THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS.

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leaders in treason, have blown the rebel war-trumpet from first to last:

Let the spirit of resistance be infused, with its mother's milk, into the baby in its cradle. Let it mingle with the plays of childhood. Let it animate the boy in its mimic manhood; the maiden in the exercise of her magic, spell-binding influence; the betrothed in her soul-subduing trance of hope and memory; the bride at the altar; the wife in the arms of her rejoicing husband; the young mother amid her whirl of ecstatic joy; the matron in the bosom of her admiring children; and the father as he dreams fondly of the fortune and glory of his aspiring sons-let it fire the man of business at his place of merchandise; the lawyer among his briefs; the mechanic in his workshop: the planter in his fields; the laborer as he plies his pruning-hook and follows his plough;-let the trumpet blow in Zion, and let all her watchmen lift up their voice;-let all the people, everywhere, old and young, bond and free, take up the warcry, and say, each to his neighbor, "Gather ye together, and come against them, and rise up to the battle."

These extracts would seem to show that the fervency of the clergy of the South in the rebel cause advances with the progress of events. Dr. Smyth, if possible, is more intensified with the furor and frenzy of the strife than the other South Carolina Doctors. But these things from his pen were written at a later period. Nor have we given by any means the most glowing of his sentences, as will be seen in a subsequent chapter, where we illustrate another phase of the subject.

THE CLERGY OF ALL

DENOMINATIONS AID THE REBEL

LION.

Other ministers of every denomination all over the Sout! joined in urging on the rebellion, and some of the more distinguished of them were as early in the work as those we have mentioned. The course of the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk, D. D., Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Louisiana, early a Major-General in the rebel army (lately

killed in battle in Georgia), is too well known to need any thing more than to be named. Bishop Elliott, of Georgia, Cobb, of Alabama, Green, of Mississippi, all of the same Church, and, indeed, nearly all the influential ministers of all the Protestant denominations in the South,-took early position and gave the whole weight of their social and official influence in direct aid of the rebellion. Names of the most distinguished could be given in great number if necessary. Drs. Mitchell, of Alabama, and Waddel, President of La Grange lege, Tennessee, wrote elaborate articles

in aid of the rebellion at a very early period.

Every religious newspaper of the rebel States,-and they were all edited by ministers of the Gospel,-located at Nashville, New Orleans, Columbia, Fayetteville, Richmond, and other cities, urged secession in most cases from the first step in the movement, and in all at a very early period. And the houses of worship of all denominations, from first to last, have echoed the utterances of treason and rebellion from the pulpit in all parts of the South.

LEADING CLERGYMEN IN THE REBEL ARMY.

Many distinguished ministers, after preparing those under their care for the terrible work of war in defence of the treason they had inspired, led them to the field in person. Dr. Atkinson, President of Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, became Captain of a company composed mostly of his College students, fought in the first battles of the war, was taken prisoner at Rich Mountain, Western Virginia, and was paroled. Dr. Dabney,* Professor in

* At the beginning of the movement for secession, Dr. Dabney took strong ground for peace, urging his brethren farther South to desist. In an Address to Christians "of the Southern country," dated, "Hampden Sidney, Nov. 24, 1860," he says: "Whence, too, is the great divisive question borrowed? Is it not from Christianity? Her sacred authority is the one which is invoked to sanctify the strife.” He here refers to that feature of Southern "Christianity,"-modern views of sla

MINISTERS GO SOUTH AND AID THE REBELLION. 175

the Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, early became an Adjutant-General in the army, and was upon the staff of Stonewall Jackson. Dr. McNeill, for many years one of the Secretaries of the American Bible Society, and living in New York, left his post and returned to his former residence in North Carolina, joined the army as a LieutenantColonel, and was seriously wounded in a cavalry contest at one of the Mountain Gaps in Virginia, just before the battle of Gettysburg. And besides these, many other ministers of distinction have had military commands in the rebel armies. Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, after that city was occupied by the national forces, went on a mission to the rebel army in Northern Mississippi, and harangued the troops at various points; and the testimony of one of the Generals in command was, that his services were worth more to the rebel cause than a soldiery of ten thousand men. We cannot vouch for the fact, but it has been frequently stated in New Orleans within the present year, and has been published in some of the religious journals of the country quite recently, that Dr. Palmer is now a Colonel in the rebel army. It has also been published that he is a chaplain. Both are probably true.

MANY MINISTERS GO SOUTH AND AID THE REBELLION.

While an exodus of ministers took place from the South immediately after the rebellion began, either leaving voluntarily, from patriotic motives, or being driven out on account of their Union sentiments, many ministers, some of Northern and some of Southern birth, left their stations at the North and went South to give in their adhesion and influence to the Southern Confederacy. Among others of

very, as the cause of the strife;" and charges upon the religious portion of the community a heavy responsibility. But, a little later, despite his earnest call to peace, he took the sword himself, and mingled in "the strife."

distinction, are the following: Dr. John Leighton Wilson, leaving his secretaryship in New York, went to South Carolina. Dr. Hoge, of New York, colleague of Dr. Spring, though born and educated in Ohio, son of a former Professor in the Ohio University, at Athens, himself afterwards Professor and Pastor there, resigned his charge in New York and went to Virginia. Dr. Leyburn, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Lacy, of Frankfort, Kentucky, gave up their respective posts as Editor and Pastor and went to Virginia. And many other well-known cases occurred in various parts of the country, which many persons will remember. The motive for these movements, openly avowed, was the sympathy felt for the cause in which the rebel States had embarked.

OTHER REBEL CLERGYMEN AT THE SOUTH.

As our armies have advanced into the rebel territory, while many of the people have rejoiced in the deliverance thus afforded, and while in this number may possibly be found, here and there, a minister of the Gospel,-though the cases of which we have heard are remarkably few, and that, too, over the extensive regions of the Southwest where we are personally acquainted,-many clergymen have only availed themselves of the approach of the Union forces to show a deeper hatred to the Union, and have been kept partially quiet only by reluctant oaths of allegiance; while many others have gone, in advance of the armies, "farther into the Confederacy," or are now enjoying, in the loyal States, the protection of that Government whose overthrow they desire. Among these, are Drs. Palmer, Leacock, Goodrich, Mr. Hall, and others, from the single city of New Orleans; Dr. Leacock, a native of Old England, and Dr. Goodrich, a native of New England, both of whom refused to take the oath of allegiance, and were required

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177

to leave the city; Messrs. Marshall, Lord, Rutherford, and one other, of four different denominations, and some of them of Northern birth, left Vicksburg on the fall of that city, and went "into the Confederacy;" besides others, located in Nashville and Memphis, and in many of the towns of Northern and Western Virginia; and, indeed, from almost every important city and village, wherever Churches were planted, have similar exits occurred, as the national arms have recovered the country.

SOUTHERN CHURCHES ORGANIZED IN AID OF THE

REBELLION.

Besides the influence which so many of the ministry in the rebel States, in the many ways mentioned, have exerted in aid of the rebellion, the Church as a body, and in its separate organizations, was early consecrated to the same work.

The leading ministers, and other influential men in the respective Churches of all denominations, at the earliest moment, brought all the religious bodies of the South to break their connection with those of the North,-that is, with those religious organizations which hitherto were coextensive with the Union,-changed their formularies of Church Polity, their Prayer-Books, and Directories for Worship, so as to give in their adhesion to the Government set up by the rebels, and thus recognize it as a lawfully established Civil Power. The words "United States of America" were blotted out, and the words "Confederate States of America" took their place, in the Liturgies, Prayers, and Standards of Faith, of every Church in the rebel dominions.

It is to be especially noted here, that THE CHURCH, Ɑs such, the Church in its organic capacity as a spiritual