Page images
PDF
EPUB

ber or November, 1856, and talk to us. We, the citizens, intend to try to engage some of the best men to lecture here this next fall and winter. The feat was tried on an orthodox scale. You may know how it ended.

[ocr errors]

Do you think that Mexico will fall into our hands about 1860 I think not. My reasons in short are the Northern courage showed this winter throughout the Free States has rather taken the Southern men back, and they will not move in the matter till we forget our triumphs in our lethargy. The policy of the South will be for years fawning, flattering, corrupting, till her day comes again, and then "she will do her best." If this policy isn't pursued the Union will be dissolved, and a Southern Confederacy will be formed. Then the South may absorb Mexico, not this Union, so soon as 1860. However, our present energy and intensity may fuse away before 1860, and then you may be correct. I paid attention to what you said.

Henry Ward Beecher is decidedly a new man, a new species of man. He is strong, vigorous, original, brave. He will do the world good yet. He is a new rose, fresh from the garden of the almighty forces. This age was fortunate in having so beautiful a present. He is a man "a fresh minister."

I received your "Defense" and have carefully read it; it is good; it is didactic, but powerful; it will live. It may say way down the ages, "I still live," when it is yet fresh not on a death-bed. Hope to see your work soon on "Religious Development,"- hope to see Emerson's "English Traits" soon comes slowly. W. H. HERNDON.

ness.

At heart, both Parker and Herndon were of womanly gentleTheir hatred of hurtful errors and practical wrongs was kept at white heat by a genuine love of mankind, and for all their arraignments and castigations they had no malice or bitterness of spirit. They did not look on oppression, fraud, and misery as abstractions, to be contemplated with philosophie calmness. They saw living men, women, and children exposed, suffering, and degraded, and their hearts quivered within them.

CHAPTER IV

Herndon and Parker

I

When great questions come in little questions are crowded out, but they are sometimes unnecessarily slow in making their exit. As the Slave Power became more daring and insolent, opposition to it grew steadily stronger every day, and the various orders of anti-slavery advocates were drawn ever closer together. Old party ties were still clinging; but the liberal spirit of self-sacrifice for the sake of principle became daily more manifest, while the men of all parties Whigs, Abolitionists, Liberty men, and even Democrats showed themselves willing to surrender their old parties for one which should take the right kind of stand against the spread of slavery. Not otherwise could they hope for success in Illinois or for any great influence in the nation.

At length the time seemed ripe for such a movement, and the preliminary step was taken at a gathering of Anti-Nebraska editors, held at Decatur in February, 1856. Eleven delegates were present,' among whom were Charles H. Ray of the Chicago Tribune, Paul Selby of the Jacksonville Journal, W. J. Usrey of the Decatur Chronicle, and George Snyder of the Chicago Staats-Zeitung; and they proceeded at once to the discussion of the principles upon which such an organization should be built. All agreed that the Slave States should be sustained in all the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution, and in disclaiming any desire to interfere with slavery where it existed. With such admissions, they

1 For a complete list of the editors who took part in this conference, See Moses's Illinois, Historical and Statistical, Vol. II, p. 598 (18891892).

passed resolutions "in favor of the restoration of the Missouri Compromise, or in other words, that we will strive by all legal means to restore to Kansas and Nebraska a legal guarantee against slavery, of which they were deprived at the cost of the violation of the plighted faith of the nation; that we hold the settlement of the true relations of the general and State governments to slavery, and the restriction of slavery to its present authorized limits, as the paramount questions for consideration." They advocated, in addition, certain reforms in the administration of State affairs.

Upon such a basis the new party was to stand, and to perfect its organization a State convention was recommended, which should meet at Bloomington on May 29th, following. A State Central Committee of eleven was appointed to supervise the interests of the party, W. H. Herndon to represent the Springfield district, with two for the State at large, Ira O. Wilkinson and Gustave Koerner, then Lieutenant Governor. But Governor Koerner declined to serve, and in an open letter in the Belleville Advocate set forth his reasons, while declaring himself to be in harmony with the sentiment of the meeting regarding slavery and expressing the utmost abhorrence for the idea" that the Constitution of the freest country on earth carries slavery wherever its flag is unfurled." But, he continued:

A mere opposition-party may please those who have set their eyes upon political preferment; it does not satisfy me. Such a party loses its power the moment it attains it. It may share in the emoluments of office, but can do no good. A new party should meet all the important political issues clearly and distinctly, without mental reservation. I could not co-operate with any party, which, while asserting the principle that all soil heretofore free should remain free as long as it is a Territory, would not, at the same time affirmatively maintain that the Constitutional rights of the Southern States should never be interfered with; that all American citizens without distinction of birth and religion should be entitled "to rule America; that the present naturalization laws should not be modified in an illiberal spirit; that monopolies in every shape and form should be abolished; and that no wasteful ex

penditure, under whatever specious plea, should be encouraged, either under the National or State government.1 This letter, coming from one who spoke for an influential German element in the State, was widely quoted in the press, and found response. Governor Koerner was a Democrat, whose party had honored him in many ways, and a close friend of Douglas; but he opposed the Nebraska Bill on the ground that it "was a repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and a sectional measure devoted to the interests of slavery." Although he saw no Constitutional way of dealing with slavery, he hated it, and could not bring himself to favor its extension into Territory heretofore free. Like many other Democrats, he hoped that the State and National conventions of his party would adopt platforms such as Anti-Nebraska men could consistently stand upon. It was a vain hope; for the State convention, held at Springfield, on May 1st, after nominating W. A. Richardson for Governor, passed strong Nebraska resolutions, and closed by commending Senator Douglas for the "manly, daring, and undeviating fidelity with which he has always maintained State sovereignty and National honor." As a result, such men as Wentworth, Judd, Palmer, Baker, Allen, and Koerner left the party. Meanwhile, letters were passing to and fro between Herndon and Parker, and we have this glimpse of the busy life of a great preacher, whose magnificent and ceaseless evangel brought him to an early grave:

Mr. Herndon.

Boston, Mass., April 17, 1856.

My Dear Sir:-Your letters-the printed matter not less than the written - rejoiced me very much. I honor the noble spirit which breathes in them all. I didn't answer before for I had no time, and a hundred letters now lie before me not replied to. When I tell you that I have lectured 84 times since Nov. 1, and preached at home every Sunday but 2 when I was in Ohio, and never an old sermon, and have had six meetings a month at my own house, and have written more than 2000 letters, besides a variety of other work belonging to a minister and scholar, 1 Memoirs of Gustave Koerner, Vol. II, pp. 3-5 (1909).

you may judge that I must economize minutes and often neglect a much valued friend. So please excuse my delay in acknowledging your brave manly words, and believe me, Faithfully yours,

THEO. PARKER.

Praise from such a source was praise indeed to Herndon; and he hastened to reply, sending a clipping from the State Register and the Journal in which he was highly spoken of as a man, in view of the mention of his name as a possible candidate for Governor. He refused, however, to let his name be so used, preferring to fight as a private in the ranks, and not wishing to stand in the way of his partner:

Mr. Parker.

Springfield, Ill., April 28, 1856.

Friend: I received yours a few days since. I had an idea that you were immersed in your pursuits. I had every reason to know this to know it had been was so now. I therefore excuse you with pleasure. However, I did not write to you- except collaterally for compliments. I asked a question in my last two letters. The question was this: What time is the best for a man

[ocr errors]

-

"" sucker - to come East and see the world of matter and man? In your hurry you overlooked the substance and took up the incident. This I forgive. You are a pretty good judge of what, as a general rule, the young want: in my case a little mistaken - not much.

Let us be candid. Your compliment did me no harm, but great good. I do love the approbation of good men none others are sought for approbation. I hope to live to see the day when I can make slavery feel my influence. That shall be the one object of my life. It and myself are enemies. I am feeble: it is strong, yet I am right and it is wrong: nature eternal truth-is with me: error is with it. Thus we stand. I am, I hope, half brave; it is a coward. The end is seen. Do not understand me to say that I will live to see slavery abolished and that I will do it. I hope with others, to sow the elements whose immanent inherent power will do it after, probably long after, my death.

I told you long since that the great fault of politicians was in not following the people, or in not speaking for principle that the people were correct their ground intuitions were almost always correct; and I will here detail a case. I, about two or three weeks since, made a speech in

« PreviousContinue »