[239]The Same
SHEFFIELD, Aug. 10, 1856.
DEAR FRIEND,--My time and thoughts have been a good deal occupied of
late by the illness and death of Mr. Charles Sedgwick. The funeral
was on last Tuesday, and Mr. Bellows was present, making the prayer,
while I read passages, and said some words proper for the time. They
were hearty words, you may be sure; for in some admirable respects
Charles Sedgwick has scarcely left his equal in the world. His sunny
nature shone into every crack and crevice around him, and the poor
man and the stranger and whosoever was in trouble or need felt that
he had in him an adviser and friend. The Irish were especially drawn
to him, and they made request to bear his body to the grave, that is,
to Stockbridge, six miles. And partly they did so. . . . It was a
tremendous rain-storm, but the procession was very long.
But I must turn away from this sad affliction to us all,--it will be
long before I shall turn my thought from it,--for the world is passing
on; it will soon pass by my grave and the graves of us all. I do not
wonder that this sweeping tide bears our thoughts much into the coming
world,--mine, I sometimes think, too much.
But we have to fight our battle, perform our duties, while one and
another drops around us; and one of the things that engages me just
now, is to prepare a discourse to be delivered under our Elm Tree on
the 21st.
The Elm Tree Association, before which the address just alluded to was
made, was a Village Improvement Society, of which my father was [240]
one of the founders, and which took its name from an immense tree, one
of the finest in Massachusetts, standing near the house of his maternal
grandfather. To smooth and adorn the ground around the Great Elm, and
make it the scene of a yearly summer festival for the whole town, was
the first object of the Society, extending afterwards to planting
trees, grading walks, etc., through the whole neighborhood; and it was
one of the earlier impulses to that refinement of taste which has made
of Sheffield one of the prettiest villages in the country. With its
fine avenue of elms, planted nearly forty years ago, its gardens and
well-shaven turf, it shows what care and a prevailing love of beauty
and order will do for a place where there is very little wealth. It was
about this time that my father planted in an angle of the main street
the Seven Pines, which now make, as it were, an evergreen chapel to
his memory, and with the proceeds of some lectures that he gave in the
town, set out a number of deciduous trees around the Academy, many of
which are still living, though the building they were intended to shade
is gone.
The Elm Tree Association, however, from one cause and another, was
short-lived; but "It lived to light a steadier flame" in the Laurel
Hill Association, of Stockbridge, which, taking the idea from the
Sheffield plan, continues to develop it in a very beautiful and
admirable manner. [241] The address at the gathering in 1856 was
chiefly occupied with a review of the history of the town, and with
the thoughts appropriate to the place of meeting; and at the close the
speaker took occasion to explain to his townspeople his ideas upon
the national crisis of the day, and the changed aspect that had been
given to the slavery question by the fresh determination of the South
to maintain the excellence of the system and to force it upon the
acceptance of the North in the new States then forming. Against this he
made earnest and solemn protest, with a full expression of his opinion
as to the innate wrong to the blacks, and the destructive effects on
the whites, of slavery; but at the same time he spoke with large and
kindly consideration for the Southerners. After doing justice to the
care and kindness of many of them for their slaves, he said, in close:--
"I have listened also to what Southern apologists have said in another
view,--that this burden of slavery was none of their choosing; that it
was entailed upon them; that they cannot immediately emancipate their
people; that they are not qualified to take care of themselves; that
this state of things must be submitted to for a while, till remedial
laws and other remedial means shall bring relief. And so long as they
said that, I gave them my sympathy. But when they say, 'Spread this
system,--spread it far and wide,' I cannot go another step with them.
And it is not I that has changed, but they. When they say, 'Spread
it, --spread it over [242] Kansas and Nebraska, spread it over the
far West, annex Mexico, annex Cuba, annex Central America, make
slavery a national institution, make the compact of the Constitution
carry it into all Territories, cover it with the national images,
set it up as part of our great republican profession, stamp on our
flag and our shield and our scutcheon the emblem of human slavery,' I
say,--no--never-God forbid!"
It seems strange now that so temperate and candid a speech should have
raised a storm of anger when read in Charleston. But the sore lace
was too tender for even the friendliest such, and of all those who
had greeted him here so cordially the winter before, but two or three
maintained and strengthened their relations with him after this summer.
It was one of many trials to which his breadth of view exposed him.
To Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.
SHEFFIELD, Aug. 11, 1856.
MY DEAR BELLOWS,--I do not complain of your Teter; but what if it
should turn out that I cannot agree with you? What if my opinions, when
properly understood, should displease many persons? Is it the first
time that honest opinions have been proscribed, or the expression of
them thought "unfortunate "?
I appreciate all the kindness of your letter, and your care for my
reputation; but you are not to be told that here is something higher
than reputation.
You write with the usual anti-slavery assurance that our opinion is the
correct one. It is natural; it is the [243] first-blush, the impromptu
view of the matter. But whether there is not a juster view, coming
out of that same deliberateness and impartiality that you accuse me
of,--whether there is not, in fact, a broader humanity and a broader
politics than yours or that of your party, is the question.
I don't like the tendencies of your mind (I don't say heart) on this
question; your willingness to bring the whole grand future of this
country to the edge of the present crisis; your idea of this crisis as
a second Revolution, and of the cause of liberty as equally involved;
your thinking it so fatal to be classed with Tories, or with-, and-,
and your regret that I should have gone down South to lecture. It all
looks to me narrow.
I may address the public on this subject. But if I do, I shan't do it
mainly for my own sake; at any rate, I shall write to you when I get
leisure.
With love to E.,
Yours ever,