Hertz, Emanuel "Pew 89" Lincoln and Beecher LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY UBRARY of THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS The Bronze Group on the Green, frontispiece between the Church and the Community House. "Pew 89" Lincoln and Beecher By EMANUEL HERTZ Inspired by my first visit to Plymouth Church, in the spring of 1929. rX L^3 C 4 14 44^ 'Tew 89" Lincoln and Beecher By Emanuel Hertz As the fatal day of secession was drawing near, and as it became more evident from day to day that the Democrats could not unite upon a candidate who would suit both North and South, with Douglas more than ever determined to lead his party on a platform featuring- "popular sovereignty" as its main plank, and of which he was the sole and original author and architect — Lincoln quietly journeyed over to New York to deliver his epoch-making address to the American people at Cooper Union, the significance of which had been sensed even at that time, and the inevitable results of which have since that day been adequately appraised and described. Grudgingly at first, it is true, was this done, by Bryant and Greeley and even by Evarts and David Dudley Field, because of the novelty of the occurrence and the originality of the event. It was the first political move of its kind. No other leader did just that. His hearers expected an oration and heard a calm analysis of the problem. Those who said they knew him expected humor and yarns and story, and were treated to cold, convincing facts and unanswerable reasoning. His enemies hoped for an attack upon the entire South, and were treated to an exhortation to remain brothers. The South expected an assault upon her peculiar institution and received sympathy and an honest state- ment that he, in their place, would in all likelihood, act as they did. William Cullen Bryant and his committee who invited him, expected to decide upon a second choice should Seward's nomination become impossible, and found in this lawyer from the West a candidate of such intellectual attainments that they began to feel that the new Republican party had at last found a leader. He seemed to understand and explain the problem better than any other living man ; and what was even of vaster •^ importance, this man had a solution. 989875 6 "pkw 89" But Lincoln himself was little concerned, or at least did not seem to be, as to what was happening around him. He carefully edited his speech for the press, the manuscript of which Amos J. Cummings threw into the paper hasket after it had been set up. He seemed to be more concerned with the men and leaders he met in the East, and he took a short trip through New England. He was looking for men who really, or in part at least, under- stood the ominous occurrences of those fateful days throughout the Union, as statesmen and leaders were struggling with the problem of the right of the States to withdraw from the Union on the one hand, and the power of the rest to coerce such States to remain in the Union on the other — both springing from the one problem which was occupying his inner self and soul for upwards of twenty years. He found but few men of clear vision in the sections which he had traversed up to that day. Herndon, Lincoln's man of all work, was corresponding with many — notably Theodor Parker, but Parker was ageing and he belonged to Boston's elite and exclusive set, preoccupied with his vocation to an extent which made him unfit for leader- ship in the great struggle about to befall his country. He had nothing of the crusader about him. He was a scholar and a divine. And then Theodor Parker left for foreign travel just about the time when he was needed most, and contented himself to render vicarious help by correspondence from distant points. Lincoln looked for a younger man in the prime of life — ■ eloquent, fearless, respected both at home and abroad. He needed a man known in every pulpit in America, for Lincoln had a true appraisal of the influence of the pulpit in the homes of America, and whose reputation had spread to foreign lands. And while he came to New York to deliver his message to the bewildered American people, who were oppressed with the premonitions of the impending storm, on the 26th of February, 1860, he quietly slipped over to Brooklyn and attended a service in Plymouth Church, and then and there definitely appraised LINCOLN AND BELCHER / Henry Ward Beecher and determined that should the oppor- tunity arise — as arise it must — Beecher would fit into his plans for saving and salvaging the Union from the impending cataclysm which he, in spite of unfounded claims and doubts to the contrary, alone seemed clearly to foresee. And so he found his seat, or was shown into the first seat of Pew 89, about six or seven rows from the platform, a trifle to the right of that pulpit from which so many eminent voices have been heard pleading and preaching on behalf of every human cause, the platform from which Beecher sold the little negro girl. Strange that this sacred spot has so long remained unnoticed, when so many other negligible things have secured prominence, this spot, to which Lincoln was drawn even lie fore he came fi- nally. He was about to be invited to deliver his great address, which he finally delivered in Cooper Union, in Plymouth Church, but the leaders decided otherwise, and Cooper Union became the sounding board of the nation. It was there Lincoln wound up his campaign and the whole country listened; Charleston listened even as did Boston ; Memphis even as did Montgomery, and above all Hammond and Yancey and Jeffer- son Davis and Iverson and Rhett and Stephens and Brecken- ridge — they all heard, they all read and saw the handwriting on the wall which, strange to say, they all understood, and when Beecher heard this man two days before he had occupied Pew 89, he, too, had an awakening. Here was a man with a mes- sage which shone clear and distinct as did the rays of a noon- day sun. As he sat there in Pew 89, a great resolution was formulating in his mind. Take the battle of Union and liberty against disunion and slavery from the politician and the political plat- form, to the preacher and the pulpit. A man like Beecher was needed to lead the advance— the others would follow Beecher. Beecher was a host in himself, worth a score of army corps. This question could not ultimately be settled in the grocery store, in the saloon, or in a caucus. It must be settled on a higher level. It was a problem of the ages, and must be The Lincoln stained glass window in Plymouth Church, facing the pulpit. LINCOLN AND BELCHER answered and disposed of as were all the great questions of the ages, — in the House of God. Those who come to the foot of the altar have no selfish mental reservations, no bargainings for place or pelf or political preferment, nothing mean or mer- cenary enter these councils. Lincoln was ever in need of the house of worship — when they were being transformed into hospitals he countermanded one order at least "for we need them more than ever today," he said. Here questions are settled in the light of conscience guided by justice and the eternal truth, the seal of God. And thus Lincoln in Pew 89 saw a great light. He cannot win unless he is on the side of God, and invokes the aid of the ministers of God. Was ever a visit to church ever fraught with such eternal results ? There stood before him the sternest spokes- man of God's eternal law. The fearless exemplar of a creed which knew no preferment among men, except as to their deeds, their actions, their love of their fellowmen — Beecher the in- tellectual giant, the fearless preacher, the champion of right and the hitter enemy of slavery — never left the mind or the plans or the calculations of Lincoln after that day. The faithful Herndon had supplied his senior partner with the best available reading material on the all-absorbing problem. Lincoln knew the utterances, the principles of the man. He had carefully read some of Beechers' sermons. Now he was there to see him in action. To judge from Lincoln's own statements as to Beecher's worth, this short occupancy of Pew 89 was one of the most important events in his career. Beecher was as yet a doubtful ally, a questionable asset, for he belonged to those leaders who insisted upon speed, upon action, the moment they reached a conclusion which, to them, seemed right and proper, regardless of whether all might be lost were such a course adopted. He simply could not break away from Garrison and Phillips and all their followers who demanded prompt emancipation, with the Union saved or destroyed. To them the Union was an abomination and the Constitution but a compact with hell. 10 "pew 89" How many a great cause was wrecked in order to give utterance to a beautiful phrase? But as it was given to Lincoln to shape the course of his pre-election managers, to educate his Cabinet, to train his gen- erals, to inspire his newspapermen, to guide his war governors — so it became his lot to train the spokesmen in the pulpit. The great mass of the people being a God-fearing people who hearkened to the leaders in the pulpit, Lincoln trained the preachers to preach Union based upon justice to all — a part of Lincoln's religion. He reached them all. The preachers of every denomination were summoned. They came to him for guidance and found it. He inspired them all. He preached the religion of America— "Love thy neighbor as thyself" — or as Hillel puts it — "That which is hateful to thee, do not unto thy neighbor." Lincoln was the lay preacher of the ages. I will not here discuss Lincoln's second visit to Beecher's home. I will rest on the statement of one of his successors, the learned and eloquent Newell Dwight Hillis who, from the same pulpit, proclaimed and believed it. He had occasion to talk to Mrs. Beecher, who was quite sure of the visit and the visitor, and who interrogated her husband as to who it was who walked the floor above her for hours on that fateful night. Beecher, however, never spoke of his conversion that night — from the critical, damaging and semi-hostile attitude towards Lincoln, to one of meek and reverent love and appreciation of this man of sorrows who had that night come into his life and fought once again Jacob's battle of Yabbok, when Lincoln sum- moned him to heights of service and sacrifice to which he had been blind to that very moment. How could he humanly be expected to make confession that his nocturnal visitor had so far convinced him that he turned his back upon what he had said and done to that moment? How could he be expected to confide to any human being the struggle with the angel of light and leading, that he had succumbed, that he saw a new vision which he had not seen, that God was beckoning and calling — and he had not seen, and he had not heard? Xo ! Beecher could not be expected to talk of the super- LINCOLN AND BELCHER 11 natural happenings of that night, for on that night he became part of the Lincoln phalanx whose work was for the ages and whose reward was immortality. In Pew 89 Lincoln saw as in a vision the reformed Beecher, the Beecher girded with the right, Beecher the exhorter of Great Britain, Beecher who defied the English clergy, who came off triumphant from a clash with Manchester's and Liverpool's mobs of six thousand 'sans cul- lotte,' who conquered public opinion from the pulpit at home and especially abroad at a time when it was of the utmost importance that England be kept from interfering with the struggle which was being fought on this continent. There was not another man living who could have done what Beecher did. Scan the lists of preachers and divines of all denominations in retrospect, and find him if you can. All the great names of the era have come into their own, whoever they were, whatever they were, whatever may have been their origin. We know them now. We have had true appraisals of practically all. and when we ask for the man who could have taken Beecher 's place in England it is a fair question. Beecher had courage ; Beecher had ability ; Beecher had sincerity ; Beecher had experience ; Beecher had standing ; Beecher was admired, loved, revered as few other men were. He was an orator of a new school, the tribune of a new faith, the spokesman of a new America. How Lincoln immediately picked him when the hour struck after having seen and heard him from Pew 89 in Plymouth Church on that February day in 1860 is but another token of Lincoln's uncanny ability to pick the right men for his purposes. He passed over the preachers he had met in East and West, in Washington, and familiarized himself with the deeds and doings of the Yankee preacher of Brooklyn, Harriet Beecher Stowe's brother, the brother of the little school teacher with a book under her arm, the mother of a large family, the wife of another preacher who yet had time to deal slavery its mortal wound with her book — "Uncle Tom's Cabin." When he looked at Beecher and heard him from his pew, he may well have thought that this brother and sister were mes- s ] Specimens of Posters displayed in in England where Mr, Beecher nuohc in 1SG3, REV. H. XV. nEECHER'S MISSION TO LIVERPOOL. THE TRENT AFFAIR. [Rev. II. W. Beecher in the Xew York Independent J] "Should the President quietly yield to the present n -z. • the de- livering up <> iaon and Slidell) as the leaser of two evila and bide ©ur tioae witl there will be a SENSE of WRONG, of NATIONAL HUMILIATION SO PROFOUND, AND A HORROR OF THE UNFEELING SELFISHNESS OF THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT in the great emergency of our affai will inevitably break out by and by in flames, and which will only be ex = lood ( We are not Jiving the whole of our life to-day. There is a future to the United States io tion will right any injustice of the present hour." The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, at a met; York, at the time when th ate Envoys,, Messrs. Slidell and Mason, had t>een surrendered the British Government, from v | (the Royal Mai! £ hey were taken, said " That the Best Blood of England must flow for the outrage England had per- petrated on America." Tli to obtain a welcome in Liver; tives are suffer*. ion ted hardships, by tl ar raging in the America, and urged on by is worthy of con- sideration. REV. H. W. BEECH ERS IDEA OF SLAVERY. In I the Rev. Henry Ward i 5. T ^ve-holdera are d ceaae of Freedom than 6 T 1h worse than th< [3d poster ; tite, 20*39 inches.] THE WAR CHRISTIANS! THEIR DOCTRINES. •n In New York, in January last, REV. JOHN* J. RAYMOND. IXITED STATES SENATOR LANE, ried— LET I HELL/' From the Mi. rer, said : ' We BRAHAM, sur- , and the • • I n like to the NORTH the w hole en dan t horrors, TVHO IS HY. WARD BEECHER? >m the ER. He is the one of his . the ■ a at a MEN OF MANCHESTER. ENGLISHMEN! to ^nder as rutin lonstra- with a vindictive and rev- Cave & Secy r r, i aJatio el 14 "pew 89" sengers of God to help him in his great task. "Is this the little woman who brought on the Great War?" he asked good- naturedly when he met her. And then, after reading those speeches, five of them which Beecher delivered in England, he said to his Cabinet towards the end that if the war was ever fought to a successful issue there would be but one man — Beecher — to raise the flag at Fort Sumter, for without Beecher in England there might have been no flag to raise. Such was his judgment as to the great service Beecher rendered to the North and to the Union by his triumphal tour of Great Britain where he pleaded like a prophet of the Old Testament for the ultimate success of his people and warned an entire hostile world not to side with the prophets of Baal, but to remain on the side of the ever-living God. Never was there such another spectacle aside from that one which stands out for the ages when the one man — Elijah — con- founded and defied and defeated and put to shame the false priests and prophets, and established on that day the true faith and the true God. In a minor, mundane way this is just what Lincoln chose Beecher for and had him go to England, anxious for our defeat and undoing. It was Beecher who brought home to Christian England, more than any other man, that they were following false prophets, pursuing the will-o-the-wisp of slav- ery — doomed, eternally doomed — by Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. No one knows what passed through Lincoln's mind when he saw and heard Beecher from Pew 89. But when the time came to make the choice, when others asked who could and should go, who was capable of performing the Herculean task, who could stand the fury of the mob, the hatred of the bankrupted dealers in Southern cotton which was so slow in coming, who could speak encouragement to the dole-receiving cotton spinners and workingmen — surely not Charles Francis Adams, not Thurlow Weed, not one of those who thought in his heart that he could do better than Lincoln, not one of those qualified. They were all found wanting. Lincoln, however, remembered the man to whom he listened LINCOLN AND BELCHER 15 from Pew 89 in Plymouth Church on February 28, 1860, and picked his man even as he had picked Ericsson years before any other one would concede even sanity to the inventor and who was one of Lincoln's indispensable tools in saving- the Union. Yes, Beecher was sent. He, indeed, came to England and when asked not to speak of slavery and secession turned upon his advisers and thought, if he did not actually say, "Get thee behind me." But in God's own time he came, he hurled his eloquent defiance at the evil doers and came away trium- phant. Once more was the judgment of the occupant of Pew 89 justified — magnificently justified. It was but one of a score of such similar miraculous decisions which saved the Union and made Lincoln immortal. One need but glance at some of the posters and placards which were prominently displayed in the streets of Liverpool and Manchester, some of the cities where Beecher was to speak, to appraise the magnitude of the problem with which Beecher was confronted. The blood red posters summoned the mob to prevent his speaking. The audacity of the lies contained in these placards almost surpasses belief. They charge him with demanding "that the best of blood of England must flow for the outrage England had perpetrated in America." They charge him with recommending that London be sacked and other sim- ilar pronouncements which the posters recite. They then call on Englishmen to see that he gets "the welcome he deserves." The great adventure of Beecher in England was but one of many such well-timed and well-prepared and matured decisions of this great leader of men. Yes, Pew 89 is properly and justly labelled as the most famous of pews in that historic edifice, or in any other edifice. Now Lincoln stands enshrined in artistic glass in the main window, gazing from on high upon that great pulpit from which so many great voices spoke to the people during three-quarters of a century : Lyman Abbott and Newell Dwight Hillis carried on the great tradition. Lincoln and Beecher — just one of those God-inspired part- nerships in Lincoln's life, and he had many and he was loyal to all. Lincoln and Herndon, in spite of every effort to sever. 16 "pew 89" death alone severed that partnership when the junior partner helped as unselfishly as his great chief worked unselfishly to redeem his benighted brethren. Lincoln and Stanton — a curious partnership, begun in hatred and undisguised contempt for Lincoln on the part of Stanton, when they met in Court in Cincinnati three years before his appointment as Secretary of War, and ended in adoration at the deathbed of his great chief. "Now he belongs to the ages," said the mourning Stanton, who never was the same man after the light which served as his guide was snuffed out. Lincoln and Seward — begun with a feeling of condescension on the part of the War Premier and ended in admiration and love such as has. seldom been equaled, and continued to the last day of Seward's eventful life. We are fortunate in having the commentary of one of the members of the Cabinet upon this almost brotherly relationship — that of J. P. Usher — years after he had been able dispassionately to look back upon both great leaders after they had gone to their eternal reward : "I want you to know and remember that the friendship and regard for each other which existed between Lincoln and Seward was never surpassed even in the case of David and Jonathan." Lincoln and Grant — when an entire press was demanding his removal, when a rather lowly and bleak record was raked up, when jealousy whispered in his ear to remove the drunken, shiftless tanner, Lincoln said: "I can't spare him. He fights." When the quiet soldier is raised to the highest post and Lincoln advised, as he frequently did, Grant's predecessors, and the advice could not be taken, the great man is big enough to admit that a real General was at the head of the army, and said : "You were right and I was wrong." Lincoln and Johnson — when the entire host of politicians and statesmen oppose Johnson, try to shake Lincoln's confidence in him, try to prevent his nomination for military governor of Tennessee and then for Vice President, and are shocked at his manners at the Inauguration, Lincoln points to his sacrifices for LINCOLN AND BELCHER 17 the Union, his battles for Tennessee — one of the vital border States — standing alone among his Southern people for the Union, in daily danger of. assassination; his chief and friend, who never forgot service for the Union, said : "Andy Johnson is all right." Lincoln and Douglas — can anything finer be pointed out in the entire history of politics than the friendship of Lincoln for Douglas, the man who by force of circumstance was first his great antagonist and defeated Lincoln for the one prize for which he yearned as he yearned for nothing else? Still he ever remained his friend. He liked Douglas. He would have called Douglas to great office had he lived, and he charged him with the greatest task a friend could demand from a friend. He asked him to keep the Democrats of the nation in line for the Union, and Douglas cheerfully acceded to his request. Death alone severed this relationship. Lincoln needed Doug- las and suffered from his absence in the Senate. Lincoln and Greeley — there certainly was no greater test of friendship than to be able to tolerate Greeley, but Lincoln knew that he was a power and had helped to secure his nom- ination for the Presidency. He helped to elect him ; because the "Tribune" was the political gospel to millions and Greeley was the "Tribune." Gradually, little by little, patiently he received Greeley's support and their friendship grew. And when finally Lincoln saw that the time was near when he would send Seward to England and make Greeley Postmaster-General like Benjamin Franklin, the first Postmaster and another editor — Greeley's heart melted and he said : "Did Lincoln really say that?" And Greeley's friendship was won. Lincoln and Chase — it is not easy to maintain your equanim- ity, your friendship for a political friend who is perpetually your opponent in an insatiable, if not an insane, desire to occupy the very position which you hold. That was true of Chase, but Lincoln never forgot his early services for the Union, as Governor of Ohio and as United States Senator, so that when the supreme test came — a test which not one of the other Presidents would have stood — Lincoln did elevate his constant 18 "pew 89" opponent as perpetual candidate for the Presidency to the highest position within his gift. Lincoln was a genuine friend of Salmon I\ Chase. When remonstrated with upon this ap- pointment, he said: "Nobody will deny that he is a first-rate man for the place and I am hound to see that his opposition to me personally shall not interfere with my giving the people a good officer." Lincoln and Wells — no finer friendship can he conceived than the one existing between the Connecticut Yankee Dem- ocrat and Lincoln. It sprang up the moment the two men met. In consequence, the most important branch of the government aside from the army, did its work in an amazingly efficient manner. The great blockade which strangled the Confederacy was the work of Wells. The transforming of the navy from wood to an armored engine of destruction was the work of Wells, guided by his beloved chieftain. And now he repaid his President. In a diary as accurate, as honest, as painstak- ing and as complete as has ever been written, he immortalizes Lincoln's life in and with his Cabinet, and the first great effort to show that great leader at work in the Cabinet, in the struggle with the giants who were there to help and to advise, is revealed by this accurate and painstaking diarist and historian. Lincoln and Sumner — even more difficult than the contest as to policy with Greeley was Lincoln's task of getting along with Sumner, a man of infinite egotism, learned and cul- tured and travelled and pampered beyond all bounds who, by force of events, occupied a commanding position in the Senate. Seniority of service and the secession of the Southern Senators left him in the same position in the Senate as Thaddeus Stevens occupied in the House. And yet he was ever with Lincoln. He harmed, he hampered, he annoyed Lincoln, and yet a real friendship existed between the two men. Some said he meant to make him Secretary of State, perhaps not so much to honor him as to take him from the Senate where he was a positive drawback to a great many of Lincoln's plans. In scanning the estimates of all of Lincoln's successors LINCOLN AND BELCHER 19 in office — and all had something extraordinary to say of their great predecessor, of the great type whom they all desired to imitate — it remained for the present occupant of that office to point to the lesson which might be drawn from Lincoln's unprecedented career. "Perhaps the most impressive lesson to be drawn from the life and sayings of Abraham Lincoln," says President Hoover, "is that battles that are won in hate but provoke later conflicts, whilst those that are won by love leave no sting and are therefore permanent victories." And had he lived, had he been permitted to complete his work, had he been privileged to bind up the nation's wounds as he meant to do, he would have set an example of how fair- ness, forgiveness, sincerity and love of neighbor would have brought about a restoration of relations between the followers of Grant and those of Lee, as was contemplated by those two great captains at the table at Appomattox. Lincoln might have seen and consulted Lee as Grant wanted him to do. Then the sinister chapter of Reconstruction might never have been writ- ten, the scandalous chronicle of the Johnson impeachment would never have been part of our nation's history, and what followed as results from the departure from Lincoln's plans would not have been possible, as there would have been no hymns of hate against a fallen enemy; no dirge of "voe victis" would have been heard in half of Lincoln's restored Union. The oppressor would have been awed by that towering person- ality, and the decades of hate and misery and misunderstand- ing would have been impossible. He who sat in Pew 89 was incapable of wholesale punish- ment. The heroic leader of the greatest army up to that day knew no revenge or retaliation. "We are not savages, we are men," he said to Stanton on one occasion when he urged killings in the North for killings in the South. And it was such a message of universal amnesty, of orderly reconstruction, of abridging the duration of the war and compensating the 20 "pew 89" slaveholder, of re-admitting the departed States at the earliest moment, which he poured into Beeeher's ears on that night when he walked the floors and knelt in prayer with Beecher, praying for Beeeher's enlightenment as well as for the salva- tion of his emhattled country and the speedy sueeess of his sorely tried army. Plymouth Church should become the mecca of all those who love Lincoln and appreciate Beecher, for there two champions united who wrought mightily for the preservation of our Republic. Plymouth Church, with its legends in glass, is the brief epic in pictures of triumphant and enduring Democracy. Here we see them as we gaze at those windows, from Plymouth Rock where that precious cargo of manhood landed, to Ply- mouth Church where America was preached and proclaimed not only when Lincoln occupied his seat in Pew 89 but from the foundation of the edifice to this very day. Here we have them — Lincoln and Beecher — forever enshrined in the deathless history of that religious platform, as important in our history as Bunker Hill and Independencce Hall. The group against the wall of Plymouth Church facing the green which separates the buildings on the outside, shows Beecher in all his glory of militant manhood — the one great motif of his life indicated in the group on the right, and his distin- guished, though temporary, occupant and momentary pew- holder to his left — modest, serious, sad-faced, humble and sub- lime — the Lincoln of Pew 89. Long may it endure. Long may people go and gaze and obtain inspiration from this mar- velous group — truly an inspiring group for the ages, as inspiring as Luther at Worms, as Washington at Valley Forge, as the series of statues of the marvelous monument of the Reforma- tion at Geneva ! Pew 89 — the Seat he occupied on February 26, 1860. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 973.7L63C4H44P C001 PEW 89" 3 0112 031805358