The Independent," and indicates the enlarged conception of religious journalism which had grown out of his meditation on the enterprise during the four or five preceding years. This salu- tatory defines also his conception of religion. Sim- ple as these definitions now seem, they subjected him to severe criticism then. " Religion is but the expression of man's deepest and noblest nature. Although the development of religion has a rela- tion to time and history, religion itself is a life and EDITOR AND AUTHOR 333 not a philosophy, nor an organization. Its place is in the human soul. Its elements existed before a tenet was held or an act performed. Not until human nature perishes will religion cease. It does not depend for existence upon historic testimony. Although illustrated by miracles, it may exist with- out miracles ; although enforced by arguments, it may exist without arguments, as the inevitable outworking of a divine and constitutional element in man." This is but saying in another form what Sabatier has said in the epigrammatic expression, u Man is incurably religious." To Mr. Beecher the religious nature was u as much a part of crea- tion as the globe itself and its physical properties, and far more important." Religion is, therefore, more than Christianity, but " Christianity is the best exposition of that [religious] nature, its rela- tions, duties, and aspirations." These aspirations of the religious nature, fed by Christianity, are common to all Christian denominations ; and it is to the interpretation of these common elements in the Christian life Mr. Beecher consecrated " The Chris- tian Union." " This paper will not identify itself with that which is special to the organization of any of the great Christian denominations, but rather with that interior religious life which in all sects witnesses to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit." It was therefore to be the purpose of the paper to repre- sent, not Church union, but Christian union. " We distinguish between oneness of Church and oneness of Christian sympathy. Not only shall we not 334 HENRY WARD BEECHER labor for an external and ecclesiastical unity, but we should regard it as a step backward. . . . There will never be moral unity among Christians until the phantasy of Corporate Unity is expelled from the imagination." For this reason " i The Christian Union ' will devote no time to inveigh- ing against sects, but it will spare no pains to persuade Christians of every sect to treat one an- other with Christian charity, love, and sympathy." "Above all and hardest of all, it will be our endeavor to breathe, through the columns of * The Christian Union,' such Christian love, courage, equity, and gentleness as shall exemplify the doc- trine which it unfolds, and shall bring it into sym- pathy with the mind and will of the Lord Jesus Christ." If the reader thinks these quotations are the utterances of truisms, he might be induced to change his mind if he were to turn over the pages of the first issues of " The Christian Union," and see how severely Mr. Beecher was assailed because of them. He is attacked for recognizing the right of denominations to exist, and not demanding a union which shall obliterate them ; for proposing to lay emphasis on the practical, rather than on the ethical aspects of religion ; for affirming the inde- structible religious nature of man, in the face of Paul's declaration that none of the princes of this world knew the wisdom of God ; and his ability to act as a guide to Protestantism is denied be- cause " he is too impulsive ; " " he is too senti- EDITOR AND AUTHOR 335 mental ; " " he is too loose ; " " he is too ready to surrender truth." To this latter accusation Mr. Beecher replies : " We shall take it to heart, and strive henceforth to be slower, drier, tighter, and more obstinate." At the time when " The Christian Union " was organized, undenominational religious journalism was unknown, if not unthought of. It was sup- posed to be necessary to have a church constitu- ency behind each church organ. The religious journals were, I think without an exception, de- nominational in their character ; most of them were organs of an ecclesiastical system ; and it was their primary function to represent, maintain, and defend the ecclesiastical organization, its creeds, its rituals, its methods, its personnel. These denomi- national organs were ecclesiastical, theological, con- troversial ; as partisan in the realm of religion as the party press in the realm of public affairs. The notion that, underlying all the sects, there is a great indestructible religious sentiment, that this indestructible religious sentiment is more than the creeds which interpret it in dogmatic forms, more than the rituals which interpret it in worship, and more than the organizations which interpret it in aggressive action, though it is the commonplace of popular opinion to-day, was an incredible novelty when Mr. Beecher propounded it as the basis of a religious journal in 1870. He had always appealed from the ecclesiastics to the people in his pulpit : he now made the same appeal to a wider constitu- 336 HENRY WARD BEECHER ency in the press. Along with this conception of Christian life and this belief in a Christian con- stituency, was a conception of religion as a vital- izing force, to be applied to every department of human activity. He determined to make a paper, not for church people merely, but for the plain people of every creed and no creed, and therefore a paper which should " seek to interpret the Bible rather as a religion of life than as a book of doctrine." In my notebook is one sentence which he threw out in a subsequent discussion concern- ing the " Farm and Garden " department of the paper : " It is the aim of * The Christian Union,' " said he, "to gospelize all the industrial functions of life." But both these aims — to represent what is com- mon rather than what is denominational, and to represent what is practical rather than what is scientific, in the religious life — were subordinate to his purpose to maintain in the pages of " The Christian Union " a Christian spirit, one in " sym- pathy with the mind and will of the Lord Jesus Christ." How fully he carried out this purpose no one who was not with him in the times of great trial and provocation can ever fully know. He often reiterated this sentiment in our editorial conferences after I became associated with him on the paper. " If you are good-natured," he said once, " there is nothing which you cannot say ; if you are not good- natured, you cannot say anything." Never in the five years in which we were associated do I recall a EDITOR AND AUTHOR 337 single instance in which he manifested an acerb or irritated spirit, a desire to hit back, a wish to get even with an antagonist, or even an ambition for a victory over him. He would not allow the journal to be used in his own defense. He would defend Plymouth Church, if the church were attacked ; he would restate and explain his own statements of doctrine, if they had been misinterpreted or misun- derstood ; but he would never use the editorial columns, as he never used his pulpit, for purposes of personal defense. He waa quick and keen in re- partee, but it was always good-natured repartee. He never wrote, and rarely uttered, a sentence which had a sting in it : not because he could not, but because he would not. He would not even allow himself to be defended in the columns of the paper by his associates. After I became co-editor, it was not my custom to send to him the proofs of the editorial pages for his examination: he trusted them to me absolutely from the first ; but on one occasion a daily paper had attacked him so venom- ously, and with such gross misrepresentation of what he had said, that I resolved to depart from the standing rule of our journal, and reply. I sent my reply, in proof, to him, unwilling to set at naught, without his consent, the rule which he had estab- lished, and he returned the reply to me with the request, which, of course, was tantamount to a command, to suppress the editorial. I think now, as I thought then, that he carried this principle too far. The journal suffered from the silence which 338 HENRY WARD BEECHER he imposed upon it, during the time in which he was subjected to vituperation and abuse, because there were many who could not understand the chivalric cause for such silence, and counted it as giving a quasi consent to the rumors which were rife concerning him. In my judgment Mr. Beecher was a great edi- torial writer, and he would be universally counted so were it not that his eminence as a writer .has been dimmed by his greater eminence as an orator. An editorial writer nnist be interested in current events, acquainted with current opinion, have a grasp of great fundamental principles, an accurate, though not necessarily a detailed knowledge of facts, must be able to concentrate on one theme, in one article, all his powers, must have an imagina- tion which presents principles in concrete forms, an emotion which vivifies his teaching with life, must write a vigorous, terse English, must waste no words in rhetorical amplifications, and must possess power to create, not merely reflect, public opinion. All these powers Mr. Beecher had in an eminent degree, and, superadded to them, an iri- descent humor and a self-controlled emotion, which prevented his editorials from ever being afflicted with dullness : they now flashed fire and now were rich with color, like his own favorite opal. Re- reading the pages of the first volume of "The Christian Union," to which he contributed more largely than to any subsequent issues, I am impressed with these qualities manifesting themselves in dif- EDITOR AND AUTHOR 339 ferent proportions in different contributions, — now in a strong discussion of some great public question ; now in a succession of paragraphs, like an after- dinner table-talk. The phenomenal success into which " The Chris- tian Union " leaped from its birth was due partly to the conception which Mr. Beecher had of what a religious journal should be, and to the spirit which he infused into it through others. But it was not less due to the loyal seconding and support of Mr. George S. Merriam, Mr. Beecher's associate in the editorship, and the boundless energy and sagac- ity of the publishers, Fords, Howard & Hulbert. What as editor Mr. Beecher did in those first years of " The Christian Union," in it, and for it, and through it, Mr. George S. Merriam, who was its real editor from May, 1870, to December, 1875, tells in the following letter, which, written to me, at my request for information, he permits me to incorporate here : — I went to the paper in May, 1870, almost immediately after it started, and remained, for the most part as man- aging editor, until December, 1875, when I left on account of a difference with Mr. Beecher over a business question. During that period Mr. Beecher wrote very little and edited still less. The exact amount of his writing could be learned, if it were worth while, from the record of all contributions to the paper which I kept in the big editorial book, which I suppose is still in your archives. He was so absorbed by other occupations, and so distracted by cares, that we could get from him little work and usually little attention — and I think the 340 HENRY WARD BEECHER tongue rather than the pen was his natural weapon. Brilliantly though he often wrote, it seemed to require a special occasion and considerable pressure to induce him to write. But talk, — why, when he was in good mood, and that was much of the time, an audience of two or three, and a congenial theme, would move him to speech as eloquent as if he were in Plymouth pulpit. He would sit on the table (if so it chanced in an office), and hold forth so brilliantly that Edward Ford, most enterprising of publishers, once had a scheme for keep- ing a stenographer in ambush, and getting articles from him unawares. Of editing as a practical business he knew almost nothing. But he had the great merit of giving his sub- ordinates free rein, when he knew he could trust them. He never interfered needlessly, never nagged, rarely censured (he hated to give pain, in that as in all ways), and, to say truth, seldom praised. He pretty much let the paper run itself, making us glad once in a while by a trenchant editorial on public affairs, or a charming " Star Paper ; " hastily reading the editorial proofs at his house Monday morning, curbing now and then his too eager and outspoken lieutenant by blue pencil lines through his effusions, but for the most part tolerant and uncritical ; in emergencies selecting the business or edi- torial conductors — not always with the soundest judg- ment ; coming into the occasional stockholders' meetings, sanguine and optimistic, and feeling when he had said a thing as if he had done it. Yet the paper was deeply indebted to him for its character and for its life. It was begun, not at his initia- tive, but by young men who devotedly believed in him, and who aimed to gain for him a larger audience. The best of its capital was the popularity of his name. Its financial support came from business men who not only EDITOR AND AUTHOR 337 single instance in which he manifested an acerb or irritated spirit, a desire to hit back, a wish to get even with an antagonist, or even an ambition for a victory over him. He would not allow the journal to be used in his own defense. He would defend Plymouth Church, if the church were attacked ; he would restate and explain his own statements of doctrine, if they had been misinterpreted or misun- derstood; but he would never use the editorial columns, as he never used his pulpit, for purposes of personal defense. He was quick and keen in re- partee, but it was always good-natured repartee. He never wrote, and rarely uttered, a sentence which had a sting in it : not because he could not, but because he would not. He would not even allow himself to be defended in the columns of the paper by his associates. After I became co-editor, it was not my custom to send to him the proofs of the editorial pages for his examination: he trusted them to me absolutely from the first ; but on one occasion a daily paper had attacked him so venom- ously, and with such gross misrepresentation of what he had said, that I resolved to depart from the standing rule of our journal, and reply. I sent my reply, in proof, to him, unwilling to set at naught, without his consent, the rule which he had estab- lished, and he returned the reply to me with the request, which, of course, was tantamount to a command, to suppress the editorial. I think now, as I thought then, that he carried this principle too far. The journal suffered from the silence which 338 HENRY WARD BEECHER he imposed upon it, during the time in which he was subjected to vituperation and abuse, because there were many who could not understand the chivalric cause for such silence, and counted it as giving a quasi consent to the rumors which were rife concerning him. In my judgment Mr. Beecher was a great edi- torial writer, and he would be universally counted so were it not that his eminence as a writer has been dimmed by his greater eminence as an orator. An editorial writer must be interested in current events, acquainted with current opinion, have a grasp of great fundamental principles, an accurate, though not necessarily a detailed knowledge of facts, must be able to concentrate on one theme, in one article, all his powers, must have an imagina- tion which presents principles in concrete forms, an emotion which vivifies his teaching with life, must write a vigorous, terse English, must waste no words in rhetorical amplifications, and must possess power to create, not merely reflect, public opinion. All these powers Mr. Beecher had in an eminent degree, and, superadded to them, an iri- descent humor and a self -controlled emotion, which prevented his editorials from ever being afflicted with dullness : they now flashed fire and now were rich with color, like his own favorite opal. Re- reading the pages of the first volume of "The Christian Union," to which he contributed more largely than to any subsequent issues, I am impressed with these qualities manifesting themselves in dif- EDITOR AND AUTHOR 339 ferent proportions in different contributions, — now in a strong discussion of some great public question ; now in a succession of paragraphs, like an after- dinner table-talk. The phenomenal success into which " The Chris- tian Union " leaped from its birth was due partly to the conception which Mr. Beecher had of what a religious journal should be, and to the spirit which he infused into it through others. But it was not less due to the loyal seconding and support of Mr. George S. Merriam, Mr. Beecher's associate in the editorship, and the boundless energy and sagac- ity of the publishers, Fords, Howard & Hulbert. What as editor Mr. Beecher did in those first years of " The Christian Union," in it, and for it, and through it, Mr. George S. Merriam, who was its real editor from May, 1870, to December, 1875, tells in the following letter, which, written to me, at my request for information, he permits me to incorporate here : — I went to the paper in May, 1870, almost immediately after it started, and remained, for the most part as man- aging editor, until December, 1875, when I left on account of a difference with Mr. Beecher over a business question. During that period Mr. Beecher wrote very little and edited still less. The exact amount of his writing could be learned, if it were worth while, from the record of all contributions to the paper which I kept in the big editorial book, which I suppose is still in your archives. He was so absorbed by other occupations, and so distracted by cares, that we could get from him little work and usually little attention — and I think the 340 HENRY WARD BEECHER tongue rather than the pen was his natural weapon. Brilliantly though he often wrote, it seemed to require a special occasion and considerable pressure to induce him to write. But talk, — why, when he was in good mood, and that was much of the time, an audience of two or three, and a congenial theme, would move him to speech as eloquent as if he were in Plymouth pulpit. He would sit on the table (if so it chanced in an office), and hold forth so brilliantly that Edward Ford, most enterprising of publishers, once had a scheme for keep- ing a stenographer in ambush, and getting articles from him unawares. Of editing as a practical business he knew almost nothing. But he had the great merit of giving his sub- ordinates free rein, when he knew he could trust them. He never interfered needlessly, never nagged, rarely censured (he hated to give pain, in that as in all ways), and, to say truth, seldom praised. He pretty much let the paper run itself, making us glad once in a while by a trenchant editorial on public affairs, or a charming " Star Paper ; " hastily reading the editorial proofs at his house Monday morning, curbing now and then his too eager and outspoken lieutenant by blue pencil lines through his effusions, but for the most part tolerant and uncritical ; in emergencies selecting the business or edi- torial conductors — not always with the soundest judg- ment ; coming into the occasional stockholders' meetings, sanguine and optimistic, and feeling when he had said a thing as if he had done it. Yet the paper was deeply indebted to him for its character and for its life. It was begun, not at his initia- tive, but by young men who devotedly believed in him, and who aimed to gain for him a larger audience. The best of its capital was the popularity of his name. Its financial support came from business men who not only EDITOR AND AUTHOR 349 interprets its life. He enters into the character of the central figure, and portrays a Christ who is at once wholly human and wholly divine. The theo- logy is as simple as that of the Apostles; the faith as childlike and unquestioning ; the literary pictures of scenes and events are as unecclesias- tical, unconventional, naturally human as the best water-colors in Tissot's remarkable collection ; the insight into the character and the teaching of Jesus is certainly unsurpassed, and to my thought unequaled, by any analogous work. As an inter- pretation of the life, character, and teachings of Jesus Christ, it occupies a unique place in that library of " Lives of Christ " which the nineteenth century produced. The writer is known by his style even more than the wearer by his clothes. The defects and the excellencies of Mr. Beecher are those of an extreme naturalness : he wrote as he spoke — extempo- raneously. His preparations were general, not specific. He rarely revised or polished or perfected ; still more rarely did he rewrite. He talked with his pen, and writing was wearisome to him because he could not drive his pen fast enough to keep pace with his thinking. But he never learned to write by dictation; even his letters were autographic. By training and temperament a preacher, he car- ried the didactic spirit into all his serious writing. Artistic he certainly was, but not continuously, and never did he write merely for art's sake. In one of his sermons he says, " The figures of the 350 HENRY WARD BEECHER Bible are not mere graceful ornaments — ara- besques to grace a border, or fancy frescoes that give mere beauty to a chamber or saloon. They are language." In this sentence he interprets his own use of the imagination. Sometimes in his lighter writing it is an end ; he indulges in the play of the imagination for the mere enjoyment of so doing; but generally, his imagination is illuminating ; it is called into the service of an earnest purpose. His humor is instinctive and irrepressible. He perceives incongruous relations, and his perception of them flashes out on all occasions, giving a spontaneous and unpremeditated sparkle to his most serious discourses. His style is very varied, depending more than in almost any writer I am familiar with, upon the mood of the moment ; but in all its variations, it preserves the qualities of clearness, vigor, and sympathy. The singleness of his purpose made his style clear, for he never considered what was prudent to say, but only how he could make his auditors or readers understand him. His courage, the directness of his aim, and the marshaling of his thoughts, which often march in serried ranks, rank after rank, over- whelming, not only by their number, but by their disciplined array, combined to give to his style great vigor. His sympathy gave to his style a quality which I can compare only to timbre in the voice, — penetrating, inviting, winning, subduing. He was a student of many authors, — not only for EDITOR AND AUTHOR 351 their ideas but for their style, — but he was an imita- tor of none. He formed himself on no mould, — indeed, I am inclined to think that he did not consciously mould himself at all, — he grew. But he lived in intellectual companionship with great authors. Neither in public address nor in private conversation did he indicate a lover's familiarity with Shakespeare among the older authors, or with Browning, Emerson, or Carlyle among the later writers. But he had read and studied Buskin's " Modern Painters," which he heartily commends as an interpretation of nature ; he was familiar with Milton, some of whose prose essays he had read and reread many times ; and with Homer and Dante, though only through translations. Critics treat literature by different and even inconsistent standards. To some literature is an art, to be tested, as a picture, by its beauty of form and color, or as music, by its rhythmic struc- ture. To such Mr. Beecher's writings and addresses will never take a high place in literature. They are too uneven, pass too quickly from the written to the spoken style, from the eloquence of the orator to the effectiveness of the talker — are, in a word, too unfinished. Some regard literature as an expres- sion of life, and count that the best literature which best expresses the highest and most varied life. To such Mr. Beecher's writings will always take a high place. For they express always with effective- ness, generally with vigor, often with real eloquence, 352 HENRY WARD BEECHER frequently with consummate artistic beauty, a life of almost infinite variety. Before taking up the closing days of Mr. Beech- er's life, a chapter must be given to the work which contains his own interpretation of himself as a preacher — " The Yale Lectures on Preaching." EDITOR AND AUTHOR 349 interprets its life. He enters into the character of the central figure, and portrays a Christ who is at once wholly human and wholly divine. The theo- logy is as simple as that of the Apostles; the faith as childlike and unquestioning ; the literary pictures of scenes and events are as unecclesias- tical, unconventional, naturally human as the best water-colors in Tissot's remarkable collection ; the insight into the character and the teaching of Jesus is certainly unsurpassed, and to my thought unequaled, by any analogous work. As an inter- pretation of the life, character, and teachings of Jesus Christ, it occupies a unique place in that library of " Lives of Christ " which the nineteenth century produced. The writer is known by his style even more than the wearer by his clothes. The defects and the excellencies of Mr. Beecher are those of an extreme naturalness: he wrote as he spoke — extempo- raneously. His preparations were general, not specific. He rarely revised or polished or perfected ; still more rarely did he rewrite. He talked with his pen, and writing was wearisome to him because he could not drive his pen fast enough to keep pace with his thinking. But he never learned to write by dictation; even his letters were autographic. By training and temperament a preacher, he car- ried the didactic spirit into all his serious writing. Artistic he certainly was, but not continuously, and never did he write merely for art's sake. In one of his sermons he says, " The figures of the 350 HENRY WARD BEECHER Bible are not mere graceful ornaments — ara- besques to grace a border, or fancy frescoes that give mere beauty to a chamber or saloon. They are language." In this sentence he interprets his own use of the imagination. Sometimes in his lighter writing it is an end ; he indulges in the play of the imagination for the mere enjoyment of so doing; but generally, his imagination is illuminating; it is called into the service of an earnest purpose. His humor is instinctive and irrepressible. He perceives incongruous relations, and his perception of them flashes out on all occasions, giving a spontaneous and unpremeditated sparkle to his most serious discourses. His style is very varied, depending more than in almost any writer I am familiar with, upon the mood of the moment ; but in all its variations, it preserves the qualities of clearness, vigor, and sympathy. The singleness of his purpose made his style clear, for he never considered what was prudent to say, but only how he could make his auditors or readers understand him. His courage, the directness of his aim, and the marshaling of his thoughts, which often march in serried ranks, rank after rank, over- whelming, not only by their number, but by their disciplined array, combined to give to his style great vigor. His sympathy gave to his style a quality which I can compare only to timbre in the voice, — penetrating, inviting, winning, subduing. He was a student of many authors, — not only for EDITOR AND AUTHOR 351 their ideas but for their style, — but he was an imita- tor of none. He formed himself on no mould, — indeed, I am inclined to think that he did not consciously mould himself at all, — he grew. But he lived in intellectual companionship with great authors. Neither in public address nor in private conversation did he indicate a lover's familiarity with Shakespeare among the older authors, or with Browning, Emerson, or Carlyle among the later writers. But he had read and studied Ruskin's " Modern Painters," which he heartily commends as an interpretation of nature; he was familiar with Milton, some of whose prose essays he had read and reread many times ; and with Homer and Dante, though only through translations. Critics treat literature by different and even inconsistent standards. To some literature is an art, to be tested, as a picture, by its beauty of form and color, or as music, by its rhythmic struc- ture. To such Mr. Beecher's writings and addresses will never take a high pla/je in literature. They are too uneven, pass too quickly from the written to the spoken style, from the eloquence of the orator to the effectiveness of the talker — are, in a word, too unfinished. Some regard literature as an expres- sion of life, and count that the best literature which best expresses the highest and most varied life. To such Mr. Beecher's writings will always take a high place. For they express always with effective- ness, generally with vigor, often with real eloquence, 352 HENRY WARD BEECHER frequently with consummate artistic beauty, a life of almost infinite variety. Before taking up the closing days of Mr. Beech- er's life, a chapter must be given to the work which contains his own interpretation of himself as a preacher — " The Yale Lectures on Preaching." CHAPTER XV THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING In 1871 Mr. Henry W. Sage, of Brooklyn, a pro- minent member of Plymouth Church and a warm friend of Henry Ward Beecher, contributed the necessary funds for the establishment of a lecture- ship on preaching in the Divinity School at Yale College. In honor of Mr. Beecher's father it was named the Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preach- ing ; its object was to secure for young men in the seminary a course of lectures on the art of preach- ing from those actively engaged in the practice of it. It was generally understood that Mr. Sage desired especially to secure such counsels for the benefit of young ministers from his own pastor; and accordingly the first three courses were given by Henry Ward Beecher : the first specifically on preaching, the second on church administration, the third on the use of Christian doctrines, or what might be called applied theology. In his preface to the first series of these lectures Mr. Beecher indicates what is both their strength and their weakness*. " The discourses here given," he says, "were wholly unwritten and were famil- iar conversational addresses, rather than elaborate speeches. I have not been able to revise the report- 354 HENRY WARD BEECHER er's notes, or to correct the proofs of the printer." To such work of revision Mr. Beecher was always averse. If he had undertaken it in this case the lectures would probably have lost in familiarity of tone more than they would have gained in homo- geneity of structure. As usual in his spoken ad- dresses, he had in mind the audience immediately before him, not the larger audience he would sub- sequently reach through the printed page. The lec- tures are throughout autobiographical in spirit, and often in form. They possess a literary character analogous to that of the " Table-Talk " of Luther or of Coleridge. They are not symmetrically philo- sophical, but they are, what is better, personal and vital. It is in this personality that their chief charm and perhaps their chief value lie. They not only state the philosophy which Mr. Beecher had formulated as to the ministerial functions, but they reveal the secret of his own power, and are the product of his own life; a self -revelation of his own inmost spirit, an interpretation of himself to his audience. As through a window we look in and see the intellectual and spiritual processes by which the sermons and addresses which produced such results were prepared. In here reporting the substance of these conversational addresses it is impossible to preserve this charm of personality. The aphoristic wisdom, the genial humor, the ef- fervescent spirits, the unconventional piety, the warmth of human sympathy, the autobiographical reminiscences, the personal self -revelation, cannot THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 355 be preserved, can scarcely be even intimated in such an abstract as is here prescribed. Nor can the large- ness of resource, the intellectual readiness, the human sympathy, and the genial humor that characterized his answers to the questions which the students were incited to propound to him at the close of each lecture, be portrayed. "Pulpit dynamics" is the phrase which Mr. Beecher, in personal conversation with me, used to designate the first volume. It was a felicitous designation. The entire volume is devoted to a con- sideration of the secret of pulpit power. In it he deals with the minister exclusively as a preacher. " The preacher is a teacher ; but he is more." " He looks beyond mere knowledge to a character which that knowledge is to form. It is not enough that men shall know. They must 6e." Therefore the preacher must not merely know ; he must be. " The truth must exist in him as a living experience, a glowing enthusiasm, an intense reality." The divine truth must be " a part of his own experience, so that when he speaks to men it shall not be he alone that speaks, but God in him." This living force of the human soul brought to bear upon the living souls for the sake of their transforma- tion is the fundamental conception underlying all successful preaching. This emphasis on the per- sonal power of the preacher emphasizes the differ- ence between the evangelical and the hierarchical churches. " Both hold to the indispensableness of divine power ; but one believes that power to work 356 HENRY WARD BEECHER chiefly through church ordinances, the other be- lieves that it works through living men." " The man that preaches with power is an artist. He is a living creature. But the man who merely comes to administer ordinances on Sundays or Saints' Days, who goes through a regular routine, is no- thing but the engineer who runs the machine." He also does good, but not the highest good. That is wrought by the sermon ; and among sermons, that which is highest is the one preached " for divine power on men's minds and hearts ; " in which the preacher has " a definite reason why he selected one subject rather than another, and why he put it in one form rather than another." " The highest con- ception of a sermon is, that it is a prescription which a man has made, either for a certain individ- ual, or for a certain class, or for a certain state of things that he knows to exist in the congregation." Next to the character of the preacher and a definite object in his sermon comes style, — the avoidance of " scholastic, artificial style ; " the for- mation of a natural style, such as a man in earnest uses in conversation. In addition to these qualifica- tions for the ministry are fruitf ulness in moral ideas, a genius for them, such as a mathematician has for mathematics, or a musician for musical ideas ; in- terest in men, sympathy with them, power to move them ; " living by faith, the sense of the infinite and the invisible, the sense of something else be- sides what we see with the physical eyes, the sense of God, of eternity, of heaven ; " humility, willing- THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 357 ness to be the least of all God's servants and to labor in the humblest sphere. Entering into this ministry with these qualifica- tions, the preacher must study how to bring his personality to bear on all sorts and conditions of men, by all varieties of approach. " If a man can be saved by pure intellectual preaching, let him have it. If others require a predominance of emotion, provide that for them. If by others the truth is taken more easily through the imagination, give it to them by forms attractive to the imagina- tion. If there are still others who demand it in the form of facts and rules, see that they have it in that form.'* "Preachers are too apt to set the truth before their congregations in one way only, . . . whereas, preaching should be directed to every element of human nature that God has implanted in us." If the preacher has not the necessary ver- satility of character he must set himself to develop it : he must learn to be all things to all men. To succeed in such a ministry as this he must make preaching his whole business. Or if he engage in other pursuits, he must so do it that they shall add to his force in preaching, not detract from it. Gar- dening, lecturing, journeying, aesthetic studies, pub- lic affairs, society recreations, may be taken just in so far as they minister to the preacher's power, and no farther. There are material hindrances to this impartation of personality which the preacher should endeavor to avoid or remove. Such a hindrance is the separation of the pews from the 358 HENRY WARD BEECHER pulpit by a great space between the two. Great Gothic pillars are another, behind which "the people can sit and look at the columns during the whole of the sermon time." The barrel pulpit is another. " I think the matter so important, that I tell the truth and lie not, when I say that I would not accept a settlement in a very advan- tageous place, if I was obliged to preach out of one of those old-fashioned swallows' nests on the wall." In preparing for preaching a first condition is the study of human nature. There are three schools of preachers : the Ecclesiastical, the Dogmatic, and the Life School. The first " regard the Church on earth as something to be administered, and them- selves as channels, in some sense, of Divine Grace, to direct the flow of that divine institution." The second are " those who have relied upon a preexist- ing system of truth . . . and who apparently pro- ceed upon the supposition that their whole duty is discharged when they have made a regular and repetitious statement of all the great points of doctrine from time to time." The third proceeds " upon the necessity for all teachers, first, to study the strengths and weaknesses of human nature minutely ; and then to make use of such portions of the truth as are required by the special needs of man, and for the development of the spiritual nature over the animal or lower side — the prepara- tion of man in his higher nature for a nobler exist- ence hereafter." The live preacher must study human nature. First, "because it illustrates the THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 359 divine nature, which we are to interpret to men." " The only part of the divine nature which we can understand is that part which corresponds to our- selves." Therefore, practically, the study of God is but a higher form of human mental philosophy. Second, the minister is to cure men. Therefore he must know what is the disease of which they are to be cured, and what is normal or healthful hu- man nature, from which sin is a departure. Third, he must know man in order to know how to ap- proach him, as a surgeon called to amputate a leg must know anatomy as well as the surgeon's tools. Every type of human nature, every phase of human experience, is, therefore, a proper subject for the preacher's study. He ought to know physiology, and the psychology which is founded upon it. He ought to study society and he ought to study the individual. For such study phrenology is " a con- venient basis." " Not only is its nomenclature con- venient, but what it teaches concerning craniology and physiology furnishes valuable indications of individual character." " I see a man with a small brow and big in the lower part of his head like a bull, and I know that that man is not likely to be a saint." " If I see a man whose forehead is very high and large, but who is thin in the back of the head, and with a small neck and trunk, I say to my- self ... he is a man who has great organs, but nothing to drive them with. He is like a splendid locomotive without a boiler." And this study of human nature should be conducted for the purpose 360 HENRY WARD BEECHER of regenerating it. Therefore the minister must be familiar with men, not merely generically with human nature, but specifically with individuals. He " should take kindly to individual men for the very purpose of studying them." The minister " must be a man among men. . . . Books alone are not enough. Studying is not enough." As to specific methods of preaching no universal law can be laid down : the preacher must under- stand his own temperament and adapt his preach- ing to it. " That is the best cat that catches the most rats. And in your case it will be the best form of sermon that does the work of the sermon the best. If you can do best by writing, write your sermons ; and if you can do better by not writing, do not write them." So as to length of sermon : that must depend upon the community ; upon the church ; upon its other services ; and upon the previous habits of the people. There are four psychological elements that enter into the suc- cessful sermon, — imagination, emotion, enthusi- asm, and conviction. Imagination is indispensable to clearness. It is the true germ of faith. It in- cludes " the power of the minister himself to real- ize the invisible God as present, and to present him to the people." Emotion is indispensable to power. " A minister without feeling is no better than a book. You might just as well put a book, printed in large type, on the desk where all could read it, and have a man turn over the leaves as you read, as to have a man stand up, and clearly and coldly THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 361 recite the prosaic truth through which he has gone by a logical course of reasoning. " To imagination and emotion must be added enthusiasm and con- viction : the first to give outburst and glow ; the second to carry conviction to others. "Do not prove things too much." " Preach truth to the consciousness of men." For the most effective work in preaching, physi- cal equipment is necessary. This includes careful drill in the use of the voice and of the whole body. This drill must be so thorough that the right use of both becomes a second nature. " No knowledge is really knowledge until you can use it without knowing it." This training should include ges- ture and bodily carriage, as well as voice. It ought to take place early and be incorporated in the char- acter of the minister. Other training is not less necessary. It should include thorough familiarity with the Bible ; not so much a knowledge of philo- sophy, as a habit of thinking philosophically, the "habit of looking at truth, not in isolated and fragmentary forms, but in all its relations ; " and skill in the use of illustration, not for ornament, but for producing conviction ; a use based on the principle that " substantially the mode in which we learn a new thing is by its being likened to some- thing that we already know." Illustrations rightly used assist argument, help the hearers to remember, stimulate the imagination, rest the audience by changing the faculties employed in listening, reach through different avenues different hearers, and 362 HENRY WARD BEECHER bridge difficult places by teaching parabolically truth to which men would refuse to listen if pre- sented directly. To be effective they must be va- rious, often homely, accurate, and apt and prompt. The minister ought to have health, and cultivate health. " What I mean by « health ' is such a feel- ing or tone in every part of a man's body that he has a natural language of health." " It is buoyancy. It is the insatiable desire of play and of exertion." "A man in he,alth is a fountain, and he flows over at the eye, the lip, and all the time, by every species of action and demonstration." Health, thus defined, is almost indispensable to oratorical power. " The speakers that move a crowd . . . are almost always men of very large physical develop- ment, men of very strong digestive powers, and whose lungs have great orating capacity. They are men who, while they have a sufficient thought- power to create all the material needed, have pre- eminently the explosive power by which they can thrust their material out at men." Preaching " means the hardest kind of work," and therefore requires health. Without health " it is impossible to sustain a cheerful and hopeful ministry." Health helps the preacher to give healthful views of Christianity as that which " aims only at a nobler style of manhood and at a better and hap- pier style of living. Health is a sweetener of work and gives a joyous relish for it. To have health one must know how to eat, how to sleep, how to exer- cise, and how to adjust his eating, his sleep, his exer- THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 363 cise, not according to hard and fast rules given to him by another, but according to his own nature and its needs. How Mr. Beecher regulated his own habits he told the students, and from this lecture I have drawn in an earlier chapter, in my description of his personal habits. In his ninth lecture Mr. Beecher discusses ser- mon-making : the relative advantages of the writ- ten and unwritten discourse, urging neither, only urging that " the essential necessity is that every preacher should be able to speak without notes," because there are many occasions in which nothing will answer but the unwritten discourse. But ex- temporaneous preaching does not mean extempo- raneous preparation. " There must be incessant work." Sermons should be variable in style and quality. " If it be possible, never have two plans alike." " If you have preached to-day to the heart through the imagination, to-morrow you are to preach to the heart through the reason." " When you have finished your sermon, not a man of your congregation should be unable to tell you what you have done ; but when you begin a sermon, no man in the congregation ought to be able to tell you what you are going to do." The sermon should be suggestive, not exhaustive. " That sermon has been overwrought and overdone which leaves nothing for the mind of the hearer to do." " A much larger use should be made of expository preaching than has been customary in our churches," because of the wealth and diversity of topics which will come 364 HENRY WARD BEECHER up for illustration by means of expository preach- ing. The preacher should avoid the temptation to preach " great sermons " — " Nebuchadnezzar ser- mons, over which the vain preacher stands, saying, 4 Is not this great Babylon that I have builded for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty.' " " Ser- mons that are tridy great come of themselves. They spring from sources deeper than vanity or ambition." As to length of sermons, " that should never be determined by the clock, but upon broader considerations — short sermons for small subjects, and long sermons for large subjects." In all the preacher's ministry, love must be the central element and the secret of power — to the elucidation of this truth, the tenth and last lecture of the first series is devoted. Love " is not so much a faculty or power, as it is a certain condition of the whole spirit, made up of the con- tribution of several different elements of the mind, having relations to things superior and to things inferior." " It is the going-out of thought, of feel- ing, and of sympathy towards others, and towards whatever can receive benefit from us." " It is the wish that whatever we are thinking of, or saying, or doing, may make some one better and happier." It is not lazy, smiling good nature. It has fire and snap, and may be terribly angry. It is not the absence of any power, but it gives quality and direc- tion to all the powers. It is central and funda- mental to the' minister ; it inspires in him joy in THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 365 his work, makes it spontaneous and healthful, gives to it power and abundance, gives catholicity to sym- pathy and therefore approach to all sorts of men, sustains in discouragement, gives freedom and tact and skill and courage. " You can discuss any topic if you only love men enough ; your heart will tell you how to approach." Doubtless some of Mr. Beecher's positions in this series of lectures will be criticised. I am doubtful whether craniological and physiological aspects are as sure indications of character as he seems to think ; they did not, as we have seen, prevent him from falling a prey to designing men. He does not seem to me, in his criticism of cere- monialism, to allow sufficiently for the power in the people of the imagination which he lauds in the preacher. Who has seen a Roman Catholic con- gregation bowing at the elevation of the Host, and not realized their imaginative power to clothe the Host with an impalpable and invisible personality ? "Who can doubt that worshipers, in their use of a liturgy, are enabled, by their imagination, to see in it the expression of the penitence, the petitions, and the gratitude of those whose use of it through centuries of devotion has impregnated it with a spiritual life ? The administrator of such a liturgy is more than an " engineer who runs the machine." A part, too, of these counsels will possibly appear to the modern reader commonplace. He will say to them " of course." But they were not common- 366 HENRY WARD BEECHER place thirty years ago. They were radical then. It is illustrative of the power of Mr. Beecher's spirit that the methods of the preacher and the spirit of the pulpit have undergone so great a change in the last half century. It is less ecclesiastical and more practical ; it is less theological and more human ; it is less devoted to building up a system and more devoted to building up men ; there is, to use Mr. Beecher's classification, less ecclesiastical and dog- matic preaching, and more that is vital. And yet there is certainly abundant occasion for still fur- ther improvement. Whatever preachers may think, most laymen will agree in the opinion that preach- ing would receive a vast accession of power if preachers generally realized that sermons are only means to an end, that every sermon should be aimed at a definite result, and that all use of doc- trine, argument, and illustration, all questions con- cerning rhetoric and style, and all employment of voice and gesture should be determined by the consideration how best to produce on the auditor a definite ethical and spiritual result, carefully planned beforehand by the preacher as the sole object of his sermon, to which all is directed, and by which all is shaped and patterned. It is more difficult to give, by analysis, any con- ception of the second series of lectures, because, even more than the first, their value lies not so much in principles expounded, or practical coun- sels given, as in spiritual life imparted. A certain unreserve was one of the elements of Mr. Beecher's THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 367 power. Like Paul, he gave frank and free expres- sion to his own personal experiences, whenever he believed their disclosure would be spiritually help- ful to those who were looking to him for life. This spiritual freedom is a marked characteristic of the second series of his lectures on preaching. A single quotation may serve at once to illustrate this char- acteristic, and to indicate to the reader one of the hidden sources, perhaps the chief source, of his extraordinary power in the pulpit : — I can bear this witness, that never in the study, in the most absorbed moments ; never on the street, in those chance inspirations that everybody is subject to, when I am lifted up highest ; never in any company, where friends are the sweetest and dearest, ^— never in any circumstances in life is there anything that is to me so touching as when I stand, in ordinary good health, before my great congregation to pray for them. Hun- dreds and hundreds of times, as I rose to pray and glanced at the congregation, I could not keep back the tears. There came to my mind such a sense of their wants, there were so many hidden sorrows, there were so many weights and burdens, there were so many doubts, there were so many states of weakness, there were so many dangers, so many perils, there were such histories, — not world histories, but eternal world his- tories, — I had such a sense of compassion for them, my soul so longed for them, that it seemed to me as if I could scarcely open my mouth to speak for them. And when I take my people and carry them before God to plead for them, I never plead for myself as I do for them, — I never could. Indeed, I sometimes, as I have said, hardly feel as if I had anything to ask ; but oh, 368 HENRY WARD BEECHER when I know what is going on in the heart of my peo- ple, and I am permitted to stand to lead them, to in- spire their thought and feeling, and go into the presence of God, there is no time that Jesus is so crowned with glory as then ! There is no time that I ever get so far into heaven. I can see my mother there ; I see again my little children ; I walk again, arm in arm with those who have been my companions and co-workers. I for- get the body, I live in the spirit ; and it seems as if God permitted me to lay my hand on the very Tree of Life, and to shake down from it both leaves and fruit for the healing of my people ! This personal experience, this combination of spiritual vision and human sympathy, transfuses in an eminent degree the second volume of Mr. Beecher's lectures on preaching. It cannot be inter- preted in an analysis ; and yet without it the ana- lysis is to the original lectures what a pressed and dried flower, its fragrance gone and its colors dimmed, is to the original living flower as it grows in the garden. The central principle of the volume, from the application of which all its counsels pro- ceed, is that the object of the ministry is the pro- duction of Christlikeness of character in man. In choosing the field, therefore, the minister is to go where he is most needed. If there be no church, he is to create one by bringing together men in the religious life that they may help themselves, and help one another spiritually through their social relations. His work in the community is to be primarily spiritual ; it is to bring upon them the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. If he is to do THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 369 this, his ministry must be a prayerful ministry. If he is to lift others up into the presence of the In- visible Father, he must walk in that presence him- self : — and this is prayer. He must promote the spirit of prayer in the church, and through this the prayer-meeting, which is a family meeting of a spir- itual household in spiritual fellowship. To the con- duct of the prayer-meeting Mr. Beecher devotes two lectures, urging its value and giving practical counsels how to conduct it. The same spiritual quality should inhere in the church music ; from the opening voluntary to the end it should be worshipful. In this music the whole church ought to take part, because the whole church ought to worship, and in the non-liturgical churches no other congregational worship is provided but that through music. The same spirit should animate the preacher in his pastoral work. " When people won't come to hear you preach, do you go and talk to them ; and when they do come to hear you, and you have hardly anything to preach about, then go to them all the more." But the object of this personal vis- itation, of the social gatherings of the church, and of all its social life, should not be mere social fellow- ship ; it should be the development in men, by the social life, of the spiritual qualities of faith and hope and love. This spirit is to be carried into the Sun- day-schools and missions, and is to inspire all the various forms of lay activity. The world will never be converted to Christ by ministers alone ; the 370 HENRY WARD BEECHER whole church must become a working church. In this work of the church revivals are not only to be desired, but to be planned for. The highest ex- periences rarely come to men singly. The reviving of the entire community through the reviving of the church is not only as legitimate as the reviving of the individual, but often the best way of securing the individual revival. Such revivals are subject to law. The conditions necessary to it, the methods of promoting it, the proper way to conduct it so as to avoid incidental evils, all are to be matter of care- ful study. For a consideration of Mr. Beecher's specific counsels respecting the conduct of prayer- meetings and the promotion of revivals, the reader must be referred to the volume. Some of these counsels are inapplicable to the pastors of liturgical churches ; some of them would be difficult to apply in our time. I think Mr. Beecher himself would have laid, in his later life, more stress on the pro- motion of normal and unconscious spiritual develop- ment and less on specific methods for arousing the spiritual nature through social cooperation. But the fundamental principles elucidated in this vol- ume, and still more the spiritual life which pervades it, are valuable in all churches, in all times, and in all communities. The third series in the " Yale Lectures on Preach- ing " deals with Christian doctrine, or what may be called applied theology. This volume seems to me the least distinctive and characteristic of the three. It deals less with the methods of the THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 371 preacher; it is less personal and vital; there is much less autobiographical element in it. He hints at, without expounding, the modern evolutionary conception of the Bible as a progressive revelation through spiritual experience. He bases its author- ity upon the fact that " it has been so long in the world, and so much taught, that it is an authority now among the common people, certainly through- out Christendom." He lays stress on the fact that the object of the preacher is to bring man into per- sonal relations with God ; for this purpose he must first establish God's personality, second, illustrate his disposition, third, develop a sense of his pre- sence. He shows how this is to be done — psycho- logically through the use of the spiritual imagina- tion, historically through the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. His analysis of Jesus Christ as " the Divine Life in human conditions " is suggest- ive, inspiring, and in places full of spiritual beauty, but does not compare for completeness of analysis with Dr. BushnelTs famous chapter in " Nature and the Supernatural " on the character of Jesus. He lays stress on the reality of sinfulness, as something more than a mere multitude of individ- ual sins, and on Christian life as a growth embody- ing three stages, — repentance, conversion, and sanctification ; and he sums up the whole teaching of the three courses in one sentence : " Our high mission, our noble calling, is to build up souls, to perfect the Christian life, and to make manhood acceptable to God, and radiant in the sight of all 372 HENRY WARD BEECHER Of all the volumes which Mr. Beecher has left as his bequest to the world, I regard the " Yale Lec- tures on Preaching " as the most important, and likely to be the most permanent in their direct influ- ence upon the Church of Christ. He left no political writings save the editorials in " The Independent." The admirable collection of addresses on political subjects, gathered by Mr. J. R. Howard, are chiefly valuable as a contribution to the history of a great moral reform, to the accomplishment of which Mr. Beecher contributed so largely. His " Life of Christ " he did not complete. It is beautiful in its expression, and spiritually suggestive in its thoughts, but Mr. Beecher will not be known to the future as a great historian. " Norwood " contains graphic, vivid pictures of New England life, but no one would think of calling Mr. Beecher a great novelist. His " Lectures to Young Men " belong to the ear- lier epoch in his ministry, and though wonderfully effective then, would not be equally effective now. His sermons, preached for immediate effect, are, as he intended they should be, sermons, not literature, still less theology. His " Star Papers " and his " Pleasant Talks about Fruits, Flowers, and Farm- ing " are literary recreations. Not as an author, historian, or reformer will he be known to history, but as the great preacher of the nineteenth century, — certainly without a superior, if not without a peer. In the " Yale Lectures on Preaching " he formulates the principles which guided him in his ministry, and, what is more important, reveals with THE YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING 373 modest, unconscious candor the spirit which ani- mated him. Some of his counsels may have be- come inapplicable, with the change of conditions ; his unconventionalism will repel those who are sen- sitive to conventional proprieties ; and I cannot but wish that it had been consistent with his tempera- ment to give to these volumes, before his death, a thorough and painstaking revision ; but I do not know in the whole range of homiletical literature any other volumes as well worth careful study by any man of our time who wishes to understand the secret of pulpit power, and who is sufficiently cath- olic in his disposition, whatever his denomination may be, to take that secret from one whom history will regard as perhaps the most powerful preacher in American history, if not also in the history of the Anglo-Saxon people. CHAPTER XVI HE FINISHES HIS COURSE In the spring of 1886 Mr. Beecher yielded to the urgency of Major Pond, and consented to revisit England on a lecture tour. The twenty-three years which had elapsed since his first campaign had converted distrust into confidence and aversion into enthusiasm. When the steamer reached Queenstown, the mail brought hosts of requests from all parts of the country for sermons and lectures. When Mr. Beecher landed at Liverpool delegates from Bradford, Leeds, York, Carnarvon, Manches- ter, Edinburgh, Belfast, and Dublin were there to welcome the speaker who had found so much difficulty in winning a hearing in 1863. In the fifteen and a half weeks between the 24th of July and the 1st of October Mr. Beecher preached seventeen times, delivered fifty-eight lectures and nine public addresses : his entire visit was a series of public ovations. Of his addresses probably the most important were, one delivered in the City Temple on Friday morning, October 15, to the theological students in the city of London, about six hundred students and about as many clergy- men of different denominations being present, in which he declared his convictions concerning the HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 375 secret of pulpit power ; one delivered before the Freedman's Aid Society Mission at Westminster Chapel on October 16, in which he presented with characteristic hopefulness his views concerning the character, progress, and future of the negroes ; and one delivered on October 18 before the Congrega- tionalists at Liverpool, which was largely a con- fession of his religious faith, in which he reaffirmed, in the strongest terms, his faith in the divinity of Jesus Christ as the central truth in his theology. From this European trip Mr. Beecher returned in the fall of 1886, refreshed and reinvigorated by his summer's experience of lecturing, preaching, and visiting. Landing on Sunday morning too late to preach, he visited, in the afternoon, each one of the three Sunday-schools connected with Ply- mouth Church. Early in December his wife was taken seriously ill, and for six weeks he sedulously tended her as nurse, accepting from other members of the family only such assistance as was indis- pensable. With her returning health, he began to make preparations for completing the unfinished "Life of Christ," and promised when this was done to undertake his autobiography. To Dr. Joseph Parker, of London, he wrote : " I have my snug room upstairs, and am working cosily and every day on my 'Life of Christ,' which, like the buds of spring, is beginning to swell, like the returning birds, is beginning to sing, like the grass, is beginning to grow, and is already very green ! But I am hopeful." He refused all lecture 376 HENRY WARD BEECHER engagements, that he might devote himself to the completion of this literary task. But it was not to be completed. Sunday evening, February 27, 1887, was the last service Mr. Beecher ever attended in Ply- mouth Church. It was remembered afterwards that he lingered for a few moments at the close of the service listening to the choir as they prac- ticed a new musical setting by Mr. H. R. Shelley, the organist of the church, to Faber's " Hark, hark, my soul, angelic songs are swelling," and that as he started to go out he remarked, " That will do to die on." " Will it not do to live on, Mr. Beecher ? " asked a friend at his side. " That is the way to die," said he quickly. As he passed out he saw standing by the furnace register, to warm themselves, a little girl about ten years old and her brother, only five years old, who had for some weeks been in the habit of going alone to the church on Sunday evenings. Putting his hand on the little boy's head, he stooped and kissed him, saying, " It is a cold night for such little tots to be out." The children, attracted by his kindness, walked out on either side of him to the door. " It was," said Dr. Charles H. Hall, in the funeral sermon, " a fitting close to a grand life, — the old man of genius and fame shielding the little wan- derers, — great in breasting tradition always and prejudices, great also in the gesture, so like him, that recognized, as did the Master, that the hum- blest and the poorest were his brethren, the great HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 377 preacher led out into the night by little nameless waifs." On Wednesday evening, March 2, after a full day of shopping with his wife, for some refurnish- ing of the parlors of the church, and a short even- ing of recreation with the family, he retired earlier than usual, and when a little later Mrs. Beecher went upstairs she found him already apparently soundly sleeping. Early the next morning she was awakened from her sleep by an unusual sound in her husband's room, ran to his side, and found him suffering from nausea. To her inquiry as to the matter, he replied, " Nothing but a sick headache," and dropped almost instantly to sleep again. He slept through the following day. Not until four o'clock in the afternoon was the physician sent for. An effort was made to arouse Mr. Beecher from his sleep ; the response was brief and broken ; and the doctor's conclusion was soon reached: Mr. Beecher was dying of apoplexy. The end came on Tuesday morning, at half-past nine o'clock, the 8th of March, 1887. The first Sunday in the month was the one on which the Lord's Supper was always administered in Plymouth Church. The service was held ; but the sermon was omitted, and the hour was de- voted to the administration of the communion, the great congregation breaking in upon the hush of this solemn service with many sobs. On Sun- day, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings prayer-meetings were held in the lecture-room, 378 HENRY WARD BEECHER participated in by various members of the church. It was afterwards noted as a significant fact that no one prayed, even in the earlier meetings, for the pas- tor's recovery ; it was accepted by all as a fact unal- terable, that the time of his going home had come ; and not one of those who loved him would have called him back. During Thursday the coffin lay in Plymouth Church, and all day long from half- past eleven in the morning until ten at night the citizens of Brooklyn moved in quiet and orderly procession by the coffin, to look upon his face for the last time, while simple music was furnished, sometimes by the organ, sometimes by the voices of singers. Members of the church and personal friends sat scattered through the edifice, engaged in silent prayer or in sacred meditation, or, in subdued tones, exchanging reminiscences. There had long been an understanding between Mr. Beecher and the Rev. Charles H. Hall, rector of Trinity Church, that, whoever should die first, the other should officiate at the funeral. In accordance with this understanding, the public services, held on Friday, were conducted by Dr. Hall. The public offices in Brooklyn were closed, by direction of the city government; the public and private schools were dismissed ; and business was very generally sus- pended during the funeral services. Not only Plymouth Church itself, but four other churches in the vicinity, were crowded with mourners. It is doubtful whether any death ever produced more widespread expressions of sorrow throughout HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 379 the country — certain that the death of no private citizen was ever made occasion for so many and so varied memorial services, addresses, and editorials. In churches representing every phase of religious faith, Mr. Beecher's death was mentioned in prayer or sermon ; by associations of every description, secular and religious, resolutions to his memory were passed ; in every type of journal, from that devoted to recreation or agriculture to that voicing the sentiment of the most conservative of the re- ligious schools, some recognition of his service to his age and nation was to be found. The New York Legislature adjourned that its members might attend the funeral service, and both the Senate and the Assembly passed resolutions of respect to his memory. Similar resolutions were passed by the Board of Aldermen of the city of Brooklyn, who directed that appropriate emblems of mourning should be displayed on the City Hall until after the funeral. A type and symbol of this universal appreciation was furnished by the me- morial service held in Plymouth Church the Sab- bath evening after his death, participated in by representative speakers from the Unitarian, the Presbyterian, the Lutheran, the New Jerusalem, the Universalist, the Methodist, the Baptist, the Reformed, the Episcopal, and the Congregational churches, and a Jewish synagogue, and by a letter from a Roman Catholic priest. Two weeks later a union memorial service of the African churches of Brooklyn was held in the African Methodist 380 HENRY WARD BEECHER Episcopal Church of the city. Nor were these memorials confined to Brooklyn. From churches and synagogues all over the country, North and South, East and West, from abroad also, from churches in London and Liverpool, from white and colored, from Americans and foreigners, from ministerial gatherings, political bodies, both Re- publican and Democratic, college associations, mil- itary organizations, and social clubs, came to Ply- mouth Church formal expressions of respect for Mr. Beecher and of sympathy for his church in its sorrow. One of the most touching of these was a resolution spontaneously adopted by the news- boys of Brooklyn at their services in the Newsboys' Home. These expressions of affection were not confined to the time of his death. While the multitude were still filing past the dead in Plymouth Church, the suggestion was made that a statue should be erected by citizens of Brooklyn to his memory. In less than two weeks after his death, a meeting of citizens was held to forward this movement, and it was so largely attended that many were unable to gain admittance to the room. The money for the purpose was easily obtained, — rather it should be said, was spontaneously offered, — and in June, 1891, the statue, designed by J. Q. A. Ward, was erected in City Hall Square, facing the building where he had been put on trial as for his life, and remaining there a perpetual witness to the judgment of the citizens of Brooklyn between him and his HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 381 accusers. Shortly after Mr. Beecher's death, the Rev. S. B. Halliday, who for seventeen years had been Mr. Beecher's assistant, and to whose loyal service, taking from the great preacher's mind the administrative details of the great church, Mr. Beecher's freedom for the larger public service was not inconsiderably due, resigned his position to take charge of a small Congregational church in the out- skirts of Brooklyn, the services of which were held in a vacant store on Fulton Street, small, ill-venti- lated, and poorly lighted. He gave to this church its new name, " The Beecher Memorial Church," and in 1891 an adequate structure had been raised at a cost of twenty-six thousand dollars, which on the 18th of October of that year was dedicated. It was more than in name a memorial to Henry Ward Beecher. Means for its construction had been given by Presbyterians, Universalists, Orthodox, Liberals, and Jews. Contributions had been re- ceived from every state and territory in the coun- try and also from Canada, England, Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Denmark, South America, China, and India, almost all of them in small amounts. Eight months after the dedication the last dollar of debt upon the building was paid, and the church, still in successful operation, is a monument alike to the fidelity of Mr. Beecher's life-long friend, Mr. Halliday, and to the spontaneous in- terest throughout the world which men of moder- ate means felt in doing something to perpetuate the name of one who had rendered them spiritual 382 HENRY WARD BEECHER service. Nor is this the only church which at least indirectly perpetuates the memory of the great preacher. The Congregational Yearbook records fifty-two churches bearing the name Plymouth Church, — the name borrowed from the church which Mr. Beecher founded, the churches, let us hope, having imbibed something of its spirit. In that church itself his name is commemorated by a remarkable portrait of life size, in the lecture-room, placed as nearly as possible on the spot where he used to sit in giving his " Lecture-Room Talks,' ' and by a tablet in the vestibule of the church con- taining his portrait in bas-relief, with the simple in- scription, " In Memoriam. Henry Ward Beecher, First Pastor of Plymouth Church, 1847-1887. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation." At the pre- sent writing, the summer of 1903, a further move- ment has been initiated by the present pastor of Plymouth Church, the Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis, D. D., for a larger memorial to the great preacher. The Henry Ward Beecher Memorial Association of Brooklyn has been organized and incorporated ; ground has been purchased in the immediate vicin- ity of Plymouth Church ; and it is proposed to erect thereon a memorial hall for the preservation of material relating to the life of Henry Ward Beecher and other members of the Beecher family, and to provide in connection therewith a library, reading-room, music-room, and amusement-room. For this purpose over fifty thousand dollars have HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 383 already been subscribed, a large portion of it by- citizens having no connection with Plymouth Church. But next to that impalpable influence which goes on through eternity with infinite increase, the most vital memorial to Mr. Beecher is the church which he founded and inspired with his life. Those who imagined that Plymouth Church was gathered around and held together by the eloquence of a great orator, naturally surmised that the congrega- tion would disappear and the church dissolve when the orator died. They little understood the nature of its work and the permanency of his influence. When, in the fall of 1887, I was called to supply the pulpit left vacant by Mr. Beecher's death, I found a greatly diminished congregation. Strangers no longer flocked to the edifice. The audience, which under Mr. Beecher's preaching had num- bered from twenty-five hundred to three thousand, was reduced to something like half that number. But it was only the strangers who had ceased to come. Not a single eminent member of the church had withdrawn. The pewholders, with few excep- tions, pledged to the church a renewal of their pew-rents at the old rate for the succeeding year. The Sunday-schools were officered as efficiently as they had been the fall before with Mr. Beecher living. Some members who had never felt that the church had need of them had emerged from their retirement and assumed active service in the prayer-meeting or the Sunday-schools. A new 384 HENRY WARD BEECHER organization had been formed within the church for the purpose of enlisting the active cooperation of all the members, and had efficiently entered upon its varied activities. It was apparent that the pews could no longer be sold at auction, apparent that there would no longer be premiums paid for the pews on which the trustees could draw, as they had done during Mr. Beecher's lifetime, for the support of the missions. But the church had no thought of abandoning or even lessening its work. It assumed the expense which the trustees had hitherto borne. It organized an envelope fund, and by means of this envelope fund, to which every member was invited to contribute, and by means of a system of plate collections which had never before been instituted, enough money was raised to carry on and considerably enlarge the parish work in which Plymouth Church had been en- gaged. Nor was this the result of a mere transient enthusiasm. The last report of the committee which has this work in charge shows a receipt from the envelope fund and the plate collections of over ten thousand dollars for this mission work of Plymouth Church in the city of Brooklyn. Nor is it only these financial results which testify to the continued efficiency of the church. During the ten years which elapsed between the death of Mr. Beecher and the semi-centennial of Plymouth Church in 1897, the additions on confession of faith were but little less annually than they had been during Mr. Beecher's pastorate. A conclusive HE FINISHES HIS COURSE 385 answer to the charge sometimes brought, once through jealousy, now through ignorance, that Mr. Beecher's preaching promoted hero-worship, not the worship of God, the following of a preacher, not the following of Christ, an ephemeral emotion- alism, not a life-enduring principle, is furnished by the church which he gathered by his influence and inspired with his spirit, — a church through the doors of which in fifty years thirty-six hundred and thirty-three came into the kingdom of God, — a church in which, fifteen years after its great preacher's death, a congregation of nearly or quite two thousand worshipers gathers every Sunday morning, — a church in the three Sunday-schools of which are still gathered every Sunday afternoon a thousand scholars studying the Bible, — a church which, ten years after Mr. Beecher's death, on the fiftieth anniversary day of its organization, had every class in its three Sunday-schools supplied with teachers, and there was in addition a waiting- list of volunteers ready to respond to any call for additional service. CHAPTER XVII ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS From 1855 to the time of Mr. Beecher's death in 1887, except for the five years which included the Civil War, I was in constant communication, and much of the time in intimate association with him. In this chapter I propose to give some personal esti- mates, the result of that fellowship, and illustrated by some reminiscent incidents. During most of his life Mr. Beecher was engaged in warfare of one sort or another. He was con- stantly attacking what he regarded as abuses, — social, political, religious ; and he was constantly under attack for what others regarded as social, political, and religious errors in his teaching. The natural consequence was that in his lifetime many false estimates of his character and few correct ones were made. His enemies exaggerated his faults and depreciated, if they did not absolutely deny, his virtues. As an almost necessary conse- quence, his friends were inclined to exaggerate his excellences and to ignore, if not to deny, his de- fects. In battle no loyal soldier criticises his general ; loyalty prevented Mr. Beecher's friends and sup- porters from criticising their leader. In such a case the errors on the one side are not corrected by the ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 387 errors on the other. On the contrary, the estimates of both friends and foes are apt to agree in statement, although antagonistic in their animus and spirit. Thus it had been said by both critics and ad- mirers, though with a very different meaning,' that Mr. Beecher would have made a great actor, a great lawyer, a great politician, a great author, a great editor. What education might have made of him no man can tell ; but take him for what he was, he would not have made a great actor, because he could not deliberately assume a part ; nor a great lawyer, because he could not advocate any convictions not independently his own ; nor a great politician, be- cause he did not read character correctly, being too much possessed by the spirit which " thinketh no evil ; " nor a great author, because he was not inter- ested in art for art's sake ; in what sense he was a great editor I have already considered. 1 It is true that Mr. Beecher's interests were ex- traordinarily varied, and his knowledge multiform. He was an expert in horticulture, arboriculture, precious stones, Turkish and Persian rugs, — and in how many other things I know not. He was a judge of horses, and was very fond of a good one. When I was starting out in search of a parish he gave me this advice : " Look at the horses in every town you go to. If the men drive good horses, you may expect that there is progress, or at least life in the town ; if they drive poor ones, the people are probably inert and lazy." The remark indi- 1 See chapter xvi. pp. 338, 342, 344. 388 HENRY WARD BEECHER cates the nature of his interest. Whatever the subject, it invariably led him somehow to men, their character, their life, and the best way of reaching them with the offer of the higher life. This fact was not always recognized by undiscrim- inating admirers, who, from the variety of his in- terests, drew the conclusion that he would have excelled in all departments. But though interest is necessary to excellence, excellence is not created alone by interest. I found Mr. Beecher once, shortly after the close of the Civil War, deep in Sherman's " March to the Sea." To my expression of surprise, — for he was not merely reading, he was studying it in detail with war-maps, — he re- plied, " Do you know, if I were not a preacher, I would choose to be a general above anything else." But I did not take the expression seriously, and I do not think he did — except for the moment. I am certain he would have made a poor general. The jeweler who, apropos of Mr. Beecher's love for precious stones, said that he would have made a splendid salesman, was mistaken. True, he loved and understood precious stones, but he would never have cared to sell them. His interest in farming did not make him a successful farmer. When some critic attempted to arouse prejudice against him as a wealthy preacher who owned and carried on a farm of ten acres on the Hudson, he replied that if an enemy should give him ten more acres he would be bankrupted. Varied as were his talents, kaleidoscopic as was ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 389 his mind, universal as were his interests, he gave himself to one work with a singleness of aim which I have never seen paralleled in any man of my acquaintance except Phillips Brooks. Their aims were different : Mr. Beecher's broader and more comprehensive ; Phillips Brooks's more exclusively individual and spiritual. Phillips Brooks was purely a preacher. His one aim in life was to impart life. He believed correctly that he could do this best by the free use of his own personality in the pulpit. When he spoke on the platform or after a public dinner, he made the platform or the table a pulpit ; his address was a sermon ; his audience a congre- gation. For a little time in Philadelphia he took an active part in public questions, but after he went to Boston he was not active as a public teacher on social or political problems. This was not because he had lost his interest in them, or his acquaintance with them, but because he believed lie could render his best service to the age by preaching : to preaching accordingly he gave him- self with entire singleness of purpose. That he could write true poetry was proved by " O Little Town of Bethlehem." That he had a large know- ledge of architecture and a remarkably creative as well as appreciative taste, is proved by Trinity Church, into which he put himself as truly as he put himself into his sermons. That he would have made valuable contributions to periodical litera- ture, if he could have been persuaded to accept the numerous and urgent invitations which poured in 390 HENRY WARD BEKCHER upon him, that as a lecturer he would have been in great demand, had he consented to go upon the lyceum platform, no one who knew him doubts. He refused because he was resolved to devote him- self wholly to preaching. Even as bishop his great work was as an itinerant preacher. Mr. Beecher's estimate of his own function was a broader one, but it was not less clearly conceived, nor followed with less single-heartedness. That function was to impart spiritual life, but it was also to instruct in the application of the principles of spiritual life to all the various problems, both of personal experience and of social order. His great- ness consisted in his instinctive perception of moral principles, in his practical common sense in the application of those principles to current questions of human experience, and in his varied literary and oratorical ability in so presenting those principles as not only to win for them the assent of all sorts of men, but also to inspire in all sorts of men a genuine loyalty to those principles. He understood himself better than some of his friends and his eulogists understood him. To this one work of so inspiring, guiding, and dominating the lives of men as to direct them in the way of righteousness, he gave himself with absolute singleness of aim, and, after he had fairly got an understanding of him- self and his work, with undeviating purpose. He preached, he lectured, he spoke on political plat- forms ; he wrote, and on all subjects, social and individual, grave and gay, secular and religious. ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 391 But always back of his work, inspiring it, con- trolling it, determining his choice between different phases of it, was the ambition, — if anything so unegoistic can be called an ambition, — the pur- pose, — if anything so unconscious can be called a purpose, — to help men to a happier, a better, a diviner life. And in his estimate divineness of spirit was of transcendently greater importance than conformity to ethical standards, and both were superior to mere happiness. His intuitive nature would have made it impossible for him to accept the utilitarian philosophy. Preaching, there- fore, in the narrower sense of that term, as a her- alding of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Saviour of man, always took the first place, though not the sole place, in his relative estimate of opportunities. I can best illustrate his comparative estimate of lecturing and preaching by quoting one of half a dozen similar letters sent by him to Major J. B. Pond : — Brooklyn, N. Y., 124 Columbia Heights, February 22, 1883. My dear Pond : — I am sorry that Suffield should suffer, — but it can't be helped. All the cities on the continent are not to me of as much value as my church and its work, and when a deepening religious feeling is evident, to go off lecturing and leave it would be too outrageous to be thought of. No — No. Never — now or hereafter — will I let lecturing infringe on home work! The next week is already arranged. Several neighboring clergymen are engaged to aid, and from Sunday to Saturday every night is allotted. I take two, 392 HENRY WARD BEECHER — Monday and Tuesday, — and cannot be altered. I do not know how it will be in March. If things in the church should prosper, I will not go out, at least till May, but I cannot tell. Yours, Henry Ward Beecher. It is difficult and perhaps hazardous to speculate on the motives which inspire men, and yet such a character-study as this would be inadequate with- out a consideration of the motives which dominated Mr. Beecher. He was almost absolutely indiffer- ent to money. He did not care for it himself ; he did not reverence it in others. When in a widely misquoted address he said, apropos of certain phases of the labor problem, that he could live on bread and water, he spoke the simple truth. This was not because he was an ascetic. He enjoyed the comforts and even the luxuries of life. We had an editorial dinner at Delmonico's one spring day in 1879 ; Mr. Lawson Valentine, then one of the largest stockholders in " The Christian Union," tele- graphed the office : " I like your Delmonico. Keep at work on this line all summer ; " and got from Mr. Beecher a reply equally laconic : " You are not the only fellow that likes Delmonico. We are willing to patronize him all summer if you will pay the bill." He enjoyed good living, though rather for the social pleasures such occasions afforded than for any mere epicurean enjoyment. Much more than sensuous luxuries he enjoyed beauty in form and color. But he was not dependent upon either. ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 393 And for money apart from what it could buy he cared not a jot. My first acquaintance with him illustrates his singular carelessness in money mat- ters. I was a boy of nineteen in my brother's law office ; I had been an attendant on Plymouth Church for but a few months ; he knew me only as a younger brother of one of the members of his church when he asked me one Sunday after service to call at his house the next morning. When I called he opened a drawer in his desk, took out a package of bills, gave them to me, and asked me to go to an address in the upper part of New York City to pay off a mortgage and get a satisfaction-piece. My recollection is that the amount was ten thousand dollars. I know that until I got the money out of my pocket and the satisfaction-piece in its place, I was in a dread lest my pocket should be picked and his money and my reputation should go together. He rarely came out on the right side of a bargain when the bargaining was left to him. His ser- mons any one was welcome to publish who wished to do so. In his later life he earned thousands of dollars by his lecturing ; but this was because he had the wisdom to put himself in Major J. B. Pond's hands, and to refer all applications for lec- tures to him. He was generous to a fault with his money ; many were the unworthy beggars, large and small, who made off with contributions from him ; not till late in life did he learn any financial wisdom, and then not too much. He was as indifferent to fame as he was to 394 HENRY WARD BEECHER money. He counseled young ministers to beware of falling into the weakness of considering how they could conserve their reputation, and satirized those who were habitually considering what would be the effect of their words or actions upon their " influence." He resented counsel to himself based on the idea that his influence would be injured by some proposed action. Partly owing to this indif- ference to his reputation, partly to the orator's instinct to use at the time not only that form of expression, but also that phase of truth which will produce the effect he wishes to produce, Mr. Beecher was careless of consistency, which, with Emerson, he regarded as the vice of small minds. Once called to account for the inconsistency of some- thing he had just said with a previous utterance of his on the same subject, he replied, " Oh, yes ! Well, that was last week." Yet these inconsist- encies were more apparent than real. Thus he preached one Sunday a sermon on the text, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it ; " and began by say- ing, " This is not God's policy of insurance on children ; this is the statement of a natural law." About a year later he took the same text and be- gan his sermon by saying, " This is God's policy of insurance on children," and proceeded to treat it as a divine promise. Yet the two utterances are really consistent, since God's promises are fulfilled through natural law. But if he cared very little what the great public ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 395 thought about him, he cared a great deal about how those who knew him felt toward him. The expression uttered by him on his seventieth birth- day represents his habitual mood : "I love men so much, that I like above all other things in the world to be loved. And yet I can do without it when it is necessary. I love love, but I love truth more, and God more yet." For great as was his love for his fellow men and his desire for their love, the dominating motives of his life were his love for God, or his love for Christ, — and in his experience the two phrases were synonymous, — and his desire for God's love. No one who knew him intimately could doubt the simplicity and sin- cerity of his piety. Christ was a very real and a very present Person to him. His disbelief in theo- logy never involved in doubt his experience of vital fellowship with the living God. I do not mean that this experience was not more real at some times than at others ; nor that he did not have at times the experience which in Jesus Christ found utter- ance in the bitter cry, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" But if so, these expe- riences were rare. His prevailing mood was one of the conscious presence of Christ, to whom he would at times refer as simply and as naturally as to any other friend and companion. Yet he never, if I may so speak, traded on this experience. He never assumed it as an authority. He never said that Christ had told him to do this or that. His ex- perience accorded with and interprets practically 396 HENRY WARD BEECHER the philosophy of Professor William James, that mystical states are authdrity to the persons to whom they come, but are not to be quoted as an authority to those to whom they do not come. I make no attempt here to analyze Mr. Beecher's power as an orator, to indicate the various elements which entered into it, or to explain its secret, fur- ther than to say that far more important than were his voice and face and gesture, his skillful though inartificial rhetoric, his opalescent imagina- tion, his illuminating humor, his unconscious art of dramatization, his perfervid and contagious emo- tion — far more important than all of these were the sane judgment, the dominating conscience, and the spiritual faith which used these gifts as instru- ments, never in the service of self, always in the service of a great cause, or, to speak more accu- rately, in the service of his fellow men and his God. Here I make no attempt to compare Mr. Beecher with the famous orators of history. I attempt merely to record the impression which his oratory produced on me and on others as I had occasion to observe its impression on them. In so doing I instinctively compare him with other contemporary orators whom I have heard, — Daniel Webster, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner, George William Curtis, John B. Gough, William E. Gladstone, Charles G. Finney, R. S. Storrs, and Phillips Brooks. In particular qualities each of these men may have excelled him, some of them certainly did ; in combination of qualities to my thinking no one ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 397 of them equaled him. As I do not analyze Mr. Beecher, so I do not analyze these, his contempo- raries. In respect to them all I speak only of im- pressions produced upon myself. Daniel Webster impressed me by the weight of his words ; Wendell Phillips by the edge of his small sword and the dexterity of his thrust ; Charles Sumner by his skillful marshaling of facts ; George William Curtis by the perfect finish of his art in language, tone, and gesture ; John B. Gough by the combination of abandon and good sense, of dra- matic impersonation, and real apprehension of the actualities of life ; William E. Gladstone by the persuasiveness which captivated first your inclina- tion and afterward your judgment ; Charles G. Finney by the flawless logic which compelled your sometimes reluctant assent to his conclusion ; R. S. Storrs by the more than Oriental glory of his embroidered fabric ; Phillips Brooks by the sense of a divine presence and power possessing him and speaking through him, as through a prophet of the olden time. Mr. Beecher was less weighty than Daniel Webster ; one was a glacier, the other an avalanche ; one was a battery of artillery, the other was a regiment of horse charging with the impetuosity of a Ney. Mr. Beecher could be as clear-cut and crystalline at times as Wendell Phil- lips was at all times, but he was never malignant as Wendell Phillips sometimes was, and never took the delight, which Wendell Phillips often took, in the skill with which he could transfix an 398 HENRY WARD BEECHER opponent. Mr. Beecher could, and sometimes did, marshal facts with a military skill scarcely inferior to that of Charles Sumner, as witness some pas- sages in his English speeches, but he was never overloaded and overborne by them. He summoned facts as witnesses to confirm a truth, and when their testimony was given dismissed them, while he, with dramatic imagination and emotional power, pressed home upon his audience the truth to which they bore witness. He had not the grace either of diction or of address which characterized George William Curtis. Mr. Curtis never violated the canons of a perfect taste ; Mr. Beecher often did. But Mr. Curtis spoke only to the cultivated, Mr. Beecher to all sorts and conditions of men ; Mr. Curtis spoke from manuscript ; his oration com- bined all the perfection of the written with some of the vigor of the spoken address. Mr. Beecher never spoke from manuscript. He sometimes read manuscript; he sometimes spoke without manu- script ; he sometimes alternated the two methods in the one address; but he could not, or at least he did not, maintain at one and the same time an unbroken connection with the page upon the desk and with auditors in the seat. But if he lacked the grace and perfect art of George William Curtis, he possessed an inflaming, convincing, coercing power which Mr. Curtis did not even remotely approach. It is difficult to compare Mr. Beecher's dramatic power with that of John B. Gough. Con- sidered simply as dramatic artists, Mr. Beecher ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 399 was far more impassioned and moving, Mr. Gough more versatile. Mr. Gough was always dramatic. His lectures were continuous impersonations. He was the best story-teller I ever heard. He once told me that he was thinking of preparing a lecture to be entitled " That Reminds Me," which should consist of a succession of dramatic stories so con- trived that each one should suggest its successor. He never did prepare such a lecture, but he could readily have done it. Mr. Beecher could hardly have conceived, and certainly could not have ac- complished, such a lecture. Mr. Gough was a skill- ful ventriloquist. Once, when I was driving with him in a closed carriage in the country, he greatly excited a little girl, who was our companion, by the mewing of a cat, for which she searched every- where in vain. Mr. Gough would have made a brilliant success as an actor in either farce or light comedy ; Mr. Beecher would not. I never heard him tell a story on the platform, unless the narra- tive of personal incidents in his own experience might be so regarded, and rarely in the social circle. I do not think he used his dramatic art for purposes of amusement. I doubt whether he was ever conscious in his imitations ; he certainly was not so ordinarily. A purpose to be achieved in the life of his audience always dominated him, and he was dramatic only incidentally and unconsciously, because in describing any incident, whether real or imaginary, his face and tone and gesture came naturally into play. He stopped at the office of 400 HENRY WARD BEECHER 44 The Christian Union " once on his way from the dog-show, and he described the dogs to me. " There was the bulldog," he said, " with his retreating forehead, and his big neck, and his protruding jaw, like the highwayman who might meet you with his demand for your money or your life ; " and his forehead seemed to retreat, and his jaw protruded, and he looked the character he portrayed, so that I should have instinctively crossed the street had I met after dark a man looking as he looked. " And there was the English mastiff," he continued, u with a face and brow like Daniel Webster's ; " and his whole face and even the very form and structure of his head seemed to change in an un- conscious impersonation of the noble brute he was describing. For Mr. Beecher was as dramatic off the platform as on it ; imitation was not with him a studied art, it was an unconscious identification of himself with the character he was for the moment portraying. I heard Mr. Gladstone but once ; it was in the English House of Commons ; his object was to commend and carry his motion for the use of the closure, before unknown in Par- liament. It would be absurd to attempt an esti- mate of Mr. Gladstone's oratory from this one address. But comparing that one address with the many I have heard from Mr. Beecher, it was more persuasive, but less eloquent. As he spoke, it seemed as though his conclusions needed no argu- ment to sustain them ; I found myself saying in response to all he said, " Of course." But of the ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 401 dramatic portrayal, the pictorial imagination, the warm feeling, the brilliant color, the iridescent hu- mor, the varied play of life, catching now one hearer by one method, now another hearer by another method, converting hostility into enthusiasm, and indifference into interest, which characterized Mr. Beecher's greatest addresses, there was in this one speech of Mr. Gladstone scarcely a trace. Charles G. Finney corralled his audience ; he drove them be- fore him, penned them in, coerced them by his logic, — though it was a logic aflame, — convinced their reason, convicted their conscience, compelled them to accept his conclusions despite their resistance. His sermons are essentially syllogistic. Syllogisms are as rare in the sermons of Mr. Beecher as in the sermons of Phillips Brooks. He was not log- ical, but analogical. He did not coerce men ; he either enticed them, or he swept them before him by the impetuosity of his nature. He sought to convince men of sin chiefly by putting before them an ideal, and leaving them to compare themselves with it. He spoke to conscience through ideality. There were frequent opportunities for comparing Dr. Storrs and Mr. Beecher, since they often spoke on the same platform, and for forty years they ministered side by side in the same city. Dr. Storrs drew his illustrations from books, Mr. Beecher from life; Dr. Storrs was more rhetorical, Mr. Beecher more colloquial ; Dr. Storrs more artistic, but sometimes artificial, Mr. Beecher more spon- taneous, but also more uneven ; after hearing Dr. 402 HENRY WARD BEECHER Storrs, the people went away admiring the address ; after hearing Mr. Beecher, they went away discuss- ing the theme. Comparing Henry Ward Beecher and Phillips Brooks, I should describe Phillips Brooks as the greater preacher, but Mr. Beecher as the greater orator. The distinctive function of the preacher is to bring home to the consciousness of men the eternal and the invisible. He may teach ethics, or philosophy ; he may move men by argu- ment, by imagination, by emotion, to some form of action, or some phase of thinking, or some emo- tional life ; this he does in common with the orator. But the unveiling of the invisible world, looking himself, and enabling others also to look upon the things which are unseen and are eternal — this is the preacher's distinctive and exclusive function. It is this which makes him, what the Old Testa- ment calls him, a prophet — a forth-teller, speaking by a spirit within, of a world seen only from within. This Mr. Beecher did to a remarkable degree ; but he did much more and other than this — though nothing higher, for there is nothing higher that any man can do for his fellow men. This is to open the eyes of the blind and enable them to see. This was the exclusive mission of Phillips Brooks. He might have said of himself, without irrever- ence, " I have come that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly." Mr. Beecher was also a life-giver; but he was besides a guide, a counselor, a teacher. He moved men by his imme- diate spiritual power, awaking in them a power to ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 403 perceive and receive spiritual life; but he also moved them indirectly and mediately through ar- gument, humor, imagination, imitation, human sym- pathy, the contagious power of a passionate enthu- siasm. It was his spiritual life which made Phillips Brooks the orator ; Mr. Beecher would have been a great orator though he had lacked spiritual life. To sum up in a sentence the impression on my own mind of Mr. Beecher's oratory as compared with that of other contemporary orators : in par- ticular elements of charm or power he was surpassed by some of them; in combination of charm and power by none ; but his power was greater than his charm, and his charm was subsidiary to power, and its instrument. If the test of the oration is its perfection, whether of structure or of expression, other orators have surpassed Mr. Beecher ; if the test of oratory is the power of the speaker to im- part to his audience his life, to impress on them his conviction, animate them with his purpose, and direct their action to the accomplishment of his end, then Mr. Beecher was the greatest orator I have ever heard ; and in my judgment, whether measured by the immediate or by the permanent effects of his addresses, takes his place in the rank of the great orators of the world. I doubt wliether in history greater immediate or more enduring effects have ever been produced by any orations than were produced on English sentiment and English national life by his speeches in England. A remarkable illustration of charm and power 404 HENRY WARD BEECHER combined was furnished by his speech delivered at the testimonial dinner given in New York City to Herbert Spencer, on the eve of the latter' s return to England. The dinner was a long and elaborate one. The diners were with few exceptions scientific men of eminence. There were very few who were known as active in the Christian Church or in the religious world. Mr. William M. Evarts presided, and lightened an otherwise heavy series of speeches with occasional sallies of wit. But there had been no humor, and no emotion, and little of literary charm in the speeches. The last two speakers were John Fiske and Mr. Beecher ; their theme Science and Religion. Mr. Fiske read an essay, clear, crys- talline, coldly intellectual; he dealt with theology, not with religion. It was n earing midnight when Mr. Beecher rose to make the last address. The room was filled with tobacco-smoke. The auditors were weary and ready to go home. Not a vibrat- ing note had been struck throughout the evening. It seemed to me as Mr. Beecher rose that all he could do was to apologize for not speaking at that late hour and dismiss his audience. By some jest he won a laugh; caught the momentary attention of his audience; seemed about to lose it; caught it again ;« again saw it escaping, and again captured it. In five minutes the more distant auditors had moved their chairs forward, the French waiters, who had paid no attention to any one else, straight- ened themselves up against the walls to listen ; Herbert Spencer on one side of him and Mr. ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 405 Evarts on the other were looking up into his face to catch the utterance of his speaking countenance as of his words. And then he preached as evangel- ical a sermon as I have ever heard from any min- ister's lips. He claimed Paul as an evolutionist; he read or quoted from the seventh chapter of Ro- mans in support of the claim; he declared that man is an animal, and has ascended from an animal, but is more than animal, has in him a conscience, a reason, a faith, a hope, a love, which are divine in nature and in origin ; he appealed to the experience of his auditors to confirm his analysis ; he evoked cries of " That 's so ! That 's so ! " like Methodist amens from all over the room ; and when he ended, in what was, in all but its form, a prayer that God would convey Herbert Spencer across that broader and deeper sea which flows between these shores and the unknown world beyond, and that there the two might meet to understand better the life which is so truly a mystery and the God who is so much to us the Unknown here, the whole audience rose by a common impulse to their feet, as if to make the prayer their own, cheering, clapping their hands, and waving their handkerchiefs. I can see the critic smiling with amused contempt at this paragraph, if he deigns to read it. None the less, he is shallow in his perceptions, as well as wrong in his judg- ments, if he is not able to recognize both the charm and the power of the orator who can win such a response, at such a time, from such an audience. 406 HENRY WARD BEECHER Thus far I have spoken chiefly of the impressions which Mr. Beecher's public character and conduct made upon me. What impression was left by his private life? It is somewhat difficult to answer that question, because he was a man of various moods as well as of versatile talents, and produced different impressions at different times. Every man is a bundle of contradictions ; in general the greater the man the greater the contradictions. They were certainly great in Mr. Beecher. He was most intense in his activity; the story of his life shows that. One who saw him only in his work would imagine that he was never at rest. On the contrary, in his hours of rest he was abso- lutely relaxed in mind and body. He was fond of horses, as I have said, and both rode and drove well ; he talked eloquently of fishing and hunting ; he advocated athletic sports — for others ; he be- lieved in the healthf ulness of billiards and bowling ; yet except croquet, he had no favorite recreation. But he loved to lie under the trees and follow his own counsel by " considering " the flowers, the clouds, the trees ; in the city he would go to the house of a familiar friend, throw himself upon the sofa, and listen to the conversation of others, perhaps joining in it, perhaps not ; or he would rest both mind and body by joining in a frolic with children, of whom he was very fond. His work was strenuous, but his rest was absolute. Of his combination of courage and caution, cour- age in determining what to do, caution in deter- ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 407 mining how to do it, I have already spoken. 1 The fact that the front seats of the gallery in a theatre at Richmond are occupied by men prepared with eggs to throw at him does not daunt him in the least ; he faces the hostile audience without a tremor. But he disarms them by a compliment to their state pride before he begins to give them some economic lessons sorely needed at that time, especially in the Southern States. He was at once outspoken and reserved. Those who knew him only by his public speech thought he wore his heart upon his sleeve, because he used his own most sacred experiences without hesitation, if he thought they would serve his fellow men. What father, and mother, and home, and children, and Bible, and prayer, and Christ, and God were to him he told again and again in public discourses, and he urged others to make equally free use of their experiences. Yet in private he rarely talked of himself except as he thought the self-revelation would help some struggling and perplexed soul into light and freedom. Nothing in his experience was too sacred to be used for that purpose. He was not otherwise given to indulgence in reminiscence, and never to narrating his achievements. He could be as reticent and Sphinx-like as General Grant, and could preserve a silence as impenetrable, as he proved by being unmoved by all the misconstruc- tion to which his silence subjected him, when speech would have disclosed the secret of the household 1 Chapter vn. pp. 156, 157. 408 HENRY WARD BEECHER whose unity and good name he was determined if possible to preserve, at whatever cost to himself. He had a way at times of abstracting himself from all around him, and becoming in appearance, and I rather think in reality, deaf and blind to every- thing external. When he was about to deliver his address in Burton's Theatre, by which time he knew me well, and I had done that financial errand for him of which I have already spoken, finding it diffi- cult to get tolerable accommodation at the front, I went to the stage-door, and waited, hoping that I might get in when he entered. He brushed against me as he passed, but with that far-away look in his eyes, which seemed to say, " whether in the body or out of the body I know not ; " so my device failed. He often walked as abstracted and unobservant on the street, oblivious of all about him. Yet at other times he would pass immediately into the pulpit from what serious-minded folk would regard as unseemly frivolity. The last Sunday morning of his ministry, as he entered the church, he greeted the usher at the door, an old familiar friend, with a request for a seat. The usher caught his mood, and replied, " If you will wait here till the pewholders are seated, I will try to accommodate you." " Could I get a seat in the gallery?" said Mr. Beecher. " You might try in the upper gallery." " But I am a little hard of hearing," said Mr. Beecher, putting his hand to his ear, " and want a seat near the pulpit." All this was done without a sugges- tion of a smile ; the next moment he was in his ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 409 pulpit-chair turning over the leaves of his hymn- book for his hymns. Men to whom reverence and merriment are incongruous can be pardoned for not comprehending the apparent inconsistency in such a change of moods. Quite as marked a characteristic, and to many as inexplicable, was his singular combination of self-confidence and self -depreciation. No doubt he was conscious of his power ; otherwise he could not have used it. A great meeting, my recollection is on behalf of the freedmen, was gathered in the Brooklyn Academy of Music one evening during Andrew Johnson's presidency. The feeling in the Republican party against the President was already growing into bitterness. Mr. Beecher still defended him. The Academy was crowded. " They say," he whispered to me as I joined him on the platform, " that is going to attack the President to- night ; if he does there will be music here before we get through." The attack was not made, and I did not hear the music — shall I confess it ? — to my regret. Yet despite his self-confidence before speaking, he was never self-satisfied after speaking. On one occasion, when he had preached a sermon which involved a vigorous attack on Calvinism, and we were about to publish it in " The Christian Union," I went with him to his house after prayer- meeting on Friday evening, determined that he should revise the sermon. " There are expressions here," said I to him, " which were well enough when interpreted by your intonation, but they will have 410 HENRY WARD BEECHER a very different meaning in cold print. You must revise this proof." He began ; cut out here ; inter- polated there ; again and again threw down the proof in impatience ; again and again I took it up and insisted on his continuing the task. At last, sticking the pencil through the proof with a vicious stab, and throwing both upon the table before him, he said, "Abbott, the thing I wanted to say, I did n't say, and the thing I did n't want to say, I did say, and I don't know how to preach anyhow." Nor do I doubt he expressed the mood of the mo- ment. He never wanted to read his own writings ; he rarely had enough patience with them to revise them. It was not that he shirked the labor ; it was because the product so dissatisfied him. But with all these contradictions he possessed certain qualities which were always present and potent, and which never changed with changing moods. Among these were the spontaneity of his humor, his love of beauty, the strength of his con- science, his chivalry toward women and children, and his transparent sincerity. He was humorous in the pulpit because he in- stinctively saw things in their incongruous rela- tions, and described them as he saw them. He did not crack a joke for the sake of making a laugh, either in public or in private. But he could scarcely write a letter, or carry on a conversation, without that play of imagination, often breaking into humor, which characterized his work in the press and on the platform. He was at Peekskill ; I was Cx< ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 411 carrying through the press an edition of his ser- mons ; this is the letter he wrote me to tell me that he was going to Brooklyn, and that I should there- after address him at that city : — Peekskhx, October 24, 1867. My dear Mr. Abbott, — Norwood is done — sum- mer is done — autumn is most done. The birds are flown, leaves are flying, and I fly too — so hereafter send to Brooklyn. Truly yours, H. W. Beecher. He sent a check to a jeweler to pay for two rings, and this is the letter which went with the check : — Brooklyn, February 8, 1884. Jno. A. Remiok. Dear Sir, — Please find check for amount of the opal ring and the moon-stone ring. They suited the respective parties. The opal goes to my son's mother-in-law, who puts to shame the world-wide slander on mothers-in-law. I think old maids and mothers-in-law are, in general, the very saints of the earth. I looked to see you after the lecture, and to have a shake of the hand with Mrs. Remick. But you neither of you regarded the ceremony as " any great shakes," and decamped hastily. Yours in the bonds of rainbows, opals, etc., Henry Ward Beecher. The Brooklyn postmaster sent him formal notice that a letter had been returned to him from the Dead Letter Office, and got this in reply : — 412 HENRY WARD BEECHER October 28, 1880. Colonel McLeer. Dear Sir, — Your notice that a letter of mine was dead and subject to my order is before me. We must all die ! And though the premature decease of my poor letter should excite a proper sympathy (and I hope it does), yet I am greatly sustained under the affliction. What was the date of its death ? Of what did it die ? Had it in its last hours proper attention and such con- solation as befits the melancholy occasion ? Did it have any effects ? Will you kindly see to its funeral ? I am strongly inclined to cremation. May I ask if any other letters of mine are sick — dangerously sick ? If any depart this life hereafter, don't notify me until after the funeral. Affectionately yours, Henry Ward Beecher. On April 1 lie found in his morning mail a letter containing only the words " April Fool." " Well ! well ! " he said, " I have received many a letter where a man forgot to sign his name ; this is the first time I ever knew of a writer signing his name and forgetting to write a letter." After I took the editorship of " The Christian Union " I urged him to give his views on public questions through its columns. "As it is now," I said, "any inter- viewer who comes to you gets a column from you ; and the public is as apt to get your views in any other paper as in your own." " Yes," he said, " I am like the town pump ; any one who will come and work the handle can carry off a pail full of ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 413 water." On one occasion I argued for Calvinism that it had produced splendid characters in Scot- land and in New England. "Yes," he replied, " Calvinism makes a few good men and destroys many mediocre men. It is like a churn ; it makes good butter, but it throws away a lot of butter- milk." Charles Sumner in the Senate and Thad- deus Stevens in the House were pressing forward the reconstruction measures based on forcing uni- versal suffrage in the South. In conversation with me Mr. Beecher thus diagnosed the situation: " The radicals are trying to drive the wedge into the log butt-end foremost; they will only split their beetle." They did ; they solidified the South and divided the Republican party. If he had been preaching on reconstruction, the figure would have flashed on him then, and he woidd have given it to his congregation from the pulpit as he did a like humorous figure in the following instance. He was denouncing the inconsistency of church members ; stopped ; imagined an interlocutor calling him to account for exposing the sins of church members before the world, and thus replied to him : " Do you not suppose the world knows them better than I do ? The world sees this church member in Wall Street, as greedy, as rapacious, as eager, as un- scrupulous as his companions. He says to himself, 1 Is that Christianity ? I will go to church next Sunday and see what the minister says about this.' He goes; and what is the minister saying?" Then, instantly, Mr. Beecher folded one arm 414 HENRY WARD BEECHER across his breast, held an imaginary cat pnrring comfortably there, as he stroked it with the other hand, and continued : " The minister is saying, 4 Poor pussy, poor pussy, poor pussy.' " Mr. Beecher made his congregation laugh not of set purpose and never for the sake of the laugh, but because he saw himself, and made them see, those incongruities which are the essence of humor and often the most powerful of arguments. And they flashed in his conversation as frequently and as brilliantly as in his public addresses. ^Esthetically Mr. Beecher was self-made. When he came to Brooklyn from life in the West, in what was essentially a border community, he brought with him both the unconventionality and the lack of cultivation which such life tends to develop. He never possessed that kind of taste which only in- heritance and early training can impart. But he trained himself. His love of form and color, in flowers, in precious stones, in rugs, in household decorations, and in painting, was such as to make him no mean critic respecting them all. He built his house in Peekskill, as he once said to me, be- cause he wanted to express himself in a home ; he selected all the woods, the papers, the rugs, the various decorations ; to that extent he was his own architect. While in church life I rather think that music always seemed to him the best which was the most effective vehicle for the expression of the emotional life of the congregation, he became a lover of the best music, and an habitual and thor- ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 415 oughly appreciative attendant on the Philharmonic Concerts in Brooklyn. But doubtless righteousness, and not beauty, was his standard; ethics, not aesthetics, afforded the law of his life. He would have taken the Latin virtus, not the Greek to koAov, — valor, not beauty, — to express his ideal of character. The Puritan is distinguished by two characteristics : the strength of his con- science, and the will to impose it as a standard upon others. Mr. Beecher had the Puritan conscience, but he had no inclination to impose it on others. He loved righteousness ; but he also loved liberty ; and he believed that righteousness could never be imposed from without, but must be wrought from within. Nevertheless, though advocating liberty of choice for others, the Puritan habits remained with him to the end. He was a purist as regards all re- lations between the sexes. He did not play cards, he did not smoke, and he was an habitual though not strictly a total abstainer. In his later life he occasionally took a glass of beer to induce sleep. He went on rare occasions to the theatre, but, I judge, rather seriously. In one of his letters he speaks of studying " Hamlet " as a preparation for seeing Irving. The theatre did not appeal to him, for the same reason that it did not appeal to his friend John H. Raymond, — because he had too much imagination. The crude interpretation of character and the cruder scenery offended and obstructed his understanding of the play. This Puritan conscience was mated to a spirit of 416 HENRY WARD BEECHER chivalry, and both were aroused and inflamed by the treatment to which slavery subjected a poor and ignorant race. He always sympathized with the unfortunate. And this was not the professional sympathy of the reformer. Traveling one day, he came to a station where the passengers were to change cars. All his fellow passengers were hast- ening to get good seats in the adjoining train. A, woman with three children, and packages to corre- spond, was helplessly waiting for her chance. Mr. Beecher, standing on the station platform, took hold of both railings of the car, braced himself against the crowd, and said, "Is no gentleman go- ing to help this poor woman to a seat ? " The word was enough ; the crowd responded ; and the woman found half a dozen willing hands to help her. Mr. Beecher's old-fashioned courtesy to his wife, and his chivalric attitude toward women in general, was not less noteworthy, though it has been less noted, than his love for little children. No one, I think, who knew Mr. Beecher at all intimately ever doubted his sincerity. He never pretended ; I do not think he had the capacity to carry a pretense out to a successful issue. He practiced what he preached ; and he was powerful as a preacher primarily because his preaching was the sincere and simple expression of himself. His literal interpretation of Christ's teaching concerning the forgiveness of enemies has been often ridiculed as impossible. To many men I doubt not that it is impossible; to him it was natural. Some year or two ESTIMATES AND IMPRESSIONS 417 after his public trial, Mr. Moulton, whose treach- ery had first deceived him as to the facts, and then betrayed him into writing those letters which were the only ground on which any suspicion against him was based, became involved in financial diffi- culties. With moistened eyes, Mr. Beecher said to me, " I wish I could help him ; I would gladly loan him the money to extricate himself, but I suppose I could not. He would not understand it, — no one would understand it." And he was right. No one would have understood it. The humor, the im- agination, the righteous indignation, the pleading, forgiving love of Mr. Beecher, were none of them assumed or excited for a purpose ; none of them belonged to the platform or the pulpit. They were his very self. I lean back in my chair. I close my eyes. The years that have elapsed are erased. I am sitting in the gallery pew. It is 1858. A Southern slave- holder is at my side. The preacher has declared, as he often did, that he has no will to interfere with slavery in the states ; no wish to stir up in- surrection and discontent in the slave. Thereupon he pictures the discontented slave escaping ; por- trays him stealthily creeping out from his log cabin at night ; seeking a shelter in the swamp ; feeding on its roots and berries ; pursued by baying blood- hounds ; making his way toward liberty, the North Star his only guide; reaching the banks of the Ohio River ; crossing it to find the Fugitive-Slave Law spread like a net to catch him. And I see the 418 HENRY WARD BEECHER fugitive, and hear the hounds, and my own heart beats with his hopes and fears; and then the preacher cries, " Has he a right to flee ? If he were my son and did not seek liberty I would write across his name, Disowned," and he writes it with his finger as he speaks, and I see the letters of flaming fire ; and the slaveholder at my side catches his breath while he nods an involuntary assent ; and as we walk out together, he says, " I could not agree with all he said, but it was great, and he is a good man." Yes. He was a good man and a great one. Not without errors. Not without faults. But in his love for God and his love for his fellow men a good man ; in his interpretation of the nature of God and the duty of man to God and to his fellow men a great man, with a clearness of vision and a cour- age in application which not many of us attain. APPENDIX APPENDIX The analysis of Paul's Seventh Chapter of Romans is taken from "The Christian Union," in which it was printed in March, 1887, at the time of Mr. Beecher's death, from the original manuscript in my possession. The statement of Mr. Beecher's theological views as given by him to his brethren in the ministry at the time of his withdrawal from the New York and Brooklyn As- sociation, is here reprinted from the " Life of Henry Ward Beecher," by Lyman Abbott and S. B. Halliday. The Bibliography has been prepared by the Rev. William E. Davenport, of Brooklyn, to whom I am also indebted for other valuable information. I also acknowledge my indebtedness to the Rev. Horace Porter, of Montclair, New Jersey, for reading this volume in manuscript, verifying dates and incidents, and preparing the Index ; and to the Rev. Ernest Hamlin Abbott for seeing the book through the press. LYMAN ABBOTT. PAUL'S THEOLOGY AN UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT ON ROMANS, CHAP. VII By Henry Ward Beecher [The following notes are here printed from " The Christian Union Supplement," March 17, 1887, both as an illustration of the thoroughness of Mr. Beecher's study of the Bible and the method of his preparation for certain forms of public discourse. They formed the basis of an address before a clerical association ; the date of this address I am not able to give.] I AM to discuss verses 17, 20, and 25, in the seventh chapter of Romans (quote). Here are three distinct statements on one and the same personal experience. Is the chapter to be taken literally ? Is it the experience of Paul ? Is it a universal experience of all Christians ? What is the theory of sin and responsibility ? What is Paul's theory of relief from a sense of guilt, in Christ ? Paul and Paul's countrymen must be understood, or we cannot interpret Romans. Paul was a poet and a dramatist. The substance of his writing was fact, the form dramatic and in places poetic. He was not a conscious artist. As the meteoric elements, when they meet the rush of this world's atmo- sphere, fuse and burn, so whatever touched the soul of Paul became incandescent. The whole Book of Romans is an argument in a kind of intermitting drama, and no APPENDIX 423 one can follow its course with only dictionary, grammar, and logic. To these must be added sympathy with an impetuous moral nature, whose mind acted by intuition — a mind that, rushing toward a goal, saw and often was detained by side-lights ; whose thoughts were opal- escent, flashing, full of heavenly color. The Book of Romans was not Paul's exposition of religion at large, only of so much of Christ's religion as was needful to his purposes. Romans is a grand special plea ! His audience, his countrymen ! His aim, to per- suade them to new and higher methods of righteousness than they possessed. He never denies that they were seeking the right ends, but only by methods which could never insure it Instead of a ritual, he proposed a per- son. Instead of conformity to a system of rules, he presented the inspiration of love. Instead of Moses dead, he presented Christ alive. His was a spiritual psychology, producing morality, not a morality hoping to blossom into spirituality. But, Romans derives its structure full as much from what the Jews were as from what Paul was. It was an argument of persuasion aimed at the peculiarities of his countrymen. Abstract thought, in which order follows logical association, was not his method. He followed the minds of the men to whom he wrote. Like a sur- geon, he watched the face and pulse of the patient at every motion of the knife. Romans is not Christianity relative to its own self, i. e. in a complete scientific analysis ; but Christianity rela- tive to the state of high-minded and conscientious Jews. It assumes that Mosaic Jews and Christian Jews had a common ground, viz. personal righteousness. The argument, then, is to demonstrate the superiority of Christ's method over that of Moses, and only so much of Christian philosophy is used as is needful for that. 424 APPENDIX The peculiarity of Jews. 1. He had before him the best men. He wrote to serve high purpose, deep moral conviction, sincere and earnest proofs. 2. But they were utterly blinded by spiritual conceit. 1. They believed they had fulfilled every condition of legal obedience. That God was bound by His covenant to bestow cer- tain great advantages upon them. That these promises or honors He was precluded from bestowing on others, except they entered the nation through the door of proselytizing. Romans is an argument addressed to profoundly earnest and conscientious men to convince them that they were not as good as they thought, nor possessed of the privileges they supposed, nor superior to other na- tions; to persuade them to try another and superior method. It was a tremendous task ; it is a magnificent oration. It leaves Demosthenes far behind in grandeur of its subject, in profound materials, in grasp, and scope, and the fine finish of Cicero compares with it as the Chinese dwarf oaks with the live-oak of Carolina. If the seventh of Romans is a logical and scientific statement we must accept the following statement : — 1. That there is a flesh-man and a spirit-man — an actual dual-man. 2. That these are distinctly at war with each other ; and that through life it is an unsettled conflict. 3. That the two men, one under different laws, have separate and different characters ; are so different, that the one may sin and the other be pure and blameless. In other words, that sin does not run through, or sin in one part of a man does not involve in guilt the whole man. 4. That the " I " can retreat from the lower man and APPENDIX 425 sit apart and above, and rejoice, while the under man is sorrowing. 5. That sin is a substance, like soot in a chimney, or fungus on a plant, or a tapeworm in the stomach, a burglar in a man's house. Vs. 17 : " Now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." 6. Yet in 25th verse, it is stated that the flesh is part of the " I," and that the personality serves the law of sin. 7. The seventh of Romans is no more dramatic than the two preceding chapters, or the eighth of Romans. They are a remarkable mixture of the abstract and con- crete ; of feeling, imagination and fact ; as simple state- ment and as metaphor. To interpret them by a scientific method would be as preposterous as to apply logarithm to Milton's Allegro, or H Penseroso. We must go out into life, we must go within, to others' and our own ex- perience, for a quick and real comprehension. Especially one must have the sensibility to poetry. 8. Sin becomes a power, a conspirator and tempter. 9. A petite drama is flashed forth. A man is alive and walking in security. The commandant lying in ambush attacks him, Sin springs up as [he] passes a covert. He is slain ! 10. A kind of Greek chorus comes in, a didactic statement of the purpose of the law. But, in an instant Sin becomes a person, a bandit springs up behind the law, and slays him ! 12. Another chorus. 13. A strain of quasi argument. 14. Ditto. 15-19. A battle in Civil War, in which the various parts of the soul must face in conflict. 20-22. Chorus and recitation which suddenly flows forth again in vs. 23, 24 into poetic vision ! 426 APPENDIX 25. In a burst of feeling, he anticipates and overleaps the argument, snatches, as it were, a verse from the 8th, and yet with the cry of victory on his lips, he resumes the statement, and a wonderful statement it is (vs. 25). Two departments in one man ! Obedience reigns in one and disobedience in the other. Under this opalescent and shifting scene, what may be regarded as Paul's psychology, if he could be kept cool long enough to make a scientific statement. 1. What is the scope of meaning in sarx. It is used by Paul (1 Cor. xv. 39) to signify flesh — meat. 2. The body, organized physical frame, as distin- guished from the spirit — 1 Cor. v. 5 ; Rom. ix. 8. 3. The appetites and passions which strictly pertain to physical functions. It is in this sense that Paul uses the phrase in his argument respecting sin and guilt. We have, in Gal. v. 19-21, first, group of four, ama- tory sin ; second, sins of combativeness and destructive- ness ; third group, sins of eating and drinking — appe- tite; heresies, i. e., factions, witchcraft and emulations, only two not directly for passions, but they are in life so profoundly associated with the appetites and passions, that they may well be classed with them. It is inconceivable that Paul should have meant to say that in his flesh he could serve the law of sin in this overt and fruitful way, while at the same time his nobler self was serving God ! Nay, in Gal. v. 24, he expressly says : " They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." But, it is conceivable, and it stands to nature, that a man's reason, conscience, and choice may be united and fixed ; that they may overawe and restrain the bodily appetites and passions, and may direct the whole being APPENDIX 427 toward things pure and right, and yet not to be able to withdraw from the passions, the powers of suggestion and impulse ; or even, at unwatchful moments, out- break. The soul is kept in fear and trembling, knowing that conspirators are concealed in him. At any hour insurrection may break forth. The rebellious province is subdued, but not pacified nor won over to allegiance. What then ? When one has given his love and con- science over to a living friend, and honestly, earnestly, and intensely, seeks to fulfill his wishes, these motives of the passions, their involuntary impulses, their momentary outbreak, are not to be counted as unsettling the char- acter, not as changing the direction from evil to good, from the flesh to the spirit, from self to Christ, and in the judicatory of love, they are testimonies rather of the fealty and fidelity of the soul. The instant restraint, the condemnation poured upon the evil, is a stronger proof of faithful love than would be an easy, even love, that had no tasks, no self-denial. In all this it must be borne in mind, that the question in debate is not the abstract question, whether the casual and restricted passions and impulses are not violations of law — but, whether the existence of such an experience is inconsistent with peace of mind. The Apostle argues — that under the Mosaic system, as held by the best of his contemporaries with a percep- tion of the spiritually felt law, a system of external obedi- ence, there could never be a sense of perfect obedience. The ideal law will always leave actual life in the vocative. But, under a reign of love, the whole flow and tend- ency of life is counted, and the incidental defections are thrown out and not counted. So that as a child with many faults, yet seeking to obey his parents, may be made very happy at home, so when we become sons of 428 APPENDIX God in a faith that works by love, disallowed sins do not count. In view of this exposition : 1. Is this Paul's personal experience ? 1. He doubtless has had similar. 2. But, he personifies a struggle of thousands. 2. Is it a universal experience ? 1. The substance matter, the elementary experi- ences, belong to all who seek the godly life. 2. But they are not collected, unbattled, and brought into conscious conflict. 3. Only in cases where the man seeks peace, from obedience and not from trust in love. It is the distinctive experience of Conscience and Intel- lect dealing with real or ideal law. THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT [The theological statement here printed was given by- Mr. Beecher at a regular meeting of the New York and Brooklyn Association of Congregational Ministers, held October 11, 1882. It was extemporaneous, was taken down in shorthand, and was published from the short- hand writer's report, except that portion relating to the Atonement. For the occasion of this address, see pages 321, 322. After some autobiographic reminiscences re- specting the spiritual experiences out of which his theo- logy had grown, Mr. Beecher proceeded as follows.] In order to make this a little more plain, to throw a little light on the operation of my mind, I came to think finally that there are three fundamental ideas of doctrine. That is to say, doctrine may be regarded as fundamental from three standpoints. First, from the standpoint of theology. Many things are fundamental to a system of theology, necessary to complete the whole chain of thinking from the beginning clear around to the end. The most complete, interlinked, compact, and self-consistent theology in the world is the Calvinistic — the higher you go the better it is, as a purely metaphy- sical and logical concatenation. Many doctrines are fundamental to this system which are by no means necessary to Christian life and character. A man may be a good Christian who accepts or rejects many of the doctrines of Calvinism. Then, secondly, you may look at fundamental doctrines from the standpoint of eccle- siastical organization. There are a great many things 430 APPENDIX that are indispensable to the existence of a church that are not necessary to the piety of the individual member of that church. You take the Roman system. Fundamen- talism there means not so much systematic theology as it does the truth necessary to the maintenance and in- fluence of the Church as God's abode on earth ; and you might take or reject a great many theological points in that system, provided you stuck to the Church and held to it firmly. Now comes a question which I have always regarded as of special importance, viz. What doctrines are fun- damental to the formation of Christian character and to its complete development ? There are many things that are necessary to a system of theology that are not neces- sary to the conviction or conversion of men. I have called those things fundamental which were necessary for the conviction of sin, for conversion from sin, for development of faith, for dominant love of the Lord Jesus Christ, and for the building up of a Christlike character. That dispenses with a great many doctrines that are necessary for a theological system, or for an ecclesiastical system. Now, let me go into details. A PERSONAL GOD And, first, I believe in God, and never for a moment have faltered in believing in a personal God, as distin- guished from a pantheistic God, whether it is the coarser Pantheism of materialism, believing that the material universe is God, or from the more subtle view of Matthew Arnold, who holds that God is nothing but a tendency in the universe — a something that is not me that tends toward righteousness. Well, he can love such a God, but I cannot. I would rather chew thistledown all summer long than to work with any such idea as that. I mean personal, not as if He were like us, but APPENDIX 431 personal in such a sense as that those that know person- ality in men cannot make any mistake in attempting to grasp and conceive of God. He is more than man in the operation of the intellect, larger in all the moral relations, infinitely deeper and sweeter in the affections. In all those elements, notwithstanding He is so much larger than men that no man by searching can find Him out to perfection, yet the humblest person can conceive that there is such a Being. They know in a general way what the Being is, and that He is a personal Being, and accessible as other persons are accessible, to the thoughts, the feelings, the wants, the cares of men. So I have believed and so I do believe. Then as to the controversy as to the knowable and unknowable ; I believe on both sides. It is not usual that I am on both sides of any question at the same time ; but I am here. I believe that there are elements that are distinctly knowable in quality but not in quantity, in nature but not in scope. I believe that when you say that God can do so and so, or cannot do so and so, you are all at sea. What God can do and what God cannot do in the im- mensity of His being lies beyond the grasp of human thought. The attributes are but alphabetic letters. We spell a few simple sentences. But the greatness, the majesty, the scope, the variety that is in Him we cannot compute. It will break upon us when we shall see Him as He is, and not through the imperfection of human analogies and experiences. I thank God that there is so much that is unknowable. When Columbus discovered America he did know that he had discovered a con- tinent, but he did not know its contents, what the moun- tain ranges were, nor what or where the rivers were, nor the lakes, nor the inhabitants. Yet he did know he had made the discovery of the continent. And I know God so that I walk with Him as with a companion, I whisper 432 APPENDIX to Him, I believe that He imparts thoughts to me and feelings, and yet when you ask me : " Can you describe Him ? Can you make an inventory of His attributes ? " I cannot. I thank God He so transcends anything we know of Him that God is unknowable. People say, " Some may believe this, but can you prove it ? " Sup- pose I were to have said in my youthful days to the woman of my choice, my honored wife, " I love you," and she handed me a slate and pencil and said, " Be kind enough to demonstrate that, will you ? " She would not have been my wife if she had. Are not the finest feelings that you know those that are unsusceptible of demonstration ? Certainly by analysis, description, lan- guage. Are not those things that make you not only different from the animal, but from the men around about you, that lift you into a higher atmosphere, — do they not transcend any evidence that the sense can give ? And is not that the instruction that runs through all of Paul's writings ? So I hold and so I have taught of God. Not seeable, not known by the senses, the full circuit of His being not discerned except by moral intuition, by the range of susceptibility, when the down-shining of the Holy Ghost comes to me I know, by an evidence within myself that is unspeakably more convincing to me than eye, or hand, or ear can be, that there is a God and that He is my God! THE TRINITY I accept without analysis the tri-personality of God. I accept the Trinity ; perhaps because I was educated in it. No matter why, I accept it. Are there any difficul- ties in it ? I should like to know if there are any great questions of the structure of the universe, of the nature of mind, that do not run you into difficulties when you APPENDIX 433 go a little way in them. But I hold that while I cannot analyze and localize into distinct elements, as it were, the three Persons of the Trinity, I hold them — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. The theories, such as, for instance, in part are hinted in the Nicene Creed and outspun with amazing ignorance of knowledge in the Athanasian Creed, I do not believe. The Athanasian Creed is gigantic spider-web weaving. I leave it to those who want to get stuck on it, but the simple de- claration that God exists in unity and yet in the tri-fold personality, I accept. A man says, " Do you believe there can be three in one ? " Yes, I do. It is not con- trary either to reason or to the analogies in nature. The first forms of life, the lowest, are found to be absolutely simple and unitary. Every step of development in the succession of animal life is toward complexity, — com- plexity of functions, of organs, of powers and faculties, — and when we reach the higher animals the complex- ity of mental traits is discovered, — animal passions, then social instincts, affections, moral sentiments, — until in civilized man we find a being composed not only of mul- titudes of parts, but of groups, so that unity is made up by whole families of faculties. I can conceive that in a higher range of being unity may be comprised of per- sons, as in the lower it is made up of groups of faculties. It is not proof of trinity in unity, but it dissipates the notion that three may not be one. I do not say it is so, but it runs right along and in the line of analogies of nature, and predisposes one to accept the implication of the New Testament as to the mode of Divine existence. As to any attempt to divide the functions, — the Father to His function, the Son to another department, and the Holy Ghost to yet another function, — leave it to those who are better informed than I am. 434 APPENDIX FAITH IN CHRIST But let me say first, that while there are, of course, no doubts as to the existence of God the Father in any Christian sect, there have been grave doubts as to the divinity of Christ; but not in my mind. I believe fully, enthusiastically, without break, pause, or aberration, in the divinity of Christ. I believe that Christ is God man- ifest in the flesh. Is the whole of God in Christ ? Well, that is asking me, Can infinity be inclosed in the finite ? What I understand by His laying aside His glory is that Christ when He came under the limitations of time and space and flesh was limited by them. I am limited. You are limited. If you go down into the Five Points to talk with men, you lay aside at home two thirds of that which is best in you. You cannot bring it before such persons. You are limited by the condition of their minds. In other words, it is quite possible that even God, though I know not how, should manifest Himself under limita- tions at times, and that the whole power and knowledge and glory of God should not appear during His earth life. During His life He made Himself a man, not being ashamed to be called a brother. He went through the identical experiences that men go through. He was born. He was a baby, with no more knowledge than a baby has ; a youth, with no more knowledge than a youth has. He grew in stature. He grew in knowledge. I believe that Christ Himself, at times, had the conscious- ness of His full being. There were days when it seemed as though the heavens opened and He saw the whole of Himself and felt His whole power. But the substance of His being was divine, and He was God manifest in the flesh. That is my faith, and I never swerved from it. And I can go farther and say I cannot pray to the Father except through Christ. I pray to Christ. I must. APPENDIX 435 The way the Spirit of God works with me makes it necessary that I should have something that I can clasp, and to me the Father is vague. I believe in a Father, but the definition of Him in my vision, is not to me what the portraiture of Christ is. Though I say Father, I am thinking of Christ all the time. That is my feel- ing, that is my life, and so I have preached, so I have taught those that came from Unitarian instruction — never asking them to a technical argument or proof, but simply saying, " You say you can pray to the Father, but cannot to Christ. You are praying to Christ ; you don't know it. That which you call Father is that which is interpreted in Christ. Since the Godhead has three doors of approach to our apprehension, it makes no dif- ference through which our souls enter." THE HOLY SPIRIT Then I believe next in the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, as one of the persons of the Godhead. And in regard to that I believe that the' influence, the Divine influence, the quickening, stimulating influence of the mind of God proceeds from the Holy Ghost, and that it is universal, constant, immanent. The body of man receives all the stimulus it needs from the organized physical world — feeds itself, maintains itself ; the social affections receive all the stimulus and impulse they need from society; but whatever in man reaches toward holiness — aspiration, love of truth, justice, purity — that feeds upon the spiritual nature and is developed by the down-shining of the Holy Ghost. And as the sunlight is the father of every flower that blossoms, — though no flower would blossom if he had not separate organized existence in the plant on which it shines, — so " work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you," describes the working of the 436 APPENDIX Divine Spirit in producing right affections and good works in man. PROVIDENCE I hold and I teach that there is a general and a special providence of God which overrules human life by and through natural laws ; but, also, I believe that there is an overruling and special providence of God in things pertaining to human life as well as to the life of the world by the direct action of His own will, by such a use of laws in the first place upon us, — such a use as may not be known to us, but is perfectly known to God, — by such a use of natural laws as is wisely adapted to effect needed results. A great thinker can employ nat- ural laws to create conditions of life that did not exist before, to change public sentiment, to repress indolence, to stimulate activity. Every man that is acting in the world is employing natural laws with cunning, with wisdom, with skill, by which he is enabled to change the whole course and current of things. God stands behind the whole system of natural laws and can produce special results in men whenever He pleases. Such a doctrine of the special influence of the Spirit of God makes prayer of benefit to man. I believe millions of prayers are not answered and that millions are — some directly, some indirectly. Man has the feeling and should have the feeling : " I have a right to carry myself and all that concerns me to God ; it is not in vain that I pray to Him." I believe in the efficacy of prayer, partly by its moral reaction upon us, to be sure, but a great deal more by direct answer from God. I believe, then, in Divine Providence ; I believe in prayer, and out of the same view of God I believe in MIRACLES I believe miracles are possible now; they not only were APPENDIX 437 possible, but were real in the times gone by, — especially the two great miracles that began and ended the Chris- tian dispensation — the miraculous conception of Christ and His resurrection from the dead. When I give those up the two columns on which the house stands will have to fall to the ground. Being of scientific tastes, believ- ing in evolution, believing in the whole scheme of natr ural laws, I say they are reconcilable with the true theory of miracles. I wrote in a book when I came to Brooklyn : " I foresee there is to be a period of great unbelief ; now I am determined so to preach as to lay a foundation, when the flood comes, on which men can build ; " and I have thus, as it were, been laboring for the Gentiles, not for the Jews, in the general drift of my ministry. REGENERATION Man is a being created in imperfection and seeking a full development. I believe him to be sinful, — univer- sally man is sinful, — but I do not believe he is totally depraved. I believe that to be a misleading phrase. But no man ever lived, and no man ever will live, that was only a man, that was not a sinner ; and he is a sinner not simply by infirmity, though much of that which is called sin is but infirmity, but he is a sinner to such an extent that he needs to be transferred out of his nat- ural state into a higher and spiritual state. He needs to be born again. If any man believes in the doctrine of the sinfulness of man I do, and I have evidence of it every day, and if ever a man believed in being born again, I believe in that The degree of sinfulness in men, I have always taught, is dependent on a variety of circumstances. Some persons are far less sinful than others. It is far easier for some to rise into the spiritual kingdom than for others. Heredity has a powerful 438 APPENDIX influence. The circumstances that surround men by their influence lift some very high and leave others comparatively low. God judges men according to their personal and their actual condition. [Here a member of the Association asked if a man needed to be regenerated for anything beside his per- sonal sin.] He needs to be regenerated to become a man. I hold that man is first an animal, and that then he is a social animal. He is not a full man and a religious being until he is lifted into that higher realm in which he walks with God. And every man needs to be lifted into that high estate, partly by parental instruction ; by the sec- ondary or reflected light of Christianity upon the morals, customs, and spirit of the age in which he lives, some men are lifted nearer the threshold. There is not a man born that does not need to be born again, and it is a work which is as impossible to men as it is for a person to come suddenly to education, to knowledge, simply by a volition. No man can ever lift himself up so. It is not within human power ; it is within the power of a man to put himself under instructors and grow up into educa- tion, but I hold man has not the power to regenerate himself. He is under the stimulating influence of the present and immanent Spirit of God which is striving with every man ; when he will open his mind to receive Divine influence every man is helped, and the act of surrender to God and entrance into the spiritual king- dom are the joint act of the man willing and wishing and the cooperative influence of the Spirit of God enabling him. INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE As to the inspiration of the Bible, let me say that with a few exceptions I can accept the chapter in the APPENDIX 439 Confession of Faith on that subject, which I think to be a very admirable compend. I will read it : — " Although the light of nature and the works of crea- tion and Providence do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom, and power of God as to leave men inexcusable, yet they are not sufficient to give that knowledge of God and of His will, which is necessary unto salvation ; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times and in divers manners, to reveal Himself and to declare that His will unto His church ; and afterward, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing ; which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary ; those former ways of God's revealing His will unto His people being now ceased." That is my theory. The Bible is the record of the steps of God in revealing Himself and His will to man. The inspiration was originally upon the generation, upon the race ; and then what was gained step by step was gathered up, as this says, and put into writing, for the better preservation of it. " It pleased the Lord, at sun- dry times and in divers manners to reveal Himself and to declare that His will unto the church ; and afterward, for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh and the malice of Satan and of the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing." I do not want any better definition of my view of inspiration — that is, inspiration of men, not inspiration of a book — and that the book is the record of that inspiration that has been taking place from generation to generation. [Reading] "The au- thority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be 440 APPENDIX believed and obeyed dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself), the author thereof ; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God." I have no objections to make to that. [Reading] u We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the church to a high and reverend esteem for the Holy Scripture ; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doc- trine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excel- lences, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the word of God ; yet, notwithstanding our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth and divine au- thority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word, in our hearts." External arguments are good, that says, but the witness of God in your own soul is the best evidence. I believe that. No man can wrest the Bible from me. I know from the testimony of God in my moral sense. [Reading] " The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory." I do not believe that. Who knows what is necessary for God's glory ? " Man's salvation." I believe that. The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for man's salva- tion, faith and life, "is either expressly set down in Scripture or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture ; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men." Yes, I might believe that. I believe it with an addendum. " Nevertheless we ac- knowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such APPENDIX 441 things as are revealed in the world." That settles that little question. It is the moral consciousness. It is the man as he is instructed by knowledge, and then inflamed or rendered sensitive by the Spirit of God that sits in judgment upon the word of God. Talk about our not being allowed to come to the Bible with our reason. That is the only way we can go. Is a man to come with his ignorance, through a council or somebody else's thinking ? Must we not use our reason to know what the word of God is? When a man says, "You must not dilute the word of God by any thinking of your own ; you must not translate the Bible or construct the doc- trines of the Bible except by the Bible itself," then I will turn and catechize that man, saying, " Will you be kind enough to tell me from the Bible alone what a lion is ? " You cannot. " Will you be kind enough to define from the Bible what a mountain is ? " You cannot. " Will you, out of the Bible, define a river, an eagle, a sparrow, a flower, a king, a mother, a child?" You cannot do it. What do you do ? You go right to the thing itself outside of the Bible. When you see a flower, you know what the Bible means when it says a flower. In all things that are cognizable by man's senses, he finds what is the thing spoken of in the Bible by going to the thing itself, outside of the Bible. It is absurd to say that the Bible must be its own sole expounder. Now, that which is true in respect to miracles, — in respect to the whole economy of human life, — is it not also true in respect to the man himself and his own individual experience ? A man says, " You must not undertake to dictate to the word of God what conver- sion is." I should like to know how I am going to find it out except by seeing it ? I go to the thing itself. Then I understand what is meant by it. And so far from not going outside of the Bible to interpret it, no 442 APPENDIX man can interpret it without a knowledge of what lies outside of it. That is the very medium through which any man comes to understand it. (Dr. H. M. Storrs.) You used the sentence just now, " We are not to substitute our reason for the Word of God?" (Mr. Beecher.) Yes, and in using it, I say you are not confined to the mere comparison of texts. You have a right to go out to things that lie within the reach of human knowledge, and study outward things spoken of, and then come back to the Bible with a better under- standing of what the Bible teaches. Well, I shall not have time to say much more; but, in the main, with such modifications as will be clearly understood now by what I have said, I accept the first chapter in the Con- fession of Faith of the Presbyterian Church as being a very wise and very full and very admirable definition of my views of the Bible. ATONEMENT [Mr. Beecher had spoken an hour and a half before reaching this topic. It became impracticable for the re- porter to reduce it to writing both because he had be- come weary with the long session, and because the speaker was interrupted by a multitude of questions from all parts of the house. Mr. Beecher has been obliged to write out his views for publication without regard to the reporter's copy.] The New Testament, instead of discussing the Atone- ment, — the word is but once used in the New Testa- ment, — confines itself to the setting forth of Christ, His nature, power, relations, and commands. We hear no- thing of a " plan,"of an "arrangement," of a " scheme of salvation," of any " atonement," but everything of Christ's work. I am accustomed to say that Christ is in Himself APPENDIX 443 the Atonement, that He is set forth in His life, teaching, suffering, death, resurrection, and heavenly glory, as em- powered to forgive sin and to transform men into a new and nobler life who know sin and accept Him in full and loving trust. He is set forth as one prepared and em- powered to save men, to remit the penalty of past sins, and to save them from the dominion of sin. It is not ne- cessary to salvation that men should know how Christ was prepared to be a Saviour. It is He Himself that is to be accepted, and not the philosophy of His nature or work. I employ the term Christ for that which systematic writers call the Atonement. But Christ is not merely a historic name. It is a group of attributes, a group of qualities, a character, a divine nature in full life and ac- tivity among men. When we accept Christ, we yield love and allegiance to that character, to those qualities, deeds, and dispositions which make his name " to be above every name." The idea of faith is such an acceptance of Christ's heavenly dispositions as shall reorganize our char- acter and draw us into a likeness to Him. When it is said that there is none other name given under heaven whereby men can be saved, I understand it to be a decla- ration that man's exit from sinful life and entrance into a spiritual life, can only be through a new inspiration — a new birth — into these divine elements. What Christ was, man must become ; the way and the life He was. It is by the way of those qualities that every man must rise into a regenerated state. Christ is to the soul a living person full of grace, mercy, and truth ; of love that surpasses all human experiences or ideals (it passes understanding) a love that is patient, forgiving, self-sac- rificing, sorrowing and suffering not for its own but for others' sins and sinful tendencies. Christ is a living actor moving among men in purity, truth, justice, and love, not for His own sake, not seeking His own glory, but seeking 444 APPENDIX to open, both by His person, presence, actions, words, and fidelity, the spiritual kingdom of God to men's under- standings — in short, it is the moral nature of God man- ifest in the flesh — to " follow " Him, to " learn of " Him, to become His " disciple " or pupil, to " put on the Lord Jesus Christ," to be " hid in Him," to have not our own natural rectitude, but " that rectitude or righteous- ness which is by faith in Him," to assume His " yoke and burden " — all these and a multitude of other terms clearly interpret the meaning of faith in Christ, or receiv- ing Christ. I do not teach that this heart of Christ presented to men " gives them power to become the sons of God ; " that the ordinary human understanding could of itself develop the energy which is needed for the revolution of human character and life. I teach that there is a power behind it — the stimulating, enlightening, inspiring spirit of God — the Holy Ghost — and that this view of Christ, when set home upon men by the Holy Spirit, this devel- opment of the Divine nature in Christ, " is the wisdom of God and the power of God unto salvation." It is asked whether I limit the effect of Christ's life and death to its relation to man, and whether it had no relation to the unseen world, to the law of God in heavenly places, to the administration of justice through the ages. In reply I would say, that I cannot conceive of the emergence from heaven of such a being as Christ, upon such a mis- sion, without its having relations to the procedures of the unseen world. There are some passages of Scripture that bear strongly to that view. But whatever necessity there was for Christ's sacrifice apart from its influence on man, and whatever effect it may have had on Divine government, that part of the truth is left unexplained in the Word of God. If alluded to, as I am inclined to think it is, it is left without expansion or solution. The Scrip- APPENDIX 445 tures declare that the suffering of Christ secured the re- mission of sins. They do not say how it secures it. The fact is stated, but not the reason or philosophy of it. The Apostles continually point to Christ's sufferings — they inspire hope because Christ has suffered ; they include in their commission that their joyful errand is to an- nounce remission of sins by reason of Christ's work. But nowhere do I see any attempt to reach those ques- tions of modern theology, — Why was it necessary ? How did his suffering open a way for sinners ? I regard the statement in Romans iii. 20-26 as covering the ground which I hold, and as including all that is known. "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight : for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe : for there is no difference : for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God ; being justi- fied freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jetfus : whom God hath set forth to be a pro- pitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His right- eousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness : that He might be just, and the justi- fier of him which believeth in Jesus." That part of Christ's mission, or that part of the Atonement, if one choose that phrase, which flames through all the New Testament, and which can be un- derstood, is that moral power which it exerts and those effects which, through the Holy Spirit, are produced by it [At this point the report is resumed.] 446 APPENDIX FUTURE PUNISHMENT I will say a few words on the subject of eschatology. I believe in the teaching of the Scripture that conduct and character in this life produce respectively beneficial or detrimental effects, both in the life that now is and in the life that is to come ; and that a man dying is not in the same condition on the other side, whether he be bad or whether he be good ; but that consequences follow and go over the border ; and that the nature of the con- sequences of transgression — that is, such transgression as alienates the man from God and from the life that is in God — such consequences are so large, so dreadful, that every man ought to be deterred from venturing upon them. They are so terrible as to constitute the founda- tion of urgent motives and appeal on the side of fear, holding men back from sin, or inspiring them with the desire of righteousness. That far I hold that the Scrip- tures teach explicitly. Beyond that I do not go, on the authority of the Scriptures. I have my own philosoph- ical theories about the future life ; but what is revealed to my mind is simply this : The results of u man's con- duct reach over into the other world on those that are persistently and inexcusably wicked, and man's punish- ment in the life to come is of such a nature and of such dimensions as ought to alarm any man and put him off from the dangerous ground and turn him toward safety. I do not think we are authorized by the Scriptures to say that it is endless in the sense in which we ordinarily employ that term. So much for that, and that is the extent of my authoritative teaching on that subject. FAREWELL Now, Christian brethren, allow me to say that these views which I have opened to you, and which of course, APPENDIX 447 in preaching in the pulpit, take on a thousand various forms, under differing illustrations, and for the different purposes for which I am preaching — allow me to say these views have not been taken up suddenly. I might as well say my hair was suddenly got up for the occasion, or that my bones I got manufactured because I wanted to go somewhere. Why, they are part of my life and growth. I have not varied in the general line or direc- tion from the beginning to this day — like a tree that grows and diversifies its branches, but is the same tree, the same nature. So I teach now with more fullness and with more illustrations and in a clearer light what I taught forty years ago. It is not from love of novelty that I vary in anything. I do not love novelty as such, but I do love truth. I am inclined to sympathize with the things that have been : reverence for the past lies deep in my nature. It has not been from any desire to sepa- rate myself from the teachings of my brethren in the Christian ministry. I should rather a thousand times go with them than go against them, though if I am called to go against them I have the courage to do it, no mat- ter what the consequences may be. I have endeavored, through stormy times, through all forms of excitement, to make known what was the nature of God and what He expected human life to be, and to bring to bear upon that one point every power and influence in me. I have nothing that I kept back — neither reason, nor wit, nor humor, nor experience, nor moral sensibility, nor social affection. I poured my whole being into the ministry with this one object : to glorify God by lifting man up out of the natural state into the pure spiritual life. In doing this I have doubtless alienated a great many. The door has been shut, and sympathy has been withheld. I have reason to believe that a great many of the brethren of the Congregational faith would speak more than dis- 448 APPENDIX approval, and that many even in the association to which I belong feel as though they could not bear the burden of responsibility of being supposed to tolerate the views I have held and taught, and as a man of honor and a Christian gentleman I cannot afford to lay on any- body the responsibility of my views. I cannot afford especially to put them in such a position that they are obliged to defend me. I cannot make them re- sponsible in any way, and therefore, I now here, and in the greatest love and sympathy, lay down my mem- bership of this Association and go forth — not to be separated from you. I shall be nearer to you than if I should be in ecclesiastical relation. I will work for you, I will lecture for you, I will personally do everything I can for you. I will even attend these meetings as a spectator, with you. I will devote my whole life to the Congregational churches and their interests, as well as to all other churches of Christ Jesus. I am not going out into the cold. I am not going out into another sect. I am not going away from you in any spirit of dis- gust. I never was in warmer personal sympathy with every one of you than I am now ; but I lay down the responsibility that you have borne for me — I take it off from you and put it on myself. And now you can say, " He is a member of the Congregational Church, but he has relieved his brethren of all responsibility whatever for his teachings." That you are perfectly free to do. With thanks for your great kindness and with thanks to God for the life which we have had here together, I am now no longer a member of the Congre- gational Association of New York and Brooklyn, but with you a member of the Body of Christ Jesus, in full fellowship with you in the matter of faith and love and hope. APPENDIX 449 At the close of Mr. Beecher's address, after some in- formal debate, a committee of three, consisting of Messrs. H. M. Storrs, W. C Stiles, and A. Whittemore, was appointed to draft a resolution expressive of the sentiments of the Association, which, as finally amended, was carried without a dissenting voice. It was as follows : — Resolved, That the members of the New York and Brooklyn Association receive the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's resignation of his membership in this body with very deep pain and regret. We cannot fail to recognize the generous magnanimity which has led him to volunteer this action, lest he should seem even indi- rectly to make his brethren responsible before the public for the support of philosophical and theological doctrines wherein he is popularly supposed to differ essentially with those who hold the established and current Evan- gelical faith. His full and proffered exposition of doc- trinal views that he has made at this meeting indicates the propriety of his continued membership in this or any other Congregational Association. We hereby declare our desire that he may see his way clear to reconsider and withdraw it. We desire to place on record as the result of a long and intimate acquaintance with Mr. Beecher, and a familiar observation of the results of his life, as well as his preaching and pastoral work, that we cherish for him an ever-growing personal attachment as a brother beloved, and a deepening sense of his worth as a Christian minister. We cannot now contemplate the possibility of his future absence from our meetings without a depressing sense of the loss we are to suffer, and unitedly pledge the hearts of the Association to him, and express the hope that the day for his return may soon come. INDEX Abolitionists, Beecher not one of, 155. Adams, Charles Francis, quoted, 230, 246. Adams, John Qnincy, on slavery and the Constitution, 151. Adams, Sarah, 90. Alford, 5. America, size and population in 1834,39. American Board, when organ- ized, 7, 9. American Home Missionary So- ciety, 9. American Tract Society, silence on slavery, 191. Amherst College, 34, 36, 39, 156. Anglo-Romanism, 4. Anti-slavery, issue in 1847, 133 ; Convention, 136 ; cause es- poused, 156 ; Society, 186, 193 ; campaign, 195-223. Armitage, Rev. Dr., on " Beecher as a Man," 325. Arnold, Matthew, 111. Arnold, Thomas, 5. An iot . William, quoted, 117. Bacon, Leonard, an editor of " The Independent," 158, 288 ; presides over Council, 295. Barnes, Albert, why put on trial, 9. Harmnn. P. T., 214. Bates, Erastus N., vice-modera- tor of Council, 295. Beecher, Catharine, sister of Henry Ward, educator, 25 ; quoted, 29. Beecher, Charles, musical col- laborator of his brother, 26. Beecher, Dr. Edward, college president and pastor, 25, 110. Beecher, Harriet, sister of Henry Ward, 25. See also Stowe. Beecher, Harriet E., daughter of Henry Ward, 48. Beecher, Henry Barton, son of Henry Ward, 48. Beecher, Henry Ward, real life begins as spiritual experience in Ohio woods, 1 ; .pjjmhet of J a r e vl O; his views ofCnrlst, 13, 14 ; birth of, 16 ; his boy- hood, 29-34; enters Amherst College, 34 ; graduates from, 39 ; at Lane Theological Semi- nary, 42, 46; goes to Law- renceburg, Indiana, 46 ; mar- riage and children, 48 ; ordina- tion, 48, 49 ; preaching at Law- renceburg, 50 ; goes to Indian- apolis, 55, 67 ; his study of men, 61, 109 ; his preaching, 63, 118, 124 ; hjs^j.ieetmraa to ¥^""C Mp^," Jrf - r ^ : called to Park Street, Boston, and to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, 71 ; accepts the latter, 74 ; let- ter quoted on his purpose in the ministry, 74 ; first sermon in Plymouth Church, 75 (first evening sermon, 158) ; as pas- tor of Plymouth Church, 100- 132 ; personal appearance, 100 ; his elocutionary power, 104- 106 ; his rhetoric, 107 ; as a INDEX scholar, 110 ; student of the Bible, 115; specially of the New Testament, 116, 117 ; his method of preaching, 119 ; why a Congregationalist, 123 ; an emotional p reacher, 127 ; a mysticj_128 ; his imagination, 129; his prayers, 130 ; his atti- tude toward the abolitionists, 153-155 ; his attitude toward slavery, 156-194 ; auction of slave girls, 160-162 ; editorial in "Independent," on "Shall We Compromise ? " 167 ; American slavery and Hebrew slavery contrasted, 172-174 ; free system of North and slave system of South con- trasted, 175, 176; duty of North, 177-179 ; duty of North toward Fugitive-Slave Law in ' particular, 180, 189 ; duty of the Church to slavery, 189- 194 ; the Anti-Slavery Cam- paign, 195-222 ; Kansas-Ne- braska Bill, 202 ; in the Fre- mont campaign, 205 ; on the Free Soilers, 210-212 ; " Against a Compromise of Principle," 231 ; on Sumter, 237 ; preaches on " The Na- tional Flag," 238; editor of "The Independent," 240; urges emancipation, 241 ; goes to Europe, 242; his English speeches, 253-263; his recep- tion home, 264; Sumter flag- raising, 264-266 ; on recon- struction, 271 ; the Cleveland letters, 272, 282-287 ; for uni- versal suffrage, 276 ; trial of, 288, 289; his "Yale Lectures on Preaching," 301, 353-373; " Silver Wedding " of his pas- torate, 301 ; his lecture tours, 304 ; his Richmond experience, 305, 306; on public schools, 308 ; on the Irish cause, 308 ; on the Chinese question, 308 ; prohibition, 308 ; on the Jews, 308 ; campaigns for Grant, Hayes, and Cleveland, 308, 309 ; a free-trader, 310 ; three epochs in his preaching, 312 ; an evolutionist, 313-323 ; not a Universalist or Unitarian, 320 ; later views of the Bible, 320; withdraws from Congre- gational Association, 321 ; his " Bible Studies " and " Esolu- tionanjLRehgion," 323; severs connection with l ' The Christian Union," 324 ; at the Brooklyn New England dinners, 325 seventieth birthday, 325 ; as editor and author, 328-352 a great editorial writer, 338 " Life of Christ," 344 ; " Star Papers," 344; his style, 349 student of Ruskin, Homer, Milton, and Dante, 351 ; rank of his writings, 351 ; his " Yale Lectures on Preaching," 353- 373 ; on prayer, 367 ; compara- tive value of his books, 372 ; revisits England, 374 ; returns to America, 375 ; resumes work on his " Life of Christ," 375 ; his last service in Plymouth Church, 376 ; his illness and death, 377; the funeral, 378- 380; his statue in City Hall Park, 380; portrait in bas- relief in Plymouth Church, 380; estimates and impres- sions, 386-417 ; variety of his interests, 387 ; his oratory compared with that of the other great orators of his day, 396 ; author's impressions of Beecher's oratory, 403; of his private life, 406; some letters, 411, 412 ; his sincerity, 416; effect of his preaching on a slave-holder, 417. Beecher, Lyman, restatement of INDEX 453 orthodox doctrine, 9 ; sermon on "The Bible a Code of Laws," quoted, 13 ; autobio- graphy referred to, 16 ; as a preacher, 17-22 ; accepts call to Lane Theological Seminary, 42 ; lectureship named for him at Yale College, 353. Beecher, Mrs. Henry Ward, 48, 377. Beecher Memorial Association, 382. Beecher Memorial Church, 381. Beecher, Roxanna Foote, mo- ther of Henry Ward, 16; character of, 22-24. Beecher, Thomas K., his work, 26. Beecher, William C, son of Henry Ward, 48. Bell, Geo. A., quoted, 302. Bentham, 4. Bible, 11, 13 ; Beecher's use of, 115, 117; modern views of, 315, 316. Birney, James G., 146, 155. Blackwell, Lucy Stone, 216. Bonner, 345. Bowen, Henry C, 158, 289. Broad Church Movement, 5. Broadway Tabernacle, 159. " Brooklyn Eagle " quoted, 91. Brooklyn in 1847, 72. Brooks, Phillips, 5, 389, 396M02. Brown, John, 147, 213. Browning, Mrs., 90. Bryant, Wm. C, 90. Buchanan, President, his presi- dency at time of great na- tional crisis, 223. Bullard, Miss Eunice, becomes Mrs. Beecher, 48. Burke, 37. Burns, Robert, Mr. Beecher quoted on, 215. Bushnell, Horace, prophet of faith, 10; philosophy he taught, 11, 34, 371. Calhoun, John C, remark about Beecher, 170, 177. Calvin, John, 6. Calvinists, 12. Carlyle, 129. Chalmers, Dr., 304. Channing, 89. Chase, Salmon P., 155, 204. Cheever, Geo. B., 214. Christ, 1-3, 13, 15, 18 ; Beecher a preacher of, 118, 123, 126, 128, 193, 242, 243 ; and non- resistance, 210 ; " Life " of, by Beecher, 300, 344, 346-349; various " Lives " of, 347, 348. Christlieb, 124. 11 Christian Union, The," Beech- er's analysis of seventh of Ro- mans, printed in, 117; his prayers in, 131 ; founded, 290, 300 ; Mr. Be&her with- draws from, 324 ; his purpose in, 333-336, 338; success of, 339. "Church Union, The," pur- chased for founding " The Christian Union," 332. Church, amusements in, 215 ; of England at beginning of nine- teenth century, 4; Congrega- tional, 81-83 ; Institutional, 261 ; Methodist, aggressive piety of, 4, 6, 136 ; Plymouth, see Plymouth Church ; Pres- byterian, 136 ; Puritan, 4. Church, the, and slavery, 75, 136, 146, 189-195. Cincinnati, 40, 41. " Cincinnati Gazette," 328. 44 Cincinnati Journal, The," Beecher writes for, 328. Civil War, 223-243 ; Buchan- an's administration and, 223- 226; Lincoln's earliest atti- tude toward, 228; Mr. Beecher's final declarations against compromise, 231- 237 ; Plymouth Church and the 454 INDEX Civil War, 238 ; England and, 244-248 ; Beecher's presenta- tion of the war issues in Eng- land, 230-263. Claflin, Horace B., 294. Clarkson, 136. Clay, Henry, his compromise measures, and his character, 162. Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, 198. "Cleveland Letters," as con- taining Beecher's views on re- construction, 272 ; the letters discussed, 282-287. Collyer, Robert, on "Mr. Beecher as a Man," 325. Conant, Thomas J., 110. Congregationalism, principle of, 82. Constitution, Beecher student of, 110, 151-153, 164-169, 177, 180-183. Conybeare, 5. Cotton-gin, 137. Council, the great Congrega- tional, held in Plymouth Church, 295, 296. Curtis, George William, his ora- tory, 396-398. Cutter, William T., secures in- vitation to Mr. Beecher to come East, 73. Cuyler, Theodore F., 214. D'Alembert, 8. Dana, Professor J. D., 325. Dante, 111. Darwin, "Origin of Species," 314. Dawes, Senator Henry L., 325. Declaration of Independence, 136. Dingley, Nelson, vice-moderator of Council, 295. Dog Noble, Anecdote of, 206, 207. Douglas, Stephen A., 199. Douglass, Frederick, 145. Dunn's " Indiana," 52. Dwight, Pres. Timothy, 7; his restatement of doctrine, 9. Edersheim, " Life of Christ," 348. Edmonson girls, purchase of, from slavery, 162. Eggleston, Edward, quoted, 114. EUicott, 5. Emancipation, Beecher on, 241. Emigrant Aid Company, 208. Emmons, last of merely logical preachers, 10. Erskine, 5. Evolution, 314. " Evolution and Religion," 307, 313. Faber, F. W., 90. Farrar, F. W., 5. Fillmore, President, quoted, 197, 204. Finney, Charles G., his faith in a new theology, 9; the pro- phet of hope, 10 ; power of, 12, 117, 397, 401. Fiske, John, 404. Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 331, 339. Foreign Missionary Society, timid on slavery, 191 . Fowler, the phrenologist, quot- ed, 100. Fremont, John C, 205. Fulton, Rev. Dr., on "Beecher as a Man," 325. Garrison, William Lloyd, and "The Liberator," 143-148, 155, 196. Geikie's " Life of Christ," 348. Gladstone, 245 ; his oratory, 396, 397. God, 1, 3 ; no mere hypothesis, 11 ; Puritan conception of, 13, 15, 129; sermon on "The Gentleness of," 195. INDEX 455 Gough, John B., his oratory, 396-399. Grant, General, 229, 268. Greeley, Horace, 196, 247. Guion, Madame, 90. Hall, Dr. Chas. H., quoted, 376, 378. Halla way '8 " Indianapolis," 52 ; quoted, 54, 62. Halliday, Rev. S. B., 103, 381. Harper Brothers' edition of Beeeher's sermons, 120. Harper, Mr. Fletcher, 342. Hayes, President, 325. Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 209. Higher criticism, 116. Hilliard, George S., 196. Hillis, Newell Dwight, 382. Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 325. Home Missionary Society, 9, note ; and slavery, 191. Hopkins, Mark, 325. " How to Become a Chris- tian?" quoted, 97. Howard, John R., quoted, 172, 332. Howson, 5. Hunt, Seth B., 158. Huxley, Thomas H., 111. " Independent, The," 158, 178, 202 ; Beecher, editor of, 240, 288, 329, 332. Indiana, 52, 135. "Indiana Journal, The," 60, 328. Indianapolis, 50, 59, 67. Ingersoll, Robert G., 7. Intemperance, 7, 75. James, Professor William, 124. Jewett, Dr., of Terre Haute, 59. Johnson, President, 283. Johnson, Oliver, quoted on Gar- 143. Kansas-Nebraska Bill, 199. Keble, John, 4. Kingsley, 5. Kossuth, 198; in Plymouth Church, 214. Lane Theological Seminary, Lyman Beecher goes to, 41 ; Henry Ward Beecher student in, 42, 46. Lawrenceburg, 46, 49. "Lectures to Young Men," 63, 118. " Liberator, The," 143, 148, 209. " Life of Christ," 300, 344, 346- 349. Lincoln, Abraham, 136, 155, 171; at Cooper Union, 222, 223; letter to Washburn, quoted, 228 ; was Beecher ad- viser of ? 229 ; letter to Greeley, 247 ; amnesty procla- mation, 265. Litchfield, Conn., birthplace of Beecher, 16 ; society of, 28. Locke, philosophy of, in Eng- land, 4. Longfellow, H. W., 90 Low, Hon. Seth, 325. Lowell, James Russell, 90. Luther, 5. Lutherans, disavow Luther's theory of secret counsel, 12. Mabie, Hamilton W., quoted, 253. Marshall. John, his slight legal training, 45. Martineau, Miss, 90. Mart in. ■an. James, 247. Mason and Dixon's Line, 137- 141. Mason and Slidell, capture of, 240. Matthew, Father, 214. Maudsley, utilitarianism of, 4. Maurice, 5. May, Samuel J., 196. 456 INDEX Mill, utilitarianism of, 4. Miliuan, Dean, 116. Milton, 111 ; Beecher student of his political essays, 351. Merriam, Geo. S., quoted, 339. Missouri Compromise, 200. Moody, Dwight L., his proposi- tion to Mr. Beecher, 190. Mulford, Elisha, 5. Munger, T. T., 5. Neilson, Judge Joseph, presides at seventieth birthday cele- bration of Mr. Beecher, 225. Nettleton, 9, 104. Newman, John Henry, 4. New Testament, Beecher's chief study, 116. "Norwood," novel by Beecher, 300. Ordinance of 1787 and slavery, 53. Oxford Movement, 4. Paine, Thomas, popularity of, in his time, 7. Park, Dr. Edwards A., quoted, 107. Parker, Joseph, Beecher writes to, 375. Parker, Theodore, Mr. Beecher on views of, 14, 196. " Patriotic Addresses," volume referred to, 172. Payson, Edward, sermon on " Jehovah a King," quoted, 13. Pettigrew, James L., quoted, 225. Phillips, Wendell, 155 ; quoted, 209, 214, 325; his oratory, 396, 397. Phrenology, 61. Pierce, President Franklin, 198, 204. Pierpont, John, 90. Plymouth Church, sketch of, 72-99 ; orthodox theological position of, 83 ; music of, 89 ; Mr. Beecher's purpose for, 91 ; revivals in, 92-99 ; by whom organized, 158 ; growth of, 160; rifles pledged in, 211; notabilities there, 218-220 ; threatened by mob, 221 ; in- vestigation of Tilton charges, 293 ; council called by, 295 ; membership of Plymouth Church during the trial, 297 ; twenty-fifth anniversary of, 301 ; churches named after, 382 ; Mr. Beecher's portrait in bas-relief in, 382 ; Plymouth Church the most vital memo- rial to Beecher, 383 ; Sunday- schools of, 385. Plymouth collection of hymns, 90. Polk, President, 204. Pond, Major J. B., 304, 374, 391, 392. Porter, Harriet F., stepmother of Henry Ward Beecher, her character, 24, 25. Porter, President Noah, 296. " Preaching, Yale lectures on," 353-373. Reconstruction, 268-287 ; the Fort Sumter address on, 272- 276 ; the Cleveland letters on, 282-287. ' Reformation, the, 5. Reid, Whitelaw, 325. Rhodes, James Ford, quoted on slavery, 138, note, 199. Robertson, F. W., 5. Rousseau, 8. Sabatier, quoted, 332. Sage, Henry W., 294; founds Lyman Beecher lectureship at Yale College, 353. Scott, Winfield, 198. Scoville, Rev. Samuel, 48. INDEX 457 Seward, William H M 136, 155, 241. Slavery, 75 ; origin and growth of, 135-142, 148; Beecher's first participation in question, 156 ; compromise measures, 163 ; Fugitive-Slave Law, 181- 197. Spencer, Herbert, agnosticism of, 4, 111 ; his M First Princi- ples," 314; Beecher at dinner to, 404, 405. Spurgeon, Rev. Charles H., 120. Stanley, A. P., 5. 44 Star Papers," 344. Storrs, Richard S., 158, 288 ; at Beecher's twenty-fifth anni- versary, 302 ; his oratory, 396- 401. Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 25, 26 ; quoted, 29, 32. Stringfellow, 210. Sturtevant, Rev. J. M., 296. Suffrage, woman, 216, 276, 277 ; negro, 275-277 ; note on, 279 ; universal, 276. Sumner, Charles, 204 ; struck down by Brooks, 213 ; his ora- tory, 398. Sumter, Beecher's address at, 272. Tappan, Arthur, gift to Lane Seminary, 42. Thackeray, 111. Thompson, Joseph P., 158, 288, 329. Tilton, Theodore, 288 ff. Tissot, 349. Toombs, Senator, 179. 44 Tribune," N. Y., quoted, 226. Trinity Church, Boston, 79. Tyndall, John, 111. Tyng, the elder, reference to sermon of, 17. Unitarian revolt, 8. Vail, Rev. F. Y., 41. Valentine, Lawson, 392. Voltaire, 8. Wade, 204. Washington, Booker T., 145; note on, 280. Watts, 90. Webster, Daniel, 17 ; argument for slavery compromise, 163- 167; Hulsemann letter, 197; his oratory, 396, 397. Weed, Thurlow, 196. Wellman, Dr. J. W., 296. Wesley, Charles, 90. 44 Western Farmer and Gar- dener," 60, 328. White, Andrew D., 325. Whittier, John G., 90, 325. Wilberforce, 136. Wordsworth, 5. Xavier, 90. Yale College, 7. 44 Yale Lectures on Preaching," 114, 120 ; when delivered, 301 ; special study of, 353-373, 391. Zundel, John, 88 Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton &* Co. Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 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