CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES.

207

CHAPTER VI.

CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES.

Ir is a phase of the general subject in close alliance with that treated in the preceding chapter, that a similar opposition to the Government is seen in marked instances among clergymen in some of the loyal States.

The great body of the clergy of all denominations in the loyal States, have unquestionably been loyal to the General Government. But not a few, and among them men of ability and influence, have shown decided sympathy with the rebellion; sometimes in overt acts, often in speech and in their writings, and through other methods; and sometimes by a reticence which has been quite as significant as any open line of conduct. Some of this description have been required to take an oath of allegiance to the Government, which they have done reluctantly. Some would not take it, or their course was such that the alternative was not offered them; and they have voluntarily left, or have been sent out of the country. Others, whose acts have been deemed more highly criminal, have been imprisoned; while still another class have been sent South beyond the lines of the Union armies, as in several instances in Tennessee and other States.

The more numerous cases of disloyalty among clergymen in the loyal portion of the country, are to be found in the Border Slave States and in the District of Columbia. We give illustrations in a few examples, from which others will be readily called to mind by those who are familiar with current events. Similar instances may probably be found in all the Border States.

CLERICAL SYMPATHIZERS IN MARYLAND.

The difficulties which Bishop Whittingham, of the Episcopal Church in Maryland, had with some of his clergy, in the early period of the rebellion, are well known. As a loyal Prelate, he observed the recommendation of the Government in its appointment of Fast and Thanksgiving Days; issued his letter to his clergy, enjoining observance, and prescribed suitable prayers for the service; but from some of the Rectors under his charge, earnest protests were made, clearly revealing their rebel proclivities. The prayers he has written, to be used during the continuance of the war, are even now omitted in some Churches, or the clergy and the Bishop have been brought into open collision upon the issue; while the customary prayer for the President of the United States, co-existent with the Church service itself, is omitted in some cases, or hypocritically uttered.

Other denominations in Maryland, especially in Baltimore, have had ministers in their pulpits who would not observe the public days and service recommended by the Government, by reason of their rebel sympathies.

Ministers in some Churches in Baltimore, as reported in the daily papers of that city, have succumbed to the demand of their parishioners that prayers should not be offered for the President, and have left their charges; while in other congregations, both Protestant and Catholic, where such prayers have been offered, open manifestations of disapprobation have been made, sometimes by worshippers leaving the house during that part of the service, and at other times by significant marks of dissent while retaining their seats. Some ministers left Maryland, by reason of their Southern sympathies, and early cast in their lot with the fortunes of the rebellion.

MINISTERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

209

DISLOYAL MINISTERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

It is somewhat surprising that ministers should sympathize with a rebellion seeking the overthrow of that Government under the very shadow of whose seat of Administration they live, and whose protection makes their homes safe and their daily bread sure. But so it was, at the beginning of the rebellion, with two prominent clergymen of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. We cannot account for it except on the principle that they had Virginia blood in their veins, of the modern quality. It certainly could claim no affinity with that which characterized the era of Washington and his compeers.

One of these men is the Rev. John H. Bocock, D. D., at the time Pastor of the Bridge Street Presbyterian Church, in Georgetown. On the call of President Lincoln for seventy-five thousand troops, April 15, 1861, the amiable Doctor said, that "the yellow fever, in the course of the summer, would be worth seventy thousand troops to us," accompanying the remark with significant signs of satisfaction. His rebel proclivities became so demonstrative, at a period a little later, that he was obliged to go South, beyond the lines of the Federal army. He has since given in his full adhesion to the rebellion, and was at one time engaged in superintending a manufactory of the munitions of war in Richmond, where it was reported he was seriously injured by an explosion which occurred in the establishment during the summer of 1863.

The other gentleman referred to is the Rev. Dr. Norwood, Rector of an Episcopal Church in the same city, when the rebellion began. On the latter part of that mournful Sabbath on which the first battle of Bull Run was fought, July 21, 1861, the secessionists of the North, and especially those near the seat of the General Govern

ment, were in high glee. During the early part of the day, and until near its close, it was supposed the Union troops had been victorious; but when stragglers from our army poured into the capital, and wended their way through the streets of Washington and Georgetown, and the result of the contest became known, the rebel joy could no longer be restrained. The pious Rector referred to was too much elated to hold religious service in the evening of that Sabbath, and hence ordered that the Church-going bell should not be rung, and it was accordingly silent, and the Church closed. But, instead of the usual worship, so "irrepressible" was the gladness at the defeat of the Federal arms, that the good Rector and a portion of his parishioners held a sort of levee on the porch of his house; and as the flying rumors of disaster came in quick succession from the battle-field, they eagerly drank them in, and their congratulatory "responses" resounded through the balmy Sabbath evening air; and this, too, when some of the loyal citizens feared for the safety of the capital. On the announcement of one "rumor," the joy over the Union disaster seemed to reach its climax. It was reported that Colonel Corcoran, of the New-York Sixtyninth (Irish) regiment, who was taken prisoner, had been killed. The "Thank God for that," which was uttered from the lips of feminine delicacy by a member of the Rector's family, was "applauded to the echo."

Dr. Norwood soon became too demonstrative to suit the military authorities, and he too went to "his own place”— within the rebel lines.

It is believed that in no place within the jurisdiction of the General Government, are rebel sympathies among the religious people more demonstrative than in the two cities at the seat of Government; a sad testimony for their religious guides.

REV. THOS. A. HOYT.

211

REBEL SYMPATHIZERS AMONG KENTUCKY CLERGYMEN.

The more prominent open sympathizers with the rebellion, among clergymen in Kentucky, are two Presbyterian Pastors, the Rev. Thomas A. Hoyt, and the Rev. Stuart Robinson, D. D. The former is a South Carolinian by birth, and the latter an Irishman. The former is Pastor of the First, and the latter of the Second Presbyterian Church in Louisville. Though they have both been exiled from Kentucky for some two years or thereabouts, they still retain, we believe, in form at least, the Pastoral connection with their respective Churches. Why this is, we do not know, unless it be that a large portion of their congregations sympathize with them. Whether they are, for the time, "retired on half pay," or have their salaries paid in full, are private matters, and best known to those who foot the bills. We refer to them because they are representative men of a considerable class, and because their respective cases illustrate important principles involved in the struggle between loyalty and treason.

REV. THOMAS A. HOYT.

Some two years since, Mr. Hoyt was arrested in Ohio for certain proceedings alleged to be disloyal, in connection with a Presbyterian clergyman of St. Louis, and they together were for a short time imprisoned in Newport Barracks, opposite Cincinnati. On being released, Dr. Brookes, of St. Louis, as we were informed, took the oath of allegiance; and we learn that he has since been commendably loyal, and is now a warm supporter of the Government in its contest with treason. Mr. Hoyt would not take the oath of allegiance, and was sent by the military authorities away from his charge in Louisville. Why he did not return to his native South, when offered the