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 ^m Conbitions of ^caa: 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE WEST CHUECH, 
 
 
 
 En fHtmotj of 
 
 
 
 DAA^ID KIMBALL HOBAUT, 
 
 t 
 
 
 June 14, 1863. 
 
 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 BY C. A. BARTOL, 
 
 
 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 i 
 
 
 WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
 
 245, Washington Stbeet. 
 
 1863. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 "-— - - - - ... .... 
 
 
Conbitions of '||cikc: 
 
 DISCOURSE 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE WEST CHURCH, 
 
 En fHcmorp of 
 
 DAYID KIMBALL HOBAUT, 
 
 June 14, 1863. 
 
 BY C. A. BARTOL. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 WALKER, WISE, AND COMPANY, 
 
 245, Washington Stkket. 
 18G3. 
 
Esis 
 .y 
 4trfre 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 PRINTKn ISY .lOHN WILSON AND SON, 
 C, Watku Stki;ht. 
 
 61&08 
 '05 
 
DISCOURSE. 
 
 " Conditions of Peace." — Luke xiv. 32. 
 
 " Peace ! " How few words fall ou the ear so sweetly ! 
 Peace was the song of angels ; peace is the benediction 
 of God ; peace is the perfection of the soul ; peace is 
 the prosperity of the State ; peace is heaven, and peace 
 on earth oiu- daily prayer. All war is by many pro- 
 noimced unchristian; but there never teas a had peace, 
 cried a good man in horror at the woes of confhct now 
 in our land. Military as is the popular resolution, 
 there is among us a peace-partj', mth one wmg of sen- 
 timent moving quietly, and another of policy flapping 
 noisily ; so that the bodj- revolves witliout going for- 
 ward. 
 
 For peace, vnih. all its beauty for lofty soids, follow- 
 ers of Jesus of every name and age, is not a principle, 
 as peace-men would have it, but a result. It is not an 
 absolute grace or vu-tue, like love, piety, or veracit)', 
 but has conditions profomider than itself. It is a build- 
 ing, whose foimdation must be looked to. It cannot be 
 
4 
 
 sufcly reared on the quick-sand of lies, or the rubble- 
 stone of compromise. Planted so, it sinks in ruin, or 
 falls ^\'ith a crash, Uke the carelessly raised house on 
 the shore, or Ul-supported miU by the stream. Justice 
 and humanity are pledges of peace ; but, where these 
 have been broken, war, which seems only the opposite 
 and destroyer of peace, becomes one of its essential 
 means, opening the way to its siu'e establishment for 
 generations to come. The medals of Cromwell, after his 
 second investiture, bore the inscription, Pax qiian'itur 
 hello, " The quest of peace is by war." When cannon 
 have been christened j^eace-^iakers, the apparent ii-ony 
 has contained a serious sense. Many a warrior, like 
 oiu" own "NVashmgton, has fought for the real and abid- 
 ing peace, which, after long, fretfiU, consuming contro- 
 versies of passion and angry Avords, at length only out 
 of the smoke of battle has been secured. Massachu- 
 setts, accorduig to the inscription on her shield, still 
 seeks Avith the sword to rest imder liberty. 
 
 But what, then, shall we do with Chiistiunity, that 
 peaceful kingdom of God, in the world, which om* Lord 
 came to foimd 1 Set it aside for the time, till our quar- 
 rels are over] No: our religion, imiversaUy true to 
 human natiu"e, includes war and peace alike in its 
 compass. " Fu"st pure, then peaceable," and " the 
 peaceable fruit of righteousness," are its style. Jesus 
 directs liis disciples, in certain circumstances, to sell 
 then- coat, if no otherwise, by no possibility in the 
 
empty purse of extreme poverty, they coiild find 
 money to buy a sword. When persons, then, hstenmg 
 Avith siu-prise to \indications from the pulpit of war, 
 even the present war for the country, ejaculate the 
 question, " J.re you not a'minister of peace and of the 
 Prince of peace ? " for one, I answer. Indeed I am. 
 No man deprecated more earnestly, or held back 
 harder from the necessity of strife ; but, if I am a min- 
 ister of peace, still more I am a minister of truth. If 
 Jesus Christ is the prince of peace, stiU more he is the 
 king of dut}', and preacher of righteousness : he affiiins 
 that he came not to biiag peace on earth, though the 
 angels sang it over his cradle, but division rather, and 
 a sword, till his teachings were accepted, and wherever 
 his precepts were not obeyed. Therefore, as the effort 
 of this nation, and every loyal citizen m its limits, is, by 
 the law of right, for a union and freedom which can- 
 not be rescued from intestine foes save by a contest 
 with arms, the contest is as Chiistian and holy as it is 
 patriotic and necessary. In so maiutaiuiug it, I am 
 ■\Adthin the bounds of my office, not resigning my com- 
 mission, or disowning the stress of my ordination-vows. 
 Since I began to think, I never held opinions inconsist- 
 ent with my present mode of address. 
 
 The position, Avhich it is my pri\dlege with your 
 favor to occupy, is the very last where one should 
 shrmk from fidelity to his country ; for here, if any- 
 where, the United States were bom. Long before the 
 
American Revolution, one Lord's Day naoruin<^ in June, 
 1766, as he was lying in his bed, thinking of the commu- 
 nion of the churches, Jonathan ISIayhew, of this " West 
 Church," thought, moreover, " of the great use and im- 
 2iortance of a communion of the Colonies." From this 
 conception, ere the day had come of concessions to 
 slavery, the nation as an uifant was brought forth. 
 What a traitor, recreant to his foremnners' dignity 
 and oiu* whole origin, would he be, who should here, 
 in a thought, sacrifice the nation of the United States 
 to that demand of seceders, so like the pretended 
 mother's ^vith the Uving child at the judgment of Solo- 
 mon, to have it destroyed in being cut apart ! Brethren 
 and sisters, I am no innovat(n- : I claim no originality. 
 I stand m the old paths : I exhort you to be worthy of 
 your ancient renown. I assiu'e you, this societ}% with 
 its pastorate, would abjure the traditions that are its 
 breath, and hold the circulation of its very life, if it 
 gave up the integrity of the Commonwealth, for which 
 its first teachers and members hazarded all, to a sup- 
 posed peace of disunion, to the lure of an ephemeral 
 tranquillity, smooth on the outside, "while rank disease 
 is mming all withm." Ecclesiastical and political ty- 
 ranny was here overthroA\Ta! Shall ^vc, of aU men, not 
 meet it, whenever it shows its horrid crest \ If an op- 
 pressive despotism in our borders cannot be put down 
 without the du-c resort of a civil war, then welcome 
 the civU war, out of which alone, for oiu" posterity, a 
 
happy order, like the flower from the nettle, can 
 grow ! 
 
 Not for peace, then, but for the conditions of peace, 
 must we inquu'e. Old Jeremiah can tell us, they who 
 say, " Peace, peace, when there is no peace," heal 
 slightly the hurt of the daughter of my people. What 
 signifies to shout for peace, — peace at all events, and 
 on any terms, — peace as an end, instead of foithful- 
 ness, — an ill-considered and unprincipled peace, 
 which is no jJeace, because it would bear in its own 
 bosom the fiery seeds of more fiercely outbiu'sting 
 and immeasiu'able. war] An agreement of peace, con- 
 ceding the points at issue for which we strive, would 
 be a superficial cure uideed. It would be for us like 
 those ill-set limbs, which, on account of their crooked 
 and xmserviceable shape, threatening perpetual lame- 
 ness, the siu'geon has to break with violence that he 
 may set them again. It would be skinning over ulcer 
 and plague-spot, to let them penetrate to the vital or- 
 gans, and rot the very bones. It would be the part, 
 not of good physicians, but of poisoners m the garb of 
 doctors, and of assassins for operators ; or, if a nation 
 cannot be slaia outright by any set of men, of tempters 
 of it to suicide. Sicken and revolt, then, as our heart 
 must, at the sight, so long before oiu- eyes, of brothers' 
 blood shed by brothers' hands ; sigh and pray as we 
 should for the blessing of a just peace in all our 
 bounds, — the contest must go on till its objects are 
 
secured in casting off the arbitrary claims of those who 
 provoked it, and liberating this Western Republic for 
 the career its founders projected after the heavenly 
 design. 
 
 The mdispensablencss of the struggle will be CAidcnt 
 to all who have studied the published plans of South- 
 ern dommation, which, to get bulwarks of defence to 
 all ages of the system of human bondage, soar to a 
 pitch leaving far behind the assumptions of Enropean 
 monarchies, — the rule of aristocratic Britam, autocratic 
 Russia, or imperial France. These plans, by the press 
 in papers widely cuxulating through the Slave States, 
 are avowed with a lordly frankness, and open denim- 
 ciation of free institutions, free thought, free pulpits, 
 and free schools, at which the blood of Northern read- 
 ers must fii'st rim cold Avith alarm, and then indig- 
 nantly boil. As we have an unavoidable work of fight 
 to do, let us do it thoroughly while we are about it, 
 and not leave a worse job for our descendants ! 
 
 Besides, was there ever a government, forced into 
 war by the sins of men or sent by the bidding of God, 
 more worthy of a rally to its support? Are you 
 shocked and aghast at all war ? I will be shocked and 
 aghast with you at the wicked causes and ill motives 
 by which all war is in a measure prompted ; but this 
 is not, on oiu* part, a war for empne or worldly gain. 
 No ambitious aspirant leads hence mercenaiy ti'oops. 
 No accusation could be more gross, even to ridicule, 
 
than the Southern branding for a tyrant of our Presi- 
 dent and Commander-in-chief. The lowly Baptist said 
 he was a voice in the wilderness. Never was a magis- 
 trate more the voice, the index, the obedient servant, as 
 he is the elective minister, of the people he represents. 
 Confederate robbery, murder, and conscription, from 
 which poor hunted whites hide in under-ground huts, 
 must have a forehead of brass, mdeed, to talk of " Lin- 
 cohi's tyramiy," when all the government we have rises 
 but like a vessel on the popular tide, and, if sometimes 
 perhaps it makes mistakes, speedily retreats with 
 the sinking wave, and allows, to the very brink of self- 
 preservation, the liberty even of disloyal speech and 
 print. God's own stirring of the mstincts of freedom 
 and equal rights never availed so much m the heart 
 of a community to sustain a conflict before. We can- 
 not get over our wonder at the manly self-devotion of 
 our youth, till we understand it as a divine inspiration, 
 whose breeze has blown tlnough their souls. Every 
 thing in the behavior of our troops, proving this spi- 
 ritual quality, tlu'ills the soul with dehght ; for it goes 
 to the heart of our hope, and is the prediction of our 
 triumph. I therefore solcnmly congratulate you as 
 fcllow-comitrymen on whatever is high in the morals 
 of our army ; on all the purity, sobriety, and reverence 
 which officer or recruit has witnessed in his com- 
 panions, or upheld in himself. The ark we bear is 
 holy : nothing is requisite but that it be carried in 
 
10 
 
 clean hands. If, like that of old, it has halted on the 
 way, the reason is in some unsanctified touch. Lift it 
 in the fear of God, in the love of man, and it will not 
 stop short of the city of oiu' redemption, and the peace 
 whose conditions we ask and observe. 
 
 Such refiections mingle with and move our welcome 
 back to Boston of that forty-foiu'th regiment, though 
 with a hundred of theh number missmg, which we 
 recognize as contaming of leaders and men more from 
 this parish than any beside m the ser\ice. I will not 
 say it has exceeded all other regiments in w4iat it has 
 accomplished : it makes for itself no such exaggerated 
 and presumptuous claim. Modestly it puts itself be- 
 side the patriotic in every corps and division of the 
 army ; but certainly no band has gone forth or re- 
 tui'ned with more signal testimonies of affection and 
 respect. Some have asked, "Wherefore demonstrations 
 so la\ish in this caseV Now that these friends of ours 
 are no longer as men putting on the harness, but have 
 all been under fire ; with unfaltering front have met 
 the enemy at Rawle's Mills, at Kinston and Golds- 
 borough and Whitehall and "Washington, N.C.; mai-ch- 
 ing on one occasion seventy-five miles in three dajs ; 
 and, though not decimated in battle, have yet left 
 brave comrades not a few behind them for resurrection 
 from Southern graves, — we may say, the tributes to 
 them are not all flattery or friendship, or the motion 
 of kmch-cd blood. They have not only shown that 
 
11 
 
 they could fight, without fhiiching from any danger, 
 but presented a smgular combmation of gravity and a 
 temper of good cheer in all their deportment. They 
 have sung thek religious songs in camp, in the face of 
 some scorn from other quarters. No arrests for the 
 drunkenness, too common among soldiers as weU as 
 civihans, have in their ranks been required : not a 
 case of mtoxication among them has theii- commander 
 kno^^^l smce they reached Newbern. They have been 
 led to set a guard on then* tongues agamst that profan- 
 ity, which, in one of oiu- army-tracts, is well entitled " an 
 enemy within the lines." I am personally cognizant 
 of a purifying iniiuence to many issuing from this very 
 church, that has had among them its missionaries and 
 representatives in the shape of officers and soldiers. 
 Urgent in their tasks, and steady at their posts, they 
 have largely added to courage the rarer trait of self- 
 control. With the banners, which they have a right 
 to tling to the winds hi the safety of home, because 
 they never lowered them to the foe, but bore them as 
 proudly m North Carolina as m Massachusetts, they 
 bring back vktues which outshine the emblazoned stars 
 and stripes, and shall last when all flags of earthly 
 glory must be wrapped together, and laid in the dust. 
 Of our own boys I must be permitted particularly 
 to speak. In this noble regiment, I challenge evidence 
 that any have shown a finer demeanor than the seven 
 from these aisles of our worship ; nor do I expect to 
 
12 
 
 learn that an equal number, from M'hatevcr precinct, 
 East or West, have exceeded in then* bearing and ex- 
 ample the scores of heroic and martyr-soiils, since the 
 internecine strife began, furnished fi;om the seats we 
 frequent, to the exigency and agony of the hour. The 
 time touches us indeed ! The blood-stains caiuiot be 
 taken off from this portal or yonder thi'esholds, more 
 than from the posts of the ancient Hebrew doors. In 
 a different way, they are signs of our as well as the 
 Hebrew deliverance. We have offered our ample 
 share to the expiation of the general sin, as we have 
 waited, through these long sad years of our sum- 
 mons, patiently standmg at the judgment-seat of God. 
 Irmocence for guilt, the law of the Saviour's sufferings, 
 has been greatly the illustration of our pains. Well 
 might the pious hands of some of you, m memorial, 
 present the a'oss for a signal to that tifty-foiu-th co- 
 lored regiment, which lately went out from oiu- streets ; 
 for lambs, as imspottcd as can be any offsprmg of 
 human nature, have gone hence, as sacrifices, to a fate 
 of anguish not diverse from that of the tree to which 
 was nailed the Lamb of God. They have not gone in 
 hatred or wrath, more than he whose followers they 
 were ; nor did we, whose pangs m their dying were 
 greater than theh own, send them in vengeance, but 
 for God's honor and human weal in the purifpng and 
 salvation of the land. Our Pilgrim shes, whom history 
 has exalted among the Father's chikhen and his Son's 
 
13 
 
 disciples, and death long ago took to then- gloiy, are 
 content with the spectacle they from on high behold. 
 Those of oiu' ancestors on these coasts, who were also 
 oiu' predecessors in this place, are satisfied with us. 
 My friends, they comprehend your continuance of their 
 line ; they approve yoiu' patience under thick and 
 manifold griefs ; they applaud your constant and un- 
 discouraged zeal ; they bend in sympathy with your 
 heart-renduig pangs ; in whispers louder than any 
 A'oice, breathing comfort and ecstasy to the soul, they 
 cheer you on. The watching and expending of their 
 sons, the industry and impulse of theh daughters, 
 touch theu" angehc faces to smiles, whose warmth you 
 mwardly feel beyond the beams of the sun. Flames 
 of light and love as they are, yet then eyes brighten 
 at youi- contributions from a better treasury than of 
 silver and gold. Nothing which you have given will 
 they overlook : least of all do they forget the personal 
 devotion, endiuance of hardship, peril, hunger and 
 thkst in the time of scant supply ; the weary mai'ches 
 and night-^dgUs ; the gory wounds and broken limbs, 
 in which the still embedded bullet, though of coarse 
 lead, is a gem which no pearl or diamond, bracelet or 
 shining chcle, on the neck or arm of beauty, can 
 match ; wath, alas ! how many dear and noble lives, of 
 which we may say, " Precious shall then- blood be in 
 His sight ! " I am grieved, I am proud and glad, with 
 you who hear me. We have not been slack : we have 
 
14 
 
 swept our temple of the yoiuig ; we have transferred 
 from the altar of the sanctuary to the altfir of the coun- 
 try gifts costly enough to make of sanctuary and coun- 
 try one indivisible shrine for ever of the Most High. It 
 is a custom in some, foreign regions to rededicate 
 chm-ches. This old structure of om-s we have rededi- 
 cated to God in a vital outpourmg from throbbuig 
 veins of value beyond the prayers and songs, how- 
 ever sincere and fervent, which, half a centiu-y ago, 
 hallowed its space to his praise. We have dedicated 
 it with tears and sobs following upon copious drops of 
 a deeper current. "Will he not accept the consecra- 
 tion, past, present, or yet to be made ? Will he not 
 build us up into flourishing without end, spite of all 
 the vacancies of absence and all the gaps of death ? 
 Indeed he Avill ; for it is as true of societies as of indi- 
 viduals, " He that loseth his life for my sake shall 
 find it." 
 
 For verily, war, to oiu" chilch-en so strange a fimc- 
 tion, \\o do not wage for its own sake. AVe are after 
 conditions of peace, fair and lasting, which the mmd 
 of man can accept, and God ^^ill bless. For this rea- 
 son alone, ours is a humane and providential war. To 
 any one's amazement that an ambassador of the gospel 
 of peace and mercy can give it his sanction and stimu- 
 lus, I plead in reply its sacred character. Whoever may 
 remark on my reciurrence to the theme, I answer, — 
 I but utter that for which others from oiu: midst have 
 
15 
 
 died. The least I can do is to speak the thing for 
 which they bleed. Pardon my earnestness ! Indeed, 
 over their tombs, fresh with recollections of then- fall- 
 ing in the field, their pming in the hospital, and their 
 expiring far from mothers' hands, fathers' blessings, 
 sisters' tones, and brothers' fiirewells, jou wiU not only 
 forgive, but respond to, aU my advocacy of the cause to 
 which they went religiously sworn. It was new and 
 unfamiliar Avork: they did not want to fight. The 
 occasion constrained them ; nay, the call, too, which 
 they heard m then breast. 
 
 They have given their own selves. There was one, 
 a son and brother of fellow-worshippers among us 
 highly esteemed, who landed not at the wharf in Bos- 
 ton last Wednesday, amid greetmgs and waving colors, 
 Avith the comrades he accompanied nearly a year ago. 
 But, though his personal presence is not visibly here, 
 beside his there is no memory more spotless. No spirit 
 more innocent and devoted than that of David Kim- 
 ball Hobart rises from the wide sepulchre which this 
 dreadfid slaughter daily fills. I pray you to excuse 
 my expression. His spirit rises not from the sepul- 
 chre into which it never descended. The souls of our 
 dear ones vanished have no interment. "With the 
 ground they have less to do in any way than the sur- 
 vivors who bury theii- mortal remains. His blessed 
 shade is among those, a great company, that come 
 down in visits to our hearts from the skies. " If you 
 
16 
 
 would opcu a little the eyes of yom- love," writes a 
 soldier to his spiiitual father, Robert Collyer, in Chi- 
 cago, " you would see me standing by your side." K 
 we would open the eyes of our love, should we uot 
 behold our beloved, though they have paid early, and 
 it might seem untimely, the debt of natui'e, not se- 
 vered from us, but close by? 
 
 In affording a hint or line of Ilobart's earthly bio- 
 grajihy, I feel that the mmds of all his acquaintance 
 will be more jjossessed with, the present and progress- 
 ive hfe of one, always growmg m knowledge and 
 honor, than with any bygone details. He was born in 
 Boston in 1835, was a graduate of the High School at 
 sixteen years of age, and m mercantile employment 
 tiU he was twenty-two ; up to which time he had been 
 connected with the Smiday school of the Twelfth Con- 
 gregational Society, whose revered minister uiforms 
 me of his conduct as unblemished and exemplary in 
 every respect. He was naturally inchned to cultivate 
 intellectual tastes ; and was, from its foundation, a 
 member of the Franklin Literary Association ; thi*ee 
 others of which — Shurtleff, llopkmson, and Brooks 
 — joined the army, all of them, like him, at the cost 
 of thch- lives. At the age of twenty-two, with the aid 
 of his old employers, Alexander Strong and Company, 
 Hobart proceeded to the West to estabhsh himself m 
 the business to which he had been educated. He 
 chose for his residence the city of M'Gregor, lo., 
 
17 
 
 on the westerly bank of the ISIississippi River, oppo- 
 site to Praiiie du Chien ; of which he was soon 
 elected alderman, and then mayor. After five years, 
 changes m affau's brought him back mto relations, in 
 Boston, with his former business friends. While he 
 was a universal favorite in his distant home, separation 
 had only increased his love for friends in the place of 
 his birth. Little childi'en, as one, at least, now Usten- 
 ing to me well knows, were always dear to him. He 
 had, what goes along naturally with this fondness, a 
 coiu'age unable to conceive of fear ; while the love as 
 of a little child for his own mother attended him, and 
 manifested itself in childlike tokens, into his manhood. 
 He could lay his head to the last in the lap where he 
 laid it from the fii'st. But affection withheld him not 
 from dut)'. TeUing his sister that she had three bro- 
 thers, and he had concluded, with that last call for 
 men, that one of them ought to go, he enlisted in 
 Company G with Capt. Himt. He might elsewhere 
 have had a commission, which had been offered him ; 
 yet he chose his companions, and thought not of rank, 
 but of service. 
 
 He was not suffered, however, to remain the com- 
 mon soldier he had decided to be. Shortly, at the 
 camp in Readville, he was made fourth, and, on reach- 
 ing North Carohnai( first corporal ; subsequently pro- 
 moted to be orderly or first sergeant, the grade next 
 to lieutenant ; and no doubt his distinction would 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 have nm on •with equal rapidit)* into the higher de- 
 grees, but for the speedy termination of all his tasks 
 below. On jNIarch the 3()th, a day or two before 
 Washington in North Caroliaa was besieged by the 
 rebels, companies A and G, of the Massachusetts 
 Forty-fouith, were sent out to make a reconnoissance 
 into the enemy's coimtry ; and he was ordered to lead 
 a party of six, who should keep two hundred yards in 
 advance of the main force. While marching, they 
 were fu-ed upon from an abattis, which, not rashly, but 
 with mihtary wariness, they were approaching. Ho- 
 bart, with two others, fell; and, as the volley proved the 
 presence of overpowering odds, the rest of the party 
 were compelled to retu'e, leaving the three on the 
 ground. About half an hoiu" after, they were taken 
 up by the rebels, and carried to the Confederate hos- 
 pital at Greenville. The sergeant's wound was thi-ougli 
 the breast, the ball commg out back of the shoulder. 
 lie was not neglected, but mercifully considered with 
 medical and social attentions ; the women of the 
 neighborhood showing a daily interest in his com- 
 fort. On the 8th of April, he was removed to the 
 Confederate hospital at Wilson, N.C. There, too, he 
 was not only cared for, but cherished. We hear so 
 many accomits of cruelty to prisoners, that it has 
 given me great pleasure to be mformed of the pecu- 
 liar kmdness, in every respect, of the treatment ex- 
 tended to liim. The siu'geon's dealing with his case 
 
19 
 
 was alike gentle and frank. He begged hini not to 
 weary himself with readhig, as there were those in the 
 hospital who would be happy to read to him. In his 
 time of need, he saw nothmg but the manhood of the 
 Southern heart, and received the inu'sing which is 
 the glory of womanliood aU over the world. The 
 ministers of the town, as well as the regular chaplain, 
 came ; and laches brought frequent gifts of flowers. 
 Ah ! we shall be able to live with those people, after 
 aU ! Let us have no hostile feeling toward them, but 
 hail every sign of qualities proving that Hve mth them 
 we can. Live with them, if we succeed, when they 
 are piu'ged and wc are piu'ged, we must; and how 
 gladly we shall ! God bless them m every prophecy 
 of a genial future fellowship Avhich then- own conduct 
 makes ! Nothing but a Union feeling, a love of coun- 
 try, a sentiment of humanity and universal fraternity 
 at the bottom of the heart, could move to such actions ; 
 which are themselves a promise, clear as the crimson 
 streak m the east of a dawn to bring on a blessed day, 
 that shall overarch the land, and embrace all its chil- 
 dren in a luminous good understanduig of common 
 vision and unbounded joy. What hinders tliis splen- 
 did breaking light but the dark system, hke night to 
 pass away? 
 
 For two days after he was shot, Hobart suffered 
 much ; then his jjains wlioUy ceased. It has wet with 
 joy the eyes of those who lament him, to be told, not 
 
20 
 
 only of his patience, but of the bright, benevolent, 
 and overflomng good humor vnth which his confine- 
 ment was borne. Death he can hardly be said to 
 have tasted ; for on the l-tth of April, as he was in 
 the act of talcing from the female attendant a plate of 
 toast for his breakfast, he softly laid back his head, and, 
 as in a moment, expired. Only his wondcifidly Aigor- 
 ous constitution kept life in his frame so long ; and 
 the physician expressed his wonder that he was not 
 killed at once by the bullet that pierced his lungs. 
 He had, let us thankfully acknowledge it, the soldierly 
 handhng which even enemies owe to the corse of a 
 brave man. He was clad in his uniform, laid in a cof- 
 fin, and what belonged to earth or could be mortal of 
 him put away under the sod in the hospital buiying- 
 gi'ound; and a board, bearing his name, set at the head 
 of his grave. 
 
 " A man," says the old philosopher, " cannot be 
 hid ; " and something of the remarkable regai'd paid 
 him may be due to the admuable traits which coidd 
 not be concealed from strangere, while they so pro- 
 foimdly impressed his friends. Capt. Iliuit warndy 
 attests his bravery, generosity, nobiHtj', and truth ; and 
 a committee of his company, — from which he alone 
 was lost in battle, although fom- have sunk under dis- 
 ease, — ^^■ith unaffected yet touching smcerity of emo- 
 tion, commuiucate their unanimous grief at their 
 bereavement, and theu" pride in the memory of a man 
 
21 
 
 who stood the proof in cu'cumstances where there 
 could be no " gloss or deception ; " forward at his sta- 
 tion, in simple fidelity to the command of his supe- 
 rior and of the Supreme, boldly facmg death. 
 
 Such an offering again we have been called to 
 make. Am I wrong in observing a di^dne piu'pose 
 to select from the flock the immacidate for the sacri- 
 fice in that great shedding of blood, without which, 
 we read, there is no remission? Am I not right in 
 beUeving, that, from such examples, a holy contagion 
 of Christian patriotism, of more benefit than the 
 longest life, will spread imquenched, to inflame Avith- 
 out ceasing other souls ? Of this I am sm-e, that no 
 wish to gratify kindred or please myself, but rather to 
 commend a shining pattern to imitation for the gene- 
 ral good, chiefly moves my commemoration. My tri- 
 bute has not been paid before, because weeks passed 
 away ere we knew his immortal part had floA\Ti. We 
 went not to yonder house, we came not with official 
 honors or mihtary display, usual in sxich cases, to this 
 public temple, for the funeral rites of our brother. 
 No prayers did Proridence permit us to say over his 
 hearse. His courage ui the field where he sank, his 
 patience on the bed where he lay, his resignation to 
 die, as he had Uved, in the way of his duty, graced, bet- 
 ter than any ceremony or woven shi-oud, liis obsequies. 
 No hands, however wilhng, could fit him for his grave 
 as he had prepared himself. His own deeds, longer 
 
22 
 
 than could marble headstone or engraved epitaph, 
 shall pi'eserve the memory of a man, pure as he was 
 loving, cheerful as he was temperate, kindly to all 
 about him, and tender to the absent, whom ho would 
 never, without remonstrance, allow to be referred to 
 uncharitably ; o^Miing the heavenly Father, while he 
 gave only pleasure with his piety to his earthly pa- 
 rents, and often eloquent with the touching and 
 persuasive charm of his lips in behalf of the cause 
 for which he siuTendered his life. But his sm-render 
 was only translation of being. Dnect commmiication 
 had his soul with heaven ; and it sought from above 
 communion with those it prized on earth, Avhilc, by 
 reason of interrupted mtercoiu'se, we were ignorant 
 he had breathed his last. To you, who moiun him, 
 was he ever so near as now ? Let us all ha\e gracious 
 thoughts of him who was gracious to whomsoever he 
 knew. 
 
 I Ikuc spoken of conditions of peace. Suffering, 
 death, and grief are among the conditions we are 
 obliged to fulfil. Move of that war, Avhich, it is said, 
 has hardly left a fence in Eastern Virginia, is a condi- 
 tion. I know how the war is by some made a mark 
 of the national degeneracy. Not so : it sprang from 
 the rise of moral ideas to check the national sins. 
 There woidd have been no war but for these ideas 
 against these sms ; but there would, from the extend- 
 ing sins, have been corruption and death of this people 
 
23 
 
 in all the original aims and characteristics of its proper 
 constitution. Therefore, thank God that the offended 
 conscience of the age rose against the customs which 
 would have ended in the common decay ! 
 
 As the war came on the condition of a great iniquity, 
 on condition of equity alone peace will come. The 
 pohticians told us, indeed, om- corniption could go on 
 without dissolving the State, or doing any political 
 harm ; but God hath destroyed the wisdom of the 
 wise, and brought to nothuig the vmderstanding of 
 the prudent. War itself is but one of the ministers 
 of his cabinet, despatched on a mission to chastise and 
 sanctify us. We talk as if the conditions of peace 
 were a matter for us or oiu' statesmen to settle. But 
 the Almightj' Judge, who has sent the angel of battle, 
 has a word to say, before, ^^•ith a concluded errand, that 
 angel is called back. We shall have peace when we 
 have righteousness. We shall have peace when we 
 are cleansed of covetousness and oiu" heretofore insane 
 pm-suit of material good. We shall have peace when 
 we discard aU practice of sensuality and fraud. We 
 shall have peace when the South resigns its aristocra- 
 tic and royal pretensions, and tears up that root of 
 slavery from which they grow. We shall have peace 
 when the North, East, and West shall have banished 
 every shadow of complicity with oppression for the 
 sake of gain, and disgorged, in the bitter contention, 
 every dollar of ungodly wealth which falsehood or 
 
24 
 
 robbery has acquired. "WTicn a h-ue relation shall 
 subsist of the States to one another, of all to the 
 Federal GoAcrnment, and of the white to the colored 
 race, Ave sh;dl have peace, Avhich no earthquake of 
 social convulsion can distiu'b. 
 
 For such conditions of peace, let us fight and labor ; 
 let us watch and pray ; let us besiege with appeals our 
 rulers and leaders ; let us om-selves Hve, or be ready to 
 die ; let us be grateful to the surviAong among our 
 hosts, and not deplore the dead, by whom these terms 
 have been created or subserved ; nor let the fame of 
 the humblest private, who has done aught to hasten 
 or Avin them, be obscm-ed by the lustre of great names, 
 of secretaries or generals, flying so contmually, as me- 
 teors, through the air. Let our democracy mean no 
 longer human Avilfuhiess, but divine gOA'emmcnt. Let 
 it mean, not doing AAdth oiu"selves and om* feUow- 
 creatures as we please, but as our Maker and Inspii'er 
 commands. Let his fatherlincss make our fraternity. 
 Then the angels' song at Bethlehem shall have a 
 sweet and perfect though distant echo, and the bene- 
 diction, of the peace of God, be received. 
 
'*!o 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 A FEW words are here added to give a livelier touch to 
 the portraiture of Hobart, or bring out other features of 
 his character. The singular consistency of the tributes 
 paid to him shows the reality and transparency of all his 
 traits. I have referred to the letter of Capt. Hunt, who, 
 after remarking on his moral qualities, finds reason for 
 comfort in the " attention paid him during his sickness ; 
 and that his last sleep will be as undisturbed in the little 
 cemetery at Wilson, N.C., as beneath the shade of the 
 beautiful elms of his own native State." Sergeants 
 George W. Young and Charles H. Holland, Corporals 
 Loring A. Chase and Elisha G. Scudder and John H. B. 
 Kent, as a committee of the company, say, " We feel that 
 we have lost a kind friend, a loving companion, a brave 
 officer ; and we shall ever revert to his memory with 
 feelings of affectionate pride." Mrs. D. S. Eichardson 
 writes from Wilson, N.C., to her brother, J. F. Stone of 
 Winchester, Mass., " He was very cheerful and hopeful to 
 the last. Yesterday he jocularly remarked, that he would 
 soon be well enough to go home, and may be return to 
 fight again." S. S. Satchwell, surgeon in charge at the 
 hospital, writes, " He has had every comfort that could 
 alleviate the sufferings, or add to the well-being, of a 
 wounded man. I have done unto him as I would that 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 others should do unto me." I cannot refrain from observ- 
 ing, that a letter of cordial gratitude, from the family at 
 home, has been written to Dr. Satchwell ; the whole tone 
 and language of which must not only delight him, but 
 serve that cause of truth, country, and humanity, which 
 will survive all the distractions of our strife. In a com- 
 munication dated Newbern, N.C., Nov. 14, 1862, Hobart 
 himself gives an account of operations in the field, through 
 seven days' marching and skirmishing, which overflows 
 with the kindness, courage, domestic affectionateness, 
 gentle-hearted pleasantry, and deep trust, native to a 
 heart from whose very stock nothing seemed able to grow 
 but love and frankness, confidence and faithfulness, reso- 
 lution for every task, and expectation of the good fortune 
 which we believe he has, beyond all earthly experience, 
 received at the hand and in the kingdom of God. I quote, 
 lastly, from a very brief report of his speech, on Thanks- 
 giving Day, at Newbern : — 
 
 " After all had eateu to their iuJividual satisfaction, quiet 
 prevailed ; and the intellectual part of the entertainment began 
 with a few opening remarks from tlie cai)tain. After ho had 
 concluded, the toastmaster gave as the first regular toast, ' The 
 day we celebrate.' Responded to liy Corporal Ilobart, who 
 made some well-chosen remarks. After thanking them for the 
 honor paid him by being the first called upon on this happy 
 occasion, he expressed his strong desire to speak, but declared he 
 was too full for utterance. During his speech, he made reference 
 to former occasions ' of the day we now celebrate ; and, in remem- 
 brance of them, we all feel a certain degree of loneliness as we 
 picture to ourselves the scene of the family gathering at home, 
 seated around the social board. "We look still closer. The usual 
 happy features of our fathers assume a sterner, sadder look ; in 
 the anxious countenance of our mothers we plainly discern the 
 teardrop starting ; ^vhile the cheerful face of our sisters wears an 
 expression of subdued sorrow. The usual gayety has given place 
 
27 
 
 to a spirit of sadness. "We cast our eyes aroiinfl till tliey rest on 
 the vacant seat. Here we pause. That empty chair speaks 
 volumes. The cause of this change is apparent ; and we turn 
 aside our heads to conceal the emotions we are unable to control.' 
 In closing, he offered the following : ' Our friends at home, — God 
 bless them ! ' which was received in a manner which proved that 
 the words of the speaker had aroused the tender feelings of his 
 listeners." 
 
 He has gone, as we hope to follow him, where there are 
 no sad looks, because no empty seats save those awaiting 
 us, at the Great Thanksgiving. 
 
 I know North Carolina is far from being the Egj^pt of 
 the Confederate States ; but the Christian cherishing of our 
 friend, in that still rebel region, falls as a sunbeam, of no 
 solitary manifestation, into the vision of peace. I confess 
 my yearning for the South. If she will put away the 
 plague of her heart, that alone hurts her, she may yet add 
 a peculiar glory to that nation of the future which we look 
 for on these shores. 
 
 It is sometimes said, that New England would make a 
 sufiScient community all by herself. On a pinch of neces- 
 sity, by providential decree, she might. Who of us, her 
 children, does not own and honor her traits ? But, thrifty, 
 conscientious, philosophical, benevolent, and devout as she 
 is, solitary she would be in danger of being cold. 
 
 In the nation, which God means shall survive and not be 
 cast away, we need, for a magnificent integrity, the South- 
 ern heart. It is a narrow conceit, that we should be better 
 without it. We want, for our just balance, all the moral 
 climates ; something of the tropic as well as the temperate 
 zone. Who, that heard Gen. Hamilton, our noble Texan, 
 speak, but felt the preciousness, as one element in the 
 public mind, of that temperament, not limited to any lati- 
 tude, — for it was constitutionally conspicuous in Daniel 
 
28 
 
 Webster, — which is, liowever, more common under the 
 warmer lines ? For the perfection of a great people, we 
 must have the spontaneous natures, raised to their spiritual 
 lieight by central seas of fire, as well as the souls of equal 
 grandeur but calmer righteousness, that repose on settled 
 principles and long-established conclusions as foundations 
 of rock. The quality of passion, regenerate, sanctified, 
 and subject to the law of duty, must be mixed with intel- 
 lect, commerce, and the moral sense, for the completion of 
 a country or a race. Let us not aim to reproduce Athens 
 and Sparta in any new rivalry; let us decline and resist 
 the modern secession ; and not only for Union, but for 
 Unity, let us strive. What means the strange confidence 
 of our success, that visits every generous heart, but the 
 whispered promise of the spirit of all goodness and 
 truth ? 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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