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BIOGRAPHY
OF
REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
[Illustration: Henry Ward Beecher]
A BIOGRAPHY
OF
REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
BY
WM. C. BEECHER AND REV. SAMUEL SCOVILLE,
ASSISTED BY
MRS. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
--------------
NEW YORK:
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY.
---
1888.
COPYRIGHTED BY
CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY,
1888
(_All rights reserved._)
JENKINS & McCOWAN, PRINTERS,
224, 226 and 228 Centre St, N. Y.
=To Our Mother=,
WHOSE FAITHFUL LOVE AND PATIENT SELF-DEVOTION COMFORTED
AND STRENGTHENED OUR BELOVED FATHER
DURING TROUBLES, BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED
HIM IN PROSPERITY,
A TRUE COMPANION AND DEVOTED HELPMEET,
WE DEDICATE THIS STORY OF HIS LIFE.
CONTENTS.
-------
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Ancestry—Beecher—Ward—Foote—The Anvil—The 17-29
Oak—Courtship and Marriage of Lyman Beecher and
Roxana Foote—Home at East Hampton, Long
Island—Removal to Litchfield, Connecticut
CHAPTER II.
Litchfield—Situation—Natural Features—Early 30-45
Settlers—Social and Moral
Advantages—Patriotism—North Street described—The
Beecher Home—Birth of Henry Ward—The Times at Home
and Abroad—His Birth-Mark
CHAPTER III.
Early Glimpses—Recollections of the Mother—Going to 46-71
School at Ma’am Kilbourne’s—His First
Letter—District School—The Coming of the New
Mother—His First Ride on Horseback—A Merry
Household—Fishing Excursions—Minister’s
Wood-Spell—Saturday Night—Going to Meeting—The
Puritan Sabbath—The Cold of Litchfield
Hill—Rats—Work—The Catechism—Formative
Influences—Summing Up
CHAPTER IV.
Boyhood—Sent to School at Bethlehem—The Widow 72-81
Ingersoll’s—Failure—A Champion—Sent to Catharine
Beecher’s School in Hartford—Humorous
Incidents—Religious Experience
CHAPTER V.
Boston—Home Atmosphere—Various Experiences—Ethics 82-92
rubbed in by a Six-pound Shot—Discontent—Makes up
his Mind to go to Sea—To Study Navigation—Picture of
his Life in Boston
CHAPTER VI.
School-Life at Mount 93-108
Pleasant—Mathematics—Elocution—Testimony of
Classmates—Religious Experiences—Troubles—A Romantic
Friendship—Another Kind—Letter of Reminiscence—A
Royal School-Boy
CHAPTER VII.
Amherst College—Private Journal—Testimony of 109-135
Classmates—Tutor’s Delight—Begins his Anti-Slavery
Career—Spiritual Darkness—Engagement—Letters of his
Mother—Experiences in Teaching School—First
Sermons—Lecturing—His Reading—The Record
CHAPTER VIII.
Lane Seminary—Dr. Beecher Called—Home at Walnut 136-156
Hills—Amusing Incidents—Family Meeting—Death of Mrs.
Beecher—Extracts from Journal—First Mention of
Preaching in the West—Experience in Ecclesiastical
Matters—Despondency—Meeting of Synod—Influences of
the Times—Revulsion—A Rift along the Horizon—“Full
iolly Knight”
CHAPTER IX.
Call to Preach—License—Examination by Miami 157-180
Presbytery—Refusal to Subscribe to Old
School—Ordination by Oxford Presbytery—Visit
East—Marriage—Housekeeping
CHAPTER X.
The New Field—Growth of Influence—Social Life—The 181-209
Secret of Effective Preaching—Editorial
Labors—Lectures to Young Men—Call to
Brooklyn—Departure
CHAPTER XI.
Invitation to come East—Call to Plymouth 210-224
Church—Friendly Misgivings—Plainly Outlining his
Views—Early Success—Plymouth Burned—Preaching in the
Tabernacle
CHAPTER XII.
Plymouth Church—The New Building—Sabbath 225-232
Service—Prayer-Meeting—Weekly Lecture—Socials—Church
Polity—The Pastor’s Policy
CHAPTER XIII.
Beginning of the Great Battle—Five Great 233-270
Eras—Compromise Measures of 1850—“Shall We
Compromise”—The Fugitive Slave Law denounced—Right
of Free Speech defended—Commercial Liberty—Fighting
Caste—Liberty of the Pulpit defended—Quickness of
Retort—Sentiment of the Times—Reaction—Visit of
Kossuth—Election of 1852—The Parker
Controversy—Degraded into Liberty—John
Mitchel—Garrison—Close of this Era
CHAPTER XIV.
The Battle renewed—Repeal of the Missouri Compromise 271-291
proposed—The Struggle in Congress—Mr. Beecher’s
Appeals—The Battle lost in Congress is transferred
to the Territories—Forces engaged—Kansas War—Dred
Scott Decision—Mr. Beecher’s Defence of
Kansas—“Beecher’s Bibles”—Charles Sumner attacked in
the Senate—The Fremont Campaign—The Dog Noble
CHAPTER XV.
Remarkable Experiences—The Edmonson Sisters—Pinky and 292-308
her Freedom-Ring—Slave Auction in Plymouth
Church—John Brown—The Wrong and Right Way—Election
of Abraham Lincoln—Secession—Buchanan’s Fast
CHAPTER XVI.
War Begun—Firing upon Fort Sumter—“The American Eagle 309-338
as you want it”—Death of Col. Ellsworth—Equips his
Sons—Personal Feeling yields to Patriotism—His House
a Store-house of Military Supplies—Sends a Regiment
as his Substitute—Our National Flag—The Camp, its
Dangers and Duties—Bull Run—Becomes Editor of the
_Independent_—Salutatory—The _Trent_ Affair—Fight,
Tax—Soldiers or Ferrets—Characteristics as an
Editor—One Nation, one Constitution, one Starry
Banner—McClellan Safe, and Richmond too—Mildly
carrying on War—The Root of the Matter—The only
Ground—A Queer Pulpit—President’s Proclamation of
Emancipation—Let come what will—Close of the Third
Era
CHAPTER XVII.
First Voyage to England—Extracts from Diary—Warwick 339-349
Castle—Stratford-on-Avon—The Skylark—Oxford—Bodleian
Library—London—Old-time Sadness—Paris—Catch-Words
from Diary—Effect of Picture-Gallery—The Louvre—His
Return
CHAPTER XVIII.
Church and Steamboat—Jenny Lind—Hospitality—Colonel 350-395
Pertzel—The Family—Twins—Medicine—Giving Counsel—For
the Sailor—An Absurd Story
contradicted—Salisbury—Trouting—Death of Alfred and
Arthur—Letters to his Daughter at
School—Lenox—Equivocal Honors declined—The
Pulpit—“Plymouth Collection”—“Shining Shore“—A
Church Liturgy—Courting with his Father’s old
Love-letters—1857 a Year of Trial—Matteawan—Visit to
Litchfield—1858 a Year of Harvest—Revival
Meetings—Hospitality of Plymouth Church—Courtesy to
Errorists—New Organ—Peekskill—Letters to his
Daughter abroad—Marriage of his
Daughter—Lecturing—Title of D. D. declined—Flowers
in Church—Christian Liberty in the use of the
Beautiful—His two Lines of Labor
CHAPTER XIX.
Visit to England in 1863—The Need of Rest—Condition of 396-407
Affairs at Home—Arrival at Liverpool—Refusal to
Speak—Visit to the Continent—Reception by the King
of Belgium—Civil War discussed—News of
Victories—Return to England
CHAPTER XX.
Facing the Mob in Manchester—Glasgow—Edinburgh—Desperate
Attempts to break Mr. Beecher down at 408-442
Liverpool—Victory in London
CHAPTER XXI.
Close of the War—Distrust of the 443-456
Administration—Kindlier Feelings after Mr. Beecher’s
Return from England—Growing Confidence—Intimacy with
Secretary Stanton—Fort Sumter—Lee’s
Surrender—Lincoln’s Death
CHAPTER XXII.
Reconstruction—Mr. Beecher favors speedy 457-478
Readmission—Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Convention at
Cleveland—The “Cleveland Letters” cause great
Excitement
CHAPTER XXIII.
The “Silver Wedding” of Plymouth Church—Children’s 479-487
Day—Services in the Church—Reunion of old
Members—Historical Reminiscences—Dr. Storrs’s
Tribute
CHAPTER XXIV.
The Conspiracy—Relations with Mr. Bowen—Disputes and 488-522
Arbitration—Theodore Tilton’s Early Promise and
Intimacy with Mr. Beecher—Bowen’s Ill-Will and
Tilton’s Malice—Tilton discharged from _Independent_
and Brooklyn _Union_—Tripartite Agreement—Moulton
and Tilton Conspire to Blackmail Mr. Beecher—Tilton
consults Dr. Storrs
CHAPTER XXV.
After-Effects—Charges against Tilton—Advisory 523-536
Council—Investigating Committee called by Mr.
Beecher—Its Report—Dropping Mr. Moulton—Council
called by Plymouth Church
CHAPTER XXVI.
After-Effects of the Conspiracy—Calling Council of 537-563
1876—Principle of Selection—Mr. Beecher cautions his
Church—Bowen Reappears; Proposes a Secret
Tribunal—Mr. Beecher’s Reply—Bowen Dropped by
Plymouth Church—Deliverance of Council sustaining
Plymouth—Mr. Beecher’s Persecutors Denounced—Special
Tribunal
CHAPTER XXVII.
Rest and renewed Activity—Lecturing Tours—Resignation 564-570
from the Congregational Association—Boston
Criticisms
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Attacking Corrupt Judges—Interest in Political 571-587
Questions—Advocating Arthur’s Renomination—Opposing
Blaine—Supporting Cleveland—Campaign of 1884—After
the Battle
CHAPTER XXIX.
A Preacher—His Place—His Training—His Estimate of the 588-613
Work—Defects—Effectual Call—Upon Drawing an
Audience—His Theory—Preparation—Results—A
Theologian—His
Orthodoxy—Evolution—Ordinances—Christian
Unity—Sectarianism—Peacemaker
CHAPTER XXX.
Love of the Country—Communion with Nature—Farming at 614-638
Salisbury—Lenox—Matteawan—The Peekskill Farm
CHAPTER XXXI.
Home Life—Love of Children—His Method of Training and 639-664
Education—Formation of Library and Art
Collection—Personal Traits
CHAPTER XXXII.
1886—England Revisited—Speaking in the City 665-683
Temple—Westminster Abbey—Lecturing through Great
Britain—Addressing the Theological Students at City
Temple—“Life of Christ”—Sickness—Rest
Appendix 687
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
1. Anvil and Oak Stump 18
2. Foote Coat-of-Arms 21
3. Church in which Lyman Beecher preached, in 28
East Hampton, L. I.
4. Beecher Residence at Litchfield 39
5. Room in which Mr. Beecher was born 43
6. Elms and Well which mark the Site of the 45
“Beecher House” in Litchfield
7. Facsimile of the first Letter of Mr. Beecher 50
8. Ingersoll House 73
9. Stairs in Catharine Beecher’s House in 111
Hartford
10. Mr. Beecher at the time of his Marriage 168
11. Mrs. Beecher at the time of her Marriage 169
12. Church at Indianapolis Facing page 182
13. Mr. Beecher’s House at Indianapolis ” ” 202
14. Mr. Beecher and his Father at time of Call to ” ” 210
Brooklyn,
15. Pinky’s Freedom-Ring 295
16. Mr. Beecher in 1850 367
17. Mr. Beecher at the Close of the War 445
18. Mr. Beecher and his Sister, Mrs. H. E. B. 525
Stowe
19. Cottage at Peekskill 619
20. Old Apple-Tree 621
21. Mr. Beecher on his Farm 625
22. House at Peekskill 631
23. Hall in New House at Peekskill 633
24. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher at the time of Visit to 667
England in 1886
25. Lying in State in Plymouth Church 679
PREFACE.
A few months prior to his death our father undertook the preparation of
his Autobiography. This was earnestly encouraged by his family, who
shared with the public the desire that he should tell the tale of his
life in his own words, giving those pictures of his inner self, the
impressions made on him by his varying experiences, that he alone could
give, and which, to a large extent, he alone knew. Confiding and
free-spoken as he was in his joys, in his griefs he withdrew within
himself, bearing in patient silence a load of sorrow unknown even to
those nearest to him. But it was not to be. He had only jotted down a
rough outline of his plan, and written a part of an intermediate
chapter, when he laid down his pen for a little rest, never to be
resumed again.
In his contract with our publishers but a single volume of not less than
six hundred pages was contemplated. Unconscious of its magnitude, we
undertook to complete the contract. Accepting the limitations of a
single volume, we began to collect the necessary material, and, when too
late to change the form of the work, discovered that two volumes would
hardly contain the history as it opened up to us, so closely interwoven
has his life been with the nation’s history, and so full of important
incidents. In the work of condensation, to bring our story within the
space prescribed, we found it necessary to omit many of his letters,
hoping that in the not far-distant future we might publish a
supplemental volume containing all of his important correspondence.
The book before us we have sought, as far as possible, to make
autobiographic, telling the tale in our father’s words; happily the many
letters furnished us by friends, or retained in the family, his public
writings and utterances, supplemented by the many personal reminiscences
which he gave us at various times, has enabled us to do so to a large
extent.
We are fully conscious of the imperfect manner in which we have woven
these quotations into our story; the ordinary writer who attempts to
connect with his words those glowing sentences white-hot with his fiery
indignation against slavery, or his eloquent appeal to the English
public for fair-dealing, or the brilliant play of wit and fancy in his
more humorous utterances, can hope, at the most, to give but a
respectable background that may aid by contrast.
We have sought to make this book a truthful history from the beginnings
of his life, through boyhood, manhood, and ripened age, to the end,
omitting no important period, though passing innumerable incidents.
A man loving peace, he reached peace only through war. From his early
manhood he was called to meet in deadly combat the great sins of the
nation. Through his life, at different times, he met and overcame bitter
and deadly assaults made upon him.
In our narration of these events we have had no revenge to gratify nor
theory to maintain. We have tried to give only facts, omitting
deductions or conclusions, leaving each reader to draw his own
inferences. If parts of our narrative bear hardly on any, it is only the
pressure of the facts which cannot be suppressed in any fearless,
truthful portrayal of our father’s life. We do not make them; we merely
state them.
We would acknowledge our indebtedness to the many friends who have
kindly furnished letters and reminiscences, but especially to our
mother, whose memory, running back along the paths they travelled for so
many years together, has given to us much that never would otherwise
have been known.
If our readers get from a perusal of these pages a tithe of the comfort
and inspiration which we have obtained from their preparation, we shall
feel that our work has not been in vain.
If they can see something of the fearlessness for right, the patience
under unjust suffering, the inextinguishable love for fellow-men, and
the abiding faith in God, that has been revealed by a study of his life
even to us, who knew him best, we shall be satisfied.
W. C. BEECHER,
SAMUEL SCOVILLE.
BROOKLYN, March 12, 1888.
CHAPTER I.
Ancestry—Beecher—Ward—Foote—The Anvil—The Oak—Courtship and Marriage of
Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote—Home at East Hampton, Long
Island—Removal to Litchfield, Connecticut.
Henry Ward Beecher used to say that the first thing for a man to do, if
he would succeed in life, is to “choose a good father and mother to be
born of.” He himself was eminently wise, or fortunate, as the case may
be, in this matter.
“My earthly life,” he says, “was given me by two of the best folks that
ever lived on earth.” His father, Lyman Beecher, was one of the leading
preachers, reformers, and controversialists of his day. Sturdy in body
and mind, full of sensibility, aflame with enthusiasm, devoted to the
highest aims and utterly unselfish in life, a Christian in whom deep
spirituality and strong common sense were happily blended, he was just
the man to transmit excellent qualities to his children; a father to be
enjoyed while living, and to be remembered with love and reverence after
his death.
Of him his son says: “While he was eloquent and among the foremost
speakers of his day, I remember particularly that I never heard from him
a word of uncharitableness, nor saw a symptom of envy or jealousy, or
aught else but the most enthusiastic love of men, and of young men and
young ministers; and knowing him in the household, I have yet to know
another person that was so devoid of the inferior feelings and so
eminent in the topmost feelings of human nature.”
Lyman’s father’s name was David, a well-read, clear-headed man, with
decided opinions upon the questions of the day; one with whom Roger
Sherman delighted, upon his return from Congress, to talk over the
business of the session and discuss public affairs. He kept college
students as boarders, that he might enjoy their conversation, and made
himself proficient in many of their studies. Of him his son said: “If he
had received a regular education he would have been equal to anybody.”
He was both blacksmith and farmer, and had the reputation of “raising
the nicest rye and making the best hoes in New England.”
[Illustration: The Anvil and Oak Stump.]
Lyman Beecher’s mother was a Lyman, a woman “of a joyous, sparkling,
hopeful temperament.” Her grandfather was a Scotchman, thus giving a
little Gaelic blood to the veins of her descendants. In his
autobiography Lyman Beecher says: “She died of consumption two days
after I was born. I was a seven-months child, and when the woman that
attended on her saw what a puny thing I was, and that the mother could
not live, she thought it useless to attempt to keep me alive. I was
actually wrapped up and laid aside. But after a while one of the women
thought she would look and see if I were living, and, finding I was,
concluded to wash and dress me, saying: ‘It’s a pity he hadn’t died with
his mother.’ So you see it was but by a hair’s-breadth I got a foothold
in this world.” He was taken in charge by “Aunt Benton” and brought up
on his uncle Lot Benton’s farm in North Guilford, where farm-work and
farm-fare made him strong.
Their intention was to make a farmer of him; but the intolerable
slowness of an ox-team, in ploughing fifteen acres of summer fallow
three times over in a single season, so disgusted the lad that he became
restless. His uncle saw it, and upon consultation with the father they
decided to send him to school to prepare for Yale College, which was
accordingly done. He often said, “Oxen sent me to college.”
David’s father’s name was Nathaniel. He was also a blacksmith, and the
anvil of both father and son stood upon the stump of that old oak under
which John Davenport preached his first sermon to the New Haven Colony.
He married a Sperry, “a pious woman,” whose mother was a Roberts from
Forlallt, Cardiganshire, Wales. From her, his great great-grandmother,
came the fervid Welsh blood with which Henry Ward was always so well
pleased.
Joseph was the father of Nathaniel. His father’s name was John, of whom
tradition says that he was one of those who in the fall of 1637
accompanied Samuel Eaton in his explorations for a suitable location for
the colony of John Davenport, that had just come over and was then
staying at Boston; and that he was one of the very few men who lived
through the winter in the poor hut that had been built at “Quinnipiack,”
New Haven, that they might pre-empt the territory and be in readiness to
welcome the colony in the following spring.
He was the only son of Hannah Beecher, whose husband, born in Kent,
England, died just before the colony sailed. She was about to abandon
the enterprise, but, being a midwife and likely to be of service to the
youthful colony, they promised her her husband’s share in the town plot
if she would come. They kept their word, and it was in her lot that the
historic oak just mentioned stood.
Her business seems not to have been remarkably lucrative, for at her
death her estate inventoried only £55 5s. 6d.
One earlier mention of the family was found by Mr. Beecher in the
British Museum during his visit to England in 1863, and copied in his
diary:
“Visitation of Kent, 16,279 Brit. Museum.
“Henry Beecher, alderman and sheriff of London 1570, ob’t 1571.”
Apparently of more than the average intellectual ability of their class,
there was one feature in which the men whom we have described markedly
excelled—namely, in their physical strength. The standard of measurement
was peculiar to those early times, and may not be as well understood by
us; yet it even now conveys the idea of great stalwartness. David, it
was said, could lift a barrel of cider and carry it into the cellar;
Nathaniel, his father, was not quite as strong, yet he could throw a
barrel of cider into a cart; while Joseph exceeded them all, for he
could lift the barrel and drink out of the bung-hole. Of Henry, the
sheriff, no description has been found.
There was one especial feature of degeneracy in these modern days,
compared with the good old times of the fathers, over which Henry Ward,
when Mrs. Beecher was just within earshot, moaned and groaned. His
grandfather, he said, had five wives, his father had three, but such was
the meagreness of these penurious times in which he lived, and the
persistence of the Bullard blood, that he saw no chance for himself to
have more than one. But afterwards, lest she should feel hurt at his
raillery, he writes her with many expressions of affection, in a letter
dated March 31, 1872: “It has always been a shadow over the future to
fear that I should walk alone the few remaining years of my life, for
alone I shall be if you go from me. In jest we have often spoken of
other connections. But such a thing is the remotest of possibilities.
Should you go no one would ever take your place.”
Such was the ancestry selected on the father’s side. Six generations,
without question, are known to us, reaching from the hills of
Litchfield, in Connecticut, to the chalk-cliffs of Kent, England. For
that distance we can trace the family stream up to its sources in the
great body of the English common people, in that county most
characteristic of England, where the Roman had first struggled with the
Briton, where the “free-necked men,” under Hengist and Horsa, had first
made a lodgment on English soil, and near which was Hastings and the
fields of the Norman conquest, and where, perhaps more than in any other
county, mingled those different strains of blood, Briton, Roman, Saxon,
Northmen, Scots, and Picts, out of which has come England’s strength and
England’s greatness. We find all of them of the yeomanry, all of them
honest, useful, God-fearing men, fit to be the progenitors of one who
delighted in nothing more than in his common experiences with common
people, and valued nothing more highly than their confidence and
friendship.
Nor would it be difficult to find in the sturdy independence and quaint
humor of these men of the anvil and the plough, the origin of much of
that robust and humorous manliness which made Henry Ward Beecher so
conspicuous in his day and generation.
His power to strike heavy blows and to hit the nail on the head was
partly inherited, and that anvil-ring of the fathers has been often
heard in these latter days under his sledge-hammer strokes. If the iron
were not hot, he heated it by striking, and sparks flew, and men’s
hearts and minds were moulded and welded before he was done.
[Illustration: Foote Coat-of-Arms]
More than this, there appears in him something of the love of the
“shield-game” and the “sword-play” of those earlier generations that
were “at heart fighters,” and something also of the sadness and heroism
which led them to say, “Each man of us shall abide the end of his
life-work; let him that may, work his doomed deeds ere death come.”
On the mother’s side the selection was somewhat different. While we find
no more sterling qualities, there is in this line a higher social
position, more culture, a broader training in public affairs, both civil
and military, and what with some may appear of still greater importance,
a coat-of-arms given as a special mark of royal gratitude.
Roxana Foote had gentle blood in her veins. She could trace her
genealogy on the father’s side back through Nathaniel Foote, who came
into Connecticut with Hooker’s company in 1636, to James Foote, an
officer in the English army, who aided King Charles to conceal himself
in the “Royal Oak” and was knighted for his loyalty. As the old primer
has it:
“It was the tree, the old oak-tree,
Which saved his royal majesty.”
The tree stood in a field of clover, and the Foote coat-of-arms still
bears an oak for its crest and a clover-leaf in its quarterings, with
the motto “Loyalty and Truth.”
Her mother, Roxana Ward Foote, was descended from Andrew Ward, who came
over with Sir Richard Saltonstall and settled in Watertown, Mass., in
1630.
He afterwards moved to Wethersfield, and was a member of the first
General Court, or Legislature, held at Hartford in 1636. Later he moved
to Stamford, and represented that colony in the higher branch of the
General Court at New Haven.
From him descended Colonel Andrew Ward, who took part in the old French
and Indian war and aided in the capture of Louisburg in 1745. Of him it
is told that, being a stanch cold-water man, he took money in lieu of
his daily rations of grog. With this he bought six silver spoons, on
which he had engraved the name “Louisburg.” Some of these spoons are
still preserved in the family, witnesses to the virtue and valor of one
of its honored ancestors.
His son was General Andrew Ward, of Revolutionary fame, who, at the
close of the war, went back to his native town, Guilford, and took up
his residence upon a farm of about two hundred acres, called Nutplains.
For many years he represented the town in the State Legislature, being
nominated, it is said, year after year by some one of the town worthies
in this primitive manner: “The meeting is now open, and you will proceed
to vote for General Ward and Deacon Burgess for representatives.”
When his daughter, an only child, who had married Eli Foote, was left a
widow, he took her with her ten children to his home at Nutplains, and
cared for them as if they were his own. Being a great reader, and always
bringing home with him from the Legislature his saddle-bags full of
books, which were read aloud and discussed in the family, this home
became a school that afforded superior advantages for gaining
acquaintance with literature, for acquiring such knowledge of science as
was accessible at that time, and for exciting thought and interest. In
that school Roxana, the second-born of the family, is represented to
have been easily first both in intellect and goodness.
Taking her part in the labor of the household at a time when it was
expected that the woman portion would not only care for the house,
prepare the food, and make the clothes for all the family, but also
weave and spin the materials as well, she yet managed to acquire an
education of which graduates of our modern schools and colleges might
well be proud. “She studied while she spun flax, tying her books to the
distaff.” She not only became well read in literature and history, and
acquainted with the progress of science, then just beginning to attract
the attention of scholars, but learned to write and speak the French
language fluently. She gave enough attention to music to be able to
accompany her voice on the guitar, and was sufficiently skilled in the
use of pencil and brush to paint some very creditable portraits upon
ivory, several of which are still in the family. She was an adept in the
mysteries of the needle, “in fine embroidery with every variety of lace
and cobweb stitch,” and was gifted with great skill and celerity in all
manner of handicraft, so that in after-years “neither mantua-maker,
tailoress, or milliner ever drew on the family treasury.”
Belonging to a family distinguished in both branches of her ancestry,
and residing, while her father lived, in the centre of the village of
Guilford, which could boast that more than four-fifths of its original
population belonged to families with coats-of-arms in Great Britain, and
afterwards taken to the home of her grandfather, General Ward, who was
the foremost man of the town and one of the leading men in the State,
and who kept open house to all strangers, she enjoyed the best social
advantages which the times afforded.
Tall and beautiful in form and feature, with a winning and yet
commanding presence, “she was so sensitive and of so great natural
timidity that she never spoke in company or before strangers without
blushing, and was absolutely unable in after-life to conform to the
standard of what was expected of a pastor’s wife and lead the devotions
in the weekly female prayer-meeting.”
She was early confirmed in the Episcopal Church; her parents, although
both from strictly Puritan families, having joined that denomination
upon their marriage. They had held through all the Revolutionary
struggle to their loyalty to King George, and this had subjected them to
the determined opposition of their neighbors, and stamped the family,
perhaps, with something of that independence of character which
opposition to a prevailing popular sentiment is adapted to give, and
which is so marked a feature in her descendants.
Converted when she was but five years old, and scarcely remembering the
time when she did not go with her joys and sorrows to God in prayer, and
next to the oldest in a family of ten children, her mother a widow, and
all dependent upon the grandfather, she early learned that patience,
self-control, efficiency, and unselfishness that characterized her
through life and left in her old home at Nutplains, as Mrs. Stowe tells
us, traditions like these: “Your mother never spoke an angry word in her
life.” “Your mother never told a lie.” And from the husband such a
testimony as this: “She experienced resignation, if any one ever did. I
never saw the like, so entire, without reservation or shadow of turning.
In no exigency was she taken by surprise. She was just there, quiet as
an angel from above. I never heard a murmur; and if ever there was a
perfect mind as respects submission, it was hers. I never witnessed a
movement of the least degree of selfishness; and if there ever was any
such thing in the world as disinterestedness, she had it.”
No one reading her history will think that Henry Ward exaggerated when,
speaking of her and her influence upon him, he said: “There are few born
into this world that are her equals. She was a woman of extraordinary
graces and gifts; a woman not demonstrative, with a profound
philosophical nature, of a wonderful depth of affection, and with a
serenity that was simply charming. From her I received my love of the
beautiful, my poetic temperament; from her also I received simplicity
and childlike faith in God.”
And again: “My communion with nature arose from the mother in me.
Because my mother was an inspired woman, who saw God in nature as really
as in the Book, and she bestowed that temperament upon me, and I came
gradually to feel that, aside from God as revealed in the past, there
was a God with an everlasting present around about me.”
With these elements of a more personal nature also appear certain family
traits. As we saw how, from the father’s side, the old anvil was
constantly making itself heard in the strong, sturdy qualities of the
Beecher stock, so shall we see features from the ancestry on the
mother’s side coming to him almost unchanged. The loyalty represented by
the oak-tree, and the virtue displayed at Louisburg, will constantly
show themselves. Who that has seen him standing, now for the black man
in the face of the adverse popular sentiment of his time in obedience to
his own convictions of right, now governing his political actions by the
same authority, and anon following his religious convictions wherever
they led him, can have failed to see, in him, the oak-tree standing in
the clover-field with the motto written upon its shield, in letters of
light, “_Loyalty and Truth_”? In his constant advocacy of reform, in his
early and strenuous opposition to intemperance, appears “Louisburg”
again, written this time, not upon silver, but upon life and
character—the Ward and the Foote families showing in him the
characteristics they had won.
More than this, probably no lines could better illustrate the New
England race-elements, the union of its democracy and its gentry, the
sturdy independence of its homes and its native ability in war and
peace, its intellectual and its spiritual independence, its quaint humor
and its shrewd common sense, than those that united in him from both the
parental roots.
He was a natural product of the New England stock, tempered and
sweetened by the broader traditions of the more aristocratic blood of
the Cavalier, of New England institutions and New England character. And
since New England, thus enriched, illustrates the whole land, and by
reason of the diffusion of her blood has made her characteristics
national, he was a typical American, standing with unusual ability and
conscientiousness where every true American feels that he ought to
stand—for right and liberty. This, we doubt not, was in part the ground
of his national popularity and influence; he was felt to be so
thoroughly American. He represented us as do our national colors and our
battle-flags, and we were proud of him, grew enthusiastic over him, and
men that never saw him loved him. And since these characteristics are
but the product of English institutions and the putting forth of
Anglo-Saxon tendencies which were always advancing, always protesting
against some old abuse, and always seeking the recognition of some
right—now at Runnymede among the barons, and now at Westminster among
the Commons; now taking up the question of negro-slavery, and now the
Irish question; always hopeful, expectant, progressive—and America is
but, as he claimed, “the better England transplanted,” and he but “an
Englishman from a broader England,” a continental instead of an insular
one, he was hailed by all the English-speaking people as belonging to
them as do King Alfred and Shakspere.
As we go on we shall find many other influences at work—influences of
nature, of books, of college and profession; but thus early we can see
that, more than of any and all the rest, Henry Ward Beecher was the
product of New England parentage, full-veined with English traditions
and race characteristics.
The courtship of Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote took place in 1798. It
was marked by the interpenetration of religious sentiment and earthly
love, and was a true preparation for home-making, and of such a home as
should help to form the remarkable personality of H. W. Beecher.
The letters that passed between them during this year give evidence of
the strong love of those who, while having still upon them the dew of
their youth, have each found in the other the chosen mate—a love than
which earth has no more influential nor beautiful thing to give. They
also show us the two akin in intellectual powers and pursuits, and
equally enjoying the treasures which the world of letters opened to
them. But most prominent of all matters referred to in these letters are
religious questions and personal religious experiences. They revolve
around “the evidences” and similar subjects with an absorption of
interest that must seem almost incomprehensible to modern lovers. In the
perfect and unrestrained communion of heart with heart these two speak
of the sweet and wonderful experiences that they have enjoyed from the
presence of the Lord, share their common hopes and anticipations of the
coming glory of the Redeemer’s kingdom, and strive to help one another
to a better understanding of the best things of God. Such thoughts and
efforts as these undoubtedly went far toward laying the foundation of
that “intimacy that existed throughout the whole range of their being,”
and for that deep and unswerving regard and confidence which each
cherished for the other until death. She rested upon him, and he always
looked upon her as intellectually and morally the stronger and better
portion of himself. The very differences in their nature and education
contributed to this large and beautiful unity and confidence. While
resembling each other in many things, in others they were the
complements of each other. He was quick and impulsive, she, perfectly
serene and self-poised. He was logical, she was intuitive as well. He
was of the Independents, she was an Episcopalian. From such a union, so
sincere and broad, we may expect a happy home.
Judging from these letters, we should say also that whenever these two
shall build their home they will build it strong and high. Not only will
love be there, with all its attractions, and intellect with its stimulus
and power, but the grand things of heaven will be builded into it. And
wherever it shall be established, whether by the sea-shore at East
Hampton or among the hills of Litchfield, it will have a broad horizon;
it will look out upon something wider and deeper than the sea and higher
than the mountains. The high things of God will always be kept in view;
His broad, deep, measureless purposes will be held within the range of
its contemplation, and His presence will be felt in shaping its policy
and in giving vitality to its atmosphere.
From such a home we shall expect children that shall have power in the
world.
They were married at Nutplains, September 19, 1799.
“Roxana’s friends were all present and all my folks from New Haven.” ...
“Nobody ever married more heart and hand than we.” Then came the packing
up; “the candle-stand, bureau, clothing, bedding, linen, and stuffs
generally,” and the going over by sloop to Long Island.
Their life in East Hampton, Long Island, was that of two who believed,
without one shadow of doubt, in their call of God, and who took up their
work, not only with the firm grasp of duty, but with the enthusiasm of
devout, self-sacrificing love. Their faith was tested by his
long-continued sickness, by the death of one of their children, and by
the numerous discouragements of a country minister; but it stood the
test, deepening and brightening under trial.
It was a barren place to which they had come, but Lyman Beecher brought
such vigorous faith and added to it such enthusiastic labors, now in the
home church, now in the school-houses of the surrounding districts, and
now among the Indians at Montauk Point, that he made the whole district
fruitful. The field was a narrow one, but by the interest awakened by
his sermons, especially the one upon duelling called forth by the death
of Alexander Hamilton from the pistol of Aaron Burr, he broadened it
until his parish stretched across the Atlantic.
[Illustration: Church in which Rev. Lyman Beecher preached, in East
Hampton, L. I.]
The wants of a young family made some effort necessary to eke out the
meagre salary of four hundred dollars, and a school for girls was
decided upon, to be kept by Mrs. Beecher. It was successful in every
respect but financially, and moderately so in that; but it did not bring
the relief that was sought, and there came a necessity to change for a
field where sufficient salary could be had to support the family without
the harassments of other and unpastoral labors.
A marked providence, as it seemed to Mr. Beecher, opened the way to his
preaching on trial in Litchfield, Connecticut. He made a good
impression; the people were unanimous and eager in their call; the
Presbytery gave its consent; and now, without a doubt that it is
according to the will of God, the decision is made, and the home which
had first been planted within the sound of the ocean surf at East
Hampton, Long Island, in 1799, was transplanted to the quiet inland
village of Litchfield in 1810.