D "v* .0^ %. ft " " ' * ^o ^; X '.^ ''W^ ' ^ ': \.^ ■> .. .■• yv . .0^ ^. "^^ ^^. ^...^'\^^^ o • • - '^r^ 'ir^-^ .v-^. / 0,^ A ,*" c^ ■ .. -. .-. % ^'" "^" < o .<^ V i>" '^ ■p -Y; ^i-'. ■^ 'S^' 6^' HISTORY OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA NATHANItL HUbbtLL HISTORY OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS 1819-1919 COMPILED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES WILLIAM WAY Rector of Grace Episcopal Church, Charleston and Ninth President of the Neiv England Society CHARLESTON PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY 1 920 .Nl7f Copyright 1920 By The New England Society of Charleston South Carolina Published April 1920 ©CI.A576052 m^"\ i iS20 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, lUlnois. U.S.A. INTRODUCTION The New England Society having decided with its usual good judgment that its hundredth anniversary should be marked by the publication of a history of the Society and its century of use- fulness, its president, the Reverend William Way, to whom the preparation of the history was intrusted, has requested me, as president of the South Carolina Historical Society, to write a few words by way of introduction. The president has wisely chosen to allow, wherever possible, the members and guests of the Society and their contemporaries to describe in their own words the work done by the Society during its life. The book will therefore be found a perfect treasure-house of the thoughts, cus- toms, manners, and speech, during that period, of the city of Charleston, and of a much wider circle outside its limits. For the Society has been much more than a local benevolent and social associa- tion, great as its work has been in the field of good- fellowship and charitable work. It is next to the oldest New England society in existence, and is vi INTRODUCTION known and respected throughout the United States and wherever there are descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers. Indeed, many of the speakers at the anniversary celebration seem to find it an interesting and attractive fact that a flourishing society of New England men should exist in a state like South Carolina and in a city like Charleston. Yet those who know our city well know that we have always admired those who boldly think for themselves, even when differing in opinion from most of the community. Securely intrenched in our own views, we have rather liked and encouraged frank criticism by distinguished men from elsewhere. As was said to a visitor invited to speak at one of the annual banquets, and who seemed doubtful whether his somewhat heretical political views would be acceptable, "Whatever you say will be acceptable, provided you say it well." It was the New England Society which first introduced in Charleston the practice of inviting men like Daniel Webster, William Everett, Josiah Quincy, George F. Hoar, and Charles Francis Adams to join with our own citizens, such as Chief Justice Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin, William Crafts, James L. Petigru, Professor John Edwards INTRODUCTION vii Holbrook, and the Reverend Dr. Samuel Gilman, in celebrating the anniversaries of the Society. It was a good custom, and has been followed by other societies. Let us hope that it will always be continued. The sketches of the lives of the presi- dents and other distinguished members of the Society, terse and well written, will serve to recall the names of men thoroughly identified with the life of Charleston, and generally eminently suc- cessful in business and professional life, and of others well known in science and literature. Of the eight presidents of the Society in one hundred years, all died in office, and their average age at death was seventy-eight years. The combina- tion of conservatism and vigor is typical of the Society itself. Joseph W. Barnwell CONTENTS PAGE Origin and Organization - - - i Purpose -------8 The Presidents 25 DlSTlNGXnSHED MEMBERS - - - - 75 The Visit of Daniel Webster - - i88 The Civil War 211 Famous Dinners 268 The Centennial Celebration - - 276 Index .-_.--- 301 ORIGIN AND ORGANIZATION The official date of the organization of the New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina, is the sixth of January, eighteen hundred and nine- teen. This fact is verified by the following adver- tisement which appeared simultaneously in two leading newspapers published in Charleston on January 6, 1819, the Courier and the Patriot and Commercial Advertiser: New England Society. — A meeting of these gentle- men who have subscribed for the purpose of forming a charitable and benevolent society under the above name is requested this evening at half past six o'clock at the Carolina Coffee House for the purpose of organizing the same. The Society has actually been in session for one hundred years. It has taken a recess at the close of each meeting, but has never adjourned in its entire history. In this respect the New Eng- land Society of Charleston is unique among all other American organizations of a similar char- acter. The Society was organized at the Carolina Coffee House, located on the corner of Tradd .2 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Street and Bedon's Alley, which was one of the most prominent sections of the city. This coffee house was the social rendezvous of Charleston at the time. The great social functions and entertainments were held here. When President Monroe visited Charleston, just a few months after the organization of the New England Society, he was entertained by the Society of the Cincin- nati at this famous resort. The concerts and balls given by the St. Cecilia Society were for many years held at the Carolina Coffee House. Whereas the official date of the organization of the New England Society of Charleston was January 6, 1819, this, however, was not the date of the origin of the Society. For a number of years previous to eighteen hundred and nineteen the Society had been in existence. The New Englanders who had settled in Charleston met regularly on Forefathers' Day for the purpose of recalling the virile virtues of their ancestors, for good-fellowship, and to render aid to their less fortunate brothers. Such gatherings were held at the homes of prominent New Englanders or at the Carolina Coffee House. The citation which follows from The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser of January 8, 1819, is conclusive OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 3 evidence that the New England Society of Charleston existed prior to January 6, 18 19. The New England Society. — At a meeting of a number of citizens who had previously associated them- selves for the purpose of forming a charitable and benevo- lent society with this title, held at the Carolina Cofifee House on Wednesday evening last, January 6, 1819, the following-named gentlemen were elected ofl&cers for the ensuing year: Nathai>iiel Russell, President Joseph Winthrop, Vice-President F. Shaw Crocker, Secty. and Treas. The following excerpt from an address deliv- ered by the Rev. Dr. C. S. Vedder, for a gener- ation president of the New England Society, indicates the character of the early celebrations: A handful of New Englanders, who had been snowed out from under the lee side of Plymouth Rock, or who for other causes had decided to seek a warmer and more con- genial chmate under the balmy skies of Carolina's fair coast, and to cast their fortunes with the Sunny South, got together and organized the New England Society. Among them were the foimders of some of the sturdiest and most devoted CaroHna families. The New Eng- landers who came to Charleston in those days were gener- ally of the sturdy sort, men who transplanted themselves to the fertile soil of the Palmetto State with the intention of growing up with her destiny, and they did it, as the 4 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY roll of the Society will show. The New Englanders fell into the very natural and patriotic habit of gathering around a cheerful fireplace in one of the old-time inns, or at the residence of one of the members on "Forefathers' Day," and recalling anew, in pledges of steaming punch, the glorious memories of the Mayflower and her hardy and God-fearing passengers, who on that dark and freez- ing day in December first landed on Plymouth Rock after their long journey to the promised land of religious freedom. There is another line of evidence which strongly indicates the existence of the Society prior to the date of official organization, namely, the fact that the Society had forty-seven members on its mem- bership roll at its meeting, January 6, 1819, and that it added twelve more members to the list within a few months. This is strong evidence, especially when it is taken into consideration that there was a comparatively small number of New Englanders in Charleston at the time. However, according to certified dates, "The New England Society in the City of New York instituted A.D. 1805," is the oldest New England Society in the United States. This places the New England Society of Charleston second in point of antiquity. The roster of the original members and the Act of Incorporation follow: OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA ORIGINAL Nathaniel Russell Joseph Winthrop Doddridge Crocker George Gibbes Timothy Edwards A. S. WiLLINGTON Matthew Bridge James L. Child Jerry Walter Philip Robinson Joseph Manning Arthur Savage John Goodwin Nathan Foster Zadock Gilman Roswell Sprague Francis Shaw Crocker Samuel H. Skinner E. Cheney, Jr. Henry J. Jones WiswALL Jones Joseph Clarke Horace Bernard Daniel Perkins MEMBERS George W. Prescott Samuel N. Bishop David W. Leland Isaac Thayer John H. Benson Samuel Chadwick Robert Maxwell George Gibbon Joseph Tyler George Dodd Thomas G. Woodward Silas Howe Benjamin F. Dunkin John Read Henry Wheeler josiah s. lovell John Eggleston William Crafts John Reed George W. Eggleston Daniel Parish Baxter O. Minott Jonathan Coit 6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY ACT OF INCORPORATION PASSED AT A MEETING OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, HELD IN DECEMBER, 182O Whereas, Joseph Winthrop, Joseph Manning, Henry J. Jones, Doddridge Crocker, A. S. Will- ington, George Gibbes, and William Crafts, by their petition, in behalf of themselves and a number of others, prayed that they may be incorporated by the name and style of the New England Society. Be it Therefore Enacted by the Authority Aforesaid, That all those persons who now are, or hereafter may become, members of the said Society, shall be, and they are hereby, incorporated as a body politic and corporate, and shall be known in deed and in law by the name of the New England Society. And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority Aforesaid, That a succession of officers and members, to be appointed or elected in such manner and according to such form as may be provided by such rules and regulations as they may, from time to time, ordain and establish for the good government of the said Society; and that they shall have a common seal, with power to alter or change the same as often as they may deem expedient and necessary. And Be it Further Enacted by the Authority Aforesaid, That the said corporation shall be capable in law to take by donation, devise, or purchase, any estate, real or per- sonal, and to have, hold, and possess the same in perpe- tuity or for a term of years: Provided, The annual rent or amount thereof shall not exceed the sum of one thousand dollars; and to lease, alien, or dispose of the same, in fee or for term of years, in any way that it may deem proper; OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA ^ and that the said corporation may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, in any Court of Law or Equity in this State. In the Senate House, the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, and in the forty-fifth year of the Inde- pendence of the United States of America. Benjamin Huger, President of the Senate Patrick Noble, Speaker of the House of Representatives THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY PURPOSE The motive which inspired men to organize the New England Society was love. The sublime pur- pose which called it into being was charity. The birth of the New England Society was the humane response to a great need. It is an interesting coincidence that the Society was organized on the Epiphany, the great mission- ary festival of the Christian church. The first committee appointed at the initial meeting of the Society was a committee on charity. The fol- lowing members formed the committee: Robert Maxwell, Doddridge Crocker, A. S. Willington, George Gibbes, J. S. Lovell, Timothy Edwards, William Crafts. It would have been impossible at the time to call together seven more representative citizens of Charleston. The year 1819 experienced a very severe industrial and financial crisis, which extended over the entire country and which con- tinued for a number of years. In 1820 and in 1 82 1 the United States government was com- pelled to borrow money at a rate of interest as OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 9 high as six per cent. The condition in Charleston was no exception to that of the country in general. There was therefore a pressing need for a benevo- lent organization such as the New Englanders formed. The appeals for assistance were of a most worthy character. One of the newspapers of Charleston published the following appeal, which was typical of the time: We are requested to call the attention of the charitable to the situation of a poor family from Boston, Massachu- setts, reduced to the deepest distress for want of neces- sary subsistence. They arrived here in the early part of last summer, but were compelled to remove, in conse- quence of the sickness which soon after prevailed, to Haddrell's Point. All the means which their little prop- erty afforded them of sustaining life are now exhausted, and being without friends, they are induced to make this appeal to the commiseration of the liberal and feeling inhabitants of this place. Donations will be received at this ofi&ce. An appeal to the New England Society from the Charleston Port Society also emphasized the need for such a charitable organization : Among the sailors to whom we are constantly minis- tering, especially those sick in our hospitals, we find a large proportion are natives of the New England States, more especially from the states of Maine and Massachusetts. lo THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY These men are found generally upon the coasting vessels that frequent this port, and during the summer are especially subject to fevers and other diseases incident to our climate. To supply their needs after they have been discharged from the hospital and are convalescing, and until they are able to ship again, requires an outlay of money by the Port Society which it cannot easily spare, however willing they may be to do so. In view of these facts, I take the liberty, as chaplain of the Port Society and also as a member of the New England Society, to appeal to you for aid to enable us to carry on our work without interruption, and to be in a position to aid all who need help, especially such as come from the New England States. As all moneys are care- fully disbursed under ray own immediate supervision, you can rest assured that whatever amount you may be pleased to donate will be worthily bestowed, and we will be only the agent in furthering the great aim of your noble Society — the aid and comfort to the sons of New England. At this point it will be of interest to give a few illustrations of the kind of charity dispensed by the New England Society, as shown from the reports of the committee on charity: In discharge of the important trusts committed to their keeping, your committee have adhered closely to the rule and objects that governed the original founders of this Society, in the relief for such of the sons or their descendants of New England as might be arrested by the hand of disease or chill penury in this city. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA ii During the past year, many applications were made for relief. A close examination of these applicants satis- fied your committee that they were natives of New England or descendants and proper subjects for aid or assistance. Your committee has drawn upon the treas- urer for one hundred and twenty-five dollars: one hun- dred for the relief in part of the oldest and esteemed member, stricken down by the "hand of disease," and twenty-five dollars to aid the widow of a deceased member to remove to New York, with the prospect of earning a support as nurse in one of the hospitals in that city. The committee on charity paid forty-five dollars for the funeral expenses of the late I. C. Duggan, who was a native of New England, and buried in our Society grounds. He died in destitute circumstances. The committee on charity reported the case of Albert Snow, of Providence, Rhode Island, who was cared for here while sick, and his body sent home by the Society after his death. The Reverend Charles S. Vedder, D.D., was reduced in financial circumstances during the last years of his life. The New England Society, of which he had been the dis- tinguished president, met the emergency by paying his house rent for a number of years. March j, 184'/. The Society resolved to dispense with the customary quarterly supper in June and Sep- tember, and to donate the cost of same, one hundred dollars, to the distressed poor of Ireland and Scotland. December 6, 1854. The Society, by resolution, donated one hundred dollars to the Calhoun Monument Association. 12 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY December 26, 18 j8. The treasurer paid twenty-five dollars toward the erection of a monument to the late Reverend Samuel Oilman, as authorized by resolution of the Society, June 2, 1858. March i, i8y6. The sum of one hundred dollars was donated for the Jasper monument, to be unveiled by the Palmetto Guard, June 28, 1876. Jmie 20, i8y6. The sum of three hundred dollars was donated toward the entertainment of the Boston Light Infantry and the Old Ouard of New York, whilst visiting this city in the interests of a restored Union. March 6, i8y8. The sum of twenty-five dollars was donated toward the bust of William Oilmore Simms, in response to a request from the Honorable W. D. Porter, chairman of the committee. December 22, 1884. The sum of twenty-five dollars was donated to the Christmas tree for the poor. SPECIAL DONATIONS TO THE SOCIETY September, 1820 Nathaniel Russell December 10, 1822 Mrs. Russell Edward Thwing Robert Maxwell Five hundred dollars Twenty dollars Ten dollars One thousand two hun- dred dollars One thousand dollars March 31, 1862 Rev. Jonathan Cole One hundred dollars January, 1836 March 16, 1850 February 19, 1862 A. S. WiUington OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 13 It remains to give an account of the Society's noblest act of piety and charity, namely, the erection of a monument to the sons of New England at Magnolia Cemetery and the dedica- tion of a section of that sacred domain as a burial place for New Englanders and their descendants. This great work of charity was conceived in 1852 and consummated in 187 1. The service of dedication took place in the beautiful city of the dead the afternoon of July 26, 187 1. The account ensuing is essentially from the minutes of the Society and from the Charleston Daily Courier of July 27, 187 1. The dedicatory prayer was offered by the Reverend W. C. Dana, a member of the Society. The address of Dr. Robert Lebby, Sr., chairman of the committee, followed. Dr. Lebby said in part: " We are this day assembled in this * City of the Dead' to dedicate a section of this silent domain to New England Society charity — a virtue which has always stood forth in bold relief, and confined not only to this Society, but common to all similar societies in this 'City by the Sea.' "The selection and purchase of a section in this 'City of the Dead' was introduced to the notice of the New England Society in December, 1852. 14 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY The committee appointed at that time, with one exception, have departed and gone to ' that bourne from whence no traveler ever returneth.' At a meeting of the Society held June 2, 1869, the sub- ject was again called up from the journal and a committee appointed, consisting of Dr. Robert Lebby, A. H. Hayden, and Frederick Richards, to carry out the original intention of the New Eng- land Society of providing a final resting spot for indigents and others, natives of New England, and their descendants, who might die in this vicinity," At a meeting of the Society on December i, 1869, Dr. R. Lebby, chairman of the committee, read the following report to the Society : The committee appointed June 2, 1869, to select a lot or lots at Magnolia Cemetery, for interring deceased indigent members of this Society and others, respectfully report that they have discharged the duty assigned them and selected three lots, as per plat annexed; and believe the same can be obtained for three hundred dollars. The site selected is directly in front of the Orphan Asylum lots and is an eligible location for the New Eng- land Society. The committee respectfully recommend to the Society to purchase the lots and place them under the care of the committee on charity, or a special committee to be known as the Cemetery Committee of the New England OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 15 Society and that they be authorized, if the lots are pur- chased, to have them cleared and cleaned up. Respectfully submitted Robert Lebby A. H. Hayden F. Richards The report was unanimously adopted, and the same committee was authorized to complete the purchase and turn over the charge of the lots to the committee on charity. On March 9, 1869, the committee reported that the purchase of the lots had been concluded, and that they would be enclosed with a wild orange hedge. The committee also submitted a plan for a monument. It was resolved that the committee on charity be authorized to mature a plan and furnish an estimate of the cost of a suitable monu- ment, and to report at the next meeting, June 2, 1870. The committee on charity submitted a plan for a monument to be erected in Magnolia Ceme- tery; also, a letter from the Plummer Granite Company bearing on the cost. On motion of Mr. Richardson it was Resolved, That the subject of the monument be referred to the committee on charity, with full power to act as in their judgment seemed best. 1 6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY The committee on charity was composed of the following gentlemen: Dr. R. Lebby, L. T. Potter, A. H. Hayden, D. F. Flemmg, E. W. Edgerton, C. R. Brewster, J. R. Read. "The monument manufactured by the Plum- mer Granite Company cost, including all neces- sary expenses, $2,000. It is made of solid New England granite and consists of an octagonal shaft or column resting on four quadrilateral, bases. On one side of the base is the inscription in raised letters, 'New England Society, 1819.' The grounds are surrounded and fenced in by a granite fence, at the entrance of which are the letters 'N.E.S.' raised from the granite. "The ground has been opened to receive for the first interment the body of Mr. Edward J. Norris, stranger, born at Astoria, Long Island, July 4, 1839, who died in Charleston, May 17, 1870; and again to receive into its bosom the body of Dr. John T. Cole, son of Reverend Jonathan J. E. E. Cole, of Newburyport, Massa- chusetts, who died in the city of Charleston on January 3, 1871." The duties assigned to the committee having been completed, the corner stone was laid with OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 17 impressive ceremony. The chairman, Dr. Lebby, dehvered the following address: "Mr. President and Gentlemen of the New England Society, here is your cemetery, enclosed with New England granite, emblematic of Plym- outh Rock, upon which our forefathers first landed on this western shore. "There will stand your monument, as soon as you deposit into its foundation this jar, containing a copy of the constitution and names of the founders and members of the New England Society and other relics, with the newspapers of the day. A granite column will surmount this base. At this entrance, the 'N.E.S.' will inform the visitor that this is the final resting-place in South Caro- lina of indigent and unfortunate New Englanders and their descendants, who die here in a strange land but not among strangers. "Here, Mr. President, you behold the fruit of the labor of that band of kind-hearted and noble -spirits, sons of New England, assembled in this city of Charleston, on January 6, a.d. 181 9, for the twofold purpose of keeping alive in their minds the memory of the land of their birth and the institutions handed them from their fathers. i8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Another, a higher object with them, was to organ- ize an efficient system of relief for such of the sons of New England as might be arrested by the hand of disease or chill of penury in this city. Ani- mated by these pure and holy sentiments, directed to the same great end, the different elements of which our Society is composed harmonize to pro- duce one noble result. And the steady increase of our numbers, the cordial co-operation which exists among us, show that in emulating the example of our Pilgrim Fathers in all things good we follow them not when leading to narrow and sectional conclusions. "In the first assembly, we find recorded the names of Nathaniel Russell, Joseph Winthrop, Doddridge Crocker, David W. Leland, A. S. Will- ington, B. F. Dunkin, and others of a kindred spirit. " Of that noble band of gentlemen in the provi- dence of Almighty God, but one remains to wit- ness the triumphant progress of the institution which they first put into operation. 'Death has been busy among them; time has laid his hand on one after another of the group; and they have gradually fallen asleep and rested from their good works below.' OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 19 "Sir, we are permitted this day to see in our midst, on this interesting occasion, the only sur- viving patriarch of that band of intelligence and purity which brought this Society into existence. Honorable Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin, standing here, as he does, on the confines of two worlds, the native representative of New England and South Carolina's representative as the learned jurist and upright judge of his adopted state. "The state of his adoption honored him with the mantle of her chief justice, and by the purity of his legal and Christian life, he has brilliantly reflected back that honor; by preserving his integrity and the ermine of his mantle untarnished, without spot or blemish, South Carolina claims him as her son 'in whom there is no guile.' "Mr. President, in behalf of my colleagues, I have the honor to tender for your acceptance, as the representative head of the New England Society, this cemetery and its monument. May it last as long as time, and when it shall crumble away amidst the 'crash of worlds,' may the kindred dust of those it represents be reanimated and ascend amongst the redeemed of the Eternal World." 20 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY In accepting the report of the committee, Mr. James B. Campbell, the president of the Society, spoke as follows: "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Com- mittee: In behalf of and in the name of the New England Society, I thank you for your faithful performance of the duty that has been assigned you. We cordially approve of your arrangements, and I assure you that every heart here beats in acquiescence to what you have said of our vener- able brother, B. F. Dunkin. "Gentlemen of the New England Society, we are assembled here, in uncovered presence, with a good and noble motive. We have assembled to the performance of a work which will enlist the sympathy and feeling of every thinking person — to dedicate and lay the foundation of a simple and tasteful monument to mark the resting-place of our friends and brethren. I have a single remark to make in this connection, and I shall make it without enlarging upon it. There is one sentiment upon which all creeds and sects, reli- gious and irreligious, are united — a sentiment which obliterates the marks between civilization and barbarism and brings upon a common level degradation and the highest grade of civilization. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 21 That sentiment is a reverence of the dead and the bur3nng places of the dead. I have never heard of any tribe or class or race of men so degraded who did not have a pious reverence for their bury- ing places. We have now to unite in that senti- ment, and it is well that we have done so. I am glad that I am here. I am glad that at this period of his life my venerable friend has seen the accomplishment of this work. I am glad that you are here to participate, and with these simple remarks made simply for the purpose of recalling this sentiment, we are here to pay our respects and do homage to that sentiment." The corner stone was then opened, and a her- metically sealed jar, containing a list of the members of this Society, its constitution and by-laws, copies of the Courier and the News, and other memoranda, were placed in the receptacle. In closing this the president said, rapping upon the stone with his gavel : "We have now performed the ceremony of laying the corner stone of this monument. Let us hope and believe that this solid granite will be indicative of our perpetuity and usefulness and of the stern and manly sentiment that should guide our conduct. Let us hope that it may be t)^ical 22 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY of our character. If we may hope thus, we can have no earthly hope of a higher degree." The venerable ex-Chief Justice Dunkin was then introduced, and spoke with much feeling as follows : "Mr. President and Gentlemen: After what has been said, it cannot be expected of me to say much. It is nearly a half-century since that company met in the old Carolina Coffee House, in Tradd Street, to organize the New England Society. Many of us, if not descendants, were immediately connected with the descendants of the Plymouth Fathers, and the day of their land- ing on the Rock was adopted as our anniversary. The first presiding officers of the Society were the venerable Nathaniel Russell, of Rhode Island, long cherished by those who knew him, and Joseph Winthrop, of Massachusetts, a worthy representative of a long line of ancestors who landed from the Mayflower. Many were much older than myself, and some were even younger, but I was startled when I was told that none were left but myself. They have all gone to their long homes; but their v/orks do them honor. We organized that day an institution which promoted social relations and dispensed charity to the living OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 23 and needy. We have met here today to tender our last mark of respect and regard to those who have died among us. I arose but to say these few words, and to tell you that I am with you now heart and soul, as I was with the Society at its birth. I loved and venerated New England, the land of my birth, where the bones of my ancestors lie; and we love the land of our adoption. Caro- lina has been kind to us all and in weal or woe is well entitled to our respect and grateful attach- ment. Here have been our early trials, our joys and sorrows, and I trust when life's feverish dream is past here too my ashes will repose." The benediction was pronounced by the Reverend W. H. Adams, a member of the Society. The Reverend C. S. Vedder, D.D., eighth president of the New England Society, notwith- standing the fact that four burying places were offered him, two of which were in his native state. New York, requested that he be buried in the cemetery of the New England Society at beauti- ful Magnolia. The request was granted by the Society, and the venerable "man of God" now rests there by the side of his saintly wife. In 1854 the president of the New England Society, Mr. A. S. Wilhngton, was introduced at a 24 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY banquet given by the St. Andrews Society, in the following words : "Mr. President, I beg leave to welcome again to our festal board the respected president of the New England Society, the head of an institution not quite so gray in years as ours, but whose bounty to the widow and the orphan and whose efforts in the cause of true charity have been so extensive and liberal; such good deeds are worthy of being engraven on tablets of steel in letters of gold." This glowing tribute to the benevolent work of the New England Society, which during a period of one hundred years never turned a deaf ear to a needy cause, forms a fitting peroration to this chapter. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 25 THE PRESIDENTS In a formative period of approximately one hundred years, the New England Society of Charleston has had only eight presidents. The eight, individually and collectively, repre- sented the best thought and action of their day. They were practical ideahsts. They stood for the New England type of manhood. All of them were elected to the office of presi- dent unanimously. All continued in office until removed by death. All of them lived to be more than threescore and ten years. It is quite extraordinary that the average age of the eight presidents was within a fraction of seventy-eight years. The sketches which follow are designed to give an estimate of their services and of the esteem in which they were held. NATHANIEL RUSSELL Nathaniel Russell, the first president of the New England Society of Charleston, was born at Bristol, Rhode Island, November 16, 1738. His 26 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY ancestors had been leaders of thought and action in New England for more than one hundred and fifty years. His father, Joseph Russell, was for a time chief justice of Rhode Island. It was the Reverend John Russell, a forbear of Nathaniel Russell, who in 1675 concealed in his home at Hadley, Massachusetts, Edward Whalley, one of Cromwell's major generals, and William Goffe, an English parliamentary commander, who had been conspicuous in the Revolution of Eng- land and who had been instrumental in bringing a guilty king, Charles I, to the block. These two heroes of democracy were of course persona non grata to all who believed in the divine right of kings, consequently after the restoration of Charles II they were pursued and persecuted by the minions of royalty. They naturally fled to America for protection and safety, which they found in the castle of "the parson of Hadley," who at the peril of his life gave them a place of refuge. One hundred years ago some of the great mer- chants of the world lived in Charleston, South Carolina. They came from England, France, and New England. Thomas, in his Reminiscences and Sketches of His Life and Times, gives the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 27 names of about forty of the leading merchants of Charleston in 1795. The name of Nathaniel Russell appears at the head of the list. There was only one native of South Carolina in the group mentioned, and he was a junior partner of one of the large firms; his name was Stoney. Mr. Thomas continued his observation by stating that "the door of the St. Cecilia Society was shut to the plebeian and the man of business, with two exceptions: Adam Tunno, king of the Scotch, and William Crafts, vice-king of the Yankees under their legitimate head, Nathaniel Russell, than whom there was no better man." Nathaniel Russell came to Charleston from New England a beardless youth, and by reason of rare ability, indomitable will power, and sterling integrity, became a merchant prince. Not many years after his arrival in Charleston he married Miss Sarah Hopton. Two daughters were born from this union — Sarah, who married the Right Reverend Theodore Dehon, D.D., bishop of South CaroHna, and Alicia, who married Arthur Middleton. In 181 1 Mr. Russell completed his mansion on Meeting Street, which was one of the most palatial residences at that time in the South. It was the 28 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY first house built in Charleston in which marble keystones were used. Not many years ago, Dr. Thomas Nelson Page, the famous author and diplomat, in passing the Nathaniel Russell house, said to his friend, "There are my windows." When Dr. Page built his handsome residence in Washington, D.C., he sent an architect to Charles- ton to copy the beautiful windows Mr. Russell had designed for his Charleston home more than one hundred years before. After the death of Mr. Russell, Governor Alston lived in this elegant home. It is now the residence of Mr. Francis J. Pelzer. The New England Society of Charleston owes its existence to Nathaniel Russell. He was the moving spirit in its origin and organization, and quite naturally its first president. Next to his own family he loved this Society. He bequeathed to the Society its first legacy, the sum of five hun- dred dollars, which at the time was a large amount, and which became the nucleus of an endowment of more than twenty thousand dollars. "He builded better than he knew." He died April ii, 1820, full of years and full of good works. A splendid tomb marks his resting- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 29 place in the cemetery of the Circular Congrega- tional Church, on Meeting Street. The day after his death the following appre- ciation appeared in the Courier: Died, yesterday, in his residence in Meeting Street, the venerable Nathaniel Russell, an upright, honorable man, a philanthropist, and a fervent and exemplary Christian. He was a native of New England, an honor to the land which gave him birth, and a blessing to this city which has long enjoyed the light of his virtues, the warmth of his benevolence, and the chastening purity of his character and influence. This morning will consign his remains to the grave — and he who for nearly a century has been doing good on earth wUl be seen here no more. We cannot express what we feel on this afflicting bereavement. The Right Reverend Nathaniel Bowen, D.D., writing in his register in 1820, paid the following tribute: "The death of my venerable friend, Mr. Nathaniel Russell, was a deeply affecting event. From my earliest youth he had sustained toward me the relation of a kind, paternal counselor and friend. He had been the friend of my father when he came in search of a professional establishment in this country. "He was the friend and protector of my mother in the destitution and sorrow of her 30 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY widowhood, and he never failed to evince towards me the kindest and most benevolent affection. How could I entertain a faint sentiment of grati- tude or love towards him ? He was not of the church of which I am; but he was a Christian of no ordinary excellence; and there was always that in him that gave him an unquestionable claim to be respected. "He was a virtuous, wise man, and I truly believe he diligently sought to be accepted of God through Jesus Christ. "Thine own and thy father's friend forget not. Mr. Russell's death, though at eighty-two years of age, was a public loss of considerable impor- tance." WiUiam Crafts, Jr., speaking at the annual celebration of the New England Society, just a few months after the death of Mr. Russell, said: "It is the record of active and persevering virtues, such as filled up and adorned and endeared the life of your late worthy president and bene- factor. I miss from among you his venerable form. He rests from his benevolent labors. The useful only have a right to live, and sweet is repose after honorable toil." OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 31 JOSEPH WINTHROP Joseph Winthrop, second president of the New England Society, was born at New London, Connecticut, June 19, 1757. He was a lineal descendant of the first governor, John Winthrop, standing fifth in line of descent. His distin- guished nephew, Robert C. Winthrop, whose name has been linked with the cause of education from the day when, in a new colony, John Win- throp signed the first voluntary subscription for free schools in America, was selected by George Peabody as the administrator of his great bene- faction of over three million dollars for the cause of common education of the children of the South, when almost all of the schools were closed as the result of the Civil War. The great Winthrop Normal College for women, located at Rock Hill, South Carolina, was by common consent of the people of the state named in honor of Robert C. Winthrop. Joseph Winthrop came to Charleston in 1783. He at once entered the mercantile business and became one of the prominent merchants of the city. For more than a generation he was actively engaged in the development of the commercial, 32 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY educational, and religious life of his adopted city. In 1788 he married Miss Mary Eraser, daughter of Alexander Fraser. Mr. Winthrop was one of the founders of the New England Society. His name appears second on the list of original members. He was elected vice-president when the Society was organized in 181 9, and president one year later. His tomb, in the cemetery of St. Michael's Church, bears the following inscription: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOSEPH WINTHROP WHO WAS BORN 19TH JUNE, 1757 IN NEW LONDON, CONN. AND DIED 26TH JULY, 1828 IN THIS CITY OF WHICH HE HAD BEEN FOR 45 YEARS A WORTHY AND RESPECTABLE INHABITANT DODDRIDGE CROCKER Doddridge Crocker, third president of the New England Society, was born at Andover, Connecti- cut, in 1769. He came to Charleston in 1788, and entered the mercantile business in which he con- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 33 tinued for over fifty years. An old Charleston friend, writing of him shortly after his death, said : "He was the oldest merchant in this city, and it can with truth be said that during this extended series of years, immersed in commerce and in continual association with our citizens, he left not an enemy behind. Mild, unassuming, benevo- lent — he breathed nothing but good will and peace to his fellow-man. Honest, industrious, energetic — he ever commanded the most perfect respect from all. Mr. Crocker had often been solicited to occupy public stations, but being retiring in disposition, he invariably declined them, and with the single exception of being presi- dent of the New England Society, he has ever considered that a private station was the post of honor." At a meeting of the New England Society, June 2, 1847, the following preamble and resolu- tions were adopted: "Whereas, It has pleased Almighty God to remove from among us our late venerable Presi- dent, Doddridge Crocker, the occasion seems appropriate for expressing our lively sense of this solemn dispensation of Divine Providence, as well as placing upon the archives of this Society some 34 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY enduring memorial of the virtues of that excellent man. For more than half a century Mr. Crocker has been a citizen of Charleston and, while pos- sessing modest and unobtrusive manners, he has, during all that time, deservedly enjoyed the reputation of an accomplished merchant, a courteous gentleman, and a man of inflexible integrity. He was, besides, a sincere Christian, one who feared God, respected the rights of his fellow-men, and ever maintained a conscience void of ofifense. "The subject of this memorial, while yet a youth, was placed by his father in a counting- house in Boston, and there became familiar with those duties of the merchant which he so success- fully and honorably performed to the close of a long and an exemplary life. He appears to have been endowed by nature not with brilliant but with substantial powers of mind. His chief intel- lectual characteristic was strong common sense; and among his moral qualities the most remark- able were a love of justice and a love of truth. To these he added the advantages of a plain, sub- stantial education and an engaging address, which made him welcome in all circles where real worth is duly appreciated. Mr. Crocker was a man of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 35 genuine but unostentatious benevolence, ever especially ready to seek out and relieve objects of distress and to encourage and patronize youthful merit. There are many in this community who can bear testimony to such substantial evidences of his friendship — many who can truly say that when the ear heard him it blessed him, and when the eye saw him it bore witness of him, because he delivered the fatherless who had none to help him, and caused the widow's heart to leap for joy. " Mr. Crocker was one of the original founders of the New England Society of Charleston; was elected its third president in 1828, and has been its presiding officer nineteen years. During this long period, he has exercised the presidential func- tions with dignity and ability; has ever been watchful of the interests of the Society, mani- fested a deep solicitude for its prosperity, as well as a lively concern for the success and happiness of its individual members. We shall see his face and his venerable form among us no more forever ! He has passed through this probationary state — has ended the perilous journey of life — ^having nobly resisted the temptations and avoided the snares which beset the path of all men. He was a pure-minded, honorable, upright gentleman of 36 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the old school — sincere, consistent, faithful, and hopeful to the last. ''He has descended to the grave full of years and full of honor, without a spot upon his name, a fair specimen of what a New Englander is, or should be, and leaving behind him a character which all justly thinking men may admire and emulate. Therefore "jBg it resolved, That this Society feels deeply sensible of the loss which it has sustained in the death of Doddridge Crocker, for a series of years its venerable and excellent president; and that as a testimony of respect for his many and rare virtues its members will wear the usual badge of mourning for the space of thirty days. "Resolved, That a copy of this preamble and of these resolutions be communicated to the only surviving sister and to the other relatives of the deceased, with expressions of sympathy and of our sincere condolence with them in their afflic- tive bereavement." Doddridge Crocker was for many years a prominent and active member of the Circular Congregational Church. His tomb in the ceme- tery of that church bears the following inscrip- tion: OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 37 m MEMOEY OF MR. DODDRIDGE CROCKER WHO DIED MAY 2 1 ST, 1847 IN HIS 79TH YEAR Gently the passing spirit fled Sustained by grace divine Oh may such grace on us be shed And make our end like thine. AARON SMITH WILLINGTON Aaron Smith Willington, fourth president of the New England Society, was born at East Sud- bury, now Wayland, Massachusetts, March 12, 1781. His father was Josiah Willington, "a soldier of the Revolution." His mother died in giving him birth; and at the age of ten he was put under the care of his grandfather, who ordered him to manual labor, giving him the advantage however of attending school three months annu- ally. From this early period of his life he earned his own living; subsequently he was apprenticed to the proprietors of the Boston Palladium, where he learned the art of printing. He came to Charleston in 1802 under the auspices of Loring Andrews, of Boston, who in 38 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY 1803 established the Charleston Courier and made young Willington his foreman. Within a decade the energetic and ambitious young foreman became editor of the Charleston Courier, succeed- ing the erudite Dr. Frederick Dalcho, who retired upon entering the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Under the able editorship of Mr. Willington, the Courier became one of the leading newspapers of the country, and was regarded highly in all parts of the United States as an interpreter of the best Southern thought, in the great issues which had at various times agitated the country. In the era of nullification, it was the leading Union organ in the state, and upheld the Union against what it regarded as an unconstitutional and incon- gruous attempt to resist the laws of the Union within the Union. In the secession crisis of 1851 and 1852 it still upheld the flag of the Union and threw its weight in the co-operation against the secession scale, as a choice of evils. In the seces- sion era of i860 it held the election of a sectional president, on grounds of political and fanatical hostility to the constitutional rights and cherished domestic institutions of the South, to be properly and inevitably the knell of Union, and went with OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 39 the state and the South in dissolving a connec- tion with unfaithful confederates and establishing an independent Southern Confederacy. In these views Mr. Willington, although of Northern parentage and birth, heartily concurred; and he died as he had lived, faithful and devoted to the home of his adoption and choice and the field of his useful, honorable, and successful labors. In proof of his Southern feeling, in the year i860 he said to a friend: "This is my last visit North, for I am thoroughly disgusted with abolitionism." ' It is of more than passing interest to note that James Gordon Bennett began his newspaper career under the direction of A. S. Willington in the office of the Charleston Daily Courier (as it was then called) as a paragraphist and translator of Spanish. Mr. Willington was the fourth and last of the original members of the New England Society to be chosen president. During his term of office, which covered a very critical period — from 1847 to 1862 — the affairs of the Society were managed with great wisdom and wonderful tact. Mr. Willington died February 2, 1862, in his eighty-first year. Among the many tributes paid to this noble Christian gentleman by men of 40 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY distinction from all parts of the nation, two are selected, both of which were written by intimate friends who lived in Charleston, "He was a man of great public spirit, liberal hospitality, and unstinted benevolence. Readily and bountifully did he aid, with purse and influ- ence, enterprises for the public good. He ever had a heart to devise and a hand to do liberal things. He realized by a happy experience the scriptural truths that 'the liberal soul shall be made fat,' and that 'he that watereth shall be watered himself; that 'he becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich'; that 'he that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord, and that which he hath given, will he pay him again'; and 'often did he cause the widow's heart to sing for joy.' His was that true and undefiled religion which consists in visiting the widow and fatherless in their afSiction, and keeping himself unspotted from the world. There was a daily beauty in his life which, although it made not the lives of other men ugly, yet served as an example and model for imitation, surrounded him with troops of friends, and won the general esteem and love of the com- munity in which he hved. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 41 "A self-made man, he yet attained a high degree of social distinction and bore a prominent part in political and business life. He served as a warden or alderman of the city, was a member of the state legislature, a director in banks and insurance companies, even up to the time of his death, having been in the directory of the Planters and Mechanics Bank, and a member of various charitable institutions." I've scann'd the actions of his daily life, And nothing meets mine eyes but deeds of Honor. "Of his public career, his patriotism, fidelity, and usefulness in various positions of honor and of trust, his record as a good citizen is before the country and community. His social virtues, too, the genial companionship with all of all ages who approached him, the generous hospitality which he dispensed so cordially and gracefully, endeared him to many warmly attached friends. His civility and the ordering of his entertainment — the reception and entertaining of his guests — was remarkable for its welcome and refinement. Though it cannot be said ' his eye was not dimmed ' in later years, yet his natural force of intellect was not abated by the approach of age; so far from this, as time alone can make the almond tree to 42 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY flourish, so his old age seemed to grow kinder and kinder as he ripened for Heaven, rendering him more and more attractive at the close of life by the loveliness of the qualities he then displayed. " It frequently happens that the good spirit of a single mind makes the mind of multitudes take a right direction. A good example is like a mirror unto a generation, into which the young can look and see reflected what is best for their ultimate good, having a more efficient influence upon society than the most stringent laws that can be passed for man's control. It is in this way that example is more powerful than precept, and we become in this world mutually profitable — 'our lives in acts exemplary not only win for ourselves good names but give to others matter for vir- tuous deeds!' "There was in the character of Mr. WiUington a repose and a quiet dignity which rendered it eminently fascinating. It is pleasant and will be profitable to remember his ways of life — the serene light that seemed ever to be shining upon his path, that path so placid and pure. No man ever shrunk more from notoriety than he did, and yet few men have ever enjoyed more popularity and greater respect from their feUow-men. His head JOSEPH WINTHROP OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 43 and heart were of the best order to make a man beloved. He was not only polite, abounding in the courtesies of life, but he was much more than this: he was a Christian gentleman, the principle of whose life is to conform himself as far as pos- sible to the Image of Him who was Himself the incarnate Image of God! "We ought to be very grateful that such a great man was permitted to live among us; and as we are not likely soon again in the present excited condition of the country to witness his counterpart, it is to be hoped that the rising generation will remember his well-balanced char- acter and strive by Divine aid to imitate his many virtues." Mr. WiUington was a devout member of the Episcopal Church. His tomb in the cemetery of St. Philip's Church bears the following inscription: SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF A. S. WILLINGTON DIED FEBRUARY 2ND, 1 862 IN HIS 8 1 ST YEAR HE WAS THE SENIOR EDITOR OF THE CHARLESTON NEWS AND COURIER NEARLY SIXTY YEARS "the memory of the just IS blessed" 44 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY OTIS MILLS Otis Mills, fifth president of the New England Society, was born at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, May 8, 1794. Early in life, and when in moderate circumstances, he came to Charleston and organ- ized the firm of O. Mills and Company, grain mer- chants. His business venture prospered rapidly, and in a very few years he became one of the most prominent merchants and one of the largest owners of real estate in Charleston. In 1845 he purchased the United States Court House prop- erty, located at the corner of Queen and Meeting streets, and four years afterward had the building pulled down and the hotel known as the Mills House erected on the spot. Mr. Mills also pur- chased three Atlantic wharves, which he improved and developed. He became a member of the New England Society in 1822, served for many years as a mem- ber of the committee on charity, and was unani- mously elected president in 1862. He was the man of the hour, and steered the Society through its most critical crisis, from 1862 to 1869. It is indeed wonderful that the New England Society in Charleston should have grown and prospered at this crucial time. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 45 Mr. Mills died October 23, 1869, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was a member of St. Michael's Church and is buried in the cemetery attached to that church. The Charleston News published the following appreciation of Mr. Mills at the time of his death: "He came from a family in Massachusetts who have ever been closely identified with the Demo- cratic party. His brother, John Mills, was the leader of the party in Massachusetts, and was for over twenty years district attorney for the state, having been appointed under the administra- tion of President Jackson. His nephew, Darwin Beech, was the Democratic candidate for gover- nor of the state. "Mr. Mills was no politician, albeit his sym- pathies were extremely Southern, and the 'Lost Cause' had no more devoted friend, no more staunch supporter, than he. At the inception of the late war he sold almost every lot of city land — almost every building that he possessed — and invested the proceeds in Confederate bonds. When he announced his intention to sell the 'Mills House' his friends remonstrated with him, but remonstrance was in vain and that valuable property was also sold. When the citizens of 46 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Charleston were called upon to aid the military- authorities in erecting fortifications around the city, none responded more readily than Mr. Mills, and he and his slaves were at work incessantly day and night where their services were most needed. His practical faith in the success of our cause and his excessive generosity in risking his fortune therewith left him at the termination of the war almost penniless. "During his business career he was known as the young man's friend. Generous to a fault, no one ever applied in vain to his office for assistance. He was most willing and always ready to lend assistance to the young man; and it is said that the name of Otis Mills was more frequently on the notes and bonds of the younger portion of our business community than that of any other man in the city. It speaks well for Charleston when we add that one who was intimate with him said that, to his knowledge, Mr. Mills never lost a dollar by reason of his kind generosity. "A good man has left us, one who has proven himself a benefactor to the city in the widest sense of the term, and his memory will be cherished by Charleston as one of her dearest and most valued sons. He was generous to all who knew or needed OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 47 his assistance, staunch in his devotion to the home of his choice and adoption, energetic in his busi- ness relations, kind and courteous to all with whom he was thrown in contact, and liked by all who knew him. His life was guided at all times by the principles of the highest morality, and exemplified to the fullest extent ' the noblest work of God.'" JAMES BUTLER CAMPBELL James Butler Campbell, sixth president of the New England Society, was born at Oxford, Massachusetts, October 27, 1808. He graduated at Brown University in 1822, which institution subsequently conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL.D. His great ancestor, the Reverend John Camp- bell, of the Scottish Campbells, of London, was so staunch an adherent of the Stuarts that in 1717 he came to America a political refugee, and in 1 72 1 became the first Presbyterian minister at Oxford, Massachusetts. Mr. Campbell came to South CaroHna in 1826 and taught school a number of years on Edisto Island. During this period he began the study of 48 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY law, which he subsequently continued in Charles- ton, in the office of Hugh S. Legare. Mr. Camp- bell took an active part in public affairs and was engaged in the great nullification contest. His first vote in South Carolina was cast on the Union side. In 183 1 Mr. Campbell removed to Charles- ton and began the practice of law. His zeal, capability, and daring soon attracted the atten- tion of the Union leaders of the day and he was selected as one of the delegates from Charleston to the Union convention which met in Columbia at a time of intense excitement, and when it was thought that the duty involved personal danger. Mr. Campbell afterward became the confiden- tial agent and correspondent at Washington of the Union Committee of South Carolina. While there, he resided for a time with General Jackson at the White House and was in daily communica- tion with the President and many other prominent men. Among the number was Daniel Webster, with whom Mr. Campbell then renewed an acquaintance formed in his boyhood. It soon ripened into friendship, and Mr. CampbeU and Mr. Webster continued to correspond with each other as long as Mr. Webster lived. In South OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 49 Carolina Mr. Campbell had the entire confidence of Drayton, Cheves, the Hugers, Petigru, Pringle, and Poinsett. Their esteem he enjoyed through- out their lives. About the year 1837 Mr. Camp- bell married the youngest daughter of Governor Bennett, of South Carolina. In 1850-52 political excitement in South Carolina again ran high. Mr. Campbell was elected a member of the state legislature and opposed strenuously the extreme views and propo- sitions of that day. Finally he prepared and carried through the legislature the Convention Bill, which by its provisions and machinery brought the questions at issue directly home to the people. When the secession movement culminated in South Carohna, in i860, Mr. Campbell stood entirely aloof and declined to be a candidate for election to the legislature or to the state conven- tion. It is claimed by those who knew him best that he predicted that the Southern cause would be lost if the South began war or allowed itself to be made chargeable with the commencement of hostilities. He was confident that it would be the policy of the party then coming into 50 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY power in the Union to tempt the South to com- mit some act of aggression. Mr. Campbell there- fore opposed the bombardment of Fort Sumter, and denounced publicly the declaration of Mr. Walker, the secretary of war of the Confederate States. Mr. Campbell believed firmly in the justice of the Southern cause, but believed that an armed collision, unless in the strictest self-defense, could not fail to be disastrous. What he apparently hoped for was that there would be a civil revolu- tion in politics. In 1862, when the magnitude of the struggle began to be appreciated, Mr. Camp- bell was elected a member of the legislature, serving in that body with Governor B. F. Perry. Mr. Campbell was one of the minority in the legislature who opposed the administration of President Davis, while Governor Perry was the leader of the administration party. Both Mr. Campbell and Governor Perry had been under the ban in the earlier days of secession on account of their opposition to the policy which was adopted by the people. Mr. Campbell, in a word, was a Union man from first to last. His sympathy with the South was ardent, but none loved the Union more sincerely than he. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 51 In December, 1866, under the provisional government, Mr. Campbell was proposed as a candidate for the United States Senate and was elected. Concerning this election, a statement from the Reverend Dr. Boyce is of value. "The gentleman elected owed his election in some respects to the valuable services he had been able to render to the citizens of the state while visiting Washington City upon professional busi- ness. It is said that his advice and favor were not confined to his clients but were given gratuitously to other citizens who sought them. It was dis- tinctly avowed that to this fact, no less than to his rare personal merits, J. B. Campbell owes his present position of senator-elect for six years from the 4th of March next, as well as of the unexpired term of Governor Manning, who sent in his letter of resignation upon the election of Mr. Campbell as his successor. "The senator-elect is a man of fine personal presence, very astute intellect, and a debater of great eloquence, sarcasm, and ingenuity. He occupies at present the first position at the Charleston bar; indeed, it may be said that he is there almost without a rival. He is about fifty-five 52 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY years of age, and bears in his countenance the evidence of his Scotch ancestry. There is per- haps no man in South CaroHna whose sympathies were with the South and yet whose love for the Union and the Constitution has been stronger than that of Mr. Campbell. His views were well known, and the election, decidedly the most complimentary ever received for United States senator, shows that this state is not disposed to place a stigma upon a citizen who loves the Union when she knows that citizen to be one true and faithful also to her interests; and more than this, that a man of Northern birth is as much regarded by her when worthy of her confi- dence as though he first drew breath upon her own soil." It is a matter of history that the Southern states were denied representation in congress under the provisional governments, and Mr. Campbell was excluded with the senators and representatives from the other states "lately in rebellion." Mr. Campbell's letter resigning his seat in the General Assembly of South Carolina evinces his fine literary ability : OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 53 House of Representatives December 20, 1886 To the Honorable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives Gentlemen : Hereby accepting the office of a senator of the United States, to which the choice of this general assembly has elevated me, I resign my place as a member of this house.- There is no earthly honor I should as much value as the uninvited good opinion and confidence of the people of South Carolina. That their representatives should have called me into their service in the place of highest honor within their gift, at a time of extreme gloom and despondency, impresses me with feelings of profound gratitude. With my official farewell to the members of this house, I venture to tender to each, personally, the expres- sion of my friendship and hearty good wishes. There is no one of them, so far as I know or have cause to believe, who bears toward me any other relation than of kindness and considerate good will. I know there is no one of them who has not a place in my friendship and an acknowl- edged claim to such kind offices as may be in my power to offer. Considering the frailty of my own excitable tempera- ment, and the habitual collisions of debate, this I recog- nize as the evidence of remarkable forbearance toward me. The recollection of all these things will adhere to me for the remainder of my life. They will cheer me under the depression of a comparison with the great intellects who have preceded me through the better days of the 54 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Commonwealth, and, adding strength to the great debt of gratitude I acknowledge, will stimulate me under the peculiar responsibilities of the honor you have conferred to steadily persevere, to the end that, even under the present glimmering hope, I may yet do something for the welfare and the honor of South Carolina. I am, with great respect James B. Campbell In 1877 M^- Campbell was unanimously nomi- nated by the Democratic convention as a candi- date for state senator for Charleston County and was elected without opposition. He never held public office again. Mr. Campbell became a member of the New England Society in 1831. He was elected secre- tary and treasurer in 1833, served for a number of years as a member of the committee on charity, was elected junior vice-president in 1851, senior vice-president in 1866, and president in 1869. He delivered more addresses at the annual celebra- tions of the Society than any other president, with the single exception of Dr. C. S. Vedder. He was the first annual orator to cast aside the established custom of reading a laboriously prepared address. In 1848 he delivered a masterful oration without notes or memoranda. His effort on this notable occasion thrilled both members and guests. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 55 Mr. Campbell was an intimate friend and staunch supporter of Wade Hampton. During his term as president of the Society, Governor Hampton was invited to deliver an address at the annual celebration, and, being unable to attend, sent the following letter of regret : State of South Carolina Executive Chamber Columbia, December 20, 1877 Gentlemen: It would give me very great pleasure to be with you on the 2 2d, but unfortunately I had made engagements for that day before the reception of your polite invitation. But for this circumstance, I should join most cordially in the celebration of the anniversary of your Society. Regretting my inability to do so, and with my best wishes, I am, Very respectfully and truly yours Wade Hampton Mr. Campbell died November 8, 1883, in his seventy-sixth year, in Washington, D.C., where he had gone to complete his work as com- missioner for South Carolina, under act of congress of 1862. In this case, and in many others, his brilliant legal attainments made him the peer of the great lawyers of the nation. Among his last words were: "I want to be buried in Charleston, 56 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY because the people of that city speak so kindly of the dead." Mr. Campbell was a staunch member of the Presbyterian Church. His old home, located on Beaufain Street, is now the Presbyterian Home for Indigent Ladies. WILLIAM SMITH HASTIE WiUiam Smith Hastie, seventh president of the New England Society, was born in the city of New York, of Scotch parentage, July 3, 1807. He was educated at Pickett University, an institution of high repute at that time. He married a daughter of John Franklin, a descendant of the colonial family after which Franklin Square, New York, was named. Mr. Hastie came to Charleston in 1853 as the mercantile partner of P. C. Calhoun, president of the Fourth National Bank of New York City. The wholesale house of Hastie, Calhoun and Company was dissolved in 1869. Mr. Hastie then organized the insurance firm of W. S. Hastie and Son, which after more than fifty years of honorable service is still one of the most promi- nent insurance agencies in the city of Charleston OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 57 and is owned and managed by one of his descend- ants, Mr. C. Norwood Hastie. Mr. Hastie was a director in a number of busi- ness organizations, the organizer and first presi- dent of the Board of Trade, and held many other positions of trust and confidence. Mr. Hastie became a member of the New Eng- land Society in 1855. He served for a number of years as a member of the committee on charity, was elected junior vice-president in 1875, senior vice-president in 1879, and president in 1883. He died October 22, 1884, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. In assuming the presidency of the Society, the Reverend Dr. C. S. Vedder paid the following tribute to his predecessor in office : "When my brothers were in Europe for years, they placed their entire estates in the hands of William S. Hastie, to do with them as his judg- ment should dictate ; and I have in my possession the correspondence which followed their return to America, and it is one of which any man might be proud. " These are, in substance, the words of a letter received since the decease of our lamented presi- dent. They refer to a period forty years ago, and 58 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY are specially significant as illustrating the reputa- tion for stainless integrity which our friend brought with him to Carolina. There is also in the possession of his family today a beautiful and costly service of silver, suitably inscribed, pre- sented by the brothers — of whom the writer of the above was one — testifying their appreciation of the noble fidelity of Mr. Hastie in the discharge of this most delicate and responsible trust. It bears the date, January i, 1849, It was with a character and with credentials such as these things imply that four years afterward our late president came to this city. It was a future which such repute insured that he voluntarily relinquished when he removed from the great commercial center where it was acquired. He gave up a large, lucrative, and ever-increasing business in obedience to that which was the ruling principle of his life — tender concern for the health of a beloved wife while she lived, and devotion to her memory until he joined her in another life. "For more than thirty years Mr. Hastie was closely and prominently identified with the in- terests of this city, maintaining in every sphere and relation the same repute for honor, integrity, and capacity with which he came hither. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 59 "Of marked individuality of character, he formed his own opinions and had always the cour- age of his convictions. If there were times when his views of public policy differed from those of very many around him, his unfaltering firmness never failed to command respect and never impaired the relations of friendship. In the time of social and civil upheaval which immediately followed the war, he was called by the best senti- ment of our community to an official position of great delicacy and difficulty in Charleston, and discharged its duties with singular prudence and wisdom. With prophetic insight, he counseled them to a course of political action which vindi- cated itself when it was adopted ten years after- ward. Essentially a man of practical thought and effort, Mr. Hastie responded instinctively to every appeal of need and trouble. His adminis- tration of his official duties brought upon him the blessing of the widow and orphan, and there lies before the author of these fines, as he writes, a letter of overflowing gratitude to Mr. Hastie from one of historic name whom his exertions and influ- ence had so munificently served that she says: 'It seems to me that you were raised to be my true friend by a Heavenly Providence.'" 6o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Mr. Hastie was a member of the Presbyterian Church. CHARLES STUART VEDDER Charles Stuart Vedder, eighth president of the New England Society, was born in Schenectady, New York, October 7, 1826. In his boyhood it was his ambition to become an editor. He wished to begin at the bottom and learn all the branches, and so he started as a printer on a small paper in New York, under the management of the Harper Company. At the end of four years he was editor of the paper. Having accumulated a small sum of money, he decided to study for the ministry, entering Union College. He was gradu- ated in 185 1 at the head of his class. After graduation from college he developed throat trouble and accepted an appointment as tutor and professor for a number of years. Deciding that a milder climate would be bene- ficial to his health, he came to Columbia, South Carolina, entered the Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church, and graduated with honors. His first pastorate was at Summerville, South Carolina. In 1866 he became pastor of the his- toric Huguenot Church, in Charleston, which posi- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 6i tion he held for fifty years. He was a member of the Charleston Presbytery fifty-six years. In 1876 New York University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The College of Charleston conferred the same degree simultaneously. Later the College of Charleston gave him the honorary degree of Doctor of Law. Union College conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Humanities. Dr. Vedder was a member of the Holland Society of New York, and wrote a poem which was read at one of its anniversary celebrations. He was a prominent member of the Huguenot Society and for a quarter of a century president of the Howard Association of Charleston. He was one of the founders of the Confederate Home and College, located in Charleston. He presided at the organization meeting in 1867 and at the annual meetings for forty years ensuing. For a number of years he taught in this institution, serving without compensation. Dr. Vedder' s reputation as a preacher, orator, and lecturer was nation-wide. Many of his ser- mons, poems, and lectures were published and widely read. He also acquired a great reputation as a postprandial speaker. A distinguished New 62 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY York editor was present at one of the annual celebrations of the New England Society and heard Dr. Vedder speak. His comment was: "I have heard Chauncey Depew at his best; Dr. Vedder is his superior." Dr. Vedder was elected to membership in the New England Society in 1881. Three years later he became president, which office he held for thirty- two years. Upon the occasion of his golden wed- ding anniversary the Society presented to Dr. Vedder a large loving cup as a token of the affec- tion and high esteem in which he was held. Dr. Vedder died March i, 191 7, in his ninety- first year. At his own request he was buried by the side of his wife in the cemetery of the New England Society at Magnolia. Mr. J. P. K. Bryan, one of the most brilliant lawyers in the South, was designated by the Society to prepare a minute on the death of its venerable president. His worthy tribute foUows: "Charles Stuart Vedder, D.D., LL.D., L.H.D. "A great spirit has passed and yet abides with us. "Others may celebrate the virtues of his exalted life, his earnest patriotism, his devotion, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 63 though a stranger in this city, to the Southern cause, and his lofty sacrifice, renouncing family, early friends, and fortune in giving himself wholly to the help of the people of the South in the long years of their direst need, and as a watchful guardian of the orphans of her heroic dead. "It is for others to recall his ecclesiastical learning, his power in the pulpit, and his long years of faithful service as the pastor of the only Huguenot Church in America. "A grateful people celebrates his big-hearted charity as the ever loyal friend of 'Tiny Tim' in all the years of this city. "It is moreover for others to portray his poetic genius and his literary gift, and to measure their power and influence, as it is for those nearest to him to speak of the sacred communion of home and family and the love and blessing he shed there. "But here, in this Society, it is our special privilege that he was one with us. As our presi- dent for over thirty years, there was for him and for us a peculiar bond of close friendship and fellowship. For this Society he cherished a deep affection and a strong pride in all of its history and gave to its upbuilding the best efforts of his mind and heart. 64 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "He knew well the deep foundations of the life of New England. He loved and reverenced the stern, abiding principles of the Pilgrim Fathers, even as he loved and reverenced the heroic mould and quenchless faith of the Huguenot. He sought here, in the home of the cavalier, to keep the sacred fires burning on all these altars, and with the sterner elements and their spiritual meaning he sought ever to blend all the graces of life and the charm of letters. " In this Society he was always at home among friends, and here his versatile gifts had full expres- sion; here he poured out his heart; here his imagi- nation reveled in all kindling associations, his playful humor was unfailing, and the sallies of his wit gave endless mirth; here indeed he was always wise and yet always human and tender, "But his greatest service was in making the Society nation-wide in its fame and attracting here great intellects in his time. We wiU remember him at his best as presiding on the great occasions in celebration of Forefathers' Day, when he was indeed our noblest host, as it was his pride to give royal welcome to our distinguished guests — • great rulers, judges, orators, statesmen, and men of letters — and to vie brilliancy with those gifted OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 65 spirits that have stirred and charmed us for two generations about our board. "And among that goodly company of the great and learned his genial, famihar face stands out, a shining memory, in abiding inspiration. Although he was ninety when he died, he never grew old. Though bowed by the weight of years, his heart was ever young; and though long the light had faded from his eyes, no cloud ever rested on the mental vision of the prophet. "And now he has passed from Death unto Life. "In the words he loved so well, 'He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him life forevermore.' " In order to give the reader an idea of Dr. Ved- der's versatility, a short address delivered at one of the anniversary dinners of the New England Society and two poems conclude this sketch. In an armiversary address he said : " To say that the Pilgrims were not faultless is but to say that they were human. But their very faults were so far from being vices that they were virtues in excess and exaggeration; they were extremes, certain of rebounding to the mean which circumstances had made them overpass. Certain tremendous aspects of truth were so 66 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY exclusively contemplated as to secure their com- plements and correlatives. They were momen- tarily dazed by looking upon the sun. But even the acknowledged defects of the forefathers had their elements of sublimity whilst enshrining within themselves the principles of their own cor- rection. If they seemed to fear more than they loved God, it was because they would have every safeguard against merely sentimental piety. If they were intolerant toward others, they were even more unsparing toward themselves. We may take larger views now, but even their views were larger than those the world took elsewhere. We may take larger views now, under a wider and clearer firmament of knowledge and intercourse, but they were laying the corner stone of a new world, and it must have no speck or suspicion of unsoundness; they were nurturing an infant state, and its first steps must be such as would insure its right path in maturity; yea, they were sowing the seeds of principles whose harvest a hemisphere should reap, and no germ of weed or thistle must drop into the open furrow to choke the golden grain. "Ours may be a sunnier, but it cannot be a safer, faith than theirs. Ours may have a broader OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 67 vision, but it can never see clearer than theirs the polar star of duty. Ours may be a more pro- pitious lot, but we can never weave its oppor- tunities into a more glorious chapter than that which crowns their memories. More and more the world sees this. There is a sentiment which challenges the eager suffrage of every right heart : Though love repine and reason chafe, There comes a voice without reply: ' 'Tis man's perdition to be safe, When for the Truth he ought to die.' "The Pilgrim heard and heeded that voice, if ever man did upon earth. He was not only ready to die but to brave far more than death for con- viction; and therefore wherever the just, the true, the good, the brave, the self-sacrificing, the generous, the noble are, of every land, of every tongue, of every lineage, there is an ever-extending throng who claim the honor of a common kinship in men who illustrated their common humanity, and whose voices blend with yours in perfect har- mony of acclaim in saying, ' The day we celebrate.' Can you then too sacredly cherish that patrimony of memory which does not become less but more yours, because to it virtue everywhere covets and seeks to establish some claim of mutual heirship ? 68 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "As the word 'patriot' denominates anyone who loves his country, so the term 'New Eng- lander' has gone beyond the Hmits of territory, and embraces everyone who has the quahties of thrift, energy, self-sacrifice, and love. The New Englander is the man of persistence. The New Englander is the conservator of energy. The New Englander is the builder of railroads and cities, of schools and churches. He is a friend of the poor. The New Englander has done what all men respect; he has harnessed the ideal and the practical and made them pull together. "At one time in the late war there occurred a crisis in the Northern ranks. Men were wet, wounded, and starving, and the relief train had broken down — the engine had become disabled. In despair, the commanding general cried out, 'Come, boys, who can fix this locomotive?' Instantly there stepped from the ranks a private. Walking up to the broken monster, he patted her on the shoulder and said, 'I ought to know; I made her. General.' If at any future time this nation shall become imperiled, it will be the New Englanders who will say, 'We made the country; I guess we can save her.' The brotherhood of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 69 New England has no symbol but that of holy energy. It is what Emerson calls the I in power. It goes everywhere. Proud Charleston by the sea and the Golden Gate know it as well as Boston on her tea-steeped bay. You will never find a New Englander on the minus side of the great account. A society like this is true to its principles when it takes into its membership not only those of Pil- grim descent but also men of Pilgrim spirit, born a thousand miles or more from that historic mass of granite known as the Pilgrim Rock. "New Englanders are not like the Jews, con- tinually looking toward the Holy Land as their final abiding-place. But where they work is their Jerusalem. They have the patriotism that seemed to animate a colored brother whom I saw in the police station not many weeks ago. A special officer brought him in, a great deal debilitated from an overdose of applejack, known to a few as 'Jersey lightning.' At any rate, the bolt had struck. "'What's your name?' asked the orderly ser- geant. " ' Dunno. Lemmy go.' " 'Not yet. Tell me your name first.' " ' Haint got no name. Lemmy go.' 70 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "'Tell me your name and I will let you go.' "'I'm a poor man; haint got no name.' "'Not too poor to have a name. Tell me your name!' "The imperious tone seemed to recall his drift- ing intelligence, as with an exultant leer, he said: "'I'm a son of South Carolina. Now lemmy go.' "In life or death, or worse, when drunk, he might forget his name, but never his native state. Patriotism may learn a lesson even from the police court. Let us not forget that we are the most responsible people in this country." At the sixty-first anniversary of the New England Society, Dr. Vedder responded to the toast, "That Day and This." Dr. Vedder's response was a poem written after the manner of Hudibras, and drawing a striking and powerful contrast between the civilization of their fore- fathers — "their simple faith and true heroism, and their magnificent endurance" — and the achieve- ments of the present times. Has moral progress, he asked, kept pace with material greatness? The closing lines of this poem, which has already been regarded as one of Dr. Vedder's best efforts, were as follows: OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 71 How much, indeed, our times could teach That ancient time in grace and speech! No lexicon of theirs had room For such a stunning word as "boom." Ironic scorn ne'er said "too thin," Nor plumed itself a choice "hair-pin," Or answered some misdoubting elf, "You know, of course, how it is yourself." No satire's force caught all its zest In bidding man "adjust his vest," Or "Hire a hall," "mouchoir his chin" — Or classic phrase to these akin. No Pilgrim lip did ever straddle Such words as "mosey" or "skedaddle." " Spondoolics " were no name for lucre. Nor did men call deceiving "euchre." They had, perhaps, not thought it fit To bid a man "git up and git." To die then owned death's dread effects — 'Tis now but "passing in your checks." And yet, methinks, to serious thought. The terms to later language taught May argue poverty, not wealth; May symptomize disease, not health! The current deep hath noiseless flow — The pebbly shallows babbhng go; The empty drum gives clash and clang, The empty minds give trash and slang. The solvent bank on gold upbuilt Has genuine coin, not glittering gilt — The scheme no panic fear can shock No issue has of watered stock. 72 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Each Pilgrim phrase as they defined it, Had grand reserves of sense behind it. Where speech with senseless sound is fraught, Be sure it tokens bankrupt thought; Its over-issued scrip of phrase No dividend of meaning pays; Its sm.all change currency of talk Of specie payment truth will balk. To get, would sure be no disaster, Old Pilgrim gold for this shinplaster. Their earnest, honest yea and nay Said all they meant or sought to say, And if, with sober, soulful speech, That ancient day our day could teach Its hate of sin, its dread of wrong. In fear of God, undimmed and strong. Ah, then, were we more blessed than they. And then were this Time's halcyon day-r- For, clothed with strength they did not know, Our bettered world that strength would show! Then, progress, progess were, indeed. As safe in step, as swift in speed! That this may be, we hope and pray, For this we keep Forefathers' Day! During the Civil War Dr. Vedder was an ardent sympathizer with the Southern cause, serving as chaplain of the state soldiery in General de Saussure's brigade, and after the conflict serv- ing as chaplain of Camp A. Burnet Rhett, United Confederate Veterans. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 73 The following poem was written for Confed- erate Memorial Day and has been read a number of times on similar occasions: Why mourn the dead whose ashes lie Enshrined in native sod, Who thought it sweet and right to die For Hberty and God ? Ah! Not to question God's behest That made their valor vain, And not to break the honored rest Of martyr brothers slain. And not to wish that they had feared Their duty's call to heed, But saved the lives to us endeared With timid soul and deed! Ah, no! Ah, no! The bloodiest shroud That wraps their precious clay Were purple royal, rich and proud, Compared with shame's array. And laurel, by their sisters brought And brothers crowned their dust, To hail the cause for which they fought As overborne, though just. These mounds of earth such virtues tell In men who wore the Gray, As bid us live as bravely well And stainless die as they. 74 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Their dust with tenderest pathos pleads, From 'neath each voiceless stone That we should make life's noblest deeds The mould to shape our own! The ninth president of the New England Society is the author of this history and a descend- ant of Henry Way, original settler, Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1630. JUUOKtUGt. CKUi-tStK OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 75 DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS MARTIN LUTHER HURLBUT " Martin Luther Hurlbut was born at South- ampton, Massachusetts, May i, 1780. His boy- hood was spent on a farm, where he assisted his parents in earning a modest Hving. "His education was such as is usually bestowed upon the village boys of New England, but his mind, early and deeply impressed with the value of knowledge, pressed forward to its attainment with a vigor and steadiness never relaxed through his long life. At an early age he entered Wilhams College and there received such instruction as the then limited means of that institution could afford. After graduation in 1804, he continued and completed under the roof of the venerable Dr. Appleton the studies appropriate for the Christian ministry, upon which he had resolved to enter. The tenets which had been instilled into his mind from childhood were Calvinistic, and such was his profession of faith. To one, how- ever, of such a clear and forcible intellect, and withal of so true, pure, and loving a heart, the 76 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY inconsistencies of the system were apparent, and the appalling injustice of its leading tenets jarred strangely on his soul. Then ensued the long struggle of the spirit and the custom, not resolved into a solid, unwavering certainty for many years. A disease from which he never fully recovered having compelled him to abandon the pulpit, he devoted himself to the tasks of a teacher. The slight traces in possession of his family scarcely mark the outline of his life at this period until about 1807, when he resided in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. There in the admirable society which that place afforded and in the intimate converse with minds of high order, some of which still illuminate the country, he trained and culti- vated the powers of his mind and won a high posi- tion as a classical and general scholar. But this state of things was, like the few other sunny spots of his life, but of short duration. He was driven by pulmonary complaints to seek a more southern clime and, after a short visit to South America, settled in Beaufort, South Carolina, as the presi- dent of a college established in that place. His character and unrivaled skill in imparting knowl- edge soon attached to him many friends, who adhered to him notwithstanding the fierce political OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 77 animosities dividing the country upon the subject of the approaching war. Robert W. Barnwell, who was graduated with first honor at Harvard University in the class of 1821, of which Ralph Waldo Emerson was a member, and who subse- quently became United States Senator from South Carolina and president of the South Caro- lina College, and John A. Stuart, a distinguished editor of the Charleston Mercury, were pupils of Mr. Hurlbut at Beaufort. Here, too, he formed an attachment, concluded by marriage with Miss Lydia Bunce. In 181 5 he removed to the city of Charleston, whither his reputation had preceded him, and commanded for him a school unequaled perhaps in number, and from which issued many of the brightest ornaments of the present time in that city, and in the state. Among Mr. Hurlbut's pupils in Charleston was Stephen Elliot, who afterward became the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the state of Georgia. "For a long series of years his reputation and usefulness continued to increase, and his eminent abilities ripened with time and extended farther and farther his acquisitions. But his health, never firm, yielded more and more to the incessant labor of his profession and the influence of climate. 78 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Added to this, numerous and severe private afflic- tions bent him to the earth. A wife tenderly loved, child after child dear to the affections and full of bright promise and proud hope, perished around him. He was persuaded that change of residence, the more bracing air of a northern clime, would en- due him with more strength to fulfil his duties and prolong an existence most important to his de- pendent family. He had married again, in 1823, Miss Margaret Morford, of Princeton, New Jersey, who fulfilled a mother's duty to the children of his first marriage. With her and those who still remained to form the family circle, he moved to Philadelphia, where he established a school for boys. Horace Howard Furness, who became famous as a Shakespearean scholar and legal writer, was a student in this school. "But it is from his connection with Unitarian Christianity that peculiar mention is here due to Mr. Hurlbut. He was, in truth, among the most efficient in establishing the Unitarian congrega- tion in Charleston, and frequently lent his aid to the defense and maintenance of the positions he believed. Having himself by many struggles arrived at the truth and cast off the domination of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 79 custom and education, he was fully master of the subject and an admirable guide to those who were still uncertain of the road. Nor can this influ- ence of his be better sketched than in the words of a funeral discourse pronounced by the Reverend Dr. Oilman in the Unitarian Church of Charleston, upon receipt of the news of his death. "'Although educated a Calvinist, and having commenced preaching in the belief of that religious denomination, yet his mind had long been gradu- ally assuming more liberal views of Christianity. He had been an associate of the youthful and elo- quent Buckminster, and was intimate with the excellent Dr. Parker, of Portsmouth, New Hamp- shire. Accordingly he entered with the fullest and most active sympathy into all the struggles, principles, and conduct of the Reverend Mr. Forster. When Mr. Forster felt constrained to promulgate those views of Unitarian Christianity which resulted in the separation of this church, he was countenanced and supported in the most effectual manner by Mr. Hurlbut, who, in con- junction with the late Judge Lee, Mr. Hugh Paterson, and several other votaries of religious liberty, secured the existence, establishment, and 8o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY subsequent prosperity of this religious society. He was willing to stake his popularity, his stand- ing, and his prospects of future support on a cause which he deemed to involve the best and dearest interests of society, and which, from profound and patient study, he felt convinced was identical \\'ith all necessary and fundamental religious truth. Few of you who are now enjoying in quiet your spiritual privileges can appreciate the degree of Christian heroism required to introduce a new modification of religion against the prejudices, convictions, and opposition of a whole community. But with all the tremulous uncertainty of the experiment, Mr. Hurlbut and his coadjutors man- fully took the stand. He defended the ark in which were deposited his most precious spiritual treasures by his tongue, by his pen, by his sub- stance, by the sacrifice of his ease, and the exposure of all those earthly blessings, which less disinter- ested men imagine are the first to be looked after. He wrote several impressive essays in the Uni- tarian Defendant in 1822. He published a charm- ing life of Mr. Forster; and he still continued to enlighten and favor the public by several essays inserted in the Christian Examiner and among the tracts of the American Unitarian Association. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 8i But it was not so much by his active public exertions or by the multipHcation of his feHcitous writings as by the experimental workings of reli- gion in his interior character that Mr. Hurlbut deserved the epithet of "godly." He cherished a habitual, living, perceptible sense of the Divine government in the world. You could not be acquainted with him without recognizing the power and beauty of his faith. I never saw and I never read, in any instance of an uninspired character, of the sentiment of religion employed so availably, so efficaciously, so successfully, and even so triumphantly, against the mighty inroads of affliction and adversity, as in the case of him to whom these brief and imperfect notices are devoted. Storm after storm of disaster fell upon him; child after child of extraordinary and pre- cocious promise was snatched from his embrace; year after year of pain, debility, and disease seemed to drag him through existence, yet still you found him erect, elastic, calm, cheerful even, for his soul amidst every earthquake had leaned palpably upon its God. This was not stoical indifference, for he had the keen susceptibilities of a child. It was the power of his clear and deliberate faith. Thus he continued to the last. 82 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Death came upon him unexpectedly indeed, but took him not by surprise. He calmly made his preparations as for a journey of tomorrow morn- ing, ^^ I shall soon he with them," he said, alluding to the departed spirits of his family. Wearied and shattered, but not crushed or subdued, the hero of many a mighty moral struggle, the sym- pathizing follower of Him who was the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, he wrapped his drapery around him, and after a pilgrimage of sixty-three years, he fell asleep, or rather he awoke to an eternal existence.' "Such is some outline of the life of one whose desert was that of a retiring nature, whose pur- suits and habits were so secluded and domestic that they claimed and received none of that public and popular reward which the force of cir- cumstances frequently bestows upon lesser attain- ments. His light never shone in public except when struck out by collision with what he con- ceived popular error, and only on rare occasions did he put forth his powers. The strength of his intellect and the solidity of his moral faculties were only equaled by the depth of his affections; and hence resulted a character of rare balance and harmony fully equipped either to act or to suffer. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 83 "He has fought the good fight and left to those whose career has not yet closed ' the memory of a weU-spent life.' To those who knew him and regarded him, in the words of his Master, we would say, 'If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I go to the Father.'" The above quotation is, with the insertion of a few facts, from the Christian Examiner for Sep- tember, 1843. Mr. Hurlbut became a member of the New England Society, April 7, 1819, the year the Society was organized. In 1828 Mr. Hurlbut published an anonymous brochure — a very strong constitutional argument against nullification, entitled Review of a Late Pamphlet, under the signature of "Brutus." "Brutus" was R. J. TumbuU. Two of Mr. Hurlbut 's sons became distin- guished: Major- General Stephen Augustus Hurl- but of the Union Army, a son of his first marriage; and William Henry Hurlbut, the founder and first editor of the New York World, a son of his second marriage. Mr. Hurlbut died in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, January 17, 1843. 84 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY WILLIAM CRAFTS, JR. William Crafts, Jr., was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 24, 1787. His ancestors came to Charleston from Boston, Massachusetts. William Crafts, Sr., was for many years an emi- nent merchant of Charleston and one of the founders of the New England Society. William Crafts, Jr., was graduated from Harvard at the early age of eighteen. He returned to Charleston and began the study of law, and was admitted to the bar four years later. He was elected a mem- ber of the House of Representatives of South Carolina in 181 1 and again ini8i3. Ini8i7, just twelve years after his graduation, young Crafts was selected as the Phi Beta Kappa Orator at Harvard, which was an exceptional honor. His oration on that occasion evoked scholarly com- mendation. He was passionately fond of citizen soldiership, and at an early age became com- mander of the Washington Light Infantry, a corps originating before the War of 181 2 and which has fought heroically in every war in which this nation has been involved for over one hundred years. William Lowndes was the first comman- der of this gallant military company. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 85 William Crafts, Jr., became a member of the New England Society in 1819. He died at the age of thirty-nine. At the time of his death he was a member of the state senate, where he had rendered conspicuous service since 1820. In an address delivered before the Charleston Library Association upon the occasion of the pres- entation of a portrait of William Crafts, Jr., as jurist, orator, scholar, and legislator, the Honor- able J. W. Barnwell said: "He entered life under the most favorable auspices. 'He was admired,' says Hugh Legare, who knew him well, 'even to idolatry, for his talents and accomplishments — honored with the confidence of the virtuous and the attentions of the fashionable and the gay — and seeming to have at his command whatever could gratify the fondest ambition of an aspiring young man.' "These bright promises were never fulfilled. The lack of habits of industry, the fondness for convivial society, the choice of the losing side in politics, for he was a Federalist in his views, pre- vented his short life from being successful and he died with his ambition ungratified. 86 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY " His literary work, so far as we now know it, is contained in a volume, containing a selection from his miscellaneous writings. It consists of orations and addresses delivered on various occasions, fugi- tive pieces contributed to the newspapers of the day, and verses published from time to time. The orations are more ornate and metaphorical than the taste of the present more severe and prosaic age approves, yet, aided by his melodious voice and pleasing manner, doubtless deserved the applause which they assuredly received. Legare, whose criticism of his work in the Southern Review is certainly severe, nevertheless thus describes a speech delivered in the South Carolina legislature on the impeachment of a minor judicial officer for injustice and oppression: " 'We shall never forget his manner of deliver- ing that speech, which, for a young man, was truly admirable and has in some respects probably never been surpassed on that floor. His shrill but musi- cal voice, elevated to a thrilling pitch, his fine countenance animated with the ardor of debate, that perfect grace and decorum of his gesticula- tion, free from all constraint or artifice, the unaffected elegance and manly simplicity of his diction, the clearness of his statements, the close- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 87 ness and cogency of his reasonings, the apparent disinterestedness of his zeal, his lofty indignation against injustice, the vigor and perseverance with which he maintained his ground in the debate against a formidable array of talent and influ- ence — all conspired to give earnest of a high de- gree of excellence at a more advanced period of life. " 'His noblest effort, however, was, I think, in behalf of the free schools of the state, when an attempt was made to suspend the appropriation for that purpose during the War of 181 2. He spoke as follows: " ' "Who that has seen man in a high state of improvement, in the midst of the arts and sciences, actuated by the desire and blessed with the means of usefulness, full of noble ambition and gaining in their turn all its honorable rewards, who, I say, can appreciate the immense disparity between such an individual and the unhappy being, born and living and dying in penury and ignorance ? " ' "Sir, my compassion is always painfully excited by the condition of many of the country people whom I see on my journey here. Without education themselves, or the means of imparting it to their children, how many sources of happi- ness and utility to them are forever closed ! How 88 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY much of intellect is there running wild and waste ! How much of manly ardor and sensibility, with- out an object to elicit them! How much help- lessness against the misfortunes of life ! How much of the vice and misery which are the lot of igno- rance ! " ' "In several of their lowly cottages I have seen signs of those mental fires that are doomed to struggle in vain for exercise and display. I have seen beauty buried in obscurity, as in a premature grave, and genius, unconscious of its aims or its powers, indolent and useless. " ' "As I pitied their situation, I was delighted with their reply, when we addressed these humble inhabitants of the woods and proffered the means of instruction on behalf of the state; we were as wise as we were liberal. We consulted their happiness not more than the state's. We unveiled to them their duties and their rights. We extended the horizon of their hopes and their views. We opened to them a new world, hitherto occupied by the rich almost exclusively; and, rescuing them from their obscure destiny, we bade them aspire after all the needs of emulation. " * "If we abolish free schools, let the eagle be removed from over your head, Mr. Speaker. It is OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 89 the image of a bird that Hves upon light. It can- not endure darkness. Either shroud it in mourn- ing, or send it away." ' "In memory of his efforts in behalf of educa- tion, one of the public schools in our city has been given his name. "The poetry of Crafts meets the approval neither of Legare nor of Professor Trent, and yet I venture to agree with Mr. Lewisohn in his inter- esting articles on the literature of South Carolina when he says with regard to some of it that no verse more graceful or tender had been written in America up to that time, and none more surely deserves a place in any anthology of early Ameri- can poetry, and I select for quotation the extract given by him: The snowdrop is in bloom, And the young earth's perfume Scents new the floating air; It is the breath of love — Beneath, around, above, Young love is there. Come let us try to snare him — see. Love smiling waits for you and me. Bind him with the jasmine flower, Hide him in a myrtle bower, On the thornless roses let him rest; See his gracious eyelids move. QO THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Hope and joy are eyes of love, Kiss them and be blest. Love gives his own dear heart to thee, One-haK for you, one-half for me, " Of course, South Carolina at the beginning of the last century was not Greece or Rome, or Eng- land or France, or Italy or Germany — but in com- parison with early American verse of the kind Crafts does not suffer." At the second anniversary dinner of the New England Society of Charleston, December 22, 1820, William Crafts, Jr., delivered the following address: "On this day, two hundred years ago, a handful of individuals landed at an inclement season, on an unknown and barren coast; in the land of pesti- lence, on the territory of the savage. Fraud or accident had diverted the course of their voyage, and they were placed beyond the protection, weak as it was, of European charters. Neither the Church nor the State accorded them the privilege of monopoly or of participation, and they landed with no better plea than their necessities, and no protector but their God. " Providence was not unmindful of them. That they might with scrupulous honesty occupy the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 91 soil, its former inhabitants had perished by dis- ease or wandered into exile; that they might in infancy be secure from Indian warfare, the natives had been withdrawn from the seashore; and lest famine should involve them in early ruin, the scanty granaries of the savage became the treasure- trove of the stranger. The soil was rugged and mountainous, indicating the labor and persever- ance which its culture required. It had not the baneful reputation of gold and silver mines, the cheap ruin of adventurers and nations. It was primitive and virginal, like the snows that invested it. Scarce a path on its surface but the track of the hunter and his game, scarce a sound in its forests but the rude chorus of the winds. "Well may we ask what worldly inducement impelled this little band of men, women, and children, away from their friends and their home, in a little barque, across the perilous ocean, to an ice-bound, rocky shore. Was it ambition — that master-passion of the human breast that knows no difficulties in the pursuit of power ? To charge them with ambition were to accuse them of lunacy. Was it avarice — that chameleon curse of our nature, which assimilates us to aU climates and all suffering in pursuit of gain ? They had no 92 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY means to traffic and no arms to plunder. Were they convicts, doomed to expiate among the savage their sins among the civihzed ? They had been sinned against, not sinned themselves. It was that sense of wrong which he who feels it at all feels most acutely, and forgives never. It was that species of oppression which he who endures all else never will endure, that gave birth to this desperate and heroic enterprise. You may invade a man's opinions, one by one, and dispossess him of them all, until you interfere with his religious sentiments and his rights of conscience. You then strike a spring whose elasticity increases with its pressure, rallying every other power in the system and quickening the motion of them aU. You provoke his love of truth — his regard for early impressions— his sense of duty — his hopes of happiness — his pride— his zeal — his obstinacy — his chagrin and his resentment. He who would willingly encounter these knows nothing of the lessons of history. It appears to be the decree of God that religious persecution shall avail its authors only shame and remorse, while it endows its victims with extraordinary courage, insures them the Divine protection, and fits them for heroic suffering and achievement. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 93 "The ancestors of New England, driven from their home by the persecution of Laud, after a short residence in Holland, where religious and political discussions prevailed with much force and freedom, embarked for America in the hope of enjoying religious liberty, if not at home, yet under the authority of their monarch. They asked his license to live in an uncomfortable wilderness, crowded with dangers; but so obnox- ious were their doctrines and so slighted their loyalty that they were refused protection and only promised indifference. They came, however, and the treachery of the Dutch, who had furnished them a refuge, caused them to be landed far north of their original destination. "Houseless, frozen, miserable outcasts! Why not forsake your hopeless enterprise, and leave the great men of the earth the costly office of planting colonies, enlightening the heathen, and taming the savage ? "'It was not,' to use their own language, 'with us as with common men, whom smaU things could discourage or small discontents cause to wish to be again at home.' They formed on board their ship a plan of civil and political government, a strict and 'sacred bond to take care of the good 94 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY of the whole,' and disembarked with a fearless intrepidity, inspired by conscience and justified by Heaven. "If on this day, after the lapse of two cen- turies, one of the Fathers of New England, released from the sleep of death, could reappear on earth, what would be his emotions of joy and wonder! In lieu of a wilderness, here and there interspersed with soHtary cabins, where hfe was scarcely worth the danger of preserving it, he would behold joyful harvests, a population crowded even to satiety — villages, towns, cities, states, swarming with industrious inhabitants, hills graced with temples of devotion, and valleys vocal with the early lessons of virtue. Casting his eye on the ocean, which he past in fear and trembling, he would see it covered with enterpris- ing fleets returning with the whale as their captive, and the wealth of the Indies for their cargo. He would behold the little colony which he planted grown into gigantic stature and forming an honor- able part of a glorious confederacy, the pride of the earth and the favorite of Heaven. He would witness with exaltation the general prevalence of correct principles of government and virtuous habits of action; how gladly would he gaze upon OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 95 the long stream of light and renown from Har- vard's classic fount, and the kindred springs of Yale, of Providence, of Dartmouth, and of Bruns- wick. Would you fill his bosom with honest pride, tell him of Franklin, who made the thunder sweet music and the lightning innocent fireworks — of Adams, the venerable sage reserved by heaven, himself a blessing, to witness its blessings on our nation — of Ames, whose tongue became and has become an angel's — of Perry, Blest by his God with one illustrious day, A blaze of glory, ere he passed away. "And tell him: Pilgrim of Plymouth, these are thy descendants. Show him the stately struc- tures, the splendid benevolence, the masculine intellect, and the sweet hospitality of the metropo- lis of New England. Show him that immortal vessel whose name is synonymous with triumph and each of her masts a scepter. Show him the glorious fruits of his humble enterprise and ask him if this, all this, be not an atonement for his suffering, a recompense for his toils, a blessing on his efforts, and a heart-expanding triumph for the Pilgrim adventurer. And if he be proud of his offspring, well may they boast of their parentage. 96 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "The descendants of New England, wherever situated, must regard with sympathy the land of their ancestors and look back with pride upon their common origin. The statesman can find no brighter example of union, strength, and harmony than that under which these early associates grew into celebrity and power. They knew no sectional divisions, they were one — the strong supporting the weak, the weak confiding in the strong. They were wise, but alas, wisdom belongs to poverty and danger, and not to pride or prosperity." WILLIAM JOHN GRAYSON, JR. William John Grayson, Jr., was born in Beau- fort, South Carolina, November lo, 1788. He was graduated from the South Carolina College in 1809, studied law, and entered upon its practice in his native town. He was a many-sided man — he possessed the rare capacity of doing many dif- ferent things and doing them well. He was successively a commissioner in equity of South Carolina, a member of the legislature, and state senator. Mr. Grayson opposed the Tariff Act in 1831. He served two terms in Congress and afterward OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 97 became collector of customs of the port of Charles- ton. He joined the New England Society in 1841 and was prominent in its deliberations. During the secession agitations of 1850, Mr. Grayson published "A Letter to Governor Sea- brook," deprecating disunion, and with cogent argument he pointed out the evils that would certainly follow it. In addition to his political prominence, Mr. Grayson was a literateur of attainments. Among his publications were The Hireling and Slave, The Country, Chicora and Other Poems, and The Life of James Lewis Petigru. He was also a patron of art. Through his in- fluence a number of art exhibitions were brought to Charleston from the more advanced art centers of the United States. His portrait hangs in the Charleston Library as one of the representative men of letters of South Carolina. He died in Newberry, South Carolina, Octo- ber 4, 1865. SAMUEL GILMAN The Reverend Samuel Gilman was a national character. When he died in 1858 there was scarcely a newspaper or periodical of prominence 98 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY in the United States which did not publish a sketch of his well-spent life. The appreciation which follows is taken essentially from the New York Tribune: "The decease of the Reverend Dr. Gilman, of Charleston, South Carolina, is announced as having taken place on Monday, February 8, at Kingston, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, where he was on a visit for his health at the resi- dence of his son-in-law, the Reverend C. J. Bowen. Dr. Gilman was widely known in New England, of which he was a native, and in his adopted state of South Carolina as a scholar of singularly varied attainments, an able and impres- sive preacher, a writer of a rare and delicate humor, as well as of masculine sense and classical taste, and a man whom it was difficult not to admire for his uncommon social qualities, his large catholicity of view, and his gracious and conciliatory bearing. He was born February i6, 1 791, in the old town of Gloucester, Massachu- setts, where his father had been a wealthy mer- chant, but by a sudden reverse of fortune left his family dependent on their own resources. "At an early age he became a member of the household of the Reverend Samuel Peabody, of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 99 Atkinson, New Hampshire, whose quaint primi- tive ways are described with inimitable humor in a biographical sketch by Mr. Oilman, published in the Christian Examiner. He entered Harvard College in 1807, and after the usual course of study was graduated in a class which numbers among its members many names of the most honorable distinction in Church and State. With such competitors as Edward Everett, Reverend Dr. Frothingham, Judge B. F. Dunkin, and others who have since become widely celebrated, he obtained honors of a high order, and after com- pleting his professional studies was appointed to an office in the university which he filled with success until 1819, when he accepted an invitation to become the pastor of the Unitarian Church, in Charleston, South Carolina. He was soon after ordained, and for nearly forty years labored in the position in which he was placed in early manhood. "During his residence in Cambridge he was a frequent contributor to the North American Review, in which periodical his papers are marked by their polished elegance of diction, the grace and felicity of their illustrations, and their racy humor. After his removal to Charleston he continued to write for different periodicals, his lOO THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY contributions embracing a wide range of subjects, from profound philosophical discussions to spar- kling satirical essays. A selection of these was published in a volume a few years since, and now forms an appropriate memorial of his fame. Among his productions the "Recollections of a New England Village Choir" has perhaps become the most generally popular. For apt logical description, a keen sense of the ludicrous, and a happy intuition of characteristic peculiarities, it has seldom been matched in the humorous litera- ture of this country. "Dr. Gilman also possessed the gift of poetry, which he cultivated with no inconsiderable suc- cess. He had luxuriant fancy, an excellent com- mand of natural imagery, and great fluency of expression, though no one could claim for him the higher powers of imagination or depth of passion. "As a pulpit orator he was affectionate and persuasive, equally removed from languor and vehemence, never boisterous, but always in earnest, loving the sphere of universal ethics rather than the subtleties of sectarian doctrine, and commending the great lessons he taught by the shining and noble example of his private life. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA lOi His influence was not confined within the precincts of his own church but spread a kindly and attrac- tive atmosphere in the midst of strenuous theo- logical differences. Although his natural tastes would perhaps have inclined him more strongly to an academic or a purely literary life than to the clerical profession, he never shrank from the most faithful allegiance to the duties of his calling. Succeeding a man of rare endowments and admir- able personal traits, he soon won not only the devoted affection of his charge, but the esteem of the whole community to which he came as a stranger but where he was at once recognized as a friend. His occasional visits to the home of his youth kept his ancient intimacies unbroken; old associations were preserved amid the excitement of novel scenes and fresh interests; and now that he has passed away, his remembrance will be tenderly cherished both by those to whom he devoted the maturity of his strength, and those among whom he has found a grave." Mr. A. S. Willington, editor of the Courier, and president of the New England Society, paid the following tribute to the memory of Dr. Gilman: "The sudden removal from us of the Rev- erend Samuel Gilman, D.D., has called forth the I02 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY startled sorrow and profoundest grief of the com- munity in which, for almost half a century, he had lived the life and illustrated the example of a Christian pastor, and in all respects and relations so meek and gentle and lovable, so disinterestedly alive to the calls of courtesy and charity, so actively and efficiently identified with the literary culture and social amenities of our city that his decease will cast a shadow far beyond the pale of the congregation which has grown up under his teachings. We of Charleston all knew and loved him, and we had grown to think him so utterly and entirely our own that we had hoped uncon- sciously that even the inevitable message would have found and reached him in our midst and amid the scenes and calls of duty wherein his life has passed in honor and instructive example. We are startled that he so loved and honored should be thus taken, and we are more startled that the call should have found him far from us and from the home of his active and well-stored life. "It will be the melancholy office of the citi- zens of Charleston, in varied relations and asso- ciations, to do honor to such exemplary worth and merits, and to abler — not more loving — hands, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 103 and to moments and occasions of more matured reflection, we commit and defer the offices of a more adequate tribute. "We cannot, however, omit the sad occasion of stating and acknowledging the pleasures and benefits and delightful fruits of a long and intimate intercourse and acquaintance with our departed friend, who so happily illustrated all that the ancient moralists have taught us of friendship in its purest forms, and added withal the crowning graces and charms of the Christian life, example, and character. "It has fallen within the editorial province of the Courier, at frequent intervals within the forty years which enclosed Dr. Oilman's residence and service among us, to give mention and proof of his active sympathy and zealous co-operation in all great and worthy purposes and projects of social, municipal, literary, moral, or religious advancement. It is scarcely six years since an interesting epoch in his pastoral relation — the renovation of the house of worship occupied by his beloved and loving parishioners — gave us an occasion to notice at some length his influence and services in our community. This character- istically appropriate discourse, full of patriarchal I04 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY reminiscences and paternal instruction uttered, as was Dr. Oilman's wont, without affectation or assumption, was pronounced on the first Sabbath in April, 1852, as 'a farewell to the old church,' and was wrought out from the text : ' Old things have passed away.' With what emphasis and accent of sorrow will that text now be sounded forth in the ears and memories of bereaved and weeping friends, as they enter again and again their beau- tiful temple, now beautiful to them no more in the absence of him whose ministry and teachings were its most cherished adjuncts. From this discourse we gather a few facts, which will furnish melancholy interest at this occasion. "Dr. Oilman received his pastoral call early in 18 19, as successor to the Reverend Anthony M. Forster. After a few months of probationary service, he was confirmed and duly installed in the pastorate of the Unitarian or Second Inde- pendent Church of this city — the services being performed in part by Reverend Jared Sparks, D.D., LL.D. In the interim, the young pastor had been united in the only tie dearer and nearer to him than the vinculum of the pastorate — to her who was for nearly twoscore years a helpmate in life and example in labor and pursuits, and is now OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 105 the chief mourner and stricken participant in an ecHpse of grief, into whose sacred shadow we dare not intrude. "Since that day, the Hfe, labors, actions, and example of Samuel Oilman have been before this community and 'known and read' by us all. Up to the date of this discourse referred to, he had administered the last sad rites of the church at 300 graves, had recorded with the rites of baptism the names of 484 children and 37 adults, and had presided at 148 acts of marriage. " At a later date, and within the last year, it was our privilege and pleasure to offer our readers two of the best of all the discourses and addresses that have been given to the public in any form by our de- parted friend. We allude to the sermon preached on the 2 2d February, 1857, at the call of the Wash- ington Light Infantry, and in commemoration of the character of Washington. Our demonstrative and occasional oratory has rarely given a contri- bution of more sterhng value to permanent litera- ture. Christian oratory has never more fitly and impressively embodied and applied the lessons of any anniversary. "We must omit, however, the extension of this public tribute, for which we are unfitted by the io6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY startling shock of its occasion, and by the general gush of sorrow around us that seeks and needs repose and some recovery before it can take articulate utterance. "It is more fitting that we apply and digest in silent grief and chastened meditation the lessons of such a life and the mournful memories of so great a sorrow. 'Being dead, he yet speaketh,' and long shall that speech be heard in persuasive accents and utterances, pleading for truth and charity and purity and virtue, and reminding us all that the places which now know us shall soon know us no more forever." Dr. Oilman became a member of the New England Society in 1821. He was for more than a generation one of its most prominent members, serving as a member of the committee on charity and as chaplain. His addresses on Forefathers' Day were among the most classic and profound utterances ever delivered before the Society. One of the most notable was delivered just before his death and is incorporated in the chapter on the Civil War. In order to convey an idea of Dr. Oilman's devotional spirit and his poetical genius, a prayer offered at one of the annual celebrations of the A. b. WILL-ilNtj I ON OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 107 New England Society and two representative poems are quoted: thou who art the giver of every good and perfect gift! We bless thee for the recurrence and the recollec- tions of this memorable day. We would celebrate it in the right spirit and with grateful hearts. We thank thee for the precious bequest we enjoy in the memory of our wise, pious, and renowned forefathers. May something of their pure, sublime, and self-sacrificing character be ours. Wilt thou be pleased to bless the associations here assembled! We thank thee for the good it has done, for the many friendships it has formed and cemented, and for the happy prospects that lie before us. Wilt thou bless the community in which we reside, and which received us, many of us, as strangers in a strange land, with a kind confidence and hospitality. May the peace and prosperity of this city be ever precious in thy sight. Wilt thou smile on the state we inhabit, and on our whole beloved country, and bless all the nations of the earth. Restore, we earnestly beseech thee, the interrupted peace of nations, and let the noise of cannons and of garments roUed in blood no longer pierce the hearts of thy children. We ask these things in the Redeemer's name. Early in 18 19 Mr. Oilman came South to preach as a candidate in the Second Independent Presbyterian Church at Charleston. He spent a considerable period in this city, experienced a severe attack of yellow fever, and was invited to become minister of this church. On the eve of io8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY his return to New England he wrote the following poem, which is of interest as an example of his poetry and as an index to his feelings both for Charleston and for his native New England: Farewell, awhile, thou hospitable spot! Farewell, my own adopted dwelling-place! Scene of my future consecrated lot And destined circuit of my earthly race. Farewell, my friends, who hung so long and true, With sleepless care around my fevered bed, And ye from whom a stranger's title drew Profuse attentions, delicately shed. Yet why a stranger ? Since no other home Remains for me; e'en now, depressed, I fly For the last time through youthful haunts to roam, And snatch the breezes from my native sky. Yes, dear New England! Help me from my breast To wean these childish yearnings, ere we part; Help me these cords to snap, these ties to wrest, So wound and stamped and woven in my heart. A few more bounds along thy rocky shore, A few more pensive walks among thy streams, A few more greetings from dear friends of yore, A few more dreams — and then, no more of dreams. Come sacred, solid duty! At thy call My cheerful will submissively shall flow; So, thou great source of strength and light to all, Lead me the awful way my feet must go. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 109 Teach me to bear the Christian herald's part, To set the slaves of sin and error free, To guide each doubting, soothe each aching, heart. And draw a listening, willing flock to thee. FAIR HARVARD Composed by Dr. Samuel Oilman, and sung at the centennial celebration of Harvard Univer- sity, September 8, 1836. The following year Harvard conferred upon Mr. Oilman the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity. Fair Harvard! thy sons to thy jubilee throng. And with blessings surrender thee o'er. By these festival-rites, from the age that is past. To the age that is waiting before. O relic and type of our ancestors' worth. That hast long kept their memory warm ! First flower of their wilderness! Star of their night, Calm rising through change and through storm! To thy bowers we were led in the bloom of our youth. From the home of our free-roving years. When our fathers had warned, and our mothers had prayed, And our sisters had blest, through their tears. Thou then wert our parent — the nurse of our souls — We were molded to manhood by thee. Till, freighted with treasure-thoughts, friendships, and hopes. Thou didst launch us on Destiny's sea. no THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY When, as pilgrims, we come to revisit thy halls, To what kindhngs the season gives birth! Thy shades are more soothing, thy sunlight more dear. Than descends on less privileged earth; For the good and the great, in their beautiful prime, Through thy precincts have musingly trod. As they girded their spirits, or deepened the streams That make glad the fair City of God. Farewell! be thy destinies onward and bright! To thy children the lesson still give. With freedom to think, and with patience to bear. And for Right ever bravely to live. Let not moss-covered Error moor thee at its side. As the world on Truth's current glides by; Be the herald of Light, and the bearer of Love, Till the stock of the Puritans die. SAMUEL FINLEY BREESE MORSE Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born at Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791. He died in New York, April 2, 1872. He was gradu- ated from Yale in 1810 and went immediately to England, where he studied art with Benjamin West. When he returned to this country, he sought to establish himself in a number of Ameri- can cities. He came to Charleston, South Caro- lina, in 1 81 8 and remained in the "City by the Sea" for a number of years. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA iii In the winter of 1819 he wrote to his old pre- ceptor, Washington AUston: "I am painting from morning till night, and have continual applica- tions." In one year during his stay in Charleston Mr. Morse received more than one hundred orders for pictures. Among the orders he received was one from the city of Charleston to paint a life- size portrait of James Monroe, then president of the United States. The following notice of this order is taken from the Courier, April 29, 1819: The City Council passed a unanimous vote at a meeting last month that His Honor the Intendant be requested to solicit James Monroe, president of the United States, to permit a full-length likeness to be taken for the city of Charleston, and that Mr. S. F. B. Morse be requested to take all necessary measures for executing the said likeness on the visit of the President to this city. The request has been made by the Intendant to the President, who was pleased to grant his permission, but, on account of his limited stay and multiplicity of engage- ments, he would not be able to sit for his portrait while in Charleston. We understand that Mr. Morse has made arrangements with the President to take the por- trait in Washington, after his return from his tour. This portrait was painted in Washington, and on its completion was placed in the City Hall and is still in perfect condition. 112 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Mr. Morse joined the New England Society in 1820, the year after its organization, and was a regular attendant at its meetings and dinners. In 1823 Mr. Morse went to New York City and, after hiring as his studio, "a fine room on Broadway, opposite Trinity Church Yard," he continued his painting of portraits, one of the first being that of Chancellor Kent, which was followed soon afterward by a picture of Fitz-Greene Halleck, now in the Astor library, a full-length portrait of Lafayette for the city of New York, and a portrait of Major General Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina. During his residence there he became associated with other artists in founding the New York Draw- ing Association, of which he was made president. This led in 1826 to the estabhshment of the National Academy of the Arts of Design, to include representations from the arts of painting, sculpture, architecture, and engraving. Morse was chosen its president and so remained until 1842. He was likewise president of the Sketch Club, an assemblage of artists that met weekly to sketch for an hour, after which the time was devoted to entertainment. About this time he delivered a series of lectures on "The Fine Arts" OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 113 before the New York Athenaeum, which are said to be the first on that subject in the United States. Thus he continued until 1829, when he again visited Europe for study and for three years resided abroad, principally in Paris and the art centers of Italy. In 1832 he discovered the electric telegraph, which made him so famous that his work as an artist has been disregarded by the average reader of history. BENJAMIN FANEUIL HUNT Benjamin Faneuil Hunt was born at Water- town, Massachusetts, February 29, 1792. His father was the descendant of a clergyman who was among the early immigrants to that state. His mother was a daughter of George Bethune, of Brighton, and Mary Faneuil, of the Huguenot family, one of whom gave Faneuil Hall to Boston. Colonel Hunt's father died in 1804, but his widowed mother, perceiving his talent, had him prepared for coUege. In 1806 he entered Har- vard University, where he was graduated in his twentieth year. Mr. Hunt came to Charleston in 18 10 and began the study of law. He entered as a student 114 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the law office of the late Keating Lewis Simons, at that time one of the most distinguished orna- ments of the legal profession in this city. After two years' study he was admitted to the bar of Charleston at a period when it was crowded with eminent practitioners. Gifted with high intel- lectual powers and a ready and powerful rhetoric he at once took his place in the front rank of the profession. His practice was large and success- ful, and his professional triumphs generally, and especially in the defense of criminals in capital cases, were multipli-ed and signal. His ability and eloquence as an advocate soon gave him prominence in the field of politics, and he fre- quently served in the legislature of this state as a representative from Charleston and was always regarded as one of the ablest and most influential debaters on the floor of the House. The following statement concerning Mr. Hunt is quoted from Sketches of Eminent Americans: "On the declaration of War in 1812, Mr. Hunt aided in organizing a company which was drafted during the war into the service of the United States, and throughout its continuance faithfully fulfilled the responsible duties of his command. He successively rose through the intermediate OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 115 grades, and about the year 18 18 was promoted to the colonelcy of the Sixteenth Regiment and served in that capacity nearly twenty years. Since then Mr. Hunt has been popularly and familiarly known as "Colonel Hunt." In his military position he has always manifested the characteristic traits of energy, fearlessness, and ability, both as a soldier and tactician, that had so signally distinguished him as a la^vyer and a legislator." Colonel Hunt became a member of the New England Society April 7, 1819, and for a genera- tion was in constant demand as an orator on Forefathers' Day. At the annual celebration, December 22, 1824, five years after the organiza- tion of the Society, Colonel Hunt delivered the principal address, which made a profound impres- sion at the time and which is eminently worthy of quotation in this sketch. He spoke as follows : "Upon the anniversary of events that have happily affected the destinies of mankind, it is delightful to trace the progress of the past and indulge in pleasing anticipations of the future. This day recalls to memory an occurrence that has already worked the most entire and the most important change in the civilized world, and Ii6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY hope itself cannot compass the prospects which are constantly expanding. "Two hundred and four years ago, a few Pil- grims landed on these shores and laid the founda- tion of our country. Few in number, poor and defenseless, they encountered a bleak and untamed wilderness. Ordinary men would have shrunk from the enterprise, but they were the chosen heralds of civil and religious liberty. Mark the contrast which so brief a period presents. The forest is subdued — the wigwam of the savage is supplanted by the homes of the learned, the pious, and the free. Science now rears her temples and Religion wears her brightest robes and scatters her choicest blessings through this modern Canaan. "It is worthy of the statesman, of the philos- opher, and the philanthropist to ascertain and illustrate the cause of a revolution so vast, so sudden, so admirable. In the meantime the other portions of the earth have experienced only the gradual and almost imperceptible changes produced by the lingering process of time. The nations of Europe have maintained, with little variety, the same relative position, while on this side of the Atlantic has sprung into existence, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 117 from a little band of pious exiles, a mighty Republic, defying the power of the strongest and emulating in all the refinements of life the most polished; enjoying its luxuries without their corruptions; religion without superstition; and liberty without licentiousness. "This cannot be the effect of accident, neither of soil or climate, and least of all of patronage — for some of the most delightful and fertile regions have scarce advanced a step, some remained stationary, others have retrograded; and the his- tory of our infant settlements is a narrative of suffering fortitude struggling with the inclemen- cies of the seasons and the hostility of savages — of whole families perishing in the storms of winter, or butchered by the tomahawk that spared neither age nor sex — yet now peace crowns every hill and plenty smiles in every valley. "After a passing tribute to the stout hearts that quailed not at all the complicated hardships of the pioneers of civilization, let us look for the great moral cause of all our present happiness and all our future prospects in the purity of the moral and political principles of our forefathers. "Arrived on a part of the coast beyond the limits of their charter, they found themselves ii8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY about to disembark upon an unknown wilder- ness, without government, without laws, without magistrates. They realized the state which phi- losophers had only imagined, and, recurring to the eternal principles of all legitimate rules, they framed and signed a written form of government by which each bound himself to the whole to obey the majority, and proceeded to elect the first magistrate whoever presided over a pure democracy under a written charter. The nearest approaches of the most celebrated republics will not bear comparison. Here were no ancient customs, no prejudices, no favored family whom the people had been used to venerate and obey, no inveterate predilections, rendered sacred by time, to destroy the harmony of the structure — all were equal, all had alike forsaken the land of their nativity and committed themselves to the trackless deep to escape the oppressions of the Old World, and, thus remitted to their primitive personal independence, they formed the first American constitution. "The history of the world affords no other example of men yielding voluntarily to the restraints of government and basing it upon the true foundation, the sovereignty of the people. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 119 "Although compelled for a tune to submit to the oppressive protection of a country that arrogated the name of mother, although she had exiled her offspring by her cruelty, they never lost sight of the first elements of their civil com- pact, and when time had matured their strength, and exactions repugnant to their notions of right afforded ample justification, these primitive repub- licans proclaimed an eternal separation from Britain and declared to the world that these states were, and of right ought to be, free, sovereign, and independent. This was the consummation of all the toils, all the suffering, all the moral forti- tude of the first settlers, and to maintain it the Patriots of '76 pledged to each other 'their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honors,' and nobly did they redeem the pledge; for now our country stands an equal among the mightiest empires of the earth. Her example has shaken to their centers the thrones of Europe and even now is about to constitute all America a continent of free men. "The increase of population has been rapid beyond all precedent. Having secured at Plym- outh an asylum from the oppressions of rulers and the persecutions of priestcraft, new settlers I20 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY soon swelled their numbers. The adventurous and the persecuted looked to these shores, and new colonies studded the coast from Maine to Georgia; and their children now mingle in har- mony, constituting one great people. Here the Huguenots of France found protection for them- selves and a rich heritage for their posterity. Here, too, many an exile of Erin prays for the hour when he may write the epitaph of Emmett, 'when his country is free.' "Such has been the growth of our country — from a few Pilgrims, wandering upon the bosom of the deep and cast upon an unknown shore, to more than ten millions of people, wdio obey no rulers but of their own choice and are governed by no laws but of their own making; whose religion wins by its own purity and, strong in the sincerity of its votaries, shackles nothing but guilt. But where is the prophetic eye that can gaze undazzled upon the bright visions of the future, when our eagle shall stretch his wings from the Atlantic to the Pacific; who can anticipate the exhaustless energies of civil, political, and religious truth? We have traced the infant efforts of liberty; who can foretell the glories of her final triumph ? OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 121 "Yes, my friends, the unexampled and splen- did career of our country is to be ascribed to the pure doctrines and unsullied repubhcanism of our venerable forefathers. Her march has been the victory of civil and religious emancipation of the rights of man. This ceremony belongs not to us alone — the anniversary we celebrate was the dayspring of an enfranchised world. "Assembled as we are to celebrate an era so fertile of human happiness, although our pursuits in life have led us to a quarter of our common country far from the places of our birth and the scenes of our infancy, we will yet remember with filial fondness the green hills and pure streams of New England and pay the tribute of our affec- tions to a land rendered illustrious by the piety and valor of our ancestors and which now entombs their ashes. "It was our destiny to have drawn our first breath amid scenes which are hallowed by many an eventful recollection. The rocks of Plymouth, the plains of Lexington, and the heights of Bunker recall to every patriot deeds that have enriched us with the choicest of human blessings and secured to millions yet unborn their perennial enjoyment. 122 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Breathes there a man with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land! "Suffer me, Mr. President, to offer as a toast: "'The Land of the Pilgrims. Should it ever be polluted by the footsteps of a tyrant, may every height prove a Bunker, and every arm a Warren's.' " Colonel Hunt died in New York, December 6, 1854. BENJAMIN FANEUIL DUNKIN Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin was born in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, December 2, 1792. His parents were sojourning in Philadelphia at the time, their permanent residence being in Massa- chusetts. At the age of eighteen young Dunkin was graduated with distinction from Harvard. He came to Charleston the following year and began the study of law under the direction of William Drayton. He served as an officer in the War of 181 2. He was admitted to the bar of South Carolina in 181 4. He subsequently held the following OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 123 eminent stations in his adopted state: a member of the legislature, and for two terms Speaker of the House. In 1837 he was chosen chancellor in the Equity- Court of Appeals, and in 1865 chief justice. He was chief justice three years, from December, 1865, to December, 1868. Harvard conferred on him the degree of LL.D., but such was his instinc- tive shrinking from self-glorification and the pomp of distinction that but few of his near friends were made aware of this honor. The following estimate of Judge Dunkin is from a memorial adopted by the Charleston bar at a meeting held December 18, 1874. " It is not our purpose to contemplate his per- sonal and private character and domestic virtues. These are too well garnered and treasured in the hearts and affections of those who are near and dear to him by the sacred ties of blood and the social relations of friendship and connection. " It is more in the stations of pubhc trust and confidence that we would contemplate him — nor is it so much as a lawyer as a judge that we would consider his qualities; for whilst he prac- ticed at the bar twenty-two years before he was a judge, he sat on the bench thirty-one; and his 124 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY mode, plan, and course of practice and con- ceptions of professional ethics belonged to a day so long past that few present can recall or appre- ciate them, but all remember him as a judge. "It is more, too, in the character of a chan- cellor than even in his great office of chief justice that his judicial organization was manifested. He had essentially a mind and organism for equity. He entirely appreciated it, and it became, not irreverently to speak, almost a religion with him. "When the Bishop of Salisbury, in the reign of Richard II, invented the writ of stibpoena ad respondeum, which resulted in that procedure known to lawyers as the English bill, we may fairly infer it did not, and could not, have entered into the imagination of that prelate that he had brought into existence a judicial machine which would have so wonderful an influence upon human society. He did not surely, and could not, have conceived to what uses it would have been put under the master-hand of Sir Heneage Finch, Lord Nottingham, who, like D'Agesseau in France, has been called the father of equity in England; nor how, at a later day, it should in its consequences have been molded to such perfec- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 125 tion as it attained under the administration of the great Lord Eldon. "It may well be said in this state that the venerable DeSaussure, like Nottingham in Eng- land, was the father of equity in South Carolina, and that his immediate successor, the eminent Dunkin, like Eldon, molded the system to the state of excellence at which it had arrived when it perished in the new order of things. "There seems to be in many points a strong resemblance between Chancellor Dunkin and Lord Eldon, and it is not too much to say that the former loses nothing by the comparison. Both were deliberate — Lord Eldon slow. One indulged in copious language and ornate style; the other was plain, terse, and epigrammatic — what he intended to say, he said, and no more; the one was diffuse and elaborate; the other was brief and pointed. Both had great experience, and the coincidence on this point is striking since Lord Eldon had the seals of the Lord Chancellor for twenty-four years ten months and twenty-three days, with a broken interval in that time for nearly five years; whilst Chancellor Dunkin sat continuously on the bench for thirty-one years and eighteen days. 126 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "One very remarkable judicial characteristic of our subject cannot be omitted — it was his wonderful precision in collecting and analyzing the facts of the case submitted to him. It was this that gave him so great power and facility in applying the principles of law to the actual state of the facts, which he had ascertained with the utmost patience and care. "Hence he was not obliged to grope about in his judgment to wrest or distort the semblance of truth, to suit some favorite dogma, or theoretic maxim. Hence, whilst he might have said of himself labor o esse brevis, he could never condemn himself, obscurus fio. "Hence, too, it is a remarkable fact that even in the first year of his circuits none of his decrees were overruled and very seldom afterward. "The judicature in Chancery and Equity extended through every phase of society, to the rich and the poor, the lofty and the obscure. It pervaded all the relations of life. It began with the infant on his entrance into life; it followed in his boyhood and his youth; in his education and training; in his manhood, marriage, and matri- monial relations; then again in the cradle of his offspring; at the hearthstone; to the moment of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 127 death, and, after death, in the disposition of his worldly estate. "An unostentatious piety, a pure and high morality, intense truthfulness, a large experience, profound study, great ability, and singular judg- ment symbolized in this great chancellor all that was requisite to perform these delicate, important, and extensive functions. "That eminent judge and chancellor. Job Johnston, in the great case of Vanlew and Parr used this eloquent and noble judicial language: 'I tremble whenever I see in progress what is called a family arrangement; and I have struggled for fifteen years, with an anxiety and with a sincerity of effort which I feel has not been appreciated, to so regulate the enterprise of counsel and the impatience of interested parties as to prevent losses to widows and orphans inter- ested in estates, from causes to which their eager- ness has blinded them.' "Chancellor Dunkin spent his judicial life in carrying into effect the principle which his learned brother has so elegantly expressed. "But the scope of his far-seeing eye and watchful scrutiny was not limited to causes which affected only domestic and social rights 128 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and interests, but included the vast sphere of complex contracts and engagements between man and man, the construction and interpreta- tion of contracts, deeds, wills, and other instru- ments, and the restraint of wrong by the great writ of injunction; in all of which his learning, his patience, his scrupulous exactness, his experi- ence and enlarged comprehension, enabled him to approximate as near as it is within human reason and judgment to the attainment of truth; and we may be well warranted in summing up the judicial excellence of this learned and experi- enced magistrate to affirm that, among the men who have dispensed justice from the Equity bench in the United States, none were his superiors, and not a great many his equal. "On his coming down from the seat of the chief justice at the close of the year 1868, he pre- sented a most remarkable spectacle. "Although far advanced in years at that time, yet he preserved the full vigor and strength of a healthy body and unimpaired intellect. Cast upon his own resources at his advanced age, deprived of the remuneration of his office con- ferred upon him on a contract for life under the Constitution of 1790, crippled in his estate by the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 129 results of the war, he returned to his profession and, a septuagenarian, recommenced the practice of the laborious calling. Shorn of wealth and stripped of his great office at the same time, forced to seek a livelihood as a minister of the courts over all of which he had presided so long and with such honor and distinction, he did not shrink from the hard destiny, and no murmur or complaint ever escaped from his lips. The heathen valor of the youthful Scaevola endured the torment of slow fire in the presence of Por- senna; but it was more than Roman physical fortitude that sustained this aged modern hero. The teachings of a religion pure and undefiled, a self-control and self-abnegation based upon the highest moral convictions, sustained his great spirit amidst these scorching trials. Such was his love for justice, such his love of the great principles that lie at the base of the social fabric of organized society, that, although the ermine had fallen from his shoulders and he could no longer officiate as chief priest at the altar of the tribunal of justice, he bent himself in humility in his old age and yielded to be a censer-bearer on the outside of the chancel. I30 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "One of the first acts of his new and renewed professional obHgations was to argue a summary process, and after the present Supreme Court was organized he was one of the first of his brethren of the bar to present an argument before that body. " For near six years he industriously and faith- fully labored again at his profession, and in the midst of the renewed trials belonging to a long past youth he was called away to his rest, ' eternal in the heavens.' "Chief Justice Dunkin was married to Miss Washington S. Prentiss on January i8, 1820, and when only two days remained to complete a half- century of connubial affection and mutual respect and esteem, death with galling hand added affiiction to his trials and snatched her from his breast, and left him to travel the weary remnant of life's journey without the companion of his youth and manhood, who had cheered him with hope on the rugged way and shared his joys in the hour of success and prosperity. "It is becoming in the bar of Charleston, of whom Chief Justice Dunkin was a representative, to record their estimation of his long, able, and OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 131 faithful discharge of judicial duty in the exalted stations in which he had been placed by the con- fidence of the people of the state, and to hold him up as an example for the study and imitation of all those who may succeed us in our honorable and responsible profession. Be it therefore ^^ Resolved, That in the death of the late able and distinguished Chief Justice Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin the jurisprudence of the country has lost an eminent advocate and supporter and the bar of Charleston one of its most conspicuous and valuable representatives. ^^ Resolved, That while we deplore this great public loss, we bow with reverence to the decree of the Almighty Judge that summoned this faith- ful minister of justice from the transitory courts of time to the Eternal Courts, in which there is neither error nor change. ^^ Resolved, That the chairman of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy of the foregoing memoir and these resolutions to the family of the deceased, and to express the condolence of the bar on this solemn occasion." At the annual meeting of the New England Society, December, 1874, Hon. James B. Campbell, 132 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY president of the Society, paid the following tribute to the memory of Judge Dunkin : "Fifty-five years ago, about fifty natives of New England resident here founded this Society for the purpose, as they declared, of keeping alive in their minds the memory of the land of their birth, and the institutions of their fathers, and for even a higher object, ' to organize an efiicient sys- tem of charity to such sons of New England as might in Charleston be arrested by disease or fall into poverty.' "The survivor of all that little 'band of kind hearts and noble spirits,' after a long and honored life, has gone to his rest. "There is now on the roll of our Society no living link between that day and this day — between that Past and this Present. "He had wisdom more than genius — acquire- ments rather than gifts — -he added to these sys- tematic labor and care. They made him beyond a doubt a wise and learned judge. "The features of his character, like those of his person, were solid, substantial, and permanent. In what he did he aspired more to durability than ornament. His manners in the perform- ance of public duty were grave and formal, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 133 something rising to stateliness, if not austerity. These when carried into social life were softened and mingled with a genial politeness and kindli- ness never neglected. "As a man, his life was without reproach. He had the great merit of fidelity and tenacity in his friendships. They were not exhausted by agree- able companionship in prosperity nor by kind words of comfort in adversity. He vindicated them, when the time of trial came, by liberal and effectual succor. It is very high praise to say this because it is the evidence of other great traits of character, of which this is the germ. "He was brave and constant, and this tem- pered him for adversity, so that when the catas- trophe of unsuccessful revolution deprived him of fortune and of station neither his fortitude nor his self-control forsook him. Therefore it was that the way he bore himself in old age under the pressure of labor, of broken fortunes, and of hopes disappointed, was the great triumph, the crown- ing beauty of his long and laborious life; a life and career honorable to himself and reflecting honor as well upon the region of his birth as of his labors and of his home, the memory of which, 134 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY faithfully transmitted to his posterity, will be the foundation of a just and rational pride." Majorum gloria posteris lumen est neque bona neque mala in occulto patitur. Judge Dunkin died December 5, 1874, at the age of eighty-two, loved and mourned by all who knew him. BENJAMIN J. ROWLAND Benjamin J. Rowland was born in South Boston, Massachusetts, November, 1794. Mr. Rowland traced his ancestry direct to those who were among the earliest to land from the Old World upon the shores of Massachusetts Bay, and ever retained a deep interest in everything con- nected with the history of the landing of the Pilgrims. He came to Charleston in 181 5 and was engaged in the mercantile business for more than forty years. As a merchant he won the entire confidence of the commercial community and of his fellow-citizens by his active usefulness, strict integrity, and high sense of honor. Re became a member of the New England Society of Charleston in 1828 and so continued until his death, taking a lively interest during a OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 135 membership of near half a century in everything connected with its prosperity, both as a social and as a charitable organization. He was for a number of years one of its vice-presidents. In everything calculated to advance the pros- perity of Charleston Mr. Howland always took a ready and active working part. He was among those sagacious and far-seeing merchants who at an early period, struggling against disheartening difficulties, succeeded in connecting Charleston with Augusta by the South Carolina Railroad, one of the earliest and for many years the longest railroad in the United States. He served in the directorate of that road for several years. As a member of the board of firemasters he was also an energetic worker for many years, in which position his sound judgment and calmness in time of danger gave great value to his services. Serving as a member of the Common Council of Charleston, he was greatly esteemed by those with whom he was associated, invariably giving entire satisfaction to his fellow-citizens generally. The leading prominent feature in the character of Mr. Howland seemed to have been his open- hearted, active, practical benevolence. The great aim of his life was to advance the welfare and 136 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY happiness of his fellow-men. In the promotion of this object his zeal and labors were unceasing. An old and wonderfully prosperous savings institution of this city owed its existence to him, and its years of great success and usefulness were due to his active zeal, aided by those whom he enlisted in that work. Its subsequent destruction was among the great calamities of the war which fell upon Charleston. Its leading benevolent feature at one time was its investments in real estate securities, which, if adhered to, might have saved it from ruin. The good deeds of Mr. Rowland were not con- fined to those which came under the public eye. He was vigilant in looking for those who needed assistance, always ready to render it by word or act, without ostentation and without seeking applause. These charitable traits of character and habits of benevolence did not change with his change of home, and we find him during the latter years of his life, while a resident of New York, actively and energetically engaged as a member of the Children's Aid Society, an institution dedicated to the aid and reform of destitute children in that city, and accomplishing great good. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 137 Mr. Rowland died in New York City, Decem- ber 10, 1874, having attained the ripe old age of more than fourscore years. JOHN EDWARDS HOLBROOK John Edwards Holbrook was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, December 30, 1794. He died in Norfolk, Massachusetts, September 8, 1871. His early life was spent in Wrentham, Massachusetts, the original home of his father's family. He was graduated from Brown University in 181 5 and from the medical department at the University of Pennsylvania in 1818. He continued his profes- sional studies for four years in London, Edinburgh, and Paris. He married Miss Harriott Pinckney Rutledge in 1827. Dr. Holbrook began the practice of medicine in Charleston in 1822. The same year he became a member of the New Eng- land Society. Two years later he was elected pro- fessor of anatomy in the South Carolina Medical College, where he taught for more than thirty years. His lectures on comparative anatomy attracted wide attention. Dr. Holbrook's greatest achievement was his American Herpetology, or a Description of Reptiles Inhabiting the United 138 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY States. This work gave him not only a national but a world-wide reputation as a leader in scientific thought. For a time Dr. Holbrook was more famous as an original thinker in Europe than in America. In an appreciation prepared by Dr. T. L. Ogier and pubHshed in 1871, the following state- ment is of interest: "Dr. Holbrook completed his work on herpetol- ogy, on which he had long been engaged, in 1842; but before its completion his reputation as a pro- ficient in this branch of natural history had been made by the correct descriptions and accurate and elegant representations of the animals con- tained in the first numbers of the work. "He visited Europe about this time and was received in the Jardin des Plantes with open arms by Valenciennes and other naturalists whom he had known before his attention was turned to this special branch of natural history. In the vast collection of reptiles in the museum of this garden he found several different animals grouped under one division and some described as different varieties which were only the young of a class before described. He pointed out these mistakes and made them evident to those in charge of the OTIS MILLS OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 139 museum, who were the chief naturaHsts of Paris, and was invited by them to overhaul the ani* mals and put his own labels on them, which he did; and he has often spoken of this as one of the greatest compliments paid to his knowledge of reptiles. It was indeed a high appreciation of his merit as a naturalist. "Dr. Holbrook's work on herpetology, which is one of the most correct, as well as beautiful, ever written, was undertaken under great diffi- culties, and only a true lover of science could have surmounted them. In his Preface he says: 'In undertaking the present work, I was not fully aware of the many difficulties attending it. With an immense mass of materials, without libraries to refer to, and only defective museums for compari- son, I have been constantly in fear of describing as new, animals that have long been known to European naturalists.' Yet, with all these diffi- culties, the Doctor succeeded in completing his work, which is now considered authoritative in herpetology. "After the publication of his Herpetology, Dr. Holbrook commenced a work of the ichthy- ology of the Southern states. This was a laborious undertaking, obliging him to go to distant parts of I40 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the country wherever the fishes were to be found, or else to have them drawn from preserved speci- mens in which the colors and, in fact, the charac- ter, of the animal is often lost. The labor of traveling in the Southern states, up the rivers and swamps, was too great; and 'his love of truth requiring that all his plates should represent living animals,' and not those shriveled and altered by alcohol and other preserving fluids, he altered the plan of his work, and confined his studies to the Fishes of South Carolina. Of this work, two numbers with most accurate and beautiful plates of some of our fishes were published, showing what a splendid work it would have been had he been allowed to complete it; but a fire occurring in Philadelphia, where the work was being published, destroyed most of the plates and much of the material of the work. This misfortune, being followed by the late war which necessarily inter- fered with his studies, put an end to his labors in this beautiful branch of natural history, to which his work would have been an elegant contribu- tion." Through his Herpetology Dr. Holbrook became acquainted with Louis Agassiz, the greatest naturalist of his time. The acquaintance grew OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 141 into a deep friendship, Dr. Holbrook spending a part of each summer at the home of Dr. Agassiz in New England. After the death of Dr. Hol- brook, Louis Agassiz, speaking before the Natural History Society of Boston, paid the following tribute to his dear friend and colleague : "Highly as he was appreciated by all to whom he was personally known and by his scientific peers and colleagues, America does not know what she has lost in him nor what she owed to him. A man of singularly modest nature, eluding rather than courting notice, he nevertheless first compelled European recognition of American Science by the accuracy and originality of his investigations. I well remember the impression made in Europe more than five and thirty years ago by his work on the North American reptiles. Before then, the supercilious English question, so effectually answered since, 'Who reads an American book ?' might have been repeated in another form, 'Who ever saw an American scientific work?' But Holbrook's elaborate history of American herpetology was far above any previous work on the same subject. In that branch of investiga- tion Europe had at that time nothing which could compare with it." 142 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Dr. Holbrook was a member of the American Philosophical Society and of the National Acad- emy of Sciences. During the Civil War, he was the chairman of the Examining Board of Surgeons of South Carolina. HENRY WORKMAN CONNER Henry Workman Conner was born near Beattie's Ford, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, March 4, 1 797. He was of Irish descent, his ancestors having come to America from Antrim, Ireland. His eldest son, General James Conner, merited fame as a Confederate leader in the Civil War and was one of the representative men of South Carolina in the years that followed. The subject of this sketch came to Charleston early in life, entered the mercantile business, and gradually by reason of energy, ambition, ability, and sterling integrity became one of the leading financiers in the South. In 1835 he was a factor in the organization of the Bank of Charleston, an original director, and in 1 84 1 became its president. This bank became nationally prominent, and is today the leading financial institution of South Carolina. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 143 After the great fire of 1837, it was largely- through the influence and faith of Mr. Conner that the Charleston Hotel and other buildings in its immediate vicinity were rebuilt. Mr. Conner was assisted in this momentous task by Lorenzo Tucker Potter, a New Englander and a member of the New England Society. In 1850 Mr. Conner was elected president of the South Carolina Railroad. In 1853 he went to New Orleans, where he spent five years. He was president of the Hibernian Society of Charleston for a number of years, and, it may be said, its most distinguished president. He was also active and liberal in all of the charitable organizations of the city. He joined the New England Society in 1828 and was prominent in its deliberations for a generation. He died January 11, 1861, loved and mourned by the entire city. The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin said of him at the time of his death: "The two communities of Charleston and New Orleans have to regret the loss of a member important to both. A half a century passed in active business placed him at the head of every 144 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY movement, mercantile and financial, which has been inaugurated in the former place; whilst in the latter a short residence of some five years was rapidly leading him to the same enviable pre- eminence. Gifted with the strongest traits of character, he was felt wherever he appeared and he left his impress for good upon everything he touched. Self-taught and self-sustained, he ever stood the man among the men of the occasion. A powerful mind governed a strong will and a genial heart directed both to the good of all around him. Energy of thought and energy of action were directed by practical sense — ^hence success followed every effort, and public institutions and private individuals alike have reason to bless the healthful exercise of his influence. In early life we find him a merchant, and his fitness for that vocation is evidenced by the success which followed him through the severest trials. Test him as a prac- tical man and his energy finds a glorious illustra- tion in the results of the railroad system, not of South Carolina alone, but to some extent of Georgia also. As a financier he shows a brilliant record whilst wielding the three millions of the Bank of Charleston, rendering that institution a OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 145 substitute for the old bank of the United States as the fiscal agent of the South, both at home and abroad. As a private banker he leaves a proud name, not in America alone, but through all Christendom — a. name accredited where commerce carries a flag or sends an adventurer. To have done this was to have lived to some purpose; but he did more. As a patriot he lived long enough to subscribe his name to the Ordinance of Seces- sion of the state of South Carolina; this has made his name historic. And might he not have said as the prophet of old: 'Now lettest Thy servant depart in peace.' As a friend, we dare not per- mit ourselves to speak of him lest truth might assume the appearance of exaggeration, but we may indulge in the luxury of hoarding the remem- brance of his acts of kindness as treasures to be garnered in our hearts. "There is one body of men who will have a special tear to shed for him. Those who remem- ber him as the presiding officer of the Hibernian Society of Carolina will feel their hearts swell when they call to mind the genial glow which suffused itseh over their meetings when he led them to deeds of charity or in the mirth of the hour. 146 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "And thus in all, either as a man of measures or as a friend indeed, he was what few are and what all should wish to be." WILLIAM COOMBS DANA William Coombs Dana was of Huguenot ancestry. He was descended from Richard Dana, who fled from persecution in France and settled temporarily in England, from which country he emigrated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, about 1640, where he died April 2, 1690. He was the ancestor of a long line of men who have illus- trated the history of New England in all the learned professions, in literary life, and in high public station. The Reverend Dr. Daniel Dana, the father of the subject of the present sketch, was for fifty years one of the most prominent and influential clergymen of New England, and for part of that time president of Dartmouth CoUege. His son, William C. Dana, whose name has been so long and prominently associated with the history of Charleston, came to this city in 1835, preaching in the church in which his life was spent for the first time in December of that year, and OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 147 being ordained to the ministry and installed as pastor, February, 1836. His preparation for the holy office had enjoyed the privilege alike of Andover, Princeton, and Columbia Theological seminaries, and he was a workman fully finished for his work. To a literary taste that was exquisitely delicate he added a passionate fondness for all that was good and a wide familiarity with all that was best in literature. He was an accurate and elegant classical scholar and a polished and luminous writer. In 1831 he published a translation of Fenelon. In 1845 ^^ issued a volume containing an account of his travels in Europe during the pre- ceding year, entitled Transatlantic Tour; in 1866 he published The Life of the Reverend Dr. Daniel Dana, his father. He paid especial attention to the hymnology and compiled a volume of hymns. He was also the author of several very choice poetical effusions which were received with much favor by the literary public, and yet his devotion to general letters did not demand in sacrifice either the Hterature or the labor of his chosen and sacred caUing. Upon all questions of theology he was deeply read, and in all the trying, practical 148 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY duties of his work he was diligent and inde- fatigable. His ministry of nearly half a century to a single congregation, the Central Presbyterian Church, one of the most cultured and intellectual that Charleston could boast, and at a time when Charleston was a center of literary and intellectual excellence as it had scarcely ever been before, and the loving devotion of the entire city, speak eloquently of the high esteem in which he was held. He became a member of the New England Society in 1843 3,nd acted as its chaplain on a number of important occasions. CHARLES UPHAM SHEPARD Charles Upham Shepard was born at Little Compton, Rhode Island, June 29, 1804. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1824. The following year he specialized in botany and mineralogy under the direction of Professor Thomas Nuttall at Harvard. Mr. Shepard's papers on mineralogy published in the American Journal of Science attracted the attention of Professor Benjamin Silliman, of Yale, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 149 He was invited in 1827 to become Professor Silliman's assistant and continued so until 1831. Meanwhile for a year he was curator of Franklin Hall, an institution that was established by James Brewster in New Haven for popular lectures on scientific subjects to mechanics. In 1830 he was appointed lecturer on natural history at Yale and held that place until 1847. He was associated with Professor Silliman in the scientific examina- tion of the culture and manufacture of sugar that was undertaken by the latter at the special request of the Secretary of the Treasury; and the Southern states, particularly Louisiana and Georgia, were assigned to him to report upon. From 1834 till 1861 he filled the chair of chemis- try in the Medical College of the state of South Carolina, which he relinquished at the beginning of the Civil War, but in 1865, at the urgent invi- tation of his former colleagues, he resumed his duties for a few years. While in Charleston he discovered rich deposits of phosphate of lime in the immediate vicinity of this city. Their great value in agriculture and subsequent use in the manufacture of superphosphate fertilizers proved an important addition to the chemical industries of South Carolina. I50 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY He became a member of the New England Society in 1843 ^^^ delivered a number of scholarly addresses at its annual dinners on Forefathers' Day. In 1845 he was chosen professor of chemistry and natural history in Amherst, which chair was divided in 1852, and he continued to deliver the lectures on natural history until 1877, when he was made professor emeritus. He was associated in 1835 with Dr. James G. Percival in the geologi- cal survey of Connecticut, and throughout his life he was actively engaged in the study of mineral- ogy. He announced in 1835 ^^^ discovery of his first new species of microlite, that of warwickite in 1838, that of danburite in 1839, and he after- ward described many new minerals until shortly before his death. Professor Shepard acquired a large collection of minerals, which at one time was unsurpassed in this country, and which in 1877 was purchased by Amherst College but three years later was partially destroyed by fire. Early in life he began the study and collection of meteorites, and his cabinet, long the largest in the country, likewise became the property of Amherst. His papers on this subject from 1829 till 1882 were nearly forty in number and appeared chiefly OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 151 in the American Journal of Science. The honorary degree of M.D. was conferred on him by Dart- mouth in 1836, and that of LL.D. by Amherst in 1857. Professor Shepard was a member of many American and foreign societies, including the Imperial Society of Natural Science in St. Peters- burg, the Royal Society of Gottingen, and the societies of natural sciences in Vienna. In addition to his many papers, he published a Treatise on Mineralogy, a Report on the Geological Survey of Connecticut, and numerous reports on mines in the United States. Professor Shepard died in Charleston, May i, 1886. He was one of the great scientists of his day. CHARLES ROYAL BREWSTER Charles Royal Brewster was born at Burton, York County, Maine, July 23, 1808. He died in Charleston, South Carolina, July 16, 1885. Mr. Brewster was graduated with honors from Bowdoin College in 1828. He studied law in Boston, Massachusetts. He came to Charleston, where he spent the remainder of his life, in 1831. After teaching school for two years, he was admitted to the bar of South Carolina and 152 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY immediately entered into copartnership with Hon. B. F. Dunkin, afterward chief justice of the Supreme Court of the state. Upon the accession of the latter to the bench as chancellor, Mr. Brewster formed a connection with Hon. Henry Bailey, then attorney-general, which continued ten years. After that he formed at different times various business engagements with A. H. Dunkin, then with Hon. Robert Munro, and since the war with Colonel L. W. Spratt and Mr. J. E. Burke. An editorial published in the News and Courier July 17, 1885, gives the following estimate of Mr. Brewster's character: "Mr. Brewster's life presented no glaring contrasts or striking changes, no remarkable vi- cissitudes, no peculiar elevations or unusual de- pressions. He kept the even tenor of his way, pursuing the path of duty as it appeared to him, as with a kind heart, tender conscience, and clear intellect he sought to understand his obligations in all the relations of life, and, understanding, to discharge them completely. Like a calm and peaceful river running its passage to the sea, his life flowed along until it mingled with the ocean of eter- nity, not without dispensing blessings in its course. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 153 "As a lawyer he added to the clear and sound judgment of a mind well stocked with legal knowl- edge untiring industry in the preparation of his cases and devotion to the interests of his clients. Toward his brethren of the profession he con- stantly exhibited that urbanity of manner which was but the index of his kindly feelings which actuated him in his dealings with them; and while advocating with his utmost power the rights committed to his care, he never forgot what was just and courteous to his adversaries. "As he was regular in habit and even in dis- position, so the character of Mr. Brewster was well rounded in every respect. As a moral and religious man he endeavored to fulfil the duties he owed to his God; as a husband and the head of a family he did all that in him lay to promote the welfare and happiness of the household; as a citizen he was alive to all that concerned the common good of state, city, and county, and cheerfully gave his support to all measures tend- ing to the public benefit. As a professional man he was able, high toned, devoted, courteous, and just. "In the latter part of his life, especially, his mild and genial nature impressed many with 154 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY whom he was daily brought in contact, for to the last he was busy among men. Many who are but acquaintances will remember with kindness the good old man with youthful spirits and never a bitter word to wound his fellow-man, while those to whom he was nearer and dearer throughout their lives will treasure his memory with grateful and affectionate regard." STEPHEN AUGUSTUS HURLBUT Stephen Augustus Hurlbut was born in Charleston, South Carolina, November 29, 181 5. He was of New England stock. Mr. Hurlbut studied law and was admitted to the bar of South Carolina in 1837. Three years later he became a member of the New England Society. When the "Florida War" broke out, he gave up his law practice temporarily and entered the service as adjutant of a South Carolina regiment. In 1845 ^^ went to Illinois and practiced his profession in Belvidere. He was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1848, was a member of the legislature in 1859, 1861, and 1867, and presidential elector at large on the Republican ticket in 1869. At the beginning of the Civil War, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 155 he was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers and commanded at Fort Donelson after its capture in February, 1862. When General Grant's army moved up the Tennessee River, Hurlbut com- manded the Fourth Division, and was the first to reach Pittsburg Landing, which he held for a week alone. He was promoted to the rank of major general for meritorious conduct at the Battle of Shiloh, was then stationed at Memphis, and after the Battle of Corinth, in October, 1862, pursued and engaged the defeated Confederates. He commanded at Memphis in September, 1863, led a corps under Sherman in the expedition to Meridian in February, 1864, and succeeded General Nathaniel P. Banks in command of the Department of the Gulf, serving there from 1864 till 1865, when he was honorably mustered out. Mr. Hurlbut was appointed commander-in- chief of the Grand Army of the Republic at the first annual encampment in 1866. He was Minister of the United States to Colombia from 1869 till 1872, and was then elected a representative to Congress from Illinois as a Republican for two consecutive terms, serving from 1873 till 1877. In 1881 he was appointed Minister to Peru, which office he 156 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY retained until his death, which occurred in Lima, Peru, March 27, 1882. ALVA GAGE Alva Gage was born in New London, New Hampshire, March 14, 1820. As a young man, he engaged in business in Charlestown, Massa- chusetts. In 1853 he came to Charleston, with whose practical enterprise and public institutions he was prominently identified until his decease — serving as alderman, market and orphan house commissioner, director of the People's National Bank and the Lockhart Mills; first vice-president of the Associated Charities Society, of which he was one of the founders and to which he gave five thousand dollars, in addition to the donation of constant funds to meet emergent cases; second vice-president of the William Enston Home, "to make old age comfortable"; second vice-president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a prominent member and munificent benefactor of the church of his own and ancestral faith. The Alva Gage Hall, the parish house of the Unitarian Church of Charleston, is a memorial to Mr. Gage. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 157 He became a member of the New England Society in 1855, two years after his arrival in Charleston, and at the time of his death, Septem- ber 12, 1896, was the oldest in membership on the roll of the Society. The New England Society paid the following tribute to Mr. Gage at a meeting held immediately after his death: " 'Let him to whom I have done violence or injustice now appear, and I am ready to make reparation.' So said a dying leader of men who passed from earth many centuries ago. And so with far, far more truth could he have said, our brother, who looked his last upon earth and air and sea and sky since we last gathered in the intercourse, so dear to him, of this Society, and whose absence leaves a void which we dare not hope to fill. "If ever a man singularly equipped by nature and training for the active pursuits of life and incessantly occupied with them kept his heart more tender, his hand more responsive to it, and his conscience more clear of intentional wrong than Alva Gage, it has scarcely been our lot to know him. For forty-three years his life was 158 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY lived here, amid a people differing from his own in race and tradition and largely of differing religious convictions; a people proud of their own birthright of noble ancestry and fixed in steadfastness to their own modes of life and habits of thought, which were other than those in which he had been nurtured. That, in a community such as this was when he came to it, the young New Englander earned a place of respect, confidence, honor, and love, which in- creased with increasing years — and through all the changes wrought by a war which uprooted the very foundations of its social fabric increased without the sacrifice of a single conscientious conviction, until the whole community mourned his loss as that of a model citizen and public benefactor! That this could be, and was, is a tribute to our brother compared to which all others are meaningless. If the end came sud- denly to this blameless and bountiful life, that life could afford that thus it should be. He does not die silent whose helpfulness to others is inspired by his own hands, folded though they be in their last sleep. "As a public tribute to our lamented brother, be it OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 159 ^^ Resolved, That this memorial of Alva Gage, the philanthropist and friend of every good cause, the eminent citizen and stainless man, our brother beloved, be spread upon the record book of the New England Society, and that a page of that record book be consecrated to his memory. ^^ Resolved, That a copy of this memorial, suitably engrossed and signed by the president and secretary, be furnished to the widow of our departed fellow-member." GEORGE WALTON WILLIAMS George Walton Williams was born in Burke County, North Carolina, December 19, 1820. His ancestors emigrated to America from Wales on account of religious persecution. In 1799 Edward WiUiams, of Easton, Massachusetts, came to Charleston and located for a time, later going to western North Carolina, where he became a successful farmer and merchant. Dur- ing his sojourn in North Carolina, Edward WiUiams married Mary Brown. Eight children were born to this union, George Walton being the fourth and youngest son. At the age of three, young George Walton was taken by his parents i6o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY to Nacoochee, Georgia. In this beautiful valley his childhood and early youth were spent. While in his teens young Williams went to Augusta, Georgia, and began his business career as a clerk in a wholesale grocery establishment. In a few years he became a partner in the business and at the age of twenty-three a director in the State Bank of Georgia. Mr. Williams came to Charleston in 1852 and established the whole- sale grocery house of George W. Williams and Company. Four years later he became a mem- ber of the New England Society and subsequently vice-president. When the Civil War began in i860, Mr. Williams was the head of two great mercantile establishments, a director of two railroads, a director of the Bank of South Carolina, and the financial counselor of the city of Charleston and of a large number of friends. Five of Mr. Williams' partners were in the Confederate Army and all of his clerks in service. Food of every description became scarce and prices became higher from day to day. In this condition Mr. Williams no longer had a heart for trade. As Mr. Williams was an alderman of the city of Charleston and chairman of the committee OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA i6i on ways and means, Mayor Macbeth needed his services in Charleston to aid in managing the finances. The state legislature had appointed Mr. Williams commissary to procure provisions for the soldiers' families, and he was appointed by the city council of Charleston manager of the subsistence stores to procure supplies for the poor of Charleston. Mr. Williams, having cor- respondents in all of the Southern states, at once adopted measures to procure the needed supplies, which were issued under his personal supervision without his charging one cent for his services or for rent on the buildings which were occupied. Mr. Williams with his usual skill, promptness, and energy threw himself into this labor of use- fulness, and through his exertions thousands of the destitute and suffering were supplied with food daily to the end of the war. The friends of Mr. Williams regarded this beneficent enterprise and labor as the crowning achievement of his life. The gigantic undertaking under the most try- ing circumstances, shut out by land and sea, with its endless details of duty, its cares, trials, diffi- culties, and responsibilities, was of an exhausting 1 62 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY character and proved almost beyond his power of mental and physical endurance. Nevertheless he held his ground and stood steadfast at his post to the last. The very day that the city fell, he issued rations to some ten thousand people, all grades and colors, from his private residence, located near Hampstead in the northeastern part of the city; he had removed from George Street in consequence of the bombardment. So great was the pressure the day of the evacu- ation that it was necessary to barricade the doors of the dwelling and distribute the provisions through the windows, for everything in Charleston was in the wildest state of confusion. At one moment when the crush was greatest, a terrible explosion took place at the Northeastern Depot, by which, it was said, several hundred persons had lost their lives, and it was believed that the immense powder magazine in the Half Moon Battery near his dwelling had been blown up. The panic occasioned by this dreadful catastrophe beggars all description. It will be seen from these details that Mr. Williams was in Charleston when the city was evacuated by the Confederate forces. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 163 Through his appeal to the retiring Confederate general the day before the surrender, he obtained an order written by R. G. Gilchrist, the general's private secretary, for all remaining supplies and stores of the Confederate government. These were destined to the flames, but were thus saved by his prompt action. The fires caused by the burning of cotton, by gunboats, and in part by incendiaries were then raging fiercely and threatened to lay the city in ashes. In this crisis Mr. Williams called on the Mayor to urge upon him the necessity of sur- rendering the city, especially as the fire depart- ment was disorganized in consequence of its members being arrested by the small squads of Confederate soldiers who had been left in Charles- ton for that purpose. Mayor Macbeth appointed Alderman W. H. Gilliland and George W. Williams to be the bearers to Morris Island of the following com- munication: To the General Commanding the Army of the United States, at Morris Island Sir: The military authorities of the Confederate states have evacuated this city. I have remained to enforce 1 64 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY law and preserve order until you take such steps as you may think best. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Charles Macbeth, Mayor In the meantime Mr. Williams, learning that the United States troops under Colonel A. G. Bennett were landing on Atlantic Wharf, in the rear of the old Exchange, proceeded to that place and had an interview with Colonel Bennett. Mr. Wilhams informed him of the disorganized condition of things in Charleston and asked for assistance to aid in extinguishing the fires. The assistance was furnished by Colonel Bennett. After the interview, the subjoined reply was sent to the Mayor's note: Headquarters, United States Forces Charleston Harbor N. Atlantic Wharf, February i8, 1865 Mayor Charles Macbeth: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of this date. I have, in reply thereto, to state that the troops under my command will render every possible assistance to your well-disposed citizens in extinguishing the fires now burning. I have the honor to be, Mayor, very respectfully your obedient servant, A. G. Bennett Lieutenant Colonel Commanding United States Forces, Charleston OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 165 The navy took possession of Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, and a volunteer party of ten men from Morris Island planted the United States flag on Sumter. The soldiers took pos- session of the citadel and arsenal. Mr. Williams procured from the Federal military authorities a guard to protect the several mills and ware- houses in which the provisions had been stored and thus saved from the devouring flames food enough to sustain twenty thousand people for three months, which he issued to the citizens after the fall of Charleston when they had neither money nor the means of procuring support. Many were thus rescued from great want and suffering. When the war was over, Mr, Williams went to Washington, D.C., and procured a charter for the First National Bank of Charleston, with a capital of $500,000, intending to be its president; but on account of the importunity of many friends he gave up his original plan and returned to his wholesale business, which was the first commercial establishment to open its doors after the Civil War. Mr. Williams later opened a banking house and in 1874 organized the Carolina Savings Bank 1 66 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and became its first president. This bank, one of the great savings banks of the South, is now owned and managed by his sons. An outstanding fact in the wonderful financial career of Mr. Williams is that when he started out for himself in Augusta, Georgia, his only- possession, materially speaking, was ten dollars. A number of years before his death he made a careful estimate of his financial ventures and found that he had distributed in earnings to his partners and others more than twenty-five million dollars. Mr. Williams was twice married; first to Louisa A. Wightman, in 1843, sister of Bishop William M. Wightman, a lady of deep piety, possessing many of the characteristics of her brother and of her sainted mother. His second wife was Martha F. Porter, a daughter of John W. Porter, of Madison, Georgia, a lady of rare qualities of heart, mind, and person. This marriage took place in November, 1856. Mr. Williams died January 6, 1903. The News and Courier of Charleston paid him the following tribute: "Mr. Williams was endowed with strong will power, great tenacity of purpose, was quick in OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 167 perception, fertile in resources, active and ener- getic, with a tough, wiry, rather than robust, frame, and enjoyed uniformly excellent health. His life has been one of devoted industry and earnestly practical results. In his business trans- actions he did not waste time or words, but acted as it were by intuition, rarely stopping to reason but reaching his conclusions by his first impulse. 'Instinct,' he said, 'is honest, while reason is subject to a thousand influences and is often unreliable.' "Mr. Williams allowed himself few seasons of repose or recreation, but found time to visit Cuba, Canada, various portions of the United States, and made the tour of Europe twice. An example of the wonderful versatility of Mr. Williams is found in his literary work. Amid the turmoil of a commercial career he found leisure to present to the world, in literary form, some of the results of his vast experience. From time to time he has written, modestly, without effort or pretension, yet with an ability which would do credit to some of the practiced pens of literature, a series of letters upon topics of high interest. His Letters to Young Men — twenty thousand letters to young men have been 1 68 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY gratuitously distributed in the past twenty years — Success and Failure, Making and Saving, may be perused with profit by all who wish to emulate the worthy example of a worthy man. He has also published a volume of five hundred pages, Sketches of Travel in the Old and New World. "There is no citizen in the South who, by his teachings and example, and by the introduction of wise and beneficent measures, and by the foundation of a financial institution for the encouragement of the young, by building and founding commercial houses, has been of more benefit to the city and state of his adoption than George W. Williams." JOHN R. READ John R. Read was born at Antrim, New Hampshire, September 5, 1831. His parents were among the early settlers of Massachusetts and were of Puritan origin. He came to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1850 and engaged in the mercantile business with his brother, under the firm name of W. W. and J. R. Read, which afterward became the well- known house of J. R. Read and Company. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 169 During the Civil War Mr. Read's sympathies were with the South. He was an active member of the famous fire department of Charleston which rendered valuable assistance to the Con- federate cause during the war period. He was a leading merchant in the city of Charleston for sixty years. He was always ready to assist any enterprise which stood for the upbuilding of the city of his adoption. He was vice-president of the Chamber of Com- merce, an active member of many charitable organizations, and a liberal contributor to all objects of merit. Mr. Read became a member of the New Eng- land Society in 1858, served as a member of the committee on charity, and at the time of his death, January 23, 191 1, was senior vice-president. He was a member of Grace Episcopal Church for fifty-six years and was devoted to its interests, serving as vestryman and warden. Mr. Read's fine spirit of magnanimity was exhibited in an incident which occurred during his service as senior warden. A new departure was proposed by the rector which meant radical changes in the conduct of the church service and which also involved the expenditure of a large sum I70 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY of money. This venture was vigorously opposed by Mr. Read. One year after the changes were made, Mr. Read said: "I was wrong in my opposition." A short time afterward he died, leaving a legacy to the church and designating that it be used in payment of the debt incurred by the changes he had opposed. JOHN SOMERS BUIST John Somers Buist, M.A., M.D., was born in Charleston, South Carolina, November 26, 1839. He graduated at the College of Charleston in 1859 and at the Medical College of South Carolina in 1 86 1. He immediately entered the Confeder- ate Army as an assistant surgeon and for a time served with the famous Hampton Legion. In 1863 he was promoted to the rank of surgeon major and attached to Colonel Haskell's command in General Robert E. Lee's army, where he served with marked ability and great gallantry. At the close of the war, Dr. Buist returned to Charleston and became one of the most promi- nent physicians and surgeons in his native state, successively holding the following important positions: city health officer, surgeon to the JAMES B. CAMPBELL OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 171 Roper Hospital and to the United States Marine Hospital, president of the South Carolina Medi- cal Society, professor of general surgery at the Medical College of South Carolina, a member of the first board of commissioners of the New Roper Hospital, vice-president of the Board of Commissioners of the Charleston Orphan House, trustee of the College of Charleston, and presi- dent of the Alumni Association of the College of Charleston. Dr. Buist was not only a great influence in his professional life but also as a man of affairs generally in the community. He was a director in the Dime Savings Bank and a director in the Charleston Consolidated Company. He was one of the most prominent Masons in South Carohna, being one of the few men of his state to attain the thirty-third degree in that famous order. Dr. Buist became a member of the New Eng- land Society in 1881, served as steward for many years, and was at the time of his death, Septem- ber 29, 1910, junior vice-president. He also delivered a number of addresses to the Society, which is another evidence of his wonderful ver- satility. As a public speaker he had few peers in South Carolina. 172 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY VAN NEST TALMAGE Van Nest Talmage was born in Brooklyn, New York, March, 1844. He was a business genius from his early boyhood. He founded the well-known firm of Dan Talmage and Sons of New York when a mere youth. Mr. Talmage came to Charleston, South Carolina, in 187 1 and within an incredibly short time built up the largest rice business in South Carolina. He became a life member of the New England Society in 1877. At the time of his death the Society by a unanimous vote adopted the following minute : " In the mysterious orderings of Divine Provi- dence, we are called upon to record the loss by death of a member of this Society, Mr. Van Nest Talmage, who after a brief illness passed to his rest on March 30, 1880. Be it ^^ Resolved, That we hereby unitedly express a sense of the loss we, in common with the com- munity at large, have sustained in the removal of this estimable man. His was a character of rare merit; by nature manly and generous; in dis- position genial and considerate; in habit indus- trious and temperate; denying himself for the sake of charity to others. Nor did his benevo- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 173 lence confine itself to simple alms-deeds, as his personal endeavor in support of public enterprise and his zealous devotion to the interests of the young of the Orphan House and Grace Church Sunday School will bear ample testimony. "In his charities, which were profuse, he was systematic and consistent; in his labors earnest and indomitable. In all the manifold relation- ships of life, religious, social, and commercial, he seemed ever to be actuated by a high sense of honor and the promptings of a warm, sympa- thetic, and generous heart. "Such men never go from us unwept and unmissed. ^^ Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the News and Courier and a copy of this action of the Society be spread upon the records and another forwarded to the widow of the deceased in testimony of the admiration and regard we entertain for the memory of her generous dead." The News and Courier published the follow- ing editorial, April i, 1880: "It is not a matter of form to say that Mr. Van Nest Talmage will be sorely missed in Charleston. No call w^as made upon him for a public or charitable purpose which was not 174 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY cheerfully and liberally responded to, and he was withal broad and progressive in his mercantile policy, as well as rigidly conscientious and singu- larly farsighted. "Mr, Talmage changed the whole current of the rice business in Charleston, initiating and making successful the system of shipping the grain directly to the Western consumers, instead of taking the old way of New York. "Only thirty-five years old, the nephew of Dr. DeWitt Talmage, full of life and enterprise, he had already made himself conspicuous among Charleston merchants, and might weU hope to have before him a long career of good fortune and usefulness. Incessant work caused the illness which ended in his untimely death. "Mr. Talmage had more friends than he knew. Charleston needs just such men as he, and it wiU be hard to fiU his place. "The funeral services of this estimable gentle- man took place at Grace Church yesterday after- noon, the Reverend C. C. Pinckney, D.D., the rector, officiating. The casket was covered with floral offerings. The cortege was followed by the New England Society and the Chamber of Commerce. The seats on the right of the church OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 175 were occupied by the children of the Charleston Orphan House, to whose spiritual culture Mr. Talmage devoted a great deal of his time. Those on the left were occupied by the children of Grace Church Sunday School, of which the deceased was also an active officer. The seats in the main aisle were filled with a large concourse of citizens, among whom were many of the most prominent merchants, lawyers, and physicians in the city, and by a very large concourse of ladies." JOHN P. KENNEDY BRYAN John P. Kennedy Bryan was born in Charles- ton, South Carolina, September 10, 1852. He was the third son of George S. Bryan, judge of the United States District Court for South Carolina, and Rebecca L. Dwight. He was edu- cated in the schools of Charleston, Princeton University, and the universities of Berhn and Leipzig. At Princeton he earned the degree of A.B. in 1873, graduating with first honor in the class of which Dr. Henry van Dyke was a member. He was a mental science Fellow and a student of philosophy and law at the University of Berlin 176 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY from 1873 to 1874, and a student of the Univer- sity of Leipzig from 1874 to 1875. He returned to Princeton and received the degree of A.M. in 1876. He studied law in Charleston and was admitted to the bar of South Carolina in 1877. Mr. Bryan was a member of the constitu- tional convention in 1895 and was prominent and influential in its deliberations. As a lawyer Mr. Bryan had few peers in the South. "His practice was wide and varied, including many cases of great interest and public importance. Soon after his admission to the bar, he was engaged for the defense in the Ku Klux trials, extending over the period from 1877 to 1883. He was counsel for the United States government in the conspkacy cases, 1 889-1 899, and in prize cases tried in the port of Charleston during the Spanish-American War. He was widely known as an able and experienced admi- ralty lawyer. He argued before the Supreme Court of the United States the leading cases which settled constitutional questions involved in the Dispensary Law, and did much other pioneer work before that court and the courts of the state." He was a member of the legal advisory board during the war between the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 177 United States of America and the empires of Germany and of Austria-Hungary. Mr. Bryan was deeply interested in education. He served for a number of years as a trustee of the Charleston High School, the College of Charles- ton, and the University of the South. Mr. Bryan became a member of the New England Society, December 22, 1898, and was one of its most distinguished and useful members. His addresses on Forefathers' Day were among the most eloquent and scholarly ever delivered before the Society. He died suddenly on October 25, 1918, at the zenith of his power and in the faithful discharge of his duties. The three tributes which follow are typical of many estimates of Mr. Bryan's useful career: "The death of Kennedy Bryan takes from the world a man of rare and admirable gifts, who used them with high fidelity in the service of his God, his friends, and his fellow-men. His brilliant mind, his rich eloquence, his unselfish patriotism, his devotion to duty, his warm and steadfast affec- tions, his sincere and simple Christian character, gave true nobility to his life and vital charm to his person. 178 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "Worthy of the best traditions of his native state, he served her loyally and quietly without a thought of self, and well deserves her gratitude. "Princeton University, his alma mater, cher- ishes his name as one of her noblest sons. His praise is fragrant on our lips, his memory is dear to our hearts. His reward is great and sure in that Heavenly Kingdom where he has been welcomed as a good and faithful servant whose ten talents were consecrated to his Master's work and the welfare of humanity." — Rev. Henry van Dyke, D.D. "He was a pre-eminently able lawyer. There has been no abler advocate at the bar of South Carolina within the memory of living lawyers. Intellectual endowments of the highest order had been developed by a liberal education at home and abroad, and trained by long years of experi- ence in a wide and varied practice. "Within the circle of litigation he was always the warrior, strong, courageous, resourceful, and armed from head to foot. He fought his cases to victory or defeat. He never compromised, he never surrendered. Whenever he resumed pro- fessional responsibilities, he put himself and all his resources unreservedly into the cause, and with OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 179 each case he took infinite pains. His arguments to the court were exhaustive expositions of law, and his addresses to the jury were powerful pres- entations of fact. "He was a pioneer in respect of the law upon many questions which have now been settled. He conducted many leading cases. The opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States upon more than one public issue follows the Unes of his brief. "His services were always at the command of the bar, the city, the state and country, and were often employed. "He sought and held no public place in the profession. His death vacates no public office; but much more than that, it is a public loss. It creates in our midst a vacancy which the public cannot fill."— WiUiam C. Miller. "By the sudden death of J. P. Kennedy Bryan the community has lost a brilliant personality and the bar of the State a member whose legal and forensic abilities commanded high admiration. Mr. Bryan had a rarely fine mind, which he had cultivated and trained by study and reflection. He had a profound knowledge, not only of the i8o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY law, but of the historical and philosophical foundations of the law. He was a student of government and a keen observer and analyst of political and popular currents. He had the power of expression extraordinarily developed, and many of his court house addresses might have been preserved in permanent record, as they remain in the memory of his hearers as almost classic examples of persuasive oratory. His inter- ests were wide, and his services, especially in the cause of education and in the exploration of con- stitutional law, were notable. He was intensely patriotic, of his country and state. His social graces were many; he was an interesting and charming companion, and the center of a devoted family circle. His swift passing is like the snapping out of a bright light." — The Charleston Evening Post, October 28, 1918. PERCIVAL HANAHAN WHALEY Percival Hanahan Whaley was born on Edisto Island, South Carolina, May 17, 1853. He was an alumnus of Trinity College, Hartford, Con- necticut, and of the Berckley Divinity School, Middletown, Connecticut. The University of the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA i8i South conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity on account of scholarly research. Dr. Whaley held important charges in Con- necticut, South Carolina, and Florida. He was a clergyman of the Episcopal church. He was an eloquent preacher, a profound theologian, and a historian of high rank. At the time of his death he was writing a history of the state of Florida and a history of the Episcopal church in South Carolina. Dr. Whaley published a number of historic pamphlets which attracted scholarly attention. He became a member of the New England Society in 191 1. After his death, which occurred at Rochester, Minnesota, September 2, 191 5, the Right Rev- erend Wm. A. Guerry, D.D., bishop of South Carolina, paid him the following tribute : "Percival Whaley was one of the most lovable men I have ever known, warm hearted, thoughtful of others, unselfish, never sparing himself where duty called or where he could be of service to his fellow-men; he endeared himself to all who knew him. Like the holy priest of whom William Law writes in his Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, he was full of the spirit of the Gospel, watching, 1 82 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY laboring and praying for his people. Every soul in his parish was as dear to him as himself and he loved them all as he loved himself, because he prayed for them all as often as he prayed for himseh. "It was this broad-minded sympathy and love of his fellow-men that remained throughout his life his crowning virtue. Because he loved and trusted others, therefore he was without guile. Dr. Whaley was not only beloved by his own people but he was in a very real sense the pastor of all the people. He knew no denominational lines in his ministry. Like the Lord, he went among men as one that served, and never stopped to ask if any child of God who was in trouble or in need of his help was of his flock. "At the council of the church Dr. Whaley, upon my recommendation, was made histori- ographer of the diocese, a position for which he was eminently fitted. For the past six years he has been gathering material for a history of the church in South Carolina, and I had hoped that he might be spared to carry on and complete this most important work. I feel, however, that what he has already accompHshed in the way of preparation for such a history will be invaluable OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 183 for the man who will follow him. The whole diocese of South Carolina owes him a debt of gratitude for what he has done, and it is difficult at this time to see how his place can be filled. In viewing his life as a whole, we are struck by the fact that it was a full and well- rounded life." At the same time one of the leading news- papers of South Carolina published the following editorial : "A rarely charming and lovable personality passed in the death of the Reverend Percival H. Whaley. His faith was real, his reason clear, and his mind truly cultured. He was a good friend and a devoted pastor. He had understanding of men and a fine sympathy for their joys and sorrows, and he had that vision of the divine which is neither fleeting nor uncertain, because it is not so strained as to blind nor so narrow as to weary with its holding. "He had a comprehending mind, richly stored with treasure of its own searching, a fine appre- ciation of letters, and a facility of speech and writing that gave great charm to his company. Perhaps, best of all, he had a sense of proportion. He was an admirable and a kindly type of the humanist who reads the story of his kind equally 1 84 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY in ancient lore and living souls. An illumined spirit has gone into the light." OTHER SONS OF NEW ENGLAND In addition to the New Englanders and descendants of New Englanders who made their homes in Charleston and who became members of the New England Society, there were many others of prominence and influence. Among the large number a few notable worthies might be mentioned. Three of the most distinguished bishops of South Carolina were born in New Eng- land — the Right Reverend Theodore Dehon, D.D., and the Right Reverend Nathaniel Bowen, D.D., were born in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Right Reverend W. B. W. Howe, D.D., was born in Claremont, New Hampshire. Dr. Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, the greatest classical scholar America has produced, was of New England stock, though born in Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Gildersleeve was the guest of the New Eng- land Society at its annual celebration in 1892, and delivered a notable address from which the following is quoted : "The honor of being your guest on this occasion is an honor that I prize most highly. It is one of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 185 the most precious assurances I have ever received that the affection with which my heart has always turned toward my native city, toward the home of my childhood and of my opening youth, is not wasted affection. True, in one sense, there can be no such thing as wasted affection, for honest love enriches the lover, but to find, after aU these years of absence, that the answering love is still there would stir a duller heart than mine is, and I am happy as well as proud to be with you tonight, as I have always been proud and happy to recall the high traditions of that old Charleston to which I belong, the Charleston that antedates the flood of Civil War, "Among the names that make up the roll of your honored Society, there are not a few that bring back the prominent figures which graced the scene when I was a boyish spectator of the life of Charleston, the grave but gracious divines, the learned and brilliant lawyers, the skilful and beloved physicians, the enterprising and liberal merchants of fifty years ago, none the less true Charlestonians because they were true New Eng- landers. To be sure, it has been said that the reason why the New Englanders who came to the South made such characteristic Southerners is to i86 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY be sought in the fact that the chief of those who came were Southern in their sympathies, but whether that is so or not, they brought with them a heritage of noble traditions, of high purpose, of dauntless will, that formed a distinct addition to the moral wealth of the community. But I am not without bias in this matter. My own lot has made me a typical Southerner, and from my first conscious breath to this day I have recognized the debt of my nativity and have wrought and suf- fered in my measure for the land that gave me birth. And yet, if I were a resident of Charleston, I should have a right to sit among you as a mem- ber, and not merely as a guest, for, while the soil on which I am standing is peculiarly hallowed ground to me, Vermont and Connecticut hold the graves of my father's forefathers, who in their day were rebels, as was their descendant in his. And many a typical Southerner is in my case. With the recent revival of interest in Revolutionary and Colonial matters, there has been much tracing of genealogical lines, and I have been amazed to see in more than one instance the revelation of New England ancestry where New England ancestry had never been suspected before — Magnolia and Mayflower wedded in those far-off days. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 187 "In the angry quarrel that parted the family a generation ago, there was much talk about the difference of race, and all kinship was passionately disowned, but the common blood asserted itself in that very protest — and if there is no community on this side of the water, the common mother of us all is only a few generations off. Now I am very willing to admit that I did not always enter- tain these rational and philosophic views, and when I was asked to respond to the toast, ' Our Country,' I was a little puzzled to know why I, a narrow provincial, should have been selected to treat so wide a theme, and I felt at first a sense of unfitness that was somewhat embarrassing. But despite the modesty that I possess and have acquired by practice, I began to understand that I was eminently qualified for the function to which I was called, and the toastmaster knew that if he gave me any sentiment involving an allusion to Old Charleston, I should ramble on till midnight, remembering and remembering more than I ever knew and more than anybody could contradict, and so he assigned to me a theme which he must have known I had studied under circumstances that were well calculated to clarify my views." 1 88 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY THE VISIT OF DANIEL WEBSTER The Honorable Daniel Webster, the great orator, diplomat, and statesman, the pride of all New England, visited Charleston during the month of May, 1847. The New England Society gave a dinner in honor of the great American on the afternoon of May 8. The data used in telling the story of this auspicious event are drawn largely from an article written at the time by Mr. A. S. Willington, the distinguished editor of the Courier and vice- president of the New England Society. The entertainment tendered Mr. Webster was held in St. Andrew's Hall. "The spacious chamber where the North Briton is wont to celebrate festive and hospitable rites, under the smiles of his patron saint, was beautifully, tastefully, and appropriately deco- rated for the occasion, the use of their magnificent and commodious hall having been generously and gratuitously tendered for the purpose by vote of the St. Andrew's Society. At the head of the table, immediately behind the presiding OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 189 officer, and in front of a large and splendid mirror reflecting the whole festive scene, stood a minia- ture and mimic representation of the Bunker Hill monument — a column made of roses and a rich variety of other beautiful flowers, presented by a member of the Society, having been erected with floral treasures culled from his own magnificent flower garden on Charleston Neck — from the top of which floated a little streamer with the inscrip- tion 'Bunker Hill.' The other inscriptions on appropriate and decorated fields were: 'Welcome, Thrice Welcome, Bright Star of the East,' 'Our Country, Our Whole Country, and Nothing but Our Country,' 'Ashburton Treaty, Signed at Washington, August 9, 1842,' "In the lamented absence through indisposi- tion of Doddridge Crocker, Esq., the venerable president of the Society, A. S. Willington, Esq., vice-president, presided, assisted by the Honorable William Rice, recorder of the city and judge of the City Court of Charleston, Colonel B. F. Hunt, Colonel J. H. Taylor, and E. M. Beach, Esq. A number of distinguished guests were present. Among them were the Honorable John B. O'Neall, one of the superior lord judges of the state; the Honorable R. B. Gilchrist, judge of the United 1 90 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY States Court for the District of South Carolina, the Honorable James Hamilton, formerly mem- ber of Congress from Beaufort and Colleton, and former governor of the state; the Honorable William Aiken, former governor of the state; the Honorable R. B. Rhett, member of Congress from Barnwell, Beaufort, and Colleton districts; the Honorable I. E. Holmes, member of Congress from Charleston district; the Honorable F. H. Elmore, former member of Congress from Rich- land and other districts and president of the Bank of the State of South Carolina; and the Right Reverend Ignatius Aloysius Reynolds, Roman Catholic bishop of Charleston; the Honor- able W. J. Grayson, former member of Congress from Beaufort and Colleton districts and now United States collector of the port of Charleston; the Honorable T. L. Hutchinson, mayor of the city of Charleston; Henry Bailey, Esq., attorney- general of the state; James L. Petigru, Esq.; M. Hall McAllister, of Savannah, Georgia; Colonel Thomas N. Dawkins, one of the state solicitors; William P. Finley, Esq., president of the College of Charleston; Daniel Ravenel, Esq., president of the Charleston Bible Society, and others. The scene was not only social and festive OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 191 in the highest degree but at once dignified by lofty and thrilling eloquence; affecting from the expression of generous sentiment and fraternal feeling, and enlivened with rare humor and sparkling wit; and further animated and cheered with music, both instrumental and vocal, from a band of skilful performers and from many and rich-toned voices mingling in concert and sweet concord with the soft notes of the piano. It was indeed a beautiful and grateful spectacle to witness the happy union of the generous sons of New Eng- land and their descendants, worthy sons of noble sires, with the warm-hearted children of the sunny South, in doing homage and honor to the genius, services, and worth of the great statesman of New England, the eminent diplomatist of the Republic, the 'conquerer of an honorable peace,' the illustrious and honored elder brother of our great American and republican family. The dis- tinguished guest was himself in the highest spirits and he diffused the happy, generous contagion to all around and manifested by his noble and crystal flow of eloquence and feeling and his fine play of keen or gentle humor that his heart was in the gladsome scene and that the delight, of which he was the fountain and infinite source to others, 192 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY was reflected back in a copious and refreshing tide to his own bosom. While gazing on his noble form, his colossal proportions, and intellectual brow — almost a giant in body and quite a Titan in mind — ^w^e could not forbear the mental exclamation : A combination and a form indeed, Where every God did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man. "After the luxuries of the feast, the cloth was removed for toast, speech, sentiment, and song." Mr. Willington proposed as the principal toast of the occasion: "South Carolina and Massachusetts: We rejoice upon the occasion which assembles together their distinguished men around the same festive board." The eloquent responses followed. Benjamin Faneuil Hunt, Esq., spoke as follows: "Mr. President: As our Society dispenses with the usual formalities of a set occasion and is determined to receive our guest as an old family friend and connection whom we have found jour- neying through the land of our adoption, I shall take leave to invite your attention to a few observations, after which I shall propose a toast. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 193 "Our experience authorizes us to assure him that he will return to his own New England farm more attached than ever to that Constitution which, we trust, is destined through all time to come to bind together all parts of our country in one great and glorious Republic, each state governing its own internal affairs, which practical experience enables it to do wisely, while the Federal government is left free to manage our national concerns. "We hail with pleasure the interchange of unofficial and social intercourse by the statesmen of the different quarters of the country. It can- not fail to wear away that distrust which is prone to render strangers distant and suspicious and, I may add, selfish in their conduct of affairs. "We believe that the more Americans see and know of each other at home, the more easily will they be convinced that, although their internal arrangements may differ, all can join in a cordial and hearty union as one great people — a mutual respect, reciprocal benefit, and social intercourse will every day diminish those causes of difference that sometimes mar the harmony of our councils. Each state will thus respect and regard the insti- tutions and social arrangements of every other 194 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and all combine to elevate and extend the honor and interest of our only Republic which in art and in arms maintains a proud equality among the nations of the earth. "No states have more reason to entertain the most cordial relations than South Carolina and Massachusetts. When the port of Boston was shut and the stubborn spirit of her people rebuked and controlled by foreigners, South Carolina, dis- tant as she was from the scene of wrong and not necessarily included in its immediate effect, dis- dained to profit by the sufferings of a sister-colony but promptly made common cause with the Bay State and resolved to cheer her spirits and share her fortunes. "The scenes of Lexington and Bunker Hill soon roused her kindred spirit into action — the military stores and forts were seized — South Carolina became a rebel colony and a British fleet entered Charleston harbor. If the sons of the Pilgrims fired the first morning gun of freedom's glorious day, Fort Moultrie thundered forth a gallant response and rendered immortal the ever- green Palmetto. The oppressor was taught that the good old thirteen, when right and liberty were at stake, were animated with one spirit, were true OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 195 to their kindred blood. The sons of the wanderers of the Mayflower united with the descendant of the Huguenot in a firm phalanx and stood shoulder to shoulder during the dark and stormy days of the Revolution. Is it not fitting, then, that their posterity should hand down to unborn ages, un- impaired, that fraternal kindness which was born of a common conflict and a common triumph ? "Fortune resolved to leave out no element essential to a perpetual and friendly union of the North and the South. The generous and high- souled chivalry that led South Carolina without hesitation to peril her own existence in a com- bined opposition to the oppression by which the legislation of the mother-country was seeking to humble and crush forever the unyielding spirit of New England was never to be forgotten; and when overwhelming military power had laid pros- trate the fortunes of the South and held her gallant spirits bound in inaction, in this dark hour of her fate the military spirit of a New England mechanic conceived the project to res- cue the South at every hazard, and gave pledge to Washington to do so or perish in the effort. "Perilous as was the attempt, the commander- in-chief resolved to indulge the aspirations of his 196 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY favorite general; and after a march which might be tracked by the bloody footsteps of his barefoot and almost naked followers, the troops of Greene were united with the followers of Sumter and Marion. Every gallant warrior of the South started at the beat of the drum and the blast of the clarion of the North. Conflict followed con- flict until, one by one, every post of the enemy from Ninety-SLx to Charleston fell before their united valor. The tide of war was rolled back until at Yorktown the sword of the proud Corn- waUis was dehvered to another son of New Eng- land, and Lincoln was accorded a noble retribu- tion for his gallant but unsuccessful defense of Charleston during its protracted siege. "Every battlefield of our state contains beneath its sod the bones of New England men who fell in the defense of the South. Is it not right that the land, won by the united energies and sprinkled with the common blood of both, should remain forever one heritage — where the descendants of those who made it freedom's sacred soil may recognize, in its whole length and breadth, Hheir own, their native land,' the land their fathers held by the glorious title of the sword ? OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 197 " It is in this feeling that we hold every son of the South entitled to a home and welcome among the green hills and pure streams of New England. "The North and the South are but apartments in the house of our fathers, and long, long may their inmates live in harmony together in the ennobling relations of children of the common conquerors of a common country." To Mr. Webster: "You, sir, for the first time, look upon that sunny side of the national domain where we have planted our habitations and garnered up our hearts; here are our homes and our altars; here is the field of our labors; here are the laws and institutions which protect us ; here, too, is to many the birthplace of their children and their own destined graves; here our first allegiance is due, which we feel is in all things consistent with fidelity to the great Republic of which our state is an integral portion. Neither have we forgotten the happy days of early life, those well-loved scenes of ' our childhood's home ' ! Fidelity to the land of our adoption finds no guaranty in a renegade desertion of that of our birth; but we turn, with feelings of cherished veneration, to where our Pilgrim Fathers in sorrow and privation 198 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY laid the deep foundations of a new empire based on the eternal principles of civil and religious liberty, and sustained by a general education and by public and private virtue. We hallow their memories and tread with reverence on their graves. Our filial piety is not abated by distance, and we hail the coming among us of a worthy son of New England as a messenger from our fatherland. "We recognize in you one who has exhibited the influence of her institutions in a resplendent light. The son of a New England farmer, the pupil of the free schools and college of your native state, your own energies have placed you on an elevation at the bar, in the Senate, and in the Cabinet, where the civilized world can behold an orator, a jurist, and a statesman, who bears no adventitious title and yet is known and recognized by nature's own stamp of greatness. "As a diplomatist, you have secured peace without any sacrifice of national honor, and may wear your civic crown as proudly as the victori- ous soldier does his plume. We shall record your visit in our archives as a part of our annals, and the recollection of it will always be among the most acceptable reminiscences in the history of our Society. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 199 "Mr. President and Gentlemen, I offer a toast: "Our Guest: He has a heart big enough to comprehend his whole country, a head wise enough to discern her best interests. We cheer him on his way to view her in all her various aspects, well assured that the more he sees of her, the better he will hke her." Mr. Webster said, in substance, he was bound to say a few words in acknowledgment of the numerous kind things which had just been said of him, and the kind manner in which they had been received. In answer to the testimonials of respect and the high compliments so eloquently paid him by his New England friend, he must be permitted to say that it was to him a high source of gratification to find himself in the city of Charles- ton — the long renowned and hospitable city of the South — among those whom he regarded as fellow- countrymen and who regarded him as a fellow- countryman. The marks of respect and affection thus tendered him had penetrated his heart with the most grateful emotions. Colonel Hunt had been pleased, with great propriety and elegance, to refer to that great instrument of government, the Constitution, and to speak of it in terms 200 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY habitual to and expressive of the sentiment of all American bosoms. Whatever difference of opin- ion might exist with regard to some of its purposes, all agreed that it was the basis of our liberty, the cement of our union, and the source of our national prosperity and renown. True, the cardinal prin- ciple of that instrument and the interpretation of some of its provisions had, at times, led to agitating discussions and dangerous excitement, but all was now calm and repose, and be All the clouds which lowered o'er our house In the deep bosom of the ocean buried. Mr. Webster said that he took great pleasure in making the wise choice that the sons of New England around him had made in coming to this state. He trusted they were not very badly off at home, and they appeared to be exceedingly comfortable here. Since The Winter's torrent and the mountain's roar Did not bind them to their native mountains more, they had not only acted wisely in coming hither but he really thought they could not have done better. Where on this continent, he asked, was there a higher freedom of social enjoyment or a more OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 201 ready extension of the relations of private friend- ship and the courtesies of refined society than in this city and state; and he could not forbear a tribute to the intelligence, enterprise, and hospi- tality of the citizens of Charleston, where the exiled and the oppressed of the earth and the victims of religious persecution — the Huguenot as well as the Pilgrim — had ever found a sanctuary and a home; whither, as the name of this Hall instructed us, the enterprising North British merchant hied in the prosecution of business and for convivial enjoyment, and where that other people, the hap- less sons of Ireland, in our day the subjects of so much suffering and to whose relief the whole of our land, both North and South, was now hasten- ing with one heart and one purse, had also gathered as the home of the oppressed. Colonel Hunt, said Mr. Webster, had been pleased, in referring to his public services, to dis- course of the agency he had exercised on questions connected with the preservation of the peace of the earth. Our true national policy was a policy of peace. He had not felt for many years that it was at all necessary for us to display any more prowess in arms to secure us an enduring national renown; there was no danger that we should be 202 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY underrated in the scale of nations by any defect in this particular. With these views he had, in his public course, directed his best efforts to pro- mote the peace of the world as best for the honor and prosperity of our land and in closest con- formity with the benign precepts of Christianity and the humane spirit of modern civilization. He said he could bear testimony to the able and honorable bearings of the distinguished sons of South Carolina in the councils of the nation. On all the great questions of peace and war, and other questions of national interest that had been discussed in the halls of legislation, they had been arrayed on the side of the country, and a debt of gratitude was their due. He descanted on the advantages to be derived from free intercourse between the inhabitants of the various sections of the Union and on the importance of mutual travel to enable us to see and know more of one another, and said that the more we saw and knew of each other, the higher would be our mutual appreciation, the greater would be our deference for each other's judgments and opinions, and that, by cultivating mutual feelings of kindness and courtesy, the stronger would be our ties of fraternal peace and concord, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 203 the stronger the great bond of union which bound us together as United States. He added that these reasons were especially applicable in this era of developments so favorable to transportation and conveyance, in which distance was now less measured by space than time. Nobody, he added, would expect a speech from him at this social board — he had enough of speeches elsewhere — and it would be, in his judg- ment, to profane the occasion were he to inflict on the company a set discourse. Enough had been already said, and it only remained for him to tender his most earnest and cordial good wishes for the happiness and prosperity of the citizens of Charleston and the people of South Carolina. Mr. Webster concluded with the following toast : "The People of South Carolina: Distinguished for their hospitality and high social virtues as much as for the great names which, in past times and also in later times, they have given to the public service of the country." Later in the evening Mr. Webster proposed a toast to "The Memory of Robert Y. Hayne: A gentle- man of courteous and polished manners, of irre- proachable life, a lawyer of distinction and 204 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY eminence, a statesman of ability and talent, a highly favored son of his native state." Another was proposed to "Charleston: Our Adopted Home. Honored in the recollections and associations of the past and present, she ever delights to honor genius, talent, and worth." Henry Bailey, Esq., being called for, said that in the absence of the excellent and accomplished chief magistrate of the city, who had been sud- denly called away from this assemblage by indis- position he had yielded to the request of some of his friends to undertake the grateful duty of responding to the sentiment which had just been uttered. He could not promise to perform it so gracefully as the gentleman on whom it would more appropriately have devolved, but he would yield to no one in the feelings of grateful pride which the sentiment itself and the cordial manner in which it had been received were so well calcu- lated to excite. As a native of Charleston, he could not but feel an honorable pride at her being supposed to merit the high compliment which had been expressed; and whether it were well merited or not, the kindness which dictated it could not fail to inspire a sentiment of profound gratitude OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 205 for its expression. He therefore begged leave to return his sincere and hearty thanks for the honor which had been conferred on what was to him the home of his birth no less than of his affection. Charleston has ever delighted, Mr. Bailey con- tinued, to do honor to genius, talent, and worth; but however honorable this was to the character of her citizens, it was no less the dictate of a sagacious policy than of a generous appreciation of whatever was noble and meritorious. It was akin to that wise policy which, from the founda- tion of the city, had opened wide the doors of hospitality to the stranger and offered a home to the wanderer. By this means our numbers had been enlarged and our wealth and resources greatly increased. Charleston indeed owed much to her adopted citizens, and he might take this occasion to say that to none was she more indebted than to those who came from the granite hills of New England. Our distinguished guest had re- marked that in looking around this festive board and observing the large number of New England men who had here found a happy home, the first impression made upon his mind was that they were a very happy set of men; he begged leave to 2o6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY add that they were not more fortunate in finding a happy home here than Charleston was in the acquisition of so large a number of valuable citizens. It was not merely that their energy, enterprise, ability, and integrity contributed so much to the development of our resources and so greatly increased our stock of material, moral, and intellectual wealth, but there was something in the New England character that diffused itself wherever her sons planted their feet and stamped upon everything around them all the best charac- teristics of civilization. They were, in fact, the descendants and representatives of perhaps the best and noblest specimen of the Anglo-Saxon race — a band of men nurtured by religious perse- cution and the severest sufferings into a hardy independence; and who, while they scorned sub- mission to tyranny of any sort, civil or religious, suffered no obstacles or difficulties to restrain their energy and enterprise. They were the first to discern the true prin- ciples of civil and religious liberty, and the principles which they discovered have been nobly carried out by their descendants on this continent. The world owes to these men a debt which has not yet been paid or acknowledged; but we, and OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 207 through us the rest of mankind, are now reaping the rich fruits of their labors. Their spirit has pervaded our land and given character to our institutions; and it is destined to carry to all parts of this continent a more beneficent civiliza- tion than the world has heretofore witnessed. Our Western wilderness is fast filling up, and wherever our people go they carry with them the Bible in one hand and the institutions of freedom which they owe to the old independents, in the other; and the result points to a destiny, the most glorious ever achieved by any country under the sun. In conclusion, Mr. Bailey offered the follow- ing sentiment : "The Land of the Pilgrims: The cradle of the true principles of civil and religious liberty — the abode of all the sterner virtues that give dignity to humanity." The health of "James L. Petigru, Esq., the able jurist, the accomplished advocate, the pride of our bar, and one of the dearest sons of South Carolina," was proposed. This toast was received with enthusiastic cheers and drew from Mr. Peti- gru the following response : Mr. Petigru said that he would be over- whelmed by the consciousness of unmerited praise 2o8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and covered with confusion if he were obhged to take into view the great disparity, the immense difference between his moderate pretensions, and the terms in which his honorable friend near him had ushered in his name. But he was reheved from much of this embarrassment because the flattering demonstrations with which his name had been received were properly a compliment to their illustrious guest and showed the degree in which they honored him by the "applause bestowed on me, not as an individual, but as a pupil and follower" of the school in which he, their guest, was a master and a leader. Although it was true that he could not boast one drop of English or New England blood, he was never less among strangers than when surrounded by the sons of the Pilgrims. And it appeared to him that the history and char- acter of New England had something that came home to the mind of everyone who sympathized with the progress of the human race, as a bond of interest and affectionate concern. It was in the New England communities, for the first time in modern ages, that feudalism was altogether rejected and society was organized on principles such as good and wise men had taught in moral and religious discourse, but which the wisest and OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 209 best of them had rather wished than hoped to see in practice. The principles of social order exem- plified in the New England commonwealth were intimately connected with the progress of modern civilization, and it was unnecessary to foUow the course of their development in the vast prosperity which those commonwealths had attained, and in the influence of their example on neighboring states and our distant people. But among the courses of their great success, perhaps the most prevalent was found in their steady attachment to the rules of civil right and invariable obedience to the authority of the laws. This rendered them the most conservative, as their institutions rendered them the most liberal, of men on the subject of government. Great must be the merits that would raise an individual to the first place, where all are pre-eminent. It was the policy of states to cherish their great men, and particularly those who surpassed their contem- poraries in those very branches in which they all excel. To such a name he wished to invoke their attention. He begged leave to call to their minds: "The Memory of Joseph Storey: Who, by his contributions to the study of that science which 2IO THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY teaches and secures the rights of men and is there- fore far more intimately than all others connected with the welfare of society, deserved to be remem- bered as an honor to his country and a benefactor of the human race." OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 211 THE CIVIL WAR Mr. Melville E. Stone, general manager of the Associated Press, was the orator at the annual festival of the New England Society, Decem- ber 22, 1908. Mr. Stone's address was of a reli- gious character and made a profound impression upon his auditors. After returning to New York, he said to a group of friends: "I was very greatly impressed with the unique character of the New England Society at Charles- ton, and it certainly impressed me as one of the most remarkable organizations in America, in that it lived through the Civil War and main- tained its high reputation throughout, although located in the very birthplace of secession." There were a number of New England societies in the South prior to the CivU War, but only one survived that unfortunate conflict, namely, the New England Society of Charleston. In a study of the New England Society in its relations to the Civil War period, it is necessary to observe three distinct points : First, the senti- ment and opinion of the New Englanders in 212 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Charleston prior to i860. Secondly, their actions from i860 to 1865. Thirdly, their conduct in the tr3dng period of reconstruction that followed the downfall of Confederacy. In considering these three lines of suggestion, it is the purpose of the writer to let the members of the Society speak for themselves. It has been the custom of New Englanders for three hundred years to express their own opinions in their own fearless and inimitable way. THE SENTIMENT AND OPINION LEADING UP TO THE CLIMACTERIC YEAR 1860 The first speaker to be introduced is the elo- quent and fervent orator, Colonel B. F. Hunt. This address was Colonel Hunt's valedictory before the Society, delivered just prior to his death, in 1854: "Mr. President and Gentlemen: The event we this day commemorate marked an era in human affairs without example and eminently providential. The seed sown by the Mayflower has spread far and wide to the uttermost parts of this great Republic. The offspring of a little band of Christians and RepubHcans have carried with them the language, the religion, and the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 213 habits of self-government of their fathers to every quarter of this country; untrammeled by any state religion, without privileged orders, hereditary rulers, or mercenary guards, they have contributed to found a new world powerful for protection against foreign enemies and securing the blessings ' of individual liberty. They have aided in solving the great problem of man's capacity for self- government, when education, industry, and reli- gion constitute the basis of national character. In every region they have penetrated, they have united with the native and adopted citizen in working out this great truth, and founded their dwelling-places in the full resolve to surround them with all the immunities of home. The revolution which secured our national existence being the result of the united toils and the mingled blood of every patriot, our whole liberated conti- nent became a common domain, held by the indis- putable right of common conquest, and the same generations of men put the finishing stroke to their labors by the adoption of that Constitution which, protecting the domestic rights of the separate states, unites the whole into one great empire for national purposes, without any claim to control the institutions of the separate states. 214 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY This contract our fathers made; under it our country has flourished beyond the most sanguine expectations of its founders. We must be con- tent with the Union as they organized it. The United States Legislature has no more authority beyond the enumerated powers expressed in the Constitution than with the affairs of Russia or England. Their jurisdiction is limited by the written charter under which they assemble — all is expressed, nothing implied. To attempt to usurp one jot beyond the letter is to abrogate the whole contract, and on their heads be the conse- quences. We ask nothing but the Constitution as it is written; beyond that, self-preservation, the honest pride of independence, forbids us to move an inch. Do those who prate of universal benevolence know that nothing is so pernicious as to desert plain, explicit, and conventional rules for the wild dictates of this undefined and imprac- ticable pretension of empires and fanatics? To abandon a well-tried and practical union for the imaginary boon which the fanaticism of the day promises its dupes, is wild and wicked. It is the disease of prosperity. It is the besetting sin of man never to be satisfied with the actual blessings of Providence, when most bountifully bestowed. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 215 'Jeshurum waxed fat and kicked.' This is the history of mortal gratitude, written of old time. To attempt to tear down any established govern- ment and build it up better has, in all ages, been a fearful experiment, and has seldom failed to call down upon those who attempted it the horrors of civil war, the tortures of the gibbet, the confla- grations of peaceful habitations, and ended in aggravating all the evils, real or imaginary, which led to the effort. Are we not at peace with the world, prosperous beyond every people on earth ? And yet fanaticism is busily lighting her torch, and demagogues are at work to take advantage of its baleful light to find their way to undeserved success. Look abroad upon other nations and we find even our unexampled success has proved no precedent for the oppressed of other nations. True, many a swelling heart has struggled to deliver the victims of despotism from their chains in vain. Their struggles have ended in despair. The blood of patriots has flowed in torrents, to no effect, and the chains of despotism have been strengthened again. The tree of liberty cannot be propagated by scions, however fresh from the parent-stalk, especiaUy if inoculated upon the corrupt stocks of feudal origin. But planted in 2i6 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY our own virgin soil, it has spread its branches over a whole continent of freedom. True it is that the devoted Pilgrims who committed it to our native earth sheltered it for long years of its early growth by their manly fortitude and often moistened its roots with their tears and their blood. Let the traitors beware who would at this day attempt the unblessed task of blasting its foliage or laying the axe at its root. "All practical and successful government has been in some degree the growth of time, and has been accommodated to the peculiar want of those who framed it. A more theoretical per- fection has never yet characterized any known institutions of man. Can it be hoped that the dreams of enthusiasts, seconded by the heartless aspirations of demagogues, can ever frame a system better adapted to the American people than the one we now enjoy? We are at least under no obligations to hazard the experiment. The differing character of our population is itself the strongest reason for leaving the states uncon- trolled in their discipline and direction. No one can manage his neighbor's household as will he to whom it belongs. The attempt is unmitigated vanity and self-conceit, and its end is mischief. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 217 It is a spirit that would lead us into crusades to liberate the serfs of Russia, to restore her nation- ality to Poland, to heal the wounds of bleeding Hungary, to avenge the centuries of wrongs which bear down the genius of Ireland; to succor the wretches who toil in dreary mines and waste away in the crowded factories of England, and even essay the act of gallantry in restoring the beautiful victims of Turkish grossness and open the well- guarded door of the harem; and, in the mean- time, the North and the South, the East and the West, would become diverted from their avoca- tions, and all our present greatness and internal prosperity would vanish like a fitful dream. It is madness to attempt these fancied feasts of uni- versal benevolence. It is impious to anticipate the dispensations of Providence. Our own coun- try, our own homes, our own institutions are com- mitted to the various departments of our own government; let each revolve in the sphere assigned to it under the Constitution, and leave the rest to Him who is alone wise to direct. "Our people are too wise not to comprehend and too accustomed to self-defense not to resist the first attempt to invade their rights. We feel no sympathy with the disorganizers. Free soil is 2i8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY a palpable cheat; all soil is free to those who will purchase or cultivate it. The true secret is in the sympathy of those whose war cry is, 'Vote yourself a farm' — subterraneans, who only crawl out at elections and wish to get that for their votes which honest men are content to obtain by honest industry. We see them stripped for a fight at the polls, but never at the plough or with the axe, which, if fairly wielded, will soon cut them out a farm. This equivocal cry of free soU is the assembly that is to rally all that is vicious and indolent and reckless, and we must rely on the sober and industrious and moral to withdraw their countenance and withhold their countenance. They are incendiaries, and we are ready to arrest their career and protect ourselves. We want no change; we will not surrender what we hold under the title of the Revolution and the guaranty of the Constitution — and we hold all who shall dis- turb us as enemies, wherever they exist, and recreants to their race. "And now I conclude with this sentiment: "The Land We Live in: The home of our choice, not of accident. Here in our native land, liberated from colonial vassalage by the united efforts of our ancestors, we have fixed our habita- WILLIAM S. HASTIE OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 219 tions and garnered up our hearts, secure in the sanctions of a common struggle for national inde- pendence and the guaranties of a Constitution formed by our fathers. We will preserve, pro- tect, and defend it with the same fidelity from foreign invaders or domestic traitors." VIEWS OF DR. OILMAN The next speaker is the Reverend Dr. Samuel Oilman, who was one of the most scholarly men in South Carolina at the time. This was also Dr. Oilman's last effort before the New England Society prior to his death in 1858. "The North and South Poles of Our Country: Heaven grant that the true equatorial line- be- tween them may be found right speedily. "I rise, Mr. President, not as a poUtician, but as a clergyman — an American — a man — to respond to the sentiment which you have just announced. The sentiment, I observe, sir, is couched in the form of a prayer, and may on that account be sup- posed to appeal somewhat to my professional sympathies and sensibilities. And truly, sir, long as I have been in the habit of addressing myself to the Supreme Disposer of the Universe, whether as 220 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the public organ of a religious congregation or on my bended knees in the retirement of domestic privacy, never have I offered a petition to Heaven more deeply agonized with the inmost breathings of my heart than is my adoption of the words that have just fallen from your lips. With intense and painful anxiety have I watched the distrac- tions of our common, native country, and wit- nessed the gathering cloud that seems to threaten her destiny. But amidst all the gloom and alarm occasioned by the array of contending parties, I cannot permit myself to doubt that some happy solution will ' speedily ' be discovered for the difficulties that environ and perplex us. "Twice, Mr. President, since you and I have resided in this cordial and graceful old city of the South, have we seen the horizon as dark as it is now, and the elements of general convulsion appar- ently on the point of exploding. But by the benignant interposition of our God and our fathers' God, and the exercise of that felicitous good sense, self-restraint, and mutual forbearance which, 1 rejoice to believe, essentially belong to the American temperament and the American heart, we have seen our country's reeling bark dash through the enclosing storm-wave and, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 221 righting itself, soon regain its accustomed track of steadfast and tranquil, though mighty, progress. "It is true that the stakes, issues, and questions of those days, momentous as they were, sink almost into insignificance when compared with the grander agitations of the present moment. It is true that the length and the breadth of this North American continent, the control of the Atlantic and Pacific shores, were not then, as they now are, involved in the controversies that shake and try our Constitution to its center. But, sir, may not the very grandeur and extent of the arena constitute on this occasion our safeguard, and may they not by a sort of blessed vis inertiae harmonize, sway, and reconcile the combatants, just as the central attraction of the great globe itself draws to one point and one poise the most variant tribes that move upon its surface ? "Yes, it is impossible that this Union can be dissolved — this Union which has begotten in the breasts of all its children a sentiment of mysterious and indestructible loyalty, that has astonished the world and baffled the calculations and extorted the convictions of the wondering minions of monarchy. All Europe has long been earnestly inquiring what is the meaning of that secret influence in our 2 22 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY institutions that calls forth from the loftiest as well as the humblest of our citizens, although they may have been born thousands of miles apart and inhabit different climes, different zones, an en- lightened self-devotion and a prompt obedience to authority, which for beauty and power is not to be surpassed, not to be approached even, by the canine fidelity of the Russian serf to his emperor, nor by the frantic fanaticism of the oriental slave who bares his neck to the sword of a barbarian despot. "Yes, it is impossible that this Union can be permanently dissolved. Even if, in a moment of irritation and misunderstanding, a separation should be effected, depend upon it, as God is true, some method and principle of reunion would assuredly be contrived. Our common general origin, position, language, religion, history, forms of government, manners, civil laws, habitudes, interests, necessities, worn channels of intercourse — all the categories, in short, so perfectly set forth in Washington's Farewell Address — must crystallize us into a certain unity, whether poli- ticians will it or not, and notwithstanding some disparities in manners and institutions. The steamer, the railroad, and the telegraph only con- OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 223 cur with and more and more necessitate the action of these moral causes. A division would be like dividing the waters with your hand, only to rush together again in their former channel. Like that parted husband and wife of whom we have all heard, we should find it intolerable to live asunder, and we should prefer enduring one another's imperfections, excitabilities, and idiosyncrasies to the dismal stagnation of existing on alone. There would, there must, be still some new combination, some new confederacy, with new conditions and guaranties, it may be, and so framed as to avoid the embarrassments of the past. And in sketch- ing out this result, I do but reiterate the voice of the past experience and history of our country. What is our present Constitution itself but an improvement wrought upon the old confederacy, such as events and necessities unavoidably developed? Can there be but one stage in our development ? If we have outgrown the existing Constitution — if parts of the system have become tight beyond endurance to either portion of the confederacy — is there no such thing as a new enlargement and accommodation of the enfolding garment ? 224 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "But we will not look toward even this alter- native. We will hope for better things yet. We still see in our national councils those giant spirits who have piloted us in other days through stormy seas, and who have the hand and the heart to do it again. So long as Webster, the tyipe and genius of the East; Calhoun, the type and genius of the South; Clay, the type and genius of the West; and all three united, the type and genius of our Republic in its happiest phase — so long as these men have a consulting voice in our destiny, is there not a large margin for hope ? "Therefore, Mr. President, as I began these few remarks from your prayer as a starting point, so I am encouraged to close them with a prayer. It is that the Almighty would be pleased, of His infinite mercy, to visit this our land with the spirit of our own Washington, that he would enlighten, direct, unite, and bless our rulers and legislators, that he would carry to a successful termination the great experiment of self-government which He has thus far permitted to be here so auspi- ciously commenced; and that he would preserve and perpetuate our expanding union, so that by its powerful momentum the blessings of peace, virtue, good order, civil and religious liberty, pure OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 225 and undefiled religion, may spread with their choicest influences throughout the world. "And now, sir, to make some transition from these solemn themes to the more genial festivities appropriate to this occasion, I offer as a sentiment: "Our distant and absent friends and brethren, members of this Society, together with the sons of the Pilgrims, wherever they are scattered over the land. Linked to them as we are by many a friendly and kindred tie, we recognize in this wel- come anniversary, next to the Union of the states, the strongest rivet to the chain." OTHER VIEWPOINTS At the annual celebration in 1859, two ad- dresses were delivered by members of the Society whose attitude was quite the antithesis of the two previous speakers. Dr. F. M. Robertson's response was as follows: "I have not been indifferent to the events and tendencies which have shown themselves during the past year. It is indeed a fundamental truth — as expressed in the sentiment from the com- mittee of arrangements — that the Constitution under which our Union exists is a compact 226 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY founded upon mutual sympathy and good will between confederated states. Now I would ask you — I would ask this assemblage of the descend- ants and friends of the Pilgrim Fathers — does the same mutual sympathy and good will exist now that prompted the formation and adoption of that instrument? I am sure you will answer, no! If not, then, it is a melancholy fact that the Union, which it represents, is virtually abrogated. "I have long been an enthusiastic lover of the Union. Who, indeed, can deny that there is a romantic chain around Bunker Hill, Fort Moul- trie, Lexington, Camden, Princeton, Savannah, Monmouth, King's Mountain, Brandywine, York- town, Bridgewater, Lundy's Lane, New Orleans, and the daring deeds of our gallant navy that bore the Stars and Stripes triumphantly over the tempest-tossed ocean? But, in spite of all the hallowed associations, our safety demands that we should look facts in the face. The light of these glorious beacons which, come what may, will continue to burn with unextinguishable brightness but serves to show more plainly the indelible lines of alienation that are becoming deeper and wider every day. Yes, they have already been traced in blood. I must speak the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 227 truth plainly, not in anger, but in sober earnest. I have been reluctantly forced to the conviction that slaveholding and non-slaveholding states cannot longer progress harmoniously under our present Union. The latter have too plainly and unmistakably declared that their form of civili- zation is radically, totally, and irreconcilably antagonistic to ours. This is the issue forced upon us. We must look it full in the face, meet it now, and decide it now. "If not out of order, I will make a professional comparison, which may not be an unapt illus- tration of our present condition. Our body politic is evidently very sick — ^very sick indeed. Now I propose, with your permission, making a sort of clinical examination of the patient, by which we shall better understand the case and the grounds of our diagnosis as well as prognosis. The human frame is said to be the perfection of mechanism. It is governed in all its beautiful and symmetrical movements by a set of nerves which spring from within the cavity of the cranium and spinal column. These are distributed to all the tissues, organs, and muscles. These impart vitality to every part. But, in order to insure harmony of action for the common good of all the organs. 228 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY each of which, to a certain extent, is independent in the performance of locomotion, respiration, digestion, the circulation of the vital fluids and nutrition, there is another set of nerves having infinite ramification, and which unite with the former and are sent to all the organs to harmonize the action. This assemblage of nerves is most appropriately called the 'great sympathetic nerve.' When any part of the system becomes deranged, it is by the sympathetic action of this nerve that all the other organs feel the shock, and nature is aroused to a united and combined effort for the restoration of health. A destruction or disease of this sympathetic nerve leads to dis- orders that are fatal to the harmonious action of the system; disease, decay, convulsions, and death are often the results. "Upon this very principle is our Union founded. Each state is a separate and inde- pendent organ, acting for itself; but for the mutual protection and the common good all are united under the Constitution, the great sympa- thetic nerve of the Union. This is the seat of all our trouble. The functions of this great sympa- thetic nerve have become paralyzed in some of the organs of the body politic, and it no longer OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 229 responds to that sympathetic action which is essential to health and harmony. If this derange- ment progresses, of which I have no doubt from present symptoms, political inflammation, con- gestion, gangrene, and a final sloughing off of this unhealthy portion will be the result. Then will there be, not only a virtual abrogation of the Union, but its inevitable destruction. "It will probably be said that I do injustice to a large portion of the people of the non- slaveholding states, who are conservatives. I wish I could be convinced that such is the case; no one would make a more ample and uncondi- tional apology than your unworthy speaker. I have many dear and warm personal friends in the non-slaveholding states whom I esteem and respect as highly as I do those around me. The descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers, among whom are some of our best citizens, who are identified with us in sympathy and interest, who have become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, require no eulogy or defense from me; we know them to be true to their adopted state; nor do I feel the slightest personal ill will toward those who do not think with me upon this great ques- tion. I would, tomorrow — yes, this very night 230 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY — ^peril my own best interest to shield them from a lawless mob or illegal prosecution, believing, as I do, that they are the deluded victims of a strange hallucination. "I know I shall be pointed to the great con- servative meetings in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. We have too often seen the shadow without the substance. We are taught, by high authority, to judge of the tree by its fruit. 'Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ?' Such demonstrations only cost a little eloquence and a few huzzahs for the Union. These con- servative meetings, which appear to be a peri- odical spasmodic gasp in certain great cities, and perfectly impotent with the masses — they cannot resist the torrent. 'Let us hear from the ballot-box.' Without the substance, these demon- strations are but 'sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.' The great mass of the people are anti- slavery, the majority anti-slavery and Black Republican, and a considerable portion out and out John Brown and Garrett Smith abolitionists, and all are tending to the same point. If you were to listen to the disputes of the doctors about yellow fever, you might conclude from the argu- ments of some that there was only now and then OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 231 a genuine case of yellow fever to be found: they call some cases ephemeral fever, some break-bone fever, and some acclimation fever. But these are but different forms of the same disease: all are yellow fever. Just so with these anti-slavery men. Black Republicans and abolitionists — it is all the same disease. The only difference is that some have gone into the black vomit stage a little in advance of the others. The ultra-abolition ranks are filled up from the Black Republicans, and the Black Republican ranks are recruited from anti-slavery men. "It is a painful fact that, in spite of these repeated conservative meetings, the abolition sentiment and party have steadily gained ground from year to year until, through the ballot-box, in union with their allies, they now control almost every non-slaveholding state and have sent over one hundred Black Republicans to the national House of Representatives, more than sixty of whom have endorsed and contributed to the cir- culation of a book calculated to kindle a servile war in every slaveholding state. These are facts. Can such men legislate in that spirit of mutual sympathy and good will which gave birth to the Constitution? No, never! never! The 232 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY vital spark has fled. They have virtually abro- gated the Union which it represents. "We have stood by the Constitution in every trial and are still ready to stand by it ; but if the people of the non-slaveholding states have deter- mined that their form of civilization cannot progress under the provisions of a compact which recognizes and protects us as slaveholders, and are ready to repudiate the Union, be it so. They will have a fearful problem to work out. Those who sow to the storm shall reap the whirlwind. We shall quietly organize as a Southern confed- eration, and with a firm reliance on the God of Nations provide new guards for our future safety, and 'hold them as we hold the rest of mankind — enemies in war; in peace, friends.' " Colonel James H. Taylor responded : "We have chosen our habitation with the people of the South. Here we have reared our families and erected our household gods. Our children, born and educated here, know no other home. Our dead are mingled with the dust beneath the magnolia and the pine, and all that we are and have is bound up in the welfare of the South. We look forward — a gloomy pall seems to be settling on our prospects and our hopes, the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 233 bearers of which are our own Northern brethren and friends. It is impossible for us to disguise the fact that the sentiment of the Free States is hostile to our institutions. The leaders of some of the political parties of the North have an- nounced that an 'irrepressible conflict' between free and slave labor has already commenced; business relations are interrupted; social inter- course has become tinctured with bitter feeling; Christian charity has lost its power over the hearts of many who profess to be governed by religious principles, and the evidence before our eyes is clear and unmistakable that the doctrines which have been taught in the pulpit, from the rostrum, in Sabbath schools, and by the fireside — that slavery is a sin which should be removed from our land by every hazard— are now produ- cing their bitter fruit in lawless aggression, violence, and death. This state of things cannot endure. Will the conservative sentiment of the Free States be able to roll back the tide of wild fanaticism which finds its root in the conscience of a people ? Ne^oer, for the conservatism itself is rotten at the core. Not one, perhaps, of all those men who would thus sweep back the ocean of abolitionism with a broom but are conscientiously convinced 234 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY that slavery in principle is wrong and that the institution is an evil. They do not — they can- not — stand on Southern ground in regard to first principles; and therefore their opposition to the whirlwind among them is looked upon with indif- ference, if not with contempt. Let us look back a little, and we find in 1832 the first lecturer — one Arnold Buffum, a Quaker — traveling over New England and presenting his doctrines wher- ever he could procure a place in which to speak. He found then no friend to his cause. In many instances he was publicly insulted, and nowhere was he favored or followed. Behold the change! AboHtionism has become aggressive. The pulpit and the press in too many cases are debauched to its support. Fanaticism has burst over all restraint and with headlong fury has dashed itself against the sovereignty of one of these states in the wild hope that there was no foundation beneath and that our social order and system would go down in wild confusion and destruction. Blood has been shed — that sacred thing hallowed in olden times as a sacrifice has been poured out; and, strangest of all, through the Free States come up on every side notes of sympathy. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 235 "But I must pass on; enough has been said to indicate my opinions upon the nature and tend- encies of the principles that have brought about the present condition of things. BeHeving that an 'irrepressible conflict' has commenced and has almost reached its culmination, we must be pre- pared for the crisis, or I would rather say the results, of these contending forces. There are but two alternatives: the one to remain in the present Union, gradually yielding to the pressure that is upon Southern institutions until these shall be so crippled, confined, and smothered as to perish by atrophy, leaving the body politic without vigor or life; or, asserting our rights, assume the dignity of independent states, and then organize a government upon a principle that will recognize harmony in all conditions of labor and under all the arrangements of a wise, overruling Providence. "The first of these alternatives I will not dis- cuss. I do not believe there is a person present who wiU give his adherence to a course like that when he shall be convinced that justice and safety in this Union can no longer be expected. I invite your attention for a moment to the second alternative, intending to present a few reasons 236 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY why we may look with hopefulness upon such a termination to our present conflict; and, in pass- ing, I desire to say one word in reference to the intimation which has been made more than once that if the Southern states attempt to organize a new republic, they shall be ' whipped ' back, or, as a member of Congress expresses it, a division of territory between free and slave states shall not take place, as eighteen millions are fully able to cope with eight millions. "Language like this is pitiful, it is contempt- ible. Neither section can afford to go to war on this subject; but certain it is, while the South will not attack the Free States to force her institutions upon them, all their combined power can never compel her to relinquish one iota of right or release one solitary slave. But the North, with all her wealth and population, can less afford to go to war than the South. Peace at home is of the first importance to a commercial and manufactur- ing people, and peaceful markets abroad are abso- lutely necessary to their prosperity. The dense population of the Northern states must be kept employed or the question of food for the pauper will ring in louder tones than ever. Granting OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 237 that peace will follow the act of separation, we turn to our resources. It is unnecessary to com- ment upon the spirit and temper of eight millions of men whose ancestors are known in history and whose contemporaries have added new luster to Southern fame upon the battlefields of Florida and Mexico. Nor is it needful to speak of the four millions of slaves whose labor now clothes the world; but we come at once to the results of this labor and the power it exerts upon those who would dictate to us the terms upon which we are to employ it. The parody upon Carlyle's well- known proverb, 'Cotton is King,' is literally true, and that king has his throne in the South. Of the three hundred millions of dollars of exports last year, two hundred millions were of the South. What a power is here — a power that can influence exchange and finance, control importations, and collect tribute from every nation under heaven. Even the North, whose busy intermeddlers are even now pulling at the very king-post of the fabric of their own prosperity, this same North depends upon us for thirty-five millions of dollars of cotton each year, and for which for so long a time we have consented to receive in return the 238 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY wares and goods of her own make. Stop this arrangement. As a Southern repubUc, a new order of things must exist. The new government must be conducted on economical principles and be supported by a direct tax upon the people. Our ports must be open in truth and fact to free trade. This secures the sympathy of England and Europe; our cotton goes with more prompt- ness because free trade gives an opportunity for an immense market for foreign productions and leaves our Northern neighbors the privilege of paying for their cotton in gold, instead of in the products of their mills and factories." THE ACTIONS OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY FROM i860 TO 1865 INCLUSIVE The annual celebration on Forefathers' Day, December, i860, was not the usual elegant func- tion. The custom, which had prevailed for more than a generation, of having an oration was omitted. However, a number of short impromptu addresses were delivered. Two of these addresses were of more than casual interest. Hon. James B. Campbell responded to the toast ''The Day We Celebrate." His address dealt with the sterling characteristics of the Pilgrim Fathers. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 239 He also prophesied the indissolubility of the Union. Mr. W. B. Carlisle responded to the toast, "The Press." Mr. Carlisle concluded his address by stating that as a native of South Carolina he desired to "render his acknowledgments and appreciation for the homage and affectionate allegiance that had been exhibited by adopted sons of South Carolina in the whole course of the New England Society and in the proceedings of the evening. "The great lesson of the day is, above and beyond all forms and details of government, in its sublime illustration and exemplification of the great truth that no sacrifice or privations are to be reckoned in comparison with self-government. Whatever of errors or evil has followed in the foot- prints of the Pilgrims or of their misguided descendants, this great lesson is essentially and eternally American, and knows no section or chmate. "We may differ in our application of it to details and particular cases and sectional interests, but we have not forgotten it, even at this distance, in time and place, from the great event com- memorated on the 2 2d of December. A late event 240 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY in South Carolina would mark the 20th of Decem- ber with a significance destined to grow in impor- tance at each recurrence. It could not be expected that any great state movement would be effected without an actor representing New England. In the list of signatures affixed with determined and deliberate purpose to the Ordinance of Secession of the 20th of December, i860, there was an honored name of a noble son of New England. It was a grateful privilege to recall to the attention of the New England Society that this name was that of their annual orator. Chancellor B. F. Dunkin, the faithful citizen, pure patriot, and upright magistrate." The governor and the lieutenant-governor of South Carolina sent their regrets: "The Governor presents his best respects to the New England Society and regrets that important business occupying his attention pre- vents his acceptance of their polite invitation for tomorrow evening. The Governor is pleased at the demonstration of fidelity contained in their note. Of this patriotic avowal the Governor has no doubt." The lieutenant-governor wrote: OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 241 "I have the honor to acknowledge your flattering invitation to be present with you this evening at your anniversary celebration, and regret that a previous engagement will preclude me from enjoying that pleasure. Permit me to offer you the following sentiment : "The New England Society of Charleston: True to the instincts of their noble ancestors, they know the rights of their inheritance, and will ever fearlessly maintain them." The mayor of the city was present, and felicitated the members. In 1 86 1 the members of the New England Society held their annual meeting in December, and at the suggestion of Hon. James B. Campbell dispensed with the annual dinner, donating the sum of one thousand dollars to hospitals in Charleston for the benefit of sick and wounded soldiers. In 1862 the Society held a number of meetings. At a meeting held January 21, 1862, a donation of one hundred dollars was made to the Ladies' Benevolent Society, one of the principal charitable organizations of Charleston. This was the last meeting at which the venerable president, Mr. A. S. Willington, presided. 242 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY The Society met again March 25, 1862. At this meeting, Otis Mills was elected president and a committee was appointed to draft appropriate resolutions upon the death of the president of the Society, which occurred February 10, 1862. In a brochure published by the New England Society in 1885, it is stated that "no meetings of the Society were held during this interval, March 25, 1862 — December 22, 1865." This statement is incorrect. The annual meeting was held in December, 1862. Resolutions were adopted commemorating the noble life and exalted character of A. S. Wil- lington, who had served the Society for fifteen years as president. A number of donations were made to war benevolences and to other charities of the city. In 1863 a number of meetings were held. January 31, 1863, a regular monthly meeting was held, at which Mrs. A. S. Willington, widow of the late president of the Society, was elected a life- member. Mrs. Willington joined the Society in order to assist in the noble works of charity which the Society was doing at the time. Mrs, Willington was the only woman ever elected to membership in the New England Society of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 243 Charleston. The annual meeting was held in December, 1863, at which routine business was transacted, officers elected, and the total income of the Society donated to charity. In 1864, the darkest period of the War, no regular meetings of the Society were held, but it is of interest to note that the committee on charity continued the benevolent work of the Society. Not only did the New England Society fail to meet in regular session in 1864, but also a number of the other fraternal organizations of the city were unable to hold meetings on account of perilous conditions. In 1865 the following advertisement appeared in the Charleston Daily Courier of December 22: "The members of the New England Society are requested to meet this evening at the Mills House, at six o'clock." The annual dinner was again omitted and the income of the Society for the year was distributed among the worthy charities of the community. At the close of the War, the Society was strong and active. It is a significant fact that not a single member resigned during the war period. On its membership roll were the names of many of the most prominent men of the city, 244 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY such as: Messrs. Robertson, Williams, Tucker, Johnson, Lebby, Tupper, Webb, Hastie, Hayden, Robinson, Pope, Campbell, Read, Street, Locke, Rowland, Richards, Earle, Taylor, Brewster, Mills, Dunkin, and others of equal standing in the community. It is a well-known fact that the New England Society during this period of stress and blood maintained its high standing in membership and in good works. The reason the Society lived and prospered during the trying five years of war was on account of its stainless record for more than forty years, and especially for the reason that the individual members of the Society were men of high and noble character, in whom the community had absolute trust and confidence. Professor F. C. Woodward, of the South Carolina College, delivered an address before the Society at its annual celebration in 1895, in which he interpreted the true spirit of the old city. He said in part : "If my tongue were touched with poetic fire, I might seek to emulate Wordsworth's praise of Yarrow in a trilogy upon Charleston unvisited, Charleston visited, and Charleston revisited. But OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 245 though it is not poetry, it is truth that to this visi- tor Charleston unvisited was a joyous anticipation; visited, a happy realization; revisited, a climac- teric consummation. 'See Rome and die!' See Charleston and live ! "When, some years ago, I first heard of the New England Society of Charleston, I was struck with the apparent contradiction of the terms of that title. It suggested such paradoxes as the polar bears of the Sahara, tobogganing on the Equator, wooden nutmegs growing on the Pal- metto, a school of codfish storming the Battery. But this superficial fancy soon gave place to the conclusion that this title was a pregnant epigram, good fellowship that knows no prejudices, a national solidarity that ignores all sectionalism. So I take it and hail the omen. Does it not mean, this leaning of the Pine to the Palmetto, that there is room in their hearts for their Southern fellow-citizens and welcome at our hearts for our Down-East brethren ? "There should be a twin fraternity: the New England Society of Charleston and the South Carolina Society of Boston; that while we are swapping turpentine for tin pans and cotton for 246 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY calico, we may make generous interchange of Southern state pride and genial hospitality for Northern thrift and national patriotism." THE CONDUCT OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY AND OF ITS MEMBERS DURING THE TRYING PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION The contribution in terms of service and influ- ence rendered by the New Englanders in Charles- ton more than justified the confidence in which they had been held for half a century in South Carolina. It will suffice to mention a few out- standing instances of the loyalty and constructive activity of the men who represented New Eng- land traditions. In 1866 the Society celebrated its forty-eighth anniversary. Its president, Otis Mills, had sold practically his whole estate, consisting of the very best realty in Charleston, and invested it in Con- federate bonds in order to assist the Confederacy. The investment was a total loss. James B. Campbell, the vice-president of the Society, had been elected United States senator by the legisla- ture of South Carolina. Both of these patriotic citizens were born in Massachusetts. Benjamin F. Dunkin, a New Englander, was chief justice of South Carolina. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 247 At this meeting, almost the entire income of the Society was donated for the assistance and comfort of Confederate soldiers in the city of Charleston. Ten representative men, a number of whom had served in the Confederate Army, joined the Society. During the years immediately following the Civil War, the membership became larger and the finances of the Society became more prosperous than at any time previously. These facts emphasize the high esteem in which the Society was held in the community. In 1875 there came a crisis in South Carolina. D. H. Chamberlain, a New Englander and a mem- ber of the New England Society of Charleston, was governor of the state at the time. The judiciary, which ex-President Taft has defined as "the bulwark of our civilization," was threatened. The General Assembly of the state elected to the office of circuit judge W. J. Whipper and F. J. Moses, Jr. Governor Chamberlain refused to grant commissions to these men. There were two reasons why the Governor refused; the first was legal, the second was moral. The state constitution provided that "for each circuit a judge shall be elected by the General Assembly, who shall hold his office for a term of 248 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY four years." On January 18, 1872, F. J. Graham was elected judge of the first circuit, and John T. Green was elected judge of the third circuit. Their terms began in August of that year and, under the constitution, ended in August, 1876. Both Judge Green and Judge Graham died in office. In December, 1874, Colonel J. P. Reed was elected for the unexpired term of Judge Graham, and in January, 1875, Mr. Shaw was elected for the unexpired term of Judge Green. The present General Assembly, assuming that the terms of office of Judges Reed and Shaw expired in August, 1876, when the terms of Judges Graham and Green, had they lived, would have expired, proceeded to elect W. J. Wliipper as judge of the first circuit and F. J. Moses, Jr., as judge of the third circuit. This action was held to be in direct conflict with the constitution, which fixes the term of office of cir- cuit judge at four years, so that the terms of Judges Reed and Shaw did not expire until 1878. Another General Assembly would be elected the next November, and would be in session in 1876- 77, and 1877-78. That General Assembly, and no preceding General Assembly, could elect judges of the first and third circuits, and the act of the OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 249 present General Assembly in assuming to elect Whipper and Moses was absolutely void. The General Assembly in so assuming to elect rested on the admitted fact that Judges Reed and Shaw were elected for an unexpired term only; but by a long series of adjudicated cases in this state before and since the War it was decided that a judge, once in office, no matter how or upon what condition, was in for the constitutional term, which in the present case was four years. The News and Courier of December 22, 1875, made the following comment on the Governor's action: "True to himself, to his honest purposes, and, above all, to the people of South Carolina, Gover- nor Chamberlain has flatly and decisively declined to issue commissions to W. J. Whipper and F. J, Moses, Jr., who claim to have been elected judges of the circuit court of this state. This action was foreshadowed when Governor Chamberlain de- clared that neither Whipper nor Moses had 'any qualities which approached to a qualification for judicial positions'; that Whipper is incapable and unfit, and Moses is crusted over with charges of ' corruption, bribery, and the utter prostitution of his official powers to the worst possible uses. ' And 250 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY it is the proper and natural consequence of the position taken by Governor Chamberlain a year ago when he declared that Whipper had not the ability, the legal learning, or the integrity to fit him for the position he sought. "It is true that Governor Chamberlain bases his refusal to issue the commissions to Whipper and Moses upon the ground that the present General Assembly had not the right to elect them, for the reason that the terms of the present in- cumbents. Judges Reed and Shaw, do not expire until after the next general election. But it is evident that Governor Chamberlain, under other circumstances, would not have felt that he was justified in declining to commission persons whom the General Assembly had, whether right- fully or wrongfully, elected. In his own brave words, 'while in some cases presenting similar legal questions it might not be required of the Governor to decline commissions, the circum- stances of the present case compel me to this course .^ Before him came two persons, who demanded that the governor of South Carolina officially recognize them as the ministers and expounders of that justice whose seat is the bosom of God. One of these persons is known to be a gambler, known CHARLES S. VEDDER OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 251 to be illiterate, and believed to be a thief; and the other is known to be a debauchee, a bribe-taker, and shameless plunderer of the pubUc. The people were threatened with the greatest calamity that has befallen any Southern state since the War. In this extremity, an extreme step was necessary. Governor Chamberlain has taken that step, and in taking it he has proved, as no other act could have proved, that no consideration of seK or of party can move him a hair's breadth when the safety and peace of the whole people is in peril. The persons whom he was asked to commission are of the same poHtical party with himself. It is certain that the scoundrels who elected them will pour out on the executive the vials of their wrath. Governor Chamberlain stands at bay, while the Radical hounds howl around him. He stands upon the Right. His sole guide is his public duty. And whoever else may be against him, the true people of the state, whose champion he is in the hour of their sorest need, will stand by him to the end. "Think, for a moment, of the complexion given to the election of Moses and Whipper by that refusal to sign their commissions, which has been read with grateful satisfaction this morning in 252 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY evety state of the Union ! It is no longer possible to say that these two persons are stigmatized because of their pohtics or class; it is no longer possible to declare that the opposition to them is only the expression of Democratic hatred of ever>^thing that is done by Republicans. Gover- nor Chamberlain is a New Englander, a soldier of the Union, a RepubUcan from his youth up. Upon his loyalty to the Union and the Repubhcan cause there is no stain. President Grant declares him to be the best governor in the South. And this Repubhcan of the strictest sect, this Massa- chusetts governor of South Carohna, is com- pelled to cast away from him this WTiipper and this Moses as things so infamous and unclean that they cannot and must not stand before the American people as having any recognition what- soever, save that which is found in their election by persons of their own character and calling. This will make the horrid story plain to every American citizen. By the first bold blow, the fight is hah won ! "Governor Chamberlain has done for the people of South Carohna what no other h\ing man could have done. Great was his oppor- tunity, and splendid is the use he has made of it. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 253 To him thanks eternal for interposing the shield of the executive authority between the chieftains of the robber band in Columbia and the people of the low country of South Carolina. But there is work now for the good people of South Carolina to do. Governor Chamberlain must be sustained and promptly, in what he has done. It must be made manifest, and quickly, that the heart of South Carolina is touched, and this assurance can only be given by mass meetings in every county in the state. Let Charleston begin the work! Tomorrow night, at latest, there should be an outpouring of the people of Charleston in vindication and approval of the conduct of Governor Chamberlain, and to express the unfal- tering and immovable determination that the men whom the General Assembly had the audacity to elect, and whom a Republican governor has refused to commission, shall never administer so-called justice in the courts of South Caro- lina." A great mass meeting was held in Charleston, December 29, 1875. The president of the meeting was George W. Williams, a member of the New England Society. Four of the vice-presidents of the meeting were also prominent members of the 254 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Society. In calling the meeting to order, Colonel B. H. Rutledge said: "We are in the midst of a great crisis in our affairs. We have the safety of our property and our liberties and, it may be, our lives at stake. A blow has been aimed directly at the very center of our civilization. Our honor has been trampled into the very dust. Under these circumstances, it becomes us to consult together, and further to promulgate the result of our deliberations calmly, seriously, earnestly, resolutely. It is for this purpose that we are met here tonight, and it is proposed that this meeting organize immediately without further preliminaries under the following officers, taken from the most respectable, the most influential, and the most responsible of our fellow-citizens." After the meeting was organized. General James Conner, one of the most distinguished citizens of the state, delivered the following address : "I had hoped never again to make a political speech. It is foreign to my disposition and pur- suits; but there are occasions when private incli- nation must yield to public duty, when every citizen must consider the state first, and himself OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 255 last ; and this, in my judgment, is such an occasion. We are brought by recent events face to face with great issues. I am old enough to remember many eventful periods in the history of this state; but I can recall not one more momentous than the present. "The question is not how you can live here; but whether you can live here at all. You have either to redeem the state or quit it. You must make a good government or they will make a Hayti. For one, I claim a heritage in the state, and I will not be driven from it! Since 1868 the Republican party has ruled the state; no such government has ever shocked the civilized world. No people has ever endured so much, so patiently, and so long. We have sought relief through con- ciliation and compromise; and I do not condemn it. I say it was well; for had it not been tried, there are those who would have said that it was the true remedy and sole panacea for all this. We have tried it and demonstrated by failure its utter inadequacy. "When Governor Chamberlain stumped the state in the canvass for governor, he pledged him- self to reform and to lift from the Republican party of the nation and the state the odium and 256 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY reproach of South Carohna poHtics. His party cheered him to the echo, and held him forth as their champion. But no sooner does he attempt to maintain his pledged faith and lift his party from the slough of corruption than they repudiate his counsels, defeat his plans, and crown their infamy by a degradation greater than any ever yet imposed. The election of Moses and Whipper was the legislative answer to his efforts to reform the party from within. "All that now stands between us and the degradation of the bench is the wise and bold action of the Governor. He stands erect, bearing the wrath of his own party, to maintain unbroken his promise of reform. As he is true to his duty, let us be true to ours and stand firmly and unitedly by him in support of the right. It is the path of duty; it is the path of wisdom and safety." The following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted by the meeting: "We are assembled to confer upon a condition of affairs as grave as ever imperiled the peace and well-being of any community. The foundation of society is a pure judiciary, and its corruption or perversion to evil purposes destroys the last hope of securing to a people protection and liberty. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 257 "The action of the legislature in electing as judges W. J. WTiipper and F. J. Moses, Jr., men whose proper place in a courthouse is the criminal's dock, is an insult to evety honest citizen, and a \dolation of every safeguard which the law affords to life, hberty, and property. "But this action is not in itself the full measure of the evil that confronts us. Bad as it is, its graver aspect is in what it signifies. We recognize in the recent judicial elections the ascendency and control of the worst element of the political party which governs the state. Actuated by a relentless hate based upon race, and stimulated by the pros- pect of 'plunder and revenge,' they have repudi- ated all restramt and inaugurated a poHcy which inevitably leads to the destruction of decent government, ruins the material interests of the state, and imperils our very ci\alization. Under such a condition of things, law ceases to protect and government itseK becomes the oppressor. "What shall we do to avert the destruction which must surely result from the consummation of the policy thus inaugurated ? "Since 1868 the conservative citizens of this state have put aside party obligations and the hopes of party ascendency, have put no party 2s8 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY ticket in the field, but have sought and hoped for peace stabihty and pure government through the Repubhcan party. They have striven not to antagonize but to harmonize conflicting races, interests, and opinions, patiently waiting to obtain as the fruits of their forbearances the blessings of good government. "In every form in which the effort could be made, it has been tried, and when, through the wise, firm, and patriotic administration of Gover- nor Chamberlain, the end seemed about to be obtained, a Repubhcan Assembly impatiently resents his control, and with a recklessness born of ignorance and hate commits the state to a career destructive of its peace and fatal to its prosperity. The failure to obtain relief through the agency of the Republican party of the state is utter and hopeless. The responsibilities and obligations imposed upon us in this emergency must be fearlessly met. "It is our first duty, as citizens to whom the character and future of the state are dear, earn- estly and solemnly to protest against the action of those who not only have brought reproach upon their own party, but have endangered the very foundations of our social fabric; and to use every OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 259 means to wrest from them the power which they have so wantonly abused. ''We deprecate all appeal to passion and prejudice, but it behooves us to speak plainly. The attempt to place infamy and corruption in the seat of justice violates the primal instincts of civilized humanity, and to that we will not sub- mit. The right to justice and good government is one which we dare not relinquish. "With no hostility to the colored people of the state, mindful of the good conduct of those who have not been misled by evil counsels, we are determined to preserve to them every right and privilege guaranteed by the Constitution and laws of the country; but the avowed purpose that there shall not be equality but a domination of their race over the property and rights of the white people of the state will be resisted to the last; and under no circumstances shall it prevail. "We appeal to the honest and intelligent por- tion of them who bear their share of the political shame, but share no part of the political plunder, while there is yet time to turn away from the evil counsels which are leading them to a contest which must end in utter ruin. 26o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY "We raise no political issue. 'The issue rises higher than the party/ and seeks the end for which parties are organized. "We recognize the earnestness and fidelity with which a portion of the Republican party under the leadership of Governor Chamberlain has striven to establish a government which respects the rights and protects the interests of all the people of the state. But they have failed. The worst elements of their party have defeated them. With confidence in their sincerity, we ask them to continue their efforts and, without the abandonment of political principles, to aid us in the attainment of a common end and the estab- lishment of a pure and honest government. Be it therefore ^^ Resolved, That as citizens of this state we protest against the action of the General Assembly in electing as judges men so notoriously corrupt as W. J. Whipper and F. J. Moses, Jr., and avow our determination to resist it to the end. ^^ Resolved, That we protest against the con- tinuance in office of legislators so regardless of duty and so reckless of the character, the peace, and the prosperity of the state, and we will use every effort to drive them from power. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 261 ^^ Resolved, That we cordially endorse the action of Governor Chamberlain in refusing to issue commissions as judges to W. J. Whipper and F. J. Moses, Jr., and pledge to him the full sup- port of this community in his efforts to secure to the people of the state a faithful administration of the law. '^Resolved, That we tender to Governor Cham- berlain our grateful thanks for the bold and states- manlike struggle he has made in the cause of reform, in the economical administration of the government, in the preservation of the public faith, in the equal administration of justice, and in the maintainance of the public peace, and we pledge him our cordial support for the accom- phshment of these ends." The manly and patriotic action of Governor Chamberlain elicited commendatory comment from the leading newspapers of the entire country. A limited number are herewith quoted : The New York Herald Governor Chamberlain of South Carolina seems to be doing effective work in opposing the corruptionists of that state, both in and out of the legislature. 262 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY The Boston Advertiser Many eloquent speeches were made at the banquets in various cities Friday night, but to our way of thinking the most eloquent by long odds was that dispatch of a dozen lines sent by telegraph from Columbia to Charleston by the governor of South Carolina: " If there was ever an hour when the spirit of the Puritans — the spirit of undy- ing, unconquerable enmity and defiance to wrong — ought to animate their sons, it is this hour, here, in South Carolina." That was spoken like a son of Massachusetts filled with the grand courage of her early days. Unless we underrate the magnanimity of the descendants of the Huguenots in South Carolina, they will stand by this descendant of the Puritans who, by force of circum- stances, is fighting their battle against the deluded and enraged hosts of ignorance. To all appearances, this is the crisis of affairs in that state, and whether honor and righteousness triumph depends for the time on the cour- age of one man, who, in allegiance to his convictions of the supreme importance in a republic of an upright judiciary, has defied the organized corruption of the state. There is not at the present moment in the whole country a more splendid exhibition of Puritan character. The Boston Globe Then came the question whether it was to be a possi- bility to regenerate the state through a regeneration of the Republican party. Governor Chamberlain and his supporters gave their most zealous efforts to measures of reform, and there was hope of a dawn of light upon the dark prospects of that much-tried commonwealth. But OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 263 there were the same elements there as before — ignorance and irresponsibility under the guidance of rascality — and they have been working against the administration. It seems that in the election of the present legislature they prevailed, and there are threats of a dire eclipse of the brightening prospects of the state. The election of ex-Governor Moses, Mr. Whipper, a colored man, who has proven himself an unscrupulous leader among his own people, and Mr. Wiggins, whom a Charleston paper characterizes as "a drunken ignoramus," to the bench of the Circuit Court shows that the forces of corruption are again in the ascendant. In seconding the nomination of Mr. Whipper, Mr. Elliott, Speaker of the House, and a powerful leader of the black politicians, declared that he would "measure the republicanism of the members by their votes on that occasion." Republicanism in South CaroHna seems to mean submission to these corrupt and reckless leaders. Governor Chamberlain, in a recent interview, admitted that the effect of the election of these would be to reorganize the Democratic party in the state, and that it would embrace the "good and honest men of South Carolina." Of course, the state of things in South Carolina has nothing to do with the general principles or merits of the pohtical parties of the nation. Where political power is lodged with an ignorant population, unfitted for its exercise, the unscrupulous are almost certain to obtain control, and the circumstances and experience of the colored race in this country made it necessary for these leaders to be Republicans in order to gain their ends. It is a question whether it is possible for the intelligence, the honesty, and the conscience of the state to rule 264 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY through either party, so long as the franchise is in the hands of this ignorant mass. If not, that state has got the tribulation of misgovernment to go through, until its colored population is educated up to a better compre- hension and a higher sense of their duties and responsi- bilities as citizens, or in some measure deprived of them. Meantime, there are evidences that the Conservatives will reorganize and draw into their ranks most of the "good and honest men," and they ought to have the help of the public opinion of the rest of the country in their efforts to wrest the state from the hands of its plunderers. The Chicago Tribune Governor Chamberlain, of South Carolina, has again struck a vigorous blow for reform. The legislature of that state lately elected some notorious scamps as circuit judges — Whipper and ex-Governor Moses among them. The governor has refused to issue commissions to these two, basing his refusal on some legal technicality. It is hoped that this will save the state judiciary from the utter degradation prepared for it by the legislature. The corrupt judges were elected by a combination of all the bad element in the state. We rejoice that Governor Chamberlain has done all in his power to prevent the consummation of the bargain. He deserves credit for standing so well by his recent record of honesty and intelligence. The Boston Globe Governor Chamberlain has refused to sign the com- mission of Mr. W. J. Whipper and Mr. Franklin J. Moses, Jr., as circuit judges, on the ground that the legislature OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 265 had no right to elect them, as the term of office of the present incumbents does not expire until after the next legislature is chosen. The ground is a purely technical one, but it is a good thing if any ground can be found for keeping these graceless political bummers off the bench. There is hope that the next legislature may have more sense. The Louisville Courier- Journal This action on the part of Chamberlain is promising, as it gives some hope that South Carolina, the stronghold of the black and white carpet-baggers, will yet be blessed with an honest government. The character of these men, Whipper and Moses, is despicable beyond expression. It is encouraging to know that Governor Chamberlain has determined to abate their recent triumph and free the judiciary from such disgrace. Governor Chamberlain was invited to deliver the oration at the annual celebration of the New England Society in 1875. He was unable to attend, but sent the following telegram: Columbia, S.C, December 22, 1875 To the New England Society, Charleston, S.C: I cannot attend your annual supper tonight, but if there ever was an hour when the spirit of the Puritans — the spirit of undying, unconquerable enmity and defiance to wrong— ought to animate their sons, it is this hour, here, in South Carolina. The civilization of the Puritan and the Cavalier, the Roundhead and the Huguenot, is in peril. Courage, 266 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Determination, Union, Victory must be our watchwords. The grim Pmritans never quailed under threat or blow. Let their sons now imitate their example ! God bless the New England Society. D. H. Chamberlain In 1878 the New England Society of Charles- ton and the New England Society of New York exchanged greetings : The New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina, to the New England Society of New York, greeting: With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. The New England Society of New York to the New England Society of Charleston, South Carolina: We acknowledge cordially your greeting, and we hope to emulate you in a sincere desire to discharge our duties as God gives us light to see them. From a careful survey of the facts in the case, it may be justly concluded that the New England Society of Charleston as an organization and as individuals followed the pathway of duty, as OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 267 they saw the right, during the years immediately preceding the War, during the period of the War, and during the problematical epoch of recon- struction following the War. Before the War, the majority of the New Englanders in Charleston did everything in their power to prevent the conflict. During the War, they exerted every effort to alleviate the suffering, pain, and need. After the War, they devoted their ability, their influence, and their energy to bind up and soothe the wounds, to mitigate hatred, to promote honest government, and to cement the nation into a real Union. 268 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY FAMOUS DINNERS When Daniel Webster visited Charleston in the spring of 1847, he referred to the " City by the Sea" as "the long-renowned and hospitable city of the South." For more than a century Charles- ton has been famous for her charming hospitality. No other city in the South has attained such an enviable reputation in the graceful art of enter- taining. It is not too much to say that among the many functions of a similar character for one hundred years in the city of Charleston, the annual dinners of the New England Society have, by common consent, been accorded prandial and post-prandial pre-eminence. The New England Society was the first organization of the kind in South Carolina to co-ordinate the two ideal features of a banquet — the convivial and the educational. The idea came from New England, the home of education in America. When the Society was organized, it was resolved that the annual celebrations should be for good instruction and good fellowship. This custom has become law in the Society's life. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 269 Other fraternal and patriotic organizations in Charleston have emulated the good example. More than four hundred men of ability and char- acter have delivered addresses before the New England Society of Charleston on Forefathers' Day. The following names are selected from that number: Daniel Webster, Judge B. F. Dun- kin, Colonel B. F. Hunt, Martin Luther Hurlbut, William Crafts, Jr., James L. Petigru, Professor John E. Holbrook, Reverend Samuel Oilman, D.D., Professor Charles Upham Shepard, Rever- end William Coombs Dana, D.D., Charles R. Brewster, James B, Campbell, Reverend Charles S. Vedder, D.D., Melville E. Stone, WiUiam Everett, Josiah Quincy, George F. Hoar, Charles F. Adams, Justice David J. Brewer, Professor Basil L. Oildersleeve, Oovernor David H. Cham- berlain, Henry Bailey, Colonel J. H. Taylor, Dr. F. M. Robertson, John Temple Graves, Oovernor Locke Craig, O. Duncan Bellinger, the Right Reverend C. E. Woodcock, D.D., the Right Reverend Wm. A. Guerry, D.D., Oovernor W. H. Mann, Dr. S. C. MitcheU, Dr. W. S. CurreU, Judge F. D. Winston, F. R. Lassiter, Reverend Paul Revere Frothingham, D.D., Reverend C. B. Wilmer, D.D., E. J. Hill, Patrick Calhoun, Judge 270 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY W. H. Brawley, George S. Legare, Professor Frank C. Woodward, Judge G. W. Gage, Joseph W. Barnwell, Joseph C. Gumming, W. H. McElroy, the Very Reverend J. Wilmer Gresham, D.D., Dr. J. A. B. Scherer, J. B. Townsend, Judge C. H. Simonton, Reverend W. W. Memminger, J. P. K. Bryan, W. C. Miller, John Bennett, Dr. Harrison Randolph, P. A. Willcox, R. Goodwyn Rhett, John F. Ficken, George F. Von Kolnitz, Huger Sinkler, Henry Buist, J. C. HemphiU, T. R. War- ing, P. H. Whaley, Jr., and J. E. Hessin. The following excerpts from the press and the two menus selected at random will give an idea of the excellence of the annual celebrations from the standpoint of gastronomic art and of general excellence: "Of all the handsome banquets and enter- tainments given in the city of Charleston during the year, the annual dinner of the New England Society is by common consent awarded the palm for brilliancy and elegance. The prestige which the dinner has attained is not a local one merely, for wherever the Society exists and spreads its damask, the fame of the deliciousness of its viands, the brilliancy of the company of guests which it collects together, and the excellency of OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 271 the wit and oratory which it calls forth, are proverbial. "The guests whom the Society bids to its feasts are selected from the nation's greatest men, with- out regard to local political prejudices or geo- graphical limitations. When the invitations are sent out — ^invitations coveted by everyone — they go to all quarters of the country. Any son of the country who has honorably won an exalted place in the estimation of his fellow-citizens, no matter what his calling or profession, may receive one. All great Americans cannot be invited the same year, but many of them are bidden to each dinner, and, if death does not interfere, each of them, sooner or later, receives his invitation. Under these circumstances, there is little wonder that the reputation of these feasts should have attained such an honorable distinction, even here in an old city, famous for its banquets and hospitality. "There is not one of the many events which are commemorated in this city which is celebrated and signahzed with such perfection of good taste and such elegance of appointment as the anni- versary of the New England Society. The organi- zation has gone back into the annals of American 272 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY history for its inspiration, and has selected an epi- sode which is invested with something more than the interest which attaches to the most eloquent of historic events. The landing of the Pilgrim Fathers is the motive of the anniversary celebra- tion of this time-honored New England Society; and the day is invariably made memorable in a manner worthy of the spirit and enterprise and hardihood of the storm-tossed pioneers who landed two hundred and sixty-five years ago on Plymouth Rock. There is something of the his- torical justice of events in the fact that at this day, the culture and refinement and wit and patriotism of this city should meet from year to year to revive the memories of a day that has been embalmed in the hearts of the American people by the lapse of over two and a half cen- turies." OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 273 THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY DINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY GIVEN AT THE MILLS HOUSE, CHARLESTON, S.C. DEC. 22, 1856 Menu Oysters on Shell Soup Green Turtle Codfish Chowder Julien Baked Rock Fish, a la Chambord Salmon, Anchovy. Sauce Leg of Mutton, Caper Sauce Turkey, Celery Sauce Chickens and Pork, Tongue Tenderloin Beef, with Mushrooms Ham, St. James Style Green Turtle Steak, Madeira Sauce Capon, with Truffles Boned Turkey, with Jelly, in form Pheasants, en Belle Vue Chicken, French Style Patti de Volaile, Decorated Bastelleon, a la Moderne Cold Game Pie, Lobster Salad Westphalia Ham, with Jelly Chicken Salad Patties, en Financiere Fried Oysters, Chicken Croquettes Pork and Beans, Old Style Olives, Anchovies, Celery, Sardines, Currant Jelly Cranberry Jelly, Lettuce, etc. 274 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Baked, Mashed, and Fried Potatoes Sweet Potatoes, Asparagus Tomatoes, Spinach, Rice Onions, Beets, Turnips Croustade of Quail, a la Royale Chartreuse of Partridge, au feume de Gibiere Timbale, a la Parisienne FUet of Ducks, Bigorade Sauce Cassolette of Rice, a la Reine Mutton Chops, Neranise Supreme of Chickens, with TrufSes Salmi of Woodcock, on form Bondins, a la Richelieu, feume de Volaile Venison Steaks, Currant Jelly Sauce Oyster Patties Beef, Turkey stuffed with oysters Saddle of Venison, Jelly Sauce Capons, Saddle of Mutton, Cranberry Sauce Canvasback Ducks, English Wild Ducks, Grouse Wild Turkeys, Pheasants Pyramids of Crystallized Fruits Plum Pudding, Pumpkin Pies Mince Pies, Apple Pies Macaroons, Mainges French Cakes, Fancy Plates Madeira Jelly, Maraschino Jelly Omelet Souffle, Charlotte Russe Vanilla Ice Cream Oranges, Bananas, Apples, Prunes Almonds, Walnuts, Pecan Nuts, Filberts Raisins, Coffee, and Liquors Cigars Cigarettes OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 275 EIGHTY-THIRD ANNUAL DINNER OF THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Given at the St. John Hotel December 23, 1902 Menu Lynnhaven Oysters Sauterne Salted Almonds Cheese Sticks Clear Green Turtle, aux Quenelles Sherry Canape of Caviar, a la Russe Darne of Salmon, a la Chambord Pommes Uuchesse Celery Sliced Tomatoes Cucumbers Moselle Diamond Back Terrapin, a la New England Society Sweetbreads, Braise, a la Matignon Green Peas Vermont Turkey, Chestnut Dressing, Cranberry Sauce Candied Yams Rice Asparagus Points Claret Creme de Menthe Punch Roast Woodcock, a la Gastronome Champagne Lettuce Salad Pate de Foie Gras English Plum Pudding, Hard and Brandy Sauce Mince Pie Pumpkin Pie Charlotte Russe Biscuit Tortoni Assorted Fancy Cakes Champagne Jelly Nuts Raisins Fruits Apollinaris Roquefort Coffee Cigars Cigarettes 276 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION THE VICTORY THEATER, CHARLESTON DECEMBER 21, I919 AT 8:00 P.M. President: Reverend William Way Senior Vice-President: Charles W. Kollock, M.D. Junior Vice-President: Samuel Lapham Secretary and Treasurer: Thaddeus Street Committee on the Centennial Celebration: Reverend William Way, chairman; John E. Hessin, secretary; Charles W. Kollock, M.D.; Samuel Lapham; Matthew B. Barkley; George W. Williams; J. R. P. Ravenel, and B. H. Owen. ADDRESS OF DR. FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS Mr. President and Members of the New England Society, Ladies and Gentlemen: In the history of the American people, there has been no event more beautiful in meaning or of fairer promise than your celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the New England Society in Charleston. The great things in human affairs do not come with heralding. They do not always come with OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 277 observation. Their significance is seen at first only by those who think deeply upon the course of human progress, and not until much later on is it apprehended by the masses of mankind. As your president has told you, the early rela- tions between New England, Massachusetts espe- cially, and the people of South Carolina were fine and helpful. They so continued from the colonial period throughout the Revolutionary War; and during those days of anxiety thereafter which John Fiske has caUed the critical period in American history, when it was uncertain whether the fruits of struggle should be preserved. The writers and the public men of these states strove as they and fellow-soldiers had fought, to create out of the simple political elements of their day a free people that should grow strong and become respected among the nations of the world. They were bound together by ties of blood (these states of the North and the South), by ties of heritage and of interest. For a time one of the great tragedies of human history tore them apart, but kindly years have healed their wounds and reunited them in purpose and in affection. Today once more the people of New England and the people of this fair Southland are together 278 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY planning their common future, as, a century ago, together their fathers planned. New England, which this Society was founded to revere and spiritually to reproduce and per- petuate, has perhaps too long been lauded as unique in the Providence of God and the progress of man. There is truth in that view and justice in the praise, and those of us who are descended from New England ancestry can never lose or deny our pride in the work that the Pilgrim and the Puritan did. Yet it is not wise to revert too often or to linger too long upon achievements of the past; and the word that as a New Englander I bring to you and offer tonight is that they best cherish the New England traditions and most faithfully carry on the work that the New Eng- landers of early days attempted to do, who pro- ceed now as those men proceeded then — who face a new day, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth, as the Apostle said, unto those things which are before. Why did Pilgrims and Puritans come to New England to undertake a struggle with nature and with man so terrible that those who lived through it could visualize and interpret their survival only in the words of Edward Johnson, of Woburn, as OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 279 "the wonder-working Providence of Sion's Saviour in New England" ? They came and they endured because they were more than Pilgrims and Puritans, as the men of Virginia were more than Englishmen and the men of South Carolina were more than Englishmen and Huguenots. They came and they endured because they were men of western Europe, and above all else because they were men of modern and not of medieval history. For a time they fought strenuously against religious doctrines that they regarded as heretical. For a time they insisted upon uniting Church and State, and they permitted voting only by such as were in good standing in the one recognized ecclesiastical organization. But that was for a short time only. Exploration and an ever- changing experience widened their vision. From Boston and from Salem they traded and moved "to the eastward," to Strawberry Bank and to Dover, to Cape Porpoise and to Sagadahock. From Charlestown and Dorchester they went westward to Springfield and Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, and then again on, to commingle with the Dutch in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. They came here, to commingle with the 28o THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Huguenot strain, with its glorious traditions of liberty and of courage. So began the centuries' long march across a continent. So far as I can gather, these men cherished few regrets and gave little heed to memories. Therein perhaps they erred. It is necessary to know the past and to heed its warnings. But that was not their task. Their task was to create, and they created; it was to advance, and they advanced. The greatest thing that they did was not to transplant religious and political ideas, amazing and of priceless value as that achievement was. The greatest thing that they did was to bring here the spirit of men who were prepared to sacrifice everything that men have held dear in order that they might ever advance and ever create. That spirit has advanced and has created to the present day. The America of today is a product of that spirit. But it is a product so astounding, the America of today is so complex a thing, that we ask ourselves, What is the Americanism that now we demand one of another ? What is the ideal or what the destiny for which once more the nation has given sons and treasure? Do we know? Can we conceive it ? Is it to be something new, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 281 or only a carrying forward of glorious traditions ? Is it to be real, or only a form of words with which to play when we are confronted by new problems, because we must give ourselves the satisfaction of thinking that we think — of repeat- ing a formula, whether or not we have a program ? As I study the political ideas of New England and review the history of a nation that was born of revolution and reborn of civil war, I find myseh believing that the substantial things of Americanism are discernible in certain daring propositions that New England put to experi- mental test. New England demonstrated to her own satis- faction, she convinced America, and America has very nearly convinced the world, that four momentous achievements, undreamed of by the ancient or by the medieval mind, are possible to mankind. These four tried-out propositions are: one, that it is possible to educate the entire population of any civilized country; two, that it is possible to convince the entire population of any civilized country that it is better to do things by due process of law than to do them irregularly and by violence; three, that it is possible to govern 282 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY human affairs in a democratic way instead of by class rule; four, that it is possible to confederate democratic states, as often it was possible to bind monarchic states, together in a working whole for the greater good of the confederated peoples. The educational experiment New England began when for the first time in human history she undertook by public authority to extend ele- mentary education to all her children. It was in 1647 that Massachusetts ordered that "every township after the Lord hath increased them to the number of fifty householders shall appoint one to teach all children to read and write; and where any town shall increase to the number of one hun- dred families, they shall set up a grammar school, the masters thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." The early experiments were slight, the results were nothing great, but the idea and the method were there, the intent and the persistence were there; and the common school, established by law and maintained out of public revenues, has been set up in every commonwealth of this Union. It is the corner stone upon which is reared a structure of education that includes in most states the high school and in many the state university. One of WILLIAM WAY OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 283 the accepted things of our country, this New England plan of universal instruction by public authority and at public expense has now become one of the accepted things of France also, and of England. It will soon be one of the accepted things of Italy and of Spain, of South America and of the Eastern world. I do not suppose that the most optimistic man in Boston two cen- turies ago could have contemplated the possibility of a system of elementary education maintained at tax-payers' expense and substantially uniform over a continent, to say nothing of a civiHzed world. But that is what has grown out of the Puritan Ordinance of 1647. Next to our English speech and its matchless literature, our noblest heritage from our mother- land is our common law. I do not suppose that the most optimistic of all the men that came to colonial America could have imagined that in two and a hah centuries a population of one hundred million souls, occupying a stretch of continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and differing over a thousand things, would, never- theless, be in agreement upon one, and that no less a matter than their fundamental scheme of legal rights and public duties. Yet this has been 284 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY achieved, and largely, I venture to think, because New England, not always law abiding herself, nevertheless from the earliest days strongly believed and insistently taught not only that it is more expedient and more self-respecting to live within the law and to carry on a collective struggle for existence in an orderly fashion but also (and this is my main point) that it is possible by teaching and the pressure of pubhc opinion to make practically all citizens of a democratic com- munity acknowledge this civic principle, and to make most of them understand it. It was a bold faith, but has it not been justified in its fruits? Together with the common school, the tradition of legality and of a social order founded in legality, of local liberty and rights of property safeguarded by due process of law, has become one of the things of course in our American civilization. And because it has, we are able today, looking forth upon the social turmoil of a depleted and distracted world and facing a flood of revolutionary ideas, without alarm or faltering to say: "Let us hear every criticism of estab- lished institutions that the disaffected can think of, but let the disaffected take notice and remem- ber that the trying out of their notions in so far OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 285 as they may now or hereafter be put to experi- mental test shall not be by the methods that were attempted of late by the Boston police, not by the direct action beloved of anarchism, but shall be by due process of law." When New England began experimenting with town meetings, democracy on the great scale had not existed in the world, and throughout Europe it was discredited as of doubtful worth, even in local affairs. New England believed that it could successfully be extended and be made both strong enough for defense and en- lightened enough and just enough to make men free. Today a population of one hundred million souls is conducting its public affairs by methods rooted in universal suffrage, and America is in fact a democracy, as distinguished from class rule. This proposition, unhappily, requires explana- tion. As my observation goes, the elements of unrest in our country, the anarchistic and revolu- tionary groups, and such organizations as the Industrial Workers of the World, are ignorant of what democracy is. They conceive of it either as the overthrow of all government or as the sub- stitution of rule by the proletariat for the rule of 286 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY a class-possessing property. Most of them, doubt- less, think of it as the substitution of proletarian rule for capitalistic rule. Frankly they avow their determination to make the substitution, to destroy an old order of society by violent revolution, and to set up in place of it a syndicalistic communism. There is this much justification for their think- ing. Until America successfully experimented with democracy, every government in the world was class rule of one or another kind. It was the rule of a priesthood, as in Egypt; or of a powerful ecclesiastical organization, like the Christian church of the Middle Ages; or of a local theocracy, like the earliest Puritan group in Massachusetts; or it was the rule of a royal family, as all the great monarchies have been; or the rule of a land- lord class, as feudalism was; or the rule of organ- ized industrial and commercial interests, as the government of England at times has been; or it has been the lawless rule of the proletarian mob or commune or soviet, as once it was in revolu- tionary France and as now it is in revolutionary Russia. In distinction from every kind of class rule, democracy is the political organization of an entire population. It comprises all elements, all OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 287 classes, and expresses the mind of all individuals. In a democracy each duly qualified elector votes as an individual, according to his own intelligence and his own conscience, and not as a member of a church, as the first Puritans did; nor as a mem- ber of a propertied class, as the people of Rhode Island long did; nor as a member of any business organization, or of a trade union, or of any other group whatsoever. Democracy says that an entire population politically organized is greater than any part of it, and is supreme. By due process of law it determines what persons may vote, when they may vote, and by what methods. It declares that the interest of the whole people is higher than the interest of privilege, a declaration that the Bills of Rights of Massachusetts and Virginia made explicit; that it is higher than any ecclesiastical interest, a declaration which the federal Constitution has made explicit; that it is higher than any trade, labor, or professional interest, a declaration that Governor Coolidge lately made explicit and that the American people with unmistakable voice have confirmed. Such is the democracy that for more than one hundred years we have been creating in America. Such is the democracy that we shall continue to develop 288 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and to protect. It is the will of a nation, con- scious of itself, organized as political power, and deriving its authority from individual minds and consciences, freely voting as they see fit. Her fourth great social experiment (fourth in logical enumeration but chronologically earlier) New England ventured when, in 1643, i^ dark hours of Indian war, the four colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven bound themselves to one another in a league of representative democracies as the United Colonies of New England. Within this confederation the four constituent members were of equal power, but war expenses, it was agreed, should be apportioned according to the number of male inhabitants in each colony, a compromise that was destined to become the corner stone of our federal Constitution. And this league was for more than war, as appears in the highly signifi- cant further agreement that the judgments of the courts of law and probates of wills in each colony were to receive full faith and credit in every other. That New England league endured for fifty years. It was the model from which Benjamin Franklin in 1754 drew the outlines of his plan for a union of all the colonies, which, twenty years OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 289 later, was achieved in the Revolutionary con- federation. From the elements of the confedera- tion Hamilton and his co-workers wrought the enduring structure of our federal Constitution. Let us admit that there were weaknesses in that great instrument. It left vital questions unanswered. Back of it lay differences of thought and of tradition, and of economic interest, which divided South from North. And so it came to pass that only through sorrow was understanding reached, and only by the dice of war was made decision upon which a future could be built. The decision was accepted. The Constitution, strong and elastic, as time has proven, is the compre- hensive political organization of forty-eight com- monwealths, among which is distributed, as their population, an indivisible American people. It is the organization of our co-operation, and it has enabled us to do marvelous things. Need we say more of it than that, under its authority and within its powers, a nation unprepared for war was able within one year to draft, equip, and drill, and send across the seas, a fighting army of two million men ? With these four experiments before us, we, the American people, with our inheritance of common 290 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY and commingled blood, of one language and of one literature, of one legal tradition, and sharers in a glorious history, face a future full of the most perplexing problems that ever have vexed the soul of man. We shall be told that it is useless to try to uplift the human race, that the task is too great, too costly, and too discouraging, that some men of each breed can be educated, but not all. We shall be told that it is impossible to solve all problems by due process of law; that law is slow, not always just, not always practical; and that there are times when the conscientious man must ask himself whether he will be bound by the letter of the law or not. We shall be told that democracy is impractical, a dream, a vision not to be realized in a world of human beings that are by no means all men of character, by no means all men of intelligence. And, finally, we shall be told that already the nations are too large, and political organization unwieldy. Why, then, we shall be asked, dream of a federation of the world? How beheve that by a league of nations war can be prevented ? The answer to these objections and these questions is simple and it is this: these things OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 291 were dreams, once. But dreamed they were, three centuries ago; and the dreaming fired imagi- nation and imagination quickened thought. Of thought experiment was born, and generation by- generation successful experiment has made con- verts, until today we of the New England strip may challenge the world to show that, in all human history from its beginnings in Egypt and in Babylonia down to the present hour, any other four ideas have in the same length of time won as many converts or achieved so much. Why, then, lose faith? Why, then, of all people in the world, should we of America lose faith, as from time to time we keep the anniver- saries of our inheritance ? I never see one of our tall steel buildings rising skyward without finding myself contemplating in fascination its essential structure. What is it? That structure is a towering frame of steel, it is a thing of posts and girders bolted and riveted. The enclosing walls of brick are but a mere pro- tection from the weather. They support nothing; they are supported. Between the floors are put coarse fireproofing materials, cinders, cement, and gravel. And when the floors are laid and 292 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the steel is walled in, all manner of things go into the interior. There are put tiling, and wood that is but tinder, then paint and varnish. But the paint and the varnish are not the structure. The inflammable wood is not the structure. The coarse materials between the floors, the waUs of brick, are not the structure. The structure is that riveted frame of steel. Into the buflding of our nation has gone tempered steel, steel smelted in human suffering and roUed in the disciplining mills of God. It is the tested steel of the character, the intelligence, the faith, of Englishmen, of Scotchmen, of Hu- guenots, of HoUanders — character, intelligence, and faith selected from all the world for strength, for daring, and for endurance. Of that steel are the posts and the girders of the framework of our nation, bolted by hardship and riveted by war. Revolution may rock it. It may sway in the wrath of political storm. Earthquakes of calam- ity may shake it, or the red flare of anarchism may sear it. But fires will die down, the storm wfll abate, revolutions will fail, and our structure of steel will stand in its majesty throughout cen- turies to come, as it has stood through the centuries that are passed. OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 293 THE CENTENNIAL DINNER CELEBRATED AT THE ST. JOHN HOTEL DECEMBER 22, 7 P.M. Stewards: Christian J. Larsen, chairman; William H. Cogswell; and Benjamin I. Simmons. THE SPEAKERS Reverend William Way Professor Franklin H. Giddings, Ph.D., LL.D. Reverend Loring W. Batten, Ph.D., LL.D. Colonel James Armstrong J. Rion McKissick, Esq. W. S. Currell, Ph.D., LL.D. J. W. Barnwell, Esq. THE GUESTS Rear Admiral F. E. Beatty, U.S.N. ; Major General H. G. Sharpe, U.S.A.; Professor F. H. Giddings, Columbia University, New York; Rear Admiral E. A. Anderson, Commandant of the Charleston Nav}^ Yard; Brigadier General J. D. Barrett, U.S.A.; The Reverend Dr. L. W. Batten, of the General Theological Seminary, New York; Dr. W. S. Currell, president of the University of South Carolina; Dr. Robert Wilson, Jr., dean of the Medical College of South Carolina; F. C. Peters, collector of the port of Charleston; Robert Lathan, editor of the Charles- ton News afid Courier; T. R. Waring, editor of the Charleston Evening Post; J. R. McKissick, editor of The Piedmont, Greenville, South Carolina; Colonel James Armstrong; P. A. Willcox, Esq., general solicitor of the 294 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY Atlantic Coast Line Railroad; Surgeon Edgar Thompson, U.S.N. ; M. Rutledge Rivers, president of the St. Andrew's Society; W. Turner Logan, president of the Hibernian Society; Commander O. L. Cox, U.S.N. ; Commander J. W. Woodruff, U.S.N. ; Colonel 0. J. Bond, super- intendent of the South Carolina Military College; L. K. Legge; Major Alfred Huger; Captain M. M. Ramsey, U.S.N. ; Commander R. E. Pope, U.S.N. ; Colonel Glen E. Edgerton, U.S.A.; J. W. Barnwell; W. C. Miller; Julian Mitchell; W. C. Wade; Stewart Cooper; Lieutenant Commander Lorain Anderson, U.S.N. ; E. H. Pringle, Jr., vice-president of the Bank of Charleston; J.D.Lucas; Jenkins M. Robertson; E. Wil- loughby Middleton; Samuel Lapham, Jr.; David Bar- field; G. F. Lipscomb; J. Campbell Bissell; M. S. Cray- ton; John Strohecker; Wilbur L. Rodrigues, and J. M. Whitsitt. THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY G. J. Cherry W. B. Metts H. C. Gill H. P. WilUams F. K. Myers Chas. W. KoUock, M.D. W. K. McDowell J. R. Pringle G. F. von Kolnitz J. H. Young J. E. Hessin T. T. Hyde F. M. Robertson J. D. Newcomer C. M. Benedict L. W. Hickok H. F. Walker M. B. Barkley J. R. Simmons J. E. Smith J. E. Martin M. Triest H. W. Lochrey W. H. Cogswell OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 295 C. F. Middleton A. J. Geer Wm. M. Bird Chr. J. Larsen Thaddeus Street Samuel Lapham Henry Buist John D. Fletcher J. L. Hacker Frank Burbidge A. C. Connelley Chas. Robertson J. E. Cogswell Jas. S. Simmons B. I. Simmons A. McL. Martin A. 0. Halsey J. R. Hanahan G. W. Williams J. R. P. Ravenel W. H. Dunkin M. V. Haselden Lloyd Ellison Wm. Burguson J. N. Schroder A. E. Baker, M.D. W. P. Carrington T. W. Passailaigue W. B. Wilbur Theo. J. Simons B. H. Owen Reverend William Way Thaddeus Street, Jr. J. S. Rhame, M.D. Phineas Kent John C. Simonds E. N. Wulbern E. E, Quincy Congratulatory greetings were received from the New England Society of New York, the New England Society of Brooklyn, the New England Society of Pennsylvania, the New England Asso- ciation of California, Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, Colonel J. C. Hemphill, Honorable R. G. Rhett, and Dr. Yates Snowden. The governor of Massachusetts sent the following letter: 296 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT State House, Boston, December 17, 1919 Reverend William Way, President New England Society Charleston, S.C. My Dear Mr. Way: Your very kind invitation to attend the banquet cele- brating the one hundredth anniversary of your Society is received, for which I thank you. I should especially be pleased to visit Charleston. The early colonial and revo- lutionary history of Massachusetts and South Carolina was very marked by their co-operation with each other and it is my sincere desire that this ancient friendship and co-operation may always remain. There is more and more a tendency to forget our location and remember that we are all Americans. This should not, however, diminish the pride that New England has in its achieve- ments, nor the pride that South Carolina has in its own glorious history. If your Society can convey to your fellow-citizens in Charleston the sentiment of high regard which we here feel for them, you will be performing a most patriotic service. Very truly yours, Calvin Coolidge The foUowing is an editorial written by Robert Lathan and published in the Charleston News and Courier, December 24, 1919: OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA 297 A WORTHY CELEBRATION The centennial exercises just completed by the New England Society of Charleston have been in all respects worthy of the Society's high aims and splendid traditions. Professor Giddings said at the Victory Theater Sunday night that in his judgment the completion of its hundredth year by a New England Society in Charleston is one of the most striking facts in American history. Mr. Mel- ville E. Stone, of the Associated Press, following the visit which he paid to Charleston some years ago when he was the principal speaker at one of the New England annual dinners, declared that the fact that this Society continued its existence throughout the war between the states and that without the loss of a single member, was to his mind a singularly impressive thing. This was the only New England society in the South, it is interesting to learn, which, having been founded prior to the war between the states, outlasted the struggle. There are many notable features about the history of the New England Society of Charleston. The book which Mr. Way has written concerning it will unquestion- ably be an exceptionally valuable contribution to the social history of this community. In the hundred years of its existence the New England Society of Charleston has included in its membership many of the men whose names and records are numbered by the discerning as Charleston's richest possession. Its leaders have been leaders, many of them — not only in Charleston, but in the nation — in literature, in science, in art, in theology, in government, and in business. Mr. Joseph W. Barnwell in his brief remarks at the dinner Monday evening suggested that, so far as he knew, 298 THE NEW ENGLAND SOCIETY the New England Society was the first organization of its kind in Charleston to bring to this city distinguished speakers from a distance for its annual affairs. In the half-century and more that this custom has obtained, some very great men have spoken under the auspices of the New England Society here and some very memorable utterances have been delivered. Daniel Webster in the height of his fame welcomed the opportunity to speak on one of these occasions, and in later years men like William Everett, Charles Francis Adams, and George Frisbie Hoar came to Charleston at the invitation of the New England Society that they might bring here messages which echoed throughout the South and the nation. The New England Society of Charleston has every right to be proud of the record it has made for itself in the first century of its existence. It can and should play an even larger part in the afifairs of this community and section in the years that lie ahead. INDEX INDEX Act of Incorporation, 6 Adams, Charles F., 269, 298 Adams, Rev. W. H., 23 Agassiz, Louis, 140 Aiken, William, 190 Allston, Washington, iii Alston, Governor, 28 Anderson, Lorain, 294 Anderson, Rear Admiral E. A., 293 Andrews, Loring, 37 Apple ton, Dr., 75 Armstrong, Col. James, 293 Bailey, Henry, 190, 204, 269 Baker, A. E., 295 Barfield, David, 294 Barkley, Matthew B., 276, 294 Barnwell, J. W., 85, 270, 294, 297 Barnwell, Robert W., 77 Barrett, Brigadier General J. D., 293 Batten, Rev. Loring W., 293 Beach, E. M., 189 Beatty, Rear Admiral F. E., 293 Beech, Darwin, 45 Bellinger, G. Duncan, 269 Benedict, C. M., 294 Bennett, Col. A. G., 164 Bennett, James Gordon, 39 Beimett, John, 270 Benson, John H., 5 Bernard, Horace, 5 Bethune, George, 113 Bird, Wm. M., 295 Bishop, Samuel N., 5 Bissell, J. Campbell, 294 Bond, Col. O. J., 294 Boston Advertiser, 262 Boston Globe, 262, 264 Boston Palladium, 37 Bowen, Rev. C. J., 98 Bowen, Right Rev. Nathaniel, 29, 184 Brawley, Judge W. H., 270 Brewer, David J., 269 Brewster, Charles Royal, 16, 151, 269 Bridge, Matthew, 5 Brown, Mary, 159 Bryan, George S., 175 Bryan, J. P. K., 62, 175, 269 Buffum, Arnold, 234 Buist, Henry, 270, 295 Buist, John Somers, 170 Bunce, Lydia, 77 Burbidge, Frank, 295 Burguson, Wm., 295 Butler, Dr. Nicholas Murray, 295 Calhoun, P. C, 56, 269 Camp, A. Burnett Rhett, 72 Campbell, James B., 20, 47, 131, 238, 241, 246, 269 Campbell, Rev. John, 47 Carlisle, W. B., 239 301 302 INDEX Carolina Coffee House, i, 22 Carrington, W. P., 295 Centennial Celebration, 276, 293 Chadwick, Samuel, 5 Chamberlain, Gov. D. H., 247, 249, 269 Charity, Committee on, 10, 16 Charleston Daily Courier, i, 13, 21, 29, 38, loi, III, 188, 243 Charleston Mercury, 77 Charleston News, 21, 45 Charleston News and Courier, 152, 166, 173, 249, 296 Charleston Port Society, 9 Cheney, E., Jr., 5 Cherry, G. J., 294 Cheves, 49 Chicago Tribune, 264 Child, James L., 5 Christian Examiner, 80, 83, 99 Circular Congregational Church, 36 City Gazette and Commercial Advertiser, 2 Civil War, 211 Clarke, Joseph, 5 Climacteric year, i860, 212 Cogswell, J. E., 295 Cogswell, William H., 293, 294 Coit, Jonathan, 5 Cole, Rev. John T., 16 Cole, Rev. Jonathan, 12, 16 Confederate Home and College, 61 Confederate Memorial Day, 73 ConneUey, A. C, 295 Conner, Henry Workman, 142 Conner, Gen. James, 254 Cooper, Steward, 294 Cox, O. L., 294 Crafts, William, 5, 6, 8, 27, 84 Crafts, William, Jr., 29, 84, 269 Craig, Gov. Locke, 269 Crayton, M. S., 294 Crocker, Doddridge, 4, 6, 8, 18, 32, 189 Crocker, Francis Shaw, 3, 5 Gumming, Joseph C, 270 Currell, Dr. W. S., 269, 293 Dalcho, Dr. Frederick, 38 Dana, Dr. Daniel, 146 Dana, Rev. William Coombs, 13, 146, 269 Davis, Jefferson, 50 Dawkins, Thomas N., 190 Dehon, Right Rev. Theodore, 27, 184 Depew, Chauncey, 62 Dinners, Famous, 268 Distinguished members, 75 Dodd, George, 5 Donations, Special, 12 Duggan, I. C, 11 Dunkin, Benjamin F., 5, 18, 19, 22, 99, 122, 152, 240, 246, 269 Dunkin, W. H., 295 Edgerton, E. W., 16 Edgerton, Col. Glen E., 294 Edwards, Timothy, 5, 8 Eggleston, George W., 5 Eggleston, John, 5 Elliot, Stephen, 77 Ellison, Lloyd, 295 ELmore, F. H., 190 Epiphany, 8 Episcopal Church, 181 Everett, Edward, 99 Everett, William, 269, 298 INDEX 303 Faneuil, Mary, 113 Ficken, John F., 270 Finley, William P., 190 Fleming, D. F., 16 Forefathers' Day, 72, 106, 115, 177, 238, 269 Forster, Rev. Anthony M., 79, 80, 104 Foster, Nathan, 5 Franklin, John, 56 Fraser, Alexander, 32 Fraser, Mary, 32 Frothingham, Rev. P. R., 269 Furness, Horace Howard, 78 Gage, Alva, 156 Gage, Judge G. W., 269 Geer, A. J., 295 Gibbes, George, s, 6, 8 Gibbon, George, 5 Giddings, Dr. Franklin H., 276, 293, 297 Gilchrist, Judge R. B., 189 Gilchrist, R. G., 163 Gildersleeve, Dr. Basil L.,184, 269 GiU, H. C, 294 Gilliland, W. H., 163 Gilman, Rev. Samuel, 97, 101, 219, 269 Gilman, Zadock, 5 Goodwin, John, 5 Graham, F. J., 248 Graves, John Temple, 269 Grayson, William John, Jr., 96, 190 Green, John T., 248 Gresham, Very Rev. J. Wilmer, 270 Guerry, Right Rev. William A., i8r, 269 Hacker, J. L., 295 Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 112 Halsey, A. O., 295 Hamilton, James, 190 Hampton Legion, 1 70 Hampton, Wade, 55 Hanahan, J. R., 295 Harvard, Fair, 109 Haselden, M. V., 295 Hastie, C. Norwood, 57 Hastie, William Smith, 56 Hayden, A. H., 14, 16 Hayne, Robert Y., 203 Hemphill, J. C., 270, 295 Hessin, J. E., 270, 276, 294 Hickok, L. W., 294 Hill, E. J., 269 Hoar, George F., 269, 298 Holbrook, John E., 137, 269 Holland Society of New York, 61 Holmes, J. E., 190 Hop ton, Sarah, 27 Howard Association of Charles- ton, 61 Howe, Silas, 5 Rowland, Benjamin J., 134 Huger, Major Alfred, 294 Huger, Benjamin, 7, 49 Huguenot Church, 63 Hunt, Benjamin Faneuil, 113, 189, 192, 212, 269 Hurlbut, Martin Luther, 75, 269 Hurlbut, Major-General Stephen Augustus, 83, 154 Hurlbut, WiUiam Henry, 83 Hutchinson, T. L., 190 Hyde, T. T., 294 304 INDEX Jackson, President Andrew, 48 Jones, Henry J., 5, 6 Jones, Wiswall, 5 Kent, Phineas, 295 Kollock, Charles W., 276, 294 Kolnitz, G. F. von, 270, 294 Ku Klux trials, 176 Lafayette, 112 Lapham, Samuel, 276, 295 Lapham, Samuel, Jr., 294 Larsen, Christian J., 293, 295 Lassiter, F. R., 269 Lathan, Robert, 293, 296 Lebby, Dr. Robert, 13, 14, 16, 17 Legare, George S., 269 Legare, Hugh S., 48, 85 Legg, L. K., 294 Leland, David W., 5, 18 Lipscomb, G. F., 294 Lochrey, H. W., 294 Logan, W. Turner, 294 Lovell, Josiah S., 5, 8 Lowndes, William, 84 Lucas, J. D., 294 McAllister, M. Hall, 190 Macbeth, Charles, 163, 164 McDowell, W. K., 294 McElroy, W. H., 270 McKissick, J. Rion, 293 Magnolia Cemetery, 13, 15, 23, 62 Mann, Gov. W. H., 269 Manning, Joseph, 5, 6 Martin, A. McL., 295 Martin, J. E., 294 Maxwell, Robert, 8, 12 Mayflower, 22, 212 Memminger, Rev. W. W., 270 Metts, W. B., 294 Middle ton, Arthur, 27 Middleton, C. F., 294 Middleton, E. Willoughby, 294 Miller, W. C, 270, 294 Mills House, 45 Mills, John, 45 Mills, Otis, 44, 242, 246 Minott, Baxter O., 5 Mitchell, Julian, 294 Mitchell, Dr. S. C, 269 Monroe, President James, 2, iii Morford, Margaret, 78 Morris Island, 165 Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, no, 113 Moses, F. J., 247, 260 Moultrie, Fort, 165 Myers, F. K., 294 National Academy of the Arts of Design, 112 New England Society of Brook- lyn, 295 New England Society of Charles- ton: actions of, from i860 to 1865, 238; centennial cele- bration, 276; centennial din- ner, 293; date of organiza- tion, 1-4; dedication of monument, 22; dinner in honor of Daniel Webster, 188; eighty-third annual din- ner, 275; orator of 1908 at, 211; original members, 5; other sons, 184; reconstruc- tion, 246; sixty-first anni- versary, 70; thirty-seventh anniversary, 273 New England Society in the City of New York, 4, 266, 295 INDEX 305 New England Society of Penn- sylvania, 295 New Orleans Commercial Bulle- tin, 143 New York Drawing Association, 112 New York Herald, 261 New York Tribune, 98 New York World, 83 Newcomer, J. D., 294 Noble, Patrick, 6 Norris, Edward J., 16 North American Review, 99 Ogier, Dr. T. L., 138 O'Neall, John B., 189 Ordinance of Secession, 240 Owen, B. H., 276. 295 Page, Thomas Nelson, 28 Parish, Daniel, 5 Passailaigue, T. W., 295 Patriot and Commercial Adver- tiser, I, 2 Peabody, George, 31 Peabody, Rev. Samuel, 98 Pelzer, Francis J., 28 Percival, Dr. James G., 150 Perkins, Daniel, 5 Perry, Gov. B. F., 150 Peters, F. C., 293 Petigru, James L., 49, 190, 207, 269 Pinckney, Castle, 165 Pinckney, Rev. C. C., 174 Pinckney, General Thomas, 112 Pletcher, John D., 295 Plummer Granite Company, 15, 16 Plymouth Rock, 3, 17, 22, 272 Poinsett, 49 Pope, R. E., 294 Porter, Martha F., 166 Potter, L. T., 16, 143 Prentiss, Miss Washington S., 130 Presbyterian Church, 56, 60 Prescott, George W., 5 Presidents, The, 25 Pringle, E. H., Jr., 294 Pringle, J. R., 294 Quincy, E. E., 295 Quincy, Josiah, 269 Ramsey, M. M., 294 Randolph, Dr. Harrison, 270 Ravenel, Daniel, 190, 276 Ravenel, J. R. P., 295 Read, John, 5, 16 Read, John R., 168 Reed, John, 5 Reed, Col. J. P., 248 Reynolds, Right Rev. Ignatius Aloysius, 190 Rhame, J. S., 295 Rhett, R. B., 190 Rhett, R. Goodwyn, 270, 295 Rice, William, 189 Richards, Frederick, 14 Rivers, Rutledge, 294 Robertson, Charles, 295 Robertson, Dr. F. M., 225, 269, 294 Robinson, Philip, 5 Rodrigues, Wilbur L., 294 RusseU, Alicia, 27 Russell, Rev. John, 26 Russell, Nathaniel, 3, 5, 12, 18, 22, 25 Russell, Sarah, 27 3o6 INDEX Rutledge, Col. B. H., 254 Rutledge, Harriott Pinckney, 137 St. Andrews Society, 24, 188 St. Cecilia Society, 2, 27 St. Michael's Church, 32, 45 St. Philip's Church, 43 Sassure, General de, 72 Savage, Arthur, 5 Scherer, Dr. J. A. B., 270 Schroeder, J. N., 295 Sharpe, Major-General H. G., 293 Shepard, Prof. Charles Upham, 148, 269 Silliman, Prof. Benjamin, 148 Simonds, John C, 295 Simmons, Benjamin I., 293, 295 Simmons, J. R., 294 Simmons, Jas. S., 295 Simons, Theo. J., 295 Simonton, Judge C. H., 270 Sims, William Gilmore, 12 Sinkler, Huger, 270 Smith, J. E., 295 Snow, Albert, 11 Snowden, Dr. Yates, 295 Society of the Cincinnati, 2 Southern Review, 86 Spanish- American War, 176 Sparks, Rev. Jared, 104 Sprague, Roswell, 5 Stone, Melville E., 211, 269, 297 Storey, Joseph, 209 Street, Thaddeus, 276, 295 Strohecker, John, 294 Stuart, John A., 77 Sumter, Fort, 50, 165 Talmage, Dr. DeWitt, 174 Talmage, Van Nest, 172 Taylor, Col. J. H., 189, 232, 269 Thayer, Isaac, 5 Thompson, Edgar, 294 Thwing, Edward, 12 Townsend, J. B., 270 Triest, M., 294 Tunno, Adam, 27 TurnbuU, R. J., 83 Tyler, Joseph, 5 Union Committee of South Caro- lina, 48 Unitarian Church, 78, 99 Unitarian Defendant, 80 van Dyke, Dr. Henry, 175 Vedder, Rev. Dr. Charles Stuart, 3, II, 23, 54, 57, 60, 269 Wade, W. C, 294 Walter, Jerry, 5 Warring, T. R., 270, 293 Washington Light Infantry, 84, loS Way, Henry, 74 Way, William, 276, 293, 295 Webster, Daniel, 48, 188, 269, 298 West, Benjamin, no Whaley, Percival Hanahan, 180 Whaley, P. H., Jr., 270 Wheeler, Henry, 5 Whipper, W. J., 247, 260 Whitsitt, J. M., 294 Wightman, Louisa A., 166 Wilbur, W. B., 295 WUlcox, P. A., 293 Williams, George Walton, 159, 163, 253, 276, 29s Williams, H. P., 294 INDEX 307 Willington, A. S., 5, 6, 8, 12, 18, 24, 37, loi, 188, 241 Willington, Mrs. A. S., 242 Willington, Josiah, 37 Wilmer, Rev. C. B., 269 Wilson, Dr. Robert, Jr., 293 Winston, Judge F. D., 269 Winthrop, John, 22 Winthrop, Joseph, 3, 5, 6, 18, 31 Young, J. H., 294 Winthrop, Robert C, 31 Woodcock, Right Rev. C. E., 269 Woodruff, J. W., 294 Woodward, Prof. F. C, 244, 269 Woodward, Thomas G., 5 Wulbern, E. N., 295 82 ■•f. .■V .^►^' ,^J^ ^ V-^^- <^^',^ "% > . ;-,.^i- Vr^<^ ^ * •^ aV ' ■' "'"■•. ** X.* -V ■ O ' U ^^^^^ 0^ , .0 ■^0^ ^ .> c '.'> a- if ■'- ^o .0" 1*^ .•^^ Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proces: Neutralizing Agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: \ SBR^EEPER PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES, LP. 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township. PA 16066 (724)779-2111 ^°-^^. V *»'^* .-ft^ <^.. ♦.To' . . - .A <* ♦ V ..i:^'* 'c> .^ .,. \pc^- "^cc **'.i •q.. •. %/ ^ ^0^ * -e? »>>. «»^ p^c:^%•^^ %''^^'\o'> \'^^fr^-\/' V'T?*^*/ .^^"-_ -ja^/ .^^-^^^ V 0^ ..1-^-- ^^ ♦_ 4,'* <-l- «•